Damn Normans

[Henry X]

Thank you for those who answered my Milan thread. Right after the fall of Milan, Venice and myself forged an alliance against the growing threat of Sicily. Two turns later, Sicily attacked me and my newfound ally. Currently they have taken all of Italy, killed off the Greeks and have taken everything surrounding Italy. Now they are moving on Marseille, Vienna, Innsbruck, and Lyon; for strategic purposes the Normans are avoiding all my castles. They're taking advantage of their superior militia, and I hate putting castle troops into cities. However, a crusade has been called against Rome, the center and capital of this "heathen" empire. Now, the Sicilian armies are very well equipped and more often than not, better trained and led than mine. They're using Fabian Tactics against me and this damn virus in my computer is making it hell for me to lead the troops myself (frame rate of ten per second I think). How can I beat the Sicilians strategically? I beginning to hate Broken Lances - they're seem to be millions of them; perhaps I could use Imperial Knights to defeat them...

[Kyias]

Key to Sicily is it probably has some very lucrative Islands and land bridge provinces you could take in Greece.

If you want to take pressure off your European forces, move armies and take over Sicily (the island) and make it your new base. Palermo makes a nice fortress (maybe citadel at this point in your campaign) and Syracuse will give you a city to produce city units and a nice economy on the island. Once you have Sicily IMMEDIATELY park a small navy to block the land bridge.

This conquest lets you do several things:

1) a base to launch further attacks on more "secure" Sicilian cities and castles behind the front.
2) It allows you to operate in taking the Western Mediterranean in the future (or now if Sicily has it)
3) gives your European provinces/allies the chance to recooperate as Sicily will be focused on the new threats you created by striking their Greek and other Italian cities.


by having Sicily you've given yourself a gateway to taking their lucrative African Empire (they ussually expand that way) and new trade markets for your merchants to take over. Timbuktu is just a few provinces away, might as well make it a new trading outpost

Just some thoughts to think about while you face Sicily, but I cannot stress enough how important conquering Sicily itself from them will do for your future plans. If you can block the land bridge to Italy, then you got yourself a nice little outpost.

[Landwalker]

I don't have the time right now to run specific tests, but I would wager that Dismounted Imperial Knights, because of their maces, could take Dismounted Broken Lances, and the mounted counterparts could probably do the same. The HRE should have some decent pike units, so if Sicilian heavy cavalry is giving you trouble, you might consider bringing along a large pike contingent.

I'm assuming you have already hit gunpowder, so this next bit of advice might be irrelevant, but: Reiters. Mounted, well-armored, armor-piercing ranged units that, if push comes to shove, can trample lighter infantry into the ground as well. These guys should be able to put a good dent in the enemy heavy cavalry and heavy infantry, and if you use them in conjunction with arquebusiers and pikes, (with supporting Imperial Knights) you not only have all your bases covered, you have them smothered.

Using a lot of gunpowder has an additional benefit that you might not be getting from crossbowmen, even though they're longer ranged. Namely, gunpowder makes enemy units crap their pants. Broken Lances too heavily armored? Don't try to kill them, just try to make them run away like little girls, and then kill (or capture) them. Artillery is also very useful in this regard.

Just a couple of ideas, since I don't know exactly what you're working with. Sicily will probably be a tough nut to crack, especially when they're spread out and throwing around their high-end urban units.

Cheers.

[aNarion.]

I think you should get a good antivirus first!

[Henry X]

Good answers from all of you, each one of you helped with a different aspect. Kyias, I guess before I take Sicily, I should take Corsica and Sardenia (I only contol the land north of the Alps). Landwalker I'll check the stats, but I think you're right. aNarion that was a witty response, though it turns out that is spyware, and I can't find a place to get some protection. Though it might just be all the popups that are slowing my performance.

