Sicily

[frogbeastegg]

Sicily needs to be unlocked before you can play as them. To do this you can either complete a campaign (on any difficutly, long or short setting) with one of the five starting factions, or you can edit the preferences file. To do this open your Sega/M2TW folder/data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign, find the file called "descr_strat" and open it with wordpad. Now find the section which says

campaign      imperial_campaign
playable
   england
   france
   hre
   spain
   venice
end
unlockable
   sicily
   milan
   scotland
   byzantium
   russia
   moors
   turks
   egypt
   denmark
   portugal
   poland
   hungary
end
nonplayable
   papal_states
   aztecs
   mongols
   timurids
   slave
end

Change it so it reads

campaign      imperial_campaign
playable
   england
   france
   hre
   spain
   venice
   sicily
   milan
   scotland
   byzantium
   russia
   moors
   turks
   egypt
   denmark
   portugal
   poland
   hungary
end
nonplayable
   papal_states
   aztecs
   mongols
   timurids
   slave
end

[Duncan_Hardy]

Into the 75th turn of my Sicily campaign (my first long campaign), so here are a few pointers:

• Early Expansion: I strongly recommend taking Corsica, Sardinia and Tunis ASAP. Make the two island castles into cities for trade purposes, but keep Tunis as a castle. This will give you a circle of early-game trade and an extra unit-training base. If you are skilled enough to hold it against inevitable Milanese attacks, Florence can prove lucrative too. Your nobles will probably ask you to take Durazzo, which I used as a base to take all of Greece and ultimately Constantinople (warning: this will test your military and financial skills to the limit!), before heading north to take the Venetians' lands. I'd avoid North Africa beyond Tunis because of the distances involved and the relative poverty of those provinces. Once the first crusade has been declared you can start carving out an empire in the Middle East too.

• Your Likely Enemies: I don't see how you can avoid making enemies of Milan, Venice and Byzantium (and possibly the Moors and the Holy Roman Empire) within a few dozen turns, simply because obeying your nobles will mean treading on the toes of all of these factions. Make sure to garrisson Florence with plenty of cavalry and you should hold Florence against Milan, who will then turn their attentions to France. Venice will aim to oust you from Greece, so use a combination of Muslim archers (later, crossbowmen) and heavy cavalry to defeat their infantry-heavy armies then eventually storm northwards to their capital. Your most dangerous enemy will be Byzantium; their heavy infantry and light cavalry archers are tricky to counter, so large armies will be required to defeat them, but their rich cities are worth the effort.

• Best Units: You will be relying a lot on cavalry. The infantry roster for Sicily is the basic Western European one, with Italian militia, and does not stand up well to Venetian, Milanese or Byzantine foot soldiers. The deciding factor will always be cavalry (as it should be for 11th century Normans), with Muslim Archers being a nice early-game bonus (since they will always beat peasant archers of other armies). Use Mailed Knights until Palermo has tier 3 stables, then use it as a Norman Knights factory (if you can afford them, Dismounted Norman Knights are nice too). These are awesome units, only a step below Chivalric Knights which you won't be getting till around turn 50 or so. Try to avoid city fights which favour the spearmen you face, and stay on open fields where you can pin down enemy troops with your archers/militia then flank with your cav (you will be using similar tactics to France, HRE or any other Western heavy-cav faction really).

• The Importance of the Navy: Because all your lands are on different islands and peninsulars, having 2-3 full stack elite navies is key in the long run. Make sure to switch to heavy war galleys as soon as possible, and keep building more and more. This will prevent your many enemies from strangling your sea trade, and will allow you to take troops from your advanced bases in Italy to your wars further afield.

• The Pope and the Church: Playing the good Christian kingdom serves the Sicilians well, not least because the lands to their south and east - primary expansion areas - are dominated by other faiths who will resent Catholic rule. I highly recomment making church/chapel building your priority with each new city/upgrade, and have the maximum number of priests at all times. Keeping one priest in each province should protect you from inquisitors, and you can send your surplus clerics to convert Orthodox/Muslim lands you have just taken/will be taking soon. Religious hegemony not only makes your life much easier, but it also pleases the Pope, so that if you do not initiate aggressions with Catholic factions you will remain his favourite throughout the game (don't worry, once they declare war on you you can soundly defeat them without consequence). This will make your life easier when fighting Venice, Milan and the HRE- at one point in my campaign the Pope had excommunicated all three of them, giving me a free hand to take all of Italy. One final advantage of maxing out your priests is that you will always have 3-5 cardinals in the college, ensuring that from Gregory onwards the popes will always be Sicilian.

