Best starting position in Early

[John86]

The question is: what do you think the best postion in Early. Personally, I prefer Egyptians, they have 2 strong nations near them (almodads and byz) which usually involve themself in many wars and egyptians can usually come in for the win. Tell me what you think. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-gossip.gif

[Kropazz]

It's got to be Novgorod m8 (well at least very enjoyable), Boyars in early r supreme. Just add dismounted Druzina and some Vikings. Lots of rebels around for easy pickings.
Danish r very boring http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-no.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif
Oh, i forgot: and then comes Horde http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wall.gif

[The_678]

I would have to agree that the Egyptians have the best starting position. The only problem is that I don't like muslim armies so I never play as egypt. They are extremly rich and have some good defendable borders.
Another great startiong positon is the Byzantines and the english.

[Senta]

hmm... i can tell you what starting position IS NOT the best: Poland. but gotta love the challenge if you ally yourself to Hungary and HRE, you're in for some good pickings on the east, as long as you snatch Pomarania and one of the southern provinces to halt the expansion of your allies... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-curtain.gif

[Eastside Character]

I think Egyptians, but its also easy playing England or Denmark.

Regards,
EC

[RZST]

its gotta be egpytians or spanish, with egpyt i can usually wipe out the turks in a couple o turns. same with spanish, i can get almohads in a couple o turns too.

novrogod is fun but the income is waaaaaaay low.

[Jeff]

Personally I like the way the Argonese start. All the resources needed for an Empire are right there for the taking. And once the Iberian peninsula is taken you have a relatively easy position to defend. But since they weren't in the poll I voted for the Almohads. I feel they have a similarly easy time of it in early. You can use the rush strategy to take out the Spanish and Argos or you can rush the Egyptians.

[Crazy Duke]

Well, I like Spanish. It's really good position, have a good back cover. Or, good thing also is, Pope likes me, especially when he gave me 1.000 florins for few times, record is 7 times.

Playing with England, Denmark and Egypt is also good for start position.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

[Tepes]

I think the Byzantines are the best faction in Early period.
Their units are the best now, their lands rich and can easily expand at any border.

[Drewman]

For pure starting position, it has to be the Almos. Only two provinces to defend. You can strip one end of your empire bare to expand on the other side.

Not so sure about the Egyptians. They start with almost no infrastructure and the Turks can attack four different provinces.

[PseRamesses]

Voted Almohads but close comes Egyptians and Danish.

[John86]

Sorry all, I was reading from the MTW instrustions adn i forgot that aragonese and siclians werent in MTW only in VI. YOu said the spanish got 1000 flolrin from pope? Never happened to me. Only with germans have i gotten money from pope.

[Crazy Duke]

yes, I've got 7x1,000 florins from Pope, fighting against Almohads.

Also 3-4 times with France

[Hetman_Koronny]

*bows*

Voted Polish - although rather poor they have a LOT rebels to conquer to the East. An able general will handle the conquest fairly easily despite financial problems. That can give the Polish a very good start.

My second choice would be Spanish or Almo.

*bows*

[Phatose]

I voted Spanish for a couple of reasons. The first Spanish king has 4 command and a +3 defender virtue - putting him in the royal sweetspot for breeding high command heirs. Both initial Spanish provinces have iron, Navarre has iron and is held by rebels. Aragon also has iron, and the Aragonese have only one province, so wiping them out isn't all that tricky (though killing that king can be a pain due to his personal combat virtues). All four of those can be in your hands by turn 3, and all four have iron and ocean access. A more perfect set up for a millitary production center could not be asked - quick naval deployment and iron to maximize potential. You can grab Toulouse off the French immediately afterward too, with no fear of repercussions.


The Spaniard have high influences and piety too. That makes Mr. Pope overly generous with his money in my experience, and also makes the Pope tend to ignore you when he's deciding who to send his inquisitors after.

And if that wasn't enough, Jinettes. Those things are just plain evil.

