The current state of your faction

[Copperhaired Berserker!]

I was wondering about how other people's factions were doing compared to mine.

Here's mine:

As France, I was prospering nicely. I had a really good and happy empire, and each ctiy was giving me a lot of income, thanks to me investing in economic buildings and defences. But, I was thinking of expanding north, towards England,and finally destroying England altogether. I got my armies prepared, and sent them to England. I love archers in this game, so I got thousands of merc crossbow (I loved using mercs, mainly due to the fact that I had thousands of money at my disposal, and I could buy thousands of mercs with it.) I suffered heavy losses, but I finally got London out of their reach, until I destroy England finally. I allied with Scotland, and sent my armies away for more ambitious expanding, hoping that the Scotland would not betray me. My trust was broken, as Scotland betrayed me and captured Nottingham and England. Now the pope was on the verge of excommnicating both Scotland and me (Actually, I think Scotland attacked me because I made them be hated by the pope.) and so I sent my retrained armies to Scotland to attack them. Then Milan betrayed me (Probably because the Pope ordered them to.) and then all the european countries were invading. I stared as they sent full stacks of units, and the pope even ordered a crusade against me. I had finished my conquest for Sctland, finally capturing Dublin, and sent my armies as a relief force. I was grateful for the fact that my walls held the soldiers back. I then realized that the full stacks were just militia. I origionally thought they were full fledged, elite forces, but they were awful soldiers. Now that I knew this, I commanded my armies to exapnd into european territory, recalimed my lost cities along the way. My armies were mainly archers and atrilley, with some infantry. Thankfully, the elements were at my side and sometimes I even got my archers to fire from cliffs, which had totally slaughtered their poorly armoured militia, and for now, I'm building up my defences and preparing armies for the blitzkrieg that I about to send to my foes.

Woo.

[Ciddler]

I started as Spain, all was well, conquered the Portuguese, got the Moors out of the iberian peninsula and then I was attacked by the French. I attacked them back, rightfully defending what was mine and the pope said I shouldn't. I thought it was proposterous that he could attack me but I just sit there and watch the French come time and time again. So I got excommunicated, soon after Milan declared war on me, the Moors tried to come back again, the French are still at large and even England betrayed me. The Pope regularly sends armies and even Hungary has sent a crusade army my way. They will all pay for what they are doing. First I will fight off the crusade, then I will conquer France. I think every christian nation hates me now! I love it.

[Quillan]

I started my first game as Byzantium (had to mod the descr_strat.txt file). I'd originally intended on expanding equally on both sides of the Aegean Sea, but the initial Byzantine military didn't allow for this. I combined the spare starting forces into one army under the Autokrator, and moved on the rebel castle of Sofia, where I beat the Hungarians to it by two turns. Venice took the rebel village down on the Adriatic coast south of Raguzza, so after garrisoning Sofia I moved across and took Smyrna from the rebels, then Rhodes. Princess Anna Komnena and diplomats went out, selling maps and securing trade rights, and I settled an alliance with Hungary (though not by marriage).

Venice attacked right after I took Rhodes. I destroyed the invading army with a defending force of mounted archers, but was unable to secure peace, so I moved from Rhodes and took Crete away from the Venetians, and was able to make peace then. Bucharest was still rebel, so I took it after retraining troops, and things stagnated there for a bit while I built some economic structures to straighten out financial difficulties.

Two more minor wars were fought with Venice, with no change in territory, and one "war" with the Turks (no armies fought at all, was purely a naval skirmish settled after blockading Ikonium for a few turns) when Hungary decided to betray our alliance. I took Bran from them (fortress) and moved off to deal with a Venetian invader (4th war with them), when the Hungarian king appeared at the head of a huge army to beseige Bucharest while another large army moved on Bran. I rushed back and had to choose which to relieve, and relieved Bran, losing Bucharest to the Hungarians but killing more than 1/3 of them in the process. The horse archers moved over and besieged Bucharest, and proceeded to starve them out. I retook Bucharest when I defeated a last-ditch sally attempt and moved on Iasa (or whatever that town is where Campus Sarmatae is located in RTW) where I defeated the defenders and captured the Hungarian King.

