Beowolf and his Geats owning all (objectives followed guide)

this is my first attempt at a guide ever in my life.
I've played literally all total wars but still this one I have found to be the most challenging... maybe it because its the first one played on release day.

I choose Beowolfs clan, cause he's awesome you start around same period of this time line (if he ever existed) in spring of 395 AD.

Playing mode "Hard"
the Geats get no attrition when its winter en get a 10% morale boost, so when the rest of the world is at its weakest they are at their strongest.. me like.

I like to follow the clans objectives which are..

survive to spring 400
sack or loot 5 regions
sack or loot 3 regions including the angles the franks and the varidians
be at war with the Saxons
research labor

after that its

survive to spring 420
be at war with 3 factions (easily done)
forge a defensive or military alliance with a faction( easy to get from east or southeast)
sack eboracum, lindum and camuldunum ( that's why i say make friends to east so to have a wall of friends defending your territories)
control scanza
repopulate Duna ( gem region to the east which you're friends will protect) remember you need a almost a full stack of 20 to go there and about 10k of money to repopulate it.

-first thing I do Is get a military alliance going with the rugians, they are already are trading with you and are friendly, at war with the danes and actually come to help when you need them.
( I did reload once or twice to get them as friendly cause this is not always the case )
- secondly adopt sigar (non family member)
- assoon as i have more funds i made the other 2 non family members into general and admiral (so they don't get influence, later i make them companions once my family is higher in the government, this way these non family members still get and spend influence to balance of my dominion power) and then I station them in provinces that aren't fighting.
and obviously assign my family to position's (companions) so they can clime the ladder and get influence )

and I start focusing on my province. ( main province market stalls (spies) , lumber, main hall etc.)
Im using the advisements of TW zones' understanding politics and Voths maintaining loyalty and balance.. great guides thx guys.

I consolidate my main army and recruit some more. and head south

i head over to sack the varidians (rugian region) seeing as the burgundians are at war with them ( also very reliable allies ) I make friends with them(burgundians) and attack the varidians ( right when they are fighting the burgundians)
TIP: remember to always declare ware first or break and treaties before attacking or going on their lands (minimize diplomatic fallout)
so a nice clean sack ( i think 1500 gold)

with this done I'm heading back to recuperate any losses. when the Rugians ask me to fight the Danes. ( who don't have a strong army yet) so same tactic as with the varidians I surround them with my fleet ( see that's why I adopt sigar, great admiral and using him to much to not be family member ) and then attack with my main army, which is attached to my fleet ( and thus protected)
side note: always use high king and heir for the influence gains )

and I sack the danes also. ( never loot and occupy you will be in public disorder for ever )
see sacking and looting tactic at bottom.
after 1 or 2 turns i occupy the danes (good by guys) ok second region.
same tactic i use for the Jutes ( wait till their main force is of to fight a war) bam Sack them also.

BTW im following the objectives which include sacking 5 settlements ( so varidians, danes jutes franks and angles, yes i did it in that order) i took the danes land the jutes land to have a full province after sacking (waiting a turn or 2) then occupying.
i did not take the varidians region since its part of the province of my friends (who took it eventually)

then i went for the franks, same tactics again.. but this time from the sea. ( your getting my drift right? sack when no ones around the way of the Vikings Hurra!!) don't be afraid of having many wars.

this time i didn't take the franks yet ( angles and Saxons are close by and i would have to spread my forces thin)
so after sacking the franks i go back home build up my 3 regions a bit messy. all the military unit procuding buildings, public order and sanitations and for food pastures and farm.

after licking my wounds enjoying my spoils of ware making my 2 army stacks bigger i attack the angles via hafn and alabu..
angles just don't leave their home province, so that became a glorious fight. it was though but i gathered some extra mercs and eventually won.

so all objectives complete and close to nearing spring of 400 i stabilize the angles town have one of my armies defending it and declare war with the Saxons.

hope you guide liked my small guide its rough but hey im new :)

a great event happens at 400

Objectives

survive to spring 420
be at war with 3 factions (easily done)
forge a defensive or military alliance with a faction( easy to get from east or southeast)
sack eboracum, lindum and camuldunum ( that's why i say make friends to east so to have a wall of friends defending your territories)
control scanza (you might get urge to move out cause the harsh winters, don't)
repopulate Duna ( gem region to the east which you're friends will protect) remember you need a almost a full stack of 20 to go there and about 10k of money to repopulate it.

so with the new objectives in mind and roughly 80 turns before next big event and not knowing what the next objectives are going to be I had to improvise.

this included securing the frisia province.

I gathered my forces and went for the angles.

since they were raided they aren't that big of a force to be reckoned with (still they might have allot of mercs with higher tier then your army)

after that its the Saxons, here I used my allies to come support me.

and after that its frisia.

mind you I was expanding so I did not do any raiding or looting or sacking.

after all this battling, I thought it was time for some calming down.. my enemies were reduced to nothing more than hordes roaming other peoples country sides, so a great chance to go resettle Duna.

I took a full stack to duna as this lowers the resettling cost to about 10k.

in the mean time I did province management (see below) and the usual diplomacy chores.

I have to say I got lucky that the saxon main city had a religious building so I could instantly pop out 2 priests for religious conversion and public order purposes. (took the building out right after hiring them)

and after a while I went to raid my next 3 targets

eboracum, camuldum and lindum.

eboracum I got lucky that they moved to some war so I could raid it with 1 stack at the same time I was raiding camuldum with another stack and fleet. 2 objectives in one go.

now the objectives are running low and I have to decide for myself what to do.. so I called my allies and I took britania superior for myself while I supported my allies in taking out lindum and everything else north wise ( not interesting to me so either desolation or let my allies they the lands still pondering on that one)

hope you guys have enjoyed this : )

Aly G out.

