English Long Campaign is too hard

[Ohio9]

I'm in the middle of a campaign with England and it's infuriating. I'm winning battle after battle, but my progress is way too slow to reach the objectives in time. I'm about half-way through the campaign and I only have 16 provinces.

The problem is that conquest is too slow for the 225 turns the game gives me. Taking castles is realistically hard, so sieges are the best option, but those take forever. Then once you take a castle, you have to leave a decent garrison there to prevent revolts, and send replenish losses by sending units to the proper province for retraining.

Don't get me wrong, I like how to have to take steps to consolodate gains instead of just plowing across the map at insane speed. But all this really takes up too much time to get the job done in 225 turns.

It also doesn't help that I have to take Jerusalem, which is literally on the opposite side of the map. Of course that doesn't stop the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Pope from calling for crudades there in absurdly short amounts of time. He just called for a Crusade in just 9 turns! There is no way I could get an army there fast enough.

I've played all the Total War games except Rome 2, and this is the only one where the turn limit just seems absurdly unfair. They really should have included the option to turn it off.

[CHE]

Originally posted by Ohio9:

I'm in the middle of a campaign with England and it's infuriating. I'm winning battle after battle, but my progress is way too slow to reach the objectives in time. I'm about half-way through the campaign and I only have 16 provinces.

The problem is that conquest is too slow for the 225 turns the game gives me. Taking castles is realistically hard, so sieges are the best option, but those take forever. Then once you take a castle, you have to leave a decent garrison there to prevent revolts, and send replenish losses by sending units to the proper province for retraining.

Don't get me wrong, I like how to have to take steps to consolodate gains instead of just plowing across the map at insane speed. But all this really takes up too much time to get the job done in 225 turns.

It also doesn't help that I have to take Jerusalem, which is literally on the opposite side of the map. Of course that doesn't stop the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Pope from calling for crudades there in absurdly short amounts of time. He just called for a Crusade in just 9 turns! There is no way I could get an army there fast enough.

I've played all the Total War games except Rome 2, and this is the only one where the turn limit just seems absurdly unfair. They really should have included the option to turn it off.

You have to JOIN the crusade in that time, not complete it. Once you join, you have some more time to complete it. And crusading armies move fast (if they don't have agents in them, slowing them down).

If you choose huge unit scale, then you can use fewer units to garrison a settlement and keep order there.

[Ohio9]

It's still impractical to move an army all the way to the other side of the map, especially when I'm trying to take all these other provinces to meet the 45 goal.

[hagakuremoi]

In what difficulty settings are you playing?

[Ohio9]

Normal. I've won almost every battle I've fought, but even with a perfect string of victories, progress is still slow.

[Dark Angel]

Up your work rate and attack on multiple fronts. If you have built your 'Empire' correctly you should have regional commands capable of expanding aggressively on multiple fronts with their own army groups to sustain and strong logistics chain to reinforce and follow up forces of occupation following behind. Using the Utilitarian strategy will increase your ability to rapidly expand, replenish and conquor. Exotic units only slow you down. Force economy is as important and victory.

[Inardesco]

* Convert all unused castles to cities to increase your economy. Higher economy allows for more troops allows for faster expansion.
* Join all Crusades; Crusading armies don't have any upkeep; allowing you to build a new army; after succesfull Crusade the army gets experience + you get money (neglible) + a new settlement
* Trade agreements with factions you're not bordering but close enough to trade with
* In cities focus on trade buildings; roads, market, ports to increase economy

These are some small tips that should go a long way.

Originally posted by Ohio9:

It's still impractical to move an army all the way to the other side of the map, especially when I'm trying to take all these other provinces to meet the 45 goal.

Crusading/Jihad armies gain double movement speed. Just move your army to Marseille, get on a boat and you can be near Jerusalem within 10 turns.

Personally, I find the 2 years per turn a bit annoying (10 years pass for sieging 5 turns??) and have changed the game to a 1 year per turn (doubling the campaign) to make it a bit more "realistic" I once tried 6 months per turn but that was just not a good idea. 1 turn per year is a good balance in that regard and also has the added difficulty that both you and AI can field better equipped armies faster.

