How many?

[{KotR}Lionheart]

I rarely use more than 3 or four privinces in a campaign, and then never any of thosei start with. It is normally those in north africa, when an almohad or egyptian army is focused into one newly taken priovince.

[Ulair]

None and lots

In my core empires I like to expand quickly to start with, then carefully, minimising borders and only taking what I know I can keep. There's nothing like holding Greece and Bulgaria and watching western European crusaders slowly dying of cholera in Hungary

But, I also enjoying raiding and pillaging the territories of factions who've really annoyed me (you know, the Sicilians sink your ship for no reason, that sort of thing). I'll send an emissary behind their lines, find the nearest rebel stack or disloyal army, bribe it and set about rampaging through their provinces, all defended by 100 peasants and a dog. Take 'em, rip down every improvement and move on. Sometimes invading and having them retreat to the castle is enough to wreck their infrastructure. They take the province back (or have a huge loyallist rebellion) - but who cares! I've slighted the wells and ploughed the fields with salt...

Works great on the Spanish: as that huge crusade approaches, go buy the rebels in Portugal, sack Castile and rip down the Chapter House! Love it . And of course, as a Muslim faction, you can always Jihad to these places later on, getting excellent conquering armies for nothing!


Ulair (playing the Turks just now and lovin' it...)