How is your campaign going?

[Quickening]

Well, just played this game for 13 hours straight stopping for a few minutes every once in a while for a cigarette and to browse the forum. I have to confirm again... I love this game.

I started a campaign as France and it has been masses of fun so far. Every single city or castle I have has at least a small chapel in it and its own Priest or Cardinal. Every one of my provinces is 100% Catholic. Needless to say, Im the Pope's Golden Boy.
The treacherous Milan attacked me and took one of my cities but they are paying dearly for it now. Given my standing with the Pope, he could do nothing but agree that the city of Milan needed a Crusade launched against it. I just so happened to have an army ready and waiting. At this very moment it is besieging Milan.
I have also been working hard to turn my dreaded generals into chivalrous men and I have succeeded. Prince Louis of France was once feared throughout the land and the people dreaded the day he would become King. Now, the people can't wait. Took him from two Dread points to three Chivalry points just by using the proper conduct in battle and building only wholesome buildings when he governed. Magic.
Portugal has attacked me but I expected such a move and have an army ready to crush them. Little bit annoyed that Spain decided to side with them despite our marriage-alliance but they can be crushed to.
My Princess is nearing Russia and has forged great treaties throughout Europe. She has full Charm points despite having an "Obsessed Suitor". Things are looking good for France who the Pope sees as "an inspiration to all Christendom".

Once again, I love this game.

How are your campaigns going?

[SIGGE]

well

I started at first with the English (4 weeks ago or something) and it's going pretty bad, considering it's pretty late and I only have my island and north parts of France (except Caen). I also have no castles/citadels because I was so stupid to make every single place town, big town, city etc.

Then I modded the game a bit and started with several countries, but got bored for some reason.

Now I started with Spain, with easy, and lost my first fight to rebels in Valencia. I was so raged that I hit my PC and just shut it down from power button. I'm still pretty upset of it, I mean it's meant to be on EASY not THE HARDEST YOU CAN GET.

[Dan.o6]

I've started a fair few campaigns but my longest and most favourite so far has to be Milan. I will probably play as the English once the two handed unit issue has been fixed, since Billmen are pretty much useless as of now.

[Brass Eye]

Tucked into England's short campaign (hold 15 provinces and defeat Scotland and France) and completed that a few days ago. Much fun.

Started again soon after as Byzantium (med campaign, hard battles). This time going for the long campaign goals. Seem to be whipping some butt :whip:. Tonight's prize was Rome, one of Byzantium's victory condition provinces.

A bit concerned that you only get the same number of turns (250) to capture three times as much real estate! Compare the short campaign's 15 provinces to the long campaign's 45. Seems harsh. 100 turns down and I've only really just got my economy sorted to the point where global domination looks feasible. I like a time limit to stop me dawdling, but this schedule is pretty unforgiving! Anyone else playing the grand campaign finding the time limit a bit demanding?

[Quickening]

A bit concerned that you only get the same number of turns (250) to capture three times as much real estate! Compare the short campaign's 15 provinces to the long campaign's 45. Seems harsh. 100 turns down and I've only really just got my economy sorted to the point where global domination looks feasible. I like a time limit to stop me dawdling, but this schedule is pretty unforgiving! Anyone else playing the grand campaign finding the time limit a bit demanding?

I always play the short campaigns for that very reason. Also, I happen to like having years of peaceful empire building. I know it's the "Total War" series but still...

[Mailman653]

My first camp was with the Papal States, although I finished it, I failed to meet the objectives, I had about 5-6 provinces and my obj was 100. I started up a new campign with Scotland but its still in its infancy due to school, so far I've established trade with most of Europe and hold the two main provinces plus Ireland and York. I've also had one confirmed failed crusade, I believe the last time I played either England went to war with me or I was participateing in a failed crusade in the making.

Oh and the Pope loves me (high favor)

[Dan.o6]

I edited the campaign so I had 2 turns per year, so I have loads of time.

[Zenicetus]

Anyone else playing the grand campaign finding the time limit a bit demanding?

I just ticked over 54 turns in my current long m/vh Spanish campaign (standard time scale, no mods). So I'm starting to think about that. I now hold 11 provinces. By extrapolation, I should be okay if I can keep up the same rate of expansion. But there isn't much room for sitting back for a breather. So far it's been something of a cakewalk against the Moors, while holding off France, but the going will get tougher soon as I hold a beachhead on the Holy Lands, and probe into western Europe. The long campaign is definitely not for turtling or localized empire builders.

Spain is an easy faction, I think... lots of advantages in starting position, decent units, boosts for naval power. I'm not sure I could win the long campaign with one of the tougher factions without modding the time scale, but at least that leaves something later on as a challenge.

