A short "How to start a DLV Campaign"

[Vangar]

Help

It seems that I'm actually unable to play DLV anymore (5.4 with Version 5 of this Submod thingy out there ) - I mean, I started three times - Teutons, Venice and England on H/VH and I get annihilated before 1200. I considered myself good at Medieval, but that's kind of frustrating

I mean, playing Teutons I start with abandoning acre ("Scorched earth" - destroy everything, disband all units and kill the general via kamikazing a rebel unit) and giving it to some other nation (whomever I meet first) and then slowly build up my economy while taking the rebel settlements which will be rewarded with 10000 $ by the noble council. Slowly, I gain cash, owning the starting provinces, Riga and the coastal region next to Riga (I forgot, shame on me), I maintain a healthy infrastructure (roads everywhere, farmland, traders where possible) but sooner or later (lets say sooner) Lithua will simply crush me with many, many elite cavalry and raiders and stuff. The few militia troops and a unit Ritterbrüder plus general will drain my treasury in no-time, as soon as I leave a city and I just can't fight what they throw at me, sieging all my regions at a time --> Game Over.

I tried Venice for a change. Started well, I scrapped my fleets (would have ruined me in two turns) and again built up my economy. Without the ships I had no money problems, traders everywhere and roads, my merchant made good money and I expanded slowly towards Greece and after taking the Ionian isles I set up to southern Italy, taking the rebel settlements of Brindisi and Bari, built roads and stuff, but I really don't had a army - just one nearly-full stack led by my heir who conquered the new regions. And then, all of a sudden within ONE TURN Sicily, HRE, Hungary and Milan gang-raped my small kingdom, leaving nothing behind. Hell, the HRE alone sent in two full stack armies, Milan one, Sicily just had to sent out a handful of militia units, since my expansion army rushed back to venice to defend the capital and Hungary faced little resistance in Zara and Ragusa. --> GAME OVER

But at least the English should be playable, they were always the easiest to begin with. Okay, here we go - economy and a little expansions. First of all, roads everywhere, farmland and traders where available. I moved everything except for a small garrison from Normandy to the Homelands, where I merged all the Milita troops over there and took Southampton (facing heavy resistance), the council rewarded me with 10000$ - but these 10000 hardly covered all my expenditure my troops cost while moving towards Southhampton and besieging said town. It wouldn't be that much of a problem, but those damn starting rebels near london devestated the whole landscape, hurting my income. Suddenly won't gather enough money to leave red numbers any more and my remaining militia wasn't a match for these rebels, led by a six-star general. Okay, I didn't really try, because I noticed Irish ships aproaching in the distance, already taking Wales. I really didn't want to continue, just tried to attack the rebels by auto-combat before quiting and suffered a crushing defeat - but that was no surprise

Soooo... Any suggestions? I already played DLV 5.3 and everything worked fine, I had fun, sometimes it was too easy I admit but sometimes it was just right...

[hekk]

Maybe you should play on a easier mode?

[eggthief]

u did ally with milan and sicily right?

[Vangar]

u did ally with milan and sicily right?

I allied with the pope to whom I always had a "perfect" relation, but that didn't bother any of the other factions. Of course I tried to ally with Milan and Sicily, but they wouldn't, not even when giving a lot of money. Right from the beginning of the game I had "poor" and "very poor" relations, so they woudln't agree on any more than trading.

@ hekk: I'm kinda too proud for that Honestly, I beat the vanilla MTW on VH, I had a lot of fun with DLV 5.3 on VH, but I never faced such devestating attempts in any medieval or rome mod, at least not three times in a row ^^' The battles aren't too much of a problem either, it's the strategy map which is way harder than in 5.3, at least to me.

[Player8]

I would advise you to ally with potential enemies until you are ready to fight them - I have not experienced the same problem you seem to have had in getting allies.

Take rebels early.

Plan for attacks before the enemy attacks. Example - theres a rebel city that can be taken if you leave one of your cities unguarded. Beward that the AI will recognize this on V/VH and is keen to take advantage of your lackluster defense.

