Recent reviews by Vilas

Great game, here are some tips:

- Never trust anybody;
- The only alliance you'll ever need is with the Papal States;
- Make sure you don't get denounced;
- if you need money you should conquer Dongola, Timbuktu, Arguin and Stockholm (and place the merchants on the resources);
- After the year 1500 and the "World is round" event, you can sail to the West and find the Americas (you'll need a Carrack boat and bring a big army);
- Don't capture middle eastern cities like Antioch, Baghdad, Alepo, etc... Before the Mongol and Timurid invasions (Jerusalem and southern cities are fine);
- Everybody will hate you no matter what, unless you give them money and military aid;
- Diplomacy is broken, don't try to understand it;
- DO NOT let the AI make your recruitment decisions;
- DO NOT let the AI make your building decisions;
- DO NOT let the AI make your tax decisions;
- You don't need to have a standing army in every single city, learn where the AI attacks you and just have armies in those cities;
- If possible always have a priest in every city/castle ready to kill the heretics (they cause unhapiness);
- If possible have 4-6+ cavalary units in a castle/city ready to take down rebel armies (if possible bring a general with them)
- If your king has 2 or less Authority, DO NOT leave standing armies outside a city/castle unless they have a general with them (that is loyal) or they will turn rebels;
- When attacking a city/castle with a diferent religion, bring priests with you and/or exterminate the city/castle. Unless you have a huge army, you're going to have problems later.
- Everyone will betray you eventually, execept the Papal States;
- To win their favor with the Pope, recruit priests, build churches and avoid fighting same religion factions;
- Once you have a powerful economy that can pay for any war you want, you don't really need to listen to the Pope anymore, do whatever you like;
- Don't worry in getting one of your Bishops elected as Pope, it doesn't help you that much.

When eventually you get bored with the main game, you still have the 3 DLC or you can instal mods like Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, World of Warcraft, etc...

This game is definitely worth it at full price.

..."you play as Barney Calhoun, the security guard sidekick who helped Gordon out of so many sticky situations." - By staring at Gordon every time he shows up?

10/10 Would help again