How is your campaign going?

[FactionHeir]

I don't usually want to blitz, but the AI forces me by betraying their alliance and by the time I am half-waay done with one faction, the next two start attacking me etc. So I end up having to blitz them all :)

[Ii Naomasa]

Still in the midst of my first campaign: a long, M/H one as France that I figured I'd play to get used to the intricacies of the game and unlock other factions. I haven't had as much time as I'd like to play, so despite the standard turns, I'm still not done.

Looks like I won't 'win' this one. 40-something provinces is a large chunk of the 'known world' and between my more 'realistic' play style (constant expansion isn't a goal) and the fact that at one point just about every Christian nation aside from the Pope and Hungary were fighitng me, I'm just nearing the upper twenties in provinces in 1420 or so.

The worst part right now is that we almost have a Pax Europa going on. After the better part of a century of war with just about everyone v. France, a string of well placed political marriages (all wretched wives) resulted in an unexpected chain reaction where everyone is now neutral or allied with me short Egypt and the Mongols. And aside from Hungary and Byzantium still fighting after centuries and the Venetians and Sicily back at it, just about every Christian faction is at peace with their brethren and I'm loathe to be the one to ignite the powder, so I'm making gains solely in retaking Mongolian-controlled parts of Denmark, Poland, and Russia as well as trying to expand in a very well fortified Egyptian-Mongolian Holy Land (while trying to avoid making the Turks angry... at this point, their navy is what's keeping the Mediterranean open from Egyptian raiders, suprisingly).

In about four turns I can start building carracks from Venice and Genoa and I already have a prepared expeditionary force to see what's on the other side of the Atlantic... might be able to make some last minute acquisitions over there.

It's been an interesting campaign. I don't think there's a single direct blood-line descendant of King Phillip in my 'family tree' anymore and the crown has been passed from one random general to another (the past three kings were barely '-adopted, -in law cousins' of each other) to the point where I'm thinking it's become just a sort of 'commander in chief' military rank rather than an actual mark of royalty.

I'm glad I started with France because this campaign has taught me (early on, harshly) how to use cavalry. I hope CA doesn't dramatically change the way it works in the game right now as I feel the charges are both fun and are realistic in how you have perfect and imperfect charges and the perfect ones are almost akin to nuking the enemy while the imperfect ones are so-so to almost disasterous if the enemy isn't shakey.

[Bijo]

I started a new campaign as Russia and got bored with my other long one with Sicily. I'm playing M/M and 6 months a turn, and also try to take my time. Of course they start attacking me and so it's hard to take your sweet time so 6 months a turn will help with that :) (at least with the length).

Around 1150 or so. Have been conquering most of the surrounding rebel lands, made alliances with Poland, HRE and Byzantium my trusty orthodox ally. But of course Poland attacked me and they kept attacking. At one point I stopped defending, or should I say I kept on defending by attacking which is a good defense to push them back anyway.
The Polish are allied with my other enemies Denmark whom I've been weakening a lot by sea and land. Their military power is still there to some extent, but I suspect their monetary resources are depleted or nearly depleted (I should check the ranking scroll). Also the Polish are allied with Hungary who also declared war on me. It was basically two pacts against each other: me, Byzantines and HRE against Poland, Denmark, Hungary. HRE is dead of course :)

But I've crushed most of the Polish now and my mighty armies have conquered and pillaged their lands, mwuhahahaaaa! :) They only have one small region left which I haven't attacked yet because they have two armies there. I have a couple of okay armies around in castles at the front line to secure against Denmark to the west and Hungary to the south. Can only spare one army to take on two big Polish ones at their last bastion. Actually, I could crush them both with one army, but the thing is that I will have to go through a forest and I hate that :P So we've been spying on each other all the time, sabotaging, and assassinating (or at least died trying, lol). Haven't got a good assassin's training center yet, the Master Assassin's Guild.

Wanted to take Stockholm with a quick naval landing but I just stood back with my army as I first sent in spies and assassins. Stockholm's population revolted. They sent an army to recapture the city from the rebels but little did they know my army awaited theirs to pick them off with a surprise attack! They all fell before me :)
So then I just had to deal with some rebel scum to get the city. Of course the Danish sent another army quickly and besieged me. My army was outnumbered and they had heavy infantry and I didn't. Well, I just used my missiles on them, including horse archers to weaken them as they used their missiles on me in this long skirmish before I charged them with my SPEARS, lol. Only four militia spears against 3 or 4 heavy infantry and spearmen. But of course they were thinned out and I had three generals, couple HAs and Boyar Sons against armor. They had two generals and some more heavy cavalry. And they had artillery and I didn't.
Marched on with my weak spear infantry and charged to hold their heavy infantry AND spearmen as my cavalry charged (and fired) onto their sides then being countered by their cavalry. Even my Kazak horse archers were meleeing as I had no choice but to send in everything :) That's the thing, though: I just used one group of weaker cavalry units to answer to one of their strong cavalry and lock them in and then go to the next threat.
So anyway, close call, or I think it was a heroic victory. Had many men left, about 3/4 or 3/5 and their army was mostly crushed :)
Their spies tried to pull off that same trick I played on THEM: trying to cause unrest and revolt. Of course they were detected and executed. So now I'm planning to lay low with Stockholm, send one strong army to block off the path towards this piece of land, and then take the weakly defended Oslo in the corner.

So I was talking about Central Europe too.
Haven't been attacking either Poland or Hungary on this front, because it's tricky (and Denmark keeps on attack Stockholm, a big money maker). I'd rather wait and build up another army to attack Hungary from the right-below side front. They took Iasi JUST before I did, so I had to take care of that immediately. That's the point from which I will launch my first attack on them with one strong army (typical: lots of heavy infantry, few spears, many archers, heavy cavalry, horse archers, and general(s)), as they will have to divert their attention to it allowing my other more central army to move in to perhaps support the first army('s flank) or to just quickly snatch a settlement in the center.
As this settlement will be captured this second army that captured it would've been supported by the third army above it to secure its flank from the Polish whom I could crush with the fourth army. But there's still the Danish up there and the fourth army has no support, meaning I'd take a big risk if the fourth army moved in leaving the region undefended.
To support this fourth army, a fifth army should be there north of them and the only one (which can be afforded) is the one on the lands of Stockholm which is continuously attacked by these Danish. This COULD mean that if they concentrate their military power on Stockholm they have less military on the other central front, but I don't know.
So what I've been doing is staying tight and bleed away their power by cutting off their ports and attacking their ships, both the Danish and the Hungarians while trying to lure them out on land to have the odds in my favour if a battle'd occur.

Yes, the omens and portents favor me. I will use my armies and my cunning to strike them down with great vengeance and fuuuurious anger, those two attempt to poison and destr-- Eh! :)