Current status of your campaign?

[Hoplite7]

I looked for a thread similar to this one, but couldn't find anything recent. So I guess I'll just make this one...

If you have a current campaign, give a brief summary of what is going on. Provide the name of mod or pictures if you have them. Also provide faction name and turn #

In my current campaign, I am playing as Byzantines, turn 136. I have all of Italy and surrounding islands, all of Hungary, parts of Poland, all of Turkey, all of Holy Land and surrounding areas, and most of North Africa. There are three major powers in Northern/Western Europe: Spain, Milan, and Scotland (Yes, Scotland). I was doing good against Milan, but the black death hit, and started killing thousands of my people. Now I make -8000 in revenue instead of +3000...

The Mongols are beating up Russia, but have the priority of "peace"...

[Rhyfelwyr]

Sounds very similar to my current campaign. Playing as Byzantines, turn 120-something, Black Death hit one turn ago, its only affecting my in Caffa so far. I control all of Turkey, Arabia, Egypt, and north to Tblisi and Caffa. In the Balkans I own all of Greece, the furthest north terriritory I have there being Sofia, while the Venetians are hanging on in Zagreb. Meanwhile in the west I contol all of Italy, Tunisia, and Tripoli, except the island of Cagliari. There's some action in that area at the moment, I'm besieging Marseille, while my Fortress at Palermo is being besieged by the Portuguese.

In terms of other factions Egypt and Sicily were both destroyed by me. The Turks are limited to Sarkel, and Venice are also doing badly, now owning only Zagreb. Milan is a superpower (without the city of Milan though), and controls all of France (except Rennes, north-west), and the western half of Germany. Milan defeated France a while ago. Spain owns all of Iberia, except Portugal, as-well as Marrakesh. Portugal has a strange empire, owning Lisbon, Rennes, Cagliari, Algiers, and is currently besieging me at Palermo. Other factions are doing as expected, with Poland doing notably well and making progress into western Russia. I fought a long, tough war of attrition against the Mongols and managed to destroy them before they held a settlement for more than one turn, thanks to many slaughters at bridges and river crossings.

Right now I'm sitting out the Black Death, preparing an attack on Venice, and building several full stacks of Kataphractoi, Varangians, Guard Archers, and Vardariotoi to tackle the Timurids, with a few Bombards for the Elephants.

Playing vanilla 1.2 BTW...

[CountMRVHS]

OK, I'll bite.

In between trying to fix my DarkAge Britain mod for MTW:VI, I've been having quite a good time playing VH/VH as the Scots in Kingdoms: Britannia campaign.

One of the rules I've imposed on myself is to try to limit my army to a single stack, or 20 units. The rest of my military consists of garrisons: a castle can have a garrison of 5 units plus any number of family members, and a city is limited to the number of free militia units it can support plus any number of family members. This makes a loss in the field with my army a bit harder to come back from, and means I have to choose where to fight -- maybe a bit more realistic.

Currently it's around turn 70. I'm *finally* finishing off the Norwegians, who cheat like crazy on VH, sprouting stacks of Gotland Footmen and Feudal Knights out of nowhere.

Had some surprises in the campaign. When Wallace appeared, he did a bit of fighting Norway and then I sent him to take Arran as part of a nobles' guild mission. The town was lightly defended, so Wallace had a fairly small army -- but then the Norwegians landed a stack of troops on the island and attacked. Wallace had nowhere to run, and was killed before he even got to fight any English.

Most of the fighting was focused in northern Scotland, around Inverlochly, Inverness, and Wick. Norway and I traded Inverness for awhile, but after I lost it the last time I headed north and took Wick, then eventually was able to return and take Inverness, their last settlement on the mainland of Britain. They had just landed a large menacing stack of Gotland footmen, Huscarles, etc., under a 7-star Prince, but after I retook Inverness their army boarded a transport -- and was promptly sunk in the Moray Firth by my Gun Holks. No more Norwegians on the mainland anymore!

I just took the Orkneys and own all the western isles except the big one in the NW (it's called Domon in VI), but that's under siege. After that, Norway will be down to the isle of Man.

