Right click Medieval 2 in your steam library, browse local files. You'll end up somewhere along the lines of C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Medieval II Total War

Now go into the mods folder. You'll find the four expansions - each must be edited separately. To unlock the Rebels, you'll need to move "slave" from "unplayable" to "playabale" in "descr_strat.txt" in the imperial campaign folder. So:
...Medieval II Total War\mods\americas\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
...Medieval II Total War\mods\british_isles\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
...Medieval II Total War\mods\crusades\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
...Medieval II Total War\mods\teutonic\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

Additional Customization Options

While editing descr_strat.txt, you can also adjust other settings:

the frequency with which rebels armies and pirates spawn

brigand_spawn_value
pirate_spawn_value

Higher value = less frequent spawns. Lower value = more frequent spawns.

You can also scroll down to the "faction slave" entry to change the "king's purse" value - this represents the default amount of money you receive each turn (not counting income from settlements or trade).

This guide assumes you've left all the settings on default and are playing on vh\vh but feel free to make things easier (or harder) on yourself.

Finally, you can bring back the ability to hit the faction emblem (in the middle of your tooltip) during battles to highlight your troops and enemy troops. Main game folder, data\ui\faction_symbols. Change rebels.tga to slave.tga, and there you go. Works for the main game and the kingdoms expansions.

Custom Battles with Rebels

You can also change rebel availability in custom battles:
Medieval II Total War\tools\unpacker - Separate unpack file for every expansion. Unpack the files for your desired expansion, then go to the main data folder of said expansion and edit descr_sm_factions.txt. Find "faction slave" and change "custom_battle_availability" to "yes".

(Note: I've personally managed to find and edit this file for the Americas and Teutonic campaigns but couldn't locate it for Crusades and Britannia. If you're able to find these, please let me know how)

I went into detail in my guide to the rebel campaign in the main game, but in short:

Everyone is hard-coded to hate you.

You can't recruit any agents, with the exception of some naturally spawning heretics and possibly witches (though I haven't seen any witches spawn in the Kingdoms expansions so far).

Your armies get annihilated whenever you lose a battle, and the "withdraw" button is always disabled in combat (the exception is sally out draws, whether you return to the city after fighting or whether the battle timer runs out - you're still fine if that happens).

Your recruitment pool is limited and depends on the local culture (more in-depth description of what you can recruit and where is provided below for each expansion). In particular, you can't recruit any artillery or gunpowder units, except mercenaries.

No family tree, no generals promoted after heroic battles. That said, you do get randomly spawning generals (and deserters from regular factions), and once you've got some generals you'll start getting adoption offers as you expand. Though a lot of randomly spawning generals have character traits but the actual unit is Kazaks or whatever.

Prisoners on all sides are automatically executed. Yours are never returned, you never get a choice about what to do with the enemy's.

Finally, your economy is generally terrible, as you can't trade with anyone, have poorly developed settlements with a lot of troops to support, often plunging you into massive debt the moment you hit turn 2, unless you take drastic steps.

On the positive side:

Your cities and armies never riot or rebel, no matter how unhappy they are. So feel free to crank the tax rates up to max, and also to ignore happiness buildings and neglect garrisons in settlements not threatened by the enemy. Finally, capture enemy cities whenever you have a chance, as you don't have to worry about unhappiness due to culture or your garrison being too small to maintain control of the city.

You get naturally spawning armies in enemy territory to help you snipe poorly settlements.

If any faction loses all its settlements, its surviving armies and characters become rebels.
(Note: Only units that you can recruit as rebels remain; the rest disband.) Additionally, if you manage to eliminate the ruling family (usually has to be in a single turn or battle), all the faction's settlements flip to your control (though most characters will die instead).

Finally, your roster may consist mostly of low-tier units, but it's fairly diverse.

The game tells you that rebels recruit units based on local culture - and that's sort of the case, but armies can also change local culture.

Let's say a rebel army spawns in Scotland. You take them to Egypt and conquer Cairo. Cairo is now a Scottish city, complete with Scottish building options and Scottish unit recruitment options.

If you merge any local Egyptian units into the Scottish rebel army, they will be infected with Scottish culture, and will carry it into any settlement they capture, even if they are no longer part of the original Scottish army.

Conversely, if the Scottish army is merged into some Egyptian units, your Scotsmen in Egypt will become Egyptian.

If you want to change a settlement's culture, move the current garrison out, and move some units from a different culture in. A turn later, or after you save and reload, you can start recruiting units from the new culture in this settlement. You'll notice that this is basically what happens when you capture a city.

For each expansion, I'll provide:

• A list of the available rebel cultures.
  
• The cities and castles belonging to each culture (highlighting those starting under rebel control).
  
• Which units each culture can recruit, and the buildings required to recruit them.

Note that not every recruitment building you can construct will actually allow you to recruit a new unit. That said, many buildings allow you to recruit more of a certain unit. For instance, you get new knights as HRE by upgrading your castles, but the stable building chain will allow you to recruit more of each type of knight.

Finally, the rebel cultures in the kingdoms expansions don't get to build any naval units, only naturally spawning pirates or mercs (if available).

Your biggest initial problem is a severe lack of funds, plunging you deep into debt almost immediately. Making money is crucial. You need to:

• Move your capital to a location that's central to the settlements you intend to keep, minimizing losses due to corruption. (You can click on the purse icon to preview how much money you'll have next turn as you experiment with moving your capital.)
  
• Set taxes to "very high" wherever possible.
  
• Prioritize building trade and income-boosting structures.
  
• Disband unnecessary units, particularly those in isolated settlements unlikely to see combat and too far away to attack anything in the next few turns.

When you capture and sack enemy cities, destroy any unnecessary structures, like churches, happiness buildings, or artillery/gunpowder recruitment buildings, as these offer no use aside from providing a small refund.

