EW 7: Conquests guide

For the first time, there's two victories to win on each run, one being completing the 2 or 3 objectives they assign you depending on the faction you took, the second being the well-known "fully eliminate your foes". Achieving hegemony (dominate the whole map by yourself and your allies) is only required one time per conquest per number of stars. Objectives are not hard, as stronger factions will have more ambitious objectives while weak factions will can just have as objective to survive x number of rounds, so they're normally balanced and easy. As they don't provide any bonus towards hegemony, I will not be focusing on how to get them, but each hegemony guide will not skip these either (like Ostrogoths needing to take down both Byzantine factions although they start even with passage with you).

Score and grade is only known on achieving hegemony (and so far I've been only getting S, so they're not hard). Don't waste Drums to get a faster hegemony as afaik you'll only get a little less gold. But this is not the important part, objectives win and achievements are, and both do not rely on reaching a good score or grade.

• 1st time you clear a Conquest with a faction having 1, 2 and 3 stars: these include 25/30/35k gold, 50 medals, 10 item blueprints and one mediocre equipment item (with the exception of 1 star in 4th Conquest, which has a decent item)
• 1st time you get hegemony with each faction: you will get 20k (30k in 4th Conquest) gold, 50 medals, 5 or 10 mercenary orders and 10 pieces of a war gear equipment. You will also get some more gold depending on your grade and this can be repeated.
• 1st time you get objective victory with each faction: you will get 25k gold, 50 medals, 5 items, 10 war gears and 1/2/3 compasses

So for being most efficient, the best way to get most rewards in the least amount of runs is doing a single successful hegemony run with 1, 2 and a 3 star faction on each conquest in which you also achieve the faction's objectives.

Conquest here is made way better than in previous games, specially towards the late game, with the option to speed up the ending without having to conquer every single bit of the map mostly on your own. Here there were two key additions:

    -Surrender: allows the player to "conquer" all the remaining lands of a player if such country lost its capital city (marked with a crown) and you can pay an amount of resources (calculated by remaining strength of the player). This can be done if the targeted country is enemy, neutral or even ally.

    -Alliances: you can pretty much ally anyone (with a few exceptions, which I'll mention on each campaign) if your relations are high and you have the resources to pay it. In previous games, Conquests were always 2 hardcoded sides with some neutral countries, here there's no clear sides except for the 4th Conquest.

However, some factions will be joining later on as well, either on x turn or triggered by certain event, and except some rare exceptions (only in 4rth conquest currently), they can't be befriended, which will also make a Conquest that is almost over last a bunch more turns because of these invaders.

You can recruit for free the first hero (with their corresponding attached troops) on any tavern you own, no matter the level of the tavern. You can recruit more heroes, but their price is decided on the quality of the troops the squad has. Prioritize this hero with some healing gear (ideally medical tent, else support wagon), avoid losing any mercenary troop and keep it healthy to maximize their value. This troop will be crucial early on, as it should be way stronger than the rest of the troops. Why?

    -It should be a top tier unit. Those have way higher base stats than all normal troops, unique useful skills (like forests or rivers can be crossed without movement penalty) and will each have always 4 skills.

    -Overleveled: any troop you train (normal or special) will be up to level 3 (same for the rest of countries), depending on the Age it was recruited. If your spawn has lvl 10 Varangian Guards, it will spawn with such, giving an even greater advantage over its foes. This was toned down in v1.7, capping spawned mercenary level to 6. Still higher level than the troops in the Conquest, but not as strong as it could be before.

With 1 star faction its suggested to get the free one and just make the most of it. With 3 star factions, your way higher income will make it way easier to get a 2nd and/or 3rd hero out quite soon, which can defend a whole front by themselves.

Having Justinian is heavily recommended. Having him as consul will drastically reduce the difficulty of any Conquest. Seems like something minor, but it was day and night when I tried with and without. By default, countries are coded to start with x relation with other factions, and then to have a base value of gain/loss towards them. For example, in Crusader States, if you take a Christian faction, all other Christian factions will gain relation while Muslim ones will drop it. This means:

    -With those you were gaining, you'll gain even more. Getting passively high relations with them is important, as later on they'll be saying "Declare war on x country, else -40 relations (can be reduced to -30). These passive gains will counterweight these big -40/-30 events when you say no.

    -Factions which were going to declare you war later on will no longer do so. Some will even slightly gain relation with you. This is a big deal, as once a war is declared, its very expensive to go back to neutral, double it for allies.

In your first turns, prioritize faction's tasks (will be at the left of the pause button). These give a lot of free resources for doing stuff that can also be useful. This makes your early game way more solid, specially with one star factions.

Upgrade early on cities AND get workshops on cities. Fortresses are not worth it. Only upgrade if on a key spot to ease a defensive position or if you have a solid general on it and want some specific tavern troop that requires higher level, but overall avoid upgrading fortresses, they're more expensive and give way less income per upgrade. The payback time for upgrading cities is ~9 turns (less turns for lower levels, more for higher levels, and half the turns for capitals), but it provides with extra population, hp and extra income for mid and late game, where it is crucial as its when you'll do most gifting.

Administration is a kinda useless skill as a whole. But there's an exception, it should be highest possible on your consul. Consul's administration score will determine the price to pay for investigations, the higher his administration is, the cheaper all technologies will be. The more administration you have on a conquest, it will also very slightly increase (0.5% per point for every building within the territory), but nothing too big. You may want to drop Justinian and Theodora on a single cheap troop each on the territory around your capital for the 2 technology bonus and they'll also be raising your resources, if you do this, give them administration items.

Relations have a starting value with the others. But between AI factions, the moment they do have frontiers with each other, relations do decline, often leading to wars. There is no way to stop a war between AIs either, they'll be fighting eachother until one dies. You cannot ask your ally to stop a war with another faction either, you can only ask for them to join against one of your enemies if they're not at war with them. Once they declare war, you cannot reverse this neither.