Elsewhere, Ireland has taken control of their island and seem to have tons of armies roaming around there. I plan to take 5 Irish provinces as part of my 25 province victory, so it should be interesting to fight a strong Ireland.

The Baron's Alliance, predictably, appeared in northern England and now hold 3 provinces -- Carlisle and the provinces to the north and west of York. I just installed a new head of that faction by assassinating the faction leader as part of a mission.

Wales came out swinging but seems to have stalled. As far as I can tell they own all of Wales plus a couple towns to the east of the Severn, and York, which is strongly garrisoned.

England is still kicking, but not doing much. I'm hoping that things will become more interesting after I finish off the Norwegians. Of course, the thing I'd *really* like to see is an English invasion of Scotland, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. Looks like with the Britannia campaign, CA really wanted the player to be the English, as there are lots of fun obstacles for the English to overcome. Unfortunately, it makes things a bit too easy IMO for the Welsh, Scots and Irish.

I started off with intentions of being chivalrous, but since Norway kept throwing stack after stack at me I've turned to executing prisoners most of the time and training up assassins. I still have my original king, Alexander; when he dies I'll probably go with a chivalrous king.

Guess that's all for now. Maybe I'll revive my photobucket account and see if I can get some screenshots.

CountMRVHS

[Hoplite7]

Caledonian:

Good to see another Byzantine fan... I let the Mongols live and settle in Russia, BIG MISTAKE! The Timurids arrived, and when I payed them 40,000 for an alliance (yes, 40,000) they betrayed me the next turn (yes, the very next turn!)

So I have to fight both Mongols and Timurids. I was extremely annoyed that Timurids betrayed me, because I had disbanded my army in Turkey to raise another in Italy. So immediately I raised several stacks of soldiers (a very nice mercenary pool in Turkey).

If you haven't fought Timurids before (many abandon campaigns beforehand), make sure you get merc elephants in Baghdad. They are identical to Timurid ones. My first battle was against a non-elephant Timurid army, they were mostly HA. My elephants and heavy calvary charge instantly routed the entire army (VH/M). Only lost 120, they lost 1200! Pope also called crusade on Mongols in Russia...

In other news I captured Rome, which I had neglected to capture for some strange reason, and got the victory screen. But I'm continuing until I conquer both the old and new world.

Count:

Good to see you are limiting your armies for extra difficulty. I haven't gotten Kingdoms yet, but the Britannica and Crusade campaigns are tempting me into buying it. :)

Funny to see Ireland being a powerhouse though... when I get Kingdoms I hope to play them if they are a playable faction.

[Galain_Ironhide]

Currently 104 turns completed in my LTC modded Turkish Campaign (still 196 turns to go). The Turkish empire (26 provinces)currently stretches west to Sofia and Bucharest, North to Sarkel and Caffa, South to Alexandria and Gaza, and West to Baghdad. Blitzed early on and now have Turtled, because I am really enjoying this campaign, (probably the best GC I have ever played).

The main alliances up until some recent movement were like this:

Turks (me), Moors & Venetians
Hungary, the Byzantines & Egyptians
Milan, HRE, Poland, Papal States
Spain & Portugal
England & Denmark

The Turks have just liberated Baghdad from the rebels who occupied the province, after the 2nd wave of the Mongol invasion. The Mongols swept through and exterminated most of the once proud Turkish city and decimated much of its populace and its buildings (thanks to rocket launchers and Trebuchets), but not with out a fight. This Battle cost the mongols a 10 star General.

After the loss of many great Turkish soldiers and 3 of the Empires finest Generals the 2nd wave has finally been bought to a stand still. The last stack being anihillated in the deserts of Edessa in around the year 1237 by the Sultan himself.

The Byzantines have been destroyed, after the Turks invaded their last island province of Iraklion. Once the siege was over, the mighty Sultan, Suleyman “the killer”, handed Iraklion over to his allies, the Venetians, who, along with the Turks have been bitter rivals with the Byzantines, the Hungarians and Egyptians. The Hungarians had almost toppled the Venetian Christian turncoat regime, but with the added strength of Iraklion, Venice now has two provinces once again to its name. Now, the Hungarians are finding out what it is like to be exterminated, as the infidels are being pushed back to their original homelands.

