Quote Originally Posted by Martok
With most games it doesn't feel right, though -- conquering all of Europe just doesn't seem like a feasible (or even desirable) goal.
I often don't finish games where it's a matter of grinding through 25 or even 50 more turns to get to the requisite number of territories. The payoff screens in TW aren't as compelling as in Civ (full replay, Hall of Fame, etc.) so it doesn't seem as worth it.

My last game, though, I quit about 1/3 of the way through. As Sicily, I had built a vast trade network, had taken all of North Africa from the Moors and all of Northern Italy except Venice. I had a defensive wall along the Alps and a cadre of assassins (hey, it is Sicily ... and I had a Master Assassins' Guild) to ensure nobody took down any of my merchants.

I had made peace with everyone left alive (in an effort to isolate the Moors, mainly). I was the Pope's favorite (and owned over half of the college of cardinals) and had even made a lasting peace w/ Egypt after taking Alexandria in a crusade.

It was so nicely balanced a scenario and I had worked so hard to establish all the diplomatic efforts I just couldn't bring myself to throw it away by rubbing out faction after faction. Given the massive financial lead I had, nobody was ever going to catch me anyway, so in that alternative history, the Pax Sicilianum will last forever.

Although if I was going to crush somebody, I was going to start w/ those annoying little Portuguese, who kept invading Corsica, then running away when they saw how big a stack I had there ...