Strategies for TLR??

[Rusty Hammer]

So far I have only played TLR as the Danes. My strategy so far has been expand, then build up the economy first focusing on farms and them moving to trade. Also I have have found merchants and assasins of much more use in this mod.

Just wanted to see what kind of TLR campaign tactics were out there. So if you have a favorite faction and or strategy to play in TLR let me know.

[infernocanuck]

I'm trying out this newest verson with the English faction. I find, that since money is tight, that you need to expand economically before millitarily. Frankly, at the begginging turns of the game, I focus on getting 3 territories, no more, no less.

Once I have three territories under my controll, I focus on building a town watch, the first 2 levels of farms, roads, a port and the first "trade" building in every since settlement (even at castles.. sans trade building, of course!). Once every settlement has this, then I have them focus on one aspect (trade, military, spies/assasins or priest production).

How do I get money for this? Well, first, since genrals and family members are expensive.. I tend to kill off all my family members/generals except three. One to govern my capital city, one "older" general to lead my army, and a "younger" general to sit at a castle, and fill in for the older war leader. Also, I cut back on my armies considerably. In fact, I make sure I have 1000 florisn for every settlement that I own in profit each turn. So, for example, with my three regions, I make sure my treasury is making at least a 3K profit. Anything over then can go to agents and my military. Having this steady profit ensures that I will have the funds to build constantly.

Oh, and crusades are awesome. Take your large army (leave a few units back home to deal with rebels, or an emergency invasion) and go hunt some heritics! Your army will have a big fat 0 upkeep, youre general will get some great traits, and your units will get some nice experience. A win-win. (And who says you have to keep the crusade target when you suceed? Sell all of the buildings in the settlement, and then either sell/trade/gift it to another faction.)

Hope this helps!

[acegogo]

hey inferno!!! that is exactly how I play it!!!

I actually exchange those regions for some around me!!!

playing as france I "purchased" hohenstauffen, hamburg, bern and Innsbruck!!!

nice fat piece of europe from 1 crusade!!! can't be wrong!!!

[Callawyn]

I snag all the neutral provinces adjacent to my starting provinces asap. Have a house rule not to expand beyond that 'till after turn 50, to give the AI factions a chance to expand (making exceptions for missions to take provinces, and crusades). After that, I'll steadily advance through neutral territory with 3-4 armies, each about 8-10 units strong, building town militia to send along in their wake for garrisons. Any AI faction silly enough to declare war on me, I'll take 2-3 provinces from, then offer a ceasefire (giving a province back if needed to get the deal). There's really no reason not to expand in TLR, from turn 1 on you should be able to maintain at least 2 armies capable of taking neutral provinces, while still turning a profit for building construction. Any province close enough to your capital to have under 25% corruption should be a top priority to control asap, fastest way to increase income at game start is to expand.

For economy, you really have to be ruthless about your build queue for buildings. No matter what, you absolutely must get a lvl 1 barracks and a granary in every province, for free upkeep and a +agent limit for merchants. Convert most castles to cities, you really only need a few castles, upgrade them fully despite the cost, you'll need them eventually. Next upgrade is farms (need a few cities with lvl 3 or 4 farms asap, to get overseer ancillary for reduced construction costs), some roads where they'll do the most good. Buildings with +trade, ports included, still don't provide much return on their investment, not a priority. Clear build queues as needed to get a merchants guild and theologians guild built where you want them, and upgrade trade/church building lines in just those two cities, build these agents only in these cities. Need maybe 5 other small churchs for priest agent limit, space them around for heretic hunting, no more (6 priests is sufficient for even 50+ provinces, there is no religious unrest in TLR, caps at about 20%). Tend to build ports only where I need a safe haven for parking a ship or two for transport. Otherwise, will upgrade buildings that give +pop growth, as needed, to keep my cities growing (tax and farm income, and merchant income is your main income in TLR, trade will always lag way behind). Don't build anything unless you're convinced you really need it, and don't build anything unless you've got EVERY province's level 1 granary/barracks paid for.

