I was having a lot of fun with Rome Total War so I just bought Medieval Total War and am playing my first campaign.

Early, English, Conquest.

First I started and began constructing some farming and tried an early attack into Wales. Right about the time my farms were completing, the French attacked me without warning and wiped me off the continent.

So, I restarted. This time I bribed the guys in Wales, then sent the longbowmen to France and spent my first turns building troops and forts, and I did to the French what they did to me

Then the Germans and Danish attacked me and my allies the Italians and we won that war, with me taking all of Scandinavia (except Finland) and part of France. I also saw Livonia go rebel and took the opportunity to take that as well as Ireland. After that I settled down to build my defenses and improve my economy.

It is now 1180 and there has been a long period of peace and I don't know what to do next.

I have all the British Isles, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Livonia. Continental Europe --- with France and Germany destroyed --- is now divided in half between me and the Italians with a pretty straight border from Friesland on down, except my empire encroaches on the Italians at Switzerland, and theirs cuts into mine with Provence. East Europe is divided between the Polish and Novgorod. In the south Spain has taken out the Muslims and took Aragon after its kind died without an heir. In the east Byzantium is monumentally huge. I have not yet explored Africa or the Middle East so I don't know what's going on there.

I am allied with Novgorod, Spain, and Italy and am neutral with everyone else.

I have been pulling in around 17,000 florins per turn with about 6,000 of that being profit. I have a string of ships going along the entire northern Med. I have 2 full armies and a keep in every border province with one castle in Switzerland and another one in Wessex. My armies are mostly a mix of Fyrdmen and Spearmen with large numbers of Hobilars and Highlanders and very few archers. I have scattered mercenary units of armored spearmen and heavy cavalry from an Inn I captured from the Germans in Champagne.

I have 40% farming in all but the most useless provinces, mining complexes wherever I could build them, ports and merchants everwhere with tradeable goods.

The game seems to have stalled.

1. I am afraid of taking any of my garrisons out to go attack because my "allies" have large armies massed at our borders.

2. I am concerned about a critial naval strike crippling my income so I have built 4 shipyards and am in the process of putting 2 ships in each sea instead of just one. Ships seem to be cheap to upkeep and trade routes seem vital to keep open. As a side note --- although the compass has been discovered and I have the prerequisites for caravels according to the reference sheet, for some reason all I can build are barques.

3. I am concerned about going towards Africa because of all the warnings about Catholic armies doing poorly in the desert.

4. Novgorod looks like a good target as it is Orthodox, but it is allied with me, and I am concerned that the Golden Horde will come along later and just overrun anything I try to in that region anyway.

5. I have ships along the entire Spanish coast. I could maybe simultaneously attack several coastal provinces in Spain and win a short war if I took one army out of each of my European border provinces. But, in addition to leaving me weak versus the Italians, that would involve breaking my alliance with Spain and also might make me more enemies than I can deal with since they have 7 alliances. Plus, the Spanish have 4 full stacks of units in Castile and several ships that could cause me problems if the war didn't end quickly.

6. I could crush the Sicilians easily as they have only 3 provinces, and Sicily itself looks as rich as Flanders. They also have no allies who border me or are significant trading partners of mine. But that's a long way from home. Defending it could be a problem.

7. I have a total of 22 units of mercenaries scattered through my various armies. Disbanding them would save a lot of upkeep every turn. But they are all heavy armored troops that are better than anything I can produce myself.

8. The best units I can build are feudal men at arms and sergeants. I have halted development of military buildings in an effort to build my treasury up. I currently have about 30,000 florins saved. My thinking is that keeping a large stockpile of cash will be good insurance against a disruption of my trade routes. It would give me a few turns to re-establish them without going deeply into debt. But 1205 is only 25 turns away. Maybe I should start construction of higher level castles and workshops now in preparation for that.

I am very happy with Medieval Total War so far. The graphics may not be as good but it seems like the strategic depth of this game is much better than Rome Total War. But I'm just a little overwhelmed right now. It seems everything I can do has a bigger risk than reward! I read the strategies for England in the newbie guide area, but they seem to just be about the opening few turns.