[KeyserSoze]

On VH/VH on 0.50 years per turn.

Trade/Economy

One of the first things I noticed was (like Medieval) Naples and especially Sicily are great trading provinces. I elected to change Sicily to a Town at first opportunity. This will be your major revenue-producing province, and it's best not to waste it on building a castle.

Step 1

Take Corsica. I found it to be the best option for a military base. It's a bit counter-intuitive, and many may view this as a mistake with Tunis being near, but either will do. I picked Corsica because 1) It generally can't be compromised by the computer (it doesn't understand naval travel) and 2) It's centrally located if you want to pick up other Italian/French/North African/Iberian provinces.

There's only a few units there, so take a General and 2-3 units. Build a castle and build a few decent units. Now's the fun part.

Papal Relations

I hate long crusades as a European country. Hungary has you at a disadvantage by virtue of being closer to the usual Eastern Mediterranean objectives, while Spain is a shoe-in for any Andalusian target. Either direction has you managing a province from far away, which is not good (the ultimate demise of my Milan campaign was managing Jerusalem and pouring in tons of capital to keep this province under control).

The best target is Tunis. No Catholic faction can beat you. It's just across the pond from Sicily, and in one or two turns you're there.

Step 2

Go to the Pope (at the first available opportunity) with your diplomat. It's very easy to get his support for a crusade (or anything else) by allying with him, giving him as a gift Map Info and Military Access. You'll also want a few churches. Get 3 of your generals together and 5 others on the tip of Africa (usually the Moors haven't conquered Tunis yet) and declare a Crusade. Put a priest or 2 in this group. Now take the city from the meager force of rebels. You've just given everyone experience and very good general trait scores for almost nothing.

Also, you've got a base from which to convert people to Christianity, thereby getting good piety scores with your priests. I haven't burned any blasphemers, and at the 36th (1098) turn in the game I have 4 cardinals including the highest Bishop Preferati, meaning I am all but assured of the Papacy. I also make it a point to ally with everyone I meet to ensure Papacy votes. Once you're in, you can betray anyone and the Pope looks the other way.

Now you can sit back and destroy your enemies with Crusades. They'll probably be excommunicated for any minor infraction against you, and then just retaliate with Crusades against them.

Step 3

Take Corsica and (if it's still there) Florence. Nice money producing provinces. I build the max and I still have more money than I can spend due to the trade triangle I have with Sicily, Naples, Corsica, Sardinia, and Tunis.

Epilogue

From here you're set. You haven't pissed anyone off (like Milan) and your bases consist mainly of defensible islands and peninsulas. I allied with the Moors and convert their lands, to keep them there and not attacking me.

Bloodlines: The Sicilian bloodline is really very good, packed with useful traits and relatively high scores. Keep crusading, especially against nearby provinces. Deny any general who has low scores from adoption/marriage in to the family. I waited and got some exceptional candidates, especially high loyalty and chivalry (which I value most).

[TheFluff]

Well i just wanted to chime in, i dont have much negative to say aboiut Sicily ,i been playing a very long campagin with them and have made a TON of money tradeing. The only downside to this faction is eventully they become alot like the HRE in terms of borders and you'll have to deal with the pope of couse.

My main gripe though is that because of your position, you have to deal with alot of navy (eating resorses) and you need a big fleet to keep trade routs and reinforcments moveing. Also, there unique unit, the norman knight is more powerfull then a dismounted fudal knight (but WAYYY uglyer) but you soon find out that your somewhat stuck with them unless you upgrade your barracks really high to get some more redundent unit types that other factions get earler. I'd say the best thing this faction has going for it is the fact that dispite haveing a western castle unit roster, it can get pavise milita and itilian milita. So basitcally its just another itilian clone or milian or venice with ugly looking unique units (Although they are usefull when you can mass produce)

Bottom line, Sicily is a fun game to play, but only if you enjoy teching up and not really fighting to many wars. You'll also have to get used to the general unaprealing look of all there units. The AI plays them much better because the AI techs out, while the human player usually focus on either econ or military,and you'll find yourself even in the hardest game one of if not the most advanced faction, there fore able to build very highend units while most armys are still made up of dismounted fudual knights.

