Some tips for a newcomer to TLR

[Greyshades]

Hello everyone!

First, great mod, huge fan, and am loving MTW right now with it installed.

Next question, I am struggling to get an economy really rolling - some of you guys here mention how this version is too easy, so I figure I must be missing something.

It takes me a great many turns (and I know this mod makes the game longer) to even get a decent sized army up and running.

So what tips do you guys have for a newbie to TLR?

[Rusty Hammer]

For economy I have a fairly simple strategy that eventually will bankrole you 15-20k after a while.

1-Dirt roads
2-farms (continue to upgrade) will make you the most money and help your pop right away
3-Get the grain exchange, and use your merchants wisely
4-Then work on your markets and upgrade those
5-Lastly get some ports up to get those tradeable goods out

simply put farms will save your bacon, upgrade them fully it pays

[AMMsterz]

WaZaaa!!!

Nice one Rusty Hammer Got those same tips from infernocanauck (sorry if spelled it wrong ) as well and they work like a charm...

I'd also add that, with army upkeep squeezing out significant proportions of profits, it'd be helpful to leave just enough units in a settlement be it a city or castle to have a positive public loyalty... This is just so as to reduce expenditures...

Plus, as infernocanauck pointed out to me, it's best to have governors with the "bad/inexperience governor" trait out of towns/cities rather use castles as a "training ground" as they, as I understand, are less so affected economically from bad governors than cities and the likes. Once those bad governors in castles have a "neophyte governor" trait, you can send them to your cities so your economy can flourish, helping in long-term development of your whole faction! Also, try ensuring that the Duke/Lord/Emir/Caliph title retinues are passed on accordingly to the pertinent governors ... that'd help, too... Doing this can also allow you to have armies of generals with some units, even if they were peasants, which you could use for expansionist reasons

That's all I can do for now... courtesy of infernocanauck
Peaceage

[infernocanuck]

Heh, thanks AMMsterz! You got most of the spelling right, it's "canuck" as in, "You beer-drinking, hockey-playing lumberjack canuck" But I'm horrid at remembering the correct spelling of names myself, so it's all good.

I have a few more economic tips. First of all, don't expand too fast. I myself only shoot for ganining 5 territories per 100 turns (it streches the game out evenly, and you'll still have something to do in the later eras! You'll get to see gunpowder!) But if you go 6-7 per turn, no worries. It might be best to do that, since you never known when some evil faction is going to ambush you and steal some nessesary turf *cough cough mongels* *cough cough timurids*

Also, I check my financial screen at the beginning of each turn. I look at my profits, and I see how much I have before I start building/recruiting, etc. I like to have approximatly 1000 florins per settlement I posses, give or tak 1000 florins. For example, In my current game, I have 13 territories (The Middle east is mine! My territories actually kinda look like a giant fist on the mini-map... erp.. I digress) and as long as I have between 12000-13000 florins at the beggining of each turn, I'm laughing. Now, if any florins go over this budget (eg: Over 13000) I use that excess funds to build up my army, or recruit some more agents, or some sea vessels.

The goal is to always grow. You settlements will increase in population, which means an increase in taxes and trade. You'll get more merchants with more territories, etc, etc. One you are in a good position, have a good army, and see a territoriy that can be easily taken.. take it, and then grow some more!

Oh, and don't accumulate too much money. Try not to surpass 50,000 florins very much, or your beloved generals are going to get some greedy traits!

[Rusty Hammer]

If you are truly strapped for cash there are also some other options. Disband unneeded troops, only put militia units as garrisons, hand over old governor's titles to younger ones then send them on rebel hunting suicide missions, get rid of naval units if you don't need them, and lastly sell of unneeded buildings if you are truly desperate.

But if you do things right in the first 10-20 turns you should be on track.

[Rex Inanimatus]

If you are truly strapped for cash there are also some other options. Disband unneeded troops, only put militia units as garrisons, hand over old governor's titles to younger ones then send them on rebel hunting suicide missions, get rid of naval units if you don't need them, and lastly sell of unneeded buildings if you are truly desperate.

But if you do things right in the first 10-20 turns you should be on track.

about the militias, they are only free of upkeep if you can recruit them in the same place.

about bad traited governers you can also stack them inside a castle/town with a very loyal governer he'll be in charge, then they slowly learn the traits of how to be a good governer, i usually send them out when they have become decent governers

[Rusty Hammer]

Also if you play a Catholic faction build priests and send them to uncatholic regions and take control of the papacy it makes life so much easier.

[Grimmy]

I almost always tend to play England in this and the first Midieval Total War games. Donno why. Maybe it's just my deep down wish that I could have taken over all of England "way back when" and ordered them to make the *&* damned grammar easier to understand. I hated getting low grades in studies of a language I was born speaking, more or less.

Anyway, playing on m/m in the latest TLR mod as England, I only took reb towns as ordered by the council. By turn 100, I had England up to and including York and the northern French coast from Rennes to and including the place just east of Bruges (Arnhiem? sorry brain is not cooperating atm) and Angers.

Angers was building up nicely as a castle, (Cannes had been converted to city for the coastal trade values) for the continental army and Wales was also building up nicely for England force center (Nottingham had also been converted) and I was consistently able to keep build ques going in nearly provinces or could generate around 10k profit per turn when not wanting to build. (Long build times made it possilbe to keep towns working without having to load up every town at once, that's why the profit seems a bit low to fill that many ques).

I didn't find anything, build strat wise, that much different from vanilla except that it just takes longer so requires more investment in patience. But I'm building stuff in pretty much the same order as I would have otherwise.... except maybe the farms. Farms seem much more important here than vanilla.

[Por Tu Gral]

Just registered to say Amazing mod tornnight, never had so much fun playing MII:TW.