兵家詭道

該教程旨在便利統治者（你）的征服與擴張，同時提供主要開局時間的大部分地區的詳盡情形的縱覽，並教導初學者在戰場上立於不敗之地。

儘管與真正的兵法相去甚遠，但其中的數個概念仍會在這篇CK2教程中得到應用，以使每一位玩家在大部分給定情況下對抗任何或AI或玩家的對手時具有決定性的戰略優勢。然而，此處詳述的概念不可能是何時何地都能管用的萬金油，而在某個特定情形下是否使用下文所錄的戰略，將由你本身的專業知識做出決斷。

戰爭的筋骨：金錢與軍隊

只有把握住中世紀治國術的兩大要點——經濟與徵召兵——才可能贏得戰爭。由強勁經濟支撐的強大軍隊乃走向勝利之關鍵。

若以明智而均衡的方式發展這兩者，你可以在避免軍隊損耗和經濟崩潰的同時在幾乎整盤遊戲中不斷進行戰爭。因此，必須在經濟和軍隊規模的發展之間求得謹慎的平衡。

統治者的軍事能力對徵召兵的影響遠比建築更大，至少在遊戲前期是如此。若財政允許支撐更多的徵召兵，可以通過教育繼承人或選擇一個 軍事向的生活重心，以此擴大你的免費軍隊（徵召兵）規模。而在你有閒錢且達到直轄領上限的和平時期，投資建築則物有所值。

如果在調集起徵召兵時無法保證財政盈餘，你尚有兩個選擇。要麼大量囤錢並速戰速決，以戰養戰，指望你新附庸的封臣為你未來的戰爭買單；要麼稍安勿躁，在你的直轄領地上修建能賺錢的建築來改善經濟狀況。如果你毗鄰絲綢之路，並且中國沒有爆發影響絲路的內亂，那麼僅僅建造貿易站就足以使你的財政窘局煙消雲散（）。

你的封臣也會扮演一定的角色，譬如在高王權法下，他們既會提供給你更多的免費徵召兵，又會交足夠的稅來養活你的直轄領軍隊。然而，嚴重依賴封臣的軍隊是很危險的，封臣提供軍隊的數量隨著他們對你的好感上下浮動，並且如果你的直轄領軍隊在戰場上一敗塗地，這會直接帶來嚴重的政治衝擊。即存的派系會驟然壯大起來，或許會強大到足以與你宣戰的程度。因此，比起控制強大的封臣，投資建設自己的直轄領及其部隊通常更加值得。

敵與友

在一段長久的和平之后，抑或在解除暫停之前，你需要選擇你的頭號敵人（archenemy）——那個你將要在外交、經濟上全面打壓的，並隨時擇機入侵的那個敵人。收拾掉一個後，就按照相同的標準再找一個。

完美的死敵滿足以下全部標準，至少要滿足一大部分。

• 比你弱很多，並且離你不遠
• 是異教徒
• 處於外交孤立（文化上孤立，或者僅僅是缺乏盟友）
• 國土面積與你等量齊觀，但是軍事上不如你（ 軍隊規模更小、依賴輕步兵，或者雖然軍隊規模差距不大但有相當一部分都是事件部隊）
• 有強大而不忠的封臣
• 在你的法理 王國或帝國之中

這個敵人將成為你攻城略地、拓土開疆的首要目標。

擇敵之後，就集中精力偽造他的宣稱，邀請他的宣稱者（此處參見擴張你的領地）。宣戰理由一到，戰爭就開始了。（譯註：並不一定非要從宣稱裡面找戰爭理由，這一般視你的宗教而定）

要是尚無實力對抗一個龐然大物，就考慮在你的宗教組之內尋求一個強力的盟友，例如神羅皇帝和哈里發。在他們大軍的支持下，你很難輸掉戰爭。注意，忙於他們自己的戰爭的盟友並幫不上多大的忙。

如果有DLC碧玉之龍，朝貢體系也能幫你輕鬆獲得打手。把周邊的小國都打成朝貢國，你擴展影響力的速度會比一個個征服這些小國快得多。這樣就又擴大了你在對敵時的贏面。

時刻注意過於依賴盟友去贏得戰爭也會妨礙你的勝利。他們的指揮官可能在戰鬥中頂掉你的更優秀的將領。而在圍城時領軍的總是將領裡面地位最高的一個，如果你的圍城指揮官只是個廷臣，他也會輕易地被你盟友的某個有地的指揮官頂掉，無論這人多麼不稱職。

擇時而戰

」是故勝兵先勝而後求戰，敗兵先戰而後求勝。「 —— 孫子兵法（The Art of War）

向敵國宣戰並不是一個那麼容易做出的決定。你必須考慮一系列的因素，敵人越強就要考慮的越細。僅當你準備充分，有把握以最短的時間和損失贏得戰爭時，才應當宣戰。

譯者：想那麼多幹什麼莽上去就完事了

沙場點將

指揮官是戰場上最具決定性的因素。因此，你所有的指揮官崗位都應該由你所能找到的最優秀的人才出任。可以通過邀請、入贅婚姻以及購買人情來把人才招攬到你的宮廷（譯註：人情（favor）並不能用於強制邀請入宮廷，原文想要說的應該是贈送禮物）。