All factions start a coded amount of resources (not relevant to how many stars they have), but only you won't get your income the first round, the rest will have starting resources + economic income on their first round to use.

Sometimes you'll get a free hero spawned on a city (one of the faction you choose). Its hardcoded. Its far more common in 3rd and 4th conquests. AIs get troops spawned for free sometimes too, and way more often than you, because yes (next level reasoning).

Relation policies (normally the two on the left of the bottom row) are very cheap and also very useful. Try to get them ASAP (in the first 3 rounds).

Age is currently used only to determine the recruited troops level. Raising your age will not mean that already existing troops will level up to this new level, only new ones will benefit from it.

Age 1: troops level 0

Ages 2 & 3: troops level 1

Ages 4 & 5: troops level 2

Age 6: troops level 3

To improve relations with other factions, you can send them economic gifts. There are three options, one costing the fewest resources, a second one costing twice the first option and a last option costing thrice the first one, these 100%/200%/300% price increments are fixed always. The price of the first one is determined by the strength of the faction you're gifting to. Normally, relation boosts are +10, +20 and +30 respectively, so if you have many resources, go for the third one for convenience. But it is worth checking first, as there are some faction combinations in which these three relation values are way different. A real good example is when playing on Crusader States as Ayyubid Dynasty, gifting most factions will give the usual +10/+20/+30, but doing so on the England's Expedition will give +0/+10/+20, meaning the best value is the most expensive one, as it gives 20 relation for 300% price, second one is middle option, with 10 relation at 200% price and worst being the cheap option, giving you literally nothing back for your resources. But when gifting the Sultanate of Rum, its a whole different story, giving +15/25/+35, meaning the best value is the first one, as if you do it twice, you get +30 relation instead of the +25 you get with the first option but for the same price.

Standing on a neutral country land will give you a -10 relation every turn, no matter if its just 1 troop or 10. This can be avoided by paying for passage. Having paid for this, relations will increase by a further 2 per turn compared to when they were neutral. This extra passive gain raises further to 5 when you are become allies. They need to go under -30 to start threatening you to send gifts sometimes to avoid declaring war on you. When relations are under -60, they will declare war without option of bribing to avoid it. However, they won't pay you to march their troops over your territory, they'll simply do it, no matter if there's passage agreement or not, and no relation is lost if they do. On the other hand, you can capture a neutral's faction city without causing any relation drop, and as its now your territory, the surrounding land is now free for you to step in without worrying about relation drops.

Prioritize relation upgrades always ("Good Neighbors" is key, followed by "Envoy to Allies"). Luckily they're also the cheapest. The earlier you gain relations or reduce how you drop them will have a big impact mid and late game, as you'll have less foes and less bribing to do.

There are some clear changes with campaign:

Like in campaign, this affects you and everyone. If you're under your population cap, then you get all the normal income. But here you can be on "maniac" and you can still recruit, however for obvious reasons (you literally dont get any income), this is not recommended. And yes, you can go over 250 population but you should avoid it, as if you have 250 pop, your income will be big, and a 30% of that hurts. If you're decided to go over 250 and remain there, then feel free to extend it to 375 pop, which should be the max before reducing from -35 to -70 the income. This is how taxes go:

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☆Alans - very hard faction. Similarly to Burgundians, you're against a 2 star faction that will exclusively focus you and the WRE. The WRE starts very weak on your frontier, and you could take advantage of their slow early to expand yourself, albeit this is very hard due to Alemanni pressure and the lack of a tavern, in both your capital city and the easiest nearby city, Passau. Not recommended.

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☆☆Alemanni - your foe is Alans, which you should focus first, and the objective foe is WRE, which is way harder, luckily WRE is very weak on the north-east, so you should be able to push on without much problem. However without Justinian, your other 2 neighbors will delcare war on you around round 10, which sucks as by then you should be heavily invested on WRE, so its key to have either when playing this faction.

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☆☆Anglo-Saxon - starts with a big upperhand on its rival, Britons. With the starting General attack through sea Lincoln, also with the troop below him. Give the troop above Lincoln Belisarius (free gen and infantry, so its a good troop), use his ability and with that you should be able to finish the city and capture on that first turn. On the tavern on the right spawn your strongest hero and in a few turns you'll have control over the whole island. Your next clear target are both Franks.

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☆Bretons - easiest 1 star by far. Wait the first turn in your territory so that most Visigoths go east and then attack them, so you can grab most if not all of their cities without having to fight much. There's two clear paths after taking Visigoths down:

-If you have Justinian, you won't be dropping relations with Romans, so you can bribe them until you can get passage (upon that point, you'll even start to gain relation passively). On the meanwhile, sail North, and get England for yourself, then land on Anglo-Saxon or Franks, whichever is doing worse (and ally the other) and then expand southwards

-If you don't have Justinian, Romans will be asking for gifts else they declare war. Its worse if you pay to delay the inevitable war, so just accept and use the massive frontiers and slow early game the Romans have against them, remember you're not alone. Ally with either Britons or Anglo-Saxons later on, depending on who is winning on England by turn 15. Keep on pushing east and ally yourself with the , Romans have many cities, upgrade them a bit and then bribe the factions that are doing better or you like the most, giving the least priority to Ostrogoths, as they will not help out against the Huns unless you pay extra for them to.

-If you have Justinian but dont like Romans, wait a few(2-4) turns to upgrade cities, heal troops and assemble new ones. This time will also get the Romans to move their troops to help elsewhere, as there's no Visigoths and thus no apparent threat for them on their west. This will help you take some cities faster once you declare war. Then proceed similarly to option 2.

