Keke, I can read it since I'm not playing anymore.

the small settlements north of Sicily

You mean on Sardinia and Corsica? the Corsican one is called Ajaccio, the Sardinian one I can't recall. I always try to get those if they're nearby, they are a safe little earner once converted to towns.

Ajacco and Cagliari.

Swampy, you got two good moves available.

1. Grab Florence fast before those Venetians get hold of it! You can have a great position to expand north then. (doesn't mean you should expand north, its just you can have more opportunities if you have Florence)

2. Call crusade on Tunis or Alexandria since you got good relationship with the Pope. Crusade will help your coffers all the while getting you experienced men. If Pope refuses, then ally with him first. Pope is your best buddy, after that, Venice.

[This message has been edited by el_bandito (edited 01-19-2009 @ 01:02 AM).]

Cheers Bandito - I hadn't considered crusading there, could be rather useful. To be honest though, I plan to oppose anyone who allies with the pope since it seems a bit cheeky. Well any human ally of the pope anyway.

Another good move will be to turn Palermo into a city. Sicily is seriously short of cash to produce enough field forces in the beginning, and Palermo can be a very prosperous city. Since the game is auto-resolve, nothing will beat massed Italian Spear Militias in the first 40 turns; you won't need any knights.

When you require a military settlement, grab Ajacco and Cagliari and use them as traning base for eilte troops later on (as I said the spear militias are more than enough early on). I think Cagliari has mines on the island so grab that one before the other.

BTW, do not disband your navy to save cash, you will definitely need them soon. Once you got Tunis as well, call yourself Lord of the Tyrrhenian Sea and block all access way to the East with your fleet. Tax the buggers who wanna go through.

[This message has been edited by el_bandito (edited 01-20-2009 @ 09:11 PM).]

I had a little bit of a test run on Sicily recently, given the number of trade routes I ended up with to and from Palermo the idea seems sound - it is quite a nice advanced castle though I think and the archers are decent. Granted once the cities are up to churning out crossbows that's less important, but I'm a bit uneasy about committing to losing a nice castle too soon.

The bit I'm really interested in is how can I try to encourage the other players to fight each other? I'm hoping to get this thing being quite political, with even trade routes being argued over. I was thinking of supporting everyone against the AI France and then hoping that they just carry on fighting afterwards...

MTW sounds much more advances than RTW. Can someone explain the mechanics of turning things into cities, taxing trade and so on?

The bit I'm really interested in is how can I try to encourage the other players to fight each other? I'm hoping to get this thing being quite political, with even trade routes being argued over. I was thinking of supporting everyone against the AI France and then hoping that they just carry on fighting afterwards...

Well, infighting can be easily incited, provided you know which buttons to push. Everyone is itching to fight each other anyway. Give me you e-mail address and I will help you in that regards--for the infos are too sensitive to post here.

What benefit will you get from everyone attacking France anyway? Have you thought it through? The demerits can be quite big as well depending on the situation.


Octavium, there is a newbie FAQ thread in the M2: TW discussions forum. Please check there for your answers.

Have done, cheers.

Swamp RAt so you don't have problems with money,without war ?

I have no interest in France, so long as people don't get as far as bordering me (then I might start wondering if I should have helped France out, but then there's nothing wrong with switching sides for profit...)

Majo, no I tend to be fine for cash generally - but then I imagine I'll have to play faster than my usual slow growth so we'll see.

Turn 1



I've gone with option of converting my nice castle at Palermo into a city - hopefully the higher income will make up for not having an advanced castle for a while. Hopefully I won't regret the lack of decent ranged units either, mercs may be quite useful.

Matilda has gone North looking for allies and a nice warm bed (she gets tired easily). Since I sent her the long way, I'm recruiting a diplomat to go via the pope and get as many trade routes as possible.


I'm hoping that we can also pare up the heir to the Sicilian err, godfatherdom, with a nice lass from one of the other players. The best offer of a princess will get a decent alliance if they want it.


I've sent an army off to Tunis, I forgot to ask the pope nicely for a crusade.

Are you planning on infuriating EoJ by whisking away Puccio Rossi when he comes of age?

Good Job with Palermo. Ranged units won't matter as much in auto-resolve anyway. With Palermo converted to town, and Tunis and Cagliari secured, you will have you own little trade zone which will help you even if you go to war with the neighbors.

Next move I recommend is to ally Venice and exchange map infos. Afterwards, you can get Cagliari and Ajacco. Ajacco might be taken by the Milanese by the time you reach it but you must take Cagliari because it has mines.
Of course, I don't think anyone will contest you for Tripoli but the Balkan settlements are another story all together.

[This message has been edited by el_bandito (edited 01-31-2009 @ 11:53 PM).]

