After buying the game and playing a few Catholic factions I decided the Pope and Inquistors were too much of a pain so I decided to give the Moors a try. Playing the Moors has been a much more enjoyable campaign. Here's the way I've played the Moors.

1st Phase: Consolidate North Africa.

I decided that before I took on Spain and Portugal in Iberia, I would conquer North Africa. My first priority was Tunisia. I gathered a small but adequate army in Algiers and crushed the rebels in Tunis. Turn Tunis into a city. Garrison with about 4 militia units. Rebuild a small army in Tunis and march on Tripoli. Turn Tripoli into a city. Garrison Tripoli with about 4 militia (Egypt nor the Monguls who conquered Egypt have never sent an army to Tripoli, the most they have done is blockade my port so don't worry about a big garrison in Tripoli). March remainder of army back to Algiers. Build up an army in Algiers and begin the long march to Timbuktu. The march is long but well worth it finacially. Take Timbuktu. Garrison appropriately. Take the city on the west African coast and Garrison appropriately. Keep a small force in either sub-saharan town to deal with pesky rebels and disband the rest of the army. Build merchants to exploit the ivory and gold mines in the sub-saharan countries. The key to the Moors is to not have too many military units because your economy is not very strong in the beginning of the game. It is a balancing act but you should get the hang of it. During the turns that you are on your African conquest the only thing you should do in Iberia is play defence and keep Cordoba and Granada in your hands. This was extremely tricky and a couple of times I almost lost Cordoba to Spain but my defenders pulled out some heroic victories and Spain was turned back at the walls.

2nd Phase: Conquer Iberia and Southern France

After conquering Africa I turned my attention to Iberia. By this time my economy was getting strong as were the military units that I could bring to bear on the enemy. Wait as long as you can and build up your economy and military potential. When you think the time is right, build an army made up of mostly militia crossbowmen and urban militia. Sprinkle in some camel spearmen, grenadine jinettes, and arab cav. Leave a strong garrison in Cordoba because once you strike out into Iberia you will be counter-attacked there. I chose to go from west to east. I conquered Lisbon first, followed by Leon, next was Toledo, then it was on to Valencia. After taking these countries you can finally relax in Cordoba. I make all castles into cities. The only two castles I have at this point is Granada and Algiers. I garrison my cities after conquering them with 4 urban milita and 2 militia crossbowmen. After Valencia I rebuild army and conquer Zaragoza and Pamplona, thus completing my Iberian conquest. After this I gave my military a rest and just concentrated on economy and military buildings. By this time I had access to all of the Moorish military units so now I was ready to cross the Pyranese into France. I built two very powerful armies consisting of 1 or 2 Generals, 8 dismounted Christian Guard, 4 mounted Christian Guard, 2 Camel Gunners, 2 Peasant Crossbow, and 2 Sudanese Gunners. All I can say is the the Christian Guard are bad asses. I highly recommend fighting with them. Anyway, I took these two armies and pushed France out of Toulouse and Bordeaux. I left my two powerful armies there to serve as gatekeepers to my Iberian Empire. Nobody has tried to take on these armies yet so I have a very quiet border in Southern France.

3rd Phase: Island Hop and Conquer Egypt and Middle East

This is where I'm at in the game. I am building up my newly aquired territories economically and I have started island hopping. I took Corsica and Sardina first. I probably should have taken these two islands earlier in the game because of the silver mines to be had. After taking these Islands I conquered the three island in the eastern med. Now I am ready to take on the Monguls in Egypt and the rest of the middle east. I have two more bad ass armies sailing to Egypt as I type. I'll let you know how it goes...