Doing well at this game

[Germanicus75]

Hey guys,

I've been playing M2 for years but have yet to win a single campaign whether vanilla or SS 6.4

I need general advice. I'm playing SS 6.4 with Lusted AI and med/med difficulty.

In my Danish campaign its 1142 and I have taken over the whole of Scandinavia except the 2 Norwegian starting settlements. I want to keep the Norwegians as my ally (I married my daughter to their faction heir on turn 1) and keep my reliable reputation. Plus I want a buffer against English or Scottish naval invasions.

I have 63,000 florins in my coffers and I am making 2,800 a turn.

Now I had to decide whether to attack the excommunicated HRE at Hamburg, which is only defended by a single general unit. This could secure my southern border with a castle, but it does add me to the main theatre of European war and diplomacy. I parked my elite stack just outside the castle and saved the game.

But I decided to attack the Lithuanians instead. The HRE had a huge empire and I probably couldn't get peace with them again after I took Hamburg.

So I sailed my stack to Riga and attacked the city, taking it after 3 turns as it was lightly defended and the AI only sent a few units up from Vilnius to defend it.

Then I moved on Vilnius but got repulsed by 2 and a half stacks. So I marched to Palanga on the Baltic coast and attacked the Lithuanian castle there. But again I got repulsed by superior forces.

I just don't know how anyone wins at this game. I know SS is supposed to be harder than the original game, but still. Despite my huge economy I can only afford about 2 full stacks, not enough to take down even a weaker faction like Lithuania, which has multiple settlements and castles. I have one or two stacks, but the AI can seemingly spam full stack armies at will. I just don't have the resources to beat them. I might be able to gradually beat them back with a long war of attrition using my superior troops, but it might take me 100 years to eliminate a faction like the Liths, hardly good enough to be able to take over most of the map within the game time...

It takes ages to build even a single high-quality stack up, so I rely on mercs in part (my elite stack has 9 merc units). They also help fill deficiencies in my unit roster, like decent crossbows and spearmen. Also, they are needed when you are campaigning a long way from your castles and need to replenish your stack quickly. But I admit they are expensive. However they are better than my own troops, e.g. the Viking Mercenaries are better than my Viking Raiders, and the Merc Spearmen are a lot better than my Spear Militia.

I have plenty of money and I should be able to afford several stacks? But I can't. I just can't seem to make any headway.

Does anyone have any general advice to help me succeed in this game? I do just fine at the battles - even a fool could win most of those, its the campaign that I suck at!

What am I doing wrong? It's like this in every campaign I try almost no matter what faction I am. I do all the right things like building ports, markets, roads and farms. And upgrading my barracks, stables and blacksmiths. In short getting a decent economy and training units. But the AI just counters by spamming multiple stacks per turn...

Any constructive advice from people who have won this game greatly appreciated

[Ichon]

Have you tried reading some AAR's or played hotseat with anyone?

There is Norwegian AAR in my signature from SS6.4 with BGR and half a hundred SS6.4 AARs in that forum.

[Germanicus75]

Have you tried reading some AAR's or played hotseat with anyone?

There is Norwegian AAR in my signature from SS6.4 with BGR and half a hundred SS6.4 AARs in that forum.

Thanks I'll look at some AARs then. What's hotseat?

[MWY]

In original SS, the AI gets almost endless financial support. Even with one settlement, they can afford huge numbers. Basically, time is the limit for the Ai instead of resources. The easiest way to win is siege settlements, then just wait for them to surrender and play defensive meanwhile. If they attack into you, your chances of winning are even higher. Or backstab bigger non-neighouring factions. Perhaps invade france? England? Should be mostly undefended and the AIdoesn't really invade over the sea.

By the way, SSHIP has fixed those money issues..

[Germanicus75]

In original SS, the AI gets almost endless financial support. Even with one settlement, they can afford huge numbers. Basically, time is the limit for the Ai instead of resources. The easiest way to win is siege settlements, then just wait for them to surrender and play defensive meanwhile. If they attack into you, your chances of winning are even higher. Or backstab bigger non-neighouring factions. Perhaps invade france? England? Should be mostly undefended and the AIdoesn't really invade over the sea.