[EnemyOfTheState]

Must throw in my two cents abotu Sicily. I tried a different approach to the game, instead of bum rushing the AI I waited about 50 or so turns before taking a computer city/castle.

Capture the cities on Corisca and Sardinia and convert the Corsican one to a city. Also convert your Captial to a city, while this might be considered a dumb move it can generate a -lot- of cash from trade. Gather your armies in a central point and get the pope to declare a crusade against Tunis. Capture it with your King, Heir, and other family members in your army to get a huge amount of bonuses. These cities and castles if teched up will generate huge amounts of money per turn.

Mounted and unmounted Norman knights along with muslim archers = your best friends

[nameless]

The thing though is you have to deal with Venice and Milan which can quickly grow powerful.

Their navies are strong and their armies can give a whooping. I'm beginning to think unless you want a challenge, expand to the middle east. Otherwise, stay to the south and western areas. I find it difficult to make a profit in the gaza -> Alexandria region due to the unrest there.

It maybe advantageous to grab all of the islands and north africa, and then start campaigning in Italy. By that time venice or milan would have become excommunicated.

[IrishArmenian]

I've found out that the best way to go is to take Tunis in your first turns. Then convert Palermo to a town/city and then take Corsica and Sardinia. Make priests and send them to North Africa! I got three cardinals in a few turns and I'm currently trying for more. As soon as a crusade was called, I rounded up an army and with the navy I had already created, took to the seas, making sure to always unload my army every turn in case my ships were sunk. I know have Jerusalem in addition to the central Mediteranean Circle and I am generating a lot of money. Palermo has a Theologian's Guild, Naples has a Merchant's Guild and I am holding out in Jerusalem for a Hospitaller/Teutonic/Templar Guild House.

[rebelscum]

After the 1.2 patch, the AI does invade corsica quite a lot. I've had both milan and the moors land here, but they haven't landed a force big enough to oust me though.

I take durazzo as soon as the nobles ask me to and give it to the pope.

[mbrasher1]

Sicily probably has the most diverse unit roster of any M2TW faction.

Great Militia Units. Getting long spearwall units (halberd militia) earlier than other Italian factions is a huge advantage. Sicily's cities can be assaulted only with great difficulty after these guys are on the scene. The advantages of the halberd militia outweigh those of the the Genoese crossbow militia, whose principal advantages are in additional h-t-h fighting ability.

Excellent Knights. The norman knights are a fine unit, outclassing similar period units.

Great ranged units. The Muslim archer can fight h-t-h, has long range arrows, and is very good against lightly armored opponents, as it lacks AP ability.

Others have covered the strategic options pretty well for Sicily. It has easy access to the Mediterranean islands, North Africa, Jerusalem and it can go in any direction. Power and flexibility.

An early alliance with the pope, and the nearness of Islamic lands means that your priests quickly become cardinals, and the papacy is nearly always held by a Sicilian.

In my recent game I planned to trade Durrazzo for Bologna but the HRE was not buying it. But I took Durrazzo and kept it until the Byz took it. Overall, it was quite profitable to do so, since it only used up on unit, I got a mission to take it and the income more than covered the loss of the peasant archer assigned to guard it.

My general strategy is to simultaneously:

-- Dominate the papacy through an alliance and control of the College of Cardinals
-- Expand into Tunis and then to Moorish lands. This lets your Cardinals train up and will not cause problems with excommunication. Plus the Moors usually have problems in Spain and cannot focus on North Africa.
-- Expand into Italy. First to Florence, then to Bologna and then either Milan or Venice (whichever is currently excommunicated). This leaves you with excellent income, compact European borders and defensible frontiers.
-- Expand in the Mediterranean islands. They are nearby and not well defended. Cagliari, Ajaccio, Iraklion, Rhodes and Nicosia are easy targets. The eastern islands make Crusades easier. The Western islands are good income producers, or can be kept for castle units to supply Northern Italy.

