Generic Campaign Strategy Questions

[Slaytaninc]

Ave Europa Barbarorum 2 veterans! In this thread I have some simple gameplay questions I wish to ask and get your opinions.

1. Hire mercenaries or recruit units?

In the beginning of the game there's loads of mercenary units in most starting provinces. These pools have overlap with other provinces so an enemy in them can recruit these units and deprive you of access to them. They are however quite expensive and most factions are losing money at the start so if you take them you'll be even deeper in debt quickly. So if I'm going to start building armies should I recruit all the mercs I can afford, recruit more units from my settlement(s), or just use what I already have and save units for emergencies.

2. Is building economy buildings worth it?

Obviously if you're making a profit but have few units available to spend it on, you have plenty of spare coin for buildings. Unfortunately most buildings have costs of several thousand and provide you with 200 more income or less. So in many cases it might be almost 30 turns before that investment begins to pay off. So is my instinct that spending money on your economic buildings largely a waste aside from one or two profitable places a correct one?

3. Finally, should I wait out settlement battles or assault the city walls.

This question might be a no-brainer for people who are great at siege battles but I however am not very good at them. It seems that the tradeoff is that if you lose more men you'll cut down on your losses and might turn a profit sooner, but in that case you'll have less settlements in the initial expansion phase. On the flip side if you wait and force them to sally out you take lighter casualties and have more men left over to fight again, but you continue to sink further and further into debt. The other tradeoff is that if you chew up a bunch of units and try to replace them you'll eat through your recruitment pools and the AI might be able to create a massive stack and through it after a relatively weakened garrison.


If I could get answers or opinions on these topics I will try to integrate them into my gameplay and maybe I'll start to play more involved campaigns. Alternatively I could just go back to vanilla and keep practicing campaigns there and then try to better understand the changes Europa Barbarorum 2 makes to the game. Alternatively I could just play the most overplayed faction, Rome,* in which case I'm pretty sure that even terrible gameplay will still pay off.

*No real offense meant to Romaboos

[saneel]

1. Recruit your troops and hire mercenaries that are very strong and not that expensive for upkeep.

2. First build economy and focus your one strong attacking army for taking some rich settlement with big income. Try to target settlement where you can quickly raise more troops and wont need huge garrision for law and order.

3. If no one will help the enemy always wait, you will preserve most of your army, remember EB is meant for long gameplay not quick rush. Rome was not built in a single day.

[Slaytaninc]

Thanks for your advice.