Teutonic Knights

[sirfiggin]

The Teutons start off to a deceptively weak position, their provinces divided, with no generals in the Northern realms and poor infrastructure, they also have slightly more soldiers than they can afford, so simply using them to capture more cities won't be enough, the Order needs roads, markets, churches and barracks. The first step is to use the Hosch Meister(sic) to capture the Lithuanians only coastal castle, this forms a land-bridge and severely weakens the Lithuanians. To begin with, Poland, Mongolia and Denmark will likely offer alliances, but this will be undone when you finally defeat the Lithuanians (about turn 30) and everyone turns on you. Try your hardest to secure the Hanseatic cities when this happens, (Riga(yours),Novgorod(obvious),Danzig(Poland), Visby(the rebel island on the Swedish East coast) and Hamburg( Denmark). If these cities are captured, you receive a massive trade bonus and incidentally will have key positions on the map under your control. Poland and Novgorod will be your biggest enemies, since Poland is immediately to the south, With a Citadel close to the former Lithuania, and Novgorod will stay out of the wars until you least suspect them. Denmark is too isolated and thinly spread to have much impact, but capture their two provinces on the Northern coast and they will be harmless. HRE will be too threatened by Poland and Denmark to pose more than a nuisance at your Western borders, they can safely be dealt with at your leisure. The crusading nobles feature is largely pointless, in over 50 turns I only had to babysit one foreign noble, he gave me 10,000 florins and pretty much destroyed Lithuania (let your faction Leader or another good General look after him, if he dies, his troops go with him!!) Once two enemy factions are crippled or gone, their is no need for guideance, you have as good as won.

[Hunter Makoy]

i too definately find their starting position very tough. there r so many things to have to worry bout in the begining: almost no governers, lack of religeon causing u to lose the ability to build certain units, almost no money coming in cuz of ur army. plus in my campaign lithuania allied with novgorod before i could get to them, so i was having to deal with both of those 2 pretty early. luckly with my alliance with poland they have helped me out a tad (took one city).

[babyfossil]

i too definately find their starting position very tough.

Agree. My lituania put stroops in the coastal castle make it hard to take without the Hochmeister's army and if i move it up there, lituania goes past to marienburg and thorn. then i have to take it back to marienburg again

Then Novrogod attack early and I loose all my cities up north. which brings me negative money and then I got eliminate by lithuania at the end.

[cfmonkey45]

The best strategy I find is to always take the fight to the enemy. I found this particularly true in many instances for total war, if one of my cities is besieged by an enemy army, but I cannot get to it, I try to attack the closest settlement belonging to that faction, usually a big one like a city. Usually they will back off and try to engage you, which will probably take a turn at least, so once that happens, back off and try to ambush that army. If they don't back down, well you get a nice settlement to either fund or stage your reconquest of that previous one.

For the Teutons in particular, I tend to rush those smaller villages near my cities, like the one near Poland and the other one by Riga. Once I get the funds I usually transform them into castles. Also, you should never leave your core Prussian castles and cities wide open. I usually fill them with Clergymen (or whatever they're called) and other cheap units to give the illusion of a large army. Also, ALWAYS fight the battles personally. Usually the conditions will end up favoring you if there are multiple enemy armies as they won't all arrive at the same time. I once beat odds of 1-3 in one of those battles and only lost around 300 men. I captured and ransomed back at least 1000. Ironically, during that battle my faction leader was killed when a unit of crossbowmen scored a one-in-a-million shot at my leader.

As tough as it may sound, you may go into debt a few times and have to disband some favorite units. Personally, I try to avoid that by not hiring expensive units like Order Spearmen and the Swordsmen. Also, if you rush them early on, you can take some key border cities, like the one to the east across the river; thats a large town and gives at least 2-3000 florins when you sack it.

Personally, for me, those crusading nobles are a GOD send. They pay you to use their excellent men, and they can come in handy many a time.

One last thing, use your religion. Send priests to convert people in your OWN territories. Never send priests to territories currently in the hands of Lithuanians, because they most likely will convert, which would then stop the influx of Crusaders.

[Foreign Fruitcake]

Also "Crusading Generals" bleed you like a stuck pig. The crusading army immediately go on "your dime". If you are already struggling because of the lack of towns/cities with the Tutes, you can go red 4 figures in two turns. Crusading armies should be a BOON for the hard pressed Tutes and be financed on the Papacy's dime. I hope this is modded at some stage.

Lastly , given the heavy weight and martial formations of the Tutes, they should shatter early Lith units and I don't see it happening. In every battle I might as well have hordes of peasants instead of heavy armoured uber units of Tutes. This too needs to be revisted for play balance. The Tutes have VERY costly units to maintain and they should have a corresponding effectiveness in the field, but I digress.

[Sonny WiFiHr]

Money is easy to obtain by using merchants.Siezing enemy assets is best way to early bust your income.When your merchants are 4 stars or better send them to very lucrative positions (changes every game). Take Vyborg and city above.I personaly never have problem with money and I had many full stacks army (in the begginnig on VH/VH).My armies are mobile force so I don't need lot of them.After first conquering I tend to maintain my positions because AI have better growth than me and I can sack and retreat (if city is not coastal if it is I take it).Replace your capital to be in center of your country (helps a lot)

[♔Darmoth♔]

I'm still very much a newbie... I've barely played the Teutonic campaign yet, but their units are also highly expensive! 700+ florins for the Order Spearmen? I'm used to using spearmen as the backbone of my armies... I suppose the extra cost is due to them being heavily armored?

[Armoured_Crusader]

Money is hard to obtain at the beginning, I find and your land is divided so it is hard to transport troops. However, the units are strong and you will hopefully find that the later on in the game, money will be flowing in. I advise making lots of allies and trade, it helps.

[blaunrated]

Teutonic Order, definitely my favorite faction from the kingdoms expansion. Get that town that Lithuania owns that's in your way of the rest of your kingdom. Then take over those two Denmark places right away, before they start building troops. Make sure you get an early alliance with Novagard and your east side will be safe for as long as you keep your border with them strong. If you ever can pay Germany,(HRE) to attack Poland so you can keep them occupied long enough to hopefully destroy Lithuania. As soon as your done with that ally with the Mongols if your not at war with them and then take the hopefully not to painful "crusade" against Novagard and that should also bring in a humongous economy boost. After that try to ally with Poland and attack the Mongols, then you actually want to take over the north eastern part of Finland,(I think that's what it's called) and take over Denmark and the Norwegians. Then go back and kill Poland and the Holy Roman Empire and destroy Denmark,(Mind you that I deleted the campaign victory conditions so I could play till' I conquered everything Hope you try my "conquer the world" strategy out

[Yojimbo]

that campaign is hard I went though my forces in no time and ran out of money I quit and haven't tried again yet. Those Lithuanians are deceptively tough and numerous and the tutes are allot weaker than they look.