[Bijo]

lol, that was a nice read :)


[i]warning: long but good read[i]
My campaign is finally going better. My Sicilian faction was mostly poor all the time, could hardly afford anything for decades (mind you I'm playing 2 turns per year). But I was lucky for I made sure I had good Papal Standing and stayed out of the way of most bloody wars, as my diplomacy took care of things. I decided to not spill the blood of my fellow Christians (yet), but the blood of our Islamic foes to the south, west, and east. Unfortunately Egypt hasn't received my whooping yet, but it will soon enough.

Indeed, as you say, the Milanese are treacherous. Although their faction leader would not stab a knife into his own mother's back, he'd directly frontally stab her in the heart. Around 1180 or so they started to attack me by taking Naples - my precious money-making baby. Unfortunately for them I've always been the Pope's favorite and his trusty ally (who's basically bribing him and using him :P). He and his States immediately came into action supporting me in these wartimes by siding with my fleet in a joint effort to take care of theirs.
On the Italian land, my one mighty army had to take on two strong Milanese ones before it could besiege and retake Naples. In a mighty battle between two titans the outnumbered Sicilian army crushed Milan's first troops on the farmlands of South Italy. And what a heroic victory it was!
Not having time to return to Palermo to reinforce the decimated numbers, this now weakened - but still full of morale - army led by two young inexperienced generals marched over the just-crushed corpses on to the second Milanese army awaiting them.
The Sicilians called a Crusade and the Pope agreed. Now this Sicilian army of brave warriors marched on to face the Milanese once again in battle. Again outnumbered they still managed to defeat their foes and have them flee in fear. This army had already become a crusading army, and the Great Cross inspired these troops to fight, even if outnumbered. And fight they did! The Milanese army was totally crushed! Now to go forth to the city of Naples! Now was the time to go on.
Heavily hit these troops still had the will to fight. Less than half an army was left, a once mighty force become poor. But our trusty ally the Papal States came along to join the party! XD As their half army assisted in battle nicely filling it up to a full army at full strength, facing the brutal evil that is called Milan. They crushed their foes and Sicily retook the city of Naples.
Milan didn't give up yet, though. They kept on coming, but they repeatedly were defeated and fled back to their lands.

I simply fought them for another few years/decades and repeatedly called Crusades on them so other Catholics would take care of 'em. And it worked :)

Recently I was attempting to lure out a war between the severely weakened Spain - my bordering ally and Portugal's vassal - and other Catholic factions in Europe. As I still possessed the city of Marseille, previously owned by the Milanese, I attempted to gift this region to Spain to restore some power balance between them and their Portugese master and in Europe. By gifting this region to them I could've simply relied on every nearby faction's greed and fear to start new wars between each other, diverting their possible attention away from me, as I'd remain safe in South Italy, North Africa, and Iberia, where I bordered Spain whose relationship with me would then be very good due to my generous gift. At the same time I would be making sure I didn't have to fight these wars in that detached region myself. Unfortunately, before I could gift it to Spain, the Milanese had already retaken it shortly before they had been beaten to the ground by other Catholic factions.

Now I have taken over most of the islands to my east like Rhodes and Iraklion. And I possess the whole of North Africa. My nobles advised me to take Arguin, and so I did. These Saharan rebels were no match for my militias who turned them into corpses over which they then marched :)

In the meanwhile I kept my friend the Papal States happy by giving him Bologna. With the Pope's aggression they had even taken Marseille! Now they possess 4 regions and their military power grew enormously. I'm starting to think I made a mistake. But it'll be okay as long as I keep them happy.

And keeping them happy I will for I'll be battling Muslim foes from Egypt. After Egypt I might choose to expand further in the east and possibly face the Mongols but I'd prefer to stop after Egypt and establish diplomatic relations with the Mongols and everybody else nearby. I'd rather then put my effort into conquering Spain and its master Portugal.
Hmmmmmm, how will I do that without losing the Pope's favor and keeping my reputation up? I think I'll use my old strategy of sending in spies and assassins to deal with them discretely. Mwuhahahahahaaaa :) lol.

[Quickening]

Indeed, as you say, the Milanese are treacherous. Although their faction leader would not stab a knife into his own mother's back, he'd directly frontally stab her in the heart.

:laugh4: But it's true. I have found the Milanese to be total ******** generally speaking.


I edited the campaign so I had 2 turns per year, so I have loads of time.

Am I right in thinking that by playing it that way, the only differences are that generals will age properly and world events will take longer to happen?
If so, I will play it that way to.

