Catalonia help

[unmerged(190911)]

Full-scale war has broken out again on the Iberian peninsula between me: the Duke of Catalonia and the Emir of Sevilla. We fought once in the past and practically reduced each other to ruin and after going through a peaceful generation (where we were even allies) we are now at war again. He has a demesne of 1, compared to my 5. Whilst he has 14 vassals, compared to my 11 vassals. That means the Emir of Seville has 15 provencies to raise men from, whilst I have 16. I can raise 17,280 men, so I guess he can raise something similar. So the odds are pretty similar.

You can see my realm below:

And the Emir of Sevilla's below:

This is only my second game on any paradox title, and I haven't thought a realm this big and won. Any tips would be really useful.

Should I just charge for his captial provence, as he only has a demense of 1 or should I try something more conservative?

I was thinking of uniting all troops in massive army in Molina as I know only a couple of months ago he had an army of 12,000 marching around.

Any help would be greatly appreaciated.

 

[unmerged(190911)]

Oh, and on a final note, my ally is the Duke of the Tolouse who has 8 provences to call men from, but how reliable are allies on this game? And the Emir of Sevilla is allied with the Duke of Braganza who has 6 provences to call men from.

 

[jordarkelf]

How loyal are your vassals? They can refuse to raise their troops and probably will when it is least convenient.
Do a full mobilization first, since if you wait until war has started Seville will DoW your vassals directly, causing them to raise their troops, and not give them to you.
Once you have your army, merge it into a superstack and DoW. Charge for his demesne province, and once you have it immidiately send a peace proposal.

Allies are unreliable. They will usually only join you if you're fighting a weaker enemy.

 

[unmerged(190911)]

All vassals are 100% loyal or near enough. What do you mean by DoW? Probably a bit of stupid question, lol.

Thanks for your help though.

 

[Count of Reval]

All vassals are 100% loyal or near enough. What do you mean by DoW? Probably a bit of stupid question, lol.

Thanks for your help though.

DoW is a short form for a "declaration of war" (sometimes means also a verb, "declare a war").

To check your military balance with Emir of Sevilla, select Sevilla and click on "Declare War" (but don't confirm it by pressing a button) - you should see a number of forces that both, you and your chosen enemy, can raise. I suspect that albeit you have realms of similar size, he owns richer provinces (central and southern Iberia), so his army is probably somewhat bigger than yours. Second observation is that your Province screen shows that at least in Barcelona you have heavily unbalanced troops (tilted to have lots of knights). I don't know exactly, but if I remember correctly, they aren't so effective fighting in hills and mountains (that you have a lot in Iberia). But I'm not sure. Straight attack would be risky.

 

[unmerged(133776)]

The OP is already at war so the clock is ticking.

If he makes 1 super stack and heads for Seville's only province, he's got to fight thru every one of Seville's vassal's provinces that have armies raised. It's either that or sail around Iberia and come in from behind. Which might be one possibility, but then his own provinces/vassals are vulnerable to attack.

Since there's no time to waste, my advice would be to Mobilize all of his personal armies and then do a Force-Mobilization of his vassals. There will only be a 10 point loyalty loss which shouldn't be a big deal.

Make your aims to take out those 2 vassals of Seville that are in your territory (Albarracin and Calatayud - those 2 will also give you the 12 necessary provinces in Aragorn for the King title, correct?). Gather as many armies together into 1 or 2 groups that you can (those vassals of yours that are in his territory, let them stay mobilized in those provinces for right now, until you can safely link up). Once you have a decent sized army gathered, DOW the first of those 2 vassals and take em out in turn. Seville will have a longer gathering time than you do to get to you, than you would to take out his vassals.

If Seville offer's Peace once you've taken the first of those 2 provinces, go ahead and accept it, other-wise, start spamming him with Peace offers once you've taken both provinces. In the mean-time, start heading west and pick off each vassal in turn until he accepts or offers White peace. You're going to go into Debt but there's no way around it.

Since you're playing CK, there's no Force-vassalize option so you'll be stuck with taking over those provinces completely until Peace comes, then you can hand them out. But definitely try to fight Seville in your territory as much as possible, especially if he starts grouping his own armies and sending them your way.

Anyway, that is my 2 cents worth, do a Save before you mobilize and give it a try. This is still a learning game for you, so you can try different strategies here.

Edit: As far as allies go, if neither of your or Seville's Allies joined in when Seville DOW'd you, then they won't. Your Ally 'might' join in once you DOW those enemy vassals, but they'll quickly accept peace for Coin if offered. It's possible Seville's ally might join in and DOW Toulouse when Toulouse joins in, but they won't DOW you now.

Edit2: Oops, I just now noticed you have Algeciras. Seville will probably head right for that province first. At the start of the game, Algeciras is a richer province than Cadiz, so it should have more troops. If you can, make the courtier with the highest Martial rating your Marshall (in case he isn't already) and put him in charge of the army in Algeciras. Have him fight defensive battles there as long as he can. Maybe Seville will waste his troops by sending them in piece-meal. Alot depends on how loyal HIS vassals are. One VERY cheaty thing to do right now, would be to DOW ALL of his vassals before Seville gets a chance to raise and gather them together. Ignore all Peace offers until you've taken the first of those 2 provinces, then start accepting. Seville will be forced into thinking he can only fight your entire army with his one lone province since all of his vassals will be under their own control. Once they are at Peace, THEN he'll start raising them, but he'll be behind all the way.

