Questions on my Campaign approach

**The Evil One** · September 17, 2007, 10:46 PM

Alright so after my battle with getting DLV 4 to not CTD during turn cycle I was really happy to get kingdoms and then DLV 5 so I would not have to battle with it. I have to say it has run flawlessly and my enjoyment is much higher now that I can play a campaign without a crash concern. However i am wondering if I am procedding intellegently as I have not really played a campaign in DLV past 30 turns due to previous issues and time.

I started a campaign as england on M/M because I want to finish one before I ramp up the diffuculty. Aside from the fact that most crossbow units have the same range as my Longbowman which seems wierd I always like playing england. My first dozen or so turns went nicely. I have not gotten the fix for the sea trade bug but so far my only port is still in Caen so no real loss there. I took York and Reanes quickly and then my prince and another noble died of natural causes which was a setback i must say. Later I took the Welsh Castle to the west and then waterford in Ireland and Dublin to complete my goals. Sadly these resulted in Cog's and not troops which I needed more.

I recieved trade aggreements with almost every nation quickly and so my normal income was 3-5k a turn which was very nice. My sieges were quick and so I did not lose much there. I adopted some intellegent and loyal civilian generals to get my cities producing and I have a small army in france. Before taking Dublin France attacked me which was fine at the time as Caen had been upgraded to a castle and Reanes was just starting to get wooden walls. Of course at this stage i had done a great deal of building but I had not gotten a garrison in Caen which has been diffucult as my Levy Spearman are having a hard time holding off the French Armoured spearman and Sargent Swordsman.

I have held them off so far and I just noticed in the build menu I can not upgrade my smith in my castle past a leatherworker but my Cities can go all the way which I find very strange. Plus I have noticed that when I end my turn I lose about 2k-2.5k from my treasury. I gain my usual 3-4k when it is my turn again so I am wondering if this is the effects of devistation and corruption taking effect then and the numbers I am given are still right and I am making money. I have to say it seems like I am not making any headway getting enough to build better buildings and units and it seems like any money I would have made is gone at the end of my turn.

Am I missing something or should I work on doing something else. My new mission is to take Augers (spelling) which has only a unit of spearman. If I can move a decent army around the 2 French armies outside Reanes and Caen then I can take it quickly and recieve my 10k which will help a great deal. Is there something else I can do to make more money or decrease my losses each turn? Thanks for the help. I will get the sea trade fix in the morning and go from there.

**lahvan** · September 18, 2007, 05:55 AM

You are charged field cost and city fees at the end of your turn. Only thing you can do against it is:

- keep your armies in towns and/or fortresses if possible
- generals should stay in settlements if you dont need them to gain campaign experience
- dont end your turn with your spies and assasins in foreign territory
- there nothing you can do against fees from city size (well this is part of script I dont like as you loose money whatever you do)
- read feature list provided in sticky thread with download

I personaly in my campaign abandoned Caen and concentrated on elimination of Scots and Irishmen to ensure my rule over England and Ireland before I will go to adventure in big world. I would also recomend alliance with Flanders, HRE, Leon and Italian states to put some heat on French in case of war with them (which will come - only question is when). Also good alliance is with Pope, so you have greater chance that he will not interfere with your attacks against other catholic factions.

**Lu Ying** · September 18, 2007, 11:37 AM

Be wary of hitting angers, it has a garrison script on it so that army of two spearmen units will grow to 8 units or so as soon as you siege it.

As for how your doing, I think your doing fine. Just be careful about what you buy and troops you dont need. Try to get the most from free upkeep slots in your cities so dont have non militia garrisoning your cities in england. No one will attack them anyway. aside from free garrsion units peasent archers are your friend. Very low upkeep and quiet effective in a seige if they get surprised. lahvan has mentioned the most important points of were you lose money due to extra scripts, but just budget carefully

Good luck!

**The Evil One** · September 18, 2007, 03:29 PM

Thanks, I didn't think I was to far off but I wanted a second opinion. I only have 1 spy out there so I figured I shouldn't be losing much there. I keep all my generals and armies in cities so I thought that would help.

Why is it I can't build an armory past leatherworker in my castle though?

**The Evil One** · September 19, 2007, 02:38 AM

Alright so now it's 1205 and I am sieging Auger (castle in france just south of Caen). I sent a princess over toward Paris and low and behold a nice young and very competant general sat unwed. Next turn I had me a command 8 general, very loyal and very skilled who easily beat off the mostly peasent french armies sieging Caen, (they had a lot of Sargent calvary and my 1000 reinforcements main army was coming in off the side). He did better there then I think I might have naturally so I kept him in there and took my main army to assault Caen. This has the added bonus of drawing in the small siege army outside Reanes and the other general about. I made some decent money the last few turns so I am now getting a Garrison in Caen. Now if I can just get my armory upgraded I should be on par to work france over. Especially since they were just excommunicated.

**Lu Ying** · September 19, 2007, 10:12 AM

You can only build past leatherworker armouries unless the city/castle has Iron as a resource or it is a metropolis region(london, Nottingham, Paris, Toulouse). Basicly the capitel cities in the game.

Good luck!

**The Evil One** · September 20, 2007, 12:38 AM

Ah that is why. Thank you very much. I didn't know if Eras had been put in place and I needed to wait for an event or what it might have been. Do I need to control a region with Iron or will having a merchant on an location be sufficent. Oh and I took Angers. mmmmm, Sargent swordsman.

**lahvan** · September 20, 2007, 02:07 AM

Actually after conquest of Ireland, I had some skirmishes with Scots. My flemish Allies took over York shielded me from Scotish hordes, so they moved on my settlemens in Ireland. However Scots proved much less threat than I thought - with my assasins killing all their remaining family members aside from those in Ireland (btw making amphibihous assasin attacks is good strategy

). Their Ireland army was drown in blood and their family member with it. Scotish privinces went rebel and finishing them was matter of 4 turns. Then I turned my eyes towards Caen and in fast fight regained them. Angers was pure luck - AI abandoned this castle when my invasion army was sitting just on border in fortress (btw with garrisoning fortresses you can save lot of money), so I walked directly into Angers without fight.