[Tran]

After the 1.2 patch, the AI does invade corsica quite a lot. I've had both milan and the moors land here, but they haven't landed a force big enough to oust me though.

I take durazzo as soon as the nobles ask me to and give it to the pope.

I'm not sure about these, but first time playing with patch 1.2 as Sicily. Few turns after I made an encounter with Milan, they decided to go with cheap extortion tactic against me, and if I refuse to pay they threaten to attack. The Milanese asked for very small amount of florins but I still refused, and within few turns, they assemble two army. One in a 6 or 7 stack ships sailing for Corsica (Ajacio) and the other one marched on ground heading for Florence.

The Milanese however appearantly failed to notice that I have already made an alliance with the Pope. At first, their huge stack of army managed to defeat my small garrison at Corsica. However, when the other army sieged Florence, the Pope immediately excommunicated Milan. The next thing I did, was that I defeated the Milanese invaders at Florence with my smaller garrison forces, gained a Heroic victory, and didn't forget to call a Crusade against Milan. Which the Pope seemed to agree happily

Therefore, a very wise thing to do when you're playing as Sicily:

Make alliance with Pope

It is guaranteed that anyone who dared to invade your settlements will be excommunicated in no time (like Milan in my case).

By the way, I'm still early in the game and I also made marriage alliance with the Holy Roman Empire. Perhaps because of the marriage alliance, they (so far) never went to attack me. It is interesting to see what will happen next, though. I might come here again and post the situation.

[heisme]

These are all of great use, but just one question how do u keep playing for a whole 300 turns i don't mean stopping because youre killed but doesn't it get boring.

[Tran]

Some people just enjoy it, some even goes as far as editing the timeframe so that it goes 2 turns for one year instead of the usual two years every turn. Slow role-playing is just some (or many) people's favorites...

[floydsvoid123]

First post.
I'm playing a M/M 1.0 unmodded Sicily game and it looks like the opening steps for Sicily are even more crucial than for other factions. Factions like Milan have rich cities that can help them support early troops and building, but factions like Sicily and Portugal tend to begin with an economic disadvantage that means your early troops won't be replaced for a few turns, and you can't get stronger troops until your economy kick-starts.

I went the islands way, ignoring Durazzo as I had no intention of fighting the Byzantines until I had some proper units to throw at them. Palermo I kept as a castle, and Naples (obviously) as a city. I split my navy, shipped my field general in Sicily to Sardinia, and my garrison + general in Palermo to Corsica. My general and garrison in Naples went to Florence. The great thing about Sicily is that you can throw pretty much all your troops into your expansion effort without fear of attack upon your base.

After building a bowyer in Palermo (to prep for recruiting muslim archers) and a town guard in Naples (I'd be needing those spear militias), and a few units in Palermo and spies in Naples to help with the sieges, my treasury went red. But before that happened I made sure I got on the Pope's good side. For some reason several of the factions seem to think trade rights with Sicily is generous (and alliance even more so), so I took advantage and sold trade rights for about 1000 florins. Never happened to me with Milan or any other faction. My princess's charm rose by 3 or 4 points, and I had outstanding relations. I decided to save alliance for when I needed to recover Papal trust (which I would have to, considering my expansion plans against the Italian factions).

Once I captured Sardinia and Corsica (or Ajaccio and Cagliari if you prefer), my money started coming back quickly, and once I captured Florence I was out of the red. I converted both islands to towns for money, and built with town guards as a priority. In Italy you shouldn't leave any settlement empty...ever. The towns are far too close together for comfort, giving you much less leeway than, say, the Iberian Peninsula or Northern Europe (I do sometimes keep settlements in those areas near-empty for financial reasons). Make use of those superior militia...most of you will already know that Italian spear militia are the equivalent of mercenary spearmen but for one point of defense.

