Viking Prince's Short Campaign Stategy Guide to Medieval II Total War: Portugal
Viking Prince’s
Short Campaign Faction Strategy Guide to Medieval II Total War:
Portugal
Version 1.0
Date 2.11.2009
By Viking Prince
With inspiration by Rebel6666 and his incredible threads such as The Great M2TW Informative Thread
Contribute to the next version and your name can be here!
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This is a guide to the short campaigns in Medieval II Total War (M2TW) as I would approach the campaigns. There are many ways to approach these campaigns and I would certainly suggest reading a bit from the other fine authors posting to this site.
My style of play will be a more or less chivalric campaign with religion used as an important facet of role playing. Occupation is the normal resolution to a successful conquest of a region. I use a more or less vanilla version of M2TW with the Retrofit Mod patched to 1.05. Regions are only acquired through conquest or as a resolution of a war. No purchasing or trading of regions with factions. I tend to take my time and a typical short campaign will last about 50 – 75 turns. This seems to be a good length of a campaign to have some fun and get the feel for the factions. Even though this is a guide to the short campaign, the play is with the thought of the faction thriving well beyond the end of the campaign and not meant as the quickest means to victory within the game simulation.
This is a follow up to Viking Prince’s Faction Strategy Guide for Newbies to Medieval II Total War: England. I would also modestly recommend a quick read of Viking Prince’s Strategic Guide for Newbies to Medieval II Total War.
Joe Friday’s Just the Facts Ma’am
Portugal is a small two region faction at the beginning of the campaign and cannot be played right out of the box. You will need to unlock factions by changing the code or by winning either a short or long campaign with an unlocked faction. I suggest you try out a short campaign.
The short campaign victory conditions are to hold 15 regions and eliminate Spain and the Moors as factions within the game. If you check out the short campaign victory conditions for the Moors and Spain, you will discover the three factions are tied together – make Iberia and northwestern Africa into a unified empire with only one of the three factions surviving. This guide is my suggestions on using the Portuguese to unify the region.
The initial position consists of:
Lisbon (capital, large town), and
Pamplona (wooden castle)
A Huge List of Problems
You appear to have a large army, but your peasant crossbows and militia spearmen are nearly worthless against the Moors who are starting with mobile Arab Light Cavalry and various missile units. Your initial army is expensive to maintain as a field army unless it is used since there are no free up keep units in castles and peasant archers and peasant crossbow are never free of upkeep. The strategic decision is to either use the military or demobilize the peasant units and militia that cannot be kept with free upkeep. I will cover more on this problem in a bit.
The Moors will nearly always out number your forces so you must use quality against quantity if you are to prevail. To counter the Moors you will need your aces in the hole – Jinettes as well as some Mailed Knights to counter mobility with mobility. Another plus is that you will be able to recruit Jinettes from both castles as well as from your larger population centers (city with stone walls needs 6,000 population or conversion of a fortress). You will find the Jinettes useful through out the game – even the long campaign. They can be upgraded with the second level armor also.
Examine your initial geographic position. You are a divided nation. To solve the problem and to complete the short campaign victory conditions will mean war against Spain. The universal strategy is to first take Toledo. Of course, the universal strategy will also mean complaints about inferior units, poor relations with the Pope and war with France when Portugal is weak and excommunicated. To tackle Spain quickly and to avoid the consequences of excommunication, Portugal needs to field two quality siege armies with catapults. Striking at both Leon and Toledo simultaneously and with the capability to immediately take both settlements by assault will remove the risks of excommunication.
Your economy needs regions as well as improvements within the starting position. Building up the tin mines within the Lisbon region is the only initial big help to your economy. Complete the usual land, road, markets, small churches, and town halls to improve communication, growth, and cash flow as you increase your settlement count. You have as nearby rebel held regions: Bordeaux, Zaragoza, and Valencia. Valencia is a great castle with a great garrison that includes Jinettes under the command of the great El Cid. Iberia is filled with castles, but like the Isles it only holds regions that border the sea. Conversion of castles into towns will go a great ways to improving an economy with trade.
