A veteren n00b

[omidoow]

Yeah, i've been playing R:TW for 2 years. Never won a campaign or even got further then 50 turns. Now it's the same thing with this game so i've gotta ask some i guess :p

1. How to make more money? I seem to be having problem with this since i can only support 1 full stack even when i got 5-6 cities. How do merchants work anyway? Never used them

2. What's the deal with princesses? How do i make them turn in diplomats?

3. Is the Crown of Aragon the future Netherlands or something? If not what is the faction that eventually becomes the Dutch later?

4. How to not completely fail at besieging a settlement? I always auto-resolve when attacking a city. I'm the worst guy for sieges. I lose waay too many troops trying to take over the walls.

Yeah, all the standard questions i think. Somehow after 50 turns i seem to get attacked from more then 2 fronts at the same time. I can't fight such wars with just 1 stack of weak troops.

[Stolet]

1. Build structures that produce money right away. When you start the campaign, queue up farmlands, roads, markets, ports, mines in your cities. Use free upkeep units for garison to save money for armies. Don't go berserk from the beginning with building up high-upkeep armies.

2. When you click on a princess, and then on some faction's character/settlement, in the lower left corner of the scroll you'll see a button that say smthn like "engage diplomacy", click that and you have the normal diplomatic scroll as if the princess was a diplomat. In addition to the normal diplomat options, you have the marriage proposals, if the faction in question has an unmarried heir and/or faction leader, so your princess can marry him, thus establishing an alliance between you and then faction in question. Princesses can also "steal" enemy generals by marrying them if they're unmarried, it's like a assassin mission, it has a certain percentage that you should check. If the princess succeeds you get that general and can use him for commanding your armies.

3. Think it's a regular Spanish faction. The Dutch lands are pretty much rebel in M2TW.

4. One way is to wait until the enemy sallies forth when they run out of supplies. This is useful in early game, since the enemy can sit in the town just 3-4 turns, when that expires they have to come out to fight, or just surrender. This way you fight an open field battle and have a chance of victory with much less loses on your side.

Btw, never autoresolve anything, you'll lose battles you could have won, and you'll never get great (or even heroic) victories that you could have won if you played the battle yourself.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Welcome omidoow... This should get you started and answer a few of your questions...

WELCOME TO STAINLESS STEEL: GENERAL INFORMATION GUIDE. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=357303

Stainless Steel Standards: Campaign Bible {strategy guide}
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=329518

Stainless Steel Strategy Guides http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=333269

[omidoow]

Thx, i'm gonna go try now.

[omidoow]

So as the English now i've made a lot of buildings for economy. I wanted to attack Caernarvon but the Irish got there first. They failed and lost their army! I had Ireland undefended ready to get attacked so i did. Now the pope is angry with me because i didn't cease hostilities. How bad is that? It seems to make no difference, nobody has declared was upon me, atleast not yet.

[carth]

how can you think that the Crown of Aragon will become the dutch?
the dutch were to separated in their own affairs and to small to become a real power compared to their neighbours. in the late era they are a part of The Holy Roman Empire.

[omidoow]

^Weren't the Dutch in a big war against Spain? Anyway so at this time period the Dutch existed but where just... not included in the mod?

Anyway, anybody know the answer to my last question?

[JorisofHolland]

^Weren't the Dutch in a big war against Spain? Anyway so at this time period the Dutch existed but where just... not included in the mod?

That war (the 80 years war) was fought sometime during the 17th century, I think. That explains why there are no Dutch in SS.

Anyway, anybody know the answer to my last question?

I'm have no idea how I win siege battles (I prefer starving), so I can't be really usefull.

[bɑne]

Its not possible to represent every faction - even if the existed at the time. Hardcoded game limits.

[sbroadbent]

1. How to make more money? I seem to be having problem with this since i can only support 1 full stack even when i got 5-6 cities. How do merchants work anyway? Never used them

Ports, Roads, Markets, Sea Trade buildings and Mines. Focus on the buildings that will generate the most income. Although the game doesn't always predict how much income a building will generate in the future, you can check to see how much the game estimates.

