I've been playing this mod for a couple years now, and every so often in intense bursts. I've tried out virtually every position (except Teutonic Order which I'll probably play out later), and it has so much variety and richness. One thing I am slightly bummed about is the lack of a religious tech tree, similar to Rhye's of Civilization... but that's just a minor gripe considering all else. I'm very pleased with the level of quality put into this, and even the differences between civilizations (some civilizations get unique buildings/small wonders/wonders/attributes on top of unique units) are very unique compared to every other scenario I've played.
Whenever I play the standard version of this, I try to grab a gold resource as fast as possible.
I usually colonize Sardinia with two settlers, one on top and one on bottom, to secure the gold. I really like the benefits gold gives me, and I view it as next-in-importance to the Holy Land resource. I've had a game where I'm Sweden and I launched a massive invasion force of the Holy Land simply to control that resource. I really wanted Crusader units (infantry and cavalry).
Right now I'm playing out a game as the Holy Roman Empire in the 13th century conquest scenario. I've played out Serbia, Papal States, other minor positions and succeeded, so I wanted a bigger nation which would thus be relatively more difficult due to the fact Germany is in central Europe... and due to the fact nations declare war fairly often, I've got hordes of AI armies roaming through Germany to get to the other side. So far, I've discovered Holy Roman Empire on that scenario will make you nervous as hell. The fact you can't just finish off people across one border, and rush troops to the other border, secure on most sides, makes it a rough game. You've got tons of AI troops constantly passing through/above/below the Alps to get to other AI nations on the other side, and it's very difficult to actually secure your borders.
I've managed to survive though... and it's been a complete blast. After a period of garrisoning my cities, constructing improvements (especially mills/guild halls for the added industry), I went after Burgundy. It wasn't easy and it actually took me perhaps 6-8 turns due to the fact that there isn't much of an advantage for offense in this map (which works out well). I was only building Imperial Knights, so I kept rallying them to Ghent which was within striking range of three northeastern French cities, including their capital of Paris. After a while of getting more troops, and waiting as the French and Castillians fought it out (weakening the French reserves), I set out to conquer France... which probably took me 15 turns. I had my cities set to Imperial Knights, but it's difficult to just mass and mass, which adds to the fun. When I finally took the last French city, and made peace with them, the French had taken the three northern Castillian cities (Aragon took the central two), and finished off the Castillians near Moorish Spain... so I effectively exiled the French to Spain.
Then I set my sights to Italy, with Venice being reduced to just their Aegean territories, the Pope having conquered Venice and Genoa while the other Venetian territories were split between Hungary and Russia. I noticed the Golden Horde (Tatars) were very powerful at this point, having conquered Georgia and expanded a little into Turkey and half the way into the Ilkhanate's territory, so I signed military alliances with every Eastern European/Middle Eastern nation against the Tatars (except the Byzantines who thought I had nothing useful to offer, and the Marinids/Jerusalem whom I didn't bother to ask). I did this not only to help knock out a growing threat in the east, but also to divert the attention of every Eastern European nation further east, so I could freely gobble up nations throughout Western Europe.
It's worked perfectly.
I took out the Papal States quickly due to my large cavalry force and their weakened state in the many wars they fought. Next was Sicily which fell somewhat quickly (I signed peace and didn't grab their two islands south of Sicily). At the moment I keep signing alliances against Tatarstan whenever the eastern nations call peace with them, I've blocked off the Danish peninsula in preparation for the invasion of Denmark (Denmark is at war with Sweden so I see that it's a good time to secure my northern border before Denmark gets stronger)... and in the near future, I'll want to go after Aragon which has grown in Spain. My long-term goals are to immediately conquer Denmark to secure my northern border, while conquering Spain to secure my entire western lines. This way, I can focus on going east.
Auf Wiedersehen!
Last night when I was going to post this, there was a database error for the forums for the final hours I was awake, so I didn't have the chance to post all of that above. I've made even more progress: conquered mainland Denmark, then swung around to reinforce Toulouse , blockade the border with Spain, and while the Aragonese were attacking the French and English (the English grabbed the lower Portuguese and French Castillian cities), I launched my invasion. I've kicked the Aragonese out of Spain, signed peace, and even conquered the Moorish city of Granada, the last French city. Now it's just myself and the Portuguese, whom I'll conquer soon.
I've managed to create a Pax Germanica without breaking treaties or losing integrity.
It ain't nothing personal... They just happen to have some Iron, Granite and other resources I need if I'm going to have any chance of surviving!
The rest is just done differently because instead of 7 or so religions there's 2 mutually exclusive ones + Judaism, so religious buildings and wonders appear within the normal tree but are restricted by starting techs.