Because most of your troops are so terrible and because you don't get any second chances, your army getting wiped out whenever you lose, you should try to fight in controlled environments, where the enemy comes at you exactly where and when you want - sieges where you have the upper hand, bridges and mountains, and most importantly, city defenses. With a bit of sallying out and good usage of walls and the plaza, you can beat far superior armies with your trash.

Your overall strategy should be simple:

• Defeat and annihilate attacking enemy armies.
  
• Immediately push forward to capture their now defenseless settlements.
  
• Repeat as you expand.

To quickly spot new rebel units spawning randomly, right-click the army/fleet button at the start of each turn. This shows every commander you have; newly spawned units typically appear at the bottom of the list.

If your army's captain is a specialized unit - like archers (with fire arrows) or knights (with wedge formation) - their special ability will replace the rally button, preventing them from rallying the troops. Setting unit like town militia or even peasants as captain can allow you to rally at the right moment to win a battle. Don't know how? Move the unit you want as captain out of the army, then merge the rest into it. Violin.

(Sometimes the special unit button is blank regardless, or works in one battle but doesn't in another. Why? No idea)

Always send expendable units to scout the way ahead of the main army, to avoid losing campaigns to random ambushes.

I'll be honest - not only did I used every possible bit of cheese against the AI, I also save-scummed a lot to figure out what I'm facing and what the enemy is going to do next. Hey, rebels can't recruit spies, so consider this your "rebel intelligence network." I'm not saying you have to be totally cheesy to win, just that it's always an option.

Going in reverse alphabetic order, or reverse order of interest.

As the rebels, you don't get to play with unique religious mechanics, and all your units are familiar trash from the main campaign. You don't even get to play as the Teutonic Order or the Mongols unless some of their armies rebel—their culture counts as Lithuanian or Russian (Novgorodian), so rebels from their area only recruit Lithuanian or Russian units.

The main keys to success:

Set your capital to Visby, then disband everything in Visby and A-bo (the latter apparently counts as an Australian slur when uncensored?) except the crossbow militia. You can't recruit ships, and by the time pirate fleets spawn to ferry these units to the mainland, the troops will cost you a fortune—assuming the pirate fleet spawns at all and doesn't immediately get sunk.

Crush Norway first. Send all your Swedish forces to destroy them. Denmark is surprisingly passive and generally won't bother your settlements until Norway is defeated.

Once, the entire Norwegian army boarded a boat and left on turn 2, allowing the forces from Tingvall to besiege Akershus. I got crossbowmen onto the walls, assassinated their king, and instantly made all of Norway’s troops and cities rebel. Usually, though, the AI isn't quite that incompetent, and an heir spawns soon enough. You'll likely have to defeat their armies and capture their cities the hard way. Once you manage this, however, you’ll have a secure base from which to expand across the map.

Early defense:

At first glance, all the small villages on the mainland seem hopelessly undefendable. But if you actually fight these battles manually, you'll find each village can hold out against multiple assaults (or at least until the enemy brings a full stack), particularly once you've built some walls and can sally out.

The key? Heights. High ground provides an enormous advantage, both for ranged units and melee fights—and your village plazas have ready-made hills. Holding the high ground can even neutralize cavalry charges, allowing mere peasants to kill enemy generals. After that, switch to fire arrows, and the enemy army will quickly rout.

Stick some archers on a different hill to shoot everyone in the back, and you can annihilate whole armies. Once you've built walls, you can sally out, occupy the high ground, bait enemies into chasing one of your units, pull back a bit as they approach, and shoot them in the back as they retreat.

As you get some money, you may want to convert some of those 400 population villages into castles, just to get some troop production going. Ironically, this (or getting Wooden Walls) flattens the hills out, leaving the settlement far harder to defend. But if you have to choose between having an easier time defending a worthless settlement and having an army of Strzelcy and Polish Nobles to conquer the map with...

Expansion Opportunities:

Combining troops from the L'vov tri-area provides a decent-sized army that can march east, seizing lightly defended Mongol territory by defeating their armies piecemeal. Units from Homyel, Mglin, and nearby settlements can also move south to join up.

One trick that worked for me is sacking (the city of) Novgorod early: Take the infantry from Tosno, place it here. The entire Novgorod army except the general will attack you at the end of turn 1. Withdraw, and you'll be able to siege Novgorod here. Bring in your Boyar's Sons from Tosno to join the siege. The general sallies out at the end of turn 2. You can defeat him in direct combat (blob your infantry together, use your Boyar’s Sons to throw javelins into his back from the moment he exits the gate), or you can have him chase your cavalry around. In the latter case, your peasants climb the walls, the general retreats to the plaza once the gates fall, you pile everyone onto the plaza without firing a shot and win by timeout.

My overall strategy typically involves advancing from the upper-left corner of the map downward, destroying Denmark and the HRE first. From the eastern side, I go back and forth fighting Novgorod, Lithuania, and the Teutonic Order. Once pirate fleets spawn, you can rapidly seize poorly guarded Teutonic coastal cities.

The Teutonic Order gets a couple of reinforcing crusade armies - they first appear on ships, so if you manage to get a pirate fleet patrolling the coast, you might be able to sink them without having to fight the actual army on land.

Typical Order of Early Attacks:
Settlements will be attacked in roughly this order during the first few turns:

Neustetten, Homyel
Uelzen, Dokshitsy, Potsdam
Biyalstok, Mstislavl,Gorlitza, Koszalin, Mglin, Olysta
Przeworsk
Klodzko, Starlsund, Liuboml

Practically everything on the mainland gets attacked regularly, but knowing this order helps prioritize reinforcing your settlements at the right time. For instance, Koszalin is rarely attacked before Neustetten falls, allowing you to move Koszalin’s units to Neustetten early. Similarly, you can reinforce Homyel with cavalry from Mstislavl and Chornobyl.

