Live Blogs The Idiot General Conquers The World

arrowstorm2012-04-01 18:57:04

So for this run through, I’ll be playing as the English. And before you start asking why, it’s for no other reason than they start on an island and the last time I tried to play this campaign I had the four countries surrounding me all declare war on me simultaneously. A little misunderstanding with a princess. Don’t ask.

As for settings, there will be no advisor (Most. Annoying. Sound. EVER.), all the difficulties are set to medium, there is no battle time limit and we’ll be playing the proper ‘long’ campaign.

After skipping the opening cutscene (I’ve already seen it before), I discover that my ‘country’ comprises a whole three cities. Great. On further investigation however, I discover that it in fact only contains one city. The other two are castles. Even better, my only port isn’t even on the sodding island! I’ve got a lot of work to do. These cities don’t even have roads!

So I get started by ordering my two island cities to build ports and queue up some mines for London as well. Once I start building a military I’ll need all the money I can get ‘cos I’ll burn through it like there’s no tomorrow. Then, in a move as un-English as I can possibly imagine, I sign a trade treaty with the French. Why? Because they’re the only ones who are actually an immediate threat (the Scots don’t count, they’re on MY island and I’m already sharpening my blade while eying up Malcolm’s neck) and if I can buddy up to them early on it’ll save me a lot of trouble in the long run.

Meanwhile, after browsing through my (severely limited) options I start training mailed knights from Nottingham and Caen, since they appear to be the only units I can have which won’t wet themselves or die the second battle begins. Unfortunately, I can only train them one at a time so for the moment it looks like those four rebel cities adjacent to my own will get to stay independent. For now.

My two fleets are combined into one because in M2 naval battles are auto-resolved so numbers mean more than anything. I sneak a spy into the rebel settlement of York (and get quite a nice video of my spy dressing as the enemy after giving a guard a tap on the head) and end the turn since there’s pretty much nothing else I can do at this stage.

Comments

GameChainsaw Since: Dec, 1969

Apr 7th 2012 at 10:00:40 AM

I'm a veteran of this game, so my strategies may be a little ambitious for a starting gamer. If you need some advice drop me a PM.

What I usually do as the English is take York, then Dublin and then Caernarvon with one army, and Rennes, Aquitaine (its to the south, on the French west coast) and then finally start working my way through the rebel provinces on the borders between France, French England and Germany. If you're lightning quick you can seize everything south of Scotland, a massive chunk of France, and Alsace Lorraine, as well as part of Switzerland, without drawing the ire of the big factions. While doing this, I negotiate perfect relations with France, ensuring they are on my side and go after me last.

However, if you're a newbie to the game, I doubt you'll be able to do that; you have to be prepared to fight rebel armies which significantly outnumber your side and you need luck. What I'd suggest is taking York, Caernarvon and Dublin, before striking Scotland and destroying it quickly. Rather than try to take on the massive and dangerous France, try advancing up the coast while maintaining relations that are as good as possible with both France and Germany; get mutual military access and perfect relations with France if possible (it's doable.) Once you've taken everything you can (try to at least take the low countries) I then invade Norway and Sweden before taking Denmark. Once you've got Scandinavia, northern France and the British Isles firmly in your grasp, you'll have the wealth and military might to go breaking heads anywhere you like; very few factions will have the strength to resist you by that point, as long as you keep a good ratio of castles to cities. Generally I have one castle per region of the empire; in this case, one for France, one for Britain and one for Scandinavia. This lets me churn out armies at a reasonable rate, while my cities fund those armies.