[Clovis]

Quickening - you are correct, 2 turns per year fixes character aging and doubles the lenght of the game.

Bijo - ahhhhh, you've created the papal monster. I once gave the pope the holy land (jerusalem, acre and antioch) and he ended up wiping out egypt and fighting off the mongols

[RZST]

only thing i dont like about the 2 turns per year thing is that what you build is still the same when it was 1 turn per year.

as for my campaign.
started of as scotland and blitzed the english. after that i conquered the rebles and made an island fortress, as about the time the mongols came (felt way too fast before i modded the timescale) i asked for the pop to send a crusade for antioch (jerusalem was taken by hungary o.o;).
so i send my heir and my 2nd best general on a land route towards antioch.
after i took antioch the egyptians tried to make a ceasefire, i countered with 1000gold in 20 turns + acre AND damascus....result? egypt agreed and thats when i decided to quit and start a new game with a new timescale >.<

[Bijo]

Clovis - Yeah! I gave them two regions in Italy just to prevent the Milanese from coming at me southwards. It worked for a long time but of course they were foolish enough to take on the Papal States and me :)
But in another game where I gave them Jerusalem and the region just above that they didn't really start to conquer for some reason. Their army just sat there for many turns doing nothing. Hmmm, I don't know why. Maybe not enough financial resources.


What I like about two turns a year is especially that you can finally train your assassins appropriately without having them die old quickly if you'd play two years a turn. Or have agents in general get to places in a normal time frame.

[cassiusdio]

Playing as the HRE 1 turn/year i have managed to turn the empire into what might be called a super power. the first 50 years were tough. Initially I intended to swiftly eliminate the milanese then consolodate my hold on the central territories, but it turned pear shaped when both venice and sicily declared war on me. i managed to get sufficient strength in the region to fight them both to a standstill, but with a fairly limited economy at that stage, was unable to make much headway past taking and holding florence and venice.

it was just as i was moving an army south into italy that the danes decided to attack, and i was forced to divert this army north, i took and held hamburg and the financial boot from the sacking of that, and several other settlements enabled me to form an army in italy. Sicily was swiftly dealt with, and the islands of corsica and sardinia also fell to small forces. The danes and venetians sued for peace, which i readily accepted, forging trade deals with as many as possible, and developed the cities in italy and along the baltic coast.

France has also gained a strong position, and has kicked england off mainland europe and taken all the cities in france up to Dijon, and only the danish hold on Antwerp has held them from expanding further east. Metz was originally french, but i managed to forge a deal with them that gave me control, but it seems to be a point of contention, france want it back, and it seems innevitable that battles past the small skirmishes we have already fought will occur. despite my strong position, war with france is not something i want to undertake right now. I am trying to modernise my army, and am campaigning both inj africa against the moors, and in poland. after 100 years of peace the poles decided to annex some of my territory. this campaign is progressing rather well, but i would rather poland remain in a weakened state as a buffer to my east, than be completely eliminated, Russia is increasing in power, and only their constant skirmishes with hungary are preventing them from becoming a powerful eastern threat. Hungary has had some good fortune however, the Byzantines have lost constantinople to them, and the turks have made good headway into their asian holdings. only regular donations from the Kaiser have kept them afloat, and i am considering a limited campaign to take back constantinople and return it to byzantine control, they are, after all, my most steadfast allies.

The military situation is un a state of change, with new advanced buildings i am rapidly trying to modernise my armies, replacing the militia spearmen with halberdiers and pikemen, the heavy infantry is also being changed from the potent and expensive feudal knights, to a more cost effective combination of Zweihanders and tough militia troops. my army size has doubled in the past 20 years, and my maintenance costs have decreased by 50%. this combined with the strong economic base provided by my italian and baltic holdings means i am not stretched for gold at all, and can keep the papacy on my side easily, an exercise made even easier by my control of the college of cardinals.

everything seems rosy for the HRE, only the appearance of the golden horde is worrying me, as it will undoubtedly upset the balance of power, and the system of alliances that has come into force.

[wzup]

Currently playing as the moors on vh/h (long campaign)... as of right now ive captured the entire iberian peninsula + north africa (minus egypt) + ajaccio and the island south of it, and palermo. My cash flow is nice, and im doing pretty well. I managed to level up a hashashin to the max! he kills everything in sight :2thumbsup: ,,,
Jerusalem is currently held by arab rebels so im planing on sending a full stack from palermo to jerusalem before another muslim faction takes it back( hopefully venice will siege the city soon as they have a full stack just outside of antioch). So im going east for jerusalem and north of palermo to take over sicilian factions settlements and maybe papal states but that would f my trade rights with all the catholic factions :juggle2:

[FetalPig]

Hello all-

I'm new around here (long time lurker/infrequent poster), but I figured that since I enjoy reading other people's campaign stories as much as I do, I might as well share mine...