Unit stats \ Unit evaluation

Norway and Denmark
Towns: Tingvalla, Skara, Uppsala, Kalmar, Goteborg, Visby, @bo (these are the cities initially under Rebel control), Agder, Halmstad, Roskilde, Aarhus
(Wooden Wall): Town Militia
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Crossbow Militia

Castles: Akershus, Hassleholm
(Wooden Castle): Viking Raiders
(Fortress): Feudal Knights, Dismounted Feudal Knights
(Knight’s Stables): Huscarls
(Earl’s Stables): Chivalric Knights
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers
(Archery Range): Crossbowmen
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Drill Square): Norse Swordsmen

Holy Roman Empire:
Towns: Uelzen, Stralsund, Potsdam, Koszalin, Neustettin, Hannover, Hof, Magdeburg
(Wooden Wall): Town Watch
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Crossbow Militia
(Militia Drill Square): Halberd Militia

Castles: Hamburg, Prague
(Wooden Castle): Mailed Knights
(Fortress): Feudal Knights, Dismounted Feudal Knights
(Citadel): Imperial Knights
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Garrison Quarters): Sergeant Spearmen
(Drill Square): Armored Sergeants
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers
(Practice Range): Peasant Crossbowmen
(Archery Range): Pavise Crossbowmen

Poland:
Towns: Gurlitz, Klodzko, Przeworsk, Stettin, Poznan, Danzig, Czestochowka, Konigsberg, Plock, Cracow, Kiev, Siauliai
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Crossbow Militia
(Note that Polish and Russian crossbow militia have better defense than regular crossbow militia)
(Militia Drill Square): Halberd Militia

Castles: Marienburg, Thorn, Jazdown
(Motte and Bailey): Strzelcy
(Wooden Castle): Polish Nobles
(Citadel): Polish Knights
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Drill Square): Woodsmen
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers
(Practice Range): Polish Archers (can place stakes, but honestly you have better options for dealing with cav in Polish Nobles and Strzelcy)

Novgorod:
Towns: Chornobyl, Mstislavl, Mglin, Tosno, Dokshitsy, Pskov, Zhytomyr, Riga, Novgorod, Chernigov, Reval, Kholm, Vilnius, Vitebsk, Smolensk, Minsk
(Wooden Wall:) Archer Militia
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Crossbow Militia
Reminder that Russian crossbow militia are slightly better in melee and have better defense.

Castles: Narva, Dunaburg, Zubstov
(Motte and Bailey): Kazaks
(Wooden Castle) Boyar Sons
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Garrison’s Quarters): Woodsmen
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers

Lithuania
Towns: Bialystok, Liuboml, L’vov, Homyel, Olysta, Pinsk, Turov, Arensburg, Hrodna, Pernau, Kaunus, Panevezys, Baranavichy, Velikiye Luki
(Town Guard): Spear Militia

Castles: Palanga, Windau, Lida
(Motte and Bailey): Tatar Lancers
(Wooden Castle) Estonian Rebels
(Castle): Dismounted Tatar Lancers
(Knight’s Stables): Cuman Horse Archers
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Garrison’s Quarters): Sudovian Tribesmen
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers

If you want to unlock the ability to recruit mercs in the Teutonic campaign - keeping in mind that this will benefit the AI far more than it will benefit you - you can follow the suggestions made in this guide:

"1. Access your medieval 2 game files
2. Open the descr_mercenaries.txt file, located in
\Medieval II Total War\mods\teutonic\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
3. Remove the semi-colon character ( ; ) from mercenary units you wish to recruit in-campaign.

Code for units should go from this:
; unit Mercenary Crossbowmen exp 0 cost 860 replenish 0.02 - 0.6 max 2 initial 1

To this:
unit Mercenary Crossbowmen exp 0 cost 860 replenish 0.02 - 0.6 max 2 initial 1

If one also wishes to fix the Mercenary Rocket Launchers and make them recruitable in the Teutonic campaign, any code written as:
{ gunpowder_discovered mongols_invasion_warn }

must instead be changed into:
{ gunpowder_discovered }"

On the one hand, you're dealing with a situation similar to the Teutonic Campaign: your units are mostly the same as the main game, and you don't get access to Antioch or Jerusalem units. Worse yet—not only can't you recruit these units, but you don't even get any deserters to the rebels, almost all of their units just disband.

On the other hand, this campaign lets you command huge armies from the very start. No longer are you defending a city with three archer militias and a town guard against three spear militias and a general. Instead, you immediately face full stacks of knights besieging your cities, prompting you to desperately send full armies of horse archers to defend and reinforce. Ironically, this makes the Crusades expansion one of the easier rebel campaigns - you can potentially win without losing a single settlement.

Additionally, you gain access to some unique units not present in the main campaign. In particular, Greek Fire Throwers are pretty great on defense.

Keys to victory:

Crank taxes up to maximum, move your capital to Homs, build ports and trade buildings. As soon as you can, build mines in Tbilisi, Yerevan and Tabriz.

Immediately send reinforcements to towns about to be besieged. The typical siege order early on is:
Ballbeck
Banyas, Attaleia, Alanya, Kufa, Kermanshah, Adana
Alia
Quarisiya
Damascus, Al Basrah
Limassol, Homs, Beni Khalid Camp
Sebastea
Beni Hillal Camp
Theodosiopolis

I once had Antioch and Jerusalem simultaneously siege Ballbeck, Banyas, and Homs on turn two, which actually worked out well.

Winning Siege Battles:

• Bring a reinforcement army to the besieged city and sally out. Place archers on the walls.
  
• Use cavalry to bait enemy ranged cavalry into range of your archers, then surround and eliminate them.
  