Sometimes roads are best left unbuilt until you can reinforce a position. Example - your English Castle in the mainlands at the start of the game. It does you almost no good, but allows the French to get to you 1 turn quicker.

There's a lot more, but hopefully these ideas get you to thinking about the many nuances the game has and you can discover new things about it - becoming a better TW player.

[Vangar]

Sometimes, converning allies, it's just like the whole world hates me for no reason. Are the relations to other factions random or fixed when starting a new campaign?

But that roads will do the enemy more good than they do to me is in fact an interesting thought. Never considered that But, on the other hand, without roads there is no trade and since everything is really expensive in DLV, it's vital...

[Player8]

Castles do nothing for your trade - the mod does a good job of making Cities good for money and castles good for troops / defense only.

And since we are talking about survival – no, trade is not more important than potentially keeping a settlement. This one unsafe town/castle is not going to generate enough florins with a road to justify otherwise. You shouldn't need to rely on getting a road to an "unsafe" settlement in order to survive. Save the money and focus it on "safe" towns. If you build the roads and the enemy takes your unsafe town/castle you not only lost a settlement - but you also lost the money you put into that settlement, lost the garrison of troops and you give the AI an improved settlement for itself, which puts it further ahead and saves it money.

Therefore, we have a rule

_ Always build roads to link up your safe settlements - never build anything in unsafe settlements. Secure the settlement ASAP so that you can build. This should be easy if you've prepared properly. If you're unable to secure it then you shouldn't have taken it / own it.

I don't build anything in a settlement until I am reasonably sure that it will be safe. I've yet to lose a game from the first DLV I played, 1.something to the present.

I'm always surprised by the number of people who have trouble earning/keeping money in DLV. (turns out most of them spend like women in a shoe store)

Another tip: Keep your armies in a city at all times along with all spys, assassins, etc. unless they are going on an important mission that turn. Plan your missions to minimize the amount of time they spend in the field. Improper planning can cost you hundreds to thousands of florins. You can't afford to do that many times in the beginning of the game when you're strapped for cash. Also - have a reserve in your treasure chest just in case something goes wrong (as it usually does).
Don't play with a chest near 0 unless you're absolutely sure that you are safe from enemy attacks and that the reason for being so poor is an amazingly beneficial one. You may say, "well, if I wait the settlement will be taken, the enemy will get too strong.. blah blah." Make intelligent decisions - Patience truly is a virtue. You're actually strengthening yourself if you wait and avoid a potentially crippling disaster. If you don't have money to deal with an unforeseen situation – you can't handle it.

[Furin]

stuff the AI makes attack you less:

- multiple forts, best at chokepoints
- considerable city militia garrisons
- strong allies that are not your neighbor, always ally with pope
- if opposite religion 4+ priests of different religion in one region, move on when conversion rate is near 50%
- trigger war between AI factions via jihad, crusade, diplomacy, once they are busy with each other they will less likely attack you
- get into the top 5 military powers asap
- if you build ports and you have a fleet move it into a port that has a potentially aggressive neighbor. The ships add to your region military strengh.

stuff that nets you income:

- build two to three diplomats at the gamestart, move them to the next unknown neighbor so you can get the 2500 florins mission for diplomacy more often. After the mission has triggered move the diplomat to the next faction.
- try to sell map information, but don't sell to your neighbors
- build the new economic structures, they bring in good money (multiple trade bonus)
- make one city your trade hub early and build a synagogue there, the markets of the other cities will up the agent limit but you don't need more than one trade hub (merchant guild later). Send these merchants on silver mines, gold mines, amber, fur. You cannot build the top tier religion structures in that city later though or the jewish percentage will drop to a point where you can't recruit merchants any more. You need a city close to your capital, if not the capital itself. On the other hand in the late game you will most likely make more money than you can spend and get rid of merchants alltogether.

Whatever you do, if you are unlucky with missions and disasters at the start of campaign you will have a hard time and maybe perish.