Compared to RTW, I find myself much more engrossed (not sure if that is a good thing) in this game. I really like the little touches that they put in this time around, especially the voices. Though I probably would have preferred the actual period languages with some subtitles, especially in battles ala MTW and STW, I must say I find the voices to be most entertaining, particularly the ones for the HRE. As I marched my bumblebee spearmen around the map, I couldn't help but think of the Ronnie James Dio song "Holy Diver" every few moments :) I must've heard "Holy Kaiser? (move) "Ja, Holy Kaiser!" 300 times...

Anyway, I just finished my first campaign of M2TW. It was a medium difficulty short game as HRE with standard settings. The 99 turns were hectic and fun. I averaged more than one battle/turn during the game and I don't know how I would have been able to win had things been much more difficult. As it stands, it was only in the last 30 turns or so that I was reasonably confident that the glorious Reich would be victorious in the end. Indeed, the Reich had more foes than friends for almost the entire game. Anyway, here's my tale:

Having watched Milan grow hugely powerful during a friend's English campaign, and with their destruction as one of my objectives, I decided to open the game with a blitzkrieg. I gathered up what meager forces I had and poured the wrath of the Reich down through the Alps. My first Kaiser marched from Bologna to take command and Milan fell with little fuss. From opening attack to final grinding of the last Milanese standard under hobnailed boot, Milan lasted less than ten turns. In the north, I decided to take Magdeburg instead of Hamburg so as not to force an early confrontation with the Danes and stretch the meagre coffers of the HRE with a two-front war...

Yet, while I was gleefully slaughtering a captured six-star Prince Bernardo, I failed to notice that Venice was just waiting for the war to grind the legions of the Reich to a low ebb. Before I could even retrain the forces lost in taking Milan, Venice was knocking at my door. The tireless forces of the kaiser were up to the challenge though, and we quickly forced the Doge's "juniits" back to Zagreb. We Germans have never really seen eye to eye with the Papacy, and his Holiness had a cease and desist order for us the same turn as the Venetians were forced from their capital. I hoped that this would give me a few turns to upgrade to Armoured Sergeants and concentrate on some infrastructure, but the treacherous Sicilians had other ideas.

My men were still finishing off the Doge's private stores when a full Sicilian stack scooted in from the fog to lay seige to Bologna. Infuriated at the audacity of this Venetian-Sicilian alliance, my men burned down everything that would take a flame in Venice. In fact, they were so zealously clicking, I mean burning, that they destroyed the church there and received yet another in what would prove to be an unhappy tradition of Papal chastisements. No one knew how soon the Emperor would come to regret this...

The only army that could challenge the Sicilians was garrisoning Venice and the Kaiser realized that he would need every man there to have a hope of fending them off. No matter, it was decided that the Venetians were welcome to the shell of their once fair city. The forces of the Reich threw down their libations and united behind their glorious Emperor, once they marched out the gates of Venice to deny the Sicilians their conquest, they didn't look back, sure that the Venetians were crippled for the time being.

Unfortunately, the Sicilians were not content to starve the city and they assaulted before the still hungover relief force could arrive. Though the city fell, the Kaiser was not discouraged, and the Sicilians were quickly besieged in kind... No one gave a second thought to the hunched figure that approached the camp one cool evening, but we were soon to discover that this man's physical insignificance was misleading. Even the Kaiser's most trusted bodyguards were unable to keep the Kaiser from burning at the stake. grown men cringed like pups to hear his pitiful screams. What should have been a solid Southern army capable of dominating Northern Italy was reduced by seige and Papal indignation to a force barely capable of maintaining the status quo. For the next twenty turns or so, I was constantly beset by Venetian and Sicilian armies and the populations of Milan and Bologna soon began to rely on the idea that they would spend every other turn or so under seige.

Yet the Reich was large and populous and I was able to finally bring a bit of stability to my southern lands. Of course, my strategy of avoidance with the Danes failed to account for Danish diplomacy and the Reich found itself at war with Venice Sicily and their newfound friends in the North. Faced with the resources and greed of three opposing factions, the future of the Holy EMpire of the Romans was questionable...

.............................................................................................