• Once ranged cavalry is dealt with, use your cavalry to quickly destroy enemy archers (who will happily charge ahead of their main army).
  
• Kite the enemy knights, shooting them from behind as much as possible (while cursing your desert cavalry for their lack of responsiveness) before isolating and enveloping them with your cav.
  
• When enemy cavalry and archers are eliminated, bring your archers off the walls and shoot down the enemy infantry, baiting them to charge back and forth, getting shot in the sides and back. If you run out of ammo and the enemy still has a sizeable force, retreat into the city for a successful sally draw. You can then engage them in a field battle with your reinforcement army.
  
• If and when things come down to a siege attack, use your cav to lightly touch ladders and towers so that the enemy abandons them. They will ideally use rams to breach your gates and funnel all forces into a single chokepoint. At which point your cav hits them in the rear and they all rout.
  
• After lifting a siege, move the reinforcement army into the settlement (ideally the reinforcement army should be taking most of the casualties), and use the city's cavalry as reinforcements for the next city under siege.
  
• Once you've dealt with the initial sieges, Krak de Chevaliers should be relatively undefended and easy to capture. Their elite infantry severely overestimate how well they will do against archers shooting them in the back. Krak is a great place to retrain your troops in the area.

Expansion Strategy:

Meanwhile, concentrate your forces from the northeast and southeast corners of the map towards Baghdad. Conquering the Turks' eastern territories gives you a strong base of operations. Better yet, both the Turkish faction leader and heir start in the east, so killing both in a single turn allows you to instantly take over their entire empire.

Keep some defenses in the "Ben-whatever" camps—Jerusalem will often try to capture these. Generally, you won't have enough forces initially to immediately destroy Jerusalem and Antioch. It’s best to wait until your eastern armies finish dealing with the Turks and then redeploy westward.
Notably, the Crusader kings (Richard and Philip) aren't faction leaders or heirs, meaning if you eliminate their faction without killing these generals, you'll gain control of them.

It's much harder to gain control of special Turkish, Egyptian, or Byzantine characters—you must capture every one of their faction's settlements to do so. Simpler to kill the faction leader and heir, immediately capturing all their settlements but not gaining control of these special characters.

Around turn 15 (or about 10 turns after Richard and Philip arrive), two full stacks of Venetian forces will arrive near Constantinople. They have decent infantry and knights, but you know how to handle those from your battles against Antioch and Jerusalem. Unlike the Mongol hordes in the main game, the Venetian troops don't start with full experience, making them relatively easy to rout.

Ah... my game kinda started freezing towards the end of the campaign. So here's a list of all the armies that might spawn to challenge you, particularly the Mongols. Best of luck handling them - I managed to paint the map grey, but haven't managed to continue the game until the Mongol invasion.

Unit stats \ Unit descriptions

Byzantium:
Towns: Alanya, Nicosia, Constantinople, Abydos, Palaeokastron, Nicaea, Heraclea, Sinope, Amorium, Laodiciea, Iraklion
(Wooden Wall): Town Militia
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Archer Militia
Note that Byzantine Archer Militia is slightly better than regular Archer Militia.

Castles: Attaleia, Limassol, Smyrna, Rhodes, Trebizond,
(Motte and Bailey): Skythikon
(Wooden Castle): Byzantine Cavalry
(Fortress): Byzantine Lancers
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Garrison Quarters): Byzantine Spearmen
(Drill Square): Alamanoi
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers
(Practice Range): Trebizond Archers
(Archery Range): Greek Firethrower

Turkey:
Towns: Tbilisi, Theodosiopolis, Sebastea, Yerevan, Van, Tabriz, Adana, Homs, Quarisiya, Kirkuk, Kermanshah, Kufa, Beni Sulaym Camp, Beni Hillal Camp, Beni Khalid Camp, Al Basrah, Doryleum, Amorium, Ankara, Kirsehir, Takrit,
(Town Watch): Town Militia
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Saracen Militia
(Racing Track): Turkomans

Castles: Caesaria, Iconium, Mosul
(Motte and Bailey): Turkomans
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Garrison’s Quarters): Turkish Javelinmen
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers
(Practice Range): Turkish Archers

Egypt:
Towns: Banyas, Damascus, Baghdad, Raqqa, Siwa, Alexandria, Tanta, Cairo, Al Suways
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Saracen Militia
(Bazaar): Bedouin Camel Riders
(Racing Track): Arab Cavalry
(Sultan’s Racing Track): Mamluk Archers

Castles: Alia, Ballbek, Dumyat
(Motte and Bailey): Arab cav
(Wooden Castle): Malmuk archers
(Fortress): Malmuks
(Stables): Desert Cav
(Sheikh’s Stables): Ghulams
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Garrison’s Quarters): Dismounted Ghulams
(Drill Square): Nubian Spearmen
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers
(Practice Range): Desert Archers
(Archery Range): Nubian Archers
(Caravan stop): Tuareg Camel Spearmen (?) (not actually sure whether you can build a caravan stop in this expansion, but the Egyptian roster is mostly copy pasted from the main game otherwise)

Antioch and Jerusalem hold the following towns and castles:
Antioch, Acre, Arsuf, Ascalon, Kerak
Aleppo, Krak De Chevaliers, Malatya, Edessa, Diyabakir, Tyre, Jerusalem

The culture here is either Egyptian or null (no recruitment until you bring your own units in to replace the local culture).

A smaller and mostly familiar map, but you do get two new cultures with recruitable units, as well as forts to play with.

The AI almost never occupies forts, so you can freely use them as defensive positions and to save on upkeep costs. Got a random rebel spawn that can't handle attacking a nearby army or settlement in a fair fight? Park them in a fort, and they might manage to take on a larger enemy army, or at least prevent it from moving on to attack your settlements. Conversely, you can station expensive units like knights in forts while marching toward enemy territory to avoid paying upkeep.

