My campaign as Venice is going pretty swell now.

I am playing H/VH grand campaign, which seems to be the best settings for my style. I really have to work on diplomacy to keep a few allies/neutrals so that I have only 1-2 fronts. I just tackled HRE in the south europe provinces and now I am getting ready to take Constantinopole as it is my grand campaign specific goal. I currently control 21 provinces and my economy gives me about 20 000florins per turn excess funds. I have about 4 good professional armies (=one and half stacks full of experienced knights, PXB's and Pikemen) plus some nice garrison troops and a few places hold some cavalry to control rebels and surprises by enemy troops.

I really find that even italian militias are not so great as spears in MTW1. Pikemen seem to suit the role of line infantry for me much better.

My timescale is 0.5, and it seems OK. I still would like to play 1 year per turn to get some history progression during the entire campaign. Now it seems I might win before the mongols show up, which is maybe good as I have no idea how to contain them and I have to control Constantinopole to win...

I recommend 0.5 timescale if you do not want to worry about conquering a province every 2 turns. I find that it is nice to play along with the pope's demands and keep peace with some of the catholic nations. I have taken up a principle that I will not get excommunicated or otherwise upset the pope, sort of imitating the sorely missed glorious achievements. I think missions are not a complete replacements for GA's but they help.

My only complaints are that the tech tree seems a bit messy as Men at arms seem to be obsolete once I get to build them. Feudal Knights are better in almost every regard with the same upkeep cost. I guess MP could get use out of MAA as they are relatively cheap to build, but upkeep in the campaign is prohibitive.