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Here's some more info on what I did. I think a lot of the 'strategies' I'm using probably shouldn't work, or at least shouldn't work as well as they do. Main issues are even battles being won too convincingly for the player with a simplified strategy, the ability to win sieges as an attacker when significantly outnumbered, 200 charm+2-3m denars being sufficient to paint the map, and hunting/releasing lords being sufficient for developing relations with clans.
Here's uncut VODs and a writeup:
I was able to 'Win' the game in around 3 years with a few strategies that are new to me, so I thought I'd share. By 'Win' I mean get to the point where the game cannot fight back effectively: I can control war/peace, win field battles, win sieges, and recruit clans without resistance. I did not use any strategies that I consider exploits (no smithing, no khans/fians, no retreat-cheese, no bug exploits, etc.). Sandbox max difficulty. Streamed live of course
Clan tier 0: Start Battanian - speed is OP. Take a bunch of INT skills. I took cunning for scouting, but the game is over so quickly in 1.2.6 that cunning skills probably aren't worth the investment. In 1.2.6 the AI is at it's weakest since early in early access, so you can just run at fights.
Buy all the hogs, butcher, and sell the meat/hides. Buy a simple short bow and 3 quivers of cheap arrows. walk to lageta. Max athletics ASAP Do 'leg day' on looters along the way: ride away, dismount, shoot looter, get on horse, ride away, etc. Make sure all four speed perks in athletics are taken. Avoid wearing heavy armor early.
Butcher hogs in lageta. Ask arena master where tournament is. Go from tourney to tourney smashing looters along the way. Grinding riding with horse/bow is a huge pain but gut it out after you get 100 athletics. Riding perk nomadic traditions (75) is required before hiring for this strategy. After 100 athletics empire tourneys are free money using 'spin to win' dodge strategy. Don't waste time on contracts unless they are totally free. Hire scout if needed
After 2 focus in riding and 5 in athletics, put 2 in 2h, 3 in leadership, then max medic , then steward, then charm, then engineering.
Clan tier 1 or day 20, whichever is later - try to end up near Askar. Hire a bunch of foot troops. We are making 80-90 aserai veteran infantry (AVI) for our first troops. They are flexible and powerful. Buy 75-100 horses and a bunch of food. if you have leftover money try to buy some decentish armor. Merc for whoever is fighting against the aserai, and start taking hostile actions against aserai for free recruits.At this point we are going from village to village and smashing peasants, and possibly taking an opportunistic lord fight. Hideouts are worth less than village fights - don't go out of your way for bandits/hideouts.
The eastern portion of the aserai lands have a lot of favorable choke points. Use buildings and shieldwall/square formation to protect yourself while getting 15-40 kills a fight with the 2h axe. We can usually zone the militia archer out of the fight with terrain Power level your team of 100% AVI using baptized in blood. Try to lose some troops every fight until you get 75 medic. it's okay to lose 30-50 troops if you see a lord fight you can win, they come back fast!
Clan tier 2-3: We are looking to merc and fight against the empire factions and start adding palatine guards into the mix. They are good all-around archers. If we lose a bunch of AVI we might replace with legionarries. Do not make shocks. Do not make cav. Do not make xbows. Archers and shield infantry only. Once we are at max party size we should be able to start hunting lords.
If your merc contract expires don't waste time finding a new one. Just start smashing lords from a soft faction. The area between rhotae, jalarmys, and amitatis usually has a lot of western empire lords. smash villages if you need troops or can't find lords. Remember when we smash lords we are releasing htem to farm charm/relations so they will join our kingdom after.
Clan tier 4- Autumn or winter 1085 - We want to start off in a town, not a castle. Remember the AI is soft and we can kill 800 troops with just our party if we are the attacker in a seige. Being the attacker in a siege is a huge advantage. Find a rebel faction or a faction at war and take a town away from the warfront. If possible buy all the food, start raiding a village to go hostile, then seige. The garrison will starve out
Use trebs to break down the walls. Then build catatapults. The enemy militia will clump up in the breaches. Good thing catapults are AOE. Slaughter them all with catapults, then clean up the survivors with archers:
Run around fighting for a bit while your parties/garrisons recruit. Try to take 2 easy castles, but mostly focus on smashing enemy armies for profit. Spend first 1000 influence creating two companion clans then get policies set. Look for the oppertunity to recruit clans. If you have around 1m denars, take a quick peace to recruit a bunch of clans. Contrats, you've won the game!
Additional info
Playing big fights:' put your infantry in a shieldwall 3-4 deep. Put your archers in a straight line behind your shieldwall 15-20 m. Try to avoid making cav, but if you do you can either dismount and add to shieldwall, or put the cav in a sheildwall on a side to protect the archer. Remember, we only want shield infantry and archers. The AI is hot garbage now - this applies to your troops any time you issue a command (and the AI), so avoid pushing buttons. The AI will jut mill around in the general area of your shieldwall and die to archers. The cav will look scary, but they can safely be ignored. They will just ride around in circles whiffing and will die to archers.
Once you have an army try to have all the infantry in your group (to leverage medic/baptized in blood) and the archers in your clan parties. This will also push the loot onto your clan parties, which instantly get turned into cash so you will not have to waste time looking for a place to sell.
Key perks:
2h- baptized in blood
Riding: nomadic traditions (speed), sweeping wind (speed)
athletics: morning exercise, form fitting armor, having going, sprint, strong
charm: warlord, meaningful favors, natural leader
leadership: Fervent attacker, famous commander
steward: frugal, sweatshops, efficient campaigner, aid corps, master of warcraft. (Note: NEVER use the destroy items for exp perks. Money is how you conquer calradia. UPgrading an armor is worth far less than buying clans)
Medic: preventative medicine, walk it off, doctors oath, best medicine, veterinarian, perfect health, physician of the people,
engineering: torsion engines, prison architects, military planners, wall breakers, foreman, camp building, apprenticeship, architectural comissions
