Total War: Rule Britannia, literally.

[Mad hatters in jeans]

I usually used them to sabotage buildings, far away farms and mines to put a small dent in opposition income. And as spies. On occasion i got lucky with an assassination attempt. They're not so bad but they are kinda meh.

The AI has unlimited income, sabotaging farms and mines does nothing -_- the only real targets are military buildings and happiness buildings, but they're both insanely hard to sabotage. If you could buy rakes, it wouldn't matter as much if one failed, but I hardly ever get any.

oh lol.

[The Huskar Social Union]

The AI has unlimited income, sabotaging farms and mines does nothing -_- the only real targets are military buildings and happiness buildings, but they're both insanely hard to sabotage. If you could buy rakes, it wouldn't matter as much if one failed, but I hardly ever get any.

oh lol.

I mainly raid those types of buildings to get the character's skill level up but he is right, tis best to stick to Military buildings to disrupt production of good units and such.

[Oterro]

I mainly raid those types of buildings to get the character's skill level up but he is right, tis best to stick to Military buildings to disrupt production of good units and such.

Nah, he's incorrect.

Factions rebel due to bankruptcy all the time - specifically the very small, ie the barbary states, or very poor, the Ottomans.

[Genivaria]

I have a tendency to field mobile cavalry armies as a sort of 'patrol' force for brigands and enemy family members.
I field a more professional standing army for besieging enemy cities.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

My understanding of the AI's finances is that it basically can ignore money for purchasing purposes. This is necessary since the AI is stupid and roughly half of the AI factions will be utterly broke at any given moment.

The AI also gets bonuses on income from its various buildings.

[The Huskar Social Union]

I mainly raid those types of buildings to get the character's skill level up but he is right, tis best to stick to Military buildings to disrupt production of good units and such.

Nah, he's incorrect.

Factions rebel due to bankruptcy all the time - specifically the very small, ie the barbary states, or very poor, the Ottomans.

oh right. I justn ever really bothered with commerce buildings and focused on military structures, will have to use this alot more then in shogun2.

[The Huskar Social Union]

I have a tendency to field mobile cavalry armies as a sort of 'patrol' force for brigands and enemy family members.
I field a more professional standing army for besieging enemy cities.

Cav armies kicked ass in Medieval 2 and can decimate a force in Empire or napoleon if you use them right, but in shogun2 they never worked for me. Bloody ashigaru spear walls.

[Genivaria]

I have a tendency to field mobile cavalry armies as a sort of 'patrol' force for brigands and enemy family members.
I field a more professional standing army for besieging enemy cities.

Cav armies kicked ass in Medieval 2 and can decimate a force in Empire or napoleon if you use them right, but in shogun2 they never worked for me. Bloody ashigaru spear walls.

Well I'm talking about an army of Politikoi. Greek skirmish cavalry.

[The Matthew Islands]

I have a tendency to field mobile cavalry armies as a sort of 'patrol' force for brigands and enemy family members.
I field a more professional standing army for besieging enemy cities.

Yeah, I do this as well.

Usually a mix of heavy and light cavalry for patrolling. When going to besiege a city though I usually field a heavy infantry force, with about 3 cavalry units (including general) and 2 archer units.

If I can see large enemy armies out in the field, I usually spy on them to see what their set up is, and deploy accordingly.

Always found cavalry centred factions the easiest to beat though. The Mongols never posed a threat in either Rome or Med 2. I would just ignore their field armies, and target their cities.

[Oterro]

light dragoons are the only cavalry you need in empirah

anything else and you're doing it wrong

ride horses
blast fools
run away
reload
ride horses
blast fools

repeat

[Mad hatters in jeans]

light dragoons are the only cavalry you need in empirah

anything else and you're doing it wrong

ride horses
blast fools
run away
reload
ride horses
blast fools

repeat

and they get the awesome bonus for repression. Can't love dragoons enough.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Cav armies kicked ass in Medieval 2 and can decimate a force in Empire or napoleon if you use them right, but in shogun2 they never worked for me. Bloody ashigaru spear walls.

Well I'm talking about an army of Politikoi. Greek skirmish cavalry.

Probably work the same as in medieval 2. Light cav are the worst to fight against and best to hav in my opinion. Run in, throw stuff, run away and repeat this till out of ammo and charge from all directions.

[Genivaria]

Well I'm talking about an army of Politikoi. Greek skirmish cavalry.

Probably work the same as in medieval 2. Light cav are the worst to fight against and best to hav in my opinion. Run in, throw stuff, run away and repeat this till out of ammo and charge from all directions.

Basically yeah. Its fun to watch them try to turn to face you when you flank them.
It gets tricky though when you divide your forces to 'pull' an enemy unit in different direction.
Do you know what I mean?

[The Huskar Social Union]

Probably work the same as in medieval 2. Light cav are the worst to fight against and best to hav in my opinion. Run in, throw stuff, run away and repeat this till out of ammo and charge from all directions.

Basically yeah. Its fun to watch them try to turn to face you when you flank them.
It gets tricky though when you divide your forces to 'pull' an enemy unit in different direction.
Do you know what I mean?

You mean:
Run off in one direction with one unit of cavalry and have another hit the target in the rear when it turns to follow and then have the running unit double back and hit them as well?

[Genivaria]

Basically yeah. Its fun to watch them try to turn to face you when you flank them.
It gets tricky though when you divide your forces to 'pull' an enemy unit in different direction.
Do you know what I mean?