I was moving on Budapest to eliminate the Hungarians when the muslims declared a jihad against Constantinople. I had a small force of horse archers in Smyrna which started reinforcing, and my large army of horse archers started racing towards Constantinople while the mixed force stayed in the north to defend against Hungarian or Venetian incursions. That's where I am now, it's about 1155 AD (playing 1 year per turn), a full stack Turk army is on the eastern side of the Aegean and can cross to the western side this turn. I have an army behind them with a general, 6 Byzantine cavalry and 3 Vardariatoi. I have an army ahead of them with the Emperor, 5 Byzantine cavalry, 4 Vardariatoi, and 2 Skythikons. Constantinople is a huge city with Ballista towers, currently defended by about 16 units in a mix. I haven't seen Egyptian or Moorish armies yet, but they're coming.

[LorDBulA]

I play as Scotland. I captured Highland Scotland and Irland when Pope ordered Crusade against Jerusalem.
My king (and his son) joined the crusade 2 turns later and sailed to the north shores of Spain.
I left the ships there and crossed continent near Tollose to get to the Mediterranean see. On my way i recruited about 500 French crusaders.
When i was on the other side i bought ships and continue my travel.
When i was south of Sicily, Venice captured Jerusalem ending crusade.
I was in big trouble. Far from home loosing 2500 florins a turn.
I looked around and decided to capture Palermo so i can pay my troops.
I continue to fight Sicilians and was excommunicated. I basically conquered whole It ally (up to Pad) 4 province in total. Payed Pope some money and was reconsolidated after his death. In the mean time both Characters that where leeding crusade died so i had to ship new using the same rout.
I allied to Venice and was betrayed by them (really powerfull faction).
Now i am allied with Milan and i defended north Italy from Venice incursion (great Sige battle :) ).
Now its a payback time. Afther a lot of trouble i was able to retrain what was left from my crusade army (i have catle in Sicily so its a long way) and move the m north. It took very long as i was fighting fearce see battle that my initial fleet lost and i had to recreate my navy.
But in the last turn i crossed Pad and now the fight is on the Venice soil.

[Lusted]

Just started a new campaign as Venice, my old one was my testing campaign.

Venice is expanding quickly. Durazzo, Zagreb and Florence have already been taken, and Rhodes soon will. Venice already has an Explorers Guild in it. I am going out of my way to make the other catholic factions in Italy like me so there is less chance of me being attacked. Im doing this as my plan is to build up my forces then go attack Byzantium, taking Corinth, Thessalonica and Constantinople, then i'll try and get a peace of of them.

[Woozie]

First of all I unlocked all the factions in the .txt and then started with Egypt.

I got a mission to capture Jerusalem and lost the siege twice, I had only captured it when I had 3 turns left to do it so I got lucky there. My luck ran out very quick when a crusade was called on Jerusalem the turn after. I sent diplomats across the sea to Venice, North to the Turks and West to the Moors. I acquired trade rights with all 3 but the Turks were the only ones who wanted to ally. I got a mission to capture Acre and did that with ease (very small rebel army) and then made an army and called a Jihad on Antioch. I hired 6 units of Ghazis and 4 Arab Mercs with big wooden clubs (Can't spell their name and I won't even attempt it). Antioch fell quickly and by the next turn a Polish Crusade army parked right beside Antioch. Needless to say I had an awesome Jihad vs Crusade battle and successfully drove the infidels out.

That's as far as I am right now (30 turns in). I haven't played my campaign for a bit because I've been trying out custom battles a ton and testing all the factions.

[Throumbaris]

At my first campaign i quickly took all rebels in England killed off the scots. Afterwards i was defensive with france while they backstabbed me after an alliance. On the following 100 turns i expanded my empire over the french while the french slowly conquered Milan's lands and went further back. They finally got a huge army at the former Milan's capital with the king and the 3 princes, i made an attack and took the king out with bombards while killing the princes with my own cavalry. Even though i didnt take the settlement i still won because there were no royalty left.