[gaijinalways]

I'm surprised, no votes for the English or the Italians, the two factions I have played. They both start off fairly well, the English close to good pickings held by the French (Flanders, Champagne, and Isle de France) and the Italians already have Venice, Tuscany, and Genoa.

[Senta]

Quote[/b] (gaijinalways @ Feb. 23 2004,16:55)]I'm surprised, no votes for the English or the Italians, the two factions I have played. They both start off fairly well, the English close to good pickings held by the French (Flanders, Champagne, and Isle de France) and the Italians already have Venice, Tuscany, and Genoa.
well, English have 3 votes... i like their starting position as well... :)

[lancer63]

The Biz. They're the only faction with access to the black sea and the mediterranean at the same time; that means great trade, + they're the only faction with a citadel to start, and unique tradable goods. And I try and always keep in good terms with whoever holds egypt. Great trade to be made between both provinces. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[The_Emperor]

The Byzantine starting position is not THAT strong in my opinion, firstly everything is centralized in Constantinople with a large and unwieldy empire.

The Turks are very numerous on your border and likely to invade within a few years, and they will always outnumber you.

Their Egyptian Allies will always support them in a war, even if they are a mainly peasant rabble

And of course the Italians often have an expansionist agenda in Serbia and Greece, and the Sicilians will want to take Naples as quickly as possible

Add into the mix the Hungarians who sometimes want to expand south on their own and you can face it tough going even on Early.

No the Spanish have the best start, they are well placed to crush their Nearby rebels and move onto Aragon before the Pope will even blink Following that its a smooth ride across North Africa killing heathens without fear of excommunication

The Spanish certainly have the superior start.

[John86]

The byz do have a strong economy and and army at start but they face the threat of Mongols later in the game, thats why i didnt vote for em.

[lancer63]

Aye Emperor, The Biz empire is threatened on all sides and I was about to vote the Spanish, when I recalled being overrun more than once by the Elmo heads which, like the turks, always outnumber me with the agravant of their AUMs. The Aragonese national sport is backstabbing the spaniards every 5 years. Plus the English always keep their small greedy eyes on Navarre and the Italians and Sicilians wont leave Valencia alone once I conquer it.
At least I can meet the early threats with my biz inf. and plenty of treb. and horse archers.
I agree Spain has a great starting point. But the Biz. Empire has a better one imho. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

[Gen_Lee]

I can only talk about the only campaign I did without Medmod.
I choosed the Sicilians and it was a wise choice for sure http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

[katank]

I would pick the Turks. They have the best starting position in the game IMHO since they are guaranteed a king's ransom. You can always move all your troops to syria on the first turn and strike into palestine and tripoli the second, trapping the sultan in antioch where you can invade and get the 10k+ ransom for him and most likely one of his sons that would be born. You get another opportunity to trap him if you take sinai.
After finishig off the egyptians, you can go after the byz with your HA armies and you position in Rum threatening all of asia minor makes multiple jihads so good. Head straight for Const. and hold it and you got it made.
The hybrids are also so cool and getting to face the mongols make for some fun and epic defensive battles.

[Russian Threat]

Byzantines definitely.

The hardest in Early for me has always been the Turks. You're forced to attack either the Byzs or the Egyptians to expand, and the early Turk units are no match for the Egyptians or Byzantine armies at such an early stage.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-stunned.gif

[Seven.the.Hun]

hmm, i found byzantines are a bit harder than it appears as a start pos...but nothing too terrible, just more of a challenge then u'd think, as its butter spread sorta thin, but its still great to work with...and of course, danes invading the north is wise...i'm working on those germans now, it all becomes even stranger when u start out with more landlocked areas...all those fronts and appealing neighbors... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Seven.the.Hun]

havent played that early sicillian campaign yet...how does that workout in the midst of the mediterranian??? is it wiser to take the islands or to take italy?...or both, or neither? havent looked closely at how they start out yet...?