Turn 2:

Nothing worthy of a picture :0(

Tunis is under seige, it should fall next go. Kindly, the coucil of nobles has launched a mission to capture it - some extra units will be handy to take the couple of islands.

Venice appears to be about to take Florence - I'll have to have words with Hoppylyte to make sure he will be focusing entirely to the East - if not then things will not be well between us.

I hope for trade rights with all neighbours, I'll have to do some negotiating with the other players to secure beneficial marriages for all family members. Bandito, just to be controversial, I have no intention of going for Rosi, good racing chap though he is.

've sent an army off to Tunis, I forgot to ask the pope nicely for a crusade.

I've found he generally won't grant it anyway, unless you rush off and get an alliance etc. But the Council mission is good, I always like it when they ask me to take a place I'm already enroute to.

Crusading for Tunis is very easy. Just gift the Pope map infos, and 1000 florins and you can have a Crusade on that turn. Milan can easily do that since they are very close to Rome. Maybe Cagliari will be a Crusading target after you take Tunis so look for that.

Remember Crusades have only benefits and no downsides; if you do not take advantage of it, others will and they will race ahead of you.

BTW Swampy, after taking the islands are you planning on expanding East (Egypt/Holylands) or West (Iberia)? I just wanna say that Marseille is a lightly defended French city that can be yours if you use your spies right.

[This message has been edited by el_bandito (edited 02-03-2009 @ 10:26 PM).]

I plan to spread myself thinly and spread both directions at once... The main thrust will be towards Egypt but I'll also try to get a bit of a buffer between me and EoJ.

Turn 3:

Tunis is taken, my general leaves a skeleton crew in the castle and jumped on a boat north. Landing went slightly awry and so the siege will start next turn. The castle is being fitted out with a church and will then move to becoming a town.



Matilda has offered an alliance to Venice. The Doge offered to sell us Florence, however partly due to not being able to afford his price and partly through not wanting it, I'll decline and suggest he gives it to the pope (which was his alternative).

The Turks responded to my request for peace and trade (which I hadn't mentioned here) with an offer of an alliance.

I said no, which may be considered rude, but I thought I should be upfront about it...

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 02-14-2009 @ 05:00 AM).]

Oh, so that is how you do diplomacy in a hotseat campaign. Clever.

Aye, the diplomacy looks very nice. Also, I lost half my army through desertion on a Crusade even though I was moving full speed, little buggers. So the no downsides isn't really true.

That sounds a little odd - unless you weren't going in the right direction (e.g. to go around a sea or something) or if you had agents in with the army (because they don't get double movement points so slow everyone else down)

Hoppylyte at least says that Venice is going to focus on Easterly expansion. If he does and if he and Gagonite clash (I'd expect that to be at least turn 20, probably more, so not too worth worrying about), it'll be a choice between standing up for an ally and greedily attacking the ally from behind. We'll have to see how nice an ally Venice is to Sicily...

You're an Italian so of course you will greedily attack him, I mean, it's about the profit man! Think of the money in it!
As to the crusade, I had agents, but the entire army was on a boat.

The agents still stop the boat getting double movement points iirc, odd but there we go.

There may be profit in encouraging Venice to fund my defending of its flank :0) we'll have to see how things go

If Crusades are not called yet, then you can call one to Iconium, and distract the Turks while you grab Egypt and the lower part of Holyland. You don't have to join the Crusade if you dislike war with humans but the AI will definitely keep the Turks busy, hahaha.

If the Turks accuse you of calling the Crusade, go communist on them and deny all allegations.

[This message has been edited by el_bandito (edited 02-09-2009 @ 01:21 AM).]

Turn 4

A crusade has been called on Antioch, I imagine by Venice as its the only one who's really in a position to go for it.

Venice has allied with the pope, which I don't like, I've sent a rude message asking him not to keep it up (or to pay me).

I plan to try and stay allied with Venice, but there is an interesting offer from the Turks, shown below.


I now plan to ally with EoJ and help him take France. Hopefully between having two allies one of them will stay trueish (it's not looking like venice will...)

[This message has been edited by SwampRat (edited 02-14-2009 @ 04:53 AM).]

Very interesting note from the Turks. I suggest you to back-stab the Venetians while they are busy with the Byzantines and later, the Turks. Venice and Florence are awesome settlements to have, especially if they are lightly defended. Note, the Pope will most likely excommunicate you unless you take the settlements in one turn. Excommunication might not be bad since a Crusade is already underway. Besides, there is no human player next to you to take advantage of your new found dis-favor.

Venice will then have to make peace or be annihilated by the two of you. Give him some cash to ward off the Turks but keep the two settlements.

Remember, watch out for openings and strike as soon as opportunities present itself. With additional Italian settlements, your cash problems will be over.