By the way, SSHIP has fixed those money issues..

Where can I find this SSHIP? I looked in the sub-mod forum but don't see it there...

[Ichon]

Look at either MWY or my signatures about SSHIP.

Hotseat is multiplayer where you take turns with human players. You can sit at same computer and do it or play by email which has a dedicated following.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...a-Hotseat-Game

[Germanicus75]

Thanks! I have installed (correctly I hope) SSHIP. I am just worried about the Grim Reality mod. Won't that make the game even harder (for me)?

[Germanicus75]

OK, I followed the instructions to install SSHIP submod. But nothing at all has happened - I still have plain SS 6.4...help!

[Ichon]

SSHIP does not have Grim Reality. Just make sure you had basic 6.4 install and then follow instructions to make sure you have early campaign and Savage AI selected before installing SSHIP and the hotfixes.

[Germanicus75]

SSHIP does not have Grim Reality. Just make sure you had basic 6.4 install and then follow instructions to make sure you have early campaign and Savage AI selected before installing SSHIP and the hotfixes.

OK, good to know.

I followed the installation instructions to the letter but I still only have SS 6.4, no sign of SSHIP.

[Strengelicher]

If you want to speed up the expansion of your empire, one way would be to conquer enemy settlements quicker. You can attack and conquer a settlement within a single turn by either infiltrating it with spies beforehand or by bringing along siege engines. Bringing your troops in by ship works especially well, since the siege equipment can cover more distance in a given turn when transported that way. And do read some AARs. That's what I did when starting with SS, and I learned a lot from them.

[Germanicus75]

Update:

I screwed up before, I installed it as a folder within the SS 6.3 main folder. Now I have installed it as a folder within the SS 6.3 data folder. Sorry for my misunderstanding.

The trouble is, it still doesn't work...

Unless I am missing something like a separate launcher.exe somewhere?

[Ichon]

It has to overwrite SS6.4 so if you want both SSHIP and SS6.4 you need to make a copy of SS6.4 and than paste the SSHIP data folder over that. I have probably 5-6 copies of SS6.4 for various mods. BGR, HURB, SSHIP, etc.

[Germanicus75]

It has to overwrite SS6.4 so if you want both SSHIP and SS6.4 you need to make a copy of SS6.4 and than paste the SSHIP data folder over that. I have probably 5-6 copies of SS6.4 for various mods. BGR, HURB, SSHIP, etc.

Thanks. I think I get what you mean. It may cause some troubles with the path for the 6.4 launcher (assuming I still want to play 6.4 afterwards). But I'll give it a go

[Germanicus75]

It has to overwrite SS6.4 so if you want both SSHIP and SS6.4 you need to make a copy of SS6.4 and than paste the SSHIP data folder over that. I have probably 5-6 copies of SS6.4 for various mods. BGR, HURB, SSHIP, etc.

Ichon, you're a frikking genius! I've got it working

Man it looks quite different from SS 6.4. I note that it starts (for DK at least) in 1132. You'd expect the towns to have things like dirt roads and small churches and grain exchanges by now, and indeed Lund does. It even has a port and a town guard!

The victory conditions look quite different. Instead of just holding certain settlements you need to hold them for a certain amount of turns. So I am assuming that if you hold Ribe for 99 turns and then the AI takes it off you, you then have to take it back and hold it for ANOTHER 100 turns before you can fulfil the objectives?

Someone mentioned in the SS forum that the AI will no longer spam stack upon stack of endless armies as it does in 6.4. Is that true?

Thanks!

More later...

[accapulco]

I started playing as Norway some time ago my first goal was to take over Scandinavia but the Danish AI beat me to it and took all 4 eastern shore cities. I then took over the one connecting the Copenhagen island to the mainland (forgot the name but its a castle) then defended that as I took over the rest of the settlements. After that I eliminated Denmark and took Hamburg as my southern frontier. At this point everyone in Europe and their mothers are attacking the HRE so they probably wont make a move to get Hamburg back. You now have 3 options, first is to go raiding in Northumbria a la Ragnar Lothbrok. Second is to do it for the opposite shore and go take Finland (castle) as a main army barracks and have 1 ship to move troops from there back and forth to Russia. The other option is what I had to do since Poland decided to attack me as the war with the Danes made almost every catholic faction hate me since they were all allied together and wouldn't accept me . I got the 2 castles directly to the east and south-east of hamburg and hold that against the Poles, which aren't a problem as I conquer France.

