lol, that was a nice read :)


[i]warning: long but good read[i]
My campaign is finally going better. My Sicilian faction was mostly poor all the time, could hardly afford anything for decades (mind you I'm playing 2 turns per year). But I was lucky for I made sure I had good Papal Standing and stayed out of the way of most bloody wars, as my diplomacy took care of things. I decided to not spill the blood of my fellow Christians (yet), but the blood of our Islamic foes to the south, west, and east. Unfortunately Egypt hasn't received my whooping yet, but it will soon enough.

Indeed, as you say, the Milanese are treacherous. Although their faction leader would not stab a knife into his own mother's back, he'd directly frontally stab her in the heart. Around 1180 or so they started to attack me by taking Naples - my precious money-making baby. Unfortunately for them I've always been the Pope's favorite and his trusty ally (who's basically bribing him and using him :P). He and his States immediately came into action supporting me in these wartimes by siding with my fleet in a joint effort to take care of theirs.
On the Italian land, my one mighty army had to take on two strong Milanese ones before it could besiege and retake Naples. In a mighty battle between two titans the outnumbered Sicilian army crushed Milan's first troops on the farmlands of South Italy. And what a heroic victory it was!
Not having time to return to Palermo to reinforce the decimated numbers, this now weakened - but still full of morale - army led by two young inexperienced generals marched over the just-crushed corpses on to the second Milanese army awaiting them.
The Sicilians called a Crusade and the Pope agreed. Now this Sicilian army of brave warriors marched on to face the Milanese once again in battle. Again outnumbered they still managed to defeat their foes and have them flee in fear. This army had already become a crusading army, and the Great Cross inspired these troops to fight, even if outnumbered. And fight they did! The Milanese army was totally crushed! Now to go forth to the city of Naples! Now was the time to go on.
Heavily hit these troops still had the will to fight. Less than half an army was left, a once mighty force become poor. But our trusty ally the Papal States came along to join the party! XD As their half army assisted in battle nicely filling it up to a full army at full strength, facing the brutal evil that is called Milan. They crushed their foes and Sicily retook the city of Naples.
Milan didn't give up yet, though. They kept on coming, but they repeatedly were defeated and fled back to their lands.

I simply fought them for another few years/decades and repeatedly called Crusades on them so other Catholics would take care of 'em. And it worked :)

Recently I was attempting to lure out a war between the severely weakened Spain - my bordering ally and Portugal's vassal - and other Catholic factions in Europe. As I still possessed the city of Marseille, previously owned by the Milanese, I attempted to gift this region to Spain to restore some power balance between them and their Portugese master and in Europe. By gifting this region to them I could've simply relied on every nearby faction's greed and fear to start new wars between each other, diverting their possible attention away from me, as I'd remain safe in South Italy, North Africa, and Iberia, where I bordered Spain whose relationship with me would then be very good due to my generous gift. At the same time I would be making sure I didn't have to fight these wars in that detached region myself. Unfortunately, before I could gift it to Spain, the Milanese had already retaken it shortly before they had been beaten to the ground by other Catholic factions.

Now I have taken over most of the islands to my east like Rhodes and Iraklion. And I possess the whole of North Africa. My nobles advised me to take Arguin, and so I did. These Saharan rebels were no match for my militias who turned them into corpses over which they then marched :)

In the meanwhile I kept my friend the Papal States happy by giving him Bologna. With the Pope's aggression they had even taken Marseille! Now they possess 4 regions and their military power grew enormously. I'm starting to think I made a mistake. But it'll be okay as long as I keep them happy.

And keeping them happy I will for I'll be battling Muslim foes from Egypt. After Egypt I might choose to expand further in the east and possibly face the Mongols but I'd prefer to stop after Egypt and establish diplomatic relations with the Mongols and everybody else nearby. I'd rather then put my effort into conquering Spain and its master Portugal.
Hmmmmmm, how will I do that without losing the Pope's favor and keeping my reputation up? I think I'll use my old strategy of sending in spies and assassins to deal with them discretely. Mwuhahahahahaaaa :) lol.