Newbie and a little bewildered!

[Incognitor]

Hi I'm really liking this game, I played through the tutorial to get a grasp of *how* to perform the important functions...

Where I'm getting smoked, though, is actually plaing through a game. I'm playing on Normal difficulty and for the first few games I've chosen York as my starting province.

I find that I'm staring at the screen not knowing what to do first. I've taken the advice of making my sons into merchants and trying to start trade, but I get trade at around 1 or 2 golds.

I am waiting a long time for gold to build up, and I don't want to raise taxes. More often than not, enemies will come into my country and start raiding, and I haven't had the gold to build proper structures to produce effective military to defeind. And I can never seem to reach 1000 gold to even hire a knight.

Is there some kind of newby walkthrough or steps I can take to at least get a foothold? My games seem to end after a couple hours... :sad:

Thanks!

[Majesty]

I had the same problem...i'm new too.

I picked Spain in Early and Normal setting. Burgandy continually raided me and every time I would bring in a marshal and troops, he'd destroy them. He finally raided my only town and wiped out my bloodline. I got frustrated and picked Munster. I did what one of the threads here said: start making trade agreements with the rich countries and make 7 of your 9 knights into merchants. It takes a little time but fortunately Leinster is timid and didn't attack me yet. I made some non-aggression pacts too. The money is starting to roll in now and i've built a granary and a few other civilian buildings. I used my last 2 spots for a spy and a marshal. I had the marshall get a couple of groups of peasants and I sent the spy to Leinster to mess with him because I want to take over that province next. I might do the same thing against Ulster. But I think it helped that I started making trade agreements early with the British Isles provinces. I'm gonna slowly break the agreements with the cheaper ones as I expand. But the richer ones like France, Germany, and Byzantine I'm gonna keep. Also might convert one of the knights to a builder so i can get things done faster. So far so good. Hope that helps!

[Mortimer]

my first halfway successful attempt was with the highlands, and beat the game bye kindom advantage with wessex, so you can do well on normal, try opening a trade rout with byzantia, germany and/or france. then you will have money rolling in, then I try to make swordsmen, spearmen or a cheap unique unit, and once I get an army, I wait and defend, then when I win the battle I try for makeing them vassels or go on the offencive. if they attack me before I get an army I just fill it up with peasants, you can even win with a full army of pesants, usually that is what they have when attacking early on normal. I also found making trade goods raises the price from trade, so I try to get a bunch of them going as I work on better troop types.

It seems daunting at first, you are either small and have no money or big and have too many cities, but in time you will get comfortable then wish there was a harder setting...maybe in a patch :)

[Angryminer]

My usual starting procedure:
- Start the game, press PAUSE to get an overview over my nation.
- Take a look at the political map. Am I at war with someone? What agreements do I already have? If I'm at war I propose a white peace, which is usually declined, but later in the game they are usually accepted. Then I check for trade agreements. The bigger the nation of your trading partner the better the revenues. Also, good relations will improve the revenues. So Germany, Byzantia, Kiev and France are top on the list of trading partners.
- Now money shouldn't be a too big problem and I know wether I have to recon with enemy armies. If I'm at war I recruit a marshall and give him some peasants to protect my town. That is a basic defense army that will be able to defend my town for the next 20-30 minutes.
- Then I check the town(s). What basic builings are there? Is there a townguard? If not, construct it, it's vital. Am I at war? Construct training grounds and a fletcher, then a swordsmith (check what units can be recruited in your realms, or you might construct useless structures!).
When I'm not at war I build the basic economic buildings like granary, inn, tax collector, toolsmith, church and later on the advanced structures.

That should get me started with a constant money-flow (look at your trade-routes every once in a while, especially france and germany tend to loose much territory and so does the trade-revenue) and a good start for my military enterprises.

I hope that helps. :go:

Angryminer

[chavenduka]

I agree with angry but with one addition: as soon as you are at war, create 2 marshals with full stacks of peasants and immediately start taking castles. (Note that if you start at war you can often use your king and prince(s) for this and use your money for the troops themselves.) Keep these 2 armies side-by-side at all times and you have what passes in KoH as an unstoppable force. Upgrade your troops occasionally but don't bother with the really expensive units.

Ignore farms/monastaries/villages and go only after other marshals and castles. Conquer one or two provinces and offer peace. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. (Incidentally, this is not my preferred way of playing a strategy game...I prefer to build slowly and fight defensively, but when a much-larger faction goes to war with you, duty calls.)

I recently employed this strategy as tiny Georgia against the mighty Byzantines, who I started at war with. In disgust I conquered all the way to Constantinople without losing a single battle.

