Some Questions for you veterans.

[First_creation]

Thanks to anyone who can help me out.

1) Whats the best Castle:Town ratio. Currently mine is 2:8. My two castles being on the fronts of what soon might be some battles.

2) If a rebel army isn't standing on my roads, are they still causing any economical damage?

3) Say I attack an army, then deploy my Longbowmen up on a hill and place stakes. They still aren't in range of the enemy, and therefore would like to move my archers forward, but don't want to lose protection of the stakes.
I'm the defender so the enemy don't move... ever. Whats the best away around this?

4) That will be all until I remember anything

[Captain Spanky]

1) Town/castle ratio is a matter of opinion. Personally I like to have a castle within reach of each specific area of the map, no matter how far back it is in my empire, just in case. So if I am playing England and I have an empire that spans all of Europe, I'll still keep 2 or 3 castles in France and Germany, and one in the British Isles, should the worst happen.

2) Yes. They will still hurt your economy. Check the economy section of your settlement menu, it should come under "devastation".

3) I would suggest using artillery to bring them forward. The key is to attack them at range in such a way as that they cannot strike back without coming forward. However, sometimes they will never move forward.

4) Jolly good.

[Renco]

Pretty well answered by Cap'n Spanky there, but I have some stuff to add. Mainly to 1 & 3.

1. I find that ratio's are a bit useless (a bit) as a castle/town mix should be depended on the circumstances. You've got it in one with your current castle/town mix in my opinion. As an empire progresses I find that the worst happening, assuming I play well enough to avoid massive naval invasions, is occasional rebels, the likes of which militia drill barracks can easily deal with.

3. In attacks I find that stakes aren't the best. Unless you attack a more powerful foe in battle ratio, in which case they will more than likely attack you. But otherwise I would just deploy stakes, see if they attack you, and if they don't have spearmen as your stakes and move to the enemy ;D

[Kratos]

1) I try to keep my frontier settlements as castles as they are most likely to be besieged (and are more easily defended). As your empire expands, convert most of your castles in the middle of the empire to cities to make more money. But as Captain Spanky said, you may want to keep a few of them as castles for protection.

2) Yes

3) If you attack, well then it's you who will have to advance. Only exception is when the enemy feels confident enough to attack you, and this rarely happens.

[pwijnands]

3. Bring lots of artillery with you (preferably cannons), my enemy usually attacks straight away when I do (even if the army strength ratio is like 3:1). I did it for the first few custom battles I played with the Americas campaign (wanted to see Aztecs flying into the air).

[Lost Crusader]

3) Say I attack an army, then deploy my Longbowmen up on a hill and place stakes. They still aren't in range of the enemy, and therefore would like to move my archers forward, but don't want to lose protection of the stakes.
I'm the defender so the enemy don't move... ever. Whats the best away around this?

In my experience, if you have a sufficient missile superiority, the enemy will try to charge you, regardless of his initially good defensive position.

[vonKrysiak]

Well about the castles it all depends on your type of game/faction you play as/your position.
I like to have endangered provinces fortified but then you cant have too many castles it can kill your economy. Another thing is that some factions dont need many castles as they can recruit awesome units from towns. So in the end it is really up to you, if you want to push up north then it would be good idea to have a castle in the northern part of your empire etc...
If you want to get enemy to move just charge one unit of his skirmishers with your general if you have no artillery and it will do the trick - seconds later your longbowmen will have some practice targets!

[Monsieur Alphonse]

About castles.

I always try to have my coastal regions as cities, since that is more profitable. Since defending a city is also quite easy I try to get two castles grouped together so that I can create an army in no time.

[Metellus]

How many castles also depends on how much moving troops around you want to do. A small castle to city ratio still means you can have a strong stack or two of castle-recruited troops to move around your lands wherever they are needed. Castles needn't be put on the front lines either; personally I prefer to wait for the enemy to besiege one of my frontline cities, then I move in a strong general-led stack to attack them while they are busy building siege equipment. Always causes chaos when they must defend against attacks from two directions at once!

[nosjo78]

1. Castle ratio can be a tricky subject. And many people here will disagree. The basic strategy I use is 1 castle in my starting area. Then I will keep a few well upgraded castles that I take on my campaign. I almost never keep a castle that is on the shoreline. Boat trade is the biggest source of income in this game. Its much better to have a city on the shoreline so you can build advanced ports. Also remember that for alot of nations castles really arent all that important. The Italian factions have some of their best units in their cities. Also same with Spain, Portugal, and Aragon (depending on mod). You may not have the absolute best units in your cities but at higher levels you most likely have a sufficient force. The AI really sucks in battle lol.