Ok, ok, perhaps I was a bit hasty putting the time limit at 20 turns. Still it wouldn't be called a blitz if one were to take one's time in completing the campaign. You needn't choose a faction that starts with few provinces and isn't completely fiscally sound initially. Some factions such as the Greeks start with 5 provinces, have a solid economy to boot and can potentially expand on more than 1 front, so it is possible to take multiple towns in 1 turn. Admittedly you will be spreading yourself rather thin and that's risky but well that's the challenge.

Remember that you get instant cash for each town you take and an extra source of income so once you can take a few early towns, cash flow should stabilize. As for garrisoning these new provinces adequately, you may need to babysit the town for 1 turn but once you get a couple of peasant units, public order should be tolerable. I've had towns with no garrison (-15% public order) but with a low tax rate, sometimes you can still get by. Any province you take counts to the target of 50 provinces so you need not necessarily take highly populated provinces (despite the fact that they have very good income) if you think that they are too well guarded and hard to garrison (when you've taken them).

Also I'm not saying I could do it and freely admit I probably couldn't. But even though I've played S:TW and M:TW before, my battle skills and experience are probably considerably inferior to some of the really hardened vets around here.

I didn't say that you had to search blindly for town locations for provinces with no roads. I expect those who attempt the challenge to have completed the long campaign at least once and are therefore roughly familiar with town locations and will therefore zero in on the town upon entering the province.

Lastly I'm sure you will not have failed to notice that I did not put some of the more demanding house rules like no pause and general's camera only. I don't or I rarely use them but some of the more skilled players (especially the MP ones) appear quite comfortable with it.

So all things considered, I'll revise the goal as:
To complete the long campaign in 30 turns or less (I did ask for opinions regarding the time limit since I wasn't too sure anyhow).
That's quite a difference actually. Uhm... ok... any takers?