English campaign

[Foehammer]

Alright, so this is my first campaign (short) in MII, previously owning Shogun for about 5 years, (Kickass game btw.) and I've got a question.

It's about turn...140? I'm not exactly sure, but the mongols invaded about 10-20 turns ago. I'm playing as england, My allies were Scotland and France, before they betrayed me, (I'm the #1 overall faction w/ best military and production.) Holy Roman Empire, and Spain. (I'm playing on Normal.) Spain now controls their part of the region, France is reduced to Trouluse, due to them sending a full stack from angers to go fight Milan, so I took over Angers, (my second fortress.) Scotland has one city left, I own the Ireland region, and I'm at war with Scotland, France, Venice, and Milan. Thing is, I have about 4-5 castles, 2 being fortresses, and about 8 towns-city's.

The problem is that I can't afford to fight France, Venice, Milan, and Scotland all at the same time. But especially France, (they're sending stacks in waves since it's easy for 'em to afford,) Venice is sending half stacks, (every 5-7 turns) Milan is sending stacks every 10 turns, and Scotland is doing the same, but with a stack and leaving half of one at their capital. I have about 11 stacks, all defending my most vital regions. (Minor-big city's.) Thing is, those region's are slowly becoming unrested, so I'm losing my income. I'm thinking if this continues, I won't be able to stand for much longer. (I plan on taking out scotland in the next few turns, then move most of my british-ilses armies down near france, and strengthen that region,) I've read on here that Spy's cause unrest, so I've put atleast one spy in every castle/city/town I have, and I'm not finding the enemies spy's. The tax's are high, (green, until the unrest happened.) I'm not excommunicated, though I came close once.

ANYWAYS, I have stacks on all fronts of my empire, (which is divided btw,) and my income city's are slowly failing to bring me in good money. (Due to unrest.) How could I fix this? I figure if this doesn't finish me off, the Mongol's will since it will take me a while to recover, while the mongols are already fighting my allies, the Roman empire, (who are getting frustrated with me because I cant send help to them,) and are getting pretty close.

ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED THANKS. AND SORRY FOR THE WALLS OF TEXT.

[cankles]

Sounds fun.
Wipe out Scotland(so that you are the only one on the island, the AI dosen't invade by water very often on normal), and then boat all of your extra troops to Caen on the coast. Then keep about four or five unit in each city on britain and ramp up the taxes. Just keep send all alvailble troops over the sea. Then keep expanding to create a bulwark. Best defense is a good offense.

[Foehammer]

Yea that's what I plan on doing, but how do I keep my city's from revolting? Once I lose them my campaign is over. Again, I have my own spy's in each of my city's/castles and I cant seem to find enemy spy's. And the unrest just builds.

But yeah, if I stay like this for a hundred turns I'll be done for.

[Strom]

What is causing your cities discontent? You can check this by bringing up the city tab then clicking on one of the small, round, non-descript buttons at the bottom of it (settlement details?)

Eleven stacks on defence sounds crazy. Actually eleven stacks sounds unsustainable at that level of the game... It sounds like you need more troops on offense.

My guess is that your military is so large that you can't afford to build buildings in your cities because your wage bill is roughly equal to your income. Many buildings reduce unrest (e.g. foot barracks, churches, brothels...) but increasing city populations increase unrest. So if you can't afford to build any buildings and the city is increasing in population then it will gain unrest.

Do you have priests in your cities? If your provinces have a significant amount of people of different faiths then that adds to their unrest too. This can result from heretics in your lands or other faiths trying to convert you. If you select a priest and mouse over a province you can see what percentage of it is Catholic. If it's less than about 95% then stick a priest in the region.

Also I think you get unrest in conquered cities whilst you are at war with the faction that you took the city from. So killing out a faction can help your unrest (hey, you aren't at war with them any more, right?) as can making peace with them (easier said than done.)

I really didn't have much of a problem with unrest on Normal but I generally kept my cash flow such that I could keep building in almost all of my cities every turn (mostly econ and happyness buildings rather than unit production) and kept taxes on normal or low. Throw in a priest in most towns and spies in border towns and you should be good to go.

However the England campaign is tricky in the middle because you tend to end up at war with everyone. Try to simplify your borders so you have more 'safe' towns and fewer border towns. You also look like you have a lot of castles given how many cities you have. Kill the Scots and convert a couple of the English castles to towns. Note that if you are sieging an enemy town then they can't make units in it. So if Scotland only has one province then they're crippled if you siege it.

[cankles]

Try to simplify your borders so you have more 'safe' towns and fewer border towns. You also look like you have a lot of castles given how many cities you have. Kill the Scots and convert a couple of the English castles to towns.

Definately True. I only keep one castle in my homeland. And Strom is right about the preists to. If you have to let the cities revolt on at a time, reconquer them and exterminate the populace. Or just use the add_population cheat with a negative value.

[Robo1992]

Maybe you should exterminate every settlement from now on and keep their tax rate on medium cos then the should be happy regardless of who your fighting and he populations will be lower so they are easier to control.

[masterbaker]

Turn all of the British Isles except Nottingham into cities, defend on any fronts where you have a castle and attack where you're weaker. Keep moving up and defend when you have castles on your front line, and attack your weaker enemies.

It's better to totally destroy 1 faction, so you don't have to face them again, than slightly wound 5 and keep them coming at you.

[Foehammer]

I have a brothel built in all of my regions, an inn, atleast a chapel, a priest, and at least one spy. In every single settlement I control. I'm working on taking out scotland but the French are attacking at the same time as the Milanese are, and it's really F'ing me up. I now control 13 regions, (2 more + france and scotland exterminated to win,) where 10 are either small city - large city. The unrest has decreased I find since most of my spy's in border city's have awesome subterfuge, so I'm finding 90% of all enemy spy's. And I know Venice, Scotland, and France are faltering because they have begged me to cease hostilities with them. I guess I have have to pounce.

Thanks for everyone who replied, probably saved my campaign. ^.^;

(Oh, I also moved my capital from London to Reihm (I think thats how you spell it) so my biggest city's don't get penalties from the capital distance thing. (Which they used to.)

[cankles]

Nice job. Looks like it all worked out.

[Bob The Fearless]

Your nearing the end of the campaign now, so if anyone other than France or Scotland offer a cease fire take it. By the sounds of it by removing Scotland and France now you will fulfill your victory conditions

It does sound like you have to many stacks and probabley because your fighting on to many fronts.

Remember that as someone as already said, look in the Settlement Details and look at Public Order. The bottom line shows you whats causing unrest, the address that need in your building program.

Cycle some generals around the towns and make us of free garrision units to help cut costs. (Right click on the wall defenses to get details of how many free units can be garrisioned there)

Other buildings help to keep the population undercontrol, remember to priortise your build program. I tend to build to do one of three things Boost Trade, Better Armies or Control Towns.

Good Luck

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

Cool, your campaign is getting better, you'll end the game in no time. Just focus building on the cities their markets, farms, etc. anything that makes money. And later when your cities are pumping money, creae those building that makes the people happy like the brothel, inn, chapel(maybe whats causing your cities unrest are the diff. religions), and I also read about something like if you build a unit producing building(town watch, town guard, etc.) on cities, you're people will be happy. While make your castles produce one kind of unit(ex. toulouse=archers, bolougne=infantry, angers=cavalry). That's it, good luck in your campaign