Now here's where things got a little strange. Apparently Milan didn't get that message about leaving your towns ungarrisoned. When I first sent troops to capture Florence my spy noticed that for some inexplicable reason Milan had left Genoa ungarrisoned. I would have captured it instead of going for Florence, but I ran out of moves and Milan reinforced it with 1 militia by the next turn. Because I was bankrupt I didn't want to deal with Milan and their superior position and crossbows, so I just went for Florence.

Once my finances were stable and I was busily upgrading in all of my cities (I recommend militia buildings first, then small churches, land clearance, then grain exchange, port before clearance if available), I decided to get me Bologna to boost trade, income, and have a land route from Naples to northern Italy. I bought it for 1100 florins over 15 turns (probably overpaid, but I was filthy rich anyway), and the HRE left Italy. Never go against Bologna using your military - it is almost always fully stacked, and most of the units aren't even militia. They're the castle equivalents. Using your treasury to buy Bologna will probably be better financially than rebuilding your armies from scratch and regarrisoning your now empty cities.

So I now had a nearly full stack of units that I was originally going to assault Bologna with wandering around. I send my spies to look for new targets...and what do you know. Genoa is empty once more.

I sent my general from Florence to capture it bloodlessly, and my stack to reinforce it. It didn't get there quite as fast as I would have preferred - Milan had a full stack of units including siege weapons poised within walking distance of Genoa - but for some reason they didn't attack, so I got a whole city, once of the richest in the game, for free. It meant breaking my alliance with Milan, but I've effectively crippled them, so what are they going to do.

Side note: Buying Bologna somehow also left me with a garrison there of about 6 or 7 Mercenary Frankish Knights. Well, if you really insist on giving them to me...

Since militia are more than enough most of the time during the early battles, I had put off on upgrading Palermo. The primary reason for upgrading Palermo would be Muslim Archers, but Pavise Crossbow Militia fill quite a bit of their role rather nicely and for less florins. City Guards were a priority in cities, Bowyer series in Palermo.

In the south, I took over Tunis probably a few turns after the Moors took it. It was lightly defended, and considering my empire the Moors begged for ceasefire within a few turns. It didn't hurt that the Moors were undoubtedly too busy with Spain to deal with me. I took Algiers, a very well developed castle by this point (this is probably before turn 30 or 35) that could train Muslim Archers, and turned Tunis into a city. Algiers will serve as the strongpoint agaisnt any possible Moorish invasions, and once I've stabilized the area (maybe taken the castles in southern Iberia to use for unit factories), I'll turn it into a city and engage in some Mediterranean trade. My clergy is working feverishly to convert the population, and I have no doubt once Gregory dies, there will be a Sicilian in Rome to do whatever I say whenever I say it.

Summary: The island settlements are a must. Durazzo isn't for me, but the more experienced could probably pull it off. Naval competence is key in the early game. Palermo is pretty much the only castle you'll need. Florence is a great help, attack it before Milan does. Buy Bologna. Pavise crossbow militia can substitute until Muslim archers come in. Keep those ports built. Never leave a settlement empty. Bring a lot of spies - all that you can afford. Your princess is an amazing diplomat. And use your incredible treasury and military strength to force the Moors to beg for peace.

Have fun, I certainly will once I get those Norman Knights.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Go ahead and take the mission to grab Durazzo for the cash.

THEN

Give it to his holiness ("You truly have our....") and let him faff about with the Byzantines while you island-up for the economy.

Don't wait too long to build up with the Sicilians. Your early-on dismounted foot knights are better than the other folks' dismounted feudals, so hammer away.

[floydsvoid123]

Update:
Just took Milan and Venice. Milan had a full garrison and a full stack of units right outside the city, but for some reason had next to no Genoese crossbow militias in those armies. I used the bridges to destroy the outside stack, getting huge amounts of experience and releasing prisoners for chivalry. I know a lot of people say don't release prisoners because you'll have to fight them again, but as my economy was booming and I could easily replace/retrain all of my units, I decided to go for the extra chivalry, which I'll use to help get me a crusader knight's guild, maybe in Florence, so I can defend Northern Italy more easily.

Venice was less garrisoned but tends to be more difficult to assault because of the large armies wandering its area. You should never attack Venice without being ready to take it that turn, otherwise a full stack 5< star general will trap you on the bridge connecting the island city to the mainland. It's not a bridge battle either, so you'll have to be prepared to lose a lot of units that you shouldn't have to lose.

