Turtling

**fredtrotter** · August 23, 2011, 05:35 AM

I've started my very first turtle game as England. I took all of the British isles by twenty turns and have started to build up a strong economy. I'm just wondering, what do I do now?

**Fireright** · August 23, 2011, 05:42 AM

Toddle over to Scandinavia and the Baltic? Should be a few rebel settlements left you can clobber without getting earache off Popey

**ZealotsACH** · August 23, 2011, 07:44 AM

NOOB ALERT: what's turtling?

**danny X** · August 23, 2011, 07:54 AM

Originally Posted by ZealotsACH

NOOB ALERT: what's turtling?

expanding the settlements you have and not conquering new settlements for abit!

**Fireright** · August 23, 2011, 08:53 AM

I haven't got the patience for that sort of game, not my cup of tea. Once I've done all the basic 'housework' I like to get the show on the road sharpish and get stuck in.

**shirajzl** · August 24, 2011, 07:12 AM

Originally Posted by Fireright

I haven't got the patience for that sort of game, not my cup of tea. Once I've done all the basic 'housework' I like to get the show on the road sharpish and get stuck in.

That's the thing. Once the "housework" is done, the game is getting much easier and it's only natural to stir things up across Europe.

**MeMongo** · August 23, 2011, 08:54 AM

Call a crusade on Cordoba, send Henry to conquer it, then grab Granada too, great place to have a foothold for later on

**Double A** · August 23, 2011, 08:54 AM

Originally Posted by ZealotsACH

NOOB ALERT: what's turtling?

You sit on your ass for the entire game.

**ProjectCaddyGuy** · August 23, 2011, 08:07 PM

Originally Posted by ZealotsACH

NOOB ALERT: what's turtling?

Ok, some people are clearly too impatient to turtle properly.

To turtle as England, secure the entire island, sorry Scotland. Then build up all your cities, and I recommend turn everything on the island into a city, and Caen a high level castle. Then power up 2 armies and prepare them to bite whoever starts anything with you. If nothing comes up, I suggest starting something with the Moors. NW Africa makes for a good starting point for expansion. To turtle in battles, simply load up an army with a general or 2, 2 catapults, 5-6 spear levies, and a collection of longbowmen. Whenever you have a battle, put the spearmen into schiltrons, giving yourself firing lines for the bowmen behind, and let the enemy come to you. Don't get goaded into stretching your neck out too far.

**AJenny58** · August 23, 2011, 01:58 PM

Are you at war with anyone? If you are then you should wipe them out. If not you can provoke a war by putting a small army or weak ship in enemy territory, they will usually attack you. This way you don't lose global reputation.

**_Elysium_** · August 24, 2011, 12:29 PM

Originally Posted by AJenny58

Are you at war with anyone? If you are then you should wipe them out. If not you can provoke a war by putting a small army or weak ship in enemy territory, they will usually attack you. This way you don't lose global reputation.

Will that work against an ally of my ally? I really want some of the Moorish territory, but they're allied to Poland who I'm depending on to stay at peace.

**AJenny58** · August 24, 2011, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by _Elysium_

Will that work against an ally of my ally? I really want some of the Moorish territory, but they're allied to Poland who I'm depending on to stay at peace.

You can only hope. Just give it a go, and hopefully they break their alliance with the Moors instead of the one with you. Sometimes you just have to play the odds. Getting a crusade called on the Moors could put stress on their relationship with Poland.

**Masked Marauder** · August 24, 2011, 11:11 PM

Originally Posted by _Elysium_

Will that work against an ally of my ally? I really want some of the Moorish territory, but they're allied to Poland who I'm depending on to stay at peace.

My guess is to send an Assassin or a Spy with a low level so they can fail on purpose, send to Moors, and hope that provokes them. Or send a Diplomat with some insane deal that'll anger them a lot...

**_Elysium_** · August 25, 2011, 03:47 AM

Originally Posted by AJenny58

You can only hope. Just give it a go, and hopefully they break their alliance with the Moors instead of the one with you. Sometimes you just have to play the odds. Getting a crusade called on the Moors could put stress on their relationship with Poland.

Finding members of the Papal States is a problem. Sicily took all of Italy, leaving the Pope without a home, so he ends up spawning by himself on his own and isn't around for more than two turns. In the last 8 turns there have been 5 Popes.

Originally Posted by Masked Marauder

My guess is to send an Assassin or a Spy with a low level so they can fail on purpose, send to Moors, and hope that provokes them. Or send a Diplomat with some insane deal that'll anger them a lot...

I tried that. A failed assassination attempt on a family member led to them declaring war, but Poland also declared on me. My relations with the Moors have been Abysmal for a while now, though looking at the diplomatic deals I've had with them, I think they're scared of me.

I like to call this aggressive turtling. I'm still expanding, but I'm not going to war.

**KingofPoland** · August 23, 2011, 10:09 PM

I once conquered the entire british isles as Russia, abandoning Novgorod in the process. I spent about 700 turns doing nothing. I then had every settlement at the top of the technology tree, even my new world settlements. i then had to face Spain, which had every other settlement that was left.

**Double A** · August 24, 2011, 08:11 AM

I'd rather be FUBAR than sit on my ass for 100 turns. Impatient? Maybe, but it's more like I can't stand inaction.

**ProjectCaddyGuy** · August 24, 2011, 09:09 AM

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution. ~

Read more: http://www.finestquotes.com/author_q...#ixzz1VxI1OD3o

Sun Tzu had similar discussions regarding proper preparation and controlling things so that the battle is on a field of your own choosing. That's all I suggest, not sitting for 100 turns.

**In3x** · August 24, 2011, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by ProjectCaddyGuy

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution. ~

Read more: http://www.finestquotes.com/author_q...#ixzz1VxI1OD3o

Sun Tzu had similar discussions regarding proper preparation and controlling things so that the battle is on a field of your own choosing. That's all I suggest, not sitting for 100 turns.

The problem is, the AI is so dumb any type of attack is going to beat it, so why bother preparing? If you look at my AAR "The Spirit of the Blitz" you will see that I expand extremely quickly without the aid of having set up doomstacks. In fact I probably take settlements more quickly from the start of the game than most turtlers will do once they have all their armies set up and ready to launch sneak attacks.

I think turtling is for people who think the AI factions somewhat capable and don't perhaps fully understand just how exploitable it is.

As for what Double and Fireright have said, I couldn't agree more, I didn't buy a game with total war in the title so that I could play sim city.

**Genuine_Intrepid** · August 25, 2011, 06:59 PM

I am a turtling type of player too, what I did as England was to conquer the entire British Isles and convert all but one of the settlements to cities, I usually have Nottingham as a Castle so I can recruit a decent army to counter any pesky invaders. Kept hold of Caen and levelled up and made sure I kept it. Then I decided to send a few fleets down to Iberia where the land-bridge seperates Spain from N Africa. This is my landing spot to start an invasion of the Spanish part of Europe. By conquering the south coast of Spain, blocking the landbridge to it I was able to then expand into eastwards into both Europe and N Africa.

Turtling has allways been my style, even if I try to blitz, I just settle into my old habit of turtling.