Sicily

[King Kurt]

For a more exciting Sicilian adventure, try a High start. I am currently in the midst of such a campaign and it is a real rollercoaster. I have lost and regained Sicily and Naples, have had Constantinopole as my capital from about 15 years into the campaign. I have had allies from England to the Horde. There have been 2 or 3 moments when I thought all was going to crash around me, but I have managed to get through it and emerge stronger. This is all detailed in a thread in the MTW Main Hall called "see Naples and die".
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65937
Currently I am war with the Russians, the English, the Horde, the Spanish - who have just been excommed - the Eggyies and the Hungarians. Also the Pope takes the occasional swipe - but I usually let him have the province to avoid trouble. My Empire dominates the eastern Med from Egypt round to Naples and is begining to stretch up into the Steppes. I am about 4th on the GA stakes but intend to take out those in front of me to climb the ladder. It has been one of the most enjoyable campaigns I have played because there is a constant challenge and air of uncertainty. Often I plan for a course of action, but it then unlocks a whole new set of challenges. So have a read and give it a go - it will not follow your Million florin trade/ super army route I am sure.

[NodachiSam]

Awsome posts guys! I want to try out Sicily again now.

[bamff]

I'll echo Empirate's sentiments - I also heeded the advice of the masters and concentrated on trade and shipbuilding. I also established Malta as my initial crusade base.

Naples fell first, and when the Byz had some "loyalty issues" I pounced on the newly rebellious provinces of Crete and Rhodes. These two, along with Malta, were used for military purposes (and while teching up, I kept pumping ships out of all 5).

I was absolutely amazed at what you can get out of essentially just Sicily and Naples! In the early years, I had Sicily pumping over 9,000 florins per year, and Naples over 5,000!

Crusades soon secured Antioch and Tripoli, and with the Eggies still in a state of shock, I pushed on into Syria, Palestine, Arabia, and Sinai. Palestine became my new crusade base, allowing my to crush the Eggy pocket up in Edessa....lo and behold, now nobody else can get any crusade points! And if you thought I was scoring some florins before, wow! I soon had Antioch contributing well over 8,800 florins per year and Tripoli a further 5,000....

So, flush with cash, and quite happy with the state of the world thus far, I consolidated for a while. Rebellions again opened the door for me to seize Cyprus and Sardinia - and all the while the cash just keeps rolling in.....

I am enjoying Sicily!

[Vladimir]

Be careful if you play the XL mod. Trade income is dramatically reduced and you'll be lucky if you get 4k out of Constantinople! The English navy also tends to dominate the seas and they seize many coastal providences making the menace even worse. I’m playing a continental Burgundy right now and the coming naval war is going to be a real mess. My advice as Sicily is to never ally with them and kill their ships as fast as possible. Auto ceasefires should be easy and you'll maintain your dominance of at LEAST the Mediterranean.

[danfda]

Edited due to double post.

[Empirate]

I think Vladimir was trying to say: When playing Sicily, blow the English navy out of the water as soon as humanly possible. This pertaining mostly to the XL mod, though.
Still, it is a very helpful suggestion to kill Sicilian ships as quickly as you can. They are aggressive like hell - have to be, in order to stand any chance against their better positioned neighbours. You'll rarely see an AI faction just sitting there, building a fortune and teching up. That's mostly because the AI doesn't know how to tech up in any sensible way. So in order to accomplish anything, Sicily usually tries to strike out either against the Pope or against the Byzantines. They fare much better when they try their strength against the Byzzies, though. I frequently had a standoff between Sicily and Hungary in my campaigns, with the Byzantines pushed into the steppes or into Asia Minor, and the Turks not far behind. I also had a lot of games in which Sicily was down to just Malta or totally destroyed by a papal reemergence.

[Vladimir]

You're BOTH right Both faction's navies are their strength, the English usually have better capitol to finance a navy and don't have to rely on galleys.

[danfda]

Yes, it seems to me that the Sicillians are very fond of attacking my ships for no good reason. In almost all of my campaigns, I have found them extremely aggressive--not just against me, but against all factions. Especially the pope, but I love to watch them duel it out... I totally agree with Vladimir--when playing a sea-faring nation, eliminate Sicillian ships as soon as you can. Quite often they'll go back to neutral soon thereafter (as long as you don't invade their territory, which I like to do) and you can trade with them.

In my Sicillian campaign, I kicked back and simply built up a huge trade empire. I know, its kind of cheap, but I was making so much money and was in the mood for a campaign that did not involve conquering everything (GA mode, mind you). So all I did was launch crusades to take the holy lands, and sat back. After 1247 I quit, since I was so far ahead in GA points, had so much money I couldn't spend it all, and the only territory I lost was Tunisia (to a huge Almohad reemergence). But it was an enjoyable campaign, and I do recommend them. I also recommend slaughtering them, but that is a different story...