In what was a surprising yet cowardly act, the Hungarians have pleaded for peace, for which at the moment, we have agreed to, so we may rebuild our grand Eastern Army which has been largely decimated by the vile Mongolians. Whispers in the wind, from further east, indicate that more are on the way! Rebuilding the forces with better troops which have just become more freely available will ensure that another mistake like the loss of Baghdad (and earlier, Mosul - 1st Mongolian Wave) will never happen again. We will HOLD!

The Egyptians are currently sitting at an uneasy peace with the Turks, but there has been word from the Holy court in Iconium that invasion of Cairo is imminent within the next 3 years!

Lastly in other news, the Moors have the Spanish and Portuguese on the run becoming the major power in Africa and Spain. Meanwhile Milan & Poland are major power in central Europe. Let’s see if those dogs are prepared to venture east and take on the power of the might Turkish empire!

Over all I am doing very well, like I mentioned, I have deliberately slowed down in my conquest, just to get more enjoyment out of the game (I mean c’mon its 300 turns to complete and I could have easily have done it under 100). I have just got the handle on my Horse Archers (Sipahis, etc) thanks to Doug-Thompsons excellent thread about how to use them. Highly recommended if anyone wants to learn.



Year 1192 - First Mongol Wave arrives.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I have a very interesting English campaign going which is currently in turn 174. I control Scandinavia, have a defensive line of cities and castles from Stettin to the Adria (*cough* *Churchill* that is when I capture Venice) and I just captured Tunis.

The interesting part are Hungary and France. Hungary has restored the late Eastern Roman Empire to its almost full glory and are in control of the Balkan and western Anatolia up to Iconium and Adana. Their capital is Constantinople (the AI does change its capital).

France has been driven out of Europe and started a new life as the Principality of Antioch. The French are in control of Antioch (capital), Aleppo, Damascus, Acre and Jedda. The Mongols have settled in Smolensk after destroying Kiev and have captured Novgorod and everything east of that.

The Turks are confined to eastern Anatolia and control Baghdad, Edessa, Yerevan, Tbilisi and Mosul. Egypt was once in control of st the entire Middle East but have been driven back to their homeland and have only Jerusalem apart from their starting position.

Here is a nice picture of the PoA at a earlier state.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Grog]

Just finishing off my Nordic ex-allies in a despicable manner

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Galain_Ironhide]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Currently 104 turns completed in my LTC modded Turkish Campaign (still 196 turns to go). The Turkish empire (26 provinces)currently stretches west to Sofia and Bucharest, North to Sarkel and Caffa, South to Alexandria and Gaza, and West to Baghdad. Blitzed early on and now have Turtled, because I am really enjoying this campaign, (probably the best GC I have ever played).

The main alliances up until some recent movement were like this:

Turks (me), Moors & Venetians
Hungary, the Byzantines & Egyptians
Milan, HRE, Poland, Papal States
Spain & Portugal
England & Denmark

The Turks have just liberated Baghdad from the rebels who occupied the province, after the 2nd wave of the Mongol invasion. The Mongols swept through and exterminated most of the once proud Turkish city and decimated much of its populace and its buildings (thanks to rocket launchers and Trebuchets), but not with out a fight. This Battle cost the mongols a 10 star General.

After the loss of many great Turkish soldiers and 3 of the Empires finest Generals the 2nd wave has finally been bought to a stand still. The last stack being anihillated in the deserts of Edessa in around the year 1233 by the Sultan himself.

The Byzantines have been destroyed, after the Turks invaded their last island province of Iraklion. Once the siege was over, the mighty Sultan, Suleyman “the killer”, handed Iraklion over to his allies, the Venetians, who, along with the Turks have been bitter rivals with the Byzantines, the Hungarians and Egyptians. The Hungarians had almost toppled the Venetian Christian turncoat regime, but with the added strength of Iraklion, Venice now has two provinces once again to its name. Now, the Hungarians are finding out what it is like to be exterminated, as the infidels are being pushed back to their original homelands.

