First Campaign

[Martok]

Helloo! I have just got the Gold edition MTW. Going to start a new campaign but first I have a few questions.

1. I have played Rome and MTW2. Will I be dissapointed by the graphics?

If you like primarily fighting battles with the camera zoomed in close-up on the action, you might be. Otherwise, MTW's graphics probably won't bother you at all.

2. I have played Rome and MTW2. Will I get kicked out of the park by the AI?

Most likely, yes. As Kaidonni pointed out, MTW's AI still makes mistakes, but it's generally far more competent than in Rome or Medieval 2 (especially in battle).

3. If a get this far without being disheartened, what is an easy faction to play as for a begginner?

I second the recommendation of the Almohads, English, and Danes -- in that order. All three factions start with decent lands and a fairly secure starting position.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Danes are a little trickier than the other two factions (as you must expand almost immediately to avoid going broke), but they have one of the most powerful unit rosters in the Early period. In addition, their only real threat at the beginning of the game is the Germans (Holy Roman Empire), and they're usually too busy fending off their other neighbors to come after you.

4. Should I stick to medium difficulty?

To be honest, I would actually recommend playing on Easy difficulty to begin with. macsen rufus is correct in stating that there's no shame in doing so, as MTW truly is more challenging than RTW or M2TW. (I myself didn't even start playing on Normal difficulty until I'd been playing the game for a good six months or so. )

[Timsup2nothin]

I say go directly to expert. You will likely get mashed flat a few (bunch of) times, but every mashing is a learning experience and won't take very long (IIRC my first three 'campaigns' were one battle and out). On the other hand, winning takes a long time no matter what the setting, and who wants to take a long time winning only to have the ghost in the machine say 'well, yeah, you won, but you handicapped me to do it'?

[drone]

If you do decide to play it on Easy, I would recommend playing for 50-100 turns, then starting up a new campaign on Normal. It should be long enough to get the hang of what's going on, but not so long that you get attached to the campaign. I would advise against plodding through the rest of the campaign on easy, it may get either boring or build bad habits.

Welcome to the Main Hall!

[Raz]

I entirely agree with Drone. Play for a short while on easy then switch over to normal or hard depending on how well you've adapted from 3D to 2D. Really, I believe it's the small things that will bug you the most - you're probably used to using the left-mouse button to select your troops, and the right-mouse button to move/attack - in MTW 90% of the time you'll only ever be using the left button, the RMB in MTW changes the camera view so expect to be frustrated.

I also recommend playing the tutorial if you haven't already, especially the campaign tutorial, as while the entire game is different to RTW and M2TW, the biggest change would have to be the campaign map. As for a faction to play as, I recommend (for the first run through at least) the Vikings on the VI campaign. You'll have nice, strong infantry to help you get around the learning curve.

[drone]

As for a faction to play as, I recommend (for the first run through at least) the Vikings on the VI campaign. You'll have nice, strong infantry to help you get around the learning curve.

That's a superb suggestion, so obvious that it escaped my mind. The VI campaign is a simpler, shorter, scaled down version, much easier to cope with for a beginner. The Vikings might be too easy on Easy though, maybe play the Saxons or Mercians instead.

[Vider]

I'd like to offer a dissenting opinion and suggest you stay away from the Danes (or the Vikings in VI). I am by no means an expert player, and my first Danes campaign (which wasn't my first campaign by a long shot) ended with me being eaten out of house and home by the multiplicity of heirs. Now maybe coming from similar games you won't run into some of the problems I did, but I would suggest the English or Spanish. I actually played my first campaign as the Almohad on Easy, and ended up winning the campaign despite never utilizing their best unit, the Almohad Urban Militia.

I just got back into a campaign (English, my favorite faction) on hard after a hiatus from the game and I realized that my tactics need some work. If you have a background in TW games I wouldn't think you would really need to start on easy, but I don't think you'd like starting on expert either. Make sure to read some of the excellent guides/posts on here and try out different tactics on the battlefield.

[drone]

Playing the Danes and Vikings means you have to go on the offensive early, fortunately their unit rosters are forgiving in this respect. If you want battles early, they are a good place to start. The Danes will be complicated by the naval/trade aspect though.