Sherman's March/Scortched Earth Tactics?

[Akvod]

How well does this work? I'm only going by what I learned in US History in Middle School, but the basic concept is to just go deep into enemy territory, and destroy everything right?

Why I want to do this is that I'm playing on VH/VH as Portugal, and after taking out the Spanish in a blitzkerg in the first 3-4 rounds, everyone hates me now. I'm in war against France (expected it anyway), Milan, Sicily, Moors (they have one province deep into the Saharas. I'm going to go there for the gold and trade anyway. Once I do that I'll have the necessary means to conduct my raids), and England. The Pope hates me, but I haven't given him a chance to excommunicate me. So pretty much I'm in pretty deep political , and currently on the defensive.

I want to conduct raids against France because I don't want to conquer it. I have a perfect defensive position at the Iberian peninsula, and I really don't want to wind up fighting the full force of Milan and France, and the horrible scenario of Germany and Denmark ganging up on me.

I'll rather just quickly conquer France's cities and castles, sack it, destroy everything, and let it rebel independently (This is my question. Will they rebel to France and give it an elite army?).

Doing so will give me cash to conquer the British isles, and stop the French from conducting their pesky raids against me for a good while. I'm just wondering if I'm being too naive with this plan.

The best case scenario will be for me to wait for a crusade to occur so that I can not worry about excommunication (my neighbors are at war with me anyway, and as long as there is/was a crusade, I won't have to worry about Poland or Hungary crusading against me).

[John Doe]

When city/castle rebel, they become independent and passive, so you won't have to worry, France will have to fight to get them back. But I'm not sure it's the best strategy since you'll need ownership of those provinces later on, and it's going to cost $$$ and time to rebuild everything. It's best to do this scortched earth strategy on far away land, as portugal it would be on the middle east/turkey during a crusade.

Going to the UK, you have a great defensive castle line Toulouse-Bordeaux-Angers-Caen, quite easy to defend and sacking money should be enough for you to take over England-Scotland. France will be too weak to counter attack effectively, and will act as a buffer with other factions.

[Akvod]

Right now, I'm barely surviving from the land attacks from France, and the combined naval landings from England, Sicily, and Milan. As much as you're right in that it'll be a pain to rebuild everything in the future, I don't see myself conquering France for the longterm in the next few turns.

I've finally conquered the Moors who hid in the Saharas (now there's a huge stack of rebels though), and I'm eagerly awaiting the cash influx that the mines and resources will give me. Once I'm able to push back the current wave of enemies, I'm planning to take my only one fleet (the naval assaults are the biggest pain in the ass, as it's just crippling my economy, and I can't take on 3-4 navies, especially with the little money I have), and raid the coasts of France (and if possible, all the British providences on the mainland). Once I get money from there, I'll build a second fleet of ships, an army, and move to conquer the British isles.

I'm not sure how to deal with Italy though, as in my early experiences on Normal, I found it to be a bad idea to invade Milan's territory on Italy, as it ends up being a long, grinding, and unprofitable war.

I'll like to get rid of Sicily at least...

I'll post images of my situation. I'm really enjoying my first campaign on VH/VH though =D It's so fun to be constantly be creating forts, risking so much, and managing to live through another turn.

[RootsKW]

Doing that will only make everyone hate you even more.

[Akvod]

I pretty much have abysmal relationships with everyone, including far away countries like Russia or Poland. I really underestimated how sensative politics was in VH, but I didn't expect to be hated so much for simply destroying a faction very early on in the game (Just stacked nearly all my troops, waited for Spain to try to conquer the rebel provinces, 1 turn siege, next turn conquer both provinces at the same time). I went to war with the Moors afterwards, but I never exterminated, only sacked.

Oh well, it's all part of the learning process I guess... although I think eliminating Spain was the best move IMHO.

[blake_synel]

I don't blame you for taking out Spain right away. I was recently on a VH/VH Portugal campaign myself and decided to skip Spain. I destroyed the Moors in Spain and took Marrakesh. I took Valencia, Zaragoza, etc. When France declared war on me I moved north and took some of their southern regions as well, but the Spanish are just sitting in Iberia with two provinces...It's unnerving, but I don't want to threaten my stable Alliance with them (Outstanding..).

If I could make a recommendation for you, just hunker down in Iberia and consolidate your power by trying to funnel any land forces to your strongholds (Pamplona & Granada I'd assume). While you're losing on the ocean, you can build up your financial stability through land means (farms, markets, etc). When you finally stabalize the situation you'll be all the stronger for it.

Then have at your revenge =P

[Sextus Molestus]

Umm, I'm pretty sure you have to hold settlements for a few turns (3 I've heard, but this is pure hearsay) to make it go to the Rebel faction if it revolts. If you let it revolt immediately, there is a chance it will return to the faction that you took it from (in this case France). I'd wait for some confirmation on this before proceeding if you haven't already.