My second campaign as venice i took 3-4 rebel settlements and i only have 2 castles and about 4 towns. My economy is strong but i cant act defensively if byzantine decides to attack me. Im on great terms with the papacy and other italian factions and im not worried about HRE backstabbing me because the sicilians just attacked them. Im basically going to get an army going on the east to get some byzantine lands while taking probably a HRE or sicilian settlement and turn it into a castle and act defensive on the western front. All in all im just turtling until i can muster up some gun troops.

[Copperhaired Berserker!]

Yes! While I was doing my campaign as France, I sent a army with only archers and trebuchets (They was only two trebuchets.) and a giant Milan army tried to attack me. I thought I was done for, until by a stroke of luck, one of the arrows burnt Milan's only king to the ground! Milan was out of the game! Milan was now rebels, And I decided that I wouldn't bother with them. I'm moving into the Papal States (I've destroyed Florence and destroyed their armies, so I don't have a lot to do before Italy is mine! I creating a army full of Dismounted and Mounted Fuedal Knights, and Armoured Sergeants at the west of my empire, which is bordering Spain. I'm going to move my elite army into Spain and capture the cities.

[Somebody Else]

HRE, currently have removed Milan and France. On the Western front England is almost off the mainland, and 'Sealion' is shortly to take place. The Eastern front is more troublesome, with the Poles, Hungarians and Venetians arrayed against me. Not a problem - except that I'm only using militia over there, and the Pope continually threatens to excommunicate me (he is Venetian after all). In the south, bypassing the Papal states, Naples has been taken, and my Prince is regrouping before continuing his assault on the Sicilians. The Danes are allies, for now.

Blitzkrieg tactics seem to work quite well. Several half stack armies of mailed knights sweeping opposition aside, trapping the remnants in settlements whilst the slower infantry move up to conduct the assault.

Not quite sure what the year is, (I have modified the game to progress in 6-month turns). However, the highest tech unit I can currently get are Feudal knights (Teutonic knights are also available).

[Stolpmeister]

Alright. I'm (mostly) focused on my Denmark-campaign right now. I started off dividing my forces into two small armies - one going north, one going south. The plan was to only capture Hamburg, Stockholm and Oslo, but when I noticed both Frankfurt and Stettin were lightly defended and that the Holy Roman Empire were nowhere in sight, I captured those as well. Arhus, Stockholm and Oslo are now towns, giving me a strong economic base, while Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stettin are my triumvirate of castles, churning out brave, axe-wielding maniacs ready to go a-viking.

Hoping to succeed where my viking ancestors had failed, I prepared for a sea-invasion of the Brittish Isles, wiping Scottland and England from the board. I had built a large army of dismounted huscarles, archers and raider cavalry, and a fleet of longboats, and had just set out with Inverness as my target. Then the damn HRE appeared out of nowhere, laying siege to Frankfurt. The vikings, eager for pillage, rape and plunder, must have roared in dissapointment as the longboats turned for a boring defensive war. The returning army struck a harsh blow on the besieging HRE army, killing most of it and crippling the HRE forces for a while.

I was just on my way to resume the sea-voyage, when the pope called a crusade against Jerusalem. Hoping to boost my pitiful standing with the pope, I sent the former invasion-force to the Holy Land instead. I picked up lots of crusader units, and captured not only Jerusalem, but Acre as well, while building up a new force up North and fighting the occasional skirmish against the HRE.

(A word of advice - when you go on a crusade, don't just take Jerusalem and let your armies sit there while you focus on your homefront. Always take Acre as well, to build advanced units and defend against muslim attacks - maybe even take some of those juicy egyptian cities as well... Gaza and Alexandria are both really high-income. Crusader States FTW.)

Recently Poland, allied with the HRE, just attacked Stettin. I saw that coming, and beat them back. Now I'm at war with HRE in the south, Poland in the east, and I just had my first defeat against Egypt in the Holy Land (although at great cost to their army), and I have no real allies. Fun times. I'm STILL hell-bent on having that invasion of England. :)

[Copperhaired Berserker!]