I just got called away from y tale here, but this was probably the most interesting part of my game. If anyone wants to hear more, I'd be happy to tell, but for now I hope those of you who have yet to try the HRE got a little urge to take a stab. Compared to a few of the other games I've seen/quit I think my time with the Reich was some of the most fun I've had with Total war since Shogun. I'm sure those that've played with them before are just nodding knowingly at my troubles...

Yours in nerdery-

fetalpig

[Shahed]

Carry on Fetal that was a good read...

My Campaign, Turks H/VH, its going amazing. Really fun to play, I don't even know where to start talking about it coz it's so much to say. I've been talking screenshots though so that might help explain things. Basically all of Christendom has FINALLY (AAARRRGGG was waiting for this forever) declared war on me in 1140, for no rhyme or reason ofc other than the Pope's call for a Crusade. My reputation is mixed, but I've been playing uber chivalrous. Releasing all prisoners and occupying settlements briefly before returning them. If I occupied a settlement it was actually by mistake most of the time. I was waiting for an army to pass by the city and after defeating it I walked in...Like hey make yourself at home! I'm laying ambushes around Constantinople. There are about 5-6 Crusades heading my way. Caught a Polish Crusade through ambush. Total slaughter surrounded by all horse archers, cut down to bits. Kapikulu are now joining the cavalry armies, have one infantry army of Ottoman Infantry, JHI, Saracen Militia and HashashiN sitting in Constantinople waiting to be "tested". Egypt is bankrupt and I think I will buy Jerusalem from them the next turn. My best city is Antakya (Antioch) making between 7000 and 8000 Florins per turn.

My target is to take over North Africa until Spain and create a Caliphate, one single Islamic Empire with it's Sultan crowned Caliph, the Amir ul Momineen (Leader of the Faithful), kind of Pope-like but not quite. Ok enough role playing there. I'm waging a covert ops war in Italy, Assassins and Spies everywhere, wrecking the place. But the most fun is the Crusading armies, I've had some awesome battles and I love the way archers shoot on horseback while moving, I could watch them running around all day.

[FetalPig]

With the Reich at war against three opponents, prosecuting one enemy to the bitter end proved a difficult task. I found myself constantly strapped for cash and faced with a surly populace. It seemed like every time I could mount a respectable stack, some tragedy or another would come to snatch victory away before swords were ever crossed. I lost count of the number of family members and agents who were purged by (un)holy fire, but suffice it to say that if I could've afforded the hit to population contentment excommunication entails (I THINK that's what happens), I would have carried out my desire to crucify the Pope and his Italian and Scandinavian lackeys with little regret.

Sadly, loyalty to the glorious empire was always fleeting. For example, I once lost half a stack of Teutonic and mailed knights with multiple silver chevrons (hooray for retraining!) to a captain who didn't have his priorities straight. On top of this, it seemed that every time I would take the upper hand against one foe or another, the Pope would call me off. Even ceding a blood soaked Ragusa to him proved too little to gain his lasting affection (not to mention that Popes who favored the HRE seemed prone to fatal maladies). Struggling to make my forces meet every threat, the Reich was forced to rely on mercenaries. Untold numbers of expensive crossbowmen and papier mache spearmen were enlisted, and they performed as well as could be expected. I managed to get a few units of mercenaries to high levels of experience. Of course, the tradeoff for this military success (more properly: equilibrium) was that I had a hard time getting ahead financially. It wasn't until I finally pushed the Venetians back to their holdout in Iraklion that I could gain the upper hand.

Of course, all this sounds like warmongering, but it was through no intent of my own. I tried to make peace with each and every one of my foes at favorable times, but they would never listen to reason. Apparently the diplomats of the Holy Roman Empire were higly flatulent irrascible bastards as no one seemed prone to accepting even the most lucrative offers for peace. NOt even soundly defeating armies that outnumbered my own 3:1 was enough to convince my enemies that their resistance was only prolonging the inevitable.

However, in the end, the joke was on them. After I pushed the Venetians off the continent proper, reduced the Sicilians to impotent paupers, and showed the Danes the folly of sending militia to face the might of the Teutons, my victory was inevitable.

To cap my ultimate triumph, I decided to finish the Ventians off with an amphibious invasion. It isn't too often I taunt my computer, but when I crushed the Doge and his family on a battle on a Cretan hillside, I found myself mocking the computer's feeble defense. I was all too happy to show the Venetians the scientific advances that had been made while they were away from Europe proper, and nothing was quite as sweet as dropping a flaming cannonball on hi face before parading my armoured sergeants through his town.

.........................................................................................

