New To Medieval Total War

[Sensei Warrior]

1. I received multiple marriage requests - should I accept all of them? Some of them? None of them? If only some, which ones?

The general agreement is to accept all of them. It can get hard to get your heirs married off so the sooner the better, and take what you can get, and all that. Although I personally won't accept a marriage proposal from a faction that I am about to attack as it will cause you to ally with them.

2. I also received numerous treaty requests - how many of these should I accept? Is it bad, in game terms, to accept one and then later attack an ally?

This seems to be a personal perference sort of thing and most players tend to have personal guidelines that affext their decisions. For example, if I'm playing a Catho Faction then I won't ally with a Muslim one. If you do attack an ally I believe your ruler will suffer a drop in influence.

3. I attacked into Aragorn (I believe) and received a warning from the Pope to leave within two years. Should I listen to his warning and get out? What will happen if I stay?

If you don't do something the pope will excommunicate you which is bad. You could either wrap up conquering the provence the very next turn, or retreat from the provence. If you retreat or the faction you attacked has more than one provence you cannot attack that provence for the next 10 years.

I appreciate all the help here - this is quite an in-depth game

No sweat, I like adding my 2 cents. You will be finding out the little quirks in this game for a long, long time.

[Specialist290]

One "cheat" regarding the Papal warning is that if you get one warning, then you won't get one for attacking another faction until the first wears off, so you can attack one as a "distraction," then back off and go for your true target and only worry about whether your army can beat their army. It isn't exactly an "honorable" tactic, but whether you use it or not is entirely up to you. (Personally I have never intentionally done this, though I may have ended up in the situation where I've attacked two factions and only been warned for one before.)

Also, the Pope will only issue the warning if you control significantly more territory than the other faction--I think it's 2x more provinces than your opponent, but don't take my word for it unless someone more experienced can vouch for the figure as well.

All of that, of course, goes out the window if either you or your target is non-Catholic.