重視你的指揮官，至少要擁有：

• 一位圍城指揮官
• 兩位側翼領袖
• 一位中軍領袖
• 一位組織者

一部分特質也可以提供增益，如：

• 耐心、策略家可以提供20%防禦
• 勇敢可以提供20%士氣防禦
• 建築師可以增加20%圍攻速度
• 管理者可以增加10%行軍速度
• 遊戲大師提供30%狹窄陣線，可助你在防禦戰中以少勝多
• 殘暴、拷打愛好者可以提供10%士氣打擊
• 獵人提供20%追擊，助你在戰鬥的追擊階段追亡逐北

通過折磨囚犯，選擇戰爭、管理或者狩獵生活重心，及一些隨機事件可以獲得以上所列特質中的一個或幾個。

軍事屬性則是次要的。一位軍事屬性一般但擁有卓越特質的將軍要好於軍事屬性超群但沒有什麼有用特質的指揮官。

麾下良將如雲，則戰場上無人可擋。

經濟上的準備

如果在調集起徵召兵時無法實現財政盈餘， 或者你想要招募昂貴的僱傭兵， 那麼保證你國庫里有充足的資金來供給一場漫長的戰爭。

在戰爭中破產會出現許多危險，列如下：

• 你的僱傭兵可能會投敵，甚至直接入侵你的國家。
• 你的軍隊會得到一個-25%士氣的修正，顯著減少你在每一場戰役中的贏面。
• 減少稅收、徵召兵增援等等的負面修正會在你的直轄領省份蔓延。
• 其他國家可能會趁虛而入，接連向你宣戰，最終直接撕碎你篳路藍縷建立的王國。

為了避免打著打著破產，你可以早早囤錢，選擇野心「建立戰爭金庫「然後敲詐你的臣屬，向騎士團、阿薩辛或猶太商人借錢，或者乾脆更狠毒一點，把無嗣的富人邀請到自己的宮廷來然後殺死，好繼承他們的財產。

選擇合適的戰爭目標

在一系列的宣戰理由里，只有能帶給你最長遠利益且目標省份可及的那一個是值得選擇的。

譬如，與其用聖戰來奪取一個雖大然而遙遠的公國（比如突尼西亞）還不如奪取一個雖小但可以長期守住的，除非你能承受得起每三十年一次的吉哈德。

當直轄上限未滿時，優先選擇能奪取新直轄地的戰爭；當上限已滿時，則考慮以下三個方面：

• 如果你想要一個文化大一統的國家，那就幫助索取你封臣或同文化廷臣的宣稱，抑或選擇聖戰或索取法理宣稱。（譯者在此處存在疑惑）
• 如果你只是渴望快速擴張，就選擇能夠奪取最多土地和最高級頭銜的那一個。
• 最後，儘可能地去控制你的法理王國和帝國，在你法理之內的封臣會上交更多的稅和兵，叛亂風險也會更低。

注意潛在的麻煩

注意你的敵國可能被暫時削弱，這時征服它們並不像看起來那麼容易。第一，別光盯著對面的現有軍隊規模，也注意下它的軍隊上限。軍隊的補員速率是很驚人的，你打著打著就要與遠多於一開始的軍隊作戰。另外有的國家擁有作為附庸的僱傭兵（如1066年之後的埃及）或騎士團（比如卡斯蒂利亞），在評估敵國力量時忽略了這種精銳龐大的軍團會大大減少你的贏面。

第二，如果你進攻的是（別國的）叛軍，要保證在他們反抗其領主的戰爭中雙方都拿不到25%以上的戰爭分數，要不然叛軍會接受其領主的和平條件，而你的入侵戰爭也會被強制終止。方法是儘快占地，因為領主與派系叛軍之間的戰爭只會在叛軍不占有任何被除其領主之外的勢力占領的地產時才會結束。（譯者在此處存在疑惑）

最後，檢查一下對手的盟友們，以及可能會參與聖戰的同宗兄弟。你難以預見誰會站在他們那一邊參戰，陷入危難之中的AI總是能弄來一些莫名其妙的盟友。

軍隊的部署

戰端一起，則徵召軍隊並部署之。

選擇正確的集結地

為了迅速回應一切敵襲，以及避免本土作戰，在正確的省份集結相當重要。選擇時應當考慮以下幾項：

• 所有者：一般在自己或盟友的領土集結，這樣在大軍逼近時可以迅速解散避免損失，這也提供了臨近省份的視野。
• 相對風險：考慮集結點與敵首都的距離，對方通常會在首都集結軍隊。最好選在遠離對方首都且臨近需要爭奪的省份的地點。
• 戰術上的重要性：如果你的領土與你敵人的犬牙交錯，那麼試著在集結時攔截敵方的小股部隊。這些早期的勝利或許會決定戰爭的走向。

