Process of raising levies during continuous holy war

[Lateralus]

Any tips on how to make going to war with a fragmented realm that is all over the map less annoying?

My kingdoms are:
- Ireland
-Wales
-Denmark
-Brittany
-Jerusalem
- 4-6 each in Norway, Galicia, Italy (Genoa)

In case of war, I raise levies everywhere collect them in 6-7 little bunches of the map, raise ships (about month later, so I can select them more easily, otherwise it overlaps with the raised levies, which is annoying), get them to the counties where the collected armies stand, get them to their destination etc. yada yada

When I fight the infidels on the Iberian peninsula, I declare holy war. This is only possible for a single "duchy", correct?! So I beat their ass, enforce demands, get the provinces, and want to rinse and repeat, since I dont care about breaking truce against infidels (oooh, they like me less boohoo). But for that I have to dismiss all my guys EVERYWHERE, and then repeat this painful process FROM ALL OVER THE MAP (raise, gather, ship them there, dismiss) FOR EVERY DUCHY.

Am I doing it wrong?

[Fawr]

Interface wise there are buttons to raise all armies, or all ships (in the military menu). Also if you select one ship then you can shift + highlight areas and you will only select ships. I use that to combine all my irish troops & ships in Dublin, and so on.

At times if you have enough force it can save time to declare war on two or more nearby people at once as that involves less messing around with combining armies. Particually if you know they were both going to fight you anyway as allies...

However I agree that this is the least fun and slowest part of the game. I'm hoping that they add a keyboard shortcut to raise a province's levy at some stage.

[Esben_DRK]

The thing I did as überkingpresident was to determine which 2+ duchies, (In the same area) controlled by the same number of heathen lieges, that I wanted and then declare war for all of them at once.

If you can handle all the enemies you gain, it gives you two major bonuses:
1) You don't have to dismiss levies and then declare war and raise again.
2) When declaring war on heathens (In Eastern Europe, Iberia or the Holy Land) they usually come to each others help no matter what, so this way you gain something from each enemy instead of only one.

A word of warning though, since this way it can really escalate. Oh boy, was I happy for saving first that time...

[grumphie]

my most annoying point of raising them is that i need to manually load every unit ij ships. why cant we have a button that loads all armeis that CAN be loaded into boats into boats?

[justin6477]

my most annoying point of raising them is that i need to manually load every unit ij ships. why cant we have a button that loads all armeis that CAN be loaded into boats into boats?

You don't just highlight all the units and send them towards the boats? For me that loads every possible stack (not necessarily in the best order) until the load is full enough that another stack won't fit. The others wait in a province near the sea.

[grumphie]

no, i can raise almost my whole army and set sail within the day by raising levies, raising ships, lower levies not next to the see, 10 min of clicking so everyoneis in a baot, reraise other elvies and have them combine at set points, sail to destination, drop off multiple stacks, and return for other levies if im a sea empire like sicily.

[Kynaz]

I do understand where you are coming from. For this reason , i can't stand playing anywhere near Norway or Denmark. Even as Italy i just don't bother with Sardina because i really can't be bothered micro'ing ships every time for a few thousand levies.



In many ways , this is what let to my current play style. I no longer go for land thats far away , i only go for land that is connected to my own. Even if that means passing up a marriage to some Mega Duchess on the other side of the world.



You will find Kingdoms like France , England , Ireland are much easier to raise armies within. But once you start getting stuff in Jerusalem , Ibera , Siccily ect , it just becomes a tedious chore to play. I usually grant Captured lands from afar to Holy orders. If you stick to this , in pretty much any realm, You can basically Raise all ships first , Group them in one spot , Than raise all armies and do the same. Much easier than the click fest otherwise. Set army on its course with a only a few clicks.

[Zireael]

It's the situations like this when I wish we had rally points and a 'load onto ships' button.

[sprucetrap]

I do understand where you are coming from. For this reason , i can't stand playing anywhere near Norway or Denmark. Even as Italy i just don't bother with Sardina because i really can't be bothered micro'ing ships every time for a few thousand levies.



In many ways , this is what let to my current play style. I no longer go for land thats far away , i only go for land that is connected to my own. Even if that means passing up a marriage to some Mega Duchess on the other side of the world.



You will find Kingdoms like France , England , Ireland are much easier to raise armies within. But once you start getting stuff in Jerusalem , Ibera , Siccily ect , it just becomes a tedious chore to play. I usually grant Captured lands from afar to Holy orders. If you stick to this , in pretty much any realm, You can basically Raise all ships first , Group them in one spot , Than raise all armies and do the same. Much easier than the click fest otherwise. Set army on its course with a only a few clicks.

I love playing as Norway. Being able to raise your armies, get them in boats and set sail immediately to anywhere in the world is a major bonus. Trying to move armies over landlocked areas across any distance is seriously slow.