Thank you Reverend! That was better than chocolate covered strawberries, and they are delicious.

Your updates are the only source of joy and hope in my life.  Aside from other stuff anyway.

Thats great!  I was getting worried that I would be unable to live vicariously through you, and may actually have to go and buy a copy of the game for myself.

I look forward to the time when a drunken farming oaf takes command of Denmark almost as much as I look forward to the next update.

I like spies.

So, here's the current political situation:



Less than ideal.  Most of our immediate neighbors are allied with the Holy Roman Empire, whom we are at war with.  We also share a border with Milan, whom we have poor relations with.

In short, everybody hates us.  In an effort to correct this, I train a few more diplomats.

While I might normally be considering a coastal invasion of the British Isles at this point, I quickly rule that out.  If France ever decides to join the war on the side of the HRE, an alliance with England would come in handy.

I'm also determined to maintain peace with Milan.  They now share a border with us, and currently have the most powerful military in the game.  If they were to invade, we would be truly fucked.



The Council of Nobles wants us to take Nuremburg.  The nobles can fuck right off.



Fuck.



Fortunately, securing an alliance with England is easy.  Excommunicated and universally reviled, they're just as desperate for friends as we are.



Poland declares war on us by blockading the port of our capitol, Arhus.  Reverend neglected to maintain a local navy during his reign, so I have my coastal cities build warships.

The nearby Polish castle of Magdeburg is ripe for the taking: fully developed, poorly defended, and located in an ideal position.



Instead of waiting a turn to construct some siege equipment, I elect to attack immediately.  I normally wouldn't do this, but I don't want to risk being further delayed by a Papal 'cease & desist.'



I deploy my troops in a column to charge the gate, where a spy is waiting to let them in.





The Poles have some pretty neat shields.



Here is the mainland empire now:



At this point, I'm content to sit tight and develop what we've got.  If I do choose to expand later, it will probably be along the coast rather than further inland.



So, the Egyptian-controlled city of Antioch was hit by the plague, and my best spy caught it.  This is actually not bad news.

I put newly-diseased Gustav on the next boat to the Germany.  Incidentally, the king is no longer known as Charles the Honourable.





Not too shabby.




Science marches on!



The Pope has died, and a new one is elected.  The new Pope pardons England and excommunicates Portugal.



Relations with Milan have improved significantly, mostly because I've been giving them a few hundred florins every turn since I took over.  Yes, it's occurred to me that giving the most powerful faction in the game lots of money might have negative long-term consequences.  In my defense, however, it's definitely not gonna be my problem.



The plague has run its course in Antioch, so I request a Crusade.  I want Prince Ulfhedin to do a little crusading before I send him home.



Meanwhile, I capture Oslo and convert it into a city.  Poland lays siege to Frankfurt but then calls it off for some reason.

In other news, Gustav the spy recovers.  From the plague.  This, combined with his superhuman espionage skill, leads me to suspect that he is a witch.  At any rate, my dreams of biological warfare have been crushed.



Our only Cardinal dies.



oh shit



OH SHIT

Baghdad is not far from our territory in the Middle East.  This could be a problem.

I never really got into the first MTW, but this is really making me want to play MTW2. My only concern is the reports of crappy AI. How bad is it really?

When I'm finished my turn in this game, I'll probably start another one with an AI mod.  I'll let you know how that is, Dark.

That'd be great, thanks.

Thanks to Dev too, I think I'll give it a go. I'm sure the basic AI can keep me entertained while I learn the game at least.

I'm speaking in terms of experience from Rome here, but lots of foot archers in loose formation and spearmen, along with some capable heavy cavalry ought to do a decent job. Those Norse Archers you mentioned sound ideal as they should be able to shoot down the horse archers and then engage if needs be when there's a cavalry charge.