In fact, keep enemy spear units till last. Don’t waste them on attacking spear units front on. I also prefer to switch off skirmish mode as archers can be handy for slowing the Scots down giving your knights more time. You should put your archers onto flaming arrows and switch off fire at will. This gives you more room to manoeuvre your knights, tires the Scots out and also maximises the use of your archers. Don’t be afraid to move right to the back of the map and make the Scots march towards you. It is possible to hire mercenaries to flesh out your army a bit more but they can be expensive. Infantry are really just cannon fodder to bog the Scots down with your knights providing the flanking coup de grace. Be warned that the Scots are no pushover and that your troops are quite weak at this stage, especially in infantry. Meanwhile, back home you have York and Caernarfon and are ready to attack Edinburgh. If you don’t already have a family member in Caen, move a young one across.

You’ll be getting warnings from the Pope and all that so stick with Caen & Rennes until you are ready to move all troops to France. You really don’t want to be in a war with these three factions when the home countries are not yet secure. Towards the middle of the game, the Danes will probably take Antwerp. Bruges has French to the south and the Holy Roman Empire to the east once they take Antwerp. While Rennes has the Atlantic to its rear. Avoid this temptation but I do stress that this is my personal preference. You may get a mission or be tempted otherwise to take Bruges until you have secured the British Isles. Towards the middle of the game, it will be your primary troop factory. Caen should be built up into a formidable castle. Lose that and you lose your foothold in France. It is a rebel held town and can be quite easily defended with a small garrison at that town and a bigger garrison at Caen. You should also look to take the town to the west of Caen, Rennes. If you’re going to use mercenaries, you’ll need to have money so start building up your economy in your four British towns. This slightly hamstrings you for troop selection against the Scots but use mercenaries if necessary. You want all your British Isles towns to be cities.

Our mini-army should take York first if possible because the Scots will also be looking to take it. Caen should be armed with a few extra bowmen for a defensive garrison until later.

Gather together all available troops, leaving only small garrisons in London & Nottingham. It is very likely that missions at the start will lead towards you taking York & Caernarfon. Common sense alone dictates that eradicating the Scots is the key to the opening moves. England has an enviable starting position in that it can very easily have 7 secure & safe provinces very early in the game with a “beachhead” province in Caen.

Empire total war france guide