Unless you are at war on all sides, only retain your best castles (the exact number will depend on how far apart your settlements are and how many enemies you have) for troop production and convert the rest. Make sure that you destroy any buildings that won't transfer over to recoup some of the money. Stables and Bowyer facilities among a few others. The Garrison buildings will turn into the Town Watch series.

4. How to not completely fail at besieging a settlement? I always auto-resolve when attacking a city. I'm the worst guy for sieges. I lose waay too many troops trying to take over the walls.

The most important thing to know about assaulting a settlement is to avoid protracted battles on the walls. Wall defenders get big combat bonuses. Try to get through the walls (bring down a section of walls with catapults/trebuchets) or bring rams to each gate, unless you have superior troops and they have low quality troops in which case you can quickly break their morale.

Alternatively train up spies and send in as many as you can. They will cumulatively add to a chance to open the gates and allow your army to rush in without having to take the walls. In such a case, I have my main infantry rush the gates from one side, while several cavalry groups sweep around and enter in from an undefended side. Once you're in, the enemy will most likely flee to the central square.

Lastly, you can draw out a castle/city garrison to the field, rather than fighting a siege if they have a stack of units camped outside the gates. Attack the field army which will in most cases the garrison will join the battle. Destroy the field army and garrison (don't let them retreat if possible). If done successfully, the settlement will be undefended and you can walk right in. Sometimes it is safe to release/ransom the enemy troops you capture and they'll be forced to flee be released far away, but in most cases I've seen, they'll be returned to the city, so you'll have to siege once again, which means if you utilize this strategy you'll need to execute those prisoners to be safe.

Yeah, all the standard questions i think. Somehow after 50 turns i seem to get attacked from more then 2 fronts at the same time. I can't fight such wars with just 1 stack of weak troops.

Play on VH/VH and you'll only need to wait 15-20 turns before you get attacked from all sides

[Sebastos Abdes Pantera]

I wouldn't be to worried about getting excommunicated with the English. His influence isn't too strong in the isles. Also convert castles into towns that you don't need, e.g conquer Inverness as the English, who needs a caslte up there? Convert it, reap the benefits.

[Ichon]

The most important thing to know about assaulting a settlement is to avoid protracted battles on the walls. Wall defenders get big combat bonuses. Try to get through the walls (bring down a section of walls with catapults/trebuchets) or bring rams to each gate, unless you have superior troops and they have low quality troops in which case you can quickly break their morale.

Alternatively train up spies and send in as many as you can. They will cumulatively add to a chance to open the gates and allow your army to rush in without having to take the walls. In such a case, I have my main infantry rush the gates from one side, while several cavalry groups sweep around and enter in from an undefended side. Once you're in, the enemy will most likely flee to the central square.

Lastly, you can draw out a castle/city garrison to the field, rather than fighting a siege if they have a stack of units camped outside the gates. Attack the field army which will in most cases the garrison will join the battle. Destroy the field army and garrison (don't let them retreat if possible). If done successfully, the settlement will be undefended and you can walk right in. Sometimes it is safe to release/ransom the enemy troops you capture and they'll be forced to flee be released far away, but in most cases I've seen, they'll be returned to the city, so you'll have to siege once again, which means if you utilize this strategy you'll need to execute those prisoners to be safe.

Using spies is the easiest way to win a siege battle vs an equal sized army. Wait with 1/2 your army in front main gate, then send other half -1 cavalry thru side gate. The single cavalry races into the central square once the 1/2 army at side gate enters the unguarded side. If you time it right and depending on how many generals the AI has- every BAI I've seen likes to stack generals in the central square- your cavalry entering square will send all the units flying back. Your units that entered thru unguarded gate then have a chance to block majority of enemy units from reaching central square where they would fight to the death and cause you more losses. The AI will usually leave 1 unit or 0 units to face your other 1/2 army outside front gate and you can quickly enter there and either move to help your other men or split depending on the city layout and enter central square from a 3rd side.