把戰爭帶給敵人

兵貴神速。在2.8版本中，圍城速度大大增加了，這意味著你可以趁著敵軍還在集結的時候占領一些土地，拿一些戰爭分。這麼做的話一位圍城指揮官能幫不少忙。

這種情況下近衛軍和僱傭兵非常有用。在宣戰之前就把這些部隊部署到邊境的關鍵點，可以保證你在衝突的一開始就占據上風。這可以分割敵軍，保護己方主力並通過小規模戰鬥乃至圍攻拿一些戰爭分。

特別是在防禦戰爭中，採取攻勢可以使你支配更多時間，奪取戰爭主動權。當你在敵國境內大肆破壞時，你的敵人會忙著解圍你攻下的省份，從而忽略他意欲奪取的你的領土。

通過合理運用組織者和圍城指揮官特質，你甚至可以戰勝數量遠大於你的敵人。

通過在敵國土地上巧妙作戰，你能得到寶貴的時間來召喚盟友。依賴定期戰爭分數你甚至可以一場仗也不打就把遠遠強於你的敵人拖成無條件和平。

力求戰則必勝

好的將軍不僅能使戰爭勝利，他同樣能知道何時無法勝利。——波利比烏斯（Polybius），希臘作家、將軍、政治家

為了贏得勝利，主力決戰恐怕是繞不開的一著。就算靠小規模接戰和軍隊損耗也能進行戰爭，但是除了大打上一兩場之外，基本沒有別的辦法把戰爭分數扳到100%。但是，也不是每一場仗都該打，一場大敗仗可以抹去你之前的一切勝利。

平衡你的力量

首先在一支軍隊的中軍與兩翼的安排上，不要把左中右三軍安排的過於不平衡，要是軍隊的一翼被擊潰，整支軍隊就會陷入危機之中。鑑於在接戰之前沒辦法弄清楚對面軍隊每一翼的成分（只能看到對面軍隊的各兵種數量，以及對面中軍領袖的名字），平衡每一翼的力量可以避免意外的麻煩。

如果不可避免地要分散力量，就努力從其中汲取優勢，把最好的指揮官放到那一翼，把這一翼在戰場上的對敵衝擊最大化。這可以使你連續擊潰數路敵軍，彌補軍隊力量分布不平衡的缺陷。

搜集情報

可多虧了戰爭迷霧，一個人看不到位於自己或盟友領土及軍隊一個省份以外的敵軍。猜測敵軍的行動並不容易，不過也有一些辦法可以幫忙應付這個。

在任的指揮官的畫像上會有個「正率領軍隊」的圖標，滑鼠懸停於其上就能知道他在哪個省份。看看你敵人和他的指揮官的頭像就能知道他們軍隊的位置和行軍方向。

把你的間諜總管放到關鍵地區，比如敵國的首都，可以助你監視那裡敵方軍隊的存在。這可以避免意外的遭遇戰，在你計劃橫渡海峽的時候格外有用。

最後，把船隻部署在某一片海域可以賦予你該海域所有沿海省份的視野。儘管在與內陸國家作戰時這並沒有什麼用處，但這個戰術在當你要奪取的土地在海外時相當有用，比如你在一場十字軍中意欲奪取耶路撒冷王國。

不打必敗之仗

最理想的情況自然是一場仗也不打輸。輸掉戰役不僅損失戰爭分數，輸掉的軍隊向後方撤退的過程也在你浪費寶貴的時間，改寫你與敵人的力量平衡。要竭盡全力避免戰敗，而這需要高度了解地形以及參與衝突的兩支軍隊。

根據敵人的行動來選擇去與之戰鬥或躲避之。只有你能保證你絕對能贏下這場戰鬥時才與之接戰，險勝不如速勝。

鑑於AI不怎麼會考慮地形，在數量與敵軍相差不大或劣於敵軍的情況下把敵軍引誘到有利地形並不那麼難。儘管沒法保證你贏，這至少能在戰場上強化我軍並削弱敵軍。

如果你在與過於強大的敵人周旋時選擇避免作戰的話，等待敵軍在圍攻你的領土的漫長時間中損耗軍隊，並在此時儘可能在本土補員。只要你覺得沒把握強到擊潰侵略軍，就聚集軍隊靜待敵軍在你的領土上損耗。這會丟一些戰爭分數，不過至少不會輸掉整場戰爭。

逆風翻盤

有時候，輸掉一場戰役也未必是壞事。如果敵軍難以徹底擊潰你的軍隊，並且比你付出了更大的傷亡，戰役即使打輸也可以算作成功的努力。敵人將更加脆弱，而實力的天平會向你傾斜。

為了最大化你對敵軍造成的傷亡，應當考慮以下幾點。首先是地形，即使陷入絕境，任何加成也都是有益的。軍隊質量也能造成很大的影響，尤其是在遊戲後期，因為一支精英部隊（由僱傭兵，近衛軍或騎士團之一組成）將更難擊潰且能造成更大的殺傷。

肉搏戰階段是一切戰役的轉折點。進入並主導肉搏戰階段能為勝利的天平投下巨大的砝碼。然而東方軍隊和部落軍隊極其長於散兵戰（又譯遭遇戰），一旦進入肉搏戰階段，只有那些重步兵和重騎兵以及指揮官技能會發揮作用。遊戲大師、戰略家及其他狹窄陣線加成和士氣加成的戰鬥修正在此時至關重要。

