Best opening moves

[MADMAN066]

Hi all,

I was looking for a topic which involved all the best opening moves for factions. So far, I have yet to find such a topic. lol

So I was wondering if someone could point me towards one, I know there's the Great Guide of the century (something like that anyway ), but its diffucult to wade through the piles of, at the risk of sounding modest, "noob material".

If there is no such topic, could you feel free to post what you think are the best opening moves to a particular faction/s.

Thanka all.
PS, not sure if this is in the right forum.

[Loki_999]

Not sure about a general guide. I recall to M:TW1 there were some amazing guides, largely done by frogbeastegg and other knowledgeable persons that told you the best starts for many factions. I've seen some like this in this sub-forum. I suggest you use the search function.

Generally the best way to play on harder difficulties I think is to grab as many rebel settlements as early as possible and get as many trade rights as possible, while also developing your economy in your cities (ie: build economic buildings). Make lots of friends and choose your enemies carefully, soon enough somebody will attack you so you will want to be careful about starting any wars yourself. Also make sure you are friends with the Pope if you are playing as a catholic faction.

Playing on an easier difficulty then just go to war with whoever you want and do what you like ;-)

By the way, this is with vanilla, many mods change things.

[Stolet]

Also when besieging, you shouldn't use too much of your army for sieges. Depending on your experience, choose the size of the army you think would be sufficient to defeat the rebel army. Remember, you'll have some generals, Rebels often don't have those. And generals make up for multiple units. This way you might divide your initial army into 3, 4, 5, 6 little armies (depending on what faction you're playing) that can go for rebel settlements right away. This way you will get the advantage over the neighbouring factions, as they'll have fewer (if any) rebel settlements to capture.

[Romanichine]

This is the right forum.

If by "opening moves" you mean the exact moves such as "On turn 1 attack Bordeaux with captain Gaston" and "build a road in Marseilles", then no there's not a whole lot of these guides. I don't recall seeing one such on the TWC forums. Heavengames has a few of these opening guides.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2t...gn/index.shtml

The problem with this type of guides is that you can't predict the random things that will happen. Things like having one of your captains turn rebel, or an AI attack can change the whole picture. Still it can be beneficial to have a play-by-play, to give you a general idea of what could be accomplished if nothing unusual happens.

[Jiub]

Can`t be bothered to look for best opening moves, but they mainly consist of blitzing the map. Simply divide your forces efficiently so that you use no more than you need to take a province then move ASAP to conquer the next province until your kingdom reaches the shaped you want it to.

[Commander5xl]

Generally you wont find a step by step guide on these forums because we at TWC believe that everyone has their own style of play and its always more fun figuring it out yourself then following instructions. Now there are guides on here that tell you the advantages disadvantages, surrounding areas and possible senerious you could take.

[MADMAN066]

Thanks all, much appreciated

Thanks for all your interesting and useful insights and tips. (that sounds grammatically wrong.....don´t know why )
i was just interested in what other peoples exact strategies are in particular openning scenarios. BTW, thanks for the link romanichine, that makes for an interesting read.

[Turtle Hammer]

Well it varies faction to faction, but as the Moors I usually do the following.

Jihad against Leon, you can take Toledo enroute. Use a young General, Sultan Miswar dies. With these you gain a strong castle and have a "capital class" city that isn't your capital, so you can set taxes low in Corduba to grow it and still tax Leon mercilessly. My armies tend to be mostly spear militia and desert cavalry at this point. Bypassing rebels to take on Spain may seem odd, but it gets Spain out of the way, splits Portugal in two, and the rebel settlements often staythat way unless YOU take them for quite a while.

After this, your diplomat can go on an alliance getting spree, and you can take the rebel settlements. Portugal often fails to take Zaragoza in it's siege, so it's likely once you're done their only territories will be their starting ones. After this I consolidate in Spain and try to expand it and Marrakesh economicly, and until this point have merely turtled down in North Africa. As soon as is possible I send an army to Timbuktu and the territory west for the riches that lay there, leaving a garrison strong enough to fend off Sicily.

Your Imams should always be active, and assasins used often help towards getting the ever useful Hashashim guild.

At this point Portugal or Sicily are likely to have attacked, and that, rather than anything else usually dictates which of the two is next on my hitlist, but that's beyond mere opening moves and for another thread I'm sure.

[MADMAN066]

Thanks Turtle hammer (great name BTW), I´ll definatly try that as the Moors, whom i´ve been neglecting a bit.

[Stolet]

Also keep away from Tunis early on, a Crusade might be called against you. When you're powerful enough to fight all the Christians, then take it from the Sicilians.

[MADMAN066]

So the will allow me to take most of teh Iberian peninsula, but not a city in the middle of the Sahara desert? lol

[Stolet]

It seems Tunis is a sacred city for the Christians xD I really can't think of a reason why. It would seem a more logical target would be some of the Iberian Moorish cities that are "rightfully" Spanish, so the Christians could retake those lands. Toulouse is also a popular Crusade target. And of course Jerusalem, Antioch, Cairo, Baghdad (why??), Constantinople, Kiev, aaaand Vilnius in SS. There was a Crusade on Rome in one of my campaigns, I was the Moors muahaha The Crusade was a failure

[Turtle Hammer]

I think Tunis often comes under attack because it's in the Sicilian's "natural" expansion path. And it's a good springboard for attacking the central Mediterranean too.