Sorry if my posts were rambling comma-ridden exercises in boredom, I had a hard time deciding what sort of perspective I wanted to relate my tale through; as my retelling was spur of the moment and after the fact, some of the more interesting details have been lost. Next game I play, I'll make things a little more cohesive and keep track of the cooler bits better. For example, I just remembered that I took Venice TWICE, once in a Crusade. I still had a unit of Crusader Sergeants last me almost thirty turns after that, marching up and down the Balkans gutting Venetian dogs...ahh the memories.

In sum, if you want an exciting game, I think the HRE is where it be at. Just remember that you have way too many castles and way too many enemies to afford making units out of all of them--and don't even THINK about keeping them all upgraded to the latest tier of goody (or even about keeping them all AS castles).

[Rothe]

My campaign as Venice is going pretty swell now.

I am playing H/VH grand campaign, which seems to be the best settings for my style. I really have to work on diplomacy to keep a few allies/neutrals so that I have only 1-2 fronts. I just tackled HRE in the south europe provinces and now I am getting ready to take Constantinopole as it is my grand campaign specific goal. I currently control 21 provinces and my economy gives me about 20 000florins per turn excess funds. I have about 4 good professional armies (=one and half stacks full of experienced knights, PXB's and Pikemen) plus some nice garrison troops and a few places hold some cavalry to control rebels and surprises by enemy troops.

I really find that even italian militias are not so great as spears in MTW1. Pikemen seem to suit the role of line infantry for me much better.

My timescale is 0.5, and it seems OK. I still would like to play 1 year per turn to get some history progression during the entire campaign. Now it seems I might win before the mongols show up, which is maybe good as I have no idea how to contain them and I have to control Constantinopole to win...

I recommend 0.5 timescale if you do not want to worry about conquering a province every 2 turns. I find that it is nice to play along with the pope's demands and keep peace with some of the catholic nations. I have taken up a principle that I will not get excommunicated or otherwise upset the pope, sort of imitating the sorely missed glorious achievements. I think missions are not a complete replacements for GA's but they help.

My only complaints are that the tech tree seems a bit messy as Men at arms seem to be obsolete once I get to build them. Feudal Knights are better in almost every regard with the same upkeep cost. I guess MP could get use out of MAA as they are relatively cheap to build, but upkeep in the campaign is prohibitive.

[chunkynut]

I'm on my third long campaign, my first was England and that was a Victory, my second and third are Spain and Denmark respectively, but I've not completed those yet, I'm just the dominant power at the time in both.

Totally love this game, it was the only thing that stopped me playing Viva Piniata this weekend (don't play Viva Piniata if you wish to continue a TW campaign!!!!).

I'll be playing this until the next one comes out! No where near needing an expansion pack, but we all know that one's probably just round the corner.

[tenkesh]

My campaign is going better than I was expecting.

I'm on my 110th turn right now and expanding as hell.
I started with England and it's actually my first Total War game. Haven't played the previous ones for some reason (as it appears, missed out on some quality time). Anyways, after kicking some rebel ass and married my princess to the French and becoming their ally, I sent an army to conquer Caen and Rennes, which was held by french rebels. Succeeded on that and next thing I know, French stab me in the back and holding siege on my army in Caen. Needless to say I got pretty pissed at them. I was just about to kick some french ass, and the Danes started to harass me heavily. I fought hard on two fronts and even managed to go on with a crusade to Turkey, which I didn't finish, but since my army was on the Turkish grounds, proceeded to take some lands and sacking the Cities over there and leaving them to rot. My general got massacred by French on the way back. I was really craving for some payback.

As the time went on, I managed to fight back the Danes and finally they got excommunicated. I took some of their cities and they didn't bother me anymore. I also managed to train two excellent assassins, teamed them up with some crafty spyes and proceeded to take care of the French. I literally massacred their family line turn after turn and took their cities with only their captains defending them. The Pope was pretty pissed at me and I didn't quite know where to give money to please him so I was on the brink of excommunication myself. But when I found out I just have to give some 300 £ to Pope to keep him happy, things turned out much better. He is my pet now and eating out of my palm. I was all like: "Hey, Pope, here's your daily allowance, now buy yourself something nifty, go to your room and be a good boy!":whip:

By the 82nd turn my map looked like this:
https://img149.imageshack.us/img149/8149/0006gx6.th.jpg (https://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0006gx6.jpg)

In the mean time the Cities on the Turkish soil did fine, nobody seemed to want them so I trained some units and buildings there aswell to keep the rising population happy.

So I went on with getting rid of the leftovers from the France, constatnly getting warnings from Pope to leave them alone and constantly ingoring them. As I terminated the French, Portugal attacked me. Well, as they soon found out, that was not their brightest idea. I kicked them in the nuts, took their regions and leaving them with only one city (where the Portugal is located nowadays). They are throwing diplomats at me, trying to get Ceasefire from me, but I just keep knocking them over the fence with a message: "Don't start that what you can't finish."