[octavian]

the English prob. have the best starting position if you can secure your shores and get Wales/Scotland, for losts of acton though, the spaniards are great of course, it may cause you to http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ht_surrender.gif if your not good enough

[neogerry]

the english once you conquer scotland and wales http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Clips]

Well i would agree with the majority of the poll results yes if you are only talking about early then the byzantines are very good probably the best yet the italians are a good match :)

Yet if you want to take a look upon the whole of the era i meen them all then i wouldnt say the byzantines in late and maybe even a bit some people would say in high the byzantines began to die out and in my opinion in late they suck with the loss of the vangarians and many other units you are very limited to what you have and its not enough good fire powewr lets say :P

HOPE THAT HELPS A BIT.

[Kropazz]

I think Turks is quite easy. They are rich enough and if u chose attack egypt instead of byz with lot of horse archers (byz got to much armour on them http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-wall.gif ) u will be fine

[nightcrawlerblue]

Best: Byzantines
Worst: Danes

The Byzantines are fairly large and have good units while the Danish have 1 province and are sorrounded by enemies.

[RZST]

you think danes are hard? play aragonese, its dammn harder than the danes one.

[katank]

ky kiske, I actually had an easier time in my aragonese campaign. I was able to sack 3 more provinces quickly. navarre on first turn, toulouse a few turns later, and valencia through bribery. I then merc rushed the spanish and build up farming for a few years before going after the almos.

i actually ran out of money in my danish campaign for a while when trying to upgrade to keeps and get ships

there's no good ransom opportunities in the danish game as you have rebels on one side and the HRE on the other who seem to have an infinite amount of room to retreat to, before a civil war at least.

aragonese position actually turned out easier for me at least.

[Nowake]

I go with the Byz, no matter the era.

[Kulgan]

The Danes don't have a bad starting position, not at all.
In Early on expert you can first conquer Sweden and Norway, this gives you 1 border and 6? trade goods.
Make sure you don't have to much army, then build your trade imperium with those cheap longboats.
Your vikings can get you through the first years.

The tricky part with the vikings is to keep low support costs for your army in the beginning.
Make sure you can build one boat every 3 years, don't build any unnecesarry buildings like a town watch in Sweden or an armory in Norway.
You can upgrade in Danmark and build the buildings in Sweden later.

Once your boats are getting around the world, you'll be earning many many florins, then you can conquer whatever region suits you best

Suits you sir

[nightcrawlerblue]

Quote[/b] (katank @ Mar. 02 2004,10:39)]ky kiske, I actually had an easier time in my aragonese campaign. I was able to sack 3 more provinces quickly. navarre on first turn, toulouse a few turns later, and valencia through bribery. I then merc rushed the spanish and build up farming for a few years before going after the almos.

i actually ran out of money in my danish campaign for a while when trying to upgrade to keeps and get ships

there's no good ransom opportunities in the danish game as you have rebels on one side and the HRE on the other who seem to have an infinite amount of room to retreat to, before a civil war at least.

aragonese position actually turned out easier for me at least.
I had the same problem. I haven't played as Aragon yet but I've seen their starting position and it seems easier than the Danes.

My problem is that when I bribe the two rebel armies at Sweden and Norway (though sometimes I destroy one and bribe the other) I run out of cash. In my current campaign I waited until the Germans were fairly weak and attacked. I got good provinces and a lot of florins.

[fruitfly]

Quote[/b] (Seven.the.Hun @ Feb. 24 2004,18:58)]havent played that early sicillian campaign yet...how does that workout in the midst of the mediterranian??? is it wiser to take the islands or to take italy?...or both, or neither? havent looked closely at how they start out yet...?
Playing as Sicily in early, the most important thing to do is take Naples off the Byz ASAP. Then, since you don't have a land border with them, you should automatically end up neutral again.

This leaves you with an extra wealthy trade province and still only one border to defend.

After I've grabbed Naples, I'll generally build up trade and then start crusading to nab Antioch, Tripoli and Egypt. Once you've done that you'll have more money than you know what to do with and can head pretty much anywhere. Spain/Aragon are attractive targets due to the iron.

