Victory, Sons of Scotland!

[Muagan_ra]

After a long hiatus, I fired up another campaign, and went for something completely different: Scotland. I handed the English their asses on a plate, and reduced their territory to Normandy (Caen), and have been at peace ever since (as they're in no condition to fight). Soon the Danes started sniffing around London, and I fought them off in a first war, ending it by conquering Bruges - the French spared them my further wrath () by allying with me, and their mutual alliance meant an automatic ceasefire.

I married into the French, and so the next time they betrayed me, I retained French support. I completed my conquest of the low-countries by rolling ma' lads into Antwerp, which made me tremendously rich, and they soon came begging for peace again. There was a long period of peace, and while continential Europe was in chaos, I turtled, and turtled, until I was fabulously rich and very well developed - I also married into the Holy Roman Empire, and now we and the French have a three-way alliance. Inevitably, the loathsome Danes attack again, and I've just conquered their homeland (Arhus), and the sons of Scotland slaughtered several Danish armies around the low countries.

The Pope requested a ceasefire on-pain of Excommunication, and since it's been a while since the last Crusade I figured it was best to comply. I've been Excommunicated many times, which has been a fun experience since I'm normally on good terms with his Holiness (as I normally have non-Catholics to fight) - my relationship with him has been consistently confrontational, which has made for many intriguing plot twists (he even insisted on one of my Kings going on Crusade, which ended disastrously...) I roleplayed it, to be fair, reasoning that the fearsome, beer-swilling, blue-faced Celts don't bow the knee to some glorified Priestee.

Now, however, I find myself at a crossroads. I'm about to polish off the Danes, but after that, I don't really know where to turn.

I like to keep defensible borders, which can be protected by mobile armies - I'm not going further West on the continent than Hamburg, or futher south than Caen (which is on my to-do list). The Portugeese launched a cheeky assault on my Western seaboard, and I figure south-western Iberia might be a good, defensible conquest. Or, do you think rolling up the rest of Scandinavia would be rewarding?

I enjoy the Scottish army, but Pikemen are pretty nerfed. I'm going to tweek the unit files, to reduce that secondary attack, which should hopefully rectify the problem.

[Viking Prince]

Hmmm? Maybe a LTC Scotland campaign?

[ecclesian_knight]

whoo!

i respect you a lot man for honoring the "auld alliance" between france and scotland

way to go!

[Muagan_ra]

Celtic pride mate, Celtic pride

[Nazgûl Killer]

This campaign strongly resembles one of my funnest campaigns so far with Ireland in SS6.1... Anyways, what I suggest is wait for people to attack you before striking at them, if you are going for Potugal, take them down and sell those lands to either the Moors or the Spaniards (Or even the French), stir up some trouble while gaining some coin

[Muagan_ra]

I fully appreciate your advice, I tend to roleplay more diplomatic games, so yes I'm going to have to wait to see who attacks, and then decide.

Anyhow, had a few interesting turns of events. A new Pope was elected, from the HRE (a faithful ally of mine), and so for the first time I was on good terms with the Papacy, giving me some leverage. He interjected into my latest war with the Danes after I went south from Arhus and took Humburg from them (giving me that castle on the Mainland I desperately needed), and I decided to play for time, hoping the Danes break his command - and surely enough, they did. They where excommunicated, and then came my oppertunity.

I requested a Crusade to Stockholme, and he agreed - I sent my new Prince with a moderate force from Scotland, and fleshed it out with mercenaries, and he's advancing on the city. Meanwhile, I sent King Patrick down from Hamburg towards the last of their continental posessions, Frankfurt. They had alot of armies defending the city, about three times my number, and I had a succession of extraordinarilly brutal battles with all of these and went on to capture the city in a single turn!

Soon, the Vikings will at last pay for all the they put us through (both ingame, and historically ) and be scored ignaminiously from the book of history.

I love this game, in all it's barbarity!

I also finally got to Ally with the Papal states, a sure way to increase Papal pressure on anyone who is at war with me.

[Ninja Panda]

You could always assault Egypt, a la http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Scotsman/ (a tremendous read, by the way, definitely recommended)

Failing that, you could use your excursion into Scandinavia as a launching point for an attack on Russia. Fighting the Orthodox should keep the Pope off your back for any campaigns against other Catholic nations.