[Ohio9]

Originally posted by Dark Angel:

Up your work rate and attack on multiple fronts. If you have built your 'Empire' correctly you should have regional commands capable of expanding aggressively on multiple fronts with their own army groups to sustain and strong logistics chain to reinforce and follow up forces of occupation following behind. Using the Utilitarian strategy will increase your ability to rapidly expand, replenish and conquor. Exotic units only slow you down. Force economy is as important and victory.

I'm already fighting on multiple fronts. I've taken over the British Iles and France, currently fighting Spain in the West and Milan/Roman Empire in the east.

Spain is really proving to be a nightmare. Like everyone, they seem to have endless supplies of 20-stack armies, but their armies are exceptionally advanced, containing nearly all dismounted or mounted knights. This means I need exceptionally advanced armies to beat them.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Personally, I find the 2 years per turn a bit annoying (10 years pass for sieging 5 turns??) and have changed the game to a 1 year per turn (doubling the campaign) to make it a bit more "realistic" I once tried 6 months per turn but that was just not a good idea. 1 turn per year is a good balance in that regard and also has the added difficulty that both you and AI can field better equipped armies faster.

How do you change the time limit?

[Inardesco]

The annoyance of Spain is that they have, next to Hungary, access to a tier 2 castle unlike all other factions. Thus they can pump out better equiped armies a lot faster then others that need to upgrade their castles first.

Since you're playing England you have access to strong archers and once you start to utilise these effeciently you can take on any army head on without a lot of losses. Even the Mongols can be taken out very easily in chokepoints due to the possibility of deploying stakes. (mountains/rivers).

Changing the time limit is very easy. Though I'm not sure if the changes happen when you're already playing a campaign.

*I leave this open for edit after I found the lines*

[Ohio9]

How do you change the time limit?

[Inardesco]

Changing the time limit is very easy. Changes made require a new campaign to be started.

Follow the following;
1) Go to Medieval 2 folder in steam
2) Data - World - Maps - Campaign - imperial
3) Open descr_strat with notepad
4) First back it up
5) Find the following line;
start_date 1080 summer
end_date 1530 winter
timescale 2.00
6) Change timescale 2.00 to 1.00
7) save the file.

And it should be done.

Personally; I also alter the following lines;

brigand_spawn_value 20
pirate_spawn_value 28

to a higher number to reduce rebel spawning

And I give all factions x10 starting money and x2 King's purse. Not usefull if you're not confident in you beating up the AI since they'll be making more armies faster + combined with altered timescale stronger armies faster!

show_date_as_turns

By altering this (not sure how, have to look it up again) you can show the the year instead of the turn. Doesn't do anythign else.

The descr_strat has various lines that can be altered to make the game more interesting.

[Ohio9]

Well I did the first change you said. Hopefully that worked. If I can't salvage this campaign, at least I can win with the next. I've never understood what the Total War games made since the first Shogun have such short time limits. Taking your time is more fun, since you get to fight more with the best technology units. Battles with mostly town militia and peasant archers are hardly epic.

[chevjl]

I enjoy crusading its actually where i do most of my fighting. I usually turtle in europe and expand in africa and the middle east as you wont upset any of your neighbours. Then once you have enough money you can expand in europe.

[alation13]

I remember when I first got the game, I felt that the turn limit was too short. But in reality it is not hard to complete with any faction within the turn limit once you get the hang of it. The BEST point I can give is that this game is DIFFERENT than the earlier ones, you can not afford to just sit around and build up for 50 or 100 turns.

Get out and expand, always be at war with someone and keep pushing. If you are having troubles late game getting enough provences, the new world is a very easy target, cavs run over all natives with minimal losses and arty bashes down walls so no siege time is needed.

With a little practice I was able to complete the long objectives with france even before the new world became able to be attacked.

[Ohio9]

I have been expending from the start. I've been in a constant state of warfare since the start of the game. It's just tough to expand constantly because the enemies seem to have endless waves of 20-stacks to throw at me, and after most battles I have to stop for a bit to replenish casualties. Also castles are pretty hard to take if there is a 20-stack inside, forcing me to siege them instead of a direct assault.

It also doesn't help that the pope keeps demanding I cease hostilities, forcing me to wait several turns to avoid hostilities.

[hagakuremoi]

Maybe you just need more practice. To me Shogun 2 is even more restrictive than this.

I started to play your campaign normal/normal, it is turn 87 and have 20 provinces, and the goal of 45 provinces doesn't look that unrealistic in 225 turns.