In what was a surprising yet cowardly act, the Hungarians have pleaded for peace, for which at the moment, we have agreed to, so we may rebuild our grand Eastern Army which has been largely decimated by the vile Mongolians. Whispers in the wind, from further east, indicate that more are on the way! Rebuilding the forces with better troops which have just become more freely available will ensure that another mistake like the loss of Baghdad (and earlier, Mosul - 1st Mongolian Wave) will never happen again. We will HOLD!

The Egyptians are currently sitting at an uneasy peace with the Turks, but there has been word from the Holy court in Iconium that invasion of Cairo is imminent within the next 3 years!

Lastly in other news, the Moors have the Spanish and Portuguese on the run becoming the major power in Africa and Spain. Meanwhile Milan & Poland are major power in central Europe. Let’s see if those dogs are prepared to venture east and take on the power of the might Turkish empire!

Over all I am doing very well, like I mentioned, I have deliberately slowed down in my conquest, just to get more enjoyment out of the game (I mean c’mon its 300 turns to complete and I could have easily have done it under 100). I have just got the handle on my Horse Archers (Sipahis, etc) thanks to Doug-Thompsons excellent thread about how to use them. Highly recommended if anyone wants to learn.

Year 1192 - First Mongol Wave arrives.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

Here are more screenshots - however insignificant they maybe......

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Year 1200 - 1st Mongol Wave attacks a terribly undermanned Mosul. It is a fight to the death for the Turks.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

The Mongol 2nd stack arrives on the scene after a long deadly battle
[IMG][/IMG]

After the Defending captain was killed in action defending the gate, it was the end for the poor Turks. The aftermath, The Mongolians executed most of the cities population.
[IMG][/IMG]

1208 - The last Mongol stack from the 1st wave gets trapped in a fort outside Aleppo. it is a total annihallation of their remaining force.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

1210 - The Polish return a weird counter offer for map information. I originally asked them for a straight swap - map info for map info. This is what they came back with...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

"oh you will trade us what you wanted or we will attack you!!!" hmmm......
[IMG][/IMG]

1216 - 2nd Mongol wave arrives, this time with rocket launchers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

1218 - The seige of Baghdad. Again terribly under manned, the turks fight to the last man.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As you can see, the Mongols obliterated the walls and towers before storming through the rubble, (Talk about shell shock!!). The positive that came from the loss of this battle was that the Mongol Kahn died during the battle.
[IMG][/IMG]

Sultan Suleyman - this image was taken at the year 1224. Suleyman had become the new sultan after the former Sultan and his Heir both died of old age in the year 1216. Only 24 and was the masterpiece behind the destruction of the 2nd Mongol Wave. Developing into a real kick a$$ General. Not so thrilled at some of his vices and virtues though.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

1227 - Invasion of Bucharest goes as planned. An easy steamroll through the Hungarians City.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

1231 - Another Mongol Kahn bites the dust.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

1231 - Liberation of Baghdad. Another easy victory against rebel units.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IMG][/IMG]

1232 - 2nd Wave Mongols last stand in the middle of the desert.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Crushing victory to the turks.
[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]
You will also notice that my Western borders have expanded past Thessalonica, and Corinth. Iraklion was also taken and I handed over to the Venetians as a gift.

This is currently up to where I am at in my GC. Hope you enjoyed my little story. If this thread stays alive I hope to get some shots posted of my Sipahis in action at a later date. May mighty Allah praise you.

[glyphz]

Greetings!

i'm in a Milanese campaign, turn 40ish
*started by purchasing bologna, vienna, and innsbruck from the HRE, and did the same w/ marseilles, toulouse, and bordeaux from france.
*starved out florence, followed by a crusade to tunis led by 4 generals, and took 2 rebel isles while on the way
+took dijon, bern, zaragoza, pamplona (portugal), later zagreb and valencia, but left rennes alone
+develop northern, western borders to produce at least italian sp. mil/ armoured seargents ASAP
*simultaneous amphibious assaults in Sicilian holdings, 3 turns after crusade
*simultaneous assault to Venetian holdings in mainland Europe 3 turns
*plan to wipe out byzantines through simultaneous amphibious assault thru iraklion failed due to a) expansion from sofia to iasi b) declared war on me before i was halfway ready
*later crusade to corduba (just finished)

