Sicily

[Lunael]

I personally enjoy playing the small factions much more than the larger ones. It´s more enjoyable for me to see my small kingdom grow from one or two provinces into a huge empire spanning Europe.

Sicily is a recent favourite of mine. Why? I think the position does it. Malta and Sicily command a central, pretty safe point in the Mediterranian, from which you can expand to virtually any direction. Crusading time? Choose between Egypt and Almohads. Pope bashing? Just head north. Remains of an empire interest you? Consantinople awaits. There´s a lot of variety in what you can try to do, which pretty much offsets tha fact that as Sicily I don´t get any special units.

I´ll talk a little about the strategy I usually go for when playing Sicily.

First of all, some initial expansion is required, and Naples is the perfect province to take. Byzantine armies there usually are minimal (I play on hard) and you don´t need much army building to make a force strong enough to take it. The lack of land contact with other Byzantine provinces pretty much ensures that you won´t be driven from the immediately either. Just grab it, and go for peace with Byzantines for a while at least. I usually get that truce.

After that, a merchant fleet is the way to go. Start churning out those Dromons and build up your trade routes - naturally that hopefully secures your important seas too, in case Italy or Byzantium tries to do something. Concentrate on getting the unit building infrastructure you need to continue expanding.

At this point things get IMO a little trickier, as you have a lot of options to choose from. Byzantium assault through Greece definitely can be done, but it requires force. Attacking Italy risks excommunication, but on the other hand the islands it controls are easy picking if you can win the naval battle against it. And in case Italy gets suddenly excommunicated a healthy fleet ensures that you can benefit immediately from this enormous kick me sign planted on doge´s back.

Of course you can also crusade, but that is a scary option that I´ll leave to better players for now. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

There´s one definite risk on going war with Italy. Usually it seems that most of my sea trade is done with it, and war cuts this line of profit badly. So you need to either expand your merchant fleet (which again leaves you thin on ships fighting at critical seas... or you just have to have patience and build those ships like there was no tomorrow) or build large war coffer to siphon from.

Nevertheless, anyway you choose you probably will end up fighting Italy at some point. Too many conflicting interests there.

Well, that´s my thoughts on my favourite faction of the moment. I´ll be more than glad to hear your thoughts. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

-Juha

Porcupine Tree : Synesthesia

[Monk]

Very nice points, here's my input (on Expert)

First thing is first, Take Naples from the Byzantines. As Lunael pointed out you can easily sue for peace without having to risk a vast war with the remnant of the Roman Empire. Second on the list is to build up a mighty navy, spread you ships across the Med to rake in the florins. With a good trader navy one can afford to raise vast armies of Advanced Units.

After you have a good navy, Strike the Almohads in Tunisia. In most of my games the Almos are busy in Spain fighting with the Spaniards so you should be able to secure the province easily, next expand to the west but make sure you stop BEFORE you enter Egypt, that part comes later.

By now you should have a good chunk of North Africa, its time to build up. Make sure to build Gold Mines in Tunisia (i think that's where the gold is) in order to get the most of the North. Start building Churches and converting the local peoples of Africa, otherwise you risk a holy war on your hands.

Next, (i suggest only experienced players follow here) its crusading time. As Crusades can hinder your King's states if you fail, i suggest you don't launch them wildly, If you plan to do so, your first target should be Egypt. However the Egyptians will fight to the last in defending that province as it is very valuable. Next Either Palestine or Antioch should be taken as those are also great trading provinces, and in taking them you should weaken the Egyptian forces to the point of devastation

With your new holy war, the pope is usually quick to rally the other Christian Kingdoms to crusade as well. the added help should completely destroy Egyptian resistance if not drive it to a poor province such as Arabia. By now you should have a sizable Empire that is not only strong but rich.

The Next step is a War on the Byzantines, By invading Greece you can establish a good foothold in their territory, plus you are only a stone's throw from Constantinople. The Byzantines can be Very strong with their Kats and Infantry, so you should make sure your armies are strong before starting a major war with them. After Greece falls, the next move should be made into Constantinople, such a move can deal a mortal blow to the Byz Empire.

After that is done, there are a number of things you can do, whether you decide to finish off the Byzantines or Call for peace and make war on the Turks, it must be noted that following this path would put you in contact with the horde as they arrive.

Anyway those are my thoughts http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[Lunael]

Thanks for the reply, Monk

Just started a new game with Sicily. Started nicely Took Naples and started building up my navy, and my infastructure. At the moment my income is more than enough to start expanding, probably towards Almohads as you suggested. They seem to be in war with Spain, so that would make attack easy enough to pull.

I hope a very basic army will do it. I finally started building towards mounted sergeants and feudal knights in Sicily, but luckily my late king was very, very succesfull in breeding and I have a total of six units of royal knights to choose from when it comes to cavalry.

4 x feudal sergeants
4 x archers
4 x feudal man at arms
4 x royal knights

(four of everything... I´ve clearly played way, way too much tournament Magic the Gathering in my youth) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

What worries me a tad bit are the urban militia units the Almohads have. I´ve faced them in action with Spain, and this time I lack the skirmishers like jinetes that were really useful against them. And I have nothing that has bonus against armored units in my army - perhaps a few reinforcement militia sergeants would be in order?

Anyway, the huge navy definitely is the way to go with Sicily - whatever you plan to do. I started building galleys in Sicily immediately, and the necessary buildings to produce them in Malta, and the cash flow from Sicilia and Naples through the trade is a real boon.

One question though. Malta has bonus when it comes to building knights hospitalers (or was it templars, I just can´t remember). These are crusade units, I assume, and they can´t be build outside them. Do some of them show up on the building list in Malta after the actual crusade is built, or do I need some extra relevant buildings (ie. those giving feudal knights) in Malta to build them for my crusade? Or do I get some extra units automatically together with the crusade? Never have crusaded before. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

A small screenshot from my game (http://www.student.oulu.fi/~jkeratar/misc/sisilia.jpg)

-Juha

Aphex Twin : Heliosphan

[Brutal DLX]

Try a GA game with Sicily. Should be a challenge.

I don't take Naples, not at first at least.
Build a trading fleet, upgrade, pump some troops. Invade Ireland, Norway/Sweden and maybe Portugal if Spain is in disarray.
That will get you a lot of money and ample time to upgrade and produce very advanced troops. Then just invade wherever you please and start your conquest, if playing total domination mode.