=====================

In the poll, I voted for the Danes, as they've only got one border to defend (and the HRE never attack unless you attack them first) and two of the wealthiest provinces around easily accessible in Denmark and Sweden.

Iron in Sweden, +1 valour vikings in Norway and the cheapness of longboats all make them a very strong faction to play as. Plus, you only need a fort to build vikings and they're one of the best infantry units available in early in terms of bang for the buck (with VI you can get Huscarls too).

The Danes can't crusade, but if you conquer the British Isles and Flanders you've got a sizeable, wealthy empire and only two land borders to defend, allowing you to train up lots of troops and ship them off anywhere else on the map.

[Goofball]

Almos, hands down. Only two choke points to defend.

[katank]

sicily is great in early and I agree with fruitfly about naples part.

I personally like to sink the italian navy though by combining my two starting barques. Their navy is stupidly split up and you can sink the one that comes into the straits of sicily and then move to the ionian. they send their other two one at a time and thus you can take out the entire italian navy. after this, I go for an inn in naples while attacking their islands with starting army. then hire up a load of mercs and land in tuscany, then take venice. at this point, pope should warn you in which case you invade both milan and genoa quickly which don't have forts and thus you aren't even excommed. I find that I can thus finish the italians around 1107. Just don't leave yourself too weak on the borders with HRE and Hungarians or they may start hell with you which maybe unpleasant.

If you can pull this off without ticking off the HRE, Hungarians or the Pope, you have it made as you have some very nice trade provinces, less naval competition (only byz can seriously challenge you) and even an iron province http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[Contra]

Byz.
Rich provinces, strong troops, great trade opportunities.
Kill Turks first while they don't have good army, get Serbia and Kiev, cut Hungarians in half, then destroy Sicilians, ... and rule the world.

[Vexilles]

Best start position has gotta be imo the polish, they may look weak but once u take moldovia an pommenaria the steppes an baltic sea ports are urs, only thing is to watch out 4 is that mongol invasion but u should be able to stop them with a few thousand men in kiev no problem

[Obadiah]

I really enjoy the historical accuracy of Brit's island fortress. Just guard against cross-Channel armies, and you'er set to build up before attacking at leisure...

[NewJeffCT]

I definitely think the Spanish are the easiest in Early. Only two provinces to worry about to start, and both are pretty rich. You have 3 wealthy nearby rebel territories in Navarre, Portugual and Valencia that you can quickly conquer and then you can crusade over the Almos. I played the Spanish in my second campaign ever and it was almost too easy. After a couple of crusades knock the Almos out of Iberia, you can quickly crush them one province at a time.

The Danes are pretty easy to start as well. Only one territory to defend and you can quickly conquer two valuable provinces in Sweden & Norway.

To me, the HRE is tough to start. They have good sized armies, but are cursed with LONG borders, disloyal generals, low acumen kings and potentially tough enemies on all sides in the French, Italians, Polish & Danes, all of whom are Catholic, and you have the threat of excommunication if you strike at them.

The Byzantines have a Citadel in Constantinople, but their entire troop & ship production is there. You always almost immediately have a rebellion in the valuable Naples province. So many provinces in early can be expensive to build and hold off the Turks, Sicilians and Hungarians.

[John86]

I just changed my opinion: the turks are best in early. They are rich and have to very strong factions which they can take down quickly with HA.

[katank]

yep, turks have 2 ransom opportunities with the egyptians and maybe 1 or 2 with the byz.
the egyptian sultan can be trapped by going palestine, triploi first and then taking antioch.
sacking sinai would force him to choose arabia or egypt and thus a second ransom.

by going stright for const., you may be able to trap the byz emperor in either asia minor or bulg/greece.

almost guaranteed ransom opportunities make turks quite easy and the elimination or at least crippling of byz and eggy would leave them with very rich lands.

Total war is all about the economy and the harder difficulty modes are hard mainly due to florin restriction IMHO

[jadast]

I like the Danes for ease of starting position. Many rebel provinces close at hand. An iron bearing province close at hand. Vikings in the early period beat most early units. The Germans constantly fighting the French or Poles make easy pickings if you are prepared.