So you are a divided nation, your military is less than desirable, the Pope and the French may hate you, the Spanish and the Moors will hate you, and you have nearly no economic base from which to correct the other problems. Should you pick another faction? No! Use your resources and develop a plan to unite Iberia under the reign of a greater Portugal.
Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way. - Daniele Vare
This is a short campaign and there is no reason to be at war with any factions other than Spain and the Moors before this portion of the victory conditions is met. A good diplomatic plan is to make no alliance agreements with these two factions. A good alliance structure is to become allied with France and, of course, the Papal States. Within the time constraints of the campaign this should be a doable coalition to crush your Iberian opponents and not bicker too much with France.
Your first challenge will be to get the alliance and trade agreements. King Henrique has neglected the administrative training of diplomats. You are able to train diplomats in Lisbon, but this is as far from the action that is possible. It will be necessary to let the French and the Spanish to approach you. Your princess is in position to tie up a trade agreement with the Moors, but unless you do not wish to marry the princess quickly, this may be the extent of her diplomatic career.
Your very first act of diplomacy does not involve a diplomat. Change your capital to Pamplona. This ensures any council rewards such as military units will arrive at your castle and not at the edge of the known universe in Lisbon.
Your princess may be able to tie a deal with the Moors before marriage but other deals may need to wait until a diplomat can cut the deal. The Spanish and the French are interested also and their diplomats will approach you in Pamplona and any captured rebel regions around Pamplona. Remember that diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way! Since the diplomat has approached you – do not scare the fool away since he may not return.
Try to get some tribute with every trade and alliance deal (except the Pope) since this will allow you to keep a constant building program going for the first turns as you get the economy in order. In most cases this is usually about 500fl for 3 turns for me. More can be had, but I like the other party to remain happy. Call the tribute a middleman cut by the family. The artificial intelligence (AI) may disrupt your perfect plans though, so be prepared to adapt to conditions on the ground.
You may find the alliance with France will not hold though. The Moors will be desperate to get a ceasefire with Portugal and may ally with France so that you are at peace by default. To continue with renewed hostilities will usually result in France choosing the Moors over Portugal. This need not mean war though. Pass 100fl per turn and hope for the best. If you are fortunate, you should be able to keep relations at least so-so until the inevitable war between England and France breaks out. France is never strong enough to take on war with Portugal and England at the same time, so this is you ticket to complete the short campaign. The French are also a reason to not entangle alliances with too many other factions. Keep the French happy.
The Pope Is and Will Remain Your Friend with Proper Care and Feeding
The key mission is with the Pope. For this you will need to recruit a diplomat in Lisbon and ship him by fleet to Rome. Waling takes too long and the fleet is available just for this mission. If you want an alliance, you need to be at peace. So do not start anything except with the rebels until this issue is tidy. Gift the “man in white” map information and florin tributes. You need him happy to call crusades and to avoid excommunication when fighting the Spanish. I try to feed the Pope a 100fl tribute to keep relations up. Build the churches and priests for the same reason. The Islamic Moorish held regions and the rebel held regions of Zaragoza and Valencia are close and are good places to send your priests to convert the people to the church and to build up their piety for the College of Cardinals. Do not neglect your own Lisbon region either.
Stage One – Seizing the Strategic Rebel Positions
The initial moves should be towards besieging Bordeaux, Zaragoza, and Valencia. The strategic idea is to deny Spain and the Moors the rebel held regions and to gain a decisive economic advantage on the Iberian Peninsula.
Bordeaux
General Johão and the army in Pamplona should march to the coast, use naval movement, and then besiege the rebel held castle at Bordeaux before France or Spain gets a chance to do so. Leave the peasant crossbow behind as a garrison for Pamplona. Time is money and general Johão is needed for other objectives.
