SS England Strategy Discussion Thread

[TheLastPrivate]

This will be the up-to-date strategy discussion thread for England of SS6.1.
You can post guides, unit tactics, build order, family maintenance, diplomacy moves, opening moves, merchant guides, settlement development, turn-by-turn analysis and anything else that has to do with the English campaign.

To keep this thread concise and informative please do not:
1. steer too far away from the game (ex: occasional history is cool but this is not a seminar )
2. rant/cheer other players - they belong in a new thread.
3. post other faction strategy - they should go to their respective threads. For new threads please contact me, since it would be nice if we could keep the format same for all the threads so that it may later be compiled easily.

** As you contribute please notify us of the submods/difficulty/version you are playing**

For other Strategy Discussion Threads, please refer to: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=200302

[Valerius Maximus]

1) Conquer the British Isles (i.e. destroy scotland/Ireland)
2) build up your economy , i personally focus on maritime trade first (ports, docks, warehouses,) and you'll be making a ton of money in no time to fund all the armies you'll ever need.
3) Pick any target and expand...last campaign i played, decided to go north into scandinavia instead of the traditional war with france...which came to pass anyways. so now I rule scandinavia, most of russia since i went after Novgorod and most of Germany/France since france were dumb enough to start a war they had no hope of winning

that's basically it for me for england. imo one of the easier factions. i play on H/H ss 6.1 with RC and RR

[The Noble Lord]

1) Conquer the British Isles (i.e. destroy scotland/Ireland)
2) build up your economy , i personally focus on maritime trade first (ports, docks, warehouses,) and you'll be making a ton of money in no time to fund all the armies you'll ever need.
3) Pick any target and expand...last campaign i played, decided to go north into scandinavia instead of the traditional war with france...which came to pass anyways. so now I rule scandinavia, most of russia since i went after Novgorod and most of Germany/France since france were dumb enough to start a war they had no hope of winning

that's basically it for me for england. imo one of the easier factions. i play on H/H ss 6.1 with RC and RR

This is pretty much what I usually do when I play England.

[TheLastPrivate]

VH/Vh with SSTC but no RR/BGR -

My opening move was to ship your princess to Caen, snatch the French princess on turn 2 and marry her to your heir (Don't give yours away just yet). This will secure your Normandy borders while you can:

a) flatten scots
b) take Rennes/Bruges/Antwerp
c) move on to Ireland. This may be annoying due to Irish CTDs and massed ridires (I don't have RR so they get to mass feudals), so save often at this point!

**Scots shouldn't be too hard, William Wallace won't even spawn until turn 70 or so. Best to wait for them to start a war.**

After your princess secures French alliance (for the moment), trot her down to Italy and make alliance with pope, and give him a tribute of 100 gold for 100 turns. It is likely you won't be fighting the pope in the next 100 turns, and its easier to just have the bribery in "Automated withdrawl" mode

After the British isles are secure, you can now look to the other parts of Europe.

It is highly like that:

a) French are in a bloody war with HRE/Genoa/Aragon
b) Norway vs Danes
c) mix-up in Iberia with the Moors/portugal/leon/aragon.

You can choose any target and conquer with ease due to your superior income (by the time all of the isles are yours you should be making 10~20k a turn) and a solid setup of armoured sergeants +longbows (or yeoman)+cavalry of choice. Launch a good sized invasion force (3~4 stacks) and go through all the settlements in a series of search&destroy. Its best to end wars with catholic nations quick to avoid too much papacy interference and reputation hits.

Maintaining some reputation is needed due to costal borders/French borders secured only by alliances - if you do manage to keep it up, you can keep them with minimum garrison. Should your reputation/relations fall they will not hesitate to backstab.

I'm currently starting a foothold in Iberia so we'll see how that goes. If they are weak due to years of War I may be able to ship a stack and start setting up a Norwegian front.

