I am currently working on a campaign as the Byzantine Empire in which I have gained dominance in Europe but it has come at a price in terms of my international relations and my reputation. When I started as the Byzantine Empire the first thing that I knew was that I was not going to fall victim to my neighbors and that I was going to be proactive in starting conflicts when the time is right for me to do so.

The first thing that I decided was that I was not going to focus on retaking any of Asia Minor from the Turks, and indeed I have simply fortified that border as I intend to let the Turks be there when the Mongols invade, and thus there will be a buffer between them and me. I decided at the beginning that I was going to avoid making the mistake I had made in previous games, and focused straight away on building my navy. I also worked to conquer many areas that were occupied by rebels, including all of greece, the castle south of Nicaea (can't remember its name), Sofia, and Rhodes. I built up my armies after these initial conquests and remembered that the Venetians had been the ones who attacked me earlier, so I endeavoured to make sure that they would not threaten me again by going after them in the beginning. I used my navy to attack their fleets and blockade their ports, thus destroying their trade. I then proceeded to send armies to Creete, Venice, and their other castle and I was able to subjugate them relatively quickly. During this time I also managed to stay in the good graces of the papacy and it was crucial to my early expansion.

With these new domains in Northern Italy I was forced to garrison large stacks there to prevent them from revolting, but I still had trouble with public order at the time, since I basically made no attempt to convert people there to orthodox christianity. Milan was one of my close allies at this time, but then they decided that they were going to attack me and break the alliance, so I retaliated by seizing Genoa and Milan, and at about this time Sicily seized Bologna from the Holy Roman Empire. I sent an army to attack Bern but was foiled in this by the decision of France and the Papal States to declare war on me.

At about this time I decided that Sicily seemed ripe for conquest that would restore the imperial presence in southern Italy, and I started building armies for this invasion in areas throughout the Empire. The plan was pretty straightforward: besiege all three of their cities at the same time and wipe them out in one turn before they had the ability to coordinate any kind of retaliation. Then Sicily did me a huge favor by attacking me, thinking that if they attacked early they would catch me off guard. That's not how it turned out and I managed to have the invasion force relatively quickly in order to win quickly. I attacked with overwhelming force and was able to besiege all three of their settlements and won with ease. I now control all of Italy except for Rome and Florence, which is controlled by Milan, who interestingly enough don't control Milan itself anymore because I control it.

Over the last few turns I have decided to focus on consolidating what I already have. I am not naive about the Turks and know that I have been lucky so far to have relative peace on the eastern front of my empire, and I have been building forces surreptitiously not to attack them (as indeed, I WANT them there to deal with the Mongols before I have to), but to ensure that I have a solid defense. I have also made some major headway in constructing religious buildings and I have built churches and chapels in every city and castle, and I am gradually converting the population to Orthodox Christianity although it is still a minority especially in southern Italy.

Basically, I know that I am going to have to fight the Turks because they are allied with my enemies the French, and I am going to have to fight the Hungarians also and possibly the Holy Roman Empire eventually.

The French have made one miscalculation in surrounding me diplomatically: my skill as a commander and the formidable military resources at my disposal. My reputation right now is dubious, and in a way I sort of enjoy this, the agressive Byzantine Emperor at war with all other nations, distrusted by everyone, and outmaneuvered diplomatically. And yet even as they intrigue against me, my enemies the Turks, the French, and everyone else surely know that I am even now planning the next phase of even greater conquests in the future.

Someday maybe, there will be Byzantine soldiers in North America fighting the Aztecs for the glory of Chruch and Emperor, and helping establish the Byzantine Empire as the first true superpower of the modern era.

I just thought this would be a good story