I've recently bought this game and have applied the patch 1.2 but after several hours of playing I'm still a but overwhelmed and not sure how to start when playing as England. I want to focus on trade so I can make lots of cash to buy mercanaries and disband them after battles. I used this technique to achieve total domination by 921ad when playing as the Irish in MTW VI.

Can anyone give me any hints on how best to get started. Something that I find confusing is France are happy to form an alliance straight away and this never changes but the first time I suggested an alliance to Scotland they weren't happy about it however when I reloaded and did it again suggesting an alliance made the deal more attractive to them. Why is this?

Many Thanks,

Jamie