Borders
W- iberia, except for 2 spanish initial holdings (i'm allied and plan to avoid betrayals);
N- horizontal line spanning bordeaux/dijon/bern/innsbruck/vienna
E- zagreb, ragusa, greece (except durazzo=gift to pope so i can blitz thessal), plus nicaea
S- marrakesh, algiers, tunis, sicily, iraklion and rhodes

Allied to: papal St, spain, france, hre, poland, hungary
Factions
England - normally passive in expansion, same here, and predict they'll be booted out by scotland
France - stuck inland (ang, par, rhe), looks like buying their ports disabled;
spies suggest an attack on caen
HRE - was able to recover after losing vienna and bologna early to me; got 1st port in antwerp and took metz, breslau, and prague (from poles)
Spain - starter cities, may backstab me any turn
Moors - got Timbuktu before i got their last starter cities, imams still alive
Danes - stettin, hamburg, and stockholm, at war w/ poles
Poles - doing well, but at war w/ more than 1 neighbor
Hungary - failed to expand anywhere, recently took bucharest from byz
Byzantines - once 2nd overall, before taking a bite at me, left with sofia, nicosia and iasi, got peace with them after taking constantinople and nicaea; still a big threat
Russia - unhindered expansion, creeping up the standings, racing w/ the poles for kiev
Turks - very successful and took aleppo, edessa, smyrna and tblisi; have merchants as far as krakow
Egypt - shares borders w/ the turks and 3rd overall. barring problems they're my next target through crusades (city army through alex and cairo, castle army through acre before joining up generals before assault)
Sicily, Venice and Portugal ousted

[Hoplite7]

I have just got the handle on my Horse Archers (Sipahis, etc) thanks to Doug-Thompsons excellent thread about how to use them. Highly recommended if anyone wants to learn.

If you develop a fond liking of HA, and the incredible victories they give you, be sure to give Russia a try. 1v1 on Hard, their final HA (yes, horse archers!) actually defeat French lancers in melee


edit: Just saw those screenshots. I personally enjoy losing to the Mongols more than I do winning. Nothing like watching the Varangian Guard fight off the horde to the last man!

(Although I am a little disappointed that so many of you are picking on my two favorite factions! [Byzantines/Hungary])

[Abokasee]

Ok im playinig the Lithunian mod (as the luthiaians) at a timescale of... 0.5 :P no other modifacations (apart from 10,000 florin bonus income for papal states, and a couple of unit additions for kiev to make it more of a challenge should I fight them)

I am currently in a very bloody war thats taking longer than I thought but other wise well

before anyone asks you can get it here

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=242

NOTE it replacces aztec

[PrestigeX]

Currently I am playing a campaign as Byzantium
I am at war with almost everyone, Hungary (who i nearly Crushed), The HRE - which i just want to hold off - i don't want to conquer into Italy too much, tho I destroyed the Venetians. It like year 1196, And i have quite a number of provinces and some good standing armies.
I really like using Byzantium because of their 'Byzantine Calvalry' they do a fine job as horse archers and can melee against archers or ride round and flank the enemy from behind when my Infantry is in combat. I mostly build armies with tons of spear men, a few units of 'byzantine infantry' as a counter-Foot Knight team, and i like to buy the Bulgarian Brigands whenever i can lol.. and around 5-6 units of Byzantine Calvarly.
I think once I start to fight against the Turks )Which is gonna be soon( i will want a mostly Calvalry army to fight in the field and a stack of pure infantry army for Sieges

[Askthepizzaguy]

Current Faction: Holy Roman Empire
Current Campaign: Blitz All Challenge (fastest 106 province win)
Current Difficulty: Very Hard/Very Hard
Version info: 1.02 Vanilla

Current Status: VICTORY!!!

Generals: 49
Cities: 44
Castles: 62
Battles Won: 218
Battles Lost: 34
Provinces Held: 106
Year: 1134

Turn number 28

So much for a 35 turn victory...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

See signature line for details. Will be detailing this victory in a soon-to-be-released AAR thread. Check back for details.

