Crazy Milanese!!

**Jackster** · February 19, 2007, 11:23 AM

The Milanese in my HRE campaign (Hard level) kept sending waves after waves of troops at me!
The weirdiest thing is that they have probably only three cities, yet they have about 5 stacks of troops like D-Broken Lance, Geo-Xbows and other crazy stuff and thats after I fought off four stacks of their armies already (four Heroic Victories!)
Currently I am using scorch earth, burning down buildings before they fell into their hands (They oppupied Venice, but I gave them an empty city

)
I am thinking about doing the same to Florins and the other Italian city I hold
then extract my 2 ragtag stacks of Militias and Mercs out of the region, back to Eastern France, where my professional armies are having a pretty good campaign against the French,
how exactly did they manage to get so many troops?

**Silent Assassin** · February 19, 2007, 11:30 AM

Playing has Milan right now I can say that their army`s don`t cost too much and they can almost build every good unit in their cities. In my campaign with them I have 10 regions and only two castles and I generat most of my army from my cities except for the good knights and dismounted one but also for the more professionnal Geo-Xbows

**Jackster** · February 19, 2007, 12:55 PM

yea, its always hard for me to fight in Italy, because there is no castle to generate units there.
It was a problem back in my English Campagne, but the problem was not dire since I dominated the sea and has huge armies.
HRE is kinda hard to play, the pope ***** you, being attack by everyone and dont get any good units til later.
I miss my English Swordsmen and longbowmen, they can really help here...

**sgt.kzi33** · February 19, 2007, 08:26 PM

I hate milan they backstab, betray, and send out horde type units all over the place. I can't tolerate them so i quickly blitz them to get rid of them from the campign then i extermenate every city i cap from them thoroughly then tear down every building then give it to the papal so they are happy and satisfied then they won't bug me....much....

**AdmiringtheEnemyeh?** · February 20, 2007, 06:55 PM

HRE is not hard to play, they have a suffficent early army and excellent special units like forlorn hope, gothic knights and the zwiehander. Make your first priorites to blitz denmark to hell and get them finished, capture nearby rebel settlements and do ALL you can to not piss of your neighbors. Get trade rights and allianaces with nearby factions for protection and cash. If Milan expands upward your dead. So make sure milan is contained between you, france, and venice. Work together to stop milan if possible.

For their army; the most efficent combo ive seen vs milaneese armies are trebuches/ catapults, a sufficent amount of crossbow for supresive fire, a good amount of knights and a few units of spearmen incase they charge. Utalize your general by charging the gen xbows when close. Once milan is finished capture and fortify venice and most of europe will be easy picking from there..

**Jackster** · February 20, 2007, 08:42 PM

well, i might be a bit too late on killing demmark, since Poland just betrayed me, so is the Hungarians.
My one saving grace in Italy is that the Turks (my only ally) launched a Jihad to Milan, which really saved me
I might be able to kill French faster, so i can turn my armies back to fight Milan.

**AdmiringtheEnemyeh?** · February 21, 2007, 07:35 AM

Thats good, pretty lucky though. Normally when jihads are launched deep into europe they fail though (thats what ive seen, doesnt have to happen) .
And from what ive learned NOT start a war unless you have good information about their settlements, their army, and have a full planned out attack. The worst part about HRE is that if you go to attack france, your completeley open to poland and vise versa. Well good luck..