[King Sama]

My advice:

Take on the scots as soon as all rebels on the mainland are captured, before william wallace. Spend everything to destroy them, and make sure not to lose your ships as the scots often try to take Bruges or Antwerp with a weak navy and sinking them can be very helpful. When the scots are done, ireland should be easy, and then the world.

Also, it is a good idea to try and sell Caen to the HRE. The french will eventually try to take it, and it's really not worth the trouble. Plus, you can get extra funds to fight he scots. If that doesn't work, you can try selling it to the french or just keep it.

[ppsh42]

Well, I'm playing England right now, and I'm pretty much the powerhouse of the world. In every campaign I play, I usually focus on expanding my cities more; every one of my cities has to have construction going in every turn. Focusing on construction gives you the advantage of garnering money and having better units available quicker. This strategy gave me about 5 full stack standing armies, fully garrisoned cities and castles, and a bank full of 1,700,000 Florins.

With the expansion part, I quickly took over the rebel Flanders, taking Bruges, Antwerp and others. Make sure you ally with the French, and secure a marriage alliance with them, so you can have friendlies to the south. I focused on building, then called a crusade to Jerusalem. My tip, always go via navy, overland just takes too long. After sacking Jerusalem, I took over other holy land cities and kicked the Fatimids out of Egypt.

Next I focused on the Scots and Irish. I wiped them off the map fairly easily. I attacked with full 3 stack heavy Infantry/cavalry armies, wiping of any resistance. If you wait long enough, many french cities rebel, so you can take those fairly easily. Sicily attacked me, and I booted them to N. Africa, with 3 full stack armies wiping out all resistance.

I play on VH/VH and it seems way to easy for me.

[TheLastPrivate]

I feel that England is one of the most economically stable factiosn along with Fatimids. Seom factions like France or HRE need to take over trade-centered areas before having a good income (land trade is terrible in SS), but by turn 40 you are gaining massive florins from trade between Briton-Flanders-Scandinavia-Iberia.

A key thing to note is that Antwerp is worth turning into a city. Just don't let AI take it and tech it all the way. However, winchester doesn't seem to make that much money even if its a city. Rennes will be critical in trade with Iberia and must be taken before the French.

[Musthavename]

1) Take York
2) Wait till the Scots put all their forces on a ship to try and take Bruges
3) Sink that ship
4) Steamroll Scotland, who now only have Generals and a couple spear militias
5) Take Caernavnon
6) Maim Ireland
7) Build up
8) ????
9) Win

[TheLastPrivate]

1) Take York
2) Wait till the Scots put all their forces on a ship to try and take Bruges
3) Sink that ship

That must feel good when the ship goes craaaack

[Skooma Addict]

Against my better judgement and pride, I shall contribute.

1.Cease all hostilities towards France and open up trade. Also, send a diplomat through europe to negotiate trade rights with everyone you can for this will definately pay off in twenty turns.
2. Build your stack and take York.
3. Take your stack aboard a vessel and take Dublin.(Rebels)
4. Rest, regroup, and recruit more militia and take them west towards the Irish town to the south-west. They should not have a sufficient garrison there yet.
5. If the Holy Papa isn't up your butt yet, rest, and then finish the Irishmen off by taking their only settlement left. (Castle)
6. Rest for whatever amount of turns Big Papi says.
7.Take your stack aboard a vessel and take the Northernmost Scottish settlement.(Can't recall whether a Castle or town)
8. Retrain or rest for now you have Nottingham to the south and a full stack to the north.
9.Leave Norway the alone, their barren land isn't worth having to deal with Vikings.
10. Until you have completed objectives 1-8, keep construction to a minimum. Only spend money on upkeep and possibly retraining, recruiting more units. No new buildings...yet.

That is all for now. This was for the early campaign by the way. Hope this is useful.