Expansion strategy

You can safely disband the army on the Isle of Islay; it won't get attacked until Skye falls, and you're unlikely to get a random boat spawn to ferry it to the mainland anyway.

Initially, it might seem as though you're in a tough spot, with only a few settlements, barely any armies, and no economy. However, once you get some rebel spawns in English territory, you'll quickly discover that England is essentially a paper tiger, with plenty of undefended cities behind their front lines. You can capture London and Nottingham early to jumpstart both your troop production and economy.

Once you secure these settlements, slowly expand outward until you encounter Wales. Wales is conveniently bottlenecked by two forts guarding bridges. Let them siege a fort, bring in a reinforcement army, sally out, and prioritize destroying their archers with your cavalry. If you can't completely defeat their army during the sally, retreat into the fort to trigger a draw, then attack them with your relief army on the bridge. Retrain your cavalry at Gloucester as needed, and push into Welsh territory once their armies are weakened. Conveniently, Wales only gets additional spawned armies if their cities fall to England—not if they're captured by rebels.

Bridge Cheese - the New Edition

If you didn't manage to eliminate all enemy archers during your initial sally, here's a bit of cheese to deal with archers defending river crossings:

• Order your archer units to slowly move onto the bridge.
  
• Move your cursor slightly ahead of the enemy's foremost units (their archers). As soon as your cursor turns green, stop your archers immediately.
  
• If timed correctly, your archers will stand just outside the enemy's firing range, allowing you to safely shoot the enemy archers without retaliation.

Final notes

This is the only expansion that allows you to recruit mercenary cogs, so whenever you get a general capable of hiring them, feel free to sail to Ireland or go island-hopping.

Destroy the Barons' Alliance as soon as they appear. This will grant you several real generals, who will then begin adopting new generals regularly. Be cautious, however—if you receive a mission from the Barons' Alliance (either while they're active or from beyond the grave) to capture a specific settlement, you'll automatically hand that settlement over to them upon conquest.

Around turn 24, William Wallace arrives near Inverness. He's just a foot general with an army full of infantry (+3 archers) and easy to eliminate with a cavalry charge. Allow him to siege a city, then charge him from the left flank and rear with knights. Hit the archers with some cav while they're suffering from morale damage, then have your archers mow down his infantry.

If Edward of England somehow survives to turn 15, he'll get to chance to go on a crusade and return with an experienced army after turn 20. But... he really shouldn't survive that long, so that's not an issue.

Unit stats \ Unit evaluation

Scotland:
Town: Aberdeen, Perth, Stirling, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dumfries
(Wooden Wall): Town Militia
(Town Watch): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Scots Pike Militia

Castles: Skye, Dunstaffnage, Inverlochly, Inverness, Wick
(Motte and Bailey): Border Horse
(Knight’s Stables): Mailed Knights
(Baron’s Stables): Feudal Knights
(Mustering Hall): Highland Rabble
(Garrison Quarters): Highlanders
(Bowyer) Peasant Archers
(Practice Range) Highland Archers


England:
Towns: Carslisle, Newcastle Upon Tyne, York, Chester, Lincoln, Shrewsbury, Norwich, Cardiff, Oxford, London, Cantebury, Launceston, Winchester, Derry, Dublin
(Town Watch): Town Militia
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Archer Militia

Castles: Lancaster, Nottingham, Gloucester, Shaftsbury, Arundel, Athenry, Trim
(Motte and Bailey): Hobilars
(Wooden Castle): Levy Spearmen
(Castle): Armoured Sergeants (replacing Levy Spearmen)
(Knight’s Stables): Mailed Knights
(Baron’s Stables): Feudal Knights
(Earl’s Stables): English Knights
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Garrison Quarters): Levy Spearmen
(Drill Square): Armoured Swordsmen
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers
(Practice Range): Longbowmen

Norway:
Towns: Stornoway, Kirkwall, Arran
(Wooden Wall): Town Militia
(Town Guard): Spear Militia
(City Watch): Crossbow Militia


Castles: Mull, Castle Town
(Motte and Bailey): Viking Raiders
(Knight’s Stables): Huscarls (Castle Town)
(Baron’s Stables): Feudal Knights (Castle Town)
(Earl’s Stables): Chivalric Knights
(Bowyer): Peasant Archers \ Norse Archers
(Archery Range): Crossbowmen
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Drill Square): Norse Swordsmen

Wales
Towns: Montgomery
(Town Guard): Spear Militia

Castles: Caernarvon, Pembroke
(Wooden Castle): Gwent Raiders
(Fortress): Rhyfelwyr
(Knight’s Stables): Mailed Knights
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Barracks): Morgannwg Spearmen
(Practice Range): Saethwyr (basically longbowmen, can deploy stakes)


Ireland:
Towns: Isle of Islay, Downpatrick, Tipperary, Cork
(Wooden Palisade): Ceitherne
(City Watch): Gaelic Archers
(Militia Drill Square): Galloglaich

Castles: Lifford, Athenry (?)
(Stables): Hobiguir
(Mustering Hall): Peasants
(Drill Square): Ulster Swordsmen
(Bowyer): Gaelic Archers

Culture \ Local Units
By default, if you conquer a settlement from culture A as culture B, you'll be able to recruit units particular to culture A until your own culture overwrites the local one. This works wonkily for the rebels, as they don't have their own culture.

