Strategy for Early Poland on Hard?

[Trey]

Hi y'all, I've been playing this game for a long time and have recently decided to go through and beat it as all of the factions on 'Hard' difficulty after doing the same on 'Normal'. I'm having a bit of a tough time with Poland, specifically because of the Golden Horde.

My early game strategy is usually to quickly take all of the open provinces around Poland as far east as Kyiv and Lithuania, ignore Russia, build up as much of an economy as I can, then beeline to Feudal Sergeants and crossbowmen. I've mostly been leaving my non-rebel neighbors alone with the exception of a few clashes with the HRE and Hungary.

Problem is this isn't working; the Horde always spawn with elite cavalry that stomp me no matter what and I end up losing every province all the way to Poland and Moldavia. Simply not taking those provinces in the early game doesn't seem like a good option because I need the money to build armies, but even when I have a half dozen or more stacked up armies I still lose every fight against the Horde.

I tried another tactic of only building economy buildings and forts everywhere east of Poland to force the Horde to spread their forces out, but it doesn't seem to be working well either.

I usually just quit after losing most of my territory. Is there a better way to do this, or do I just need to take the L and play through losing all of that land?

[gradualsmith]

What era are you starting in? The hoard doesn't appear for aaaaages from the regular first start date.

[Trey]

I was starting on 'Early' - I think I was just moving too slow. I got lucky and the Turks hemmed the Byzantines into the Balkans; I was able to take all of their provinces (and some in the East I had been avoiding) and build up a much stronger economy and stomp the Horde once they came in. Now I'm just slowly pushing into Western Europe :)

[漢斯]

The Golden Horde came at the year 1231, is it possible to develop Chivalric Sergeants before the year 1231?

[gradualsmith]

I can't remember when Chiv Sergeants come into play, but I remember fighting off the hoard with them, so I would say yes.

The 'big date' for most of the important changes like that is 1205, but I can't remember everything that changes on that date.

[漢斯]

Originally posted by gradualsmith:

I can't remember when Chiv Sergeants come into play, but I remember fighting off the hoard with them, so I would say yes.

The 'big date' for most of the important changes like that is 1205, but I can't remember everything that changes on that date.

The year 1205 is the starting year for High period.

All the units for each period can be checked in custom battle.

Chivalric Sergeants can be found for Poland in High period.
That means Poland can develop it from the year 1205.

My question is asking for playing Poland in High mode.
We know that the Golden Horde come at the year 1231.
So is it possible for Poland to develop Chivalric Sergeants before the year 1231?
If it is possible, using Chivalric Sergeants is better than Feudal Sergeants.

Also, having armor +3 for Chivalric Sergeants will be better for defend.

[漢斯]

Originally posted by Trey:

Hi y'all, I've been playing this game for a long time and have recently decided to go through and beat it as all of the factions on 'Hard' difficulty after doing the same on 'Normal'. I'm having a bit of a tough time with Poland, specifically because of the Golden Horde.

My early game strategy is usually to quickly take all of the open provinces around Poland as far east as Kyiv and Lithuania, ignore Russia, build up as much of an economy as I can, then beeline to Feudal Sergeants and crossbowmen. I've mostly been leaving my non-rebel neighbors alone with the exception of a few clashes with the HRE and Hungary.

Problem is this isn't working; the Horde always spawn with elite cavalry that stomp me no matter what and I end up losing every province all the way to Poland and Moldavia. Simply not taking those provinces in the early game doesn't seem like a good option because I need the money to build armies, but even when I have a half dozen or more stacked up armies I still lose every fight against the Horde.

I tried another tactic of only building economy buildings and forts everywhere east of Poland to force the Horde to spread their forces out, but it doesn't seem to be working well either.

I usually just quit after losing most of my territory. Is there a better way to do this, or do I just need to take the L and play through losing all of that land?

I think Poland should avoid any war with Holy Roman Empire and Hungary.


If there is no Crusade go to Kyiv, let Novgorod get it and make Novgorod fighting with the Golden Horde first.

The point is you should not be the first one to fight with the Golden Horde, if you are not using cheat code.


Keep your army concentrated together.
Wait until the Golden Horde disperses the army.

Focus on one direction for defend and counterattack.
No need to be too aggressive.

[Trey]

Fighting Hungary actually worked for me on that particular playthrough but I think usually it's not good to do. Novgorod sometimes won't push out and turtles too much but I agree - Novgorod + Byzantines fighting Golden Horde is better than trying to fight them yourself :)