Once I took Venice, I was almost rolling in riches. My cities were beginning to upgrade to large cities, and Palermo upgraded to a citadel for Chivalrics. My island cities began to upgrade so I could finally get that trade triangle really going. The only thing was that Venice kept coming back for their city, and I almost lost it to a force of 3 catapults and 3-4 units of spear/italian militia because my garrison consisted of only 4 pavise crossbow militia and 1 spear militia. Thankfullly I managed to block their only breach into the city and once they routed, I used my 28 or so crossbowmen left to fire at the catapults from behind (they eventually ran out of ammo, but they would't leave until I shot at them).

My northern Italian cities have upgraded to militia drill squares now, so I believe defending will be much easier with halberd militia. I plan to use them for offense as well - spear militia are very good and have lower upkeep, but the offensive uses of a long spear wall are lessons I remember very well from Rome: Total War.

Guilds are coming in fast. Bologna I plan to use for an Assassin's guild because its position near both Rome (the papacy is undoubtedly mine for several turns yet, but just in case I need to remove him) and the training opportunities of Northern Italy. Venice and Genoa have gained a Merchant's Guild since they are the two provinces most heavily dependent on trade in the game. Milan now has a cathedral and a Theologian's guild, ensuring that I will all but dominate the College of Cardinals. It doesn't hurt that the Byzantine Empire is so near with its missionary opportunities. Florence, as I said, will gain a Crusader Knight's guild, and I might call a crusade on one of the Moorish cities (maybe Tripoli to add to the trade triangle). Palermo I plan to get a Horse Breeder's guild in, as it will provide most of my heavy cavalry. The same could go for Bern once the Papal ban on attacking Milan is lifted, or I could go for a swordsmith's guild instead. If I take Ragusa (i.e. If I decide to go after the Byzantines - probably after I recruit a sizable Pike-Crossbow-Heavy Cavalry force), I'll probably use it to go for a Mason's guild - I could use the bowyer series to get extra points for it before converting to a city, in the meantime using it as a base for conquering the Balkans. As for Naples, Tunis, and the islands, a merchant's guild is probably a safe bet. Tunis might also be a good spot for an alchemist's guild once it comes into play considering the central position of its port (Iraklion would be another nice spot).

Have about 15 priests in Marrakesh right now - one turn got it from 0% to 46% Catholic. Massive Growing Faith bonuses.

I'll keep you updated!

[Kiron Drayga]

The fun for playing Sicily, for me at least, is how every game as Sicily is a completely unique, independent experience. With most other factions, there's a similar strategy you always follow to get from Point A to Point B. England is almost always going to consolidate Great Britain first, then march into France. Egypt is almost always going to expand into the Holy Land and react to crusades. Russia is almost always dominating the same corner of the map. You get the picture.

With Sicily, the central location and the relative security of sharing a substantial land border with the Papacy gives you the opportunity to react to in-game developments by going wherever the wind calls you. It's a liberating experience.

I'm on my second Sicily game now, after losing out with Venice. My first Sicily experience involved me purchasing Bologna from HRE, fighting off Venice, going into Durazzo to incite the wrath of the Byzantines, and taking out Constantinople. Sicily was only the second faction in M2TW I actually won the game (on my default setting of H/H) with (England was first.) My first Sicily experience had me expanding in the Byzantine's direction and, generally speaking, in that corner of the map, into places like Sofia and Budapest and Nicaea. The endgame was basically me, the Mongols (who had settled in Russia), France (they dominated the west, where I didn't expand much), and Egypt / the Timurids.

Now my second game as Sicily has...well...it's been nearly the opposite experience.

This time around I tried the buying-off-Bologna trick and it failed. I had no clue why, but I have a strict no-restarts (or reboot from autosaves) policy on my games (I'm a stickler for perfectionism), so when the Princess failed I decided not to bother. With Bologna out of the picture, I decided not to expand into Durazzo. Instead I did some moves similar to posts here -- converted Palmero into a town, took Florence out as soon as possible, got the Pope to commission a crusade into Tunis, took Tunis quickly, then gobbled Corsica and Sardinia. Milan (predictably) declared war, and I responded by taking Genoa. I was going to take Milan proper, too, but I was distracted when the Moors began a siege of my poorly-defended Corsica (!! -- I was surprised they went for Corsica before Sardinia), forcing me to re-prioritize.

