England - Surviving the 100 years war

From Eu3

Englands finest hour or "How I survived the Hundred year war"

so You are England, a country heavy with war exhaustion, you have 2 isolated provinces on the continent and no nearby friends. Looks bleak doesn't it?

Ok , so what do you face... The French - they have twice as many men as you , a navy that contains Carracks , better leaders , more territory ,and are fighting on home soil.

Friends , allies... none that will be of any use and no reasonable possibility of getting any new ones ... so its you alone.

Can it get worse? ... well yes! you are facing not only the fierce French, but also you are in a second war with Brittany.

Well it looks like you are doomed, you'll be lucky if you get out of this only losing your continental provinces. Fear not here is a quick guide to surviving this war

I am currently playing as England and have managed to 'win' the opening round of the 100-years war, retaining both my provinces of Calais and Gascogne plus vasallising Brittany.

The first thing I did was split my Gascogne army into infantry and cavalry. Put my top movment leader in charge of each. March both armies directly north into Brittany territory , with your leader's improved movement speed for your inf, and a quick hand you can avoid any battles with the French.

At the same time I grouped together my 2 units in England and moved them to the south coast. I also raised 3 cavalry and 4 galleys.

Once I reached Brittany I seiged both Finistere and Mohriban only destroying any Brittany army that gets in the way. This is important.. as you are not direclty on the french border, their monster armies won't trespass onto Brittany land to beat you up.

Don't worry about losing Gascogne for the moment , you will get it back in due course.

Once the galleys are built , bring your entire fleet out of harbour and start hunting down the French fleet. It's possible that they have already landed troops in either Meath or Calais, but ignore those troops until you have cleared the seas of enemy fleets.

Once you have naval supremacy, bring your 3 new cavalry and two England infantry together and load them onto your ships. Use this force to clear meath and calais (Ignore Gascogne at the moment).

Now it is a waiting game, you are much more manouverable than the French and their allies armies are broken. Time to choose your battlefield. Remember you aer still outnumbered by nearly 2:1, though ,with luck you will have already destroyed 2 of their regiments on in Meath/Calais. Station your cavalry in Mohriban and split your infantry in Mohriban and Finistere ensuring neither force is suffering attrition.Place your navies so that you can see the enemy neighbouring provinces.

There are 2 tactics to employ here , both are aimed at forcing the enemy into an offensive battle where you can outnumber them. Remember you need to inflict 2:1 casualties to maintain the status quo.

 pick up 4 cavalry under a good shock leader and drop them , via ship, onlt gascogne. This will entice an enemy force to head out from Northumberland to attack you. IF they send a smallish force that you believe you can beat, 4 or 5 thousand troops, then be ready to reinforce these troops by sea, if they send a bigger force, then wait till the last moment, and then pull the troops out of Gascogne. While they are travelling to Gascogne , send a besieging force to Armor. Again be ready to pull them out if they look like they will send a strong force against your troops. 

finally the moment comes when you get a pitched battle on your terms.. your the defender, and you have the balance of troops. when you win, chase down any stray units from their retreating force and anhiallate them. rinse and repeat until you have worn their forces down by 6 or 7 units. at this stage it is time to take vendee and Armor .

When you have both, vassalise Brittany. Now you have a truly safe haven where your troops can sit without fear of attack. It is now back to whittling down the french forces one at a time.

At this stage I simply accepted a favourable peace with France, getting 80 ducats and they ceded their claims on my territory however I firmly believe that you can , at this point, take the war to them and gain land in a deal.

Note: because I only used limited forces and didn't rely on a National Idea , i had an NI and some free cash to be able to start exploring and colonising at the same time. I even had enough cash for a workshop or two. I never minted cash and I only put my research into Production.

Try this approach and see how far you can push the French back.

//Gen. Jhumper