The map of the Baltic is well-done, and the music fits in perfectly with the theme of the campaign. It should be noted that the map is very flat. There are no choke-points or mountains or anything like that. Aside from some mountains near Prague and in Norway, it's all flat. However, there are lots of patches of forest everywhere, offering the wise player the ability to lay ambushes.



Water will not affect your campaign much. The only faction that will find the water important is Denmark, as the Danes need to cross the Baltic sea if they wish to invade Prussia. Unless, of course, you decide to be a steamroller and just crush Poland and the HRE to get to the Teutons. But other than Denmark, only Norway will find the water important. For the other factions, the sea is a small priority when compared to the other tasks at hand. The most you will experience when playing as those other factions will be a port blockaded or a small fleet attacked.

Managing cities is the same as vanilla, however the Lithuanians have several unique buildings that should be used wisely. Those temples offer you great troops and bonuses, so they are definitely something you should use to fit your needs.

The Teutonic Order
Playing as the Teutons, you will find yourself in a bit of a jam. First of all, a good chunk of the factions hate your guts, and the ones that like you enough to form an alliance with you betray you later on. Trust no one. You will have a hard time defending your territory from the hordes of troops the Lithuanians pump out and from the ever-greedy armies of Novgorod. Your position on the map - in the dead center - makes you a prime target and easy pickings for everyone. Adding to your disadvantage is the fact that your troops are expensive. Really expensive. So much so that if you want to field more than one full stack army, you will soon be bankrupt.
That's not to say its impossible. The units you can field are superb, absolutely superb. They can withstand a lot of punishment and deal out a lot, too. The Burgher Pikemen will help you hold cities while your Order spearmen, Prussian archers, and Ritterbruder destroy almost any early army they meet. You don't have great light cavalry, but if you use your heavy cavalry well, you can completely destroy enemy formations.
Overall, the Order is a much-hated faction with superb, cool-looking units that can destory any
enemy unit, provided you can afford them.
Oh, and did I mention that crusaders come from England and France to help you out? If you get one of those armies, get ready to do some steamrolling.




Lithuania

Lithuania focuses on light infantry and cavalry. As the description says in the menu, they have excellent light cavalry, which counters the heavy horses of the Teutons. To get the most out of Lithuania's units, you need to focus on special tactics and strategies. Hit and run's with your cavalry, along with the use of skirmishing archers and some militia to hold the line, should help you to win most battles early game. In the mid-to-late game, you get some decent axemen and infantry units, and you also get some heavy cavalry to assist in taking down the Teutons.

On the camapign map, you are also in the dead center, and locked in a bitter war with the Order. You need to plan your moves wisely and pick your friends and enemies well. Novgorod should ally with you without any problem. Just don't let them get too powerful. They can field some serious armies. The Mongols can be allied with, but in my opinion, just taking them out is better, as that way you can better protect yourself from attacks from the rear. The other factions can be allied with as long as you are against the Order. Once tensions start to rise, you'll most likely find yourself at war with most of them.




Novgorod

The twin of the Russia faction in vanilla, and arguably the second worst enemy of the Teutonic Order, Novgorod is a faction with great possibilities. As long as you can protect yourself from attacks early game, you have the world at your finger-tips. The Teutonic Order is too busy with Lithuania to protect its northern settlements well, and Lithuania is too busy trying to protect itself from the various factions attacking it to give much though to you. You will find it easy to expand your borders and form a vast empire, just don't mess up early game.

You units are light and you have few really heavy infantry units to combat the western factions, so using your horse archers and foot archers well is critical in achieving victory.




Denmark

Ah, the Danes. I won't spend too mcuh time on them. All you need to know is that you got beast infantry who can chew up almost any other unit in the game. You got killer units and almost all of Scandinavia ready for the taking. Only Norway stand in your way up there in the North, but (sorry Norwegians), what threat do they really pose to you? Overall, you got some of the best infantry in the game and plenty of space to expand in the North.
If you need any furthur explanation then you are not human.






HRE, Poland, Mongols, Norway

I'll just quickly go over these factions.

HRE - great infantry units and awsome heavy cavalry. Good starting position.

Poland - professional horse units, but weak infantry and archers. A starting position that is far from ideal, and that will likely make you go to war on two fronts.

Mongols - great ranged units, both mounted and dismounted, but weak economy and a general dislike of your faction among your neighbors. However, good starting position (in a corner) that gives you some sense of security, because you can't be attacked from behind.

