One country to dominate them all

[soibean]

I played 2 campaigns as the Italians
1. I started in the High Period and worked my magic up to the point of owning all of the Byzantines' old provinces, Hungary, Wallachia, Serbia, and the lowest German provinces ( I cant think of their names right now ). Anyway I decided to work on the tech tree a little more so I'd be ready when Late period rolled around. At this point I was allied with the French, the Papacy, the Hungarians, and Germans. I only had my trade route along the lines of the Mediterranean so I had virtually no idea what was going on along the west or northern coasts of Europe. I decided that I could use another ally so I sent an emissary into Aquitane... its French instead of English... alright lets try Brittany, French, Normandy? French... This isn't looking to promising. Wessex, Whales, Scotland, Northumbrian all of it was French. The English were stranded on Ireland and only allowed to live because the French let them, so I ruled them out. I moved onto the Spanish... what do ya know the whole peninsula is French. Right about now I was getting worried about French power so I was considering attacking. I moved around my trade routes and noticed that France had also conquered all of the Africa, wiped out the Egyptians, and had the Turkish down to 2 provinces. I tried attacking to weaken but their fleet sunk my own and untold thousands of Frenchmen wiped out my armies so it was time to restart.
2 Instead of typing that all over again, same thing happened except with the English.
I think the Italians are jinxed.

[Ard-Ri McCullaugh]

No way man. My first ever campaign, I used Italians to conquer Europe. Albiet I just used swarms of FS and FMAA because I was a noob and never teched up...

[Maedhros]

Try making an effort to keep track of events in other lands. Scroll the diplomacy list to see who is at war with whom.

Send special units out to scout as well. Don't let yourself get surprised. The Italians have several advantages. Money being one. The favour of the pope is another, other catholics are less likely to attack you. Use this.

[discovery1]

It's not unusual to see one of those two wipe the other out. It's not just the Italians. Tip on naval combat:send a lone peasant unit to attack a well defended border provence and auto-resolve on the same turn as epic naval combat. The engine has pity for you, and it actually seemed to work in my last champaign. I read it somewhere in the main hall, can't remeber who said it, but if you are reading this, credit to you.

[soibean]

I guess that my strategy for the Italians needs to be altered a bit then
thanks for the imput everyone

[katank]

yep, me initiated the sacrifice the peasants strat.

with epic naval combat, at least a few thousand florins and many turns of building is at risk so why not simply risk 50 florins of a half dead peasants and 1 turn of building?

this has yielded amazing results like a lone 0* curragh sinking 3 viking snekkjas led by a 3*

try this for naval combat.

you should always have trade routes form baltic to black sea that makes cash and keeps track of world events.

check diplo screen regularly and use packs of bishops for inland provinces.

converts the populace and also keeps tabs. gets assasinated less than emissaries.

use italian light inf. they are really good.

I frequently tech up even less than some people and use spear/archer/UM hordes to conquer the map, backed by some BG cav.