cannot kick ass with the crown of argon

**warlord_anubis** · September 03, 2007, 05:38 PM

hey there.been playing with my second coa campain with lustedcai,rc 3.1 on n/h and i must say...got beaten the crap out of me.it looks luike they all hate me lol.
at the start of the game i'm quick on taking 2 castles and one city (rebels)and then starting to build op my economics.i'm allied with spain,france and the italian states.when i'm 30 turns later or so.thye are all over me lol.broken alliences...econnomic downfall....looks like a nightmere.i'f played with hre and the moors sometime and there was no prob (h/h)
with this fraction i lowerd my campain diff and still not getting far lol.is it so hard to play with this faction or what iare their probs lol

**delra** · September 03, 2007, 05:53 PM

Don't panic if you don't expand very quickly early on. Time is your friend. You really have very powerful roster. You just need a while to start pumping your elites.

Ally with France and pay them to stay with you. They will be like a wall behind your back allowing you to focus on taking the peninsula. Keep twice bigger garrison in Barcelona to deter them from thinking about betraying you. Also invest in Pamlona as your main troop production centre, this castle will be your border defence for most of the game.

To take Castille you don't need much effort. Just two big stacks of militia with catapults and generals. Take both cities in one turn and they are dead. Their armies go rebel and you have half of Iberia for yourself. As easy as that. It's all about you hitting them before they hit you. If you let them expand (Burgos, Pamplona, Valencia) you can as well restart your game. :-)

Moors can be killed with crusades on Cordoba and later on Marrakesh. If you ever played them, you know how long it takes to develop cities in Africa to be of any use. They lose those two cities and they are dead. So do them quickly. Use your fleet to sail from one African city to another. It speeds things up.

After that Portugal is not much of a problem and having your western border on the ocean, you can focus back on France or Italy.

**Bearhugger** · September 03, 2007, 05:57 PM

wow, looks like delra is an experienced player...

warlord_anubis: you could also try the vanilla CAI hehe

btw...judging from what i read in your post topic i give you this advice:
you should not only play argon, but also ally with neon, radon, xeon and krypton. that will make a strong alliance

**Davius** · September 03, 2007, 06:16 PM

Originally Posted by Bearhugger

btw...judging from what i read in your post topic i give you this advice:
you should not only play argon, but also ally with neon, radon, xeon and krypton. that will make a strong alliance

*cricket, cricket**

**warlord_anubis** · September 03, 2007, 06:09 PM

thx for youre advice delra...the best thing 2 do is to leave the rebbel city's for what they are and just take te spanish out...i never tried it bc i only got 2 city's and i'm a bit underpowerd at the begin.the main concern is that if i start a war with spain is that they have more troops than me.or i should spy theire city's out when they are looking to concure the rebbel city's....but i'l have to be quick to seige theire city's because if theire front army's return.i'm gonna have a problem...

**delra** · September 03, 2007, 06:19 PM

wow, looks like delra is an experienced player...

I'm nothing compared to many people writing on this forums. Really.

the best thing 2 do is to leave the rebbel city's for what they are and just take te spanish out

Take Pamplona, then build catapults and militia (A few Alforrats can help too) and kill Spain. You need cheap and numerous army. Cannon fodder. That's all. Take all your generals too. Governing time will come later after you have the whole Iberia. Now it's warring time.

After that Burgos and Valencia if they are still rebel. They should be. Don't hurry for Valencia with militia-only army. With their powerful general (El Cid himself, read his biography on wiki if you haven't already) this castle can stay rebel for ages.

After you have all that, just give 10k to the Pope and ask him for a crusade on Cordoba. Hire crusade mercenaries, Crusader Knights (mounted and dismounted) for example can tear into pieces any army Moors can field before they reach citadel. Quite annoying when you're playing Moors and quite fun when you're not on the receiving side of their blades.