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☆☆Britons - 5 coins - Avoid what will happen on turn 2-3, or turn 1 if you're the Anglo-Saxons; the capture of Lincoln. hen take the battleground to their land. The only big plus is that you're the only faction starting with decent relations with the Romans, which are the most expensive to bribe. Focus first Anglo-Saxons, then continue downwards to Franks, and get yourself one ally from this groups of countries you have downwards, whichever is doing best. If Visigoths are doing bad, then ally Bretons and with these resources, they'll end them, else create a landing party on your homeland and take down Bretons, and then Visigoths, as this way, Romans will focus all of their troops east.

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☆Burgundians - along the Alans, 1 star in this conquest, you have a single city and you're against a 2 star faction that only has you as enemy and also against the WRE? Deadly sandwich. Not recommended.

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☆☆Ostrogoths - 10 coins - tried myself and nothing special. Romans are surprisingly easy on the east and you're neutral with everyone else, so you can freely choose alliances with the solid Roman economy, when Huns joined, although I do start with 40 relation points with them, you cannot bribe to increase relations and befriend them. Your relations will drop every turn with them quite fast, so even if you were lucky to achieve alliance, it will not last, so treat them as an enemy to beat that will ignore you at first.

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☆☆Salian Franks - your only foe is Burgundians, as you start neutral with AS and Franks, and with passage for Romans. This pre-1.6 was easier as you could use the passage to take advantage of Romans when you wanted to start a conflict with them (which you need to conquer Orleans), now this exploit is no longer possible. Focus Burgudians, use the passage you have on WRE to your advantage, by turn 4-5 you should take them down. Check how Orleans is doing. If it is taken by Visigoths or close to being so, go to Orleans and be ready to take the city for yourself after Visigoths do so, and remain allied with the Romans. If Orleans is not close to being taken, either restart or continue and focus on Anglo-Saxons, after defeating them, check again Orleans. If still under Roman control, then you'll have to declare war on them, it makes the Conquest take longer, but nothing

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☆☆Visigothic Kingdom - starts with 2 claims - focus first on Bretons, as they will be more annoying than Romans, then go on Romans. Go east taking all of the Roman territory and then feel free to befriend whoever, everything should be easy from now on.

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☆☆☆Western Roman Empire - starts with 3 claims - the best (and worst ) 3 star faction for this conquest. Focus first going west, defeating the Visigoths first, while playing more defensively on east and north. Britons is your only coded ally, while Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Burgundians and Alans your coded start enemies. The first two are 2 stars factions, while the latter two are just 1 star, but they each also have a 2 star faction fighting them, so the pressure they do on you is way lower than the 2 stars, which will both mainly focus you. Britons will fall to Anglo-Saxons unless you give them resources, so either send some help after finishing the Visigoths or give them some resources, unless you prefer to ally the Anglo-Saxons, which is not a bad idea. Ostrogoths should be gone or close to gone when Huns join. Luckily, as most of the factions above you should still remain (and at war with eachother), they'll take the harder hit from the Huns. You just invade the Huns from the south after taking down the Visigoths and ally whoever is left.

Hunnic Empire - they'll join the conquest upon 25 cities have been conquered/on turn 15/10/8 depending on if you're a 1/2/3 star faction respectively. They'll appear on the east, above the Alans. They'll be hostile to everyone with the exception of Ostrogoths, Anglo Saxons and Alemanni. You cannot ally them, you can bribe to delay them declaring war on you, but this is strongly not recommended, as they have to be defeated anyway and this will just make them stronger at the expense of your on strength. They do have a big number of charge and melee cavalry along with some foot support units.

Celtic Kingdoms - capture 25 cities, reach feudal age, occupy London, Paris, Toulouse, Cologne, Rennès - recommended Britons; others: Bretons

Roman Empire - capture 30 cities, capital city Rome, occupy Milan, Paris, Ravenna, London, Budapest, Toulouse - recommended WRE, (Ostrogoths); others: Visigoths, Briton, Franks, S Franks, Breton (pretty easy as WRE, around turn 10 you should have it. Sucks this always requires a capital city move, no matter which faction you play as)

North Sea Empire - capture 25 cities, reach feudal age, occupy London, Bremen, Paris, Cologne - unique to Anglosaxons (it is a free bonus if you haven't achieved hegemony with them yet, check guide for AS above)

Germanic Reich - capture 25 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Cologne, Budapest, Bremen, Strasbourg - recommended Anglo Saxon, (Salian Franks), others: Franks, Alemanni, Alans, Burgundians

Goths Empire - capture 25 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Budapest, Salona, Ravenna, Rome, Milan, Toulouse - recommended Ostrogoths, (Visigoths)

Alania Empire - capture 25 cities, occupy Brandenburg, Krakow, defeat Hunnic Empire - unique to Alans (the hardest by far is the first one, as you start off very weak and threatened). Should do when going for hegemony. Having 20-21 cities before the Huns join should secure you achieving this title, as merging the Huns will grant you all 3 achievements, if an ally takes one of the 2 Hunnic cities required, you'll be forced to declare war on him, so do not let it happen).

Action order: Gaels > Wessex > East Anglia > Mercia > Gnynedd > Northumbria > Alba > Brittany > West Francia > Middle Francia > East Francia > West Slavs > Vikings > Denmark

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☆Alba - Vikings will annoy you, and you have to take down alone Northumbria. After that, your only somewhat ally is Gwynedd, so you're pretty much alone. You need economy to be able to bribe to ally status the mainland strongest powers, and then deal with the Danish and Vikings, but you start from a weak position and have to travel through mountainous area. Not fun, but not hard. You can either help with resources the Irish or go and take Ireland yourself.

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☆East Anglia - your only real enemy is Vikings and Danes, but being so weak doesn't do any good on you. Fight first the two viking ships that will be attacking your capital, then attack Mercia, followed by Gwynedd. Without Justinian, West and Middle Francia will eventually declare war on you, so its clear Brittany and East Francia will be your continental allies, Wessex should remain with passage with you. Focus first on West Francia, then continue with Middle, its a lot to conquer. With Justinian, you should only take down one (likely West) and ally the other.

