Unorthodox strategy

[officialdeo]

I'm sure some of us have spent hundreds if not thousands of turns playing this mod. I'm creating this thread so that the SSHIP community can share any unorthodox and/or interesting campaign strategy they have discovered so far. All kinds of approaches are welcome here; historically plausible or otherwise.

Here are a few of my tricks:

1. As the HRE, set Cologne as your capital. Then, invade England
2. As the Romans, vassal feed the Serbs and the Crusaders instead of the typical reconquest route
3. As the Serbs, aim for Ragusa and play like an Italian city-state

[Leopold III von Habsburg]

1. As HRE get Corsica and give it to the pope. If Sicily attacks Rome, you can easily get Rome and Pope wont annoy you, if they attack Corsica, you can rush Palermo for huge funds and expansion towards western africa. Takes some time, but once converted and Capital moved, you make huge amounts of money there.

2. As Serbia rush towards Ragusa, get a boat and go exterminate the northern egypt cities, which are not usually not very well defended. Gives you huge funds you can use to expand through your north, up to Prague, which becomes your most important city in order to build armies for attacking Constantinople.

3. As France, instantly go for the english city northwest of Paris (forgot the name) and Gand. Upon securing those 2 cities and getting some armies up, England will usually accept peace, which enables you to go for the next strategic points, being Frankfurt and Basel for the income.

4. As Turks, just siege Kayseri with 1/3 of a stack, till you get the castle. Do not go further to the east, as its not worth, except for taking Aleppo and the other castle south to Kayseri at a later point. Get all your forces towards Constantinople and then slowly take out the Byzantines before they have time to build up their stacks. Afterwards make Constantinople your capital and go for Italy.

[officialdeo]

1. As HRE get Corsica and give it to the pope. If Sicily attacks Rome, you can easily get Rome and Pope wont annoy you, if they attack Corsica, you can rush Palermo for huge funds and expansion towards western africa. Takes some time, but once converted and Capital moved, you make huge amounts of money there.

2. As Serbia rush towards Ragusa, get a boat and go exterminate the northern egypt cities, which are not usually not very well defended. Gives you huge funds you can use to expand through your north, up to Prague, which becomes your most important city in order to build armies for attacking Constantinople.

3. As France, instantly go for the english city northwest of Paris (forgot the name) and Gand. Upon securing those 2 cities and getting some armies up, England will usually accept peace, which enables you to go for the next strategic points, being Frankfurt and Basel for the income.

4. As Turks, just siege Kayseri with 1/3 of a stack, till you get the castle. Do not go further to the east, as its not worth, except for taking Aleppo and the other castle south to Kayseri at a later point. Get all your forces towards Constantinople and then slowly take out the Byzantines before they have time to build up their stacks. Afterwards make Constantinople your capital and go for Italy.

What version are you playing by the way? Palermo is already a huge city so I'm unclear as to what you mean by converted. The Papal States going to the islands never gets old, even though it is probably as old as Stainless Steel itself.

Number 2 is a very good tip for anyone playing Mediterranean faction, I agree. Probably why the naval aspect in SSHIP should be reviewed.

I'm surprised you go as far as Frankfurt. I usually aim for Lotharingia as France, but no further than that before I kick England out of the continent. Can't trust ceasefire deals these days; usually, the English will backstab me sooner or later. Does England get much stronger if you let it control Aquitaine?

Yeah, I agree with number 4. Both factions are in a war of extermination from the start of the game, and the winner will take the top spot in the world, over the Moors.

[Leopold III von Habsburg]

What version are you playing by the way? Palermo is already a huge city so I'm unclear as to what you mean by converted. The Papal States going to the islands never gets old, even though it is probably as old as Stainless Steel itself.

Number 2 is a very good tip for anyone playing Mediterranean faction, I agree. Probably why the naval aspect in SSHIP should be reviewed.

I'm surprised you go as far as Frankfurt. I usually aim for Lotharingia as France, but no further than that before I kick England out of the continent. Can't trust ceasefire deals these days; usually, the English will backstab me sooner or later. Does England get much stronger if you let it control Aquitaine?

Yeah, I agree with number 4. Both factions are in a war of extermination from the start of the game, and the winner will take the top spot in the world, over the Moors.

Playing the latest version, as always when there is a new one

What i meant is take Palermo and then start taking africa and converting it.

Regarding the naval aspect, what i miss, is the AI defending its coastal cities better. Especially Egypt seems to be empty once they get closer to capturing Jerusalem.

England is pretty weak in my campaigns, especially as they mainly try to go for the stronger cities which are easy to defend. If a crusade comes in, usually their best troops are out for a long time. And going for Frankfurt is vital due to the money it gets you, alongside with the option to slowly start advancing towards Italy and the big castles north and east.

Gonna start a new campaign next couple of days, maybe as Venice, just in order to try and redo what that guy with Pisa did, feeling pretty comfortable after spending hundreds of hours on this mod. Maybe ill just fix the crown before, not sure yet.

[officialdeo]

Playing the latest version, as always when there is a new one

What i meant is take Palermo and then start taking africa and converting it.

Regarding the naval aspect, what i miss, is the AI defending its coastal cities better. Especially Egypt seems to be empty once they get closer to capturing Jerusalem.

England is pretty weak in my campaigns, especially as they mainly try to go for the stronger cities which are easy to defend. If a crusade comes in, usually their best troops are out for a long time. And going for Frankfurt is vital due to the money it gets you, alongside with the option to slowly start advancing towards Italy and the big castles north and east.

Gonna start a new campaign next couple of days, maybe as Venice, just in order to try and redo what that guy with Pisa did, feeling pretty comfortable after spending hundreds of hours on this mod. Maybe ill just fix the crown before, not sure yet.

Where do you set the capital? I can't see this without the big German cities taking a hit to income since it should be somewhere in Italy (read: Milan/Pavia) instead of the Rhine to maintain minimum public order.



This is what I usually aim for as France. I save Frankfurt for the last since it's a big province just across the Rhine and I don't think I can hold it without setting out to destroy the HRE in total war, conquering all the way to Austria and basically recreating Charlemagne's kingdom before his conquests. It's just too much trouble to be attacked again and again after a truce by the HRE since I possess their capital. How do you manage to keep the HRE at bay without constant warfare?

[Leopold III von Habsburg]

Thats a good question about the capital, i dont really remember if it was Dijon or Trier, but i can recall moving it a couple of times. Im a big fan of the holy roman empire, so most my campaigns are with them, but tried that one with france and went for the total destruction of HRE later on, cause its annoying to deal with them.

Starting a new campaign today, as England, i actually wanna try a new approach to the game, without exploiting the crusade and similar stuff, gonna try to expand to Norway and Denmark, lets see how it goes