Of course it's far more pleasurable to stay with Barcelona, Zaragoza, Pamplona and maybe Valencia or Burgos till your enemies reach their potential and beat them after that in epic battles of elite units on all sides. But why not try an easy win scenario first? :-)

**warlord_anubis** · September 03, 2007, 06:43 PM

lets first make an easy campain of it lol sow i can learn theire unit's and stuff better :-)
i'll start with it tommorow ,now i'm at work doing my job (surfing lol)
and lets see if it works. :-)
the moors are not the trouble.i know theire weaknesses sow that's ok :-)
and before i forget.i could only choose one city to attac the moors for an crusade.theire other city's weren't availeble at his list...

thx for youre advice delra

**delra** · September 03, 2007, 06:48 PM

Easy is boring. You're earning too much cash and they aren't fielding any armies at all. Waste of your time. Play on H/VH and VH/VH depending on your mood (if you want to spend more time on campaign (H) or battle (VH) map).

Crusade on Cordoba. It's there all the time.

After you take it, Marrakesh should show up on the slot which was taken previously by Cordoba. All provided there's nobody excommunicated. If the Pope excommunicates someone, his cities will fill Muslim slots as Moorish cities aren't big enough to win in this competition.

**warlord_anubis** · September 03, 2007, 06:53 PM

with easy game i ment taking out spain fast.i don't play it on easy,than it's no challenge at all.i normaly play h/vh and it went well with my other campains.i think that the iberian has the same prob as italie...it's deviaded and the all want it lol

**delra** · September 03, 2007, 06:58 PM

It used to be far easier before KK added Aragon. Now it's just more crowdy. But also more fun.

That's why a different approach is needed as blitzing a lot of cities and leaving them practically unguared (Egypt, Byzantine strategy) won't work here.

Also, if you decide to make an enemy, don't stop until he's fully destroyed. No mercy here. Ever read Machiavelli? :-)

**warlord_anubis** · September 03, 2007, 07:17 PM

well i alway's try to kill my enemy's lol ;-)
Perhaps is it somethimes better to do a slow war then.i'm really looking forward to trying it.i never head of mar...what did he say or do then?i've searched for El Cid and it's impressive what he has done...almost like the king of sparta in the movie 300.
the thing is that i'm not used to make a slow ware.i usely blits 2 city or so,reenforce and then blitz again if posible.but it is't sometimes the right stradigy.yeah spain was alot easyer at vinnila...but like u sain,this is more fun :-) did u ever played with the portugees?

**delra** · September 03, 2007, 07:34 PM

Many times. All you need with them is to 1. Build mines in Lisbon for a LOT of cash 2. Take Toledo or Pamplona for a good troop production centre 3. Block Gibraltar strait with your fleet to prevent the Moors from uniting their armies (very cheap strategy but works). After that nothing can stop you.

By the way, you can bribe El Cid to join you. If you cheat and add around 200 000 florins, he should agree to join you for that much of cash. Sadly he's quite old... Also sadly you can't possibly dream about earning enough cash to buy him before he's dead or terribly old. We need moddable diplomacy more than anything else.

**warlord_anubis** · September 03, 2007, 07:39 PM

i'mm gonna try portugal when i'm done with the argon...but i don't understand why the ai is so dumb to stack theire troops when i'm blokading gibraltar.the could easly build a ship and move theire troops to me...is that a bug or so? when i was playing with england it was also.i blocks ireland with my cog and the scotts keep on staching their units afront of it.it makes no sence

**delra** · September 03, 2007, 07:50 PM

It's just too much of a challenge for AI to figure out they need just a small boat to move their armies and don't need to wander around Gibraltar waiting for you to unblock the strait.

Maybe ETW will have something we can call intelligence? :-)

**warlord_anubis** · September 03, 2007, 08:12 PM

lets hope so...but they can never outmatch us...altouh i've seen some verry good ia's with othere games.but u can't compaire this ai with an shooter ai.for this game it's more difficult.but at the other hand if u see how mush employees they have.they should have made it better.but with the developmend kost and the time pressure...