Lombard League is one of the hardest one sword battles

[James3157]

Even with youtube videos showing how to do it including one as recent only one year ago, this battle seems to be very difficult on hard and even on moderate difficulty. For example, even on moderate difficulty the enemy spams units constantly and I hardly get a break where both moderate and hard difficulty make it seem like your opponents are too strong and especially for early in game. It just seems to be that despite it being one sword difficulty the enemies seem to be overpowered and was perhaps designed for pro players. I try to boom, but even then I hardly get enough time to take out one of the civilizations early in the game. I have not tried standard difficulty yet, but I might have to and hoping I can at least get bronze without having to cheat.

[James3157]

Regardless of whether I go north or south this battle seems to be very difficult. Even youtube videos do not seem to be much help. I literally spent hours trying to win on hard or moderate difficulty, but every time I failed. I try to build a castle close to shore, but even then with enough time my castles will always get destroyed eventually even with castle upgrades and trying to repair it. Does not matter if I have 50, 60, or even 70 villagers. I seem to fail every time.

[BirbNotBird]

My take on this map was.

Go for south, only a boat move up to north.

Focus boom in south, in north wall up with stonewall between northland and next land region, in where shallow water is. Build it a little farther fron shore to avoid enemy target it. Also build a few gathering resources in north to trick enemy. For some reasons, nobody want to tear the wall off.

Focus on castles in easten southern area of south base. Also build navy with a few fire galley at first then transition into galley-line. Don't wall south fully since they will attack the wall, making the game go way bad.

Keep protecting till you have good navy to effectively handicap Byzantine.

[JCountry]

I've beaten it often on Moderate. Its a slow map, north and south are both viable, but I prefer North. As soon as you get there start fortifying, you want two castles and a wall protecting the crossing, keep your troops in reserve and start booming. As soon as you can, move back to the south and take it. It has two crossing which are harder to defend but the extra resources are needed. Especially since you want to be fighting on water by this point, not land. Keep only a handful of land troops, mainly for defending. The rest of your army will be Galley line and siege ships. You want to take out the naval city first. Leave the walls, you will want them intact.

[James3157]

Thank you both. I also did not think about walling the north (except for where I am supposed to go after Genoa and replace all of their gates) or focusing more on navy than land units, but perhaps that might make sense. On standard difficulty I went after Verona and Richard the Lion Heart instead of Genoa or Venice and built gates on Verona's former location with a wonder to prevent enemies from entering and it worked. One strategy that seemed to work without cheating, but only for standard difficulty is not allowing your first town center to be lost, because you could then complete the walled area there is well. Can saving your first town center work on harder difficulties than standard? It took me two hours to win, but I did eventually win the game.

[James3157]

Worth pointing out that I think building castles in the north are more exposed to ships than the south. Another disadvantage in the north as well is that if ships focus on only one castle the other castle right next to it may not be able to help, because the north shore is horizontal. I would appreciate a response to my other comment as well, because it involves a question.

[BirbNotBird]

Originally posted by James3157:

Worth pointing out that I think building castles in the north are more exposed to ships than the south. Another disadvantage in the north as well is that if ships focus on only one castle the other castle right next to it may not be able to help, because the north shore is horizontal. I would appreciate a response to my other comment as well, because it involves a question.

Yea you probably prefer not to boom/ defense there since they offer little beside resources.

As long as your navy, calvary, defense in South is pretty strong, even you can overcome Hard difficulty at some points.

[erik9595]

While I mainly focused on the north I also built a camp in the south, which was overrun in the end but I was able to collect a lot of resources. For me the enemy navy was the biggest probelms, but Teuton castles can reach cannon galleons which is a huge help.

[James3157]

Has anyone attempted to save the first town center on a harder difficulty than standard? Does that strategy work on harder than standard? You could for example still send towards the north, but is the first town center worth saving for harder than standard difficulty? Like I said earlier it seems to work for me with saving it on standard difficulty, but not sure about harder difficulty settings. I will admit however that the main reason why I was able to save the first town center on standard difficulty was from building a castle right next to it.

[MassMetalizer]

This mission was the absolute bane of my existence on the CD back when you only had 75 pop

[Kiwichris]

This mission is far harder now than in the original game. The civs against you changed and they get far better team bonuses to use against you.

Tip: If you don't build a castle Henry the Lion won't turn on you, giving you an ally and trading partner.

[James3157]

Originally posted by Kiwichris:

This mission is far harder now than in the original game. The civs against you changed and they get far better team bonuses to use against you.

Tip: If you don't build a castle Henry the Lion won't turn on you, giving you an ally and trading partner.

Henry the Lion as an ally is useless unfortunately, because he will not attack neighboring Verona or Venice. Even if you never build a castle do not expect help from him.

[BirbNotBird]

Originally posted by James3157:

Originally posted by Kiwichris:

This mission is far harder now than in the original game. The civs against you changed and they get far better team bonuses to use against you.

Tip: If you don't build a castle Henry the Lion won't turn on you, giving you an ally and trading partner.

Henry the Lion as an ally is useless unfortunately, because he will not attack neighboring Verona or Venice. Even if you never build a castle do not expect help from him.

Yea, this is why I never mention Henry in my strat.

He is pretty much anticipating for war.

[James3157]

So apparently on moderate and hard difficulties your opponent Genoa attacks the town center immediately contrary to standard difficulty where you have more time to defend and build a castle to save it. I would be surprised actually since nobody has answered my question yet for harder difficulties if your first town center can be saved or not on harder difficulty than standard.

[James3157]

I followed recommended strategies (but was unable to save the first town center on moderate difficulty) such as focusing mainly on ships towards Venice, walls, and castles and it helped me win on moderate difficulty by building on Venice. It took me two hours to win, but thanks for the advice and much appreciated. Although I lost a few castles I did eventually win on moderate difficulty.

[BirbNotBird]

Originally posted by James3157:

I followed recommended strategies (but was unable to save the first town center on moderate difficulty) such as focusing mainly on ships towards Venice, walls, and castles and it helped me win on moderate difficulty by building on Venice. It took me two hours to win, but thanks for the advice and much appreciated. Although I lost a few castles I did eventually win on moderate difficulty.

Tbf, on hard I lost like three to five castles.

Byzantine navy is kinda nerfed after the ROR patch (their siege ships are Dromon), but their sensitive range means you need to micro castles too, since castles just priotize whatever closest to them (galleys and fire galleys)