War stories thread

Well, my best story thus far is with Spain.

I was somewhat dubious about Spain from the start. Only two provinces, not exactly a killer starting unit setup, and Ive heard that those Portugese are nasty customers.
I was right, of course.
However, my initial success was quite astonishing to me, within the first few turns the Moores were out of Iberia. It only took the fall of their capitol and a strongly worded note for them to give up Granada and march their armies to Morrocco, or whatever it was called in 1080.
I then set about consolidating my hold on Iberia, snatching up the rebel provinces and then taking a breather, disbanding all the mercenaries I had aquired over the years and downsizing my ultra-expensive knight corps just a teensy bit.
This was, apparently, a mistake. I should have realized it when, from the start, the Portugese and French refused to deal with me. Portugal rebuffed all attempts at diplomacy, and France would only accept a trade agreement.
I did, however, immidiatly start rebuilding my knights when I noticed the Portugese diplomat making a beeline for France, and the Portugese army loitering near by border looking suspicious.
Sure enough, next turn I get the announcement "France and Portugal have allied". Big suprise.
Next turn, Portugal sieges Cordoba and France blockades two of my ports. Three turns after that the Moores, who I had a nice peaceful relationship with, helped along by a half stack of elite troops at Gilbatar, took it upon themselves to blockade some ports as well.
It took a while, and I lost a city once, but I finnaly managed to capture Lisbon, and kill the Portugese king. They decided to recognize my superiority and surrender. Of course, once Im done with the French and Moores Ill be back to slap them down for being jerks.
Right now the Moores armies in the west have proven pretty inneffective, their infantry are easy prey to concentrated arrow fire from merc. crossbows and peasant archers, and they cant muster enough cavy to deal with my knights and jinets.
France is proving to be an issue though, especially in sieges. Their knights simply roll over my spearmen and, when they lack knights, they usually have at least half a stack of infantry whom they are only too happy to pour into the breech, usually overwhelming my own piddling forces.
What happened to the good ol' days, when you could line up a spear unit behind a gate with the full confidence that they would hold back the enemy forces for at five minutes?

Whilst occasionally frustrating, M2TW has proven very rewarding. Im happily ranging through Southern France sacking cities for cash to feed my growing army, and Ive re-adopted my old RTW strategy of making an army of one or two units of missile cavy to harrass larger enemy armies, whittling them down to the correct size, IE: Smaller than my larger armies.
Fourtunatly England came to my aid, willingly or no, when they decided that Brittany really should have some Britons in it. Im hoping the Pope will give me a ceasefire, but it seems unlikely. My evil plan to make Timbuktu Spanish may not work out :P

Being a brit, I decided to play as good old England for my first campaign. I started off by wanting to quickly secure as many rebel provinces across the channel as possible, so I marched as many of my armies from England over to Caen, and from there quickly branched out to the east and west to take its neibouring cities. Not wanting any kind of hostilities with France, I quickly sent out diplomats to start trade and butter them up so to speak. This allowed me to build up a steady force of knights and infantry to secure my holdings.

It wasnt before long that his holiness declared a crusade on Jerusalem. Deciding that it was only right that I send a crusade, I sent one of my best generals along with 8 of my finest units of knights who quickly made their way towards Italy. As the crusade continued, France decided to take advantage of Englands weakened holdings and send in an armed force to take Caen. Unfortunately, Caen was taken, with an adopted son of the King being slaughtered holding the gates. The King himself, along with a collected host of huge proportions from the England sailed over immediately to Caen and retook the castle with little trouble. All prisoners were executed for vengeance for the fallen prince. Wasting no time, the King immediately marched on Paris to deal swift retribution to the King of France. Whilst besieging Paris though, his holiness sent an envoy ordering England to cease hostilities against France. Discusted, the King left the city of Paris and made for Caen again, then finally to London where he spent the rest of his ruling days. Meanwhile, the Crusade made steady progress to Jerusalem.

Eventually, the Crusade finally made it to the gates of Jerusalem, and after a long a bitter battle, secured the holy city to Cristendom! Relations with the Pope had never been better. Once Jerusalem was secured, England used its influence with the Pope to declare another crusade against Gaza, neibouring Jerusalem. The crusade quickly marched upon the undefended fortress and claimed it. Egypt was in turmoil, and sent a diplomat to secure peace. To ensure peace, England demanded the city of Damascus and another fortress. They agreed. And so England had its own holy kingdom in the middle east.

Currently, England stand at war with Poland, and once again, France. Both marching on Englands strongholds on the mainland, with little relent. The new King Rufus personally led a raid into Polish lands, securing 2 towns, but eventually losing so many men that he was forced to return to English Territory. France, on the other hand, have had free reign and lay seige with a huge host against Bruges. A relief force has been sent but its unlikely to be enough...

And thats my story so far :P