Another evening's play has got me to 1141 AD.

I noticed the HRE were a bit worn out, with only Tyrolia and Milan. Tyrolia had a mostly UM garrison, so I lobbed in a prince, a couple of HAs and some infantry and wiped them out -- all but three men! Drat - withdraw and reinvade with just my prince. Couple of years of rebellions, easily sorted whilst the watch towers were built, and loyalty secured. All the while watching my back for the Poles.

Next couple of decades spent cycling troops through to Serbia to get armour added, and watching for higher acumen candidates to reassign titles to. Bavaria went rebel, so I launched an attack, and the French joined in - luckily my allies, and my force was the larger one. Nice bit of cash from the rebel lands. I don't like to extend my borders so much, but the Poles were still playing nicely so far. All building in this period was economic - mines and farms.

Next opportunity came with Venice, as the Venetian king and his sons were sitting there with not a huge army. I launched a massive attack from Croatia, Tyrolia and Austria. They abandonned the province, my cashflow doubled! Next year the Venetians counter attacked with 6x RKs plus assorted infantry in support and I whupped their sorry behinds, taking out all the royals in the process - end of faction. Those Voynuk swordsmen do some serious damage to royal knights if you catch them in the woods , and slav javs and mounted X-bows do the rest.

Now I have much better cashflow, and have finally started the castle in Serbia (actually think I finished it before I fell asleep over my keyboard ) Attacking the Venetians cost me a few allies, namely the Bohemians and Poles amongst close neighbours, and a few further afield that I'm not so worried about. But once the faction was eliminated, those alliances were reforged. The Poles and Byzantines are the only neighbours now who pose any credible threat, so I try to keep in with them! Every time the Byz go to war with an ally of mine, it's the Byz alliance I keep. The Poles have a couple of not-so-loyal princes who give me hopes for a civil war

Current priorities are to get trade from Venice flowing, and tech up militarily in Serbia -- now I have a castle, the next level of buildings are available at last. My governor for Austria has developed into a 9-acumen builder/steward, so I may switch him to Venice (Austria is making about 800 florins/yr now, not bad for a "poor" province ) In the longer term I want to get my hands on Bohemia and Hungary, and probably Switzerland in time to get Swiss halb flowing around 1205!

Currently my aim for a field army is 1 or 2 Caska Garda, 2-3 HA/mounted Xbows, 3-4 spears (preferably armoured spearmen), 2-3 archers, 2-3 slav javs and a couple of voynuk swords, with slav warriors and UM to fill any gaps in the line.

It's not the easiest start, but there are harder factions.