Norway - almost exactly the same as Denmark, but in a good position (another corner).

Battles in the Teutonic expansion are the usual great conflicts we see in the Medieval 2 game, with some new looks. The battlefields match perfectly with the land on which they are being fought on, from the dark forests and wet fields of the land around the Baltic, to the grassy plains of Ukraine and Russia.
The music is a work of art. It gets your heart pumping and fits in perfectly with the theme of the campaign. Oftentimes, I found myself reluctant to leave the battlefield simply because the music would end.
The Teutonic castles look absolutely AMAZING. The reddish-brown color and the immense size of the castles really give a sense of awe and power. You feel totally awesome defending them, or totally intimitated attacking them.

The Teutonic expansion has several outstanding features that help to make the game come to life and play much more interestingly.

Crusades

Several times during your campaign as the Order, crusaders from England and France will come and help you out. They come with good armies, and good money. All you need to do is win victories with them, and you will be rewarded. Crusaders can be lifesavers. One turn you are being beaten back, with no money and no troops to use, and then the next turn you have a fresh, well-trained army at your beck-and-call. Crusaders are very useful. Use them wisely.

The Conversion of Lithuania

At one point during the game (not sure when exactly), Lithuania will be given the option of either remaining pagan or converting to Christianity. Converting would relieve the pressure from the Christian factions a bit, and will help put an end to the crusades. However, in doing so you will lose your unique pagan troops and temples, and that would be a blow to your armies. The decision is yours.

The Hanseatic League

This unique event is quite interesting. Basically, you need to control several key cities along the Baltic coast - examples of these are Danzig and Konigsberg - and make sure that they become big trade cities, having lots of trade income and merchants. Eventually, you will get an event that talks about the Hanseatic League. Later on, if you contol a majority of the big trade hubs along the Baltic, you will get a Hanseatic League guild house established in one of those cities. I personally do not know much about how it works, but I guess its safe to assume that you'll get a significant trade bonus and income. Whatever it does, if it makes you money, go for it.

The Kalmar Union

The Scandinavians are not overlooked in this expansion, oh no. If you play as Denmark, you will be able to establish the Kalmar Union. Now, I'll admit, I do not know anything about it, as I have never seen it happen. So, I went to the good old Total War Forums and looked it up to save you guys the trouble of searching. :p
In a nutshell, you need to conquer specific cities in Scandinavia and assasinate the King of Norway. DO NOT eliminate the faction of Norway. Just conquer pretty much all of Scandinavia, and you'll eventually get a mission to kill the king of Norway. Once you kill him off, you'll get a message giving you the option to join the Union. Once you accept, you will be a new banner and some new units, as well as all of the regions currently held by Norway.

The Teutonic expansion has great variety, both on the campaign map and on the battlefield. On the campaign map, you have a great variety of religions, four religions to be exact. Catholicism, Islam, paganism, and Orthodox Christianity. These different religions make the game much more interesting to play and really bring some depth into the game. The land also has variety. In the course of your campaign, you'll be fighting in the woods of Scandinavia, the rolling hills of Lithuania, and the open plains of Ukraine and Russia. The unit variety is also very good. From the heavy axemen of Denmark to the light cavalry of Lithuania to the archer-infantry hybrid of the Mongols, you have lots of flavor to your campaign. You'll need different strategies to take them down. Charging full force with you infantry won't do diddly-squat against the Mongols, but it might work against the Danes.

But are there any defects to the game in terms of gameplay? Well, no, not really. Some of the special features like the Hanseatic League and the Kalmar Union may be a little annoying to do, but nothing is really game-breaking. Of course the AI could always be better. It gets old really fast to see the AI charging head-long through an open gate right into the spears of my 800 soldiers, instead of using multiple siege equipment. The morale needs to be tweaked as well. It's kind of unrealistic for one unit of cavalry to rout an entire army of heavy knights. But like I've said before, nothing really ruins the fun.

So, in conclusion, the Teutonic expansion is a superb campaign that immerses the player into the land of the Baltic Sea, where religion and cultures clash and where men fight and die for their faiths. The music fits in perfectly, the variety of units and factions is great, and the special features are truly awsome additions to the campaign. In my opinion, the best campaign in the Kingdoms expansion.


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I hope you all enjoyed my little over-view. It was really fun to write this guide, and I might do some more on the other campaigns later on.
Please rate this guide and leave a comment. It really helps me out!