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[Glowcat]

When you outnumber the defenders 10 to 1, or you've nearly achieved 100% warscore and the enemy is approaching with a much larger force, an assault is something to consider.

The key to winning is destroy the enemy armies before they get too strong and occupying territory while their levies are recovering. If the target is on a coast, you can make good use of ship transport to maneuver your army where it's most needed, such as luring the enemy to a place where you have a defense bonus with a small force and then landing the rest once battle starts. As long as you own or occupy a province you can directly load/unload troops on the province docks, but even without ports it's much faster to move from ship to land than it is between provinces on foot.

[NRDL]

In that particular playthrough, I actually couldn't find my army.  I don't know if a major defeat caused them to disband completely or something, but I couldn't them.  I dismissed, and then raised the levies, good as new, but I really don't know what happened. 

[Mini]

First time player, don't be in Iberia. It's a very hard area to get going in, but once you have done that there's a bit of time when you can gobble up the various Iberian muslims, and then you hit Mauritania. Ireland and Scotland are good places for a new player, they're generally quite peaceful unless you're the one doing the wars, if a little harder to expand in than an area with a lot of religious enemies.

[scriver]

Crushing defeats sometimes disband armies, so that might be it. They also might have retreated onto a navy (or at least I remember them doing that in EUIII and V2, I don't know if it's still possible in CK2). Opening that tab to the right should give you a view of all your armies, and clicking on one of them in the list should center on it, I think.

[Lord Dullard]

Well, first time player, so I didn't really know that much of what I was doing.  I actually assaulted a castle once, during a siege, big mistake, never attempted that again, when is it viable?  I quit the game, but any tips on warfare would be useful for future playthroughs.

Personally I think assaulting places is best if you're fighting somebody who's in multiple wars and you want to achieve your 100% war score QUICKLY, before they can give up to whoever else they're fighting. Because if that happens, whoever the other nation is will end up annexing them and therefore you just fought a big war for diddly.

In those cases I will definitely throw away lots of troops to assault holdings and get the job done quickly. Troops replenish over a little time, but it's hard to gain new provinces.

On the other hand, if you're fighting somebody who's *only* fighting against you, you can take all the time in the world, there's no need to throw your troops away.

[NRDL]

Yeah, the max amount of troops that I could raise was about 600 ( at BEST, maybe a hundred more max ).  I usually only had 300 ready, and when I raise the levies, I don't even have that much.  I don't even know why, maybe they have to leave a garrison in the home province or something.

I had the medieval equivalent of the national guard ( and that's with a couple of buildings that increase heavy infantry, and cavalry, and a cool marshall ont he raising troops mission ) versus a large Muslim barony ( or whatever ) which extended quite a bit beyond the peninsula, which I only realized after I declared war. 

[scriver]

Well, you don't get the full levy from your vassals, only from your own holdings. How much you get from them depends on your laws (crown authority and the castle/city/church levy laws) as well as how much they like you.

[NRDL]

Yeah, played a game as Ireland, fabricated a claim on one county, bought some mercenaries, marched my way there.  Overwhelming numbers were doing good for me...until I lost money to pay the mercenaries.  The enemy capitalized by hiring mercenaries ( maybe the ones who abandoned me ) to crush me.  I ragequit. 

What's the best way to get good income as a single county?  It seems to be the thing killing me most often, I just can't pay the mercenaries. 

[Simmura McCrea]

It takes either a long time or lots of land to get a good income. Your best bet for using mercenaries is to have a good surplus before you hire them and use them fast. There's 1500 of them, they can take a few assaults.

[Cheeetar]

Yeah, played a game as Ireland, fabricated a claim on one county, bought some mercenaries, marched my way there.  Overwhelming numbers were doing good for me...until I lost money to pay the mercenaries.  The enemy capitalized by hiring mercenaries ( maybe the ones who abandoned me ) to crush me.  I ragequit. 

What's the best way to get good income as a single county?  It seems to be the thing killing me most often, I just can't pay the mercenaries.

Possibly the best strategy would be to use the mercenaries for long enough to defeat their armies, then just use your own armies (which cost less to maintain) to siege their county. You could also get rid of the mercenaries by assaulting the holdings of their county, rather than firing them.

[Mini]

Build all the money buildings in your castles. Once you get three or so counties you can pay the mercenaries and still be making money. I don't even try to wage war before I have at least the second building (castle town?) in most/all of my personal demesne. Until then, get a buffer of money as the others have said. Oh, and assault with the mercenaries, if you're facing someone with only a single county. Even if it doesn't look like they'll be able to win, do it anyway and just before their morale breaks or they lose too many men to be able to siege the barony, pause the game, give them an order to move somewhere else and cancel the order again. Stops the assault without stopping the siege, so you'll probably capture at least that barony faster, and have to pay the mercenaries less because they have less men. Oh, and after you've got all the town/city/whatever upgrades for your castle(s), upgrade the walls for even more money.

[Cheeetar]

Build all the money buildings in your castles. Once you get three or so counties you can pay the mercenaries and still be making money. I don't even try to wage war before I have at least the second building (castle town?) in most/all of my personal demesne. Until then, get a buffer of money as the others have said. Oh, and assault with the mercenaries, if you're facing someone with only a single county. Even if it doesn't look like they'll be able to win, do it anyway and just before their morale breaks or they lose too many men to be able to siege the barony, pause the game, give them an order to move somewhere else and cancel the order again. Stops the assault without stopping the siege, so you'll probably capture at least that barony faster, and have to pay the mercenaries less because they have less men. Oh, and after you've got all the town/city/whatever upgrades for your castle(s), upgrade the walls for even more money.

Walls aren't cost-effective enough to remake the money spent within the scope of the game (or, at least, the official forums say that) but they're probably a decent buy anyway because of their additional effects.

[Mini]

Not just for the money boost no, but when you're making enough to build 3 of them every year you might as well.

[Descan]

Plus, when you have mercs hired, you can use all the per-month money and garrisons you can get, to end the war sooner and go into debt later / not at all.

[NRDL]

In my games, I don't have a lot of money, or armies, but I do my best to train up my ruler.  Sometimes, I actually get pretty cool intrigue, and I figure, why not do some succession scheming, Lion King style?  I'm just not sure who to take out, who to marry my heir to, and how my neighbors' succession laws work. 

Any general tips for assassinating and inheritance?