I've been enjoying the new map tremendously. Taking the Zengids as my favourite faction, I have taught the Abbasids and the Seljuks to fear my mighty empire!



At first, I wanted to simply secure control over Iraq. Then, once that had been achieved, I felt that the Iraqi provinces were vulnerable to what lies beyond the Zagros mountains. I wanted to secure the area completely, and the best way to do that was to advance across the mountains and take the cities on the other side. So I conquered Iran too. Meanwhile to the north, the Georgians attempted to attack one of my castles. So I marched north and destroyed them utterly, adding their lands to my empire. Likewise in the west, the Crusaders betrayed me and attempted to siege Aleppo. So I turned west and completely destroyed them too. Now I am at war with the Byzantines and the Cumans, while the Egyptians are neutral. I used to be allied to Egypt, but one of my assassins died while trying to kill an Egyptian merchant that had just killed one of my own merchants. This ended the alliance. I will conquer them too, when the time comes!