Strategy

[cowlesz]

I've been playing this game for a while and Im quite into it. I played as england on easy and completed the game peice of piss. So then I decided to try the game on medium. And now Im struggling. especially fincially.

So how many armies should I have at one time?

Whats the best way to defend an enemy attacking your city? Stay in or Sally forth?

I have loads of over questions, but these two are the ones Im having trouble with the most.

I have, kingdoms, broken crescent and PDER mods. I've played them all recently but havent been able to keep interest in any campaigns that I've started.

Any ideas which factions are really interesting?

[N3rull]

Dunno how mods make it, but basically I learned that if you put at least 4-5 generals together in a stack, that army is well enough to defeat anything you might come up against in the first 15-20 turns. General's Bodyguard unit is so powerful that it smashes down early spearmen (even armoured sergeants perish easily if charged from two sides), all infantry, everything.
Oh and it replenishes itself over time ;D.

It does have its downsides though, your cities are void of governors, which means chivalry doesn't help them grow (I can't think of any sensible reason not to have 'manage all cities' turned ON by the way). But it's negligible compared to the fact that you save tons of cash on upkeep.

So, my tactic is: Have a company of generals (the more the merrier) as your only army and concentrate on pumping money into development. Recruit maximum number of the best militia units possible that you can keep up for free (the wall's 'free upkeep' capability). This gives you a free garrison to back the generals should something go hairy.

Start recruiting an army when really needed.

With a "general army" it is obviously better to sally - you bring the battle to an open field (where heavy cavy reigns supreme) and not suffer starvation losses.

For my part, in my last English campaign, the first units that I started producing above the standard "as much as I can keep for free" amount of militia were... double-armour-upgraded Retinue Longbowmen and armour-and-weapon-upgraded Armoured Swordsmen.
Yeah, my first real army entered a battlefield in turn ~80. All my prior military needs were fulfilled personally by my royal family members .

[pwijnands]

You can be real cheap by sallying forth if you have lots of horse archers. Spend all your arrows, inflict as much casualties as you can and then let the timer run out. If you've killed enough attackers you end up with a draw and you can do the same thing again until you win.

[JonR]

You can be real cheap by sallying forth if you have lots of horse archers. Spend all your arrows, inflict as much casualties as you can and then let the timer run out. If you've killed enough attackers you end up with a draw and you can do the same thing again until you win.

Let the timer run out?

You don't have to.
Just bring all your units back into the city/castle and go to esc > quit battle. It will say: "Your sally was succesfull, would you like to end the battle?" and then it counts as a draw aswell, without the waiting

[N3rull]

Let the timer run out?

You don't have to.
Just bring all your units back into the city/castle and go to esc > quit battle. It will say: "Your sally was succesfull, would you like to end the battle?" and then it counts as a draw aswell, without the waiting

Aye, two conditions must be met :
- all your units must be insie the city/castle.
- all enemy units must be outside (or routing or both)
Otherwise it'll count as your loss.

[Bond]

I normally have 2 small armies in the beginning to expand and take the weaker rebel settlements(5-8 units in the army). Eventually I'll have 1 large army 12-17 units to take on some factions and expand further(like taking out Scotland and capturing the rest of northern England/Ireland).

By then you should be making a decent amount of money if you build the right buildings and only the necessary ones(I consider the 4th level of farming - cost like 2400- extra when your cash is around 30,000). If you stick to a basic roads, ports, market, farms technique and avoid updating castles(unless the upgrade gets you a port) money shouldn't be a problem with a small army.

Also try to disband useless things. 1 ship is the only thing needed when you're neutral or in the beginning, and extra calvary units should be disbanded as well.

[Stildawn]

As england, the first thing i do is march every available starting unit north (leave maybe one unit in each city) combine them under your heir lol and go kill the scots (taking york on the way). Kill the scots as fast as possible and you can get them for all time without any hassle from the pope.

At the same time I send my merchant off to the middle east or russia or greek area, to get a early position on a reasource. Also send my diplomat straight to Rome to start up a 100 buck tribute per turn for the entire game (the best way to handle the pope) this should keep you in good standing with mr p for the whole game and doesnt really make much of a difference on finance.

Take the rest of the UK at leasure cause the scots are now dead. Then move on to the mainland strategy, take all and every rebel settlement you can to bulster ya income, but I say dont build much in them, try to invest all your money on the British islands, cause they are easy to defend and will be the core of your empire, and your mainland territories will probably change hands a bit during the game always reducing development.

What I do is turn Nottingham, York, and Caernovid (or whatever wales) into castles and turn the rest of your territories into cities. Then Use the three main castles to build your army, but only produce one type of unit in each. I do.

Nottingham - Heavy Infantry - Spears
York - Cavalry
Caernovid - Archers
And eventually use london for muskets.

This way in one turn, yes one turn if you have the money you can raise almost an entire stack of elite units, my favourite is

1 general, 1 lances from london
2 musket
4 longbowmen
4 heavy infanty (amoured swordsmen)
4 heavy cavalry
2 Pikemen/billmen/spearmen
2 dismounted or light cavalry depending on what i want to do.

