I'm a new member / learner too and have played as many battles as I can to get experience. For me this has made the campaign side of the game a means to initiate battles with new and unusual opponents. Resulting in a lot of thrashings and a few victories along the way. After about two weeks I have managed to get the hang of which tactics to adopt in which situations which can be a bit trial and error. Last night I won my first offensive bridge battle against a numerically superior golden horde in Khazar. Which put a smile on my face. I have tended not to fight many siege battles as I find them less interesting but I think when you automatically resolve those battles you tend to suffer more losses than when you play them out.

I don't think there is anyone who doesn't like the Pope?