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☆☆☆East Francia - 12 coins - Strongest 3 star, and on a very good position to take down Vikings and Danes when they join. Focus your west troops on capturing the small Viking city and take down the Slavs asap. Send resources to Ireland on the meanwhile, they must win. Build up resources on the meanwhile and

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☆☆Gaels - 6 coins - Vikings gonna be rough at first, focus on not loosing any city and then your better economy will allow you to push them out. Your next objectives are Alba and Gwynedd, so it shouldn't be hard. Then you're free to do whatever, so focus either Northumbria or Mercia (IMO the former is better) and continue east, as you'll be needed to fight the Vikings and Danes when they join on the east.

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☆Gwyneth - you're weak and alone here, and not because of it Vikings will respect you, but kinda the opposite. You'll have to fight Mercia alone, and when you're done with that, go south to take down Wessex. But ofc, even Irish don't like weak kingdoms, so you're one of the few that start negative with them. I think this is not bad, as the proximity does allow you to instead of going mainland Europe after Wessex, to take Ireland all for yourself, but do so only if there's no clear winner or Vikings are already winning, as you shouldn't pay Ireland early on as you have crap economy and stronger foes. From there, just ally Northumbria or Alba, and help it take down the other, and also ally 2 of the Francias, the ones doing better. While you are giving resources to make friends, focus your troops on the Danish and Vikings.

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☆Kingdom of Brittany - you will have to hold at first against Vikings at the north and then West Francia on the west, until Middle Francia joins against them between turns 8-12. Unless you have very strong general, its a rough faction as you will be struggling to expand and be useful later on.

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☆☆Mercia - the easiest two stars, as it starts somewhat similar to Wessex but with some key advantages. You're not (or barely) harassed by the Pirates, your enemy is a 1 star faction that will be attacked by them, and you're in good terms with the kingdoms in the North while not being at odds with any continental Europe faction (unlike Wessex). Take down Gwynedd first and then focus Wessex. Once that's done, I'll suggest you go down to mainland Europe, and attack West Francia, which should fall easily with Brittany and when Middle Francia joins as well. With this you should also get a better economy and the 12 cities you need. If you were unlucky and got few, remember that on turn 25, Danish will join, and there'll be 5 new cities you can take.

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☆☆☆Middle Francia - you start with the least cities of the 3 star (7 vs 8 and 9) but a solid wonder. Focus first on the north, defending against the few raiders and specially on taking Groningen. Once that's done, and place troops on the frontier with W Francia while also upgrading your cities and declare war once you're ready. He will have most of his troops on the opposite side of his territory, fighting Brittany. Send resources to Ireland when you see them struggling. E Francia should be your ally, so are the Irish . Once W Francia resigns, your objective is to contain the Vikings and then Danes when they join, so be ready for them. E Francia will also help you, but you'll have to do most of the carrying if you dont want Vikings settling around and extending the conquest duration. Focus first on the Danes as getting their cities is enough to get their surrender, then Vikings. While you're clearing Vikings, with your massive economy, befriend the strongest 2 factions in Great Britain.

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☆☆Northumbria - you get raided heavily by Vikings, and having mountainous terrain all over makes everything way slower. You have to take down first Alba, and then your ally Mercia and Wessex (you can use the passage to take down Wessex and Gwynedd first). You're on a rough spot also when the second wave of Viking invaders are released.

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☆☆Wessex - focus first taking down the raiding Vikings and then while Mercia is fighting Gwyneed, attack them. If Caerwent is available, don't hesitate on taking it also. Take down Gwynedd and Northumbria after Mercia, keep East Anglia as an useless ally, as its neutral with everyone and will just help to take down Viking raids later on.

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☆☆☆West Francia - focus first on Brittany, while holding the Viking raids at the North. If you have Justinian, you will be the one to decide when to

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☆West Slavs - rough start, but your economy is the best of the 1 stars. Of the 3 raiders you have sailing on your north, 2 will focus you, 1 will try to go west for WF. Focus the ones going for you and dont attack the other one. Use the tavern at the frontier to make pressure on Francia. Most of the conquest will be you fighting WF, as Middle will be declaring war on it by turn 15-20, so until then, its pretty much you alone. If Ireland is struggling hard, send them some gift, having it survive and push back the Vikings will make this Conquest's late game way easier. When you're done with East Francia, you should ally Middle or West Francia, whichever is doing better, ally the strongest faction and get ready for Danish, to take them down fast, as they're vital for also Vikings to achieve some success.

Vikings - since the start will harass all factions and try to establish wherever, with a strong foothold on Ireland and a weak one between Middle and West Francia. All of their spawned units will be having Viking Longboats, which makes them slightly faster and better than normal transports on the sea. For some odd reason, the most expensive gift gets you +10 relations with them, but its still offset by the hardcoded enmity of the Vikings towards every faction, making you lose 15-20 relation passively with them every turn, so pointless to try. Between turn 12-15, 12x3 raiders with 3 generals with high morale will spawn on the North Sea, and will do a second attempt at bullying factions and establishing themselves. When Denmark joins, 2 small cities in Sweden and a bunch of more Viking raiders will join as well. All of their troops must be defeated for them to resign.

Western Roman Empire - capture 20 cities, occupy London, Cologne, Exeter, Tamworth, York, Paris, Strasbourg, Rennes, defeat West Francia - recommended Brittany, others K. of Gwyneth (this is a hard achievement, specially due to Strasbourg and Cologne, which belong to Middle Francia but are very close to East Francia, meaning you might have to declare war on both. Gwyneth is even harder as you start weaker and you also have to take down Brittany).