[phonicsmonkey]

Incredible, blitz-tastic action ATPG

you have made me feel sorry for the poor little AI (PLAI)

[Poncho400]

Well, I just gave up on my second Russian campaign. The first time, I was doing really well, but when the Mongols showed up, it went to hell. After defending my lands from the Mongols (no expanding) for a good 40 turns, I decided it was just too boring to play.

So I start up another campaign as Russia again. This time I turtle up, and sent a force down to Timbuktu (thanks whoever said that was a good idea...it cost me a crap load of time and money all for two lame settlements and a bunch of crooked merchants). After 115 turns, and only holding 8 areas, I called it quits. Russia is really only for the great MTW2 players.

I'm now playing as the English on a long campaign. I skipped York and went straight for the Scottish. After a few crazy battles, they are left with one family member left. But alas, I took none of their settlements, and my army is very drained (yet reinforced with mercs). I plan on sending my army in on a ship and surprise attacking their last family member, and thus bring their faction to dust and rebels.

I'm also going to try and get a lot more land diplomatically now. Once I get the trading flowing, I can spend some good coin on settlements.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Well, I just gave up on my second Russian campaign. The first time, I was doing really well, but when the Mongols showed up, it went to hell. After defending my lands from the Mongols (no expanding) for a good 40 turns, I decided it was just too boring to play.

So I start up another campaign as Russia again. This time I turtle up, and sent a force down to Timbuktu (thanks whoever said that was a good idea...it cost me a crap load of time and money all for two lame settlements and a bunch of crooked merchants). After 115 turns, and only holding 8 areas, I called it quits. Russia is really only for the great MTW2 players.

I'm now playing as the English on a long campaign. I skipped York and went straight for the Scottish. After a few crazy battles, they are left with one family member left. But alas, I took none of their settlements, and my army is very drained (yet reinforced with mercs). I plan on sending my army in on a ship and surprise attacking their last family member, and thus bring their faction to dust and rebels.

I'm also going to try and get a lot more land diplomatically now. Once I get the trading flowing, I can spend some good coin on settlements.

Need some hints on how to excell as the Russians? Russia can turtle, of course. But wouldn't you like to have several good starting provinces with Russia? The key is to blitz first, to gain a vast territory to start with, and then you can turtle. just watch out for Poland, and to a lesser extent, Denmark. DONT BOTHER SENDING MERCHANTS TO TIMBUKTU AS RUSSIA unless you have trade rights with the Moors or the controlling faction. To establish a base wayyyy down there is to waste too much time and money (as Russia, that is... others like Italy and France should try to trade with the moors).

For more help, please consult my Russian thread.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=88366

Check down near the middle where there are a bunch of spoiler tags.

You said Russia is only for the really great M2TW players... if you need hints on how to become one, just ask Askthepizzaguy.
If you take any rebel provinces near Poland, they will backstab you, almost guaranteed. If you invade Scandinavia, Denmark will invade you back. Sometimes they backstab you, too... by sea.

Send Merchants towards Kiev, south from there... there are slave resources there. Valuable for the Russians. You can easily gain money and a monopolist trait as they are usually uncontested. Just watch for a merchant that may show up eventually. From there, get trade rights with the Byzantines... trade the Silk in Constantinople. If you're feeling ambitious, trade with Antioch's Sugar or Cotton or the spices in Alexandria. Gold in Zagreb isn't bad either.

As Russia, you need to have several castles clustered together. Use Riga, Helsinki, Vilnius, and the neighboring province to the east as your 4 castle ring. Have all your mounted units recruited and meet in Vilnius. Great way to assemble massive, excellent armies. Use your capital as your infantry recruitment center until you take Poland.

The Mongols can be cast aside with your EVENTUALLY decent infantry, archers, and gunpowder units. Just guard the river crossings until you get pushed back towards Kiev... then go on the offensive with Night Fighter.

Even if you have only basic campaign and battle abilities, you can master Russia. It's different, and it's slower, but it isn't too hard once you have a plan.

