I hadn't played METW2 for a while, but installed it on my new comp, along with the Kingdoms expansion. I'm currently playing the Grand Campaign with the retrofit mod I downloaded from the Total War site.

May be it is a peculiarity of the retrofit mod, but most of the dire warnings in this thread did not come to pass. I started out with allying with HRE & buying Bologna, then got the Florence mission. My Doge besieged Florence all by himself, and utterly vanquished the garrison when they sallied forth. I allied with the Pope, kept bribing him. In the mean time, the councillor captured Zagreb, left the garrison, and immediately returned to Venice, building watch towers along the mountain passes to the north.

I had started building the first level siege works in Venice the first turn, built a ballista as soon as I could, then a ballista. By turn 7 I captured Milan, which the Milanese had left with only a couple of units as they attacked a rebel stack to the west... It took me several turns to get into a position to capture Genoa. Again the Milanese Duce took the majority of his units out of Genoa, apparently to reinforce Dijon which he had captured. The Milanese were stuck in Dijon, with two full stacks, one in the city, and one outside. Then they went to war with the French as well, but didn't actually attack any French cities.

In the mean time, I captured Durazzo within the first 7 or 8 turns, and built two watchtowers (immediately to the east, and one close to Corinth) on the border with the Byzantines. They came asking for an alliance, which I accepted. I noticed them preparing a huge stack outside of Theselonika, but it turned rebel! It took the Byzantines a long time to finally get rid of it.

I noticed the same thing happen with a number of different armies with almost all the AI countries. They keep their stacks outside of the cities, and sooner or later those without generals rebel. The Turks had a 3/4 stack outside of Edessa, which just stood there for several turns. It then rebelled, and joined the Edessa garrison!

I called a crusade on Antioch (rebel), and sent two stacks to capture it, and then Acre. Acre was at ~ 4200 population, so I immediately started on the armourer and barracks series to get a swordsmiths guild. Later I had a mission to capture Damascus, captured Aleppo, and then called a second crusade on Jerusalem.

In the mean time, I sent a bunch of assassins and spies to Theselonika, along with three priests (one of them became a cardinal). The city rebelled, and a Venetian Crusader army captured it en-passent , and is now garrisoned there, as another Venetian Crusader army took Jerusalem the same turn.

The same crusade was instrumental in the final destruction of the Milanese, in the thirty-something turn. An army under the councillor had captured Bern, and after replenishing went to the north of Dijon, with a full stack. A second army, joining the Jerusalem Crusade just before I captured the city, approached the city from the south. I fought a major two stack vs two stack battle outside of Dijon. My second army (the mostly infantry army from Bern) had to go around a mountain, and my 3/4 stack valiantly martyred itself. The three Cavalry militia units, and the general made glorious charges (and got up to gold chevrons). Finally the second stack arrived and destroyed the second Milanese army (the lone Feudal knights unit went up to two gold chevrons in one battle!). Incidentally, the battle took over 40 minutes... I thought I had killed all three Milanese general units, and happily accepted the ransom - only to discover a Milanese Duce and a full stack of Italian militias & spear militias left in Dijon! I set up siege, and waited several turns to wear down the defenders (my armies were in no shape to fight the Milanese survivors until I could send reinforcements). Milan has finally been destroyed.

Sicily is left only with Tripoli, after foolishly betraying our alliance around the 10th or so turn, after I captured Ajjacio. This was just before the first crusade. I sent out a Crusader army from Milan & Venice, with a ballista, which made its way down to Naples. Ironically enough, it bypassed a Sicilian crusader army which got stranded in Bologna. After the crusade ended, my army found itself right in front of Naples, defended only by the Sicilian king and an Italian militia unit. Burn in heck, o foul Sicilian! Palermo was taken several turns later, and Tunis during the second crusade.

In the mean time, the Moors took Cagliari from the Sicilians. The Pope attacked Cagliari with two full stacks, while it was defended by a single Moor unit. Besieged the city, and .... did nothing! Several turns later he declared a cease-fire with the Moors. Repeated the same several turns later! Now there are two full stacks of the Papal army just hanging out, outside of Moorish Cagliari!

England and HRE have attacked France. On principle, I canceled my alliances with both aggressors, but somehow my reputation fell from Very Reliable to Reliable. France lost Rheims to the HRE. My assassins and spies are working on inciting a revolt, along with their French counterparts.

I have a Master Assassins guild in Bologna, a Master Thieves guild in Milan, a Master Merchants guld in Venice, a Master Explorers guild in Antioch, and an inherited Master Masons guild in Naples. I have two Templar's Guilds (Iraklion and Tunis), and just got a Swordsmith Guild in Ragussa, which I plan to upgrade to a Master S.G. soon.

The funny thing is, the rebel-held Antioch has an Explorers Guild! (which I upgraded later).

At the moment I am allied with most factions, and at war only with Sicily, which has only Tripoli left. My original Doge died just a couple of turns ago, in his late sixties, so did Pope Gregory just this last turn. One of my cardinals was elected Pope this morning, before I left for work...

Overall, I've enjoyed the campaign so far. Most of the other factions (except for Russia!) have had stunted growth, due to rebelling armies. I'm at a lost to explain why! I don't remember such issues in METW2 1.1, which is what I played before.