YES! I've got it! While I managed to take most of Italy, and I'm moving through the HRE. I've also managed to wear down the Papal States, and have taken Rome and Florence. I'm also going to wear down Sicily. I've managed to destroy their giant armies with a lot of archers and cav. I managed to kill the pope(), and because I love to sack cities ( ), my own cities are prospering, and most of them have huge stone walls and ballista towers (I like the fact that instead of having it free with the huge stone wall, like RTW, you actually need to pay big bucks for it. Much more realistic.) I have brilliant generals, and I've got a great grip on the seas. And now, my assasins are going to slaughter the pope.

WOOT!

[Lusted]

Update on my Venetian campaign. I have now taken Thessalonica from the Byzantines as the first move in my campaign to secure Constantinople and Greece. The Byzantines are tough as they get some decent horse archers which the ai actually uses well. The Milanese attacked Florence, i let them assault the city and beat them back. Turn later i offered them a ceasfire and they accepted. I have one of my ex-Cardinals as Pope, and i've maintained perfect standing with him for almost all the game, leaving me nearly immune to inqusitors and other catholic factions.

[Quillan]

Which ones, Lusted? Vardariatoi, Byzantine cavalry, or Skythikons? Byzantium has a lot of horse archers, and I love all of them.

My Byzantine campaign has now fought off 3 attacks on Constantinople from the declared jihad. I'd completed the ballista towers in the city shortly before it was declared, and OMFG what an improvement that is! Seriously, they aren't showing as ballista towers on the map. They're shooting cannon balls. I'm not certain if that's a bug or due to a mod, as I'm running 1 year per turn instead of 2. It's 1168 now, so I've done 88 turns so far, which might have moved a normal campaign into the development of gunpowder. Regardless, those towers have killed 3 generals and untold numbers of catapults/trebuchets so far. The initial turkish force lost its general in the sally, retreated, and vanished when it couldn't get a new leader. The second force was Egyptian; it lost both its generals to the towers and many troops to the sally plus reinforcements, and that army routed out of existence after the battle. The third force - also turkish - stalled near Nicaea, and I hit it with an army plus the city garrison from the rear. That killed off all but about 50 men, but the general got away. I hit it again 2 turns later and wiped it out. Now the Moors (who offered me a ceasefire a few turns earlier and I accepted) have a jihad army on the doorstep.

I think if I wipe this one out and there are no more jihad armies, the jihad will end. In the meantime, I beefed up the army I had in Smyrna and have been taking back territory lost to the Turks after Manzikert. I have snatched both Iconium and Caesarea by sneaking a good spy in who opened the gate. The army, which is all cavalry, just runs through and overpowers the 1-2 unit garrison to take the settlement. That even worked on Caesarea, which was a fortress. Next stop is Tarsus, or whatever the city is called in this game. It's also a fortress, and only has a general plus one archer unit garrisoning it.

[Woozie]

I just started a new campaign as Denmark. I am enjoying them more than Egypt so far. Got Scandinavia off the bat of course and the outlining rebel provinces. Made alliances and broke them quickly because Poland was pissing me off so I gave them a good beating. My relationship was good enough with the pope to not get excommunicated. The entire time Milan was going insane and got excommunicated so I requested a crusade on Milan and successfully got it and then took it from them. It's starting to get really interesting and I promise I will finish this campaign.

[Nikodemus]

Well, my second campaign just turned around year 1200 so i might give a recap then:

I chose the English for my second try att the campaign, took York, got a whole lot of mailed knights from my council of nobles and prepared an attack against the welsh too try too see what a unit of many longbows can do too an knight army+ heir...suffice too say the welsh now listen too me, atleast for the moment

My second Council mission consisted of taking Ireland for the english crown, that said, i trained a bunch of spear militia, some longbows and took my king with me but i soon realized that the sea if shock full of all kinds of pirates so it seemed that the royal navy had too be built now instead of...well later

That took its sweet time and under the time of my naval building the danes! (of all people) decided that York would look good with an funny name on it, sadly the army didnt live soon enough too see the city of York get renamed too Yorkhamn, my longbow easily brushed them aside, atleast the few units of infantry they had with em, the cavalry was a whole different story but my rewards for those council missions really was right on time so in around 5 turns the danish invasion of England ended in a (sortof) farce, but atleast they got too see my soon built soccer fields, just really up close

Next of the order of business were the toads, oh sorry, the french. I stole the city of Rennes from them then i had a LONG period of peace and prosperity but then something happened that i didnt really had put into my calculations, the people of the funny hats wanted my son burned att the stake!, swell i thought, they couldnt possibl-...crap, apparently my son had at some point in time loved with his donkey, i know the days in Caen can be lonley but come on!