Sicily will be a tough nut to crack - just like a pecan, or an almond. They contol the entire Italian Peninsula, and all the surrounding regions, minus North Africa, which Portugal took rather quickly. Fortutiutusly, the Pope hates them as do all their neighbors. Developing gunpowder, unfortunately, my best facility is in Thorn, preparing for a blitzkrieg attack on Poland and its four regions. I believe I'm going to prosecute my war against Sicily in the following manner.
1)Build multiple large fleets and gain naval superiority
2)Secure air supremacy to allow air strikes on their facilities
3)Take Corsica and Sardenia
4)Acquire Tunis from the Portugese
5)Begin invasion of Sicily
6)Eat lunch
7)Secure Sicily
8)Call down crusade for outside help.
9)Sit out zombie apocalypse in the Winchester

[Fenix_120]

I may be mistaken but I believe that Imperial Knights cannot defeat Broken Lances in a one on one...


But anyway I would focus on just Sicily for the time being and leave Portugal and Poland to their own devices.

[Henry X]

Well by acquire I mean buy Tunis from them if its a castle, but I could use it as a port.

[Fenix_120]

You know, you are the only person I have ever known to attempt that...


Hope you got the money because last time I bought a city it cost me over 10,000 gold and that was back in Rome:TW days...

[Henry X]

I only make 25,000 a turn. And have a reserve of 300,000. I usually buy settlements for around 10,000 plus or minus a thousand.

[Kyias]

I only make 25,000 a turn. And have a reserve of 300,000. I usually buy settlements for around 10,000 plus or minus a thousand.

Yeah, Tunis would go a long way to getting you a sweet outpost to attack the Med.

If you can manage it, try to buy Toulouse as well...that way you can get an army build up and out to take the islands while Tunis focuses on getting Palermo. At this stage in the game, Tunis should be a high stacked fortress or even citadel. It starts off as one of the Moors strongest castles. (If you playing 5.1)

Get yourself a crusade going against em and liberate Sicily. Once you got that you set

[Landwalker]

I buy settlements from the AI. Once I have a stable economy up and running, I find it just saves me time and energy to start buying them out, like a corporate merger. Or, if a faction is desperate for an alliance, I'll demand a settlement in return. I'm not picky about how I expand.

In the interests of pedantry, I exited my Byzantine campaign to run a trial in Custom Battle--grassy plains, huge units, one unit of Dismounted Imperial Knights against one unit of Dismounted Broken Lances. I was going to run five trials, but after three of them the trend seemed pretty clear. Here are the results, in Victor (Losses), Loser (Losses) format:

DIK (58), DBL (112)
DIK (38), DBL (72)
DIK (52), DBL (76)

Just for kicks, I ran the same trials with the mounted variants of each:

IK (28), BL (58)
IK (31), BL (59)

So, based on this, if you go up against the Broken Lances with their Imperial Knight equivalents, you should be able to handle them with success.

Cheers.

[Point Blank]

I think DIK/IK are best heavy infantry in the game. Along with Pikes, Halberds and Reiters, like Landwalker said, their late roster is very good. Funny how the game advises the HRE 'Lacks the Late Period professional armies of England and France' lol.

[Chim]

Off-topic:

Have you planned a new update for 5.1's RC system Point Blank?

[Bacon!]

can you post a screenshot of your campgain map?

[Henry X]

Unfortunately, I do not know how to take screenshots, though Venice and the Byzantines did retake Greece.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Unfortunately, I do not know how to take screenshots, though Venice and the Byzantines did retake Greece.

press print scr and press alt tap then open paint puss ctrl v and there you got a nicely screenshot

[Landwalker]

press print scr and press alt tap then open paint puss ctrl v and there you got a nicely screenshot

Your poorly-written redundancy is truly staggering.

Cheers.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Your poorly-written redundancy is truly staggering.

Cheers.

not my native language sorry to diseppoint you with my writing

[y2day]

Your poorly-written redundancy is truly staggering.

Cheers.

Man give it a break I feel like I'm in english class.
Mrs.Johnson is that you?


Back to topic*I agree with Kyias. I would try to take Sicily(the island) then block the land bridge and hold off attacking the Polish until Sicily had been brought to task.

[chaos]

Your poorly-written redundancy is truly staggering.

Cheers.

he said "paint puss" ....he he he .....