The Irish...

[Medieval American]

After playing with all the factions in the game I find that the Kingdom of Ireland is most difficult to have success with. The slowness and monotony of the early campagin makes it hard to keep my intrest in playing with this faction. Has anyone actually ever finished a long campagin with them, if so how? Did you go on the European mainland? Did you make a lot of money? What is the best route to making Ireland rich?

[Manoflooks]

Well, you have to go the mainland. You cant win otherwise. And yeah, you make a lot of money after you capture some places. After you have the isles, the world is your oyster.

[Vince Noir]

The Irish have some great units and a fantastic starting postition. With your back against the world map you can expand slowly into England maintaing one front. If your lucky you capture Carenavon or Rennes early to give you an early footing.The Hobigur is probably some of the best light calvary in the game with extraordinary pace and an attack thats enough to wipe the floor with England's Hobilars or Scotland's Border Horse. Later units such as the Muir and mounted Lord's Retinue also seem to be exceptional units.

Im not a fan of playing Ireland but if you want difficult try playing a Templars Campaign with Lusted's Templar mod and maybe a few other AI improvment mods. Obvioulsy its complete personal taste but there are far more boring factions.

However, those dodgy Scottish accents they have...

[Medieval American]

Okay, I'm starting to roll with the Irish. I have the whole of the Emerald Isle and a foothold in Wales. Do I attack England or Scotland who are currently netural with each other and upset the Pope? Do I wait, to strike one or the other? Should I hit France or a Baltic region? What provinces offer the most benfit as far as economic value? I currently generate around $1,000/turn maybe a bit less. Resources are low, and expectations high, what is the best move???

[reeke]

Allie with scotland and let england come to you. they WILL try and take the castle in wales. until then just build your economy.

[dj LiTh]

Generally while playing the irish, anyone who is enemies with england are your friends....so scottland/france ect you should try to make your allies while you wage war against he english, if you time it right you can join the fray once both those countries are already at war with england.

[Medieval American]

I've already allied with both Scotland and England. England has Northumbria and all the provinces to the South. Scotland just the opposite, to the North. The Pope has no bias toward Ireland, Scotland, or England. I'll wait for the Pope to choose between the two then take the South or the North depending on who The Pope chooses? Do I just go in a bash like a Viking out of the West? Or wait? $1,000/turn is there a better option as far as economy? I don't just have to attack a British faction... Whats the best for my money and effort? Stockholm (even though thats not what its called in SS) whos economic value was high in the original version of the game? Some random prvince in France or The Holy Roman Empire that has vast economic value due to tons of resources exploitable by merchants? Whats the answer?

[Lord de Lyonesse]

Okay, I'm starting to roll with the Irish. I have the whole of the Emerald Isle and a foothold in Wales. Do I attack England or Scotland who are currently netural with each other and upset the Pope? Do I wait, to strike one or the other? Should I hit France or a Baltic region? What provinces offer the most benfit as far as economic value? I currently generate around $1,000/turn maybe a bit less. Resources are low, and expectations high, what is the best move???

Lol if you study British History you would know it would be better to pit one against the other.. no offense but yeah i would side with the scottish and beat the english once you capture London you should be away.. also to beat the scots you should ally with denmark or norway (if you got them on the addon mod) i would like take over a scottish town say invness and hand it over to norway and then you both have vested interest in the isles...

For me personally, I think that Ireland should be taken out of the game and it's faction slot should be given to either Abassids or Bulgaria. Ireland as a faction doesn't really do anything, why they put it there I have no idea.

Aww that is a bit unfair.. yeah i know im english but it is playing as Irish and slashing up europe for a change.

[The Noble Lord]

Aww that is a bit unfair.. yeah i know im english but it is playing as Irish and slashing up europe for a change.

I tried playing as Irish and gave up very quickly. It just doesn't fit into the whole Geo-political set up of the M2TW.

[MTW2]

My ireland campaign on vh/vh
I attacked inverness on turn 3 (i think) by hiring a mercenary cog. managed to destroy scotland by turn 15. England were alot harder to beat but once i did i jus sat back for a while killed rebels built an army then went onto europe to get england remaining cities. Then it all got to easy and now i can build armies of muires and horseboys and take 3-4 cites a turn.

