Quote Originally Posted by Gdek
Thanks to everyone for the replies, they've cleared up a lot of questions that I had.

One final question... Playing as the English, I've just taken Jerusalem, all of Modern France, and everything between Caen and Arhus. I'm planning on taking Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki. Are there enough territories left that I can move my focus from Europe to the Middle East, and still get a long campaign victory?

I'll hold ~23-25 territories, plus maybe 3 rebel islands in the Mediteranean. I'd prefer to only fight non-Christians from this point forward if possible. Thoughts?

Actually it makes it harder to split your empire as said above, but I personally role play so I don't beat up on fellow catholics, but only take provinces from Muslims/rebels/excommed/orthodox factions. If you want to win its easy to blitzkrieg the ai(try sacking and a few sea invasions), so playing a little more authentically as a medieval king IMHO is more interesting.