一場災難性的散兵戰可以以一場光榮的肉搏戰來彌補，這未必會使你贏得戰鬥，但至少可以肆無忌憚地屠殺大量的敵軍。

兩棲作戰

鑑於十字軍之王2連海戰都沒有，所以在海戰中積極運用船隻的辦法只有把軍隊從一片海岸迅速運到另一片。因此，船隻可以提供戰略縱深，精於此道者難以被擊敗。

譯者：在中世紀談論兩棲作戰是否搞錯了什麼（誤）

迅速集結部隊

與陸地行軍相反，以船隻運輸部隊在遊戲裡快的驚人。當你要花數周乃至數月才能走陸路集結完部隊時，以船隻集結海岸部隊一兩周就可以搞定。

這可以給予你可觀的對敵戰術優勢，因為若你的土地可通過海洋來去自如，（例如拜占庭帝國），你就可以輕易快過敵人，在對手尚忙於重聚軍隊時開始你的行動。

Deploy wherever you want, whenever you want

Another advantage of the use of ships is that you will be granted vision over all counties neighbouring the sea region they are in. Cutting off reinforcements by disembarking between them and the main army, raid the enemy capital or surprise your enemy by disembarking your troops right in front of theirs becomes very easy with ships.

Due to their great mobility, armies embarked on ships are hard to draw in unwanted confrontation. It becomes very simple to concentrate your forces to gain local numerical advantage even against an overwhelming but dispersed enemy.

For instance, with a 15k army embarked on ships, killing off several armies of 10k soldiers raiding different parts of your empire can be very easy, as the total amount of troops become irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how much strength you'll be able to apply in one particular point, and thanks to your ships you, and not your enemy, will always have this local numerical superiority as long as the fighting takes place on a coast.

Lure your enemies

This particular tactic comes in handy when you are facing a slightly weaker enemy. Such enemies are hard to smash during battles, because the combats will end and the enemies rout even before your troops will get a chance to massacre theirs in a melee phase. In order to force them to fight decisive battles, ships are very useful.

If you leave a small contingent on the coast, and embark the remainder of your soldiers on ships, the AI will only notice this contingent and not the bulk of your army once it'll be in high seas. It won't resist the temptation to smash these soldiers before continuing its way.

The AI will then engage battle, and your land army collapse. One or two days before these are routed, comes the time to disembark your army right in the middle of the battle. After a few days, it will land, and count as a reinforcement to your routed contingent.

As such, your disembarked troops will immediately engage in melee. Given you have enough troops to win despite the Amphibious disembarkment combat modifier and/or the -50% morale your troops will have, your troops will be able to destroy utterly the enemies. Very few soldiers will survive on their side, and you'll have earned a whopping amount of warscore.

Master the land with the seas

Due to the benefits listed above, an efficient coordination between naval and land forces can grant an enormous advantage to the player when it comes to battle, while the AI is very weak on this specific point. However, naval units can also serve assymetric warfare.

When facing a very strong enemy, or after a crushing defeat, naval units may represent your last resort to overthrow the situation.

First, they can help to de-occupy terrain that is near the seas. By landing your depleted army on the rear of the frontline, and assaulting freshly lost territory, you can ruin months of siege efforts from your enemy in a week.

Second, when your war targets a coastal Duchy or Kingdom, first occupy when you land a coastal county. Then, as your occupation and battling goes on, always try to have an occupied port with your fleet in it close to the province you are in. It will provide a safe and quick escape route should an overwhelming enemy army appear to squash your forces, like it often happens in Crusades.

Last, embarking your troops systematically on ships, even if you border your enemy's land, may ensure that your troops will never get trapped again in a confrontation with an enemy army. In addition, it will greatly speed up your rhythm of operations, thanks to the extraordinary naval mobility. As such, you'll be able to quickly exploit an opportunity to weaken the domineering enemy should one appear. Time is precious when at war, and ships help you to save a lot of it.

The Cycle of War

In order to maximise your efficiency during your conquests, you'll need to be able to see when to act and how to act at anytime in sometimes very unstable conditions. Knowing the cycle of war in CKII will allow you to be victorious even in very dire situations, while preserving as much as possible your strength for future challenges.

Initiation

This phase immediately follows the war declaration, or the entrance of a new actor in the conflict. It is the phase of deployment and of the first skirmishes, and as such it mustn't be neglected if you wish to dominate your opponent right from the beginning.

Organise your army

First of all, you'll need to rally your forces, composed of your levies, your retinues and sometimes mercenaries and holy orders. In doing so, you'll have to decide which forces to use and how to divide them. Deploying and moving across the map takes time, so you'll need to decide right at the beginning of your priotities.

With a small realm, it is often better to stack up all your can in a single army. It will be easier to follow, easier to control, and anyways your resources are too limited to reasonably hope to win if you divide your forces against your enemy. Deploy your army as close to the frontline as you can, and do so as fast as possible.