Recruit a pair of mercenary spearmen as well to assault the castle as soon as possible. A ram and a couple of ladder groups should do the job.
You should convert Bordeaux to a town for the cash. The military units recruited in Pamplona along with militia spearmen form Zaragoza will be sufficient for the short campaign.
Do not retrain the torn up mercenary units until they are needed. They cost up keep and you will need to keep Spain and France honest, so do not demobilize them either. The torn up peasant archer, three militia spearmen and the two mercenary spearmen will do the trick. The good general Johão and the Jinette can return to Pamplona and prepare to take another force and face el Cid in Valencia.
This is a good time to comment on how Portugal can improve militia units. Two levels of defensive armor will give two upgrades to peasant and militia as well as one up grade to the valuable Jinettes. Bordeaux and Lisbon may be attacked and the additional defensive strength can mean the difference in both cases.
Zaragoza
The captain led field army in the Pamplona region should move and immediately besiege rebel held town of Zaragoza. If you are a new player, you should save the game before ending the turn. This is a great training exercise for you. This is a weak enough force to lure the rebels to sally out. The computer AI will believe that the units (two javelin men, a town militia, and a crossbow militia) appear to be strong enough to win the battle against Portugal’s units (militia spearmen, the peasant crossbow and the Jinette). The skillful use of Portugal’s Jinette will carry the day. It might be a heroic victory for Portugal. Do not expect a ‘Man of the Hour’ field promotion though. If this match up is uncertain for you, bring up the peasant crossbow from Pamplona and recruit a peasant for the garrison. You will now need to wait out the enemy for a field battle. The choice is yours.
Valencia
The rebel held wooden castle at Valencia can be besieged by joining recruited and retrained forces at Pamplona (3 Jinettes and a mailed knight) and the 3 garrison militia from Zaragoza plus General Johão from the Bordeaux campaign. This force should be enough to deal with el Cid and his forces (one bodyguard heavy cavalry, one mailed knight and 2 each of javelin men, spear militia, and Jinettes). Recruit replacements for garrison duty as you leave each settlement. Wait for the enemy to sally out or assault when you have sufficient weakened the defenses as your skills and style merit. It takes 7 turns and time is money. I wait out the siege if I have taken Zaragoza on turn 2 and Bordeaux on turn 3.
Stage Two – the Reconquista
With a completed stage one, you will now push the Moors out of Iberia by calling for a Crusade against Cordoba and also seizing the Moorish castle at Grenada. It is important to complete stage one, get the alliance with the Pope, etc. in the first turns of the campaign. If you wait too long, the Pope will call for a Crusade (probably on Cairo). Crusades can be your friend to destroy the Moors. If Spain has allied with the Moors, this is even better since Spain will then be reluctant to break the alliance and follow the Papal call for all Christians to do their religious duty.
At some point, better sooner than later, you will need to send a spy or priest to the Marrakesh region to watch for Moorish reinforcements and to also determine the garrison strength within Marrakesh itself. The straits at Gibraltar need to also be blocked with naval units to prevent such reinforcements from arriving to retake Cordoba.
Stage two completes the consolidation of the Iberian Peninsula under Catholic domination.
Stage Three – Uniting the Iberian Peninsula under the Rule of Portugal
With luck and good garrisons to keep Spain penned in, Portugal should be able to eliminate the Moors from the peninsula without also going to war with Spain. The Spanish will send a force past Bordeaux looking for easy pickings. Make certain Bordeaux is not the easy pickings and you should be fine.
With Cordoba and Grenada in the Portuguese sphere, the region count is now 7 to 2 in favor of Portugal over Spain.
