Quiz Time on allocation and use of force

[Viking Prince]

QUIZ TIME!

I have been fiddling with the short campaigns for the Italian factions. I thought that this little quiz might be a fun way to see how people approach the same set of issues at the start of a campaign. The quiz will not be graded, but complete but brief answers are appreciated.

THE FACTS:

Florence - rebel held town with the following garrison units:
2 Italian militia, Italian spear militia, and a peasant crossbowmen
In the event of a siege, this settlement can hold out for 4 turns.

Ajaccio – rebel held island Motte and Bailey with the following garrison units:
a sergeant spearmen, a peasant, and 2 peasant archers
In the event of a siege, this settlement can hold out for 3 turns.

Dijon – rebel held town with the following garrison units:
a mailed knight, a town militia, and a peasant archer
In the event of a siege, this settlement can hold out for 4 turns.

Bern – rebel held castle with the following garrison units:
2 mailed knights, 4 sergeant spearmen, and 2 crossbow militia (some units with experience)
In the event of a siege, this settlement can hold out for 8 turns.

Resources directly available:

Milan – Duke Giorgio with mailed knights, 2 spear militias, and a peasant archer
Genoa – Count Bernardo with spear militia, and a peasant archer
Milan region – Cristoforo Rossi, family member with 2 spear militias, and a peasant archer
2 fleets of 2 galley each near Genoa

A spy in the Genoa region
A Cardinal and a merchant are also in the Milan region

Resources recruitable on the mainland: 2 mercenary crossbowmen and 2 mercenary spearmen
In the cities: Italian militia (2 per city)

THE QUESTIONS (Short answer):

1) Starting on turn one, what allocation of force would you use to take Florence and Ajaccio? No other missions are planned.
2) Would you assault or wait out for the enemy to sally at the Milanese attacking force? Does cost of upkeep affect your decision?
3) Will you concern yourself primarily with lost lives, time taken on mission, or cost in florins? Why?
4) Will you occupy, sack, or exterminate?

The Duke has decided to include Dijon in the initial attack missions. Let’s see how this changes your decisions.


5) Starting on turn one, what allocation of force would you use to take Dijon, Florence and Ajaccio? No other missions are planned.
6) Would you assault or wait out for the enemy to sally at the Milanese attacking force? Does cost of upkeep affect your decision?
7) Will you concern yourself primarily with lost lives, time taken on mission, or cost in florins? Why?
8) Will you occupy, sack, or exterminate?

[Conquistatore]

1 and 2 and3) Take Christoforo and his army to march on Florence. Lay siege and wait for them to sally. Take also Bernardo with his unit of archers and take the two units of Spearmen from the Milan garrison. Join them up and lay siege to Ajaccio. Decisions are based on number of men and avoiding casualties in attempting to storm the town and castle. Upkeep is not an issue.

4) Will most likely sack the town to gain a nice boost to cash, if the money received would be less than 1k then I would occupy. with Ajaccio, I would occupy, castles aren't rich settlements so you gain next to nothing from sacking them. Occupy to keep the population as high as possible and growing.

5) Now that Dijon is included in the attack plans, I would recruit an all mercenary army so as not to take forces from the other attacking armies. I would recruit a unit of xbowmen and 2 units of merc spearmen to attack Dijon.

6) I would actually assault Dijon as it turns out be quite a valuable territory. It has a weak garrison and weak archers on the walls so not many casualties should be sustained, if the siege goes well. Basically I would try and keep my xbowmen in reserve to serve as garrison troops but if they were needed I would bring them in and help with the siege.

7) As stated in 6, primary concern is lost lives and possible income to be received. Also the fact that taking Dijon keeps it out of France's hands which will be good for later on when I take on France.

8) A wealthy and properous town like Dijon means I would occupy. It has a massive pop growth bonus from farming and trade so it can develop into an advanced city quickly and early if you don't sack or exterminate. Plus I would be sacking Florence to supplement my merc hiring costs.

I like your idea here VP
Tell me, how did I do?

[Nazgûl Killer]

1) To Florence I'd send an army a bit bigger than that... A general (or two), 2 - 3 spearmen units and 2 - 3 archer units, to Ajaccio, about the same thing.
2) I'd assault Florence and wait on Ajaccio, as Florence is a bigger source of trade and economics, thus having it much earlier breeds more money, and Ajaccio isn't, and will probably be harder, so I'd rather wait it out and let them come out and meet me. Upkeep does come into consideration... But not too much.
3) Cost. Time I have a plenty this early in the game, and usually starting economy is riggidy and slow, so money would come into greater consideration.
4) Sack both of them. Being the start of the game, I have plenty of time to make the citizens happy and I need the population, however, occupying isn't an option, and the money is good.

5) In this case, I'd send a rather small force (Equivlant power to the one in the garisson, or a unit less) to Dijon to keep it sieged and after taking both other settlements, send my available units to Dijon and take it.
6) It depends on the time it takes the rest of my army to reach, if it takes too long, I'll wait it out, if it is early, assault. No cost consideration yet.
7) Time spent and lives lost, as cost has already been taken care of by sacking (Next question), I need my army to populate all my captured areas and build up the economy, and the more I linger there is less chance I'll be ready for a Venician assault.
8) Sack. Money will be greatly needed.

[General Nuisance esq]

Well personally Florence and Bern would be my first choices,
Florence because its in Italy, makes good money and you don't want somebody else getting it
Bern because you definatly don't want the HRE getting it and because you can make them sally easily (all you need is 1 general, 3 spears, 2 archers and if you run for the hills when they sally then you can pick off the cav first then their archers and then archer their infrantry) but I digress

With all enemy territory my first consideration is always stopping anybody else from getting it, therefore Ajaccio goes to the bottom of the priorities, also Ajaccio is a mote and bailey castle which means that I am in no financial rush, unlike Florence and Dijon)

For Florence I would use the Genoa army, I would leave 1 spear in Genoa send the spy into florence (if odds OK) and recruit 1 merc crossbowman and 2 mercenary spearmen giving me a general, 3 infrantry 2 archers to attack at the first opportunity (I would want minimum 2 rams and if he has walls that soldiers can stand on then 2 ladders)

Upon taking Florence I would occupy and build as there is no reason to do anything else , population is controlable, religion is same, exterminating might give me a short term cash injection but long term it would be a financial mistake as it takes too long to re-grow
Ajaccio would be attacked with Florence army

For Dijon I would use the biggest army I could spare from Milan as this will form the basis of a northern France invasion force and Dijon will not produce good troops for some time as I will be concerned with reducing religious problems
With Dijon its too small an army in Dijon to be able to guarantee a sally on my terms so I siege and attack with overwhelming force ASAP
Upon taking it I occupy for the same reasons as Florence

As with all attacks on a town my priorities are
1) ai doesn't burn my siege equipment (hence 2 rams etc)
2) minimum casualties when attacking so take a mixed army including archers and use the right unit for the right opponant
3) what will get me the town the quickest, weak army to force sally vs strong army to get enough siege equipment in 1 turn - If I was playing as a weak faction (EG Byzantium) I might have to wait out the siege but Milan is strong enough to attack at the first opportunity

Basically more towns = more money so the quicker I can get them the better