[Lord Von Brendon]

I have mainly played the english in early and I think that their starting position is pretty good. I usually take navarre right away and I bride the army in wales for the longbows. The it's of to war with the french, who for some reason don't put up much of a fight. Then a mighty trade empire, ruled by british naval superiority, couple of crusades for antioch and palestine, take the Iberian peninsula and then THE DAY IS MINE

[MadKow]

Hi, first post.

I voted Spain. I always felt that gave me the most comfortable start (Turkish are next). The provinces available are wealthy and have iron, you can build one of the most effective cavalries in the game right from the start. And have crusades very soon too. Very good dynasty provide heirs and generals that last you the entire game.
Normally i take rebels by bribe, than crusade the Almohads and only stop when facing Egypt. Once you have all the Iberian Peninsula and most of North Africa the world is at your mercy.

[Gregoshi]

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif Greetings and welcome to the Org MadKow. Seeing that I just went nuts with really bad duck jokes at Brendon's expense (see the Game Console topic), I'll refrain from a similar batch of really bad cow jokes. Consider this your Get out of Jail Free card. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[MadKow]

Thank you for the welcome.
I'm well aware of the vulnerabilities of this nickname. Feel free to indulge. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-clown.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Odin]

Hello,

First Post, well met http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cheers.gif

One more vote for Denmark. Sweden and Norway can be had pretty fast. As has been said, you then have a very defensible base, and an excellent province in sweden from which to build a trade empire.

Its easy to run low on florins though if you choose to build, to me thats the draw back of the Danes early. The key I find with Denmark is being able to wait a few turns and do nothing while the longboats are being built, once they come along then you can pick and choose.

I like the Prussian provinces because the trade income, but I always seem to look toward England, as if drawn thier from historical reference. Although its lead me to excommunication, still nice to have my Danish King Conquer England.

[Gregoshi]

(Odin is here Wow, a god...nervously fixes hair...remember not to stare at the missing eye - or bring it up...)

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif 'i there (Doh) oh Mighty Odin Welcome to the Org. It is great to see (Doh) you here. Aye (Doh), the Danes - they have a lot of fans. I (Doh) have not tried them yet. Seeing (Doh) their location, you probably have to keep a close eye (Doh) on the HRE. As you implied, locking up the Baltic as your own private lake and then sending your ships out into the 'igh (Doh) seas (Doh) is critical. The natural draw to England makes sense. But what about I(Doh)reland? You've obviously been a good pupil (Doh) on the subject of the Danes...

(I'm a dead man...) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ht_fainting.gif

[Qilue]

I'm playing this game again. :)

Danes. In addition to what is mentioned above concerning the rest of Scandinavia, I first invade east rather than west. Taking the baltic states in addition to Scandinavia gives you nine very rich provinces. Novgorod can be a tough fight, but vikings in a defensive square around archers will usually neutralize horse archers along with any boyars.

My kingdom at that stage is still too small to be noticed by the big boys and with the trade network in place, the florins are pouring in. Then I start looking to remove those upstart plantagenants from what is rightfully mine.

[Tricky Lady]

I voted for the Turks.

Kicking the Egyptians out of the Middle-East seems fairly easy, and if you manage to destroy them completely you can start trading from some very nice and rich provinces. Stabilise your empire and soon you'll be strong enough to go for Constantinople... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[katank]

I don't know about building up or trading for these two factions just mentionned, the Turks and Danes.

I find that unmitigated guts and glory all out rush early on can wreck your neighbors totally and make you much more money through strategic king trapping for ransoms and plunder from invasions.

Only after you have a healthy bank account from all that aggression should you think about taking a breather and start economy, including trade.

You can play more defensively and turtle which would be more challenging as these are not really turtling factions and you lose your biggest strength.

So with the Danes, raid all baltic and take saxony when HRE is weak, possibly raid deep into them if you see profit and turn on Brits when time is right.