(Wooden Palisade \ Motte and Bailey and at least 20% local culture influence):
Scotland: Highland Pikemen
Ireland: Irish Kerns
Norway: Norse Scouts
Wales: Welsh Skirmishers
England: English Billmen

(Wooden Wall \ Wooden Castle, 40%):
Scotland: Border Horse
Ireland: Irish Squires - don't work
Norway: Norse Archers
Wales: Welsh Hunters
England: English Heavy Billmen

(Stone Wall \ Castle, 50%)
Scotland: Highland Archers
Ireland: Galloglaich - don't work
Norway: Viking Raiders
Wales: Welsh Axemen
England: English Mailed Knights

(Large Stone Wall \ Fortress, 70%)
Scotland: Highland Swordsmen
Ireland: Irish Calivermen - really don't work
Norway: Norse Axemen
Wales: Welsh Longbowmen
England: English Spearmen

Probably the hardest rebel campaign ever. Extremely limited troop recruitment, no mercenaries available, and you're facing two overwhelming threats:

The Europeans.

Their troops are vastly superior to yours, though they struggle to replenish losses if you prevent them from capturing settlements and their morale can be broken. Also, their infantry seems slightly slower than yours, so you can at least chase down and completely destroy the armies you manage to defeat.

You're facing 5 (!) Spanish armies right away, and more and more European expeditions will keep arriving throughout the game (Ctrl+F and search for "event spawns"), testing your defenses behind the front lines.

As if you needed more incentive to defend your cities, European armies automatically destroy all native buildings upon capturing any settlement.

You can't recruit ships, and pirates don't spawn in this expansion—meaning you can never sail to Cuba to eliminate the Spanish directly. Troops that rebel in Cuba seem to disband immediately, just to make things more difficult. However, if the Spanish faction leader and heir both die within the same turn, Spain is defeated permanently and won't respawn. You even get access to certain Spanish missions and rewards if that happens.

The only rebel Spanish troops you get are crossbows. Not even generals - all rebel generals in this campaign are standard issue Aztec ones.

The Natives.

Their units aren't as overwhelmingly deadly as the Europeans, but they have numerous 25-morale heavy infantry units who are practically unbreakable. Since a large portion of your forces will inevitably be basic garbage, you must carefully manage every engagement to avoid getting charged into oblivion by Jaguar \ Guanciale warriors.

Also, you have no cavalry, which means you'll frequently see enemy native armies rout mostly intact, forcing you to defeat them over and over again. Always fun to watch your eagle warriors chase routing units only to politely escort them off the battlefield without ever landing a hit.

Recruitment difficulties:

So the rebels have a limited roster, what else is new?

Well, issues specific to the campaign are the lack of mercs and lack of Apache troops. Only the Apaches and New Spain (if it has an alliance in the area) get to recruit mercs, and you are neither. Among other things, this means that you'll never get more native warriors \ native archers besides the forces you started with.

No Apache Units: Notice how roughly half the map consists of Great Plains culture rebel settlements? Unfortunately, these settlements are essentially locked into recruiting only Apache Braves. The Apache faction's ability to unlock new recruitment buildings is tied to specific conditions, such as "defeat X enemy units," "recruit Y units of type Z," and most importantly, "be the Apache faction"—which you obviously aren't. Unless you edit the game files (instructions below) or move a different culture into these settlements, you're stuck recruiting Braves indefinitely. The only exception is Apache Camp, where you can recruit Dog Soldiers and Apache Scouts.

The Chichimecs have similar restrictions, though at least you can recruit some decent units from their cities regardless.

Unit stats \ Unit descriptions

Spain
Vera Cruz and Havana
Havana starts with Port and can’t recruit or build anything besides Crossbow Militia and War Galley, ever. (And conquering the settlement as a native faction destroys the Port)
As for Vera Cruz:
Palace – Aztec Archers
Palace Complex – Aztec Spear Throwers
Stone Wall – Aztec Warriors, Aztec Spearmen, Peasants

If the faction leader and his heir die on the same turn, the Spanish do get destroyed. And unlike non-playable European factions, they don't respawn. Weirdly enough, you start getting missions from the Spanish consulate. Including rewards like Conquistadores (!)

Mayans:
Trujillo, Tlacochaplan, Quirigua, Yaxchilan, Altun Ha, Chetumal, Potonchan, Xicallanco, Tikal, Uxmal, Canpech, Chichen Itza
Great Pyramid – Jaguar Warriors
Great Ball Court – Hornet Throwers

Unlike other campaigns, I've encountered some difficulties specifically in replacing Mayan culture with the Aztec one. Not sure what the issue is.

Aztecs:
Tolocan, Cholollan, Totetepec, Coatzalcoalcos, Xelaju, Tochtlan, Tenochtitlan, Tixla, Huaxtelpec, Tehuacan, Taniquiecache, Mictlan, Tecuantepec, Tochpan, Tolan
(Small Wooden Wall): Peasants
(Pyramid): Aztec Spearmen
(Palace): Aztec Archers
(Great Pyramid): Aztec Warriors, Coyote Priests,
(Palace Complex): Aztec Spear Throwers
(Ball Court): Eagle Warriors
(Great Ball Court): Jaguar Warriors
(Skull Rack): Arrow Warriors
(Temple of the Sun): Cuahchiqueh

Tlaxcalans:
Tlaxcallan
(Palace): Tlaxcalan Archers
(Ball Court): Eagle Warriors
(Great Ball Court): Jaguar Warriors
(Temple of the Sun): Cuahchiqueh

Tarascans
Tecoman, Octolan, Apatzingan, Zacapu
(Ball Court): Eagle Warriors
(Great Ball Court): Jaguar Warriors
(Temple of the Sun): Cuahchiqueh

Chichimeca:
Ahuacatlan, Cuahtemoc, Culiacan, Colotan, Zacatecas
(Great Pyramid): Zacatecos Raiders
(Ball Court): Guachichil Warriors

Apachean Tribes:
Cochimi Camp, Pitic, Navojoa Camp, Tongva, Chihuahua, Apache Camp, Aguapalamp Camp, Comanche Camp, Coahuila, Caddo Camp, Chickasaw, Choctaw Camp, Alibamu, Muccosukee camp, Yamacraw, Calusa, Tequesta, Apache Camp
(Raider’s Tipi): Apachean Braves
(Raider’s Wig-Wam): Apache Scouts
(Hunter’s Wig-Wam): Dog Soldiers

Note that Apache Camp is the only settlement that can actually produce Scouts and Dog Soldiers—or rather, it's the only settlement that has the relevant wigwams, since you can’t construct any Apache recruitment buildings elsewhere. Every other settlement is limited to Braves only. Even the armor building doesn’t work.

