The starting strategy that will change your life!
Wherever you are, whatever you do, you will probably thrive with this starting tactic. You do all those things in the very first turn.
Step 1: Disband everything you have in your cities except for spear militia. In the castles, disband everything but for one spear unit.
Step 2: Increase taxes to the maximum possible without a blue or red face.
Step 3: Forget about roads, markets and churches. Start building militia barracks up to the ones that produce spear militia!
Step 4: Take all the generals out of the cities and attack one rebel town with each. In cases where the town has mailed knights in, use two of them. You don't need to take away the generals from castles, these ones are fine there.
Step 5: When the AI sallies, use the powerful charges of the general. Try to charge a unit of light infantry first, then go back to the archers and kill them all even if they rout, so that your general gains lots of experience, which will be useful then to finish off the remaining army. Also try to charge at the captain's unit, at the side where the captain is, so that the captain dies. You will be amazed with what massive victories you can make like that with only one general. Then loot the city for money and public order, and keep it. There you go! In only a few turns you have minimal expenses and maximum cities/income.
Detailed description of this tactic: You cut the upkeep costs for units which are no good in the battlefield anyway, and you do so from the very first round. That makes you rich in the second round. Then when you build the spear militia barracks, the spear militia become free upkeep units. This earns you alot more money per turn than any trade/farm building you could have made can even closely match, plus your cities are protected with a maximum of 3 spear militia for free, from very early, which discourages acts of aggression from neighbours. Then the conquest thing with the generals, just think that you almost double your cities, and looting each one of them you end up having many cities for income, and much cash from looting. Then you can turn your enormous wealth into knights and thus make a proper army that can defeat 10 times its size (which charge tactics), instead of a herd of cowering peasants that can do little more than die like flies in any battle.
Also, it is very important that you take the generals out of the cities where you are building the spear militia barracks, because otherwise they will get traits like incompetent trader and ignorant, for not having made roads and grain exchanges etc. And you need to take them out anyway, to attack the rebel places. Oh, in the case where you have one general and the enemy has also one unit of knights in the city, just pull your general far away, then charge the knights, and if you have gone far away you will have enough time to win the knights in a close battle before the rest of the rebels come near. Generally gaining distance and charging works with anything except spearmen or pikemen, where you just have to mess up their formation and then charge.
And the news update from yesterday: I used this tactic as Holy Roman Empire. I also allied with the Pope. Turn 10 I had an empire already and lots of money. Turn 20 the Milanese attacked a couple of times, won them by sally, spear militia for keeping the Italian militia busy and charging in the back with my general cavalry until they are no more. They were excommunicated, and now they are an ex-faction. I own half Europe already and it's around turn 25. Not a bad starting tactic it seems.
So enjoy yourselves, and remember: the start is half of it all!
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I used to go to Britain with whatever I was playing, because there everybody leaves you alone. 
Originally Posted by cankles