The perfect campaign is to build siege catapults in Pamplona for two attack armies to strike at both Toledo and Leon simultaneously. I prefer to use Pamplona for my siege works, but Cordoba is fine also. No siege equipment bigger than catapults will be needed in the short campaign. Each army should consist of a good general, two catapults, two mailed knights, some Jinettes, and a few Almughavars. Fill out the army with militia spearmen with defensive upgrades. It is best if you have upgraded the militia armor two steps. These armies are the reason for the good economy. You will need to recruit and provide the upkeep for these men. In some cases, you may need to refit and make a second go at it if the Spanish was able to secure another settlement such as Rennes or Caen.
Iberian Missile Units and Heavy Infantry
A quick comment on missile soldiers as well as heavy infantry is needed. Unlike other European factions, the mounted spear chucking Jinettes are so good that you will not need and crossbows or archers for the short campaign. This is good, because you have none that are effective. If you want, you can recruit several mercenary crossbows, but these are not nearly as effective due to the skirmish mobility, the cavalry charge and the routed unit rundown ability of the Jinettes. Later, in long campaigns, you will also discover the great utility of being able to recruit and retrain Jinettes in the cities as well as castles.
There are no quick recruits of heavy infantry by the Portuguese either. The first levels of castle units are spear throwers and peasants. Rather than stop cavalry charges with heavy spear infantry and piercing armor in melee with sword and pike infantry, the Portuguese will need to rely on defensive upgraded militia spearmen and secondary weapons from the spear throwers to hold a front line and to assault the walls. Since Spain and the Moors are in the same situation for the most part, this is not an issue. The Moors do have several levels of castle based spearmen available, but they are desert warriors and lightly armored. No faction involved has good swords until later. The Mailed Knights, Jinettes, and Almughavars can deal with these lightly armored spearmen.
Siege Equipment and Walls
The idea is to siege and assault only if needed. Two catapults can put one hole in the outer walls. If you desire to do without the catapults, you may be able to mount an earlier campaign. I do not try to bum rush the towns at the expense of the rebel settlement expansion in stages one and two. You will read many a guide that does do the quick and dirty campaign which usually results in excommunication. I prefer to keep the Pope happy and never strike when the Papal rating for Spain is higher than Portugal. Waiting for your siege equipment is the key to the victory. Have patience. Punch holes in the walls and use rams on the gates. Let the Almughavers and Jinettes clear the way. Avoid attacking with ladders and siege towers as much as possible against large enemy garrisons, though the Almughavars will be up to the challenge if desired.
Stage Four – The African Campaign -- Finishing the Moors and holding 15 Settlements
The shift from the Moors to Spain has given Portugal time to call another Crusade. This time the target is Marrakesh. Another force needs to be deployed against Algiers of it is still held by the Moors. This should eliminate the Moors and faction elimination victory requirement for the short campaign is now complete.
There is now a need for the 15 settlement requirement to be met. You can have a bit of fun with this. On possibility is to take the Crusade army that took Marrakesh and drive to Timbuktu for the gold, slaves, and ivory resources at the south edge of the map.
Another possibility is to wait for Sicily to become excommunicated. This is nearly a 100% chance in my experience. Call for a Crusade on Palermo. Move your diplomat stationed at the Vatican south to be on the scene at Naples. With luck on the turn after taking Palermo, you will be able to et agreement with Sicily on vassalage. You will now add the 3-5 settlements to your total and generate an immediate victory to end your short campaign. What a way to end a campaign!
Epilogue
There you have it. The basic Portugal and Aragon split empire of the starting two regions, the three rebel regions of stage one, the two Moorish Iberian regions of stage two, the two Spanish regions of stage three, the two Moorish African regions, Timbuktu, and Sicily as a vassal to complete the empire. The empire is a consolidated Iberian Peninsula plus NW Africa. You control the Western Mediterranean Sea. Portugal is now poised to take on the rest of Europe in a longer campaign and perhaps eventually make the leap to the New World.
More factions are planned. Your comments are always welcome. If I update the guide and use your ideas, you will be given the credit! Until next time ---
Regards, Viking Prince
Originally Posted by Simon Cashmere
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