Going to add a little info here, I just played some with the saxons, and I will hand out some of my expirences.

First, you need to develop your capital. You will need to construct some better forts, so you get access to horse and saxon huscarls.

When you are developing the capital, and preferably one or two other provinces, begin to build two armies as well. One for defence and one for offense. The offense army will be used to crush rebels in the vicinity, take two or three provinces. In these begin to build ports, because controlling the sea is important when the vikings arrive.

Politics. You will also need two or three strong alliances. The Mercians and the Scottish worked weill for me, one close and one far away. It will be clever if you forge this alliance with blood ie. you marry a princess.

When all these steps have been completed, you will need to develop you military strength. Disband peasents and other low-tech, or send them to battle. Recruit horses, armoured spearmen, archers, huscarls, and other good stuff if you got that.

Let me also stress, that it is important not to develop each and every provinces completely. While development is required, it is prudent to focus different aspects on different provinces. Eg. SuthSaxe train archers, westsaxe trains spearmen, other for catapults and horses etc. this will be important when you are advancing, because you will not have enought funds. When you have your tech increased, then apply it into a couple of armies and grab some land of opportunity.

When you got a peace, then begin to develop your economy, build farm upgrades (you got good farmland), abbeys, trade etc.


--more to come--