First off, to be able to play as Milan you must complete either the long or short campaign at least once which will not take very long. As with most Total War games the controls and the formula are extremely similar so it should not take you too long to get into the game. However, if you have not played either this game or the others in the series I would suggest you go through the tutorial and perhaps partake in a practice battle so that you get a feel for the game and its mechanics.

You start off with two cities, the town of Genoa and your captial of Milan which are situated in the north western part of the Italian peninsula. If you choose the play the short campaign then your goals are to hold 15 regions and eliminate the factions of Venice and the Holy Roman Empire (HRE). For the long campaign, you need to hold 45 regions including Constantinople. Since this guide is just for getting you started it will not go into much detail for the long campaign however it can get you off to a good start if you wish to conquer the world.

The two cities that you start off with are ideal because they can produce a good amount of income in the early stages of the game which is crucial. While Milan is the larger city because it does not have a port whereas Genoa does, the income will be roughly the same. Despite the fact you will have two good money makers, you will need to quickly get some castles so that you can recruit the much better units which will be needed.

First off, I would suggest sending your diplomat (to the right of Milan) to first the HRE and then Venice to get trade agreements and if possible, alliances. You will most likely end up going to war with both but if you get enter into an alliance you may be able to buy yourself some extra time. Next, send Christoforo Rossi and his army to the castle of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica, directly south of Genoa. It is not very hard to capture and will be a good addition giving you good units in the future. You should also make sure that you have a decent garrison in both of your cities just incase you are attacked early on, which may be likely because Venice can never be trusted. Next, take Florence to prevent any other of the Italian nations from taking it as it is usually under rebel control. Like most rebel settlements, it will not be hard to take and will be a good addition to your growing kingdom.

With Ajaccio under your belt it is time to expand even further. Send your diplomats to the Papal States and France in search alliances. Being in good favour with the pope obviously has its benefits, such as you calling crusades on your excommunicated enemies whilst having France as an ally will hopefully safeguard your territory from any western attacks. Now, recruit armies to take the settlements of Cagliari (on the island of Sardinia, south of Ajaccio) and if possible, Bern (north of Milan) but only if it is still under rebel control. You should now have a good and stable economy plus a healthy amount of castles to provide military support for your future conquests.

Remember to keep your barracks upgraded so that you can recruit Italian spear militia and pavise crossbow militia in your cities, and armoured sergants in your castles. This should not have taken you much more than 10-15 turns so now it is time to expand even further in the territory of your neighbours.

Now that you have a good powerbase in the Mediterranean your next focus should be taking over the territories of Sicily. Like the majority of Italian factions, they cannot be trusted and would probably declare war on you sooner or later so getting them out of the way quickly will save you time in the future. Usually they will have expanded into Africa by now and will often leave Palermo practically unguarded and Naples with an average garrison, which should not be a problem at all for your armies. Taking Palermo and Naples will be very helpful when it comes to invading Venice and for setting off on the Crusades if you choose to do so.

Scout out the size of each garrison before setting off just make sure you will not suffer a loss. When you are finally ready, head off to each region respectively and lay siege to them. You can either wait it out or just attack as soon as you have siege weaponry, either way you should be fine. If, once you have taken these two regions it does not say that Sicily has been destroyed then you should probably scout out Tunis and Tripoli which are usually Sicilian targets early on in the game. If these regions are under the control of the Sicilians then like before scout them out, gather an army suitable for the job and then go out and conquer them.

Now that Sicily is out of the way and (hopefully) France is still your ally, you can fully focus on the actualy objectives of taking out the HRE and Venice. By this time, Venice will usually have around 5 regions depending on whether or not they've invaded the Byzantine Empire. This regions will include Venice (obviously), Ragusa, Iraklion, Zagreb and Durazzo. You can go about conquering these regions by either taking one region at a time, or launching two invasions at once.

If you choose you take them out one by one, then you should start with the city of Venice as it is their most prosperous city. Usually Venice will have a strong garrison so make sure you have a family member leading a mix of your best cavalry, archers and infantry with some siege weaponry in possible. You can either try and force them into surrendering or attack them as soon as possible, however I would advise the latter of the two because if you wait too long it is likely that reinforcements will be sent to lift the siege. Once you have taken Venice, retrain your troops and get another army ready to move on to Zagreb. You should repeat this each time you head further and further south.

The other method is to attack them on two different fronts. While this is the fastest method you should make sure you have a decent amount of money as having two large armies in the field at once can take its toll on your finances. For this, you should do the same as the other method when attacking Venice and work your way south, but at the same launch an army from southern Italy into the Balkans and start with Durazzo. Usually Durazzo is not well defended and is a very small town so you can steamroll over it and move to Ragusa or Corinth, depending on whether or not Venice has expanded that far. Once your two armies meet up and all of their territory on the mainland has been taken, build yourself a decent navy and head off to the island of Crete to take out Iraklion, the finaly Venetian stronghold.