So the Spain decided that they could take me on. And boy did they thought wrong. I already had some bloodshed with their armies and took some Cities aswell. They are tougher than Portuguese but not tough enough. I am planning to wipe them out in a matter of 5-8 turns.

I also exterminated the Danes and ordered a crusade on that my general easily undertook and won. I gave the sacked city to Poland with some money to buy him into alliance, since he was getting bigger by the turn and I rather have an ally between me and Russia.

So this is my situation now.

https://img186.imageshack.us/img186/5329/0014io9.th.jpg (https://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0014io9.jpg)

I have made 110 turns. I own about 31 regions. My economy is prospering and I live of the fat of the land. With several big armies and constant building up, I still manage to get 10-40k of money per turn. I have a big family tree, Pope thinks of me as his master. I'm about to kick the Spain and Portugal back to Stone Age and when I have no threats from the west, I'll turn my forces to the east and take whatever gets in my way. I'm pretty sure that I will complete the criterias of this campaign without too much trouble.

All and all not too shabby for the first game, huh?

[Rothe]

Pretty good going for a first campaign.

Still, it is a good idea to also post your difficulty ratings so others can give you some general advice etc. easier.

And the general format is: Campaign difficulty / Battle difficulty.

I am personally playing a H/VH (hard/very hard) game and it seems like a decent challenge, although I can see myself winning without much challenge in my beforementioned Venice campaign unless the mongols screw me over.

[Shahed]

Sorry for the OT, but just a personal observation to share.

Actually it isn't hard to blitz, on H/VH, it's even easier on VH/VH.
It's harder to snail on any difficulty level, it gives the AI time to build.

I did a few turns as HRE with automanage everything, all I did was fight from turn one, and keep fighting. In 15 turns, no more Danes, no more Milan no more Venice (reduced to one province in Balkans), Poles badly mauled beyond repair etc... piece of cake.

If you give the AI time to tech up and build, then it gets harder. It also gets harder if you manage everything yourself because you increase your chance of error.

At least that's the way it has been harder for me.

[Dan.o6]

But a harder game is a more enjoyable game. I could blitz the whole map from the off but I don't want to, it would just get tedious.

[FactionHeir]

I don't usually want to blitz, but the AI forces me by betraying their alliance and by the time I am half-waay done with one faction, the next two start attacking me etc. So I end up having to blitz them all :)

[Ii Naomasa]

Still in the midst of my first campaign: a long, M/H one as France that I figured I'd play to get used to the intricacies of the game and unlock other factions. I haven't had as much time as I'd like to play, so despite the standard turns, I'm still not done.

Looks like I won't 'win' this one. 40-something provinces is a large chunk of the 'known world' and between my more 'realistic' play style (constant expansion isn't a goal) and the fact that at one point just about every Christian nation aside from the Pope and Hungary were fighitng me, I'm just nearing the upper twenties in provinces in 1420 or so.

The worst part right now is that we almost have a Pax Europa going on. After the better part of a century of war with just about everyone v. France, a string of well placed political marriages (all wretched wives) resulted in an unexpected chain reaction where everyone is now neutral or allied with me short Egypt and the Mongols. And aside from Hungary and Byzantium still fighting after centuries and the Venetians and Sicily back at it, just about every Christian faction is at peace with their brethren and I'm loathe to be the one to ignite the powder, so I'm making gains solely in retaking Mongolian-controlled parts of Denmark, Poland, and Russia as well as trying to expand in a very well fortified Egyptian-Mongolian Holy Land (while trying to avoid making the Turks angry... at this point, their navy is what's keeping the Mediterranean open from Egyptian raiders, suprisingly).

In about four turns I can start building carracks from Venice and Genoa and I already have a prepared expeditionary force to see what's on the other side of the Atlantic... might be able to make some last minute acquisitions over there.

It's been an interesting campaign. I don't think there's a single direct blood-line descendant of King Phillip in my 'family tree' anymore and the crown has been passed from one random general to another (the past three kings were barely '-adopted, -in law cousins' of each other) to the point where I'm thinking it's become just a sort of 'commander in chief' military rank rather than an actual mark of royalty.

I'm glad I started with France because this campaign has taught me (early on, harshly) how to use cavalry. I hope CA doesn't dramatically change the way it works in the game right now as I feel the charges are both fun and are realistic in how you have perfect and imperfect charges and the perfect ones are almost akin to nuking the enemy while the imperfect ones are so-so to almost disasterous if the enemy isn't shakey.