[anzacattack]

You could always assault Egypt, a la http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Scotsman/ (a tremendous read, by the way, definitely recommended)

Failing that, you could use your excursion into Scandinavia as a launching point for an attack on Russia. Fighting the Orthodox should keep the Pope off your back for any campaigns against other Catholic nations.

Dude. That read is bloody awesome.

What's more, is it's actually enhanced my gaming experience as well.

I'm only about half way through it at the moment but I'm loving every minute of it.
A++. Do recommend.

[xXRazedXx]

Round up scandinavia, then go for Iberia, keep to the edges. Go for the Moors and and take Caen afterwards then prepare a land-sea assult on Portugal and Spain, I took Moors, and Iberia in 8 turns last night with 3 Armies so go for Scandinavia, Moors, Caen, then Iberia. Then turtle some more

[The Dutch Devil]

I'd say that the best strategy for now would be to wipe out Portugal (after the war with Denmark has ended) keep to good relations with the rest of the owners of the Iberian peninsula. Use the lands you conquered in Iberia as a naval base/army buildup base. And then using your experienced armies to conquer the Holy Lands and slowly migrate France and HRE to your newly conquered lands in exchange for their cities in west Europe.
Hope this was of help.

[scougall9]

Take the holy lands with your glorious scootish highlanders! egyptions cant handle the hordes! bwhahaha

[Fearghus The Killer]

I play almost exclusively as Scotland (Vanilla, Kingdoms, and SS6.1). In Vanilla (which is strangely my favorite) my tactic in the long campaign is to either ally myself with the English or take them down (as you describe). If I ally myself with them, then I go after France. If I don't ally myself with them I go after France. I don't bother with an alliance with France because they seem to be the most apt to betray it, no matter what you do diplomatically.

I go for alliances usually with HRE, Papal States, Spain (sometimes) and those far away...Byzantines, Venice, Poland. Both Denmark and Portugal or predisposed to come after you, so I just wait for them to attack. I try to ally with HRE because they seem to end up with a huge military and are extremely aggressive if you get in a fight with them. Keep HRE (and France) from getting North Sea ports to keep your navy upkeep at a minimum. The Portuguese and Danes are bad enough.

I've read guides which suggest at the beginning taking Inverness first, which I find ludicrous. In Vanilla, go for York and Canaervon and Dublin. If not allied with the English, then take Nottingham and London. Switch your capital to London, join a crusade, and get a Knight's Templar there for badly needed cavalry on the continent. I don't use Scot's Pike Militia in Vanilla game (but they can peform awesomely in Kingdoms). Mercenary Crossbow militia with a mix of Highlanders, Nobles and Spearmen plus your general's bodyguard (and/or Templars) cuts up anything on the continent in the early game. France is easy. Portugal pathetic. Denmark and Milan can be tougher. I use lots of spies but try to keep assassins down as their heavy use destroys good rep. Too many assassins makes your diplomats nearly useless.

I try for a high chivalry ruling family but it's tough because at turn one Edward (the heir) is a dread general. Use his brother Edmund for all your early exploits, then park him in a large city, build churches and happiness centers, and hope in the course of the early game he becomes the heir and his progeny will take over the main line. It is always better for me to have high chivalry general on the battlefield with armor uprades and and high morale. I make my dread generals strong in cavalry.

My biggest problem as Scotland is getting bogged down in protracted wars with those whose territories I don't particularly covet, not enough generals of any quality for the number of cities and castles I take, and with getting my priests promoted to cardinals. The AI always seems to offer the Theologians Guild when I'm broke.

I've never tried the far north strategy of getting Stockholm, but have moved south out of Hamburg a few times, just to try something other than the mess of fighting France to destruction and all the other factions in a panic-frenzy as I expand hitting me from the east, south and southwest. Going after the Moors and Timbukto as a primary strategy helps the cardinal and money problems, but the problem factions in northwest Europe are the same.

I admit that the only time I win with Jerusalem and 45 regions is by abandoning good relations with the Pope and going after everybody. I've never completed the game as Scotland without having a zillion assassins and bad rep, but I keep trying.