 

[TempestDK]

Once you have your army, merge it into a superstack and DoW. Charge for his demesne province, and once you have it immidiately send a peace proposal.

What he said

If your opponent only has one personal demesne province .. all you need to end the war is to take that one. Then you can force any peace terms on him and he has to accept them.

 

[unmerged(133776)]

If your opponent only has one personal demesne province .. all you need to end the war is to take that one. Then you can force any peace terms on him and he has to accept them.

Now that I've looked at the map a bit better, it turns out the OP wouldn't have that hard of a time to get to Cadiz. Go through Christianized (and Plains - fast) La Mancha and Cordoba, then to Mountainous Cadiz via Aracena. But I still think the OP should take out those 2 provinces that would give him a King title first. If Seville still hasn't accepted Peace, then the OP's next move would be a direct assault on Cadiz. If at all possible, at that point, split out his own personal troops, disband them and use em for Homeland protection as needed. A Cannon-fodder drive to Cadiz using his Vassals troops and the army in Algeciras. Whatever the OP does, he no longer has the luxury of time on his side.

 

[unmerged(190911)]

Originally posted by GJScarritt

At the start of the game, Algeciras is a richer province than Cadiz, so it should have more troops.

Unfortunately, thats not the case Algeciras in my game is currently under the effect of smallpox, a economic downturn and a revolt. At best it can muster around 800 men. Whilst if you look at that army in Cadiz in the image, that contains 3000 men approx. I was thinking of pulling the men out of Algeciras by boat back to Murcia, and just having to deal recapturing it later.

Just to clear up a couple of things. Do I offer peace to the Emir when I am beseiging Cadiz, or after I have captured Cadiz? Because earlier in the game when I was at war with the Emir of Toledo after I captured all his demesne provences he just claimed vassal ones as his own and relocated his headquarters there, thus resulting in quite a prolonged war of cat and mouse.

Secondly, being only my second game on CK can I be expected to be flamed if I lose and reload? Because it would be kind of interesting to try and reach 1400's.

And thirdly, I think my first attempted stratergy will be to unite all forces into a stacked army, attack those two provences in my territory (thus making King of Aragon title available) then plough my way down to Cadiz with the army. I'm expecting debt, last time we fought I went into -700.

And finally, just to clear it up, but the Emir of Seville has already declared war on me, I'm not about to DoW or nor am I suspecting the Emir to DoW on me. It has already happened, so time is ticking as GJScarrittwould say.

Won't probably play until tomworrow as I got final uni exam tomorrow morning, so any more advice is still very much welcome

Thanks for all of the adivce so far, very much appreacited.

 

[Snaake]

Just to clear up a couple of things. Do I offer peace to the Emir when I am beseiging Cadiz, or after I have captured Cadiz? Because earlier in the game when I was at war with the Emir of Toledo after I captured all his demesne provences he just claimed vassal ones as his own and relocated his headquarters there, thus resulting in quite a prolonged war of cat and mouse.

Secondly, being only my second game on CK can I be expected to be flamed if I lose and reload? Because it would be kind of interesting to try and reach 1400's.

And thirdly, I think my first attempted stratergy will be to unite all forces into a stacked army, attack those two provences in my territory (thus making King of Aragon title available) then plough my way down to Cadiz with the army. I'm expecting debt, last time we fought I went into -700.

1st paragraph: You should offer peace right after you capture his entire demesne, Cadiz in this case (pause the moment you capture it, preferably), then offer him any peace deal you want. This sort of thing is required all the time if you have a liege, since the liege will just tend to take the money from whoever you've just conquered, and when he signs a peace deal, you're included in it. Sevilla will likely take one of his vassals provinces and relocate there even if you do take his demesne, but you should be at peace, and if he DoWs you again he'll take the 100 prestige hit, so you should be safe for a while to rebuild your armies.

2nd: You won't be flamed, but trust us, if you're playing on normal/normal or so, it's unlikely you'll manage to lose completely if you just watch your inheritance. If you seem in real danger of being overrun completely, try bribing them with your whole treasury, whether it's 1 or 10000 gold, the AI doesn't care, as long as it's all you have. And of course, if you're being overrun by another christian, all they can take from you is all your gold, any lands they have claims on (so likely not everything), and force you to vassalise. So the point is, feel free to reload, but it's not really that hard to reach the 1400s on the basic difficulties, except maybe if your empire gets so big you get bored of all the rebelling counts

3rd: That strategy sounds decent. Like someone already said, if Sevilla offers peace once you have the required provinces to become King of Aragon, take the deal, especially if it has money (that'll get you out of debt). If you manage to become King, you'll be better positioned to crush him more thoroughly once you've done a bit of rebuilding and preparation.

 

[jordarkelf]

Addendum to 2: accept your losses! Unless you completely lose the game (which is unlikely, but still possible) it is usually very rewarding to fall down, and crawl back up.
Exception is of course when fighting heathens, they can completely annihilate you. Reload as much as you want -- I "cheat" a lot in my singleplayer games since who are you ultimately playing the game for? You!