[Desperado_101]

[quote=Musthavename;3925768]1) Take York
2) Wait till the Scots put all their forces on a ship to try and take Bruges
3) Sink that ship

Item 3 is a crusial necessity. In my campaign SS 6.1 H/H scotts managed to land a full stack of highlanders, highland archers, border horses and spear militia with a 5-star general near Bruges. At this point I had captured their last town in England and the army rebelled. So the rebelled scotts, who appear to become flemish rebels by now, together with the Bruges garrison have killed my king in an ambush, wiped out two full stacks of French, being sent to capture Bruges and eliminated another stack containing of 2 of my generals with 5 or 6 militias and mercs. I finally have them locked up in Bruges with another my general, some longbowmen and armoured sergeants in couple turns I will finally take Bruges from rebels, but it was such a pain.

[Sargon_of_Akkad]

I played a hotseat game with a friend a while back as England, and I pulled all my forces from the mainland and across England together into a full army, and marched on Scotland.

The Scots had the same idea, evidently, and near Edinburgh I met a Scottish army of equal size, and naturally pounced on them.

Somehow, with peasant archers, holibars and levy spearmen, I managed to destroy their force with 0 escapees and 21 casualties on my own side (out of over 1000 men). The battle wasn't even an insta-rout. I don't have a clue how I did it, but that was the end of Scottish power, and they were destroyed before I'd even taken York.

[Musthavename]

That must feel good when the ship goes craaaack

They do it in EVERY campaign... unless you declare war on them before that!

[King Sama]

They do it in EVERY campaign... unless you declare war on them before that!

For me they did it right in the middle of our war! I was just about to capture Edinburgh when I noticed them besieging Bruges.

As for York, I believe that the scots besiege it on the second turn most of the time, so it may make more sense to just capture the other rebels first and then attack the city.

[TheLastPrivate]

Wow, who needs William Wallace when scots had that quality stuff :p

[Musthavename]

Just send Prince William there on T1. Don't bother initiating the siege, just lay siege. If they sally, run to the corner of the map, then pull them all the way out, then run to the plaza. Iirc, they have zero cavalry and you can defeat them all with one General. If they don't sally, the Scots can't besiege and take York, and you can get most of a stack there for Turn 2. Yes it's cheap, but it works

[rawghi]

Talking on England... what is you default army stack composition in late era before the gunpowder event?

[Desperado_101]

By the way, another question about England.
I play SS 6.1 as England H/H now and at turn 35 by now. Own the whole England, didn't bother to get to Ireland though, don't really believe it's economically worth it. Recently captured 3 castles from France, Angier, Bordeux and Touluse, stopped for a while because Pope got to excited about it. Going to finish them off in couple turns. I converted all castles at home in cities except of Nottingham. In continental Europe I converted Antwerp as well and still thinking of Angier, though it's pretty well developed. I'm usually converting most castles to cities unless they are very developed ones or they are pretty close to the battleline.
Just recently recently Norway attacked me, so I'm planning to finish them off straight after French, and more than likely Danes will meet the same destiny and provide me with an excellent Castle in Hamburg.

What's your usual location of castles when playing as England? I planning to leave Touluse and Bordeux in the south, Hamburg in the north, and Nottingam as the place to train my future generals. What are your ideas about that?

[The Noble Lord]

Always leave Caen as a castle, its the oldest castle and it will develop most quickly. Plus, it is in your rear and it will not be attacked often which means that your unit production will not be disrupted.

[Desperado_101]

Always leave Caen as a castle, its the oldest castle and it will develop most quickly. Plus, it is in your rear and it will not be attacked often which means that your unit production will not be disrupted.

Absolutely. Caen stayed as the castle for the same reason, the other thing which affects converting greatly is the cost and the time spent as on convertion itself as well as for the other buildings construction. So I decided the Caen, Bordeux, Touluse and Nottingham just for now. By the way France's gone now. Army's going to Oslo through the entire Danes empire, for some strange reason I couldn't find any of the Merc Koggs on the way to be transported directly. Looks like Danes have sucked full the Mercs Pool for their Crusading Army