Celtic Kingdoms - capture 25 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Paris, Rennes, Boulogne, Caernarfon, Dublin, Scone, London, York - recommended Gaels, (Brittany) others K. of Gwyneth and K. of Alba

North Sea Empire - capture 20 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Winchester, Tamworth, Rendlesham, York, Scone, Groningen, Hedeby, Lund - recommended K. of Wessex, K. of Mercia, others K. of Northumbria, K. of East Anglia, K. of Alba, Gaels

Germanic Empire - capture 20 cities, capital city: Frankfurt, occupy Strasbourg, Bavay, Utrecht, Cologne, Groningen, Hedeby, Hamburg, Brandenburg - recommended East Francia, (Middle Francia, West Francia) others K. of East Anglia, K. of Wessex, K. of Mercia, K. of Northumbria

British Empire - capture 20 cities, defeat Vikings, occupy Winchester, Caernarfon, Tamworth, Rendlesham, York, Scone, Dublin, Cashel - recommended K. of Wessex, K. of Mercia, others K. of Northumbria, K. of East Anglia, K. of Alba, Gaels, K. of Gwyneth, Duchy of Brittany

Frankish Empire - capture 20 cities, capital city Cologne, occupy Orleans, Paris, Boulogne, Groningen, Hamburg, Erfurt, Mainz, Strasbourg - recommended East Francia, (Middle Francia, West Francia) (basically conquer the other 2 Francia as any of them, focus first on your main enemy Brittany/Slavs and then go for one Francia at a time. If you're middle Francia, attack one Francia from the start, as 2vs1 situation should help out, East should be slightly easier)

Slavic Empire - capture 20 cities, defeat Middle and East Francia, occupy Poznan, Erfurt, Frakfurt, Cologne, Groningen, Hamburg - unique to Slavs (achieving to defeat both kingdoms mentioned will pretty much give you the other two requirements needed, beware of Danish when they spawn. For hegemony, ally West Francia, Gaels and after the two strongest remaining kingdom in Britain)

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☆Bretons - having a tavern makes this not as bad. Your objectives is basically to survive, but as this guide is to get hegemony, we're gonna push back the French, else we will be useless and always bullied by the stronger faction. Burgundy will also join against the French on turn 5-10, so that can relieve you a bit if you're stuck. Push east, capturing also Poitiers and Bourges, but ignore the more fortified and far Toulouse, which you'll get paying them to surrender once you're done pushing east. From there onwards, go south to defeat the western Pirates and Mauri, all of this while gathering up resources. Luckily everyone is pretty neutral to you, so building relations (specially with Justinian) should be quite easy once you get a decent income (which you get from the French), and last, go east to help against the Avars. Ally with the strongest factions and you're done.

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☆☆Burgundian Kingdom - the only faction to not start with a declared enemy (plus you have passage from Ostrogoths), but starts with a mediocre army and economy. Focus on the Frankish Kingdom or Visigoth, as you'll have other factions attacking along you. If you don't have Justinian, I suggest you focus first on Frankish, as else, they'll end up declaring war on you when you're with the Visigoths, making you be at war with two 3 star factions and with weakened allies against the Frankish. Then go for the other and after south, to the Mediterranean, you have to take down Mauri.

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☆☆☆Byzantine Empire - 15 coins - very easy conquest; solid economy, two wonders and no real threat. Focus resources early on fending off the pirates in the south and upgrading your cities. Send some troops south to take Gortyn in Crete and most north, as you're gonna be going to be expanding at first mostly north, that is easiest. Then go on Ostrogoths when someone declares war on them (besides Pirates) and you're free after, dispatch some troops to take down Mauri (and whatever is left of Vandals). Beware the Avars later on as they will show up on your starting northern frontier.

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☆☆Byzantine Expedition - I dont know why it is considered hard. Your starting big upperhand should get you deep into Vandal. Use the tavern on their territory to get your hero there and just watch out in your capital for some pirate raiding. When Mauri joins, continue against them, and when they're done, switch focus to western Pirates and then Ostrogoths, using the declare war advantage from the sea (as it doesnt work for land since 1.6)

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☆☆☆Frankish Kingdom - 10 coins - you start against two 1 star factions, which both should be easy to handle with your solid economy and useful wonder. Your next objective should be take down Burgundy with the troops you used for Bretons and continue east with the troops you used against Thuringia, attacking the rear of Lombards and then Gepids.

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☆Lombards - you're alone against a 2 star faction and Thuringia will be joining against you quite soon. And ofc, another objective is to capture the Ostrogoth's capital, which is very hard as Ostrogoths will be banking on a decent economy and not real enemies, so you'll have to wait until passive relation declines get them some enemy and then join in, else you're in for a big struggle. Mauri will be big by the time you reach them, and then switch to the opposite part of the map to fight the Avars (reserve some heroes to deploy them in your homeland when they join).

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☆☆Kingdom of Gepids - the early game is very easy, as you're against a slightly weaker faction, but after that, you don't have a clear path, as going against Ostrogoths or Byzantines is unwise as they will do not have any real enemy (just fend off sometimes pirates) and they'll go very hard on you. Your best bet is continue upwards, as you need to expand and get a better economy, so attack Thuringia along the Franks and then go against the Franks (you won't be alone against this 3 star faction). Sucks to be so far from Mauri, which you have to take down yourself as Visigoths will be busy and so will Byzantines with Vandals, and when you're finishing them, soon the Avars will join on the opposite point in the map, which sucks ngl. Not a hard one per se, but a long one.

☆☆Suebian Kingdom - best 2 star economy and you're with other 2 factions to fight the Visigoths. You have a tavern near the Visigoth frontier, and you dont have to betray your ally (with Vasco you have to betray Suebi). Quite easy to reach your objectives and also to continue onwards from them. After finishing Visigoths, split your forces in two groups, the one more in the north, tasked with capturing the 3 pirate islands nearby and the southern go to North Africa to get more economy from the Vandals and Mauri. With your solid economy, you can start doing alliances and then going east, to contribute with the Huns, as being isolated in the Iberian peninsula makes you neutral with everyone else.

