Confusion

[Flandez]

Finally got Kingdoms and quickly downloaded DLV 5.2

Now, I saw the advised difficulty is VH/VH and I'm ok with that since in vanilla that gets pretty easy quickly. But in DLV I just have no idea how you are supposed to succeed.

I tried some of the new factions to no avail so I tried England figuring it would be one of the easiest like vanilla....but...

You start with 10k, and it takes 10 turns to get your first port. If you have any units outside a settlement you are losing money, not to mention the rebel army that appears slows everything down when it sieges London. So really my question is, how the hell are you supposed to gain money? To take Southampton or Rheins, you need to recruit which puts you in the red in like 4 turns, which leads me to my next question, which I somewhat brought up in another thread is the battle system.

I tried attacking Rheins because I couldn't commit the Prince's army to Southampton due to the rebel siege army. So anyway, the Rheins garrison consists of 2 Mailed Knights, 4-5 Spear Militia and 3-4 Crossbow militia.

Now the way sallying armies work is they don't really do anything until all units are out of the walls as I'm sure many of you know, giving the sieging army an advantage due to the fact any missile troops you have can just devastate the enemy until they are all out. With two peasant archer units in my army I got the two mailed knights down to 40-50% before they even attacked, and when they charge my SPEAR militia, my militia basically just lay down and die as they run through and ~25% of mailed knights rout my archers in literally mere seconds due to the *charge anytime I want thing* and obviously once the archers are down and my spear militia are engaged with the rebel militia the remaining mailed knights turn around and hit the rear of my line and start the charge thing again which quickly routs them.

And before anyone asks, this is with a 4 star general and +4 loyalty. So really questions boil down to, how do you get your economy going, and be able to recruit more troops (and/or ships, my two ships that I start out with keep getting attacked by x3 stacks of rebel fleets) and why am I having problems with units that should be melting on my units when they meet? The changes show nothing that stands out to me in this aspect, what exactly has changed?

Thanks for any help

[Lord Cave]

The first thing you have to do is be ready to defeat the rebel army which always appears on the second turn or so. I try to avoid recruiting mercenaries if I can help it because they are so expensive. I also try to kill the rebel army the first turn they appear because if you don't you are going to suffer bigtime devastation losses pretty much forever. Actually I try to destroy all rebel armies in my territory ASAP for that reason.

I always disband all my navy immediately because 250 a turn for a ship you have no use for is a big waste. In fact for the most part, I disband my army to a skeleton crew when my lands appear secure because in general, 3 turns of upkeep costs as much as recruiting the unit.

I don't worry about gaining any regions for at least the first 10-20 turns until i have completely solidified my own region.

Make trade agreements with all adjacent faction ASAP.
Look for regions to build mines in, because they tend to have the best rate of return on investment, and also add to trade.

Read the manual. Any military stack outside of a settlement is going to cost you money. Any priest, spy, assassin, military stack in another factions land is going to cost big money(at least for the early game). Besieging is terribly expensive.

Generally the way I play the game is in cycles. I solidify my empire for as long as it takes, then go to war with a specific faction and knock them down to the point where they can never rival me again. Solidify empire, war, repeat.

I also try to keep my empire small enough and with a good enough economy that every settlement is always building upgrades at all times. This way, I am not falling behind technologically. This won't happen in the first few turn though because you simply don't have enough cash.

Try playing as Milan or Venice since they have excellent economy and cheap powerful militia units. Also they have settlements nearby which are worth taking.

Hope this helps.

[mlc82]

As Lord Cave said, garrison any armies you aren't using because having them standing around outside cities/castles will cost you money each turn!

Playing as England, it's damn near impossible to attack and defeat the rebel army that spawns outside London- you'll have your general (maybe 2), a bunch of spear militia, and maybe a single Longbow and Crossbow mercenary unit, while the AI rebel army will be a big horde of Longbowmen who will slaughter half of your force well before they can reach them (the dreaded Longbowmen), with some spearmen to hold you away from said Longbows even longer. I either let them besiege and assault London (this will put you in debt temporarily though) and then kill them off in a defensive battle- or you can move your governor in Caen outside, recruit a couple of units of Frankish Mercenary knights, ship them to london (and then disband the ships- they're too expensive in upkeep), then add the knights to your attacking force and slaughter those Longbowmen as quickly as you can!

Either way, you're likely going to go into (temporary) debt, and you'll need to let your funds rebuild and then start building markets, ports, and farm upgrades while hunkering down and not invading anything for awhile.

If you're lucky enough to receive the "conquer Southampton and we'll give you 10,000 florins" mission, you should have 15 turns to do it- start recruiting spearmen and town milita like crazy, and after killing off the rebel stack, leave a small garrison in London and take everyone else off to conquer Southampton- it's a much easier battle than the rebel stack will be. Sack it, leave a small garrison there, bring the rest back to London, and disband the ones you no longer need.

[Flandez]

Alright, I fixed my economic problems, switched Caen over to a city, the slow expansion is killing me though...Scotland beat me to York...

I tried forming an alliance with France on the first turn and it lasted about 20 turns before they sieged Caen, and the battle just bewildered me, 6 spear milita behind the gate and the French army consisting of 2 mounted sergeants, 6 spear militia and 1 peasant archer unit, no general (I also had 2 peasant archers which obliterated 2 spear militia units before the gates came down...the gates come down and my 6 spear militia units die in mere seconds...along with my governor's unit killed by mounted sergeants...so how exactly are you supposed to defend cities? If this is the case all around then I'm guessing you're not supposed to defend? Just attack, attack and replace lost territories with ones you take?

[Higgings]

Hehe it is rather fun to play as the English.
I had the same problem and the rebel took London,.... then I was *********
So, I gather all the last troops I had who was not in a city for guard duty and the Prince of Wales and assaultet.
What a fight but I won.
Then the Scots saw there big chanse and they took York.
I attacked and conquer and beat of to big armys.
Then peace settle atlast on the British Islands and I could join the big war and the Crusades.

But yes, Keep a few good units, have only one castle and keep all toops in forts and few ships.

[Aszrayel]

Here is something that may be helpful:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Playing as England and in anticipation of the rebel army I usually send the units that the Prince starts out with in his stack at the beginning right to London, 2 of the units from Caen I ship up to the British Isles towards London, have King Henry make his first time outside the settlement so that he becomes a general with a good amount of command starts, and recruit the 2 units that you can in London. With the amount of troops this makes up I take it to the rebel general next turn fighting the battle manually myself. Like others have said get rid of unwanted ships as their upkeep is 250 a piece (I usually keep one for transport to and from mainland and such). I also transport the Princess to the mainland and get an alliance with Flanders on the first turn as well.

[Flandez]

Lol, I may be banging my head against the wall here, but England just seems tough...Flanders just attacked London and I was at Amiable. At war with Scotland, France and Flanders and I'm pretty sure the Irish want some of the action too, losing Caen hurt the economy too much to support armies for all of this fighting so I'm fairly certain I'm going to lose London, still don't know what I did to piss them off Oh well, first time I've really lost a campaign, pretty fun actually.