England (M2TW Faction)

England (M2TW Faction)
Name:	Kingdom of England
From Game:	Medieval II: Total War
Religion:	Catholic
Culture:	Northern European
Playable:

Overview

At the game's start in 1080, England's position is hopeful. They are surrounded by rebel settlements and already have castles in place on either side of the Channel.

From these castles, conquering and developing the conquered rebel provinces from Rennes to Antwerp can create a strong high period economy, especially if Caenarvon is converted to a city. Another possible route the English King can take would be to unite the British isles first, concentrating all military efforts on quickly destroying the Scots in as short a time as possible, thus avoiding Excommunication. Although this tends to be less lucrative than developing a Kingdom on both sides of the English channel, it is more secure.

The English navy is at best average and cannot be relied upon to transport troops through long stretches of hostile waters unlike the navies of Byzantium, Venice or Portugal. A second weakness that England have is their complete lack of missile cavalry, and must rely on mercenaries if such a need arises.

In stark contrast to this, England's foot archers are amongst the best in the game, all but one unit being armed with longbows (which are effective against armour) and being able to deploy stakes to ward off cavalry charges.

Infantry

Aside from the early period, English infantry is of high quality. Like all factions they gain the standard town, spear and archer militia, but also gain bill militia and heavy bill militia. Although they both have weak defensive stats (standard bill militia being only 3 in total), they are effective against amour and have a good attack, meaning that both units are far better suited to guarding a city's walls, as it's likely that walls will be assaulted by foot soldiers. The best use of them would be to use bill militia where it's likely the enemy will use ladders, and heavy bill militia where they will use towers.

English infantry trained in castles is of even higher quality, and are even effective against cavalry, provided that the unit survives the charge.

England also has access to armoured swordsmen, who are basically DFK with a cheaper upkeep and the ability to upgrade its armour, which makes this unit so effective that it never really becomes obsolete,allowing them to constantly build up experience. Amored swordsmen are excellent against the infantry of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Italy, particularly against dismounted Broken Lances, who they will massacre in close combat.

Missile

English archers are amongst the finest available in the game. Upon gaining the unique Woodman's Guild, archers trained start with more experience.

Due to their ability to lay stakes that effectively cut off cavalry from one direction and double as light infantry, it is reasonably safe to leave skirmish mode off for English archers, and hide them behind a line of stakes. These abilities make the English archers, particularly the Retinue Longbowman, some of the best in the game.

England also has access to the Sherwood archers, which can hide anywhere while having a high missile attack value, making them perfect for ambushes.

English gunpowder troops are lacking and aren't really worth the price you have to pay for the infrastructure required to build them, especially when yeomen and retinue longbowmen still outclass them in terms of range and utility.

English artillery is also lacking (although for settlement defence they do gain the use of mortars), with no real unit that's effective as field artillery such as a monster ribault or serpentine, and their cannon for use against walls being the culverin instead of the basilisk, grand cannon or monster bombard that are available to other factions.

All things considered, longbows will make up the core of most English armies.

Cavalry

English cavalry lacks in variety, being composed of the standard knights available to all factions. There are, however, the unique hobilars, which make effective light cavalry and excell at chasing down missile cavalry.

English knights have a high charge value and are armed with armour piercing poleaxes, making them highly effective at confronting other mid-game knights, however they will struggle against elites such as Gendarmes or the mighty French lancers.

Demi-Lancers are trainable from military academies, and are the faster, weaker version of the French lancers.

In Conclusion

England is a defensive faction, who are best suited for defending a hill, or any other defensive position. Their armies should be deployed with longbowmen in front of supporting melée infantry but behind stakes, with English knights, both dismounted and mounted, on the flanks to make sure no enemy cavalry tries to manoeuvre around the army.

In terms of siege defence, England are possibly the best faction in the campaign, as stakes can be deployed in front of settlement gates or roads, and once the battle starts the longbows can be moved onto the walls where they can reap a heavy toll on any advancing foot knights and stand a good chance of winning any melee battle with the survivors, whilst mortars hide behind the walls and target enemy siege engines.

A possible way to force a defensive battle is to besiege a settlement then wait for another army to try and lift the siege.

England see their military zenith in the high period, so all efforts must be made to crush factions that are strong in the late period before they have a chance to bring their best units to bear (Venice, France, Milan etc), unless harder battles are what you look for in the campaign.

Medieval 2: Total War | Factions:
Aztecs | Byzantine Empire | Denmark | Egypt | England | France | Holy Roman Empire | Hungary | Milan | Mongols | Moors | Papal States | Poland | Portugal | Russia | Scotland | Sicily | Spain | Timurids | Turks | Venice | Rebels