Some tips if you're having trouble with battles, try to avoid field battles as they will almost always be costly unless you have total superiority just let the enemy come besiege you; they should attack after a couple of turns of laying siege. I'm not sure about the Danes but Norway has no spear or pike in any form and enemy cavalry (I'm looking at you French Chivalric Knights!) will just charge and slaughter 60/90 of your elite Huscarls just because of the stupid charge bonus and the AI constantly pulls them back and charges again and there's nothing you can do about it. You can avoid this when you are defending since they have to pass through a gap to get to you and you just hold that. You should just have castles on really dangerous borders otherwise turn them into cities and maybe keep one somewhere in the middle to send out support/generals when needed in my case its Hamburg and Oslo. You can defend very easily with just a few units vs 2-3 full stacks it doesn't matter.

These are mandatory: 1 general, 2 feudal knights, 1 archer that can place stakes, 7 heavy infantry of choice preferably the most heavily armoured as we need them just to tank the enemy waves. You must decide where your standoff will be depending on how big the enemy force is, if its just 1 full stack of militia then fight at the first gate if they have 2 stacks and some elites and look scary you will hold the first gate until they climb over then run back to the keep and make your showdown there this will let the first towers kill off about 10% of the enemy just like that, obviously cities have to fight under the first. Never fight in the square! You fight under the gate because it will murder everything with oil and it has 4 ballista slots on the sides which will constantly impale the bastards plus the 2 towers at the top and the 2 side towers which will be manned if there's 2 units on each side which is why we need them up there. Chose your gate then before you begin put your archers right behind that gate and plant stakes, no more cavalry as they will all be impaled as they try to run through the gate, lol; finally place your infantry on the walls so they can man the towers and shoot and put 2-3 behind the gate, these guy will take the highest casualties and must be your best troops as they have to hold the entire enemy army. Send your knights and general WALKING out of the gate then charge down the enemy. Go for whatever is closest first: siege tower, ladder, ram doesn't matter, the cavalry's role is to cause chaos making the enemy drop the ladders to engage then run away wasting their time and causing confusion as your ballista towers shoot the crap out of them and possibly burn the siege equipment. Stay away from the main enemy force and watch out for crossbows as they can kill your general. What you want is for the enemy to drop all siege equipment they always have 1 extra ram at the back which is what we want them to use, this way they'll be forced to fight under the gate of death where just 2-3 units can hold off an entire 2 stacks. Since the AI is mostly militia they will constantly rout and come back only to rout again. Obviously before the ram is at the gates get your cavalry back inside WALKING through the gate.

If you can, get some Swiss halberdiers or pikemen from Switzerland they are ing amazing at the gate job 2 is enough to hold 2 stacks of enemies even without stakes as they have pike wall formation. That's basically it, you must out maneuver the enemy and fight where you want to rather then just throwing numbers and better troops. I play hard/hard. The ai will usually send militia or mercenaries both of which have very low morale and rout easily. Crossbowmen are useless on walls but deadly on the field if you can protect them (you probably can't as the enemy cavalry always sneaks through the tiniest gap at any time) they are however bugged on walls and only 5-6 of them actually get to shoot so don't hire them for city defense. You can however get them for castle defense and place them on the border line of your square, here they can sort of shoot over your gate units right into the gate gap causing extreme casualties. Handgunners are amazing they kill maybe 1 guy per volley but they reload super fast which is really weird but they can get 3-4 volleys off before the enemy gets to them and they will be on the verge of routing by then. They are also heavily armoured and can stand 1v1 against ing foot knights. My knights actually cannot go 1v1 against enemy handgunners which is ridiculous and I hate how this mod changed them from 2handed realistic looking primitive barrel-gun-thing into a 1 handed perfectly crafted late renaissance era musket with a shield which looks terrible as they auto reload themselves but hey they are good units and the AI will use them a lot. They also survive cavalry charges and will kill 15 or so of the knights before they run. Hope that helps and have fun!.