1st Campaing withouth cheats

[DDemperor]

This is so stressful , I've played many times before with cheats of course and it was pretty easy on h/h

Anyways started my first one on h/h and doing good so far , playing as England , I've got Rennes and all the other rebel teriyories in uk . Took Scotland out.

My finance is okay , and I seem to have a stable economy. , but how do people get insane amount of money? My technology isn't that advanced but it's okay I think.
I
Are merchants really useful? One of mine is only generating 17 florins per turn.

Any ideas? I would like to expand into northern france but am not sure if my finances would allow it.
Oh an am playing retrofit mod 1.0 with the grand on units pack thing

I've looked over guides and they are pretty impressive!

So I guess my q's is how do you get an insane amount of money?

[FootSoldier]

Hmm ... the best way I saw recently was to make the Mongols your vassal. I think that was bringing in around 150,000 per turn.

Why "with cheats, of course"? :d

Basically, there are no insane amounts of money without cheats, which is why you have to manage your economy tightly. That's the game.

Run lean armies and make every unit work. Disband unneeded units. Take advantage of free upkeep slots instead of having armies standing around. Build economic buildings (especially ports and merchant wharves). etc. etc.

If you've been using money cheats you've probably got used to having as many armies as you want. In the game this isn't possible because armies are your major income drainer. So, you're constantly forced into strategic choices since you can't do everything at once. Do you defend Caen against a possible attack from Angers, or do you strike at Bruges (which will start a war with France). You have to think ahead a lot and manage your resources. You also can't fight everyone at once, so you'll need to pay attention to alliances, reputation, relations with other factions etc.

Make spies and get them deep behind enemy lines so you know what's coming ...

... and so on.

It is stressful :d, but it gets easier as your management skills improve and your game anticipation grows.

[Silverheart]

First campaign without cheating?
Welcome to the group! I´ve been here all along!

As for advice, do what footsoldier said. Pump your money into economic buildings, and be careful when choosing troops for the armies.

[The Source]

pretty much research on the units avalible to make the best out of them, remember heavy infrantry and calvary isnt always the best choice...

[painter]

As England, for my armies, you will find only longbowmen (slowly upgrading to yeoman archers and retinue longbowmen) and mailed knights. On rare occasions will you find a small selection of other units, most notably Unhorsed Knights, Alan Light Cavalry and elephant units in the Middle East. It may take quite a bit of work to use only this makeup, particularly when laying siege to a large garrison, but it is possible and your casualties from battles can be a lot less if you pull it off successfully.

Merchants are difficult to make use of and it will take quite a number of them to give you a sizeable income. Unless you have excellent resources to trade with, they will make far more florins by successfully driving out foreign merchants. I forgot the breakdown, but driving out a zero finance merchant will give you either 250 or 500 florins and you will get more by driving out more experienced merchants. It will take your merchant 14 turns to make 250 florins or 28 turns to make 500 florins, assuming your merchant doesn't gain other traits that will boost his income or your capital city doesn't change location. It is only when you have access to the Middle East and Timbuktu, gold or amber will they be far more useful to sit on resources.

[DDemperor]

After getting over the stress i think am pretty sucesfull. Being the richest faction plus occupying northern france!
Portugal tried to invade me but got owned!
I have 40k right now and i must say this is way easier than RTW

I've taken all of your advices and modified them! thank you so much!

[FootSoldier]

Yeah, sounds like you're doing ok.

You can never relax, of course. The next trick of the AI is that just as you think you're getting set up lots of neighbours will attack you. There's some key moments - when you become the largest faction is one. The worst moment is when you become number 1 in the faction rankings. You can almost see the attitude of your neighbours, allies and other factions change - chilly!

I think it' the balance of power thing. Everyone wants to cut you down to size.

[bertram boso]

lots of people rag on billmen but I found that splitting my stacks roughly 50/50 with billmen and longbowmen (with a few hobilars and mailed knights to chase down routing enemies) did wonders when I played as the English...economical and easily replaceable, if you keep Caen as a fortress.

[Double A]

My first cheatless campaign was as Russia. Well, not entirely cheatless, just toggle_fow and character_reset for my generals when building watchtowers or when the mouse screws up.

Congratulations.

Most people get lots of money from merchants in Timbuktu. It's in the western Sahara. Even a crappy merchant will generate over 100 florins, the best merchants can make over 1500.

[DDemperor]

Most people get lots of money from merchants in Timbuktu. It's in the western Sahara. Even a crappy merchant will generate over 100 florins, the best merchants can make over 1500.