With a larger empire, and especially when facing another large realm or empire, you'll need to have a higher degree of organisation. Think carefully before proceeding about which path your enemy's armies will follow to attack you, and plan accordingly. As occupation warscore doesn't scale down much with enormous realm sizes, even the loss of a single border duchy can sink your warscore by 30-45%. This, coupled to more occupation and a minor defeat in battle can mean the end of the war for you. As such, protecting all of your borders is a priority, even before thinking about attacking. The ideal army size for a campaigning army is about 15k. If you have several times this number in your troops, it might be better to create another corps to watch the border while your other corps attacks, than to send both on a hazardous expedition without protecting your territory. Place your reserve army at key points (mountain passes, large counties) from where you'll be able to deploy it quickly if ever it is needed, for instance on a coast.

Define your early campaign objectives

After gathering, you'll need to act as soon as possible. Depending on whether you attack or defend, you'll need to ensure first access, then vision over the contested region.

Access is especially important when the target is overseas or far away, for instance during a Crusade or a Jihad. Having a safe and quick access to the disputed region will allow you to send reinforcements, such as mercenaries, to the bulk of your army without suffering significant losses on the way. It will also, if the situation requires you to do so, allow for a safe retreat route and a quick access to a territory where your depleted army will be able to reinforce.

If the territory is well integrated to your empire or surrounded by allied lands, access should be ensured. However, if the targeted region is overseas, isolated or if the only way to access it from your territory is to pass by or through enemy lands, then you'll have to strengthen your position. This will require you to occupy neighbouring lands, or to take over a coastal county/duchy near the disputed region to ensure that the location of the operations' theatre won't be a problem for you.

While defending, try also to complicate the enemy's access to the land. Following the same criteria as above, occupying away from your enemy isolated or weakly connected territories will deliver a first blow to your enemy, while reducing the frontline's length and hampering his economy and reinforcement rates.

Along with access, vision is also important to have. Knowing where your enemy's armies are gathered and where they are heading will give you a significant advantage, and allow you to plan your campaign in consequence. Checking the command icons of the enemy ruler and his commanders, and following their path will allow you to anticipate the regions where their armies are heading, and then determine whether to face them or not. Deploying your spymaster or another councillor in enemy territory will give you more detailed intelligence, and allow you to choose the best option to face them.

After the initiation phase, come either the Combat or the Besieging phases.

Combat

During this part of the war, your goal is to massacre all of the enemy's armies, by hunting them down and preventing their reinforcement. This phase is the decisive one of any war, as depending of its outcome either you or your enemy will be able to take the advantage and accumulate warscore. As such, you must plan carefully when to trigger the combat part, as an untimely or reckless offensive may lead to utter disaster.

The best times to start fighting are:

• When your army is gathered and your enemy's is not, in order to profit of its dispersion.
• When defending with enough forces to challenge the attacker and none of your territories are occupied.
• When you have occupied some territory, but the enemy army is already there de-occupying the freshly conquered holdings
• When you have already accumulated significant occupation warscore by occupying the contestes region, and pursuing the besieging/assaulting would hamper your chances to repel an enemy offensive.
• When an enemy army is busy occupying your territory, and puts significant military and economic pressure on your shoulders.

Use your commanders well

During this phase, you'll need to maximise the combat efficiency of your army. commanders will be useful to deploy quickly your armies where the enemy is, and to hunt down the enemy army if it tries to escape battle. Once battle is about to begin, you'll have to choose between damage and defense commanders. Damage is useful when victory is assured, and your goal is to kill as many enemies as possible. On the contrary, defense and morale-boosting commanders will prove useful at turning the tide of war in one hopeless, decisive battle.

Preserve your strength

As a rule, never fight battles if you don't think victory is achievable, or if you don't think a defeat would still deliver a severe blow to the enemy. Your goal is to accumulate warscore, so you should always be extremely careful when choosing which armies to engage and where to engage them. One crushing defeat is enough to erase the benefits of many victories.

After the battle phase, come either the Besieging, the Retreat or the Observation phases.

Besieging

This phase consists mainly in besieging enemy holdings and liberating your occupied holdings, although you might sometimes have to engage in a battle to prevent a dangerous enemy army to ruin your efforts.

Ideal moments to trigger this phase are:

• When the enemy army is at shambles, after a successful battle phase
• When the enemy army is distracted elsewhere or still gathering, as it will allow you to reap some easy warscore
• When you only need a few more points to end the war
• When you lost many territories to the enemy, but you managed to dispose of the occupying army.

This part is the most lengthy of a war, but also the safest. If you planned your actions well, your enemy should not be a threat and the occupation go smoothly, especially with a commander.

Mind not to overstretch

The major risk during this phase is the one of overstretching your forces. Siege events, such as a sally from the defenders or epidemics may occur, and kill off around 10% of your besieging army at once, and sometimes one or several commanders. Several of these events may swing away the balance of power in the conflict, and leave your depleted army vulnerable to a vigorous counterattack. Also, be mindful not to venture too deep into the enemy's territory, as it will both make your army vulnerable to a surprise attack, and leave your home provinces almost defenceless if you didn't leave a defensive corps there.