Of course, if you want to work around this:

• You can go into the campaign_script.txt file (found in the imperial_campaign folder) and edit the Native Tech Tree events, removing the "If Apache" condition.
  
• Alternatively, head to descr_strat.txt and manually add recruitment buildings to specific settlements. If you want to simulate "earning" elite units, place those buildings in enemy capitals.

If you're looking to recruit mercenaries, open up descr_mercenaries.txt and remove the religion or event-based restrictions—either globally or just for specific entries.

Enabling merc recruitment for everyone benefits the AI much more than you, since AI factions often start with generals who can immediately begin hiring mercs.

First, the usual opening moves:

• Set very high taxes everywhere and move your capital to Coatzalcoalcos.
  
• Disband all troops in Cochimi Camp (no ships will ever reach there to move the troops elsewhere).
  
• Combine your scattered forces into large armies at strategic locations.
  
• Prioritize building roads and trade infrastructure, especially in your large southern cities.

Your cities are sieged approximately in this order:

• Ahuacatlan, Cholollan
  
• Coatzalcoalcos
  
• Tolocan, Tecoman, Ocotlan, Cuahtemoc, Tongva (Cuatemoc and Tongva don't have walls, so the enemy will attack right away)
  
• Xicallanco, Chetumal or Altun
  
• Coahuila
  
• Aguapalam camp, Cuahtemoc
  
• Ocotlan
  
• Pontonchan

Keys to Victory
Immediately eliminate the Apache, then focus on the Mayans and Tlaxcallans.
(Alternatively, let the Apaches spread to build recruitment structures, providing better Great Plains troops later, if you don't want to "cheat" by editing the game files - but this means less early income, idle armies, and a tougher late-game Apache enemy.)

The Apache begin with powerful armies but only one settlement, so rush it immediately. Defeat their armies when they're sieging your settlements and evade \ juke their field armies if possible. You don’t need to kill every Apache army out on the field - once you capture Apache Camp (no walls, allowing you to attack the moment you reach it), many Apache units will turn rebel and join your forces.

Reinforce Tongva from Pitic, Chihuahua from Navojoa Camp, Comanche Camp, and Coahuila from Cado Camp, in case your initial attack fails. You’ll absolutely have to defend Tongva before the Apaches are gone. Bring the rebel army from Pitic as reinforcement and use your archers superioirity. Position the archers as close as possible to the enemy before battle starts. Focus their fire on Apache medicine men and general as they maneuver before attacking, then scatter your archers so some retreat away from the settlement when the Apaches rush your plaza, letting you shoot them from behind.

Controlling the Apache Camp allows you to recruit Dog Soldiers, Scouts, and Braves. Braves are your only source armor-piercing damage against Europeans, so endure the tedious journey of deploying them to the south. Consider converting a southern city to Apache culture purely for more Braves production.

Great Plains

Great Plains units are generally inexpensive to maintain, but your northern armies have a bunch of Native Archers/Warriors with relatively high upkeep. Crossing the Plains is painfully slow, and not worth the upkeep cost you'll incur. I suggest disbanding everything east of Cado Camp except Dog Soldiers, and relocating those to Calusa and Tequesta. Even Braves cost 30 upkeep each, and it might take 20+ turns before the French arrive in Florida. Disbanding Braves on turn 1 and recruiting them later might be more cost-effective.

Braves and Dog Soldiers are also the only units that can reach Florida before the French arrive. Use them to defend bridges and settlements, but take care - your low morale won't withstand direct cavalry charges. Spread out units to minimize artillery damage, converge on cavalry (blunting their charges if possible) once they hit the plaza. Flank and use armor-piercing javelins to kill enemy generals, switch to fire arrows, rout the cavalry, flank the infantry, and finish off the ranged units, who are basically just free kills at this point.

European generals (except the Spanish) have 3 HP and take extra effort to kill. Other European cavalry have 1 HP, making them significantly easier targets than the conquistadors.

Your first battle against the Spanish (Coatzalcoalcos)

Spanish forces quickly siege Coatzalcoalcos. Recruit some spears before they get there, move at least one Hornet Thrower inside, and position a reinforcement army behind the attackers.

During their assault (don't sally out, their ranged troops will tear you to pieces), line archers along walls in loose formation, making sure to activate towers. Spread other troops near - but not clumped in - the plaza to avoid artillery. Sally out with eagle and jaguar warriors from an opposite gate to bait cavalry into moving around and getting shot. No need to engage with these troops just yet - occupy a high ground and the conquistadors probably will run around but not charge you.

Retreat archers once the artillery targets your towers, as the cavalry is about to storm. I once got lucky, with enemy crossbowmen and musketeers lining up along the village wall, trying to engage the jaguar and eagle warriors, getting slaughtered; usually, though, cavalry protect them, so you'll have to wait until the plaza fight is won before you can get rid of the enemy ranged units. Defend at the plaza using Hornet Throwers and fire arrows. Your troops are unbreakable - the Spanish just seem to be.

Expansion elsewhere

Sadly, you'll be forced to allow the Chichimecs to expand a bit. I once managed to defend Ahucatlan against their annoyingly unbreakable units by holding the village center, only to lose it the next turn when another army arrived. Trying to defend the river crossing doesn't help much either - just too many unbreakable troops. It might be better to evacuate the settlement altogether and retreat north.

