Need help with England

[Curonian]

Hello!

I have started playing Medieval 2 once again, I easily warmed myself up and won easy and medium campaigns with HRE and France.
Now I have started a grand campaign (very hard+very hard) with England. It is turn 35 and my kingdom consists of 15 provinces - 12 towns and 3 castles. I have conquered Ireland, all provinces on island of Britain + West and North and Centre of France. These bastards have got only 1 town left

Now there is a problem - Milan (the #1 faction at the moment) started a war and has sieged Antwerp. Nearby, the Denmark have sieged another town as well. They have grown quite strong beating HRE and taking some rebel cities, castles. I got only 4 units of spear militia (upkeeped fro free) in each of these towns, meanwhile both Danes and Milan got 1100++ units, including heavy infantry, ballistae, etc.

I have been using 1 army all the time, now it is far away from besieged settlements. I was going to permanently eliminate France, but now I'm not sure were should I move it.

Pope doesn't like me at all, England is excommunicated for many turns.

My style of playing? Well, I eliminated Scotland very early, thus I got myself excommunicated. Afterwards I took all the rebel settlements in Britain and moved army to mainlands. There I conquered a few rebel towns and engaged a war with Denmark. I got 2 towns from them and moved everything I had to crush France, despite they were my allies. I gathered an army near 3 French settlements - Angers, Paris, Rheims. I attacked and took over all 3 in 1 turn, since I had ballistae, but French had only a few units of militia and peasants... In 2 more turns France had only one town left.

I never sack settlements, nor exterminate populations. I have set taxes low, so the population grows faster and I can upgrade towns. I upgrade roads, farms, market, ports as fast and as much as I can. I guess Britain is safe from attacks, isn't it? All towns there are making me cash. I even changed Notingham (?) to town

I also wonder are billmen of any use? They got attack 15 and defence 3 if I remember right. These are cheap heavy infantry units, however I am not sure should I put these in my armies? I am also able to train longbowmen, now these are superior and well used

I guess I am not the best tactician around. I usually end up losing lots of units in every battle, about the same as enemy. My biggest problem usually are spearmen, when they are in schiltrom mode.... Sending light infantry against these is pretty useless... cavalry? They die as flies.... and shooting em' up with longbowmen is not so effective.

Any advice is welcome. There is much place for me to improve my skills, so... share tips you got

Thanks!

[DarkYellowFire]

wows about your story its a great one man :O

the only problem that i can fix for you is (more advice)
send a diplomate to Papel statse give the pope some cash and some map information and if it can maybe some towns (seguest the hards town where you get problems xD)

afther that i dont know maybe some crusades??? if it is not agianst you

i got btw a link for you about the english Campiane its a Guide hope it works

link: http://www.gameolosophy.com/Games/On...gy-Guide.21495

link: http://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2t...d-1/index.html (this link is vrry importend get a look it helps vrry much )

[Curonian]

Thanks. These 2 guides seem really helpful.

Can crusades be called against me? I have got 0 papal points for a long time and nothing like that has happened. Becoming a target of crusade would make me more problems than Milan and Denmark together

[dr_guerra]

Thanks. These 2 guides seem really helpful.

Can crusades be called against me? I have got 0 papal points for a long time and nothing like that has happened. Becoming a target of crusade would make me more problems than Milan and Denmark together

Yes, it's quite possible.

Assassinate the current pope to reset your reputation.

[Viking Prince]

Can crusades be called against me? I

You ssaid that you are on turn 35. Is the first Crusade against Cairo still in progress or has it ended? While a crusade is ongoing, you are safe from a crusade, it is best to prevent future problems.

Have you been building churches and priests?

Do you have a diplomat living in Italy? If not, get one stationed there. Make nice with the pope even if it seems unrequited. There will be an effect if the priests and churches are also being built.

Also, try to closedown conflicts. No need to fight every adjacent faction. Maybe now is not the time to take out France is Milan is a threat. Let the French help your cause. I know, they are probably allied. Just feed them some cash and at least get a ceasefire. Baby steps are better than no progress.