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☆Kingdom of Thuringia - similar start to Bretons but you have two starting cities and less Frank troops to face, so the start is undoubtedly easier. Research "Envoy to the Enemy" on the first turn (there's a task to take one research, and this is by far the most handy, it will delay Lombards and its the cheapest). Don't worry about the -35% income the first few turns, you need that population to push into Franks. Send most of your starting troops to take Augsburg, then Suttgart, the ones in the north plus your tavern general should be the ones taking the harder Frankfurt. But soon Lombards will be soon wanting war too, but this faction should not pose much threat, as Gepids will be keeping most of their troops busy, so continue focusing Franks, which will also be soon attacked by Burgundy. You're free after defeating Franks, so your goal is to defeat invader factions (first Mauri and Pirates, then Avars) and ally strongest remaining factions, which you can do with the massive economy you got from the Franks.

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☆☆☆Kingdom of the Ostrogoths - very easy conquest. You start neutral with everyone except Pirates, so focus them. Your objective is to take down both Byzantine factions, both of which you start with even passage. Having Justinian you can keep the relations with them, so focus on expanding. After taking down the closest cities of Cagliari and Ajaccio, go south to join against the Vandals, which will be struggling already with the Byzantines. They will ask for payment to avoid a war even with Justinian, so always decline, as they can't be kept neutral without paying. Try to take the most of them so that Byzantines don't get them. Don't worry for Byzantines as you'll remain in good terms with them (for now). Mauri should be joining soon, they're your next focus. Then go east, after 1.6 you cannot longer use passage advantage to get good positions and then declare war, however water is not considered their territory, so sail your troops near their important cities and then declare war, putting some emphasis on Cyrene, their capital. Once you're done with Byzantine Exp, Byzantine Empire. Repeat the sea invasion strategy. Byzantines should be at war with Gepids, so most of their troops should be North, making the naval attack easier on the south. If Gepids are already gone, waiting until Avars is a good thing, as it will draw Byzantine attention north. With Justinian, you should be able to maintain or even raise relation with the other factions so just befriend the remaining ones.

☆☆☆Kingdom of the Vandals - Hardest 3 stars by far. Worst 3 star economy, no wonders, and you're alone in this, with Ostrogoths and Visigothic starting negative relations with you and Byzantine Expedition only focusing you. Mauri will go mainly for you, as they'll be on your back when you're pushing back the Byzantines, and then the Pirates, which you start positive with, will decline and you also have to capture their main city. Send asap all your dispersed forces to the east to hold the Byzantines, but you're happy if you can hold the line (use the tavern close by the frontier) and also hold the city that is attacked by 3 Dromons (have archers and melee infantry). Play in the defensive against the Byzantines as you have to be ready to take down Mauri asap, once that's done, push on Byzantines and the troops you used to take down Mauri, use them against the Pirates, which should be your enemy by now. Once Byzantine Expedition is down, your target is Ostrogoths, finish Pirates and then Avars.

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☆Vasco - very similar to Suebi, although understandably, as a 1 star, you start with half the cities but at least you still have a tavern. Remember its a 3v1 against Visigoths, so you won't be having much trouble, but try to take as many cities from the Visigoths as you can as they'll help a lot with population and income since early, and after that you should ally France while focusing Western Pirates and then Mauri. After this, you're free to do whatever as you're neutral with everyone, but remember Avars will be joining on the east and those must be defeated.

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☆☆☆Visigothic Kingdom - 8 coins - you start on a 3v1, no wonder but a good base. Play defensive on pirates and go aggressive on the peninsula, the earlier you can defeat them the better, as they'll be only focusing you. Unfortunately, both have their capital as the likely last city you'll conquer, so the morale advantage and option to pay for surrender are not available. Once you're done with them, remember you have to take down France, which who you'll still be neutral, but as they will be still fighting for a while, focus on your current enemies while keep on growing, so focus both Western Pirates and Mauri, those troops should then continue east, either through north Africa or through the Mediterranean, to be there for the Avars, while your production and new army should be focusing France, as your objective is to take Paris. You have a solid economy to bribe the factions that are doing better to join your side.

Pirates - against all Mediterranean countries except Vandal Kingdom and the other 2 invader factions. They control 4 islands and all troops have to be defeated to defeat this faction. They'll be annoying everyone with their caravels, but rarely will be capturing something on mainland, but as they can't be befriended, they must be taken down.

Mauri - appearing to the south-west of the Vandal Kingdom. They're not strong, but they'll show up in turn 10 when the Vandals and Byzantine Expedition have been fighting eachother hard, so they'll have an easy time and even conquer some territory. After capturing until Carthage, and they'll continue that path into southern France and Italy instead of continuing east or north.

Avars - they'll show up on top of the Byzantine Empire, and they'll spawn with many resources and many troops, mainly horse archers. Most of these troops will go west, causing havoc wherever they pass through. They show up at turn 25-30, with a good size of land and a bunch of cities that must be taken, as well as many resources.

Resolution (titles) achievements

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Roman Empire - capture 40 cities, capital city Rome, occupy Paris, Lyon, Barcelona, Milan, Ravenna, Syracuse, Carthage, Athens, Budapest, Augsburg, Constantinople - recommended Byzantine Empire, K. of the Ostrogoths, Frankish Kingdom, (Visigothic Kingdom), others -literally every other faction-. The hardest and most available achievement, literally possible to do with anyone, but the headstart you get with the stronger factions does really help here. You need to move the capital always, even as Ostrogoths, but y, going for this achievement means fighting all the 3 star factions, so if you're going for this, consider the 1 and 2 star factions your most reliable allies.