Yeah I have a merchant there., I don't think I need to worry about money though lol as I got About 192k
I think that this was pretty easy sofar! Well see

Yeah the English British isles can be a real moneymaker.
I've turned all of them into cities so even more $
I do have a few castles though. I'll post a screen later

[FootSoldier]

I don't think I need to worry about money though lol as I got About 192k

Wow, I've never had 192K. I'm always building stuff, and rarely have more than 10K at end turn.

@KingofScotland - I do take the point at learning how to play for yourself.

One thing about telling others how to do it, besides fun and opinion-mongering, is that it focuses my mind on what actually happens. I've often found myself labouring under wrong assumptions when I've actually tested what I'm going to say before posting it. In other words, it sharpens my game.

Also, I'm a creature of habit, and do lots of things in the game I don't think about. Reading what others do has opened all sorts of possibilities that have never occurred to me.

[DDemperor]

I've had 192k yestreday. Damm polish , lol!
anyway pic as promised.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Please put pics in spoilers

[Drudelo]

As the English if you can take all of the British Isles you will have good finances that are relatively well protected. Just remember to have as few castles as possible and then begin your invasion of France.

[Double A]

And try to snag some of the rebel provinces on the Channel's shore before you invade.

[King Of Scotland]

Took Scotland out.

Use cheats and play as Egypt or something else really far from Scotland you bad boy....
And actually playing without cheats is really easy, I don't understand why everyone make threads about how to play, that's why it's called a GAME, you are supposed to learn everything yourself...

[FootSoldier]

Hey, that looks good DD. Hmm ... are you gonna give any of that money to the Pope and to your allies? A 100 here and there will wonders for your relations ... can you afford 500 a turn for diplomacy? Then you could try buying a few places before starting new wars. It's amazing what will sell.

^^

Ishan - pics in spoilers? I'd do that, but they keep coming out oversize. I hate it when you have to scroll back and forth ... is there a way to resize in Paint? Lol. I don't have anything else on this laptop.

Are there preferred dimensions for a pic?

Is it not ok to upload as attachment, and have them appear as thumbnails at the bottom of the post? I've been doing that, but I don't want to breach etiquette ...

Hmm ...

[Incomitatus]

Is it not ok to upload as attachment, and have them appear as thumbnails at the bottom of the post? I've been doing that, but I don't want to breach etiquette ...

Hmm ...

I think the etiquette is to spare those of us still toiling with dial-up connections. Pics in spoilers don't seem to slow down loading the rest of the page, unlike thumbnails or full-sized pics.

[painter]

FootSoldier, there are a number of free image viewers that can more easily manipulate images. I don't know what is the best recommendation, but I can suggest Irfanview (just be sure to uncheck all the bloatware options during installation) or Paint.NET.

If you wish to stick with vanilla Paint, in either Windows XP or Windows 7, it does have the option to resize the image. I didn't think that it can open TGA files however, it doesn't for me.

[painter]

The pics in spoilers are loaded at the same time but it feels faster because the images would usually be done by the time you can click to reveal the spoilers. If the primary concern are dial-up users, then the automatic thumbnails of attached images would be the most convenient for everyone. It is unfortunate that we can't place specific images elsewhere to be suit narratives, not without resorting to third party image hosts and using their thumbnail features.

[dunkdafunk]

Iv never actually played with cheats, i found using them in RTW spoilt the game, made it boring.
So in M2TW i didnt bother to go find out what they were.

Playing as england, take ur time capturing settlements at the start because you will get missions soon enough, and these will give you rewards.
Keep Nottingham as castle until you have conqoured all of British Isles and u still need the income boost.

In france try capture Rennes and bruges befor France do.
And try to buy Bordeaux, or offer ceasefire, or aliance with france. They usually agree to this, or u can bribe the general.
Capture Antwerp if Denmark hasnt already, Now i Usually convert this to Castle, and kep it as my Eastern boundary, just keep Danes out until they are excommunicated.

Keep Cean and Bordeaux as Castles, rest of towns develop economy.
Cean produces an internal army, Bordeaux a Southern one to oppose any threat from Portugal And Antwerp to fend off Danes.

Now u can wait until France attacks u, then retaliate with blitzing Angers, Paris and Riemes.
And sit back and rebuild.

When i have more than one castle near to each other, i try to make one castle recruit Cavalry and Missile units, and the other Castle, Infanry and Artillery. This saves money on the expensive buildings.

With Crusades, I try to ignore them. Or i send them at last possible time, then on the way capture a rebel Island like Rhodes, good base for next crusade if I want to go next time.