How am I doing?

[bretwalda]

Attack France while they are excommed. Then Sicilians. Then Byz, but only if you really have the resources and you want it bad. They hardly ever get big, especially if the Turks knock on Const. Their troops don't get better in the next era. And they are a nice buffer against Mongols...

[weegee]

Good advice. So Byz gets stuck in the old era while Turks will modernize and eventually overtake?

Good to know. I'll keep my trade up with them and focus west. Let the Byz, Turks and Horde distract each other.

[ajaxfetish]

Definitely go for France first. You can't be sure how long they'll stay exed, so take advantage of it. Go ahead and use your crusade against a close-by, important province, as you'll get some cool bonus troops and end the crusade quickly so you can use them wherever you want. Italian Light Infantry should work great against the royal knights. Take a good chunk of French/rebel lands and then develop them to prepare for later conflicts. You've got plenty of time left and the larger your empire grows the harder it gets to manage and control, so you may not want to explode too quickly, but get a solid chunk of land and then work on its loyalty, economy, and troop production capability before moving on.

If someone else is getting too big and you don't border them you can either try a long range sea invasion or (especially if they're an ally you don't want to lose but you still want to limit) you can harass them with assassins, bishops, inquisitors, spies, etc. to try to weaken them from within.

So mainly, take advantage of the situation with France, Figure out how far you can stretch before it's time to regroup, take some strategically valuable provinces (ie. chokepoints, trading giants, iron deposits, etc.), and bide your time. Feel free to build more crusades, too. It sounds like you'll have plenty of opportunities to use them later if the Byzantines, Turks, Egyptians--and eventually the horde--are the other major players on the map. As long as you stay on the Pope's good side, at least.

[Procrustes]

Definitly take France. The French provinces are very farm-rich, and IDF is generally quite developed. You can make a fortune in trade from Flanders.

Regarding Sicily, both Naples and Sicily are wealthy provinces with good trade, and Malta gives a bonus to your crusader Knights. Consider taking them out once you have disected France.

Regarding Bzy/Turks/Egyptians, I like the GA role-play stuff, so as the Italians I like to crusade towards Constantinople and the holy lands sooner or later. Wait for now... and make sure you start by attacking their fleets.

[weegee]

Well, I took your great advice and mopped up France last night. I didn't realize it at the time, but they actually had many of the British provinces. So I stormed into Provence, Burgundy, and Tyrolia which caused massive chain reaction. The English who had been eliminated, reappeared and took re-control of 3 of their provinces that were being held by the French. So in 2 turns, France lost 6 provinces all together. Now they're down to about 4 with an average army. Time to finish them off.

If I kill of their faction, do their ships disappear from the game?

[JAG]

If I kill of their faction, do their ships disappear from the game?

Yes! So more trade routes will open up to you as well.