Quote Originally Posted by Crian
Fun thing to do but it's all tedious . In Total war though, history is often rewritten, for example, you'll definitely march into Constantinople well before 1453. Or did they occupy it before that? Just not permanently? Not sure, but I think the Byzantines lost Constantinople quite a few times (like in the Crusades?).
The Turks assaulted Constantinople a good number of times, but only the last attempt succeeded. However, Constantinople had been taken before, during the fourth crusade, when a pretendent to the Byzantine throne promised to pay off the crusades debts if they installed him. The crusaders did so, but the newly-made emperor found that the treasury was empty. Also, he had promised to make the Byzantine Empire Catholic, something that did not fall well with his subjects, as did the Venetian influence in this affair. The crusaders lost patience, stormed the city (when installing the pretendent the sitting Emperor had not put up much of a fight) and founded the Latin Kingdom. I don't know how the city was restored to the "Byzantines", but it was, at least until the Turk took it from them permanently.