BTW I do this on "Hard." Never tried an easier setting, and already gave up on the game as too easy.

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Then why don't you stand on the defensive? If its too easy, just wait until the massive hordes of byzintina come after you. Edit: better still, declare war on the papacy, you will get plenty of fighting, and probably lose. :wink:

[chavenduka]

Gustavus (one of my all-time favs BTW...too bad he died so quickly),

Yes, I thought about a self-induced limitation such as not allowing 2 marshals to fight in the same battle. Then I saw that the GoG mod has some reason to hope for more challenging AI, so I'm waiting for 1.6. And keeping my fingers crossed.

[Incognitor]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I'll definitely give them a shot... :go: I think once I get over the money hump, I'll be able to handle my battles and figure things out...

[Gabo]

Check the mini map, looking for proper trade agreements. Also, look for hostile kingdoms. You can choose if you want to peace them. I usually don´t, as I consider them my "natural enemies".

Check the royal family, if any member has the economic talent high, put them into trading with foreign kingdoms. In fact, hire the entire royal family into different functions.

If you have a small kingdom, don´t go hiring too much marshalls: they require alot of money for upkeep. In the beggining use peasants and light armed swordsmen as primary military force; as money continue to roll in, change into whatever your kingdom special units is (At least I do that, ie. Playing Byzantia my primary infantry force are roman inphantry).

You might wanna put three merchants or more in the beggining of the game.

Check your starting city, looking for natural resources, available military units.

Once you get the esscencials, you'll have plenty of choices.


Good luck

[Lord Richard I]

My start:

I get a trade pact with anyone that will accept. then I pick out the two best ones. (As long as they do not border me Unless I plan to ally with them.)
I never build the tax building. (I have better uses for the space.) Move my field commander into a town but do not buy any troops. Until I get the message that I am being invaded.
building the tavern first then town watch. then work on the unit buildings. i always build in every town the wall and church and if available, the docks. I then use any remaining spaces to build goods buildings or other defense if the town has no land feature. I am currently at 10 provances. make 1400 gold and have the tax set at none in the treasury screen. every random vote, my king is one of the selected or is a voter. My income is mostly trade or from any increase the other buildings get or from the one crusader army I sent and have never recalled. He marches around and burns everything. They do no seem to be able to get the income to stop him. Since all my towns are maxed out. I spend all my income funding other countries wars. It tends to keep both my allies and enemies at bay. it is funny that I have an allie that appears to be in feud with me but he will not break the pact. The rumors say he is losing his war, but the map does not change for him and he has not asked for me to join in. So I just keep tossing him money and then toss his enemy some too. I am sure they are both building peasant armie, hit each other but never seem to get teh overwhelming power to seige any towns.

[crpcarrot]

hi anewb too still on first campaign

is there any point in granting weak poor nations trade rights? it will only let them get richer or will i get some money as well?

the other thing is is there any point in having more than one town producing the same trade good? will this allow me to tell my trader to sell that particular trade good to a particular nation in exchange for another good? i know i can try this out and reload if it is not what i expect but i play without reloading and have only one save cos that would just make the game easier. any help greatly appreciated.

[Angryminer]

Welcome to the forum, crpcarrot! :halloha:
1. It might be possible that the small poor nation has a tradegood you want to import, but as this is rather unpropable I'd say no, there is no advantage.
2. You will get the other bonuses of the production-buildings and merchant-governors (at least 4 stars of experience) will generate slightly more income in this town but there is no further advantage.

Angryminer

[Lord Boreal]

On the subject of trade and good trade partners, I find Germany, Byzantia, Kiev and Fatimids to be the most profitable in the Early Period, at the start of the game. I will of course sign more agreements with nations who I see regularly become rich, Sweden and Poland for example. Cordoba and Italy aren't bad either at the start. I rarely trade with France because they usually get pounded in my games by an assortment of enemies; Burgundy, Italy and Pamplona are usual contenders.

[Incognitor]

I've taken your advice and after several false starts, I've managed to get a good foothold.

My question now is, how do you expand?

I've taken over a few territories, and now my court is full, I've got marshals, landlords and both princes are merchants. I am unied with East Anglia, and making decent money, but how do I go about conquering other countries if my court is unable to hold any one else to govern?

So how many countries do you find you control at a maximum?

I want to own all of Europe -- is this uhm ridiculous? :P

Thanks!

[Lord Richard I]

You don't need to have governors. I never use them I run 2 merch, 1 priest, one spy and 4 marshals. I own most of north Europe, all of england and now am cutting into southern Europe. I find no real use for landlords.