My Campain Strats.

[Imperator5089]

I had a very succesful campaign playing as the United Provinces. They start with a city in India, giving a military outpost to further expand. I allied my self to the Mughal Empire and took all of southern india to myself, destroying mysore and the marathas. After which I had booming trade 20000+ per turn.

Anyway. My strategies will cover battle and campaing strats.

Lets start with campaign, since it is the most important part.

When you start a campaign it would be wise to downsise your armies to a minumum to 2 units per city to keep your army upkeep cost down.

Raise taxes in your territories to the point where the people will not rebel/riot and or have a population drop. This will allow you to filll your coffers.

Next thing, make alliances. You may not beable to do this at first so when u save up money, present a gift to a faction. I recomend china or a thoroughbread. After which make an alliance with them and try to establish trade with them for an affordable price. Dont be affraid to spend a little extra, as trade wil fill your coffers right back up in no time.

Build Schools and spawn gentleman. Put the gentleman into schools to speed up technology research. I recomend by first doing some basic military reseach. RING BAYONET, RANK FIRE, AND MILITARY SYLLABUS ARE A MUST. After which put all your research into industry and philosophy. Philosophy has its ups and downs. First off philosophy will bring riches to your coffers but at the same time it will upset the population and they will eventualy rebel in the name of reform and democracy.

If your population starts a rebellion like that and you have little to no military forces, I would side with the rebellion. Take you capital city and a monarchy will become a republic. This will bring much happiness to the people and your campaign will last longer.

After building good alliances, filling your coffers with atleast 50000+, constructing as many buildins as possible, and establishing good trade partners (atleast 5+ i recomend trading with Indians factions), it is time to go to war.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have decided to go to war, then it is time to build up your armed forces. Raises taxes to a tolerable point to help pay for an army. A good army will take 6000+ out of your income.

Recruit a general, it is not a must but a great asset to your military.

Next thing you want to do is recruit a good ammount of militia. Not too much though. I recomend enough militia to place 2 units in each town, city, and port/shipyard. This will protect from enemy raids on your territory.

My prefered set up for armies is very uniform.
It consists of:

- 5 Cavalry (including the general)
- 5 Artillery (Howitzers or 12 pound foot artilery are recommended)
- 10 Infantry (10 line infantry and or 7 line and 3 grenadiers)

With this set up you have a good ammount and balance in your ranks.

Be aware, your income will drop sharply when building an army, so you must move quickly and take more lands so you have support for an army.

Early on in you campaign i recommend attacking weak factions to make yourself stronger.

But when going to war do not target the weakest point in an enemies territory. Engage his strongest point. If you are able to crush his strong point then there will be nothing to defend the weak spots, making it easier for your army to conquer.

When you only fight when you know you can win, then you will always be succesful.

After taking an enemy city be sure to repare all buildings. BE SURE TO REPLENISH ALL YOUR UNITS.

After you have had a succesful war against your enemies, downsise all your armies. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. Downsising will greatly increase your income, allowing you to further rebuild and expand you cities.

In peace time create more alliances and trade partners to increase wealth. In peace time is the greatest time to increase your naval power.

Use these campaign strats and you will be succesful.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Switch]

Some nice pointers to bear in mind - thanks.

[A_Dying_Wren]

Sounds advice, however, shouldn't you always have at least half a stack of a standing army somewhere?

And if your campaign was successful, you'd have lots of experienced troops. You'd just disband them?

[MrOsterman]

Actually, more important than having a high tax base is to be sure that your population is growing and that the wealth of a region is also expanding. While you may get a few more hundred gold a turn early on with higher taxes, in the long run lower taxes builds more wealth in the region and over time will generate more tax revenue.

THe question is do you want the money now or more of it later?