Good Luck! And welcome back to MIITW.

[DarkYellowFire]

thats a options but what i early say give him some money and some map informations if it nurceserry give him a town ore castel

[Curonian]

Assassinating the pope? I did kill him with a regular army in another campaign. It did not help. Assassinating must be different then.
I haven't succeeded in training a decent assassin so far, all targets I see got a success chance of 16% and less...

[homefry]

If you're playing as a catholic faction, I always like to secure an alliance with Papal States first.

[DarkYellowFire]

yep good side personaly you most know when you attack a Catholic faction like engliand agianst the Scots than you attack one city populary with the pope gonna down than little bit but if you do the crusade than and you finisht it than it will gonna up so you can attack the other city of the scots and you have destroy it

idea bassed up crusades if you attack first time and you do not call for aid in crusade you will exturmanded but if you do crusade than not

srry for english spelling falts

[Cmdr_Sdxo]

Don't make billmen. They have good stats but that is deceiving as their attack is horribly slow. Also, a few tips : If your King is very old(60 or more), you can take excom no prob. Your king will die in a few turns and when he does, the excom ends. Also, just like the others above said, when a crusade is already in progress to somewhere else, getting excommunicated isn't a big deal since the pope can't call a crusade on you.

And yeah, gift the pope money every turn(not much, like 1000 per turn) .
After you defeat France, be on a lookout for Spain(or Portugal) that will probably attack you soon.

[dr_guerra]

Make peace with the pope at any cost. Then assassinate him.

Finish off France and sack their last town, use the money to build more armies.

When defending against impossible siege odds, make a V at the gate, with your best quality spears, put them in guard mode and they'll grind up whatever runs in, have your general nearby hitting the morale booster. Then your swords or whatever on the wall fending off ladders and siege towers.

Try to make peace with a few countries, take things slowly and defensively.

Longbows are pretty effective. Use them lots, and use their deploy stakes ability. Very handy in a defensive fight.

[Curonian]

What a game this is... simply amazing

Some more questions now - if you do not mind

My relationship with all countries is either very poor or terrible. Even wih the allies it is very poor. I guess it is no wonder they decide to leave me. Is it worth trying to get a strong ally by giving him money or even some regions? AI seems very poor, I haven't really got help from allies in battles so far. I wondered if making Denmark a good ally and making them like a buffer on the East would be useful?

How good should a diplomate be to bribe armies or settlements or get allies to attack my enemies? The current flow of game has become pretty boring...

Even despite the very hard/very hard, my English kingdom is overpowered now at turn 40... I am #1 in all stats except military, where I'm #6. Yeah, the army is not too big, but I got 3-4 units of spearmen militia in every town, and 1 and a half armies for real fights.
If I lose a town to danes or milan which has happened, I can gather spearmen from nearby cities, train some archers and cavalry and retake it back.

Speaking about the AI and diplomacy, this is simply wierd... Portugal, Spain and Moors are all allied with each other. Poland, HRE, Byzantines had a union as well. Now HRE became a vassal of Poland. Sicily is at war with 6 factions...

[Viking Prince]

Sounds like a good game. As far as AI allies go, I find that if I start the game with my allies and work with them, they are useful. I have never been successful at the rehab game. I suppose it is possible, but I do not think that I would waste territory on anybody that I was not already on fairly good terms with (unless it is to prop up an enemy of my enemy).

Once you have resolved your French problem, I think things will look better. Either get peace or take him out. I do not think you can go half way.

[DarkYellowFire]

ofcours questins are welcome

- Relationship
thats simple your the strongest faction in europe and thay fair you
its better that you do ally with small factions like milan papel stats etc.
if you are a small faction be than ally with big nations like Holy Roman Empire/France/England etc.

-Diplomates
you can easy bribe armys with NO General in it thats vrry easy than with General

than somthing else about your spearmen dont use city units they are better to defend the citys you need Castels they are your Army Factorys

i hope i have help you much with this questins are welcome