Suggested post 1081 starts?

[Cal585]

I've enjoyed playing 1066 and 1081 (occasionally OG), but was looking to experiment a bit more with the later start dates. Have tried and enjoyed Jerusalem and Ottomans before, but looking at particular set-ups rather than individual countries/characters, does anyone have any recommendations?

I've heard Latin Empire can be a fun start?

 

[TheDungen]

The rise of the hansa start is also nice. Actually most starts are interesting for various reasons.

 

[Cal585]

Yeah, my only hesitation with starts 3rd Crusade onwards is the size of England. It's nice having the Plantagenets, but they do control half of Ireland and France. Are they too much of a blob in game?

 

[SaphireSeas]

Yeah, my only hesitation with starts 3rd Crusade onwards is the size of England. It's nice having the Plantagenets, but they do control half of Ireland and France. Are they too much of a blob in game?

They are surrounded by Catholics though, which should make their expansion more difficult.
Except of course they can holy war Africa, which, given the OG start date they probably will.

 

[iquabakaner]

Kingdom of Jerusalem has to be on the list.

 

[Ultima_Ratio]

The Latin Empire is awesome.

 

[Bernard95]

I'll second the Latin Empire as being a personal favorite. Beyond that, my other favorite late starts are off bookmark in the Vanilla game but are found in Sniggle's Bookmarks- Edge of the Knife (1098), Jerusalem At Its Height (1124), and Collapse of the Seljuks (1157).

 

[iquabakaner]

I never tried the other greek states during the Latin Empire bookmark, but I thought it would be fun as well.

 

[Roman.Emperor.Immortal]

try the Byzantine Empire in 1337 its hard to play a Jihad might be called on you...

 

[Roman.Emperor.Immortal]

As Emperor Of the Byzantine Empire its a small state of what it was in 1066 or 869 and 769 start dates...