For armies, need to keep an eye on upkeep, in beta 7, higher level units have much higher upkeep than cheap ones, find myself running around with spearmen forming the backbone of most armies, can use higher level missile units, but upkeep on better infantry can be double or more your basic spearmen. Need to keep army size limited so that you're turning a profit of 10-12k per turn for new building construction. Earlier versions was able to get that to 20k, eventually 30k for new buildings, but in beta 7 its really hard to turn a profit. Be careful of crusades, after its over that army no longer getting free upkeep can kill your profits.

Generals: Refuse all adoptions, refuse all 'man of the hour', by turn 30 you'll still find yourself with more generals than you need. Marry your princesses off to AI faction leaders/heirs to solidify alliances. Any general that gets 'Lazy' traits or 'Leprosy', with their outrageous movement rate reductions (it'll say 5%,10% or 15% but the reduction is in fact 25%, 50%, 75%) gets suicided off. Keep an eye out for generals with 'Cheap' or 'Goodbuilder' trait lines that reduce construction costs, get these generals an 'Overseer' ancillary by parking them governor of province with lvl 3 or 4 farm, then use them to queue buildings (leaving them as governor in settlements due to complete a building, to get an 'architect' ancillary). Pretty easy to get at least one general with 10% cost reduction, if he has cheap trait line and you get him both overseer and architect, can get that to 30%, in TLR even 10% adds up fast (there's a few province title ancillaries that give construction cost reduction also, worth anything to control them). Keep faction leader in cities building agents, get him agent cost reducing ancillaries by leveling up spies/assassins. Also, have generals that are going to be governors accumulate a bunch of titles, the extra income can cover their upkeep cost, allowing you to keep more leaders around for squishing annoying rebels.

[Irishmafia2020]

Well, playing as the Danes I tend to abuse the crusades, but other than that my main strat is to have one castle that produces all of my troops, and every building in every settlement is therfore econ based. As I capture more provinces I will inevitably gain more military centers, but the economy is key!!

[Rusty Hammer]

Good tips guys thanks for the heads up. Right now as the Danes I'm making perhaps 12-15k per turn, and it is about 1260. Still I was wondering if you guys had some tips for using Merchants. Seems the best I can seem to squeeze out of a merchant is about 150 per turn sitting on gold spices etc. Can't seem to get my merchants any better then a skill of about 4 or 5.
Merchant tips please?

[infernocanuck]

I just have to reinterate how.. kick friggin butt crusades are (In the game, in the game!). So, not only do you get unit experience and a big fat territory to sell/trade/exploit, but your general.. man, your general gets beefed up like crazy.

Small example, on my Hungarian Campaign, A new general was came of age (awww!) But, of course, he blew. No command. No chivalry or dread. 3 piety. Only good thing was that his loyalty was average. I needed a back up commander, so I had one of two choices. I could kill him off, and hope the future gene pool would be kinder, or I could go to Ol Pope Gregory, and ask him for a crusade to Antioc, and have my green far-far below average teen go on a holy vacation. I chose the latter.

(Oh, as an aside, while you're travelling to the crusade target, recruit mercs and units along the way. Spend about much money per turn as you are saving from your crusader army's 0 upkeep. That is, if your army normally costs 2K to keep per turn spend about 2K a turn on mercs. You'll completly break even! Most of the time, You'll have quite the merc task force. If you can, just have ther mercs storm the crusade target city. That way, at the end.. your "original" units suffer no casualties, but still get the experience bonus, and you just dismiss the used, half-dead mercanaries [That's what you pay them for!])

Anyhoo, to make a long post short, I go on the crusade, and at the end of it, thanks to new traits, retuines and a relic, my crappy teen-age general has become an impressive 21-year-old with 4 commands stars, 6 chivalry and 7 piety. That, in my mind, is a great start of a very good career. And from poor begginings.

Man, I love this game.