Medieval: Total War

[Johny Cee]

Picked this up from the bargain bin.  So far,  I'm pretty impressed.

The Italian Doge broke out of Italy,  massacring the French after they were depleted by mucking about with the Germans, Danes, and Spanish.  Finished off the Danes and the English,  and now I'm gobbling up the remaining bits of Poland.

Having a great time with it so far.

Any words of advice as far as unit strength and army makeup?

From the economic side,  anyone have good build orders on optimal economic base? 

The game seems heavily weighted towards invasion as a revenue producer.

[stray]

Any words of advice as far as unit strength and army makeup?

The Romans! 

No, really. Medieval is great, but Rome:TW is better.

[Strazos]

Also, watch out for the Mongols and the Muslim factions.

Especially the Mongols. They put a huge wrench in your operations when they break out.

[Mortriden]

Econ revolves mainly around the farming upgrades, only in certain provinces is land trade a truly viable option (I always upgrade the farming to at least 40% and do the first two trading house upgrades). 

Medieval is weird in that you have to have a string of ships like a bridge running from one port to another to trade goods.  You can make TONS of cash fairly early doing this, especially in the Med.

[Strazos]

The same tactic is also useful for quickly moving forces by sea.

[Train Wreck]

Go for the Grand Inquisiters as soon as you can.  Burning enemy generals and nobles at the stake is a quick, easy, and fun way to BBQ.