Gothic Empire - capture 35 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Barcelona, Ravenna, Rome, Milan, Lyon, Bordeaux, Toledo, Nova Carthage - recommended K. of the Ostrogoths, runner up Viisgothic Kingdom others Suebian Kingdom, K. of Gepids

Germanic Empire - capture 35 cities, capital city Cologne, occupy Erfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Ravenna, Lyon, Paris, Barcelona, Braga - recommended Frankish Kingdom, runner up K. of the Ostrogoths Suebian Kingdom, K. of Thuringia, K. of Gepids, Lombards, Burgundian Kingdom, Visigothic Kingdom, Frankish Kingdom

Frankish Empire - capture 35 cities, capital city Paris, occupy Rennes, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Lyon, Ravenna, Vienna, Erfurt, Cologne - recommended Frankish Kingdom, runner up Burgundian Kingdom, others K. of Thuringia

Mediterranean Empire - capture 35 cities, reach feudal age, capture Rome, Carthage, Syracuse, Cagliari, Marseilles, Barcelona, Malaga, Caesarea, Palma - recommended Suebian Kingdom, runner up Vasco, K. of the Vandals others Bretons

Celtic Empire - capture 35 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Paris, Rennes, Bordeaux, Lyon, Milan, Salona, Budapest, Philippopolis - recommended Suebian Kingdom, other Bretons, Vasco

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☆☆☆Abbasid Dynasty - M - very easy, and boring too as you're a 3 star that is surrounded by allies and with no target nearby. You will have early game no impact on how the game goes, doesn't matter how, and that's very bad to say of a 3 star faction. You're not even at odds with the Christian Kingdoms, so you're free to do as you please. Win through diplomacy as you get relation bonus with literally everyone. This faction feels like it was forgot when they were making the Conquest, hopefully will receive some tweaking on a later patch, but as of now, it is very easy, specially if you have Justinian. Just focus on having your troops in the Black Sea to take down HRE, and then near Greece, to do the same on French. Seljuk and Cumans can be befriended if they show up, but they shouldn't.

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☆☆☆Ayyubid Dynasty - M - strongest faction of this conquest by far, feels like a 4 stars on this scenario. Starts with the most cities, 3 wonders and no real threat nearby. Focus on taking down fast Jerusalem and Tripoli and then march north. The troops you had in the north part of Africa, send them to Crete as the English Expedition will be landing on your land, but that expedition will disappear as soon as you conquer their single city. If you don't have Justinian, they'll declare war on you between turn 5 and 10, but if you do, you can ignore them (they'll stay spawning troops in their isle and around it, but without sending them anywhere as they have no foe), or declare war on them once you have 3-4 troops around their isle and this war declaration will make them leave their island to attack you, making the city capture possible.

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☆☆Anatolian Beyliks - C - the early is easy, but you're heavily hindered by your weak eco, and that you're at least 5 turns away at least into conquering any city. Once you're done with Cicilia, take down Antioch if its still alive. Byzantines are coded to be your foe, so help Rum against them. If you have Justinian, worry not about Georgia, else they'll be soon declaring war on you, which will be nasty, as your main army is with the Byzantines, but still feasible if you remain on the defensive while getting a better economy from the Byzantines, as Eldiguzids will keep on pressuring Georgia. HRE and France will join while you're fighting the Byzantines, making progress be harder for a while, and you're the one that should finish them.

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☆☆☆Byzantine Empire - C - 15 coins - quite easy, your main focus is Rum and then Beylik. You start with 13 cities but no wonders. Your foe's capital is very close to your frontier, so that should be the focus, but place your tavern hero on the small

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☆County of Tripoli - C - very hard, probably the hardest faction for this conquest. You start with just one city and barely any economy, a weak army and worst of all, no village/castle. Your top priority is to take Damascus so you can get a strong hero spawned. From this onwards, its slightly easier, but its hard facing the Ayyubid is tough, specially when having . If you don't have Justinian, Zengids will be wanting to declare war on you as well, which sucks as .

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☆☆Eldiguzids Dynasty - M - decent economy and positioning. Your clear target is Georgia, which is a decent rival, but between turn 5-10, Beylik of Anatolian will be declaring war on your foe making it easier. After defeating Georgia, sail west, as your main focus now should be destroying HRE and France when they join. You should have a solid economy to befriend the rest.

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☆England Expedition - C - 8 coins - starts with a single city far from everyone, no village/castle, and being neutral/passage with everyone as well, so you don't have a clear enemy. You're meant to support the Jerusalem kingdom and Antioch against the Ayyubid but its not a good place to land. You start far from everyone, , but instead of going east, go south, and declare war on Ayyubid when you're ready to land, you should focus on the same turn on both Tubrug and Matruh, then continue east. Having these cities will help you not be population capped while also damaging the Ayyubid. Matruh is really important as it will have your first village, allowing you to get out your strongest hero. Whenever some troop from Richard dies, just replace them with charge cavalry, will perform better and you'll keep him alive, as his active skill is quite useful. Once you get the Ayyubid down, you're free to do what you wish, as everyone will be neutral. My suggestion is to go east, either invading Zengid or through the Desert and either ask for passage or invade the Abbasid, as you'll need to go cross their faction to face the Seljuks. Ally after with the Cumans if they join. Your solid economy should allow you to ally the leading factions, and you should be already allied with the French and HRE when they join.

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☆Kingdom of Cilicia - C - easiest 1 star, but mostly because the other three 1 stars are bad, as you start with the strongest army and double the cities compared to the other 1 star factions, and your main enemy Beylik is the least dangerous. Having Justinian is very important though as this will avoid Rum declaring war on you while you're on the east. Declare war also on Zengid as if not, its impossible to go east without stepping on neutral ground. Luckily Aleppo is very close to the frontier, and starts already damaged. W

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☆☆☆Kingdom of Georgia - C - 10 coins - you'll be doing tons of fighting with the weakest 3 star faction. First with the Eldiguzids, focusing first their capital, as it will severely hamper their economy, when they're done, then go for Beylik. Then focus on whichever Muslim nation (I suggest Rum or Zengid, and avoid Abbasid, as their extended isolation makes them have a large army, and many more resources, and that you'll be facing that alone). Be ready to take down Seljuk Empire when they join and you're pretty much done.