Just as this little embarrassing episode happened i had planned too attack the city of Paris too try too pry the control of good chocolate frogs from the french but alas...my son was burned so my army had too leave without him, clicked the end turn button and saw a small miracle happen before me, the french attack me!

Yippie, now im not the aggressor so the Man with the biggest funny hat should like me more...wait..he´s french...turd.
Now 20 years after the kingdom of france has lost two city´s and should soon beg for mercy IF the ai has any sense of self-preservence and the evil dude in the funny hat? Too my knowledge he is still working

Thanks for reading

[Maizel]

If about 25 turns into my HRE campaign.

I'm practically surrounded by Enemies. At the moment I'm Fighting Venice, Milan and Sicily, whilst trying to hold off Denmark at Hamburg. I think i'm losing

[Maxfu]

Alright. I'm (mostly) focused on my Denmark-campaign right now. I started off dividing my forces into two small armies - one going north, one going south. The plan was to only capture Hamburg, Stockholm and Oslo, but when I noticed both Frankfurt and Stettin were lightly defended and that the Holy Roman Empire were nowhere in sight, I captured those as well. Arhus, Stockholm and Oslo are now towns, giving me a strong economic base, while Hamburg, Frankfurt and Stettin are my triumvirate of castles, churning out brave, axe-wielding maniacs ready to go a-viking.

Hoping to succeed where my viking ancestors had failed, I prepared for a sea-invasion of the Brittish Isles, wiping Scottland and England from the board. I had built a large army of dismounted huscarles, archers and raider cavalry, and a fleet of longboats, and had just set out with Inverness as my target. Then the damn HRE appeared out of nowhere, laying siege to Frankfurt. The vikings, eager for pillage, rape and plunder, must have roared in dissapointment as the longboats turned for a boring defensive war. The returning army struck a harsh blow on the besieging HRE army, killing most of it and crippling the HRE forces for a while.

I was just on my way to resume the sea-voyage, when the pope called a crusade against Jerusalem. Hoping to boost my pitiful standing with the pope, I sent the former invasion-force to the Holy Land instead. I picked up lots of crusader units, and captured not only Jerusalem, but Acre as well, while building up a new force up North and fighting the occasional skirmish against the HRE.

(A word of advice - when you go on a crusade, don't just take Jerusalem and let your armies sit there while you focus on your homefront. Always take Acre as well, to build advanced units and defend against muslim attacks - maybe even take some of those juicy egyptian cities as well... Gaza and Alexandria are both really high-income. Crusader States FTW.)

Recently Poland, allied with the HRE, just attacked Stettin. I saw that coming, and beat them back. Now I'm at war with HRE in the south, Poland in the east, and I just had my first defeat against Egypt in the Holy Land (although at great cost to their army), and I have no real allies. Fun times. I'm STILL hell-bent on having that invasion of England. :)

Sounds like a great campaign so far. I'm a real fan of those Danes! I'm headed out to get my new graphics card so I can join the fun. Good luck with your invasion of England.

[Doug-Thompson]

Current state of my faction? Sleep-deprived, can't concentrate at work, wife's annoyed but still an angel about it.

I need a vacation to play this game.

[Innocentius]

Could you grant us non-owners of the game with some nice screenies pretty please?

[RabidGibbon]

Playing a Venetian campaign VH/VH,

I quickly took Zagreb, and got into the first of what would be many wars with the Hungarians. The Milanese meanwhile opened a second front. A long defensive war began, with the notable features being, I lose a full stack army attacking Budapest, I lose another full stack army to pirates, trying to ship it across the adriatic to relieve Venice, Venice falls, the Doge being killed in the city square.