This means that during peace you can disband your armies your not using, with the knowledge that if war occurs you can raise up rapid armies of your most advanced troops before anything too dire happens (especially if you have a buffer zone of mainland territories)

This increases the guild probability. Also use only one city to make priest and merchants etc too.

This will set you up for what ever you need in the future. : )

[Qwestor]

may be simply use full stack of longbowmen

[Ruprecht]

Hey,


What i found as a good way to make lots of money is simple :

Turn 1 to 5 >Pull as many units out of your cities as you can [while still maintaining order] and send them to any and all rebel settlements around you. Even without general's in your stacks they will crush the rebel's easily.

Turn 5 to 10 > turn the majority of your settlements into cities as they are your primary source of income. Start building farms,markets and anything else that increases tradable goods and food production. spare nothing spend everything on this.

Turn 10 to 20 > Continue upgrading your buildings to maximise income. Do not train any units. The units you had at the start should still be enough if your battles went smoothly.


Turn 20 to 30 > Now you may want to recruit a few units, I suggest archers/crossbowmen as they are cheap and very effective against the daft AI. Don't waste too much money on this.


Turn 30 to 40 > Continue along this path until your cities are making you a nice profit each turn. Then you might consider upgrading your armoury's and unit production buildings.

Turn 40 to 50 > This is where the poo usually hits the fan, and neutral or even allied armies start poking at you with pointy things, So now is the time for you to enter proper Unit production.


This method will ensure you will always have enough florins no matter what, And still have some left over to go to the brothel after a good days pillaging and support your queens nasty coke habbit.

[syntax_error]

This method will ensure you will always have enough florins no matter what, and still have some left over to go to the brothel after a good days pillaging and support your queens nasty coke habbit.

Indeed, that queen knows good blow when she sees it! Couldn't help myself, that sent me rolling!

Cowlesz, I play as England, too. They are probably my favorite faction (apart from the Longbowmen, it's also my heritage). My way with running the English, I'm not overly concerned with controlling Normandy, though I will put up a fight to keep Caen and Rennes. Instead, try taking out Norway or whatever that little country up north is called. It'll make a good jumping point into Russia/Eastern Europe. If you can fight a war on three fronts (Northern France, Eastern Europe, and the Middle Eastern hordes), you can pin Western Europe and sweep across to the Iberian Peninsula.

As far as sieging tactics, I usually pill spearmen in front of my gate, archers on the walls, and pull my cavalry out the back of the city and around the sides of the map to the enemies rear. Then, it's the waiting game.

Once cavalry hit the rear forces and archers are firing in the center, it's kind of an "Empire-in-a-Blender" effect!

[Archus]

I was in the same situation as you once, my friend, best thing to do is to play with and Italian faction (especially Milan) because you can just have cities (lots of cash) and still get good troops for less (more money): Italian Spear Militia, Genoese XBow Militia

[Summitz]

Ok, this is my strategy, apply it and you will be filthy rich as possible.
Firstly when you are starting the game, just make one basic army. Not to much high fi armies, just some spearmen and cavalry and archers, and ALWAYS make them to be commanded by a family member, two reasons for it, firstly he will gain experience and the second, the army will less likely to go rebel.
In the starting of the game, ALWAYS go for cities instead of castles, since cities are the heart of an empire and generate the cash and all the stuff. When you have got 6 SETTLEMENTS, convert ONLY 1 of the city into a castle, so there are 5 cities and 1 castle and always keep the ratio of cites to castles 5:1 for 10 cities 2 castles and so forth. Also remember to make the cities which are ONLY LOCATED INWARDS WITHOUT ANY COASTAL SIDE into castles, and also the settlements which are on the outerbounaries of the empire.
Follow these instructions and you will see you empire vomiting cash.... and then you can make ulimited armies with ease.....

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

My strategy is making an army and I mean a heck lot of infantry particularly upgraded ones and some cavalry for flanking and some archers for skirmishing. And I always do this: while the infantry block holds the enemy's front, I'll flank the enemy either on the sides or back. Sorry I'm not that good strategist

While in the campaign map, I either make more cities or make more castles(I know that making too many castles than cities are bad but it works for me just fine). In the cities i always aim for the market upgrades but not farming upgrades cause i only build farms on castles i think because maybe more populations means more units its just a guess I'm just new in this game.

[Viking Prince]

Ruprech (from earlier message) has it right. Work the economy to get cash flow going. Do not build any units if possible.

I would like to add that one castle should be upgraded directly to a drill square. This will give you your backbone for your first real army.

If you're playing England, take a look at retiring your navy. This is expensive maintainance. If you do not need it for a number of turns, what you save on maintenance will allow you to build again from scratch. The same with gifts of units from your council of nobles. The units require maintenance and are usually not needed to take on rebels. Other factions are another story, but if you have not built a drill square, you're not ready to tackle Scotland as England.

Just my suggestions. The suggestions are free and worth evey florin paid.