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☆☆Kingdom of Jerusalem - C - hard start, you're surrounded by a strong faction and although you're not alone in this (Tripoli and later English), its not a big help. Play defensively

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☆Principality of Antioch - C - crap army, crap economy, no allies against Zengid, who will put a hard fight. The only good things are that you start with a tavern and your foe's capital is very close to you and already damaged. You can take it in turn 2, which helps a lot on this conflict. After they're done, if you have Justinian you can just go against the Ayyubid (you'll gain the most economy absorbing them, and they're the only faction who with Justinian and both relation policies, you will not gain relation, making it very expensive to befriend them. Fighting Ayyubid after the earlier rounds is easier as you're in a better position and have allies who will be fighting them already. If you don't have Justinian, its way harder. Rum, Beylik and Ayyubid will be declaring war on you sooner or later, so you'll have to focus both north and south, which makes it quite harder.

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☆☆Sultanate of Rum - M - go hard on Byzantines, you must defeat them before . Ignore Sicily and keep pressuring towards Constantinople, and once captured, start looking to get them surrendered. It helps a lot if you can have them dead before the HRE and later, France joins. Without Justinian, Cilicia will declare war on you while you're fighting the Byzantines, but they won't be annoying much as Beylik will keep them busy.

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☆☆Zengid Dynasty - M - this is similar to playing as Principality of Antioch but starting on a stronger position but also having to take down Christian states. Focus on Antioch first and then go south, attacking both Ayyubids, Tripoli and Jerusalem. Then you're free to do whatever, but I suggest you push west as the French and Germans factions will not ally to you, so you have to take them down.

Holy Roman Empire Crusaders - C - they start in Bulgaria, they will be allied to Christian factions and very hostile to Muslim ones. It will appear on turn 13-15 if Jerusalem fell, with only two cities, but with a large and strong (good tier) army, that will sail the Black Sea to mostly support the Byzantines against the Rum and push onwards Middle East. All troops must be defeated and their cities captured for them to surrender.

France Crusaders - C - they start in Greece at turn ~20 only if HRE Crusaders spawned and Christians are doing poorly, with relations identical to HREC, in good terms with Christian factions and -80 to Muslim ones. They start with 2 cities, a +1 technology wonder and a huge army with high tier and high level (relatively, as all troops will be lvl3 and generals lvl4, recruited ones after just 2, like the rest of factions) troops. They will head to attack the Ayyubid, on most of their coastline. All troops must be defeated and their cities captured for them to surrender.

Seljuk Empire - M - they start to the east of the Abbasid Caliphate, with 5 cities, one being the capital, they'll be against Christian factions and friendly to Muslim ones. They will only show immediately when a Muslim faction is fully defeated. Them joining will also trigger some extra resentment from Muslim to Christian factions, making it harder for alliances between opposing religions be harder. They will be sending troops the map to support against Christians, passing through Muslim territories. If you capture their capital, you can pay them to surrender, else capturing all their cities will work as well.

Cumans-Kipchaks - they start to the north of the Kingdom of Georgia. They will always show up on round 35, so if you can finish before this round, you'll skip their appearance. They're not very strong but they're surely a nuisance to deal with, for the spot they show up and that its a very mountainous region. Luckily they can be befriended so do such to skip having to fight them.

Resolution (titles) achievements

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Roman Empire - capture 35 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Constantinople, Nicomedia, Konya, Sinop, Trabzon, Tarsus, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria - recommended Byzantine Empire, runner up Sultanate of Rum (no other Christian kingdom as runner up as you also have to capture Constantinople, meaning declaring war on strongest 3 star Christian faction and they're all v far from it), others Kingdom of Cicilia, Principality of Antioch, County of Tripoli, English Expedition, Kingdom of Georgia

Eastern Latin Empire - capture 35 cities, capital city Jerusalem, occupy Konya, Tarsus, Nicosia, Cairo, Mosul, Antioch, Damascus, Aleppo, Tripoli - recommended Kingdom of Jerusalem, runner up Byzantine Empire, others Principality of Antioch, Count of Tripoli, English Expedition

Turkish Empire - capture 35 cities, defeat Byzantine Empire, occupy Hamadan, Konya, Antioch, Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, Erzurum, Tabriz, Baghdad - recommended Zengid Dynasty, Sultanate of Rum, others Eldiguzids Dynasty, Anatolian Beyliks (hard part is going after Byzantines and Jerusalem at once, the latter will likely be captured by Ayyubid, meaning you have to face both strongest faction of the conquest)

East Empire - capture 35 cities, capital city Jerusalem, occupy Konya, Tarsus, Nicosia, Cairo, Jerusalem, Aleppo, Mosul, Antioch, Tripoli - recommended Ayyubid Dynasty, runner up Zengid Dynasty, others Eldiguzids Dynasty, Anatolian Beyliks, Abbasid Dynasty

Arab Empire - capture 35 cities, capital city Damascus, occupy Basra, Kufa, Baghdad, Mosul, Erzurum, Aleppo, Tarsus, Jerusalem, Cairo - recommended Ayyubid Dynasty, other Abbasid Dynasty

Black Sea Empire - capture 35 cities, reach feudal age, occupy Constantinople, Sinop, Trabzon, Pitsunda, Tbilisi, Baki, Tabriz, Konya, Erzurut - recommended Kingdom of Georgia, runner up Kingdom of Cilicia (both suck mainly as you have to capture Constantinople while being a Christian kingdom)