Sicily Campaign advice needed.

[xcorps]

I'm trying a Sicily campaign for the first time in a very long time. H/H. I've restarted 3-4 times by turn 30 because I keep running into the same issue I'm running into now, it's just that now I've a bigger empire and I kind of want to keep at it, but I'm more than willing to restart if needed.

It's presently Turn 51. I've taken all the Moorish lands and all of Africa west of Tripoli, and the three islands around Italy. I haven't tried to expand east or north at all. At war with Venice (they want Tripoli bad) and HRE, allied with The Papal States, trade agreements with all but Russia and Scotland.

I don't have any big armies, and I have a mediocre navy currently harassing Venice and the HRE. My expansion into Iberia petered out when I took Cordoba on a Crusade.

My problem is the same problem I've been running into in my other attempts, and that's the economy. I don't have enough income to develop my cities or castles, and I can't build enough of an army to defend/maintain order.

Do I need to convert some of these castles to cities?

My intention was to take over the Moors, go south for Timbuktu and that other town west of it, then east to Egypt and then Constantinople.

Halp!

[danny X]

iirc tunis can be converted to a city and gives excellent return!!

have you tried changing your capital?

make sure the you get the most out of the merchants aswell!

you could also try to make peace with venice, this may allow you to get rid of your navy for abit

[Portuguese Man-Of-War]

I might be stealing this, but check In3x's guide to blitzing because Sicily has amazing potential if you want to try something new;

However, my main advice point is exploit Timbuktu's usefulness. Capture it, send merchants down there, maybe you even want to take Arguin, but if you have Timbuktu with mines and merchants, you will get 800-1200 from the merchants, and 800 from the mining EACH TURN. It is a "cash cow!"

Plus, castles only need one or two units of garrisson, and for cities, max out the militias; I personally go spear militia over town militia, and eventually crossbow militia; a chancy way to defend against any siege attack with a minimal army is to have one or two units of heavy cav, with spearmen/swordsmen on the walls(you don't need more than 3 or 4); kill the ramming unit with heavy cav sally, and their units climbing the ladders will be destroyed by spearmen

Sorry about the rambling, but yeah, build economic buildings, try to avoid war until you have a little more money, and the garrison technique I mentioned above works wonders (I'm talking heroic victories), and take Timbuktu as soon as possible; even if you don't have the military force required, send your merchants down there; as many as you can

[In3x]

I might be stealing this, but check In3x's guide to blitzing because Sicily has amazing potential if you want to try something new

Thanks for advertising my AAR so I don't have to come on this thread and shamelessly plug it as usual.

PS: You guys should all read my AAR "The Spirit of the Blitz"

[_Elysium_]

If you do take Timbuktu, and you're willing to use an exploit, you could put a fort on one of the Gold deposits and fill it with merchants. I've got 15 merchants with a total merchant trade of more than 18K Florins per turn from a single Gold resource in my current campaign. I suppose it is a bit of cheat, but all that money is letting me do much more fighting. I can support numerous armies and still pay for the really expensive buildings.

Just a thought.

[xcorps]

I'll convert Tunis. I don't need that damn many castles. Have not tried changing the capital. I sent an army to Timbuktu the turn after I got Marrakesh, which was like turn 14. The general died in a mysterious act of god two turns away, and the army went rebel the turn after. I had already committed my other general to the crusade for Cordoba, and I can't send those remaining units in Cordoba on a campaign. I keep a mailed knight in each castle, militia and family members in towns. I literally cannot afford to build merchants. The two I had got seized. So I'm kind of stuck, because I can't marshall a force for Timbuktu, can't build an army for Timbuktu. It'll take probably 15-20 turns to get more than two merchants down there, as Marrakesh didn't have a market when I captured it, so the nearest spawner is Cordoba. It'll take 5 turns to raise the cash to build a market in Marrakesh.

Making peace with Venice is impossible. They attacked me on turn 8, and my relations went down each time I defended Tunis. I let Venice land armies there about 4 times, but now I have to keep his fleets away because I can't afford to replenish the troops there. (3 Mailed Knights, 1 Moorish archer, 2 militia and the general).

[danny X]

i'd get rid of the knights, mailed knights aren't that great anyway plus they're about 200 florins in upkeep, imo with a general in the settlement you dont need more knights unless ofcourse you can afford them.

also you could sell buildings if you think you could do without them for abit.

i'd go for tunis as a city and possibly the capital too

[xcorps]

i'd get rid of the knights, mailed knights aren't that great anyway plus they're about 200 florins in upkeep, imo with a general in the settlement you dont need more knights unless ofcourse you can afford them.

also you could sell buildings if you think you could do without them for abit.

i'd go for tunis as a city and possibly the capital too

I like mailed knights for seige defenses. I like them for primary cavalry too.