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TIP Army

my armies composition is

1 general
5 spears
5 swords
2 cavs (1 melee & 1 ranged (javelin's)
2 javalins
3 archers
2 onagers

I find this composition wins me all fights (towns or cities I bring more then 1 of these armies

basically I put the spears as my main defense line
I put on the flanks of these lines 2 swords and behind the line the other 3 swords and my general
my javalins I also put on the flanks together with my archers and my onagers and my cavs

with the forward arrow I move my main melee line forward to the enemy so they all stay in formation

I always send my cavs to the respective edges of the map ( left and right) this way they will go around the battle and attack from behind killing their onagers and after that their ranged

by having ranged on both sides of the line you can sometimes manage to confuse the AI so they break rank.

once the armies collide (mind you my onagers have been wreaking havoc together with my archers using flame ammo)

I use my javelins to go to the sides of the enemy to start raking in the kills, slowly but surely I do same with my archers while waiting for the cavs to come in..

at the same time im using my 3 swords and general to reinforce the line while the 2 swords on the flanks go behind the enemy line on the flanks and so start eating up their line from both sides.... some people like to go for their general instantly .1 its not honorable 2. it can be a pain in the ass if you don't accidently kill him fast.

the variable units like dogs and wolf coats, bezerkers etc. I sometimes swap out, but they aren't always necessary.

also before I have the resources I use mercs to fill my stacks up, but only for 1 fight and delete them after victory ( cost to much money to keep them ) and make sure they be dying first in fights hehe.
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Tip province

Frisia
once I have Frisia, (grow it if necessary using governors, skills army skills and dikes etc.) I change frisia to my main army producing province (using the buildings for that)

Pastures for horse
artisan for woodcutter
smithy
chieftains hold (in main city )
military wharf in the sea town

Scanza
this now becomes my money maker and food source (weird right as they have less fertility)
I change my 3 ports there to fishing ports
each town has a sanitation building (spread out sanitation is awesome)
each town has a industry building (bone crafter or basket weaver line)
main city
sanitation(food reserves )
Tavern( public order)
lumber (+15% industry boost )
slave market (+15% industry boost) (bit commercial income)

later I might change to trading ports once to really make some good money there but Ill have to see how it goes and where my food will be coming from.

Duna
gem and culture building

Britiania superior

with the iron from londinium I decided slowly but surely to make this into my army province and frisia into commercial variant of Scanza, since furs give commercial cash.
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FAMILIY
So you start out with 2 sons and 3 grand sons ( ones adopted)
-Always make sure everyone gets a spot in the government or you wont be getting influence.
-Assure good main skills on my family.
I made sure I had 3 family members with fighting skills and at least 2 family members with governing skills ( yes many reloads to get this )
I almost immediately adopt Sigar (other families)( only time I used my high kings influence) to my family as he is my admiral ( and only fleet I have been using so far)
try to get arranged marriages for your real family asap (diplomacy) and check the wife for good stats.

LOYALTY & BALANCE
-never use high kings influence for political actions ( only that one time that I adopted Sigar) cause youll need it for random events. and the higher his influence the more loyal your guys will be.
-use your wives to secure loyalty of your generals and statesman's. also when control is like below 40% use them to gather support.
-give everyone a position in government. make sure that your oldest people have higher spots in government or they get disloyal. hell at some point even make the non family members into companions (not higher then that tho) so that they waste their influence points cause if they aren't admiral or general they will keep getting influence.
-Always end your terms in government (8 turns) so they can move up.
stay at power level balance or respectable.

DIPLOMACY
look at the map and make a choice on where you are going to grow to..then look at "walls" between your main provinces and the rest of the world. Im going for brittain then sout against romans, so I made friends with everyone to the east and south east. specially in the beginning of the game I sold non agressions pacts with everyone I could find (speicially if the have same religion as I ) I also keep checking evey so often if my relations ship are improving or deteriorating and managing the relations ships with all, because once it starts deteriorating its a downward spiral. I use money non aggressions pacts.. military access, marriages to get my way and always try to get money from them (even the little bits help)
atm i have alliance with Rugians, Burgundians and Venedians.( my wall of friends :)

PROVINCE
I made money with sacking and looting and selling non aggression pacts to the east and south east, together with arranged marriages etc ) to level up my provinces I got market stalls to pop out 2 spies ( I delete market stalls later to get granary once food becomes an issue )
-get a meeting hall for public order
-get prime forest to be able to trade my lumber of my province.
I put pastures, sanitations, woodcutter and smities in my towns
once I have the frisia province I move my military buildings ( meeting halls, pastures, smitties and woodcarvers to there. and make scanza into a comby of fishing ports and industrial money maker (damn getting allot of money the 15% bonus from industrial u get from lumber ( once province is capped you can make a market stall for another 15% on industrial buildings = 30% increase on my industry) i have sanitations in my towns so to grow province faster and the dikes provide santiation to your other regions within the province aswell.

so once you have frisia, scanza will make you good money (industry ) and good food (fishing ports and sheep herders) while not dependant on the fertility of the land (which is horrible)

SACKING & LOOTING
Sacking is awesome ( just wait or cause a war then come in from behind sack their town :)
I used same variants as lionhearts, hun lets play. I sack a region earn the cash move out or raid their lands for 1 or 2 turns ( so they stabilize but don't get a chance to build big army ) then I occupy them ( danes and Juts) same thing with the angles, franks, Saxons you get the jist
also I made sure all my generals get the max looting/sacking/raiding skills.