Welcome to the Org, Marcus_Gerald

It's a few years now since my very first MTW campaign, but I still recall it well; I played the Almohads on "easy" and was into every tiny little detail of micromanagement. It took me three months to finish the campaign, and it included quite a few evenings when I had battles lasting over four hours - humungous ones with ten or more stacks on either side. Mostly against the Spanish and their pesky hordes of Jinettes. Nowadays I complete campaigns a little quicker, mostly due to not allowing such super-power enemies to arise on the map, and probably being less assiduous in dealing with every single little detail, every "corrupt" governor, every broken unit etc etc. But it is still absorbing.

I can also heartily commend Froggie's guide