Keep your eyes out for the enemy

Monitoring your enemy's moves is especially important during this phase, as while it takes several weeks or many soldiers to siege/assault a holding, it is very easy to recapture a recently lost territory and to ruin all of the attacker's efforts. You'll need to be able to tell at any time where the enemy army is, in order to avoid the bad surprise to see a vast territory your army took time to take suddenly liberated by an army that appeared out of nowhere while you were busy occupying some other territory.

After the Besieging phase, may come the Retreat, the Battle or the Observation phase.

Retreat

This phase follows a crushing defeat at battle, or an unforeseen reinforcement of the enemy's armies leading to a prudent withdrawal of yours. Retreat must be carefully planned, as an orderly retreat can effectively limit a disaster's significance and prepare for a prompt counterattack.

Find a falling point

First, you'll need to choose a falling point. This falling point needs to be allied or part of your territory to allow for reinforcement, and to be isolated or protected well enough to prevent the enemy from delivering the fatal blow to your forces. Ideally, it should be an island near the combat theatre (like Chypre), or any territory located at least at 4 counties from the frontline.

Prevent a collapse

Then, you'll need to ensure the retreating goes smoothly, and doesn't end up in the collapse of your frontline. If you are decisively losing a battle, it is preferrable to right-click on your falling point before the end of the battle, in order to force the army to retreat there and not on a random territory like it usually does. You'll save precious time doing so. Also, if you have a reserve army available, you'll need to redeploy it to prevent the enemy army from exploiting their victory through occupation.

While retreating, your main concern should be to prevent the enemy from exploiting your withdrawal. With the reserve army, if the enemy cannot be openly challenged, you'll have to slow it down (by running away and having the enemy army follow it) or to limit its impact, by de-occupying any holdings lost as soon as the enemy army leaves the region. If you manage this delicate part well, final victory may still be achievable.

Muster your strength

Once your army successfully retreated, try to leave it reinforce as much as possible instead of trying to counterattack recklessly. It is only when you feel it has reinforced enough to challenge the enemy army again, or if you think you can't do without it anymore, that you should redeploy it. Once redeployed, your main goal should be to counterattack and beat the enemy army, by all means possible.

After this phase, come usually the Besieging or Battle phases.

Observation

This phase is one of waiting and intelligence gathering. If you are heavily outnumbered and can't take the risk to send your armies on the offensive, then you'll have to wait for the enemy to show up and then act in consequence.

Gather intelligence and plan

Although your armies will be idle during this phase, once deployed to their defensive positions, you certainly won't. This time should be used to foster alliances, gather intelligence on your enemy's actions, recruit whatever mercenaries and holy orders you can afford to field and trying to find how to get yourself out of this dire situation before the enemy shows up. As such, this phase, although stressful, will have a decisive impact on the future operations and the outcome of the war.

Conclusion

To conclude, knowing the cycle of war will allow you to skillfully exploit the time and forces at your disposals, giving you a decisive advantage over a very often erratic AI. Managing well its different phases and the transitions between each one will preserve your forces for greater challenge, and in the end you'll be able to spend virtually all your time at war without ever being overrun by the events and the enemy forces.

Managing Diverse Conflicts

While expanding, one cannot ensure that he will always have a single enemy to face, and a single war to win. As such, he needs to know how to react when facing multiple enemies at a time, in order to both preserve its territory and prevent a situation similar to this one from happening again.

Concentrating your troops

While one can be tempted to divide its armies between the multiple fronts, in order to leave none undefended, it is most of the times a terrible idea. Your enemies' forces won't be divided, and even if you have a large enough numerical superiority to be able to fight with equal numbers on all fronts, your attention won't be able to manage efficiently such a variety of theatres and battles simultaneously and you won't be able to mobilise your best commanders at multiple places at a time. As such, troop concentrations should stay as high as they can be in order to maintain your advantage.

Your priority should be to conclude as many wars as you can in the shortest time possible. As such, you'll need to have one or two armies, maybe three, in order to have a large superiority in these theatres. Depending on your current progresses, it is up to you to decide whether to reach 100% or to crave for white peace in each conflict. The fact that you are facing multiple enemies should not change your overall war philosophy; redeployments make you lose precious time, and time is precisely what you need the most when facing multiple enemies. It is only by eliminating meticulously the moment's easiest threat to dispose of that you'll be able to reduce with minimal losses the amount of enemies you'll have to face.

But you will need also to prevent a total disaster in the other fronts, where you won't have left any serious opposition to your enemies. As such, mobility will become extremely important for your survival. If you manage to concentrate the right amount of troops at the right time and at the right place, you will eventually emerge victorious. In order to do so, ships are of the prime importance. Even if your territory doesn't stretch overseas, using them to do quick jumps along the coastline in order to redeploy on the other side of your realm will make you save a colossal and extremely precious amount of time. An will also be of crucial help, as he will help you to relocate your troops as fast as possible by land at the place where they are needed the most.