[Bijo]

I started a new campaign as Russia and got bored with my other long one with Sicily. I'm playing M/M and 6 months a turn, and also try to take my time. Of course they start attacking me and so it's hard to take your sweet time so 6 months a turn will help with that :) (at least with the length).

Around 1150 or so. Have been conquering most of the surrounding rebel lands, made alliances with Poland, HRE and Byzantium my trusty orthodox ally. But of course Poland attacked me and they kept attacking. At one point I stopped defending, or should I say I kept on defending by attacking which is a good defense to push them back anyway.
The Polish are allied with my other enemies Denmark whom I've been weakening a lot by sea and land. Their military power is still there to some extent, but I suspect their monetary resources are depleted or nearly depleted (I should check the ranking scroll). Also the Polish are allied with Hungary who also declared war on me. It was basically two pacts against each other: me, Byzantines and HRE against Poland, Denmark, Hungary. HRE is dead of course :)

But I've crushed most of the Polish now and my mighty armies have conquered and pillaged their lands, mwuhahahaaaa! :) They only have one small region left which I haven't attacked yet because they have two armies there. I have a couple of okay armies around in castles at the front line to secure against Denmark to the west and Hungary to the south. Can only spare one army to take on two big Polish ones at their last bastion. Actually, I could crush them both with one army, but the thing is that I will have to go through a forest and I hate that :P So we've been spying on each other all the time, sabotaging, and assassinating (or at least died trying, lol). Haven't got a good assassin's training center yet, the Master Assassin's Guild.

Wanted to take Stockholm with a quick naval landing but I just stood back with my army as I first sent in spies and assassins. Stockholm's population revolted. They sent an army to recapture the city from the rebels but little did they know my army awaited theirs to pick them off with a surprise attack! They all fell before me :)
So then I just had to deal with some rebel scum to get the city. Of course the Danish sent another army quickly and besieged me. My army was outnumbered and they had heavy infantry and I didn't. Well, I just used my missiles on them, including horse archers to weaken them as they used their missiles on me in this long skirmish before I charged them with my SPEARS, lol. Only four militia spears against 3 or 4 heavy infantry and spearmen. But of course they were thinned out and I had three generals, couple HAs and Boyar Sons against armor. They had two generals and some more heavy cavalry. And they had artillery and I didn't.
Marched on with my weak spear infantry and charged to hold their heavy infantry AND spearmen as my cavalry charged (and fired) onto their sides then being countered by their cavalry. Even my Kazak horse archers were meleeing as I had no choice but to send in everything :) That's the thing, though: I just used one group of weaker cavalry units to answer to one of their strong cavalry and lock them in and then go to the next threat.
So anyway, close call, or I think it was a heroic victory. Had many men left, about 3/4 or 3/5 and their army was mostly crushed :)
Their spies tried to pull off that same trick I played on THEM: trying to cause unrest and revolt. Of course they were detected and executed. So now I'm planning to lay low with Stockholm, send one strong army to block off the path towards this piece of land, and then take the weakly defended Oslo in the corner.

So I was talking about Central Europe too.
Haven't been attacking either Poland or Hungary on this front, because it's tricky (and Denmark keeps on attack Stockholm, a big money maker). I'd rather wait and build up another army to attack Hungary from the right-below side front. They took Iasi JUST before I did, so I had to take care of that immediately. That's the point from which I will launch my first attack on them with one strong army (typical: lots of heavy infantry, few spears, many archers, heavy cavalry, horse archers, and general(s)), as they will have to divert their attention to it allowing my other more central army to move in to perhaps support the first army('s flank) or to just quickly snatch a settlement in the center.
As this settlement will be captured this second army that captured it would've been supported by the third army above it to secure its flank from the Polish whom I could crush with the fourth army. But there's still the Danish up there and the fourth army has no support, meaning I'd take a big risk if the fourth army moved in leaving the region undefended.
To support this fourth army, a fifth army should be there north of them and the only one (which can be afforded) is the one on the lands of Stockholm which is continuously attacked by these Danish. This COULD mean that if they concentrate their military power on Stockholm they have less military on the other central front, but I don't know.
So what I've been doing is staying tight and bleed away their power by cutting off their ports and attacking their ships, both the Danish and the Hungarians while trying to lure them out on land to have the odds in my favour if a battle'd occur.

Yes, the omens and portents favor me. I will use my armies and my cunning to strike them down with great vengeance and fuuuurious anger, those two attempt to poison and destr-- Eh! :)