6.1 Lithuania campaign after 100 turns

[The Grand Duke Me]

Hi, i am playing SS 6.1 (withuot real recruitment) hard/hard Lithuania campaign. About 100 turns have gone so far. It's 1236. I eliminated Novgorod and Kievan Rus and created empire from Iasi in the west to Murom and Caspian sea in the west, but still my ecomony is poor and i can hold only a bit more than two full stacks at the war front. Few turns ago teutons arrived near my western borders with two full stacks and i gifted them Hrodna and prevented myself from two-fronted war which allowned to succesfully finish the conquest of Kievan Rus in the east. I am alied with pope, Poland, Denmark and Cumans. I am constantly sending gifts of 400-500 florins to Poland and pope to keep my western bordern border safe. Now i am going to piAfter that, my target will be cumans. I am also worrying if destruction of teutons can destroy my alliance with pope. Any advices about possibilities to expand my empire and to build uo economy faster?

[Henry707]

Grand Duke, you must look after your finances. Check the units you are using - are any of them really over-priced - look at the horsies. You need to get good bang for buck with your units.

You need some good ports to develop - trade & roads need to be fixed up if not already.

My advice is a full review of your cost base - sweep those garrison towns & reduce to the minimum. To conduct a realistic campaign, you need the right cost base. In my experience, this means being ruthless & cutting down those forces. Take the figure that you are currently spending on military forces, say 15,000 per annum, then target a reduction on this to say 10,000 - it means being really hard & stripping out any units not needed but you need to build a reserve for campaigning.

Personally, I'd say be careful of the Pope - it may not guarantee any borders. Also, good to keep Poland sweet - you don't want to get pulled into a big war there as it will suck you into Europe proper...

Good luck with your budget slashing...

Henri

[cedric37]

To build up economy (other than wise advices from Henri707), you should not expand to the East (poor economy) but to the West (Denmark, Poland, Germany... England ?) or South (Poland, Hungary, Greece ?). The eastern lands are a pain to conquer and for little return, although it is much fun to get a so vast Empire
So if you want money, forget Cumans. I you have to backstab an ally, better do it with Poland and Denmark. Then go for Hungary. And later Germany...

I have played Lithuania SS6.1 H/H too some times ago and my game had a really different turn, i moved my all Great Duchy from Lithunia to England and West of Europe. London alone gave me 9K/turn of cash and i was rich and powerfull. Well not something i would recomend, unless you like it.

[JorisofHolland]

created empire from Iasi in the west to Murom and Caspian sea in the west

Anyway, don't go further east. Try to monopolize the Baltic trade. If not possible, go for the Black Sea trade. This gives the nice option to expand into the Mediteranean area. Italy is very rich, but the Greek lands are also worth taking. Especially Constantinople.

As said before, use as much free-upkeep troops as possible for your garissons. In the middle of your empire you don't need elite to keep public order high enough. A few militia will do. Although most units are well worth the money, there are a few exceptions. If the difference in stats between two units is very low, use the cheaper one. I once played a campaign I had started years ago (when I was still a noob) and I could reduce army upkeep with almost 7,5 K from 18 K.

[The Grand Duke Me]

I doubt if it's worth to go to the Baltic, because i would face catholic factions and if that means crusade then game over. My primary plan is to conquer all non-catholic factions and then go to the west

[Caesar Clivus]

I doubt if it's worth to go to the Baltic, because i would face catholic factions and if that means crusade then game over. My primary plan is to conquer all non-catholic factions and then go to the west

The Baltic = $$$$ though

[JorisofHolland]

And a crusade can be defeated. I did so with one stack. (and a few others on the route to Vilnius). Most of my armies were laid in ambush. When those stupid, ignorant crusaders took a shorcut through the woods I utterly crushed them, one by one. For every crusader army (about 1000 men) I lost only 200 men (and that's when I made mistakes and they had hired many, many crusader mercenaries). I won the crusade and killed the Pope later on, as revenge for the many warriors that had died in the fighting.

[Delvecchio1975]

do the Lithuanians get decent units later on in the game? or are they like cumans and byzantines: strong early on, lagging later?

[cedric37]

They get strong units, don't worry, mounted / dismounted noble sons, regular infantry / cav / spear, chosen of Giltine, Dievas guard.... really nothing to be ashamed

[The Grand Duke Me]

Talking about lithuanian units, i never seen weaker units than lithuanian spearmen and infantry in the begining of the game, once i had ~2400 of them and lost to 1200 teutons. they lost only 200 men, i lost all army

[cedric37]

So true, you must be very carefull at start, because most of your units are really crappy.
Only when you get lethonian xbow & noble sons you start to recover. After with ruthenian archers & noble son infantry / regular units / giltine chosen, you really can dominate the battlefield.

[davethelucky]

I'm playing the early campaign with Lithuania and since the major goal is to smash the Teutonic Order - I'm waiting for them... Do they appear later on in the game (as it would be historicaly correct) or is there some kind of bug?

[CamilleBonparte]

Tuetonic appear later in the early campaign, and are a starting faction in the late campaign. I'm sure a search of this forum could give you more info.

[davethelucky]

Tuetonic appear later in the early campaign, and are a starting faction in the late campaign. I'm sure a search of this forum could give you more info.

Sure I tried that.
One of the few things I found is a guide for Lithuania that doesn't even mention Teutons.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ithuania+guide