-ATPG

[Sir Losealot]

I don't have the game in front of me, but best I can remember - Playing vanilla 1.2 as Byzantines for first time and I'm really enjoying them. Nice horse archers and no Pope. The Mongols have just arrived.
This has been my most enjoyable campaign so far. The Byzantines start with so many options and their great horse archers can devastate opponents in the field. I opted to head west in the early game. Took out Hungary, then Venetians, and half of Milan's cities. Up until this point I had tried to not fight on multiple fronts. Then within a few turns, the HRE declared war, followed by the Pope, then my ally Poland, then the Turks, and finally Egypt. Only lost one city to Milan during the onslaught but managed to push them back out. Been slowly taking cities from each of them since but I'm starting to run a little low on cash.
I currently own northern Italy and about half the HRE castles to the north. I've pushed east into Jeruselem. I'm currently at war with Milan, HRE, Poland, Turks, and Egypt (nobody likes me). Since I just got the Mongol message, I'm going to try to make peace with the Turks and Egypt. I want them strong to help battle the Mongols. I have a feeling things are about to get really interesting on the Eastern front.

[The Wandering Scholar]

Med 2 looks sweet!

[Old Geezer]

I have just won (60 provinces and Jerusalem) in a LTC campaign as France but will continue so as to erradicate the Mongols. It is 1250 and still no plague which has made it easier. Because I have played the game as a chivalrous nation and have eschewed my usual blitz and sack of everyone, it seems almost like a different game entirely. I bought and traded the English off the continent and have been allied with them! I never assassinate other leaders except rebels and Mongols and only occupy other catholic settlements but to sack and exterminate others at times. I never assassinated a Pope but have some priests. I did assassinate one pesky princess because I got so tired of her bowing at one city every turn and was too lazy to surround her and squeeze her out. I was able to eliminate Milan and then HRE when they got excommed and took most of Venice when it got excommed. France has some decent enough units to get by with early on and now that I have Scots Guard and Gendarmes to go with armored crossbowmen and upgraded Hospitalers I can't wait to attack the Mongols who have taken only Kiev but are at least spreading out and not sitting in a 9 patch formation. Unfortunately, it will take 10 turns to get enough good troops over to Kiev to begin the operation if the Mongols don't oblige and come after me in northern Russia. I note that they have build at least 2 forts and have been keeping stacks in them. I've not seen such behavior before. Such targets are hard to resist - shooting ducks in a barrel. Not that I would ever do such a thing unless my children were starving.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

I am currently playing as the Papal states simply for fun. Every one that attacks me is excommunicated and is easy prey. Inquissy guys pop every turn and are very handy to kill rival merchants, annoying princesses and diplomats, and best of all assassins. I am actually doing something good by sending those guys to hell. I have reunited Italy with the exception of Bologna and Venice. Venice have threatened to attack me so they are next. I don't know if I finish this campaign because it is almost like cheating (or maybe not almost). Maybe I restore the Roman Empire just for fun. To win I have to capture or liberate 100 regions.

To play the Papal States simply make the playable in the descr_strat

[Rhyfelwyr]

Turn 102 as the Turks right now. I own all of the Holy land except Jerusalem, I also own Dongola and Jedda, and as far north as Tblisi. I have all of Turkey (obviously) and also Thessalonika, Sofia, Bran, and Budapes, as well as Rhodes to the south, used to keep forgetting about that place. I had been going to play as an evil horde faction and sweep across the world, but though I would be better using the Jihad function and getting high chiv characters to prepare my lands and armies for the Mongol invasion. I'm still fighting the Mongols, they've yet to take anywhere, doing the usuall lurking about just south of Yerevan. I'm currently building stacks of Ottoman Infantry/Sipahis/Qupakulu to tackle them.

And BTW, Qapukulu are everything Kataphracts should have been. Exactly the same (including the AP mace ) but with much better stats. And I can train them with +1exp thanks to a Swordsmith Guilds HQ I captured in Bran.

Right now I'm looking to tackle the Italian factions since Milan just sent about 3 stacks consecutively to besiege Budapest, unluckily for them they were up against a 10 Command 10 Chivalry 9 experience General.

In diplomatic terms, I'm allied only to the Moors and Egypt. I have had in the past Hungary and Egpyt as my vassalls, the first time in TW I have ever had a vassal. The good rep I had back then did it I think. But now my reps down due to executing Mongols, so I'll just backstab the Egyptians and get all their wealthy undefended cities.