After retaking Venice and arranging peace with my assorted foes (ceasefire with Milan, Vassalised by Hungary I sent the new doge off to the Holy Land to take Antioch (Crusade). This worked a treat (My religious fanatics crept over the walls late one night - y'know for the glory of christ), but my "Kingdom of Heaven" suffered a lot of neglect in favour of my homelands, and the populace never liked my rule. After the doge died retaking Antioch during one of its incessant rebellions the bedraggled survivors set off for home, but were cornered and butchered by the Egyptians in the wastes of anatolia.

Meanwhile back around the Adriatic the Sicilians came boiling up out of the Italian peninsula and re-introduced Venice to fire (and the sword). The relief force (going by land this time) was driven off but not destroyed, whilst another defensive war was going on with Hungary. Venice fell to th Sicilians but the doge had a cunning plan. My fleet would sail to Sicily where my 3rd Doge would capture the island (aided by my new bombards!) and then march up the Italian peninsula and retake Venice from the South. Although I captured Sicily the plan was woefully optimistic - the majority of the army had to come racing back when the Muslims stopped Jihad'ing against Constantinople (A hungarian possession by now).

At Ragusa (My main troop producing location) the Hungarians laid siege to my Doge's army and a heroic last stand ensued. At the end of the battle I only had 30 men left standing and my Doge was dead (The 3rd in a row to die in battle) but I still held the fort.

Things are now looking up. In Italy a 10 star 22 year old general (Trianado Dolfin) has just killed his second Sicilian king in his short career and has taken Naples, whilst the Hungarians are too busy being horribly butchered by the Mongols to worry about me any more. All I need to do now is retake Venice....

[Mailman653]

I started my first campaign today with the Papal states. Currently I've established trade with the Holy Roman Empire, Siclly and Milian I think, I'm about to establish trade with Venice as well. I've taken over Florence with my general, Pope something lol....I'll provide a screenie of the pope in armor later.

I'm trying to build up some decent income then focus on building a strong army to take over Sicilly and seize the Italian peninsulla.

[Ciddler]

I started as Spain, all was well, conquered the Portuguese, got the Moors out of the iberian peninsula and then I was attacked by the French. I attacked them back, rightfully defending what was mine and the pope said I shouldn't. I thought it was proposterous that he could attack me but I just sit there and watch the French come time and time again. So I got excommunicated, soon after Milan declared war on me, the Moors tried to come back again, the French are still at large and even England betrayed me. The Pope regularly sends armies and even Hungary has sent a crusade army my way. They will all pay for what they are doing. First I will fight off the crusade, then I will conquer France. I think every christian nation hates me now! I love it.

Me again, I'm almost at the end of my campaign. I will provide screenshots later, I wish they would be saved, rather than having to make one, paste it in photoshop, make a new one. I should use fraps...

Anyway, the Moors are still at war with me but after I invaded their capital in Africa they haven't attacked me, they only block a harbour once in a while. I fought back the crusade on Toulouse which even the Danes joined! I managed to sign a peace treaty with the Danes, Hungary and even Milan after the crusade. England is going to pay dearly for their betrayal!

After conquering Rennes I will throw England back onto their Island. I'm pretty sure I won't win this campaign, I'm on turn 182 or so and I only have ~15 Provinces but that doesn't matter, I'm having fun! :D

I just wish the Pope would die so I am no longer excommunicated. It would really help my cities, the people are going crazy because I of it and I potential money is being wasted! :/

[anders]

turn 28 with HRE.

the pope hates my guts, and crusades are being called against me.

Milan crushed, venetians on their heels( though they managed to take Venice back in a surprise assault) french in tatters, hungarians decimated. war of attrition in scandinavia with the danes. sicilians are coming on strong, and a mighty poland is probably just waiting to jump me.

economy is a complete shambles due to having five different field armies on four different fronts, I have to sack cities to keep up.

Have naval control between italy and the balkans. apart from that, I dont feel in control of anything.

[Somebody Else]

Year is now 1113, my Holy Roman Empire owns all of France, England, Germany, Italy (the Pope is now a plaything of mine... no more excommunications for me, methinks).

Factions no longer extant: Milan, France, England, Sicily. And the Papacy has no lands.

Scots are on the run, as are the Poles. The Russians thought it would be a good idea to attack me, and lost a city for their troubles.

VH/M by the way.