In the western front, you can often sally out with your archers when sieged by armies that only have spear throwers. Let the spear throwers come to your archers, flank and wreck them with your melee, then kite and shoot the eagle warriors (arrow fodder) and jaguar warriors (shoot them in the back as they turn away after chasing your archers).

Try to eliminate the Tlaxcalans early, or at least deny them your settlements. It's easier to fight a single large faction rather than several smaller ones, as a large faction has relatively less money to field tough armies. I defeated two of their sieging armies, then got a single turn free from being sieged. I "baited" a sally from Tlaxcallan proper (one unit sieging, the main army standing on the other side of the settlement on the world map, acting as reinforcements) and captured it in the same turn, before reinforcements could arrive. This netted me several Tlaxcalan armies and an excellent settlement for troop recruitment. It also proved a useful staging point for later assaults on Vera Cruz as the Spanish armies moved eastward.

Finally, consolidating your forces in the Mayan region gives you enough troops to match them unit-for-unit. You can either allow them to siege your settlements, destroy their armies, and then counterattack - or maneuver around their armies entirely and capture their settlements instead. The Spanish will land near Chichen Itza/Chetumal around turn 12–14, so aim to finish off the Mayans before then.

First of all, it's worth keeping in mind where and when you will find European armies just popping up:

A random Spanish general will spawn:
~ Turn 5 - Aguapalam
~ Turn 10 - Potonchan
~ Turn 15 - Aguapalam
~ Turn 20 - Cuahtemoc
~ Turn 25 - Coahuila
~ Turn 30 - Aguapalam
~ Turn 35 - Caddo Lands
~ Turn 40 - Cuahtemoc
~ Turn 50 - Coahuila
~ Turn 60 - Cuahtemoc

Bigger Spanish armies:

10-20 turns - Chichen Itza

20-40 turns - Tochpan

30-60 turns - Tequesta

English spawns:
40-50 turns - Trujillo
90-125 turns - Altun Ha

French spawns:
20-30 turns - Calusa
110-160 turns - Calusa

England gets upwards of eight groups arriving on New World shores. Robert Rich's expedition introduces the next three groups, arriving within 5–10 turns of each other. Peter William's expedition arrives 20–30 turns later, followed by three additional groups led by captains, again spaced 5–10 turns apart.

France gets ten groups in total. Jean Ribault follows a similar pattern to England, but with four initial groups arriving in quick succession. After about 30–50 turns, Robert de La Salle’s expedition arrives with another four captain-led groups.

Now that you know when and where the Europeans arrive, how do you actually beat them?

General Approach

Ideally, always engage European armies with another full stack as AI-controlled reinforcements to back you up. European troops—especially musketeers and crossbowmen—are actually weak in direct combat and will often rout as soon as you charge. However, because their cavalry takes forever to die, their ranged troops may regroup and cause serious damage. By coordinating your main and reinforcement armies to attack simultaneously from two directions, you trap the Europeans. The AI-controlled army helps catch routers and prevents enemy ranged units from regrouping and shooting, minimizing your losses and ensuring you actually destroy the enemy army after victory.

Neutralizing Cavalry Advantages

• Use spearmen extensively.
  
• Pick battlefields where cavalry charges are nullified—dense forests, high ground in mountainous areas, or river crossings.
  
• Important note: Only defend river crossings; if you initiate an attack at a bridge, you'll be forced to advance under a hail of musket and cannon fire—not a fun time.

Army Composition

A strong army to counter Europeans should consist mostly of:

• Jaguar warriors (or ideally Guachichil warriors later, as they're generally better).
  
• A balanced mix of spearmen and Cuahchiqueh warriors. (Note: Someone mentioned th Cuahchiqueh morale-fear effect only stacks up to three times, so three scary units should be enough.)
  
• At least two priests, positioned behind your lines to boost morale.
  
• 2–3 hornet throwers for disruption.
  
• 2–3 archers (using fire arrows), and possibly some Arrow Warriors (their javelins can serve as emergency anti-cavalry).

If you have access, replace archers with Dog Soldiers, and add Braves for armor-piercing. Early on, you'll mostly rely on Native Warriors and Eagle Warriors—use the Native Warriors to chase down routers or flank, as they'll instantly rout if charged by cav. Treat Eagle Warriors as weaker Jaguar Warriors; they'll hold up somewhat in direct combat, but won't do a lot of damage.

The European ranged units often advance ahead of their infantry and cav to engage you. Let them come to your preferred spot on the battlefield, then charge them in a mass, flanking if possible, and you'll often rout them right away. Now the cavalry charges you - hopefully you've set up on unfavorable terrain. Have your spears brace, retreat valuable infantry behind them. Once the cav is engaged, flank (focusing on the general), throw in hornets, fire arrows. Make sure to close the trap and cut off their ability to retreat as much as possible, cav fighting to the death causes much less damage than cav that routed and regrouped for another charge. Send a few units of injured \ unreliable infantry to keep the European ranged units running away - do so without engaging the European infantry. Once the cav is gone, kiting or flanking the infantry and routing the rest of the army is easy.

Once again, I have a rebel campaign guide to the main game, if you're interested:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3424516745

At the time I wrote it, I thought the rebels had the toughest campaign possible. I was yet to experience the Americas campaign.

The original guide had a lot of suggested modifications made by To Nerd is Human:
https://www.youtube.com/@ToNerdistoHumanTNH/videos

Not so much for this guide, but I do suggest checking out his rebel campaign playthroughs for the main game and all the expansions. Proof positive that you can win these without exploiting every single cheese tactic the way I did.

Let me know if I missed anything, upvote if you found this to be useful.