For Turks, don't stop until Eggy are dead and the Byz is off the continent.

[Kekvit Irae]

Since I play nothing but my own mod (KekvitMod), I'll give you my opinions for it.

It is quite obvious that the Swiss are NOT in the best position. In fact, they are in the worst. To expand, you need to attack the HRE, which is a very bad thing if you are unprepared.
The Irish are in a good defensive position, but lack of iron and only wool will have to force them to expand early and often using a seaborne assault.
Scotland is in a good position with strong troops, and can wipe England clean off the map if you can catch them in a war with France.
Novgorod is in a strong expansion position, having access to a LOT of rebel provinces.
France, while being boxed in on both fronts, can dominate England if you sign a treaty with Germany. Once you do that, roll out with your French Feudal Knights and fight your way down to Navarre or up to Scotland. Beware the Pope.
Egypt is protected from their enemies by the Turks to the north, and the Elmos from the east. However, this means that you are going to have to attack one or the other to expand.
Byzantines. They have Constantinople. Nuff' said. Expand early and often, lest your troops become outdated by later eras.

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

Quote[/b] (Gregoshi @ Mar. 11 2004,21:16)](Odin is here Wow, a god...nervously fixes hair...remember not to stare at the missing eye - or bring it up...)

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif 'i there (Doh) oh Mighty Odin Welcome to the Org. It is great to see (Doh) you here. Aye (Doh), the Danes - they have a lot of fans. I (Doh) have not tried them yet. Seeing (Doh) their location, you probably have to keep a close eye (Doh) on the HRE. As you implied, locking up the Baltic as your own private lake and then sending your ships out into the 'igh (Doh) seas (Doh) is critical. The natural draw to England makes sense. But what about I(Doh)reland? You've obviously been a good pupil (Doh) on the subject of the Danes...

(I'm a dead man...) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/ht_fainting.gif
ROTFLMAO http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-laugh4.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-laugh4.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-laugh4.gif

Fantastic, Gregoshi... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

BTW, the best starting positions are:

-Almohads: after some navy has been built to protect the coasts from naval invasion, you've only got two provinces to defend and attack. Besides, in Early, AUM are nearly unstopable...

-Danes: safe position, big trade provinces at hand. After some naval expansion, England is an easy picking.

-Egyptians: a very rich Egypt. Almohads worried about Spanish and Aragonese. Turks and Byz worried about each other.

[SwordsMaster]

Hey, my vote is No 100.Is there any price or something? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
I think Spanish have it fairly easy and the Sicilians too,although they just have to expand sea trade...

The worst positioned is the HRE.Surrounded by all those catholics...


BTW, i sent 17 v1 assasins to the aragonese king and he survived and got a virtue Invincible or something like that +6 valor against assasins.

Then I sent him 3000 peasants with a 8 star general and solved the problem.

[Borathor]

I think I go for the Byzantines here, already have and but can get an even greater income from Constantinople.

I also like the Danes, first conquer Scandinavia get a decent income from trading. Then just pick a province connected from the sea to invade.

[wanderingblade]

Probably the Danes. Rapid warfire means rapid expansion and rapid wealth, particularly with their vikings. They can also get excess to the Black Sea quickly, which gives them real world-wide trading presence.

[VikingHorde]

I'l say Spanish, good farm income and iron. I allways take out aragon first http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Hakeem928]

The easiest starting position is the Turks, hands-down. Egypt will fall within ten turns if you attack them aggressively and, by that time, you can be training Saracen Infantry in Rum and Armenian Heavy Cavalry/Turcoman Horse in Armenia. Once the Egyptians are gone, you can conquer Georgia, Lesser Armenia, Trebizond, and Anatolia in a single turn, followed by Nicaea the next. Next stop: Constantinople. Once you've secured it, you've got a nice, rich empire with only three chokepoints. Start trading in Egypt, Constantinople, Antioch, and Tripoli, and you'll soon have boatloads of money to fund any further expansion.