[redstar1]

I finished my first campaign last night. Playing as England in the short campaign.

Started off as normal taking the rebel cities in the British isles and down the french coast. Initial attempts at taking Scotland were foiled by the pope. I didn't fancy my chances at repelling a large continental force as most of my armies were tied up subduing the rebels at home. Once the Scots were the only region in the BI left untouched I waited for them to move the bulk of their armies out into the open and I struck! Edinburgh taken and the scots wiped out before the Pope could notice....

Sent a crusader army across land to Jerusalem but it got blocked going through the HRE and all the units deserted.

With the homeland firmly under control and slowly developing its infrastructure I turned my sights to the French. I picked up the rest of the rebel towns around the french and certainly didn't discourage the milanese from attacking them. However, the Milanese used their french conquests as a springboard to attack me. A few bloody battles ensued, ending with my capture of Metz. Their armies battered and broken, the Milanese gladly handed over Toulouse in exchange for a ceasefire. That was the last I heard from them.

At this point I was working with minimal defensive armies as the french didn't seem to bothered about attacking me, and I had 3 full stacks in the field. 1 stack with infantry and seige weapons for taking cities, a more balanced army for fighting in the open and my third army which was intended as a Middle Eastern expeditionary force. While I was loading it onto my navy for transport to the med, the pope called a crusade against hungarian controlled Riga. I set sail with my third army immediately but was beaten to it by the Poles.

With the Mongols ravaging the middle east I decided to finish France and finish the game. 3 Full stack armies made short work of the remaining 3 french provinces and there the game ended.

[Quillan]

Constantinople, 1171 anno Domini. The Autokrator Isaac Komnenos has sent word that the Turkish fortress of Adana has fallen to our forces. If the scribes are correct, this occurred on the 100th anniversary of the battle of Manzikert. In the northwest, Budapest has been taken, and the kingdom of Hungary wiped out. War continues with the Venetians, though things are static at the moment. The Moorish jihad was eliminated on the walls of the city a short time ago, and no reports from spies and sentries throughout the empire have reported any sign of new Islamic forces responding to the call, but those Muslims within our lands have not reported a rescinding of the jihad. Advance scouts from the Autokrator's army report that the city of Antioch, taken by the Poles in the first crusade, has just fallen to the Fatimid dynasty of Egypt. A few more Turkish forces in the Adana/Antioch/Aleppo region have been destroyed, and the Autokrator is now considering either moving on Trebizone, or sweeping into the Turkish heartlands. If the defenses there are as bare as those in Caesarea and Adana, then the way to Aleppo and Mosul lies open.

[Ciddler]

Me again, I'm almost at the end of my campaign. I will provide screenshots later, I wish they would be saved, rather than having to make one, paste it in photoshop, make a new one. I should use fraps...

Anyway, the Moors are still at war with me but after I invaded their capital in Africa they haven't attacked me, they only block a harbour once in a while. I fought back the crusade on Toulouse which even the Danes joined! I managed to sign a peace treaty with the Danes, Hungary and even Milan after the crusade. England is going to pay dearly for their betrayal!

After conquering Rennes I will throw England back onto their Island. I'm pretty sure I won't win this campaign, I'm on turn 182 or so and I only have ~15 Provinces but that doesn't matter, I'm having fun! :D

I just wish the Pope would die so I am no longer excommunicated. It would really help my cities, the people are going crazy because I of it and I potential money is being wasted! :/

https://img176.imageshack.us/img176/...6184007et6.jpg

This is my nation at the moment, I enlargened the map so you can see where I am. I didn't uncover the fog of war. I am struggling thanks to the fact that I am excommunicated. The Pope won't accept any of my offers :/

And here some pics of a battle against the papal states:

https://img356.imageshack.us/img356/...6182022oe8.jpg

Guess where he is!

https://img177.imageshack.us/img177/...6182224bl3.jpg

Here the unmounted knights are, later on they will walk past the crossbowmen and crush the papal troops once they leave the woods.

https://img102.imageshack.us/img102/...6182536zu0.jpg

here they are charging towards the papal guards after they left the woods.

https://img422.imageshack.us/img422/...6182558il9.jpg

And these are the knights that were hidden in the forests getting intercepted by the enemy cavalry

https://img144.imageshack.us/img144/...6182703gd7.jpg

The heat of the battle

https://img243.imageshack.us/img243/...6182947ap2.jpg

Aftermath

https://img296.imageshack.us/img296/...875copypz4.jpg

The numbers

Now I am still at war with England, France and the Papal States, but my priority would have to be peace with the Pope so my people can relax and I can make some money. Hope you like the pics :>

[Bob the Insane]

Playing as England...

