Hi all, just wanted to pass on my experience of my first game.
My first mistake was marrying off my princess to the Scot's heir. I was hoping that would give me an in to the Scottish throne through birth. Nothing. So I wasted my princess.
While building chapels and churches to keep the pontiff happy, I expanded my realm on the isles, leaving Scotland alone, since the marriage made us allies. I got control of York, Caernarvon, and Dublin. I also captured Rennes and Bordeaux before the French grabbed them.
I was then gearing up to invade Scotland, updating my armor and producing longbows. I was just about to invade, when the Pope declares a crusade on Antioch. Aargh! Well I still think I have the forces to do the crusade and capture Scotland. I gather up an army under Robert in Caen and proceed to march through Europe enroute to Antioch.
One thing I had noticed but had no idea why it was happening, was a French diplomat was staying next to Caen and the animations looked like he was conducting diplomacy, but I received no diplomacy window, so I forgot about it. It wasn't until my crusaders started there march when I found out that diplomat must've been trying to bribe my guys in Caen. The Frogs attacked me in Bordeaux!
Well, I had Henry there and the French army was really small. The hardest part of that battle was trying to decide which unit of horse I wanted to use to rout them.
Well, after that easy battle, and after chasing another French army out of Caen, I thought I could still do my thing in Scotland. My spy had seen that Edinburgh and Inverness was really weak. So I captured Edinburgh and moved on Inverness.
Now, before I invaded Scotland, I was high in favor with the Pope. The only other nation beside me that went on the crusade was HRE. But after invading Scotland, I was threatened with excommunication! I don't agree with that part. Since capturing Scotland is a victory condition, how can one do that without interference from the Pope. This was only after one turn of war with the Scots. Mind you, the French have warred with me for three turns and their favor with the Pope was higher than mine. Plus, they didn't join the crusade. The player shouldn't be punished more than the AI is.
Another thing, as far as historical accuracy is concerned, the different nations of Europe had warred back and forth many times without such interference from the Pope. Why is the penalty so harsh in game? Much better would be after several turns of war, or maybe warring against alot of Christian countries should bring the Pope's wrath.
After capturing Edinburgh and Inverness, nothing about my defeating the Scots. What does one need to do to actually defeat a faction.
Another thing is my crusading army. After being excommunicated, I got a message that my soldiers were griping about going to slowly to Antioch. I had the army marching to the max distance each turn. I'm guessing the message was triggered by their leige getting excommunicated, but there should've been a different message then.
Also, the idea of having to march an army from Northwest Europe all the way to the Mideast isn't the best way to answer a call to crusade. I didn't want to use up my fleet to do this. There should be a crusade fleet in Italy, ready to take any crusading army the rest of the way.
On a side note, when the French attacked me at Bordeaux, a French noble led them. After their defeat, I decided to ransom the French. I wanted to keep up Henry's chivalry. What did that French b**t*rd do next turn? Attacked me again with a weaker army. I executed him after that.
I've decided to start a new game now that I have a better understanding of the game's workings. Thanks for reading this long post.