My best vanilla campaign yet

[Oxberger]

I am playing as the Hungarians. All of my allies I have had from the start of the game(England of course not as long as the others). I have good/outstanding relationships with all of my allies and seem to be on good terms with most other factions. Once in a while I will give them 1-2k or 5k depending on their situation.

This for me is a drastic change of events compared to my other campaigns. Usually I will be at war with several factions and have no allies and hated globally.

I have found the secret to the good diplomacy that is underneath this game. Do not be the agressor and expand slowly. In the start of the campaign I only took Rebel settlements. Throughout the game I have taken 1 city of the HRE and gave it to the Papal States, and several cities own by Venice and gave them back to the Byzantines(I think only 1 city that I gave them didn't originally belong to them).

Besides being my best campaign so far I have also seen some odd things occur. Take Portugal for example. At one time they controlled the Normandy region and where threatening to take over England. Somehwere inbetween that they got demolished and the French have made a comback from near extinction.

Spain has also attempted to invade England only to have failed(so I think because I cannot find that large army out in England).

Also I have never seen Scotland dominate England in my games. Usually they do not expand much and get taken out by England.

One of the bigger surprises was when Egypt declared war on the Turks! I couldn't believe it when it happend. Egypt is going to be a faction that I am going to have troubles with later on in the game..I can tell

Sicily was my ally until they decided to take Rome from the Papal States. I called a crusade against them at Naples which will hopefully draw more hate towards them and allow the Papal States to regain Rome.

I make about 1-2k a turn and have only 1 large army acting as my main fighting force. Right now I am planning on taking some islands away from Venice since they are the only faction that hates me.

[J.B.]

It's great to hear that someone is enjoying the Vanilla game instead of bashing it

It sounds to me like you have taken the chivalrous way of playing the game a game style I myself also pratice alot. And yes, with the style you get alot more diplomatic opportunites and you get a better depth

But if I may, I would like to suggest "Lands To Conquer" which to me feels like it enhances the game if you take the peacefull way

[Mythre]

Also I have never seen Scotland dominate England in my games. Usually they do not expand much and get taken out by England.

I saw England get nearly destroyed by the Scottish one time... was really weird. They took Nottingham, York Caernavon (or however you spell it) Dublin and England only had Caen and London left..

Your style is close to mine... i am not really aggressive and i respect all my alliances to the end! Or at least until they betray me.... then i crush them..
I also try to take rebel cities at start and alliance with as many factions as possible. Except the ones i know i'll need to attack to expand more.

[Paul d]

i run around being a jackass and demanding tribute until the pope gets mad, then i send an invasion to rome!!!