[jackmcauliffe]

However, those dodgy Scottish accents they have...

OH MY GOSH I KNOW! i hate them so much cause the M2TW team was too lazy to go out and find someone with a REAL accent not a super thick scotch one

[Dewy]

I'm started playing as Englang and the Irish army is a hell lot better then my army is and i have leather padding! and the english army is better then the scots. So i say attack what country is making the most, i bet its england. If you played your cards right, you should have lightmail by turn 30 and padded by turn 5 or 10, its what the AI has in my VH/VH. The irish has better units then the english early on and gets their elites early too, so take all of england and scotland and attack the french, your army will be better then their is

The hardest factions are the most fun in my books.

[Gorrrrrn]

irish - once you have a port and a ship try sailing down to Marrakesh with a family member and a decent army - plus priest and merchant - take the city, stick merchant on mines, convert population.

do the same for Fez etc. an alliance with portugal / leon-castile might come in handy - stops them attacking you!

as for england and scotland - see who's wininning and ally to them and grab what you can. They'll probably get ex-commed for attacking the other one at some stage, which is when you switch sides and grab some more.

[Medieval American]

The Scots finally attacked England last night but they haven't gone to an extreme to make The Pope excommunicate them. Attacking the Moores dose sound like an intresting move, and that right now seems like my only option because Scotland still has four crosses and England has double that with The Pope's favor.

[Belphegor]

Don't worry about the pope. In my Irish campaign, in which I expanded into Germany and Switzerland (before loosing the save), I got excommunicated several times while fighting the Irish. But if excommunication is your worry have several things in mind.

- If the pope is over 60 it's just a few turns until he goes sniffing flowers and the new one will reconcile you - it would take a long term of excommunication to really wreak havoc in your kingdom

- when voting for the pope, always keep in mind what faction the preferati are from and their relations to your enemy. If the popes faction is at war with your enemy, or have bad relations, he will not be a fan of your faction, giving you an advantage

- try bribing - the popes have a fondness for gold, and a few nice florens are just what you may need to turn the weights in your favour

- no excommunication can hurt you badly if you have a stable economy - build buildings that support law, health and public order - city halls, libraries, churches etc. and the effects of excommunication in your cities will be minimal.


As for expansion. I had the luck that England was already at war with the scots and was pushing them north. the Scots colonized Norway so they had a base. Once england struck at the north I took Exeter, Nottingham, Winchester and London, and pushed the english into Inverness, where I finished them off. That way I had most of the Isles - except for Aberdeen that was scotish.

Try to take as much of the south as you can - London and Nottingham are key settlements, take them and the war is almost as good as won. Ally with the Scots.

Once the english are paralized, you have several options - one is scandinavia - norway and from there to Rus
Second is france and mainland europe
Third - a big crussading force and try to mantain a kingdom in the Holy Land
Haven't tryed the Marakesh option, but sounds as a good one as well.

Good luck

[Slaists]

irish - once you have a port and a ship try sailing down to Marrakesh with a family member and a decent army - plus priest and merchant - take the city, stick merchant on mines, convert population.

do the same for Fez etc. an alliance with portugal / leon-castile might come in handy - stops them attacking you!

as for england and scotland - see who's wininning and ally to them and grab what you can. They'll probably get ex-commed for attacking the other one at some stage, which is when you switch sides and grab some more.

hmm. it seems that in SS 6.1, corruption for far-away lands is so huge that the economic benefits from adding such provinces to one's empire are miniscule... at least at the beginning (while other, closer options are available). in my english campaign, corruption in my scandinavian provinces was so big, that city income could barely outweigh garrison costs...

[Regsta]

Argh! I be Irish!

[Medieval American]

I'm Irish too... Scotch-Irish to be correct

[Caesar Clivus]

The irish accent in the game uses the exact same files as the scottish one...they just dont use any of the files that specifically mention scotland.

[Dewy]

lol, that is true Caesar, i thought that sounded the same. I like irish accents better its softer if you know what i mean