Pretty much every battle plan I use is some variation on that. If enemy has many archers etc... then troops with shields or cavalry charge those first because it can get messy if they retreat into central square and hide behind a shield wall. Capturing fortress in siege is more casualties usually but it depends on the layout. Just remember that as much as the small streets and tight spaces hinder you, they also block AI so if you are patient you can move around the AI and trap them before they retreat to central square.

Fighting on the walls as attacker is usually not a good idea but if the enemy doesn't have many archers or it is a fortress and only 1 gate then that can still be best way inside. The problem with with assaulting heavily defended single gate is the burning oil which is poured onto your troops. If you can draw AI away from the gate somehow- like capturing walls and then sneaking a cheap militia unit around to the central square- then it is easier.

[omidoow]

So here's what happened after only 15 turns:


I think this one should be easy, right? Just wait untill the irish launch an attack and kill them.

And here's my situation with Scotland:


3 stacks vs 2 stacks in cities. I also got a mission to take over Caernarvon in 13 turns now. I've got nothing to spare to send t Caernarvon. Plus, i'm still wondering how the hell i'm going to defend from those 3 scary-looking stacks. I was thinking maybe get the stacks from York and Nottingham to attack the one in my lands now. Get as few losses as possible and then retrain my men to get ready for the remaining scottish stacks. Anybody know what i should do?


Btw what is Hotseat?

[Tyrenia]

Hotseat is a campaign mode, whereby you can play multiple factions, allowing you to play with some chums, or if you're desperate, control multiple factions.

That said, I think I can see why you find it so difficult to get a lot of money... your garrison stacks are massive! I usually have only between 6-10 units per city, and some would say that that is too many. With the advantage of walls, you can usually beat an enemy army of up to triple the size.*

The big question is though, are you actually at war with Scotland? If yes, then I would pull possibly half of the Nottingham garrison out, and move them to blitz the Scotish cities (fill them with spies or carry siege equipment so you can attack 1st turn), because from the screenies, it appears the Scots have little in the way of garrisons because of those stacks. If you can eliminate the faction in a couple of turns, the stacks will become rebel, and can be dealt with at your leisure.

*provided those walls are stone. Wooden walls are a loat of crap, so keep the York stack intact.

[omidoow]

Not at war with them. So anyway i can take half the stack from Nottingham and move it to Caernarvon then? Great. I need that settlement for money. Oh and hotseat sounds amazing. I'll do it with a friend.

[Tyrenia]

How much are the council offering you for Caenarvon? Because if it's less than about 5000, you'd be better off going for Scotland's jugular before they become a pain. Not only will you get more money (sack Inverness, you don't need a castle up there), but Ireland will become much more manageable. That said, once the Isles are yours, you can afford to turtle and build your economy, the first step would be disbanding most of your army. Your upkeep is likely quite large, and as I said earlier, you don't need most of them (unless you want to invade France, as all good English players should ).

[Ichon]

How much are the council offering you for Caenarvon? Because if it's less than about 5000, you'd be better off going for Scotland's jugular before they become a pain.

??? Does council offer varying amounts? I only ever get 1,000 for capturing a city or most often some units in capitol. Never gotten 5,000. Does it depend on difficulty level or just random?

[JorisofHolland]

Not at war with them. So anyway i can take half the stack from Nottingham and move it to Caernarvon then? Great. I need that settlement for money.

As long as you keep an eye on the Scottish (and York fully garrisoned) it's save.

Oh and hotseat sounds amazing. I'll do it with a friend.

That's the idea of Hotseat, actually.

[omidoow]

Just noticed that the Scottish have another half a stack up north. So can't go attacking their cities either. My spy went to one of their armies and it's full of gay troops. When they attack York or Nottingham they better attack with all they got lol.

[Sebastos Abdes Pantera]

Send a spy to check the quality of the stacks. Im guessing most of them will be militia apart from Wallaces stack. That is Wallaces stack isn't it? Also English early roster will usually beat Scottish one. Use the stack in Nottingham to attack them at York. Perhaps send some ships to blocade Edinburgh?