Your role in this situation is the one of a fireman surrounded by fire; you cannot just leave, and leave all be shattered by the flames. Thus, you'll need to destroy what you can do in a minimal amount of time, while preventing any threat to become so serious that you won't be able to repel their attacks. It will be up to you to strike when required, and to stave off your enemies.

Getting out honourably of unnecessary conflicts

Even if ideally, you should be able to win all your wars, there are some times where there are too many enemies, or where they are far too overwhelming to even hope to win your war against them. Luckily enough, you may be able to reach some exit doors from these, preserving your strength and attention for other, more balanced confrontations.

The first exit door is obtaining white peace. It is preferably used in defensive wars, as it will grant you some Prestige and your attacker will have a 10 year truce with you, which will keep him out of your preoccupations for a while. It is relatively difficult however to obtain it in a defensive war, as you will need positive warscore for your aggressor to accept it. On the offensive, it should be used against a faraway enemy or when your target called on mighty allies, in order to preserve your offensive capabilities for other, more important wars. Generally, as you declared war, you will have fought for some time already, and gotten some warscore, which makes white peace easier to obtain offensively than defensively. 30% warscore or more is normally enough for AI acceptance, and it can be reached even against an overwhelming enemy by quickly assaulting its demesne in a county where there are numerous cities and churches (less fortified than castles, and they give out more warscore).

If white peace is impossible to reach, due to a negative warscore and a dire military situation, you will be forced to consider surrendering against one of some of your opponents. Consider well the losses it will incur to your realm, as your goal is to spare your forces a lost and costly fight, not to weaken them more than they already are. Surrendering on offensive wars is rarely an option, as the amount of war reparations you'd have to pay will probably put you in bankrupt, which will greatly hamper your capacity to win the other wars. As such, surrendering to defensive wars is to be preferred. Surrender in priority to:

• Wars targeting a single county or holding, but which leaves you in control of the de jure duchy. Once all your wars will be ended, you will be able to easily regain control of it through a de jure claim.
• Wars against an overwhelming enemy, which has largely greater numbers than you. As your troops will have a lot of trouble facing their armies, it is preferable to surrender in order to spare their strength for more accessible foes.
• Wars targeting multiple holdings which are outside of your de jure territory. They won't be among the most productive ones, and will regularly produce rebellious vassals which will be more likely than the others to join factions.
• Wars caused by factions, as long as they are not threatening directly your control of the realm. Factions to increase council power are among these.

However, if any war which meets one or multiple of these conditions targets directly your demesne, it is preferable to continue fighting. As the core of your power, and your main source of both levies and revenue, it will have a critical role to play in your other ongoing conflicts, and losing a demesne county will slightly weaken your war effort. The only case where it is acceptable to do it is when it has the Recently conquered modifier, as it renders your province nearly useless for all its duration.

Keeping hold on your budget

When facing multiple opponents at a time, mastering your budget is of prime importance. Resorting to mercenaries might be necessary to win crucial battles when your numbers don't match the ones of your enemies; however, using large bands will be very costly, both at the time of their recruitment and over time due to their maintenance fees. As such, one must carefully consider the right time to use them, and to which troops resort. Note that they are not suited prolonged sieges; for all the time they'll be sitting around a castle to siege, you'll pay several times their recruitment cost, which may cause a bankruptcy. Mercenaries should then be either recruited for battle, or for assaulting, for the shortest period possible.

For battle, you'll have to consider that each mercenary band you hire starts with 0 Morale, slowly recovering it over time. In order to time well the time when you'll use them, you'll thus need to do it about a month or two before the actual battle, in order to leave them time both to recover their morale and to join to them the rest of your forces. When the time will come, you'll have to consider carefully to which troops you'll resort;

• Skirmishers (like most Oriental bands, and the Nomadic ones, composed of , , , ) can be very useful to crush dispersed, small enemy armies or to complement your regular army if it is composed mainly of Melee-based troops (like European and Indian ones). On the other hand, they will be weak in battle against a large or elite enemy army (as the Melee phase will be unavoidable), and also in assaults, as their melee attack value is low. They can be both inexpensive, if composed of archers and light infantry, or extremely costly, if they are based on cavalry.
• Melee-based mercenary bands (like most European ones, and Holy Orders, composed of , , , ) can be precious in very large battles, as they'll be able to slaughter hundreds or even thousands of enemy soldiers during the melee phase. They are best used in large numbers as shock reinforcements, when one or several of your flanks are retreating until they arrive on the place of battle and lock the unsuspecting enemy in a bloody melee. They are also very useful in assaults, due to their high morale, defence and melee attack. However, their cost is most of the time very high, second only to the largest steppe mercenary bands.

For assaults, there is a slight difference between skirmishers- and melee-based armies. While the first ones contribute mostly with their morale damage and high numbers, the melee-based armies form the core of the attacking force and are far more effective. The best assaulting armies are formed of and , as they have very high defence and attack potential concentrated in little numbers, allowing them to suffer less losses and thus less morale damage than . However, if you are forced to siege, it might be preferable to resort to low-quality skirmisher armies, which are both inexpensive and numerous. As troop quality has little influence over the periodic morale hit the besieged will suffer, they are the best solution to both speed up the siege while spending as little as possible.