Started off by taking York and getting a gift of cavalry from the Noble Council...

Planned to take (that settlement west of Caen) and Wales. My plans were seriously set back by the betrayals of a couple of armies... A half stack of spear militia I sent to besiege the rebel town in France rebeled (resulting in this town now have a very substantual defensive force). Then even more worryingly a large large force of mailed knights, merc spearman and merc crossbows was marching north to join a militia army lead by Prince Rufus for the assault on Wales. This army revolted right in the center of the country! Only the intervention of the King and all his sons plus the heroic efforts of a small miltia force saved the day there.

Then as I reorganised for my assault on Wales the Pope annouced a Crusade. My advisors gave dire warnings about not ignoring the Pope so I put off the Welsh campaign and sent King William back to London and embarked Rufus and Henry toward the Holy Land.

My home front actions where based entirely around building up the infrastructure and making money. I sent my diplomat on a grand tour and made nice with France, HRE and the Italian states (during which time he actually survived an encounter with an inquisitor)...

My Crusader army was sent across the channel and then across land to Venice where we hired mercenary boats for a sea journey to the Holy Land.

Back in Caen Robert was ruling and following a request from our Noble Council to capture Antwerp he started building an army. This army of Knights, Militia Spearman and Militia Archers was bolstered with mercenary spearman and dispatched to lay siege. I decided to assasult with nothing but ladders and courage. It did not go well... The ladders went up but the walls were defended with great determination by the Flemish rebels and in the end the morale of the English troops was destroyed with men retreating back down the ladders as soon as they where sent up... (nice feature that, no more fighting to the death on city walls, the routing unit will flee the walls in the appropriate direction...)

The Noble Council was not pleased...

The King William died and Rufus was named King of the English while still on route to the Holy Land.

Rufus and his brother landed to find the area around Jerusalem poorly defended and it took little time to see off the defenders and take the city. Obviously the Egyptians are not best pleased...

As things stand now, Robert has rebuit his army and is eyeing up the surrounding rebel settlement for a likely (and achievable) target. The adminstration of London has fallen upon a lifelong friend of Prince Henry who has inturn been adopted in the ruling family. And Jerusalem is underseige by a rather large and annoyed looking Egyptian army!

[Goatbuster3000]

Hey guys, I don't have this game yet, but I'm hoping to get it tomorrow. I've read each of your campaigns and they're giving me all kinds of ideas. Keep up these great battles. And to Stolpmeister, good luck with your eventual invasion of Britain!

[Mailman653]

I started my first campaign today with the Papal states. Currently I've established trade with the Holy Roman Empire, Siclly and Milian I think, I'm about to establish trade with Venice as well. I've taken over Florence with my general, Pope something lol....I'll provide a screenie of the pope in armor later.

I'm trying to build up some decent income then focus on building a strong army to take over Sicilly and seize the Italian peninsulla.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b...0-18-22-00.jpg
My faction leader, Pope....some guy (I've gone through at least 5 popes already)

An update to my campaign, I don't remember what year I am in but gun powder is relatively new. I control Corsica, Sardina, and most of Italy except for Naples and some other town near Florence. My greatest threat is from Millian, they are very untrustworthy and declare war on me every so offten curtailing my ambitions.

Some advantages of being the Papal States:

1)Whenever the pope dies, I just elect a new one from the cardinals.
2)Inqusition......need I say more?
3)Declare crusades on a whim
4)Extra leverage in diplomacy using the reconciliation option

Disavantages:

1)Serious lack of faction leaders, I have at least 2 or 3 left alive and ageing quick with no replacements in sight.
2)The Council still retains some power, when a crusade is made, where etc.