Once Venice has been completely wiped out, your faction should have a good and stable amount of money which will be necessary for your next task.

Thats right! It's finally time to go to war with the HRE. By now you should have a good amount of money and plenty of experienced troops that you can use in the upcoming war. It would be good to assume that the HRE will encompass the majority of central europe so before you do go to war, try and use your diplomats to get map information from the Germans so that you know just how many regions you will need to take.

Once you have the map information, gather your forces in northern Italy and get them ready for your first target, Bologna. This is the best place to start because it will give you complete control over northern Italy and will prevent the Germans from attacking you close to home. Once you are ready, lay siege to the settlement and take it as soon as possible, because the HRE will usually be one of the strongest factions in the game so you don't want to waste any time. If for whatever reason the HRE has been excommunicated, take full advantage and call a crusade on one of the German cities as this will draw other nations into attacking them and will also give you a nice bonus in gold and experience if you capture it.

From here, you can do the same as when fighting Venice by sending two different armies in at once. To do this, send one straight north toward the castle of Innsbruck and the other one north east towards Vienna. Innsbruck will hopefully by now be a fortress and will enable you to recruit good troops without having to get them from your mediterranean castles and Vienna will give you even more money per turn as it is a large city.

You can now expand further and further north taking the German cities and castles at your own pace. If you have the funds, if should not take you too long to conquer the HRE but be carefull, as they occasionaly have large armies hidden around which may pounce on a region that is not well defended. Use caution when attacking the Germans and make full use of spies to find out if there are indeed any hidden forces.

There is also the possibility that taking all of their european territory will not destroy them because they may have territory in the Holy Land. From personal experience, the HRE join nearly every crusade called and it i not surprising to see them in control of Jerusalem or Antioch so make sure you prepare for this if this is the case.

Congratulations! Hopefully by following this guide you have been able to achieve victory as the noble Italian state of Milan.

If you decide to do the long campaign then you will have to take constantinople which hopefully will not be too difficult. If you followed the rest of the guide then you will already have a stronghold in the Balkans from which you can launch your attack. It is not surprising if Constantinople has changed hands several times by now, being either in the possesion of the Byzantines, the Hungarians or the Turks.

If the Hungarians control it then this will mean full out war with a nation that is reasonably strong. Use your Balkan possesions wisely and expand quickly towards Constantinople taking it before the Hungarians know what hit them. Once you have it all for yourself you can either continue attacking Hungary or make peace with them.

If the Byzantines have managed to keep control of their capital then taking it should not be too difficult because they are usually quite weak by this point, from invasions by the Turks, Hungarians and possibly the Venetians in the early stages of the game. Same as before, work your way up, weakening the Byzantines with each step until you finally reach their capital. Often it will be heavily defended so make sure you have a good strong army ready to lay siege to it.

If the Turks control it then you can finish off the Byzantines taking their remaining Balkan territories and then simply call a crusade on Constantinople when ready. However, if you do this then you must make you sure get there before other close nations such as Poland and Hungary.

Crusades are a key part of the game and can be very useful when fighting your enemies. However, if you choose to lead your armies in the Holy land then make sure you go prepared. The Turks and Egyptians will be hostile and later on in the game, the Mongols and Timurids will appear and they can cause massive amounts of damage if you are not ready. When you take a region in the holy land, make sure you have a large garrison and also try and convert the population to Christianity as fast as possible because this will lower public disorder.

ALWAYS keep up to date with new military tech. When gunpowder enters the game, get it as fast as possible. The new siege gear it brings with it is very effective and the units such as hand gunners are extremely useful in battle as they will often intimidate the enemy.

Around the year 1400, the new world will be discovered and is a great oppotunity for you to become even richer than you already are. If you do choose to go exploring, then take large armies because you will be vastly outnumbered. You should also take with you plenty of agents such as spies, priests and most of all, merchants. Using your merchants on items such as cocoa or tobacco can make you extremely rich, funding any future expeditions into the unknown.

Thank you for reading this guide and hopefully it will have been useful. It will not be perfect as it is my first guide so if you have any suggestions on things I need to add then feel free to let me know.
If people do like this guide then I shall make more for other factions throughout the Total War series.

Feel free to rate, comment and share!

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If you would like me to do a another guide then simply leave a comment or message me, I will do guides for ETW, MTW2, RTW and perhaps Shogun 2 or Napoleon. I will also probably make guides for RTW2 when it comes out.

So, after making 4 guides, soon to be 5, I was thinking about setting up a Steam group for general Total War discussion and where people could suggest ideas for new guides and give feedback from those that are already out. I'd like to know your thoughts on this so leave a comment telling me what you think!