Your budget will also have to be used in other ways than to purely supplement mercenaries. Your personal levies also have a costly maintenance fee, and often smaller realms will be deficit with them raised. This implies to either refrain their use, or to stockpile a colossal amount of money to provide for a lengthy mobilisation. Sparing a significant part for gifts will allow you to form more alliances and convince talented commanders to join your court and your armies, including the ones serving your enemies, if possible.

Also, you might have to keep some of your funds in reserve. This reserve is crucial by three aspects:

• First, it will provide a cushion to provide for unexpected expenses. When one of your demesne holdings is occupied or raided, the attacker will pillage 15-50 gold, depending on the holding type. This gold will be taken from your chests regardless of your financial situation, meaning that if you don't have the required funds, you will get bankrupt.
• Second, it will allow you to continue administrating your kingdom as if war wasn't at your doors. Many aleatory events, which are beneficial for your character (such as the Icon sponsoring one for characters), require you to pay a little amount of money. If your situation is not critical, the reserve will allow you to continue solidifying your dynasty's capacities and grip on the realm without compromising your war effort.
• Last, this reserve will be there to be used if you are forced to surrender on an offensive war, and thus to pay reparations to the defender in order to avoid bankruptcy, which can be prolonged if your income is near 0 and the other conflicts you're involved in keep on raging for a long time.

Keep in mind though that these dispositions are to be made right at the beginning of a war. If you haven't prepared, or haven't enough income to stockpile, then you'll have to manage your expenses to prevent bankruptcy. While it is merely annoying at peace, getting bankrupt in the middle of a war is terrible. Apart from the -25% morale and thus strength your troops will have, negative modifiers will pop up in your demesne, hampering levy reinforcement, levy size, tax, in short reducing by much the province's contribution to war. Unpaid mercenaries will either join your enemies, even if their troops are merged with yours (a battle will then occur), or withdraw. For 2 days, their leader will have a strong claim on your primary title, allowing him to declare an invasion on your realm. During a war, one must thus be careful with his expenses; as bankruptcy can significantly worsen an already bad military situation.

Imperium Mundi

With great empires come great responsibilities - Uncle Ben, in Spiderman

Reaching to world domination, you should quickly enough find yourself at the head of an enormous empire after centuries of continuous warring, if you knew how to fight well in all wars. Even though the threat of a game over is far behind you now, the management of a great empire present threats that, if left unchecked, may well lead to your fall or at least cause severe drawbacks in your bid for world domination, or whatever other goal you pursue.

Coping with Defensive Pacts

主條目：Defensive pact

Defensive pacts are atrociously annoying in late game. Almost any conquest you'll make will make explode your level of threat, and short of waiting 40 years between each war you'll be forced to cope with them, if you didn't deactivate them in the game rules.

Luckily enough, you have several means at your disposal to make the realm you want to target leave a defensive pact before your attack, so you can avoid to inadvertently trigger World War I 800 years in advance.

First, you'll have to be prepared financially. Check your income with all of your personal levies raised, and then depending on the amount choose mercenary bands that you'll be able to field permanently without getting deficial. Plan for a good reserve of cash, as it will allow you to pay for the lost holdings (when a holding on your territory is occupied, the attacker will pillage some gold from your treasury), and for additional mercenaries if needed.

If you choose to occupy all the territory, move the mercenaries, holy orders and retinues to the border, to start assaulting as soon as possible. Then, focus on the enemy's territory, and deploy your armies to protect on one side the territories you'll have already occupied, and on the other to steamroll as fast as possible the remaining ones. The faster you'll act, the easier it will be, and you may be able to win without fighting major battles.

Distribution of power

主條目：Distribution of power guide

With extremely large empires, the distribution of power among your vassals becomes determinant. Your empire will soon become so large that the simple divide to reign motto will become irrelevant. As such, you'll have to find new ways to organise your realm to take the best from your vassals.

Set up viceroyalties

With a growing empire, passing Imperial Administration will soon become essential to raise your vassals cap enough to supplement further conquests. Apart from the +25 bonus of vassal limit, it will also pass the "Duchy-tier viceroyalties" law. Your goal from now in intern politics should be to cancel the titles of your direct vassals and to make them viceroyalties, in order to be able to control more easily the distribution of power in your empire.

As your expansion continues, waging one war at a time won't be enough. Setting up powerful vassals at the borders, that will like you well (after you grant them viceroyal titles) will prove very useful with inner wars prohibited. They will expand on their own and push forward in your enemies' territory, saving you time and attention. Also, having powerful vassals at the border means that, if ever they rebel, they will not directly threaten your power core and will be exposed to foreign attacks and war declarations.

When creating large vassals such as multi-kings, try to ensure that each vassal can provide enough ships to carry the troops they provide. Troops that can be immediately loaded into ships can contribute to the war much sooner than troops that must start an overland trek with 0% morale. (Raise vassal troops and ships from the province view so you can control where they appear; raising levies using the military view means relying on your vassal's choice of capital.)

戰爭