[AJStoner]

I do an all cities conversion to the mods I play as a rule but, prior to that, I would generally keep a couple of "heartland" castles to produce troops that could be moved up to the front as needed but would otherwise convert most of my castles to cities as my boarders would expand.

[13lackGu4rd]

in case you haven't already, convert Palermo to a city, that alone should solve any immediate income issues. in general, Sicily has income troubles early on if you don't release your starting armies, but after the first few turns you shouldn't have any more income troubles, ever. in case you haven't done so already, convert all your North African settlements(Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, Marrakesh if you have it) into cities as they give terrific income. just keep 1 of the islands(Sardinia/Corsica) as a castle for troop recruitment, and keep the others as cities for the massive trade income.

[=Bright=]

They're pretty much... well, let's call it overrated.

As soon as they finished thier charge, which can eventually go wrong, they are just a relatively weak unit which every Italian militia unit can whip. Rather use your generals for charging and then run back and let your infantry handle the situation.

In defending towns and castles I'd use mostly Italian spearmilitia (and maybe some archers or crossbowmen) as they're pretty strong, have a bonus against cavarly (good for killing Generals) and aren't really expensive. Including 2 armour upgrades they can handle almost every attacker.

[xcorps]

The last siege defense I fought with them (damn you milan for getting involved with this mess) I killed 8 spear militia and 4 genoa crossbowmen with 4 mailed knights.

Now I have to go to militia, because I just converted all my forts to cities except Tripoli. I finally got another Crusade though, so problem solved. Alexandria fell first, sacked and looted, then Iraklion, now I'm going to take Rhodes from Venice and abandon. I finally got a Venetian Pope, so it's all gewd. Making about 4k a turn.

[PrestigeX]

Build the churches and religious buildings, recruit priests, occasionally gift money to the pope ... And make war against the Moors and/or the Egyptians.

I'd suggest taking the fight to North Africa and putting the Moors on their death bed before starting up against Egypt, but if you're confident in handling both - go for it!

Use those crusades to your advantage. If go north of Naples then you'll risk war with a greedy European Neighbour, but if you stay on the south no one will want to fight you until later on in the game.

The sicillian Muslim Archers are a bit expensive, but they perform well against the Muslims because their faster firing rate is ideal against lightly armored opponents. They also have a big advantage of being able to handle some hand-to-hand fighting...so mix in a lot of those with your Pavise Xbows
So, against Muslims you don't need much infantry other than your City Militias which are more than capable.

A lot of Siciliy's unique units, I find better suited to fighting the european powers -- like Dismounted Norman Knights -- against the muslims you can stick to Italian Spear Militia , Muslim Archers / Pavise Xbow, and Mounted Sergeants -- especially if you get a blacksmith, muslim archers and mounted sergeants become far far better (and look awesome too!)

[KingofPoland]

I would also convert Ajaccio into a city, as you already have Palermo that isn't too far and is way more developed. Once you get the money, you should try to buy at least one of the five northen italian cities or conquer them. I your at war with the HRE and Venice, you should take Bologna and Venice if it still belongs to the starting faction. They will give you up to 7k florins a turn each! Then after that you should take the other 3 from Milan as they are probably the owners of them all and they should be excommu nicated y now.

[In3x]

My main advice would be to send your Princess north to secure an alliance with the Pope. With this done you can call a crusade, join as many troops to the crusade as you can and start building economic buildings in your settlements. Use the crusade anywhere exploit to allow you to expand in any direction you choose. You should be able to carve out a empire of 10 or so settlements in your first 10 turns and be in a position to wipe out the Moors or the Byzantines. Sacking Constantinople is something I always try to do early as it gives you a huge chunk of change when you sack it. Once this is done you can really attack anyone you want as I doubt anyone will be able to stop you once you reach this size.

[Portuguese Man-Of-War]

Thanks for advertising my AAR so I don't have to come on this thread and shamelessly plug it as usual.

PS: You guys should all read my AAR "The Spirit of the Blitz"

My main advice would be to send your Princess north to secure an alliance with the Pope. With this done you can call a crusade, join as many troops to the crusade as you can and start building economic buildings in your settlements. Use the crusade anywhere exploit to allow you to expand in any direction you choose. You should be able to carve out a empire of 10 or so settlements in your first 10 turns and be in a position to wipe out the Moors or the Byzantines. Sacking Constantinople is something I always try to do early as it gives you a huge chunk of change when you sack it. Once this is done you can really attack anyone you want as I doubt anyone will be able to stop you once you reach this size.

First of all... Np
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