How to not get raped in Medieval 2!

[Christo]

France is in a great starting position, you can build up a great defensive ring around your settlements, then decide which way to expand.

I really liked taking ships to the moors, then taking Iberia from behind, connecting it to my mainland first.
Very good hinterland to boost your economy. 

After that my plan was taking Britain (I already had Ireland under my control), but My HDD died on me and I lost that campaign
It was a H/H Stainless Steel one. u_u

[Tibe]

After doing few more tries I think I finally realised what I did wrong. I kept focusing on diplomacy the first games, but that was completely pointless. Played a perfect combo of assassins, spies and thinking fast which ones to turn into castles and which to towns. And I finally got the hang of it. Assassins murdered other assassins and inquisitors. Spies kept away other spies and gave me intel and just gave me keys to towns and castles. And now I seem to do alright.

I lost 1 more campaign. Cause financially I was perfect, I had top gear armies and upgraded towns, but I did not participate in the espionages and assassinations and I had constant issues with the rebeling population due to spies and my generals kept getting murdered. Also grabing as much as u can early in the game was the key of success. Cause once every1 get descent knights the wars will last way more longer and fighting turns into a pain in the ass. Yep, in this game you really need to consentrate on all exept diplomacy, which kinda displeases meh.

[B3RS3RK]

easy way to win M2

Play as Denmark

Win.

Seriously, Denmarks Homelands are sooooo easily defensible, almost unbelievable.If you take the rest of scandinavia(Which you should do anyway), you have pretty much an impenetrable Fortress.Keep one big Army down in Denmark to Fend off possible Invasions of Holy Roman Empire, and one Medium Army up somewhere in Sweden, just in case.Done.

You can then proceed to build ships and possibly take the holy Land in Crusades, to build a new empire down there(With your super-fortress Homeland as backup), or even invade spain.

You are pretty much able to do whatever you like once you conquered Scandinavia and established your first defenses.

[Havoco]

My favorite faction to play was Milan back then. They have a good starting position, good militia units built from cities, and the Genoese crossbowmen of course. Plus they had a good concentration of lucrative cities around them that could make u lots of money when you own all of them. Actually, you're set if you capture all of Italy.

[[ptx]]

Milan militia troops are OP, ez-mode with them.

[Ninja_Khorin]

Yes. My favourite campaigns are playing with Milan or Genoa(in stainless steel) and converting all castles to cities. Not only do you get tons of money, the armies aren't too shabby either. You get good cavalry, cheap spearmen good crossbowmen and in later stages pikes, muskets and cannons.

[B3RS3RK]

The Problem is that even though for militia those units are kinda good, they are still militia.Genoese Crossbowmen are available later on in the campaign, and before any "Professional" army will crush you.

Of course the AI is mostly too stupid to use such an army against you...

The only Problem with playing as an italian faction is that you have tons of possible enemies because you are surrounded on all sides.Sicily, france, germany, hell, even hungary!

They all want your gold

[Teeth]

Just kick the AI's butt in battles. I always have very minimal garrisons everywhere, mostly the free upkeep militia, which combined a with a focus on economy gives me more money than I can ever use. Get watchtowers and move nearby militia to the border towns as soon as you spot an enemy army. As soon as a castle/city is about to get attacked, I step outside with my general and hire all the mercenaries I can find. Important is having a few good assassins. Assassinate the generals of any big stacks that come your way. Then chuckle when their 2000 man armies mass route when they attack your 500 man army. Let your general mess up the routers which gives him 3 gold experience in no time. You'll get a shitload of command rating for these victories and executing your prisoners give them a lot of dread.

With your awesome economy and not much monthly army upkeep you can upgrade your castles in no time and field a supreme army, which combined with an awesome general and good assassins killing all the enemy generals, is completely unstoppable. As France, get a good portion of cav, they can rout units very easily with ye old hammer and anvil. You just need some infantry on guard mode to hold their infantry in place. Then make your cavalry attack different units all at once repeatedly and a mass route will come very quickly. Capturing prisoners upgrades your cav very fast, making your army OP as shit.

This is shit advice and I doubt its even possible to still earn money.

I meant full garrisons, in every city, I know it's very hard to keep it but I just say again: economy, economy and tactical genious.

Oh and get Stainless Steel.

[Tibe]

Yep, bordersecuring is very important and I found playing as England is incredebly easy. Assassinos and spies are very valuable. Getting stainless steel, mybe it will increase the replay value

[Christo]

It's like a totally different game, you won't care about vanilla after trying it.

[Molly]

I really need to install this again. I loved to barrage villages with thousand fire arrows... 
And yes... there are a bunch of mods which are just great!

Though I have to admit that I cheated at the end after "winning" several times. Getting those cannons on elephants is just pure pwnage 

[Christo]

I really want to do a SS Hungary one once, but the starting position is kinda meh, with superpowers all around you.

Especially the Byzantines to the south, they are irritating.

[Turboflex]

The only Problem with playing as an italian faction is that you have tons of possible enemies because you are surrounded on all sides.Sicily, france, germany, hell, even hungary!

They all want your gold

Venice is easy just put a medium sized army on that bridge outside the city and nobody gets through. 6-8 italian militia + some ranged units behind them and 1-2 mangonels and even a stack of knights is not getting through. Ragusa is a decent strongpoint against Hungary so keep it garisoned. Then you are free to go to town in Italy, vs HRE, or go on a crusade to rich trading areas in North Africa or the levant.

Personally I think my favourite game was as Crusader states in SS 6.4... That was HARD AS FUCK. Basically at war with Egypt, Turks, at beginning a Jihad is always called against you so you have stacks from the other islamic states coming in too. At least Mongols are no longer Islamic but Pagan in 6.4, it was impossible with a dozen mongol jihad stacks coming in, but you gotta deal with Mongols too once you beat Egypt & Turks. Looking forward to 7.0, not sure I can win on the new legendary difficulty mode they are adding tho.

[Tibe]

Any1 know a good way I could lvl up my assassinos? Cause they are daamn important....

[[ptx]]

Kill captains of general-less armies, bandits work as well, sabotage buildings.