I was just about to get ready for a fun trek into Algiers when another crusade was commissioned -- before I thought another crusade could be commissioned. Another faction beat me to the punch and chose Jerusalem. So I decided, let's do an African march with my king from Tunis to Jerusalem, taking every Egyptian and rebel settlement I find along the way!!

...And I was immediately disappointed to learn that Venice took Tripoli (!!) As a sidenote, I allied with both HRE and Venice shortly before Milan declared war; this proved to be a prudent move as I'm pretty sure HRE and Venice will just turn traitor when they feel like it anyway, but right now I have enough enemies to worry about. Strangely, in this game Venice controls its starting settlements and Tripoli (that giant swab of useless african desert between Tunis and Egypt)...and nothing else. No incursions into Byzantium, no push into Hungary. A strange turn of events for Venice.

Anyway, I marched through Venice's Tripoli territory with my king and crusaders, while my cadre of priests were taking the long journey as well (I wanted to convert Alexandria to Christianity as soon as I knocked the stuffing out of the Egyptians.) Weirdly, perhaps my priests' presence and their conversions actually helped my relations with Venice, which only improved to "Perfect" while my Crusaders were marching in their territory.

It took some expensive mercenaries (you won't find too many of the traditional crusading fare in Africa) but I ended up taking Alexandria, Cairo, Gaza, and Jerusalem by turn 35...not bad. Actually, it's the best I've ever done in a crusade, but it's also the earliest I've ever had a crusade reach the Holy Land. (Mind you, I usually don't try for immediate crusades there in my games...maybe I should, as I really caught Egypt off-guard. Now Egypt controls only three settlements -- that southern Egypt one below Cairo that's mostly useless, Acre, and Damascus. Even Antioch is still currently a rebel settlement.) I did the smart thing and allied with the Turks, who now adore me. And I've found unrest comparatively manageable in my eastern settlements, in large part due to sending my cadre of Priests and Cardinals out there. Alexandria is already 70% Christian, Cairo is close to 50% Christian and I purchased two new Priests and a church that's working on Jerusalem too. (Can't care as much about Gaza as it's a castle, so they'll be content regardless.)

So now my Empire is turning into a one entirely reliant on a navy (even if I did wrest Tripoli from Venice, I'd still have to ship generals and units from Sicily / Naples to Egypt by boat...it's too long a journey on foot. Not to mention Corsica and Sardinia and the divide between my northern and southern Italian establishments.) And I haven't even reached turn 50!

Oh, and for the record? I can't even count how many times those Muslim Archers saved me. Muslim Archers saving a Catholic kingdom...ahh, the irony.

It's a completely different experience from my first Sicily game, though, and that's what I'm loving most about it.

[RWT]

This is my first post on the forums here, so I decided to make it about one of my absolute favorite factions to play, the Sicilians.

I generally begin by using my Palermo troops + a little from the garrison to charge Tunis. From there, you can swing north with the troops or use the Napolean force to take the islands, leaving Tunis with a sizeable garrison. If you have 1.2 or 1.3, keep Sardinia a castle to defend against the invariable Moorish/Milanese offensive. From there, motor on through North Africa, but keep an eye on your Eastern flank.

One other interesting strategy I saw here was to take Albania (The name slips my mind) and gift it to Il Papa.

Crusades are useful, but there's very little water between you and Egypt. As far as I've seen, Egypt has complete naval dominance in the south Mediterranean.

Long story short, defend your rear and East or West.

Sicily also has a number of challenging opportunities-

Drive north through Italy.
Push across the Adriatic, all the way to Poland.
Go southeast, Tripoli is closer to you than Cairo. Push to Egypt.
Take Rome. See how defensable your region really is.

Sicily is in a position to go anwhere in the Mediterranean. It's up to you.

I'll post a link to a sketch I did of a good strategy in the next post... first post rules.