You mean:
Run off in one direction with one unit of cavalry and have another hit the target in the rear when it turns to follow and then have the running unit double back and hit them as well?

Precisely. Like a predator picking off the prey who has fallen behind I will isolate the enemy unit, surround it, and crush it.
Then I find my next target. Rinse and repeat.

[Oterro]

and they get the awesome bonus for repression. Can't love dragoons enough.

you don't need oppression when you bring the glorious light of the revolution to the oppressed masses

[Imperium Nova Roma]

You mean:
Run off in one direction with one unit of cavalry and have another hit the target in the rear when it turns to follow and then have the running unit double back and hit them as well?

Precisely. Like a predator picking off the prey who has fallen behind I will isolate the enemy unit, surround it, and crush it.
Then I find my next target. Rinse and repeat.

I guess that works against the clueless AI.

Any decent micromanager however wouldn't be tricked into running after cavalry.

[Genivaria]

Precisely. Like a predator picking off the prey who has fallen behind I will isolate the enemy unit, surround it, and crush it.
Then I find my next target. Rinse and repeat.

I guess that works against the clueless AI.

Any decent micromanager however wouldn't be tricked into running after cavalry.

No. Against another player it wouldn't, but I'd like to ask. How effective would that be in reality?

[Imperium Nova Roma]

I guess that works against the clueless AI.

Any decent micromanager however wouldn't be tricked into running after cavalry.

No. Against another player it wouldn't, but I'd like to ask. How effective would that be in reality?

In Medieval warfare? Unless its an undisciplined and reckless group you're luring, they'll generally stay with the rest of their force. Most footmen know you can't quite run after a horse.

Now, if you attack with infantry and fake route, most would look to roll up your collapsed line like a carpet. A hidden calvary unit could then pound into their backs while the infantry hit back.

Really, a hammer and anvil works wonders if you can get behind the enemy line.

[Forsher]

I need to ask, in ETW does anyone else find the rakes completely useless? They have a low chance of succeeding with a sabotage or infiltrate, and it isnt worth using them to kill generals because if they are a good general your rake will be executed, or if it's a low ranking general, there's no point assasinating him because it works in your favour

And they hardly ever spawn! The 18th century was awash with people who would be happy to kill for money, and yet i've only ever had two, 3-star rakes in a single campaign. Are there any mods that can fix this?

Rakes are shit in Empire, probably because the royal family system isn't as fleshed out and prominent - I think leaders in Rome and stuff got bonuses to recruiting spys or something.

I think you can practice assassinating armies that don't have generals though - like if there's no general unit the army will technically have a general anyway, but he won't have bodyguards and it's very easy to kill him (even though it'll have no effect whatsoever). Keep doing it and your rake should get better.

I think you can also use him to duel gentlemen.

MTW is so much better. One can train inquisitors to kill off unwanted Catholic enemies. I eliminated a faction that way once by killing the princes and then waiting for the king to die. It was fun. And failure just makes it easier later on. And assassinationg inquisitors is difficult even when they have no valour so you lose hardly any.

But the best thing to do with them is train heaps and put them in any enemy province. If you have enough: instant rebellion. I accidentally plonked them in one of my provinces and tried to restore loyalty with more men. I had thousands of men and no effect...

My understanding of the AI's finances is that it basically can ignore money for purchasing purposes. This is necessary since the AI is stupid and roughly half of the AI factions will be utterly broke at any given moment.

The AI also gets bonuses on income from its various buildings.

In MTW I reckon they lose money like anyone else. I base this on an examination of the Germans who were confined to one interior province. I never noticed an increase in the number of soldiers they had.

[OMGeverynameistaken]

I just know that in ETW minor German states can field multiple stacks when I have trouble enough maintaining a decent income with one full stack.

Of course, I tend to leave small garrisons in most cities, since I don't like relying on militia alone to defeat the horde of mini-stacks the AI inevitably sends after you.

[Forsher]

I just know that in ETW minor German states can field multiple stacks when I have trouble enough maintaining a decent income with one full stack.

Of course, I tend to leave small garrisons in most cities, since I don't like relying on militia alone to defeat the horde of mini-stacks the AI inevitably sends after you.

From what one of my friends tells me a total army of 20k is quite large in ETW. (For comparison that is slightly bigger than than the rebel faction in the civil war from my last game which was less than half of my forces prior to the split, in MTW.)

[The Matthew Islands]

Also, has anybody noticed how ridiculous some of the populations of the territories in Empire are?

France was at one point at 62 million. Hindustan in India is at 41 million. New York and Philadelphia are both at like, 100,000-200,000 while Florida is about 1.1 million...

[Lenehen]

Also, has anybody noticed how ridiculous some of the populations of the territories in Empire are?

France was at one point at 62 million. Hindustan in India is at 41 million. New York and Philadelphia are both at like, 100,000-200,000 while Florida is about 1.1 million...

Bengal with upgraded rice-paddies grows by 600,000 per turn

[Allandium]

Just completed my Great Britain campaign on Empire! Conquered every available region by 1823. (hell yeah that's alot of turns!) Had 50 regions by 1799 and decided to conquer everyone else. If anyone needs any advice for any of the below factions (the ones I've played), let me know:

Great Britain
Prussia
Sweden
Russia
Maratha Confederacy
France (hated this one)
Ottoman Empire

I got a unlock all factions mod and took over the world as the Knights of St John.