Good Gawd I am finding the Scots campaign tough

[Andy P]

Playing as my native Scotland in the Britannia Campaign (duh, obviously ) on H/H, and by God it is hard.

The Norwegians are relentless in their attacks, I cannot get time to draw breath or build an army as my forces are decimated in fight to the last man brawls on almost every turn. The English are now sniffing around my border settlements, I am expecting to be invaded soon as they seek to take advantage of my struggles with the Norsemen.

This is what it should be like, never mind conquest, just fighting for survival at the moment and boy am I having fun.

Hats off to the musician, the score in the Britannia Campaign is wonderful and adds to the atmosphere of the game. If the other campaigns measure up the same way as the Britannia Campaign is doing then I can see a lot of late, late nights ahead.

[Lionel-Richie]

I'm doing a H/H Scots campaign too and I've been having a hard time with the Norse as well. Stack after stack keeps coming from that NE island. I've finally managed to push them off the mainland and forced a ceasefire, but gah!

They create these amazing armies with a lot of heavy inf/heavy cav/bombards and if I don't take those bombards out fast it gets nasty. I even had them completely obliterate a full stack army that was sieging Wick cause they landed a stack behind my army and pincered me.

It doesn't help that I lost William Wallace the first battle he was in (he charged and got stuck in some infantry ><) and subsequently lost 3 or 4 family members in terrible ways (dying on own pikemen...)

I like it. Luckily England totally has their hands full with the BA, Welsh and being thrown off the Isles by Ireland.

[Dagda]

I had no problem dealing with Norway on VH/VH as the Scots. But thats probably because I kinda blitzed them fast and their King died 3 turns after his arrival.

But I do have some gripes about the Scottish in general, more like a rant.

Highland Nobles are absolute garbage compared Norway's shock units. Sami Axeman are cheaper, with better armour, better defense, better attack. Don't even get me started on Gotland footmen. Where in hell is the updated Scottish unit roster? They were by far the most lackluster faction in the original game and recieved absolutely no attention even though they are featured in the scenario.

Second rant, William Wallace's general bodyguard is also complete garbage. It's nothing mroe than a plain Highland Noble unit. No 2hp, just 1 which makes him worthless and makes no sense to me. Not only do you already get the movement penalty which isn't a big deal, but at least give me 2 freaking hp. They gave the Canon Sepulcher or whatever 2hp in the crusades scenario and that wasn't even a general's unit.

[Woad-Warrier]

Glad to see our brothers north of the border are having fun

[Veni]

I must say I am struggeling as Norway against Scotland. They keep spawning full armies attacking all my cities and I don't have a chance getting money fast enough to keep up with the armyupkeep, even though it's only enough for one army! So far i've only managed to take one castle from Scotland and im on around 35 turns. (VH/VH)

[the_mango55]

Yeah, as soon as I get out of the "playing this all the time phase" and into this "tinkering around with the game to make it more fun" phase, I'm gonna update the scots.

First order of business, change Wallace's bodyguard.

Then port the Irish gunners over to scots (as a new unit). Then create a new unit out of the the German Reiter model, called the Border Reiver, and make it an extremely effective mercenary available around the border of Scotland and England.

[aedn]

Hrm, im not sure if its just randomness or what. But my scots campaign on vh/vh was extremely easy. I did get wallace pretty early in the game though, and he won a few battles early, gaining an absurd ammount of command points. I think by the time he was in his mid 30s he was 9 star with 8-9 chivalry points.

As far as the highland nobles, coupled with either highland pikes or noble pikemen/noble swordsman later on, they pretty much crush any infantry or calvery in the way. Using the pikes to absorb the charges, i would counter with nobles and route enemy units pretty easily.

The only time i had problems was when i got away from using pikes as scotland, as i ended up facing alot of heavy calvery from norway later on.

[Elvenwolf2k]

According to this forum so far, H/H is much harder than VH/VH, for i am to playing Scotland on VH/VH, and though i have only played about 10 turns, I can already tell it will probably be a pretty easy campaign, though I hope it is not. But I do think this should be looked into

[The Border Reiver]

According to this forum so far, H/H is much harder than VH/VH, for i am to playing Scotland on VH/VH, and though i have only played about 10 turns, I can already tell it will probably be a pretty easy campaign, though I hope it is not. But I do think this should be looked into

This is one of those things that has been an urban myth since RTW. In RTW, BI & MTW2....VH/VH has always been harder in my playing and testing opinion. I think it is just the difference in playing styles that factor into this...and obviously it can be subjective depending on the human player.

If you are a defensive/offensive person and spend time creating an economy, and only fighting when you are attacked...the game will be much harder.

If you are offensive and go on the attack from turn 1 then the game will be easier.

The AI actually takes about 10 turns in my experience to actually get going and start a snowball effect with power and economy. VH/VH is definitely harder.

[ShadowGladius]

And what REALLY factors in is if you're a save/reload whore or not... like me. '

If only you could save/reload in reality!

[hhawks12]

In my campaign (M/VH) the Scots and myself (Wales) are the only two major powers left. Norway and Ireland have about 3 provinces each and soon I will be done with Ireland. Should be interesting matching up my relatively inexperienced Welsh troops against elite Scottish troops. A quick spy mission north of my border showed 4 Scottish stacks each made up of elite troops: Feudal Knights, Highland Nobles, Noble Pikemen...and who knows how many more stacks are farther north.


I have seen some of the same things you have all discussed even though both factions are AI. Norway took roughly half the Scottish provinces and had numerous full stacks. The Scots eventually turned it around when Wallace came and pushed them out. Seems like even AI Scots are having a tough time.

[beezneez]

Hats off to the musician, the score in the Britannia Campaign is wonderful and adds to the atmosphere of the game. If the other campaigns measure up the same way as the Britannia Campaign is doing then I can see a lot of late, late nights ahead.

I'm with you here. the music in the britannia campaign is exellent, best out of all the campaigns.

also, seems to me (w/ the exeption of hammering the turks as the byz) the AI is much improved and the kingdoms campaigns are much harder. i tend to go on the attack right off the bat w/ as many of the troops i have available at the start and spend my cash on economy early. even so, my forces are extended, i'm frequently broke, and the AI bypasses my heavily garrisoned border settlements and attacks my heartland! awesome i do not ever remember the AI doing that before.