Battles seem like fun in Empire IMO... but I haven't played it yet.

Okay.

Well, my gripe with it was that it was far more than I could handle, I picked the Almohads and I was very successful, I conquered a lot of the world, but every province kept rebelling, every turn I had like 5 rebellions and no matter what I did it couldn't get better. Also, since I didn't have the patience to dedicate myself to the battles, I kept simulating them, which meant that I missed half of the game, it just didn't feel right.

On the other hand, I felt right at home with Europa Universalis 3, it's like Medieval but without the things that bothered me from that game

Don't know much about this game but congrats.

Did you press shift before ending every turn to see which provinces are unhappy, and which ones are about to rebel? Did you spam Imams and priests, and at least build a mosque when you conquer a province? If you do that at least, the province will eventually become a 100% Muslim.

Micromangement in Medieval 1 sucks because of the lack of auto taxing, and no list building. However, rebelling shouldn't be a problem at all. The only problem provinces are Portugal, Norway, and... hmmm I forgot, but those 2 provinces were designed to be a pain in the ass >.< I think Scotland too. Anyway, all you needed to do was press Shift, sweep through your provinces, and see which ones are red or not.

Since you were playing as a Muslim nation, you also shouldn't have had an dramatic change in public order, due to the lack of sudden, wide spread changes like Excomunications. If you're talking about nations reappearing, yeah they're a pain the ass... but I think they only reappear if the province was going to rebel anyway... so if you prevent rebellion in the first place, you shouldn't get a spam of elite units and a king anyway.

I stimulated battles in Medieval 1 too, unless I HAD to win. It wasn't until Rome: Total War, when I began to enjoy the battles more than the campaign. Don't worry man, some people only played online battles, like Prince of Macedon. Some people play a FPS only for online, some only for single player. The battles in Medieval 1 is outdated by our standards. It's too slow, even if I flank a unit from behind, with a full charge of calvary, they won't route. It just feels a lot messy and sloshy in Medieval 1.

As the Almohads, here is my sudgestion:

Expanding Eastward is a 50/50 for me. Of course, your fellow Muslim's lands are rich, but you have so few Muslims allies in the first place, and once you take all the lands, you'll become the only target of Crusades.

I'll build Gold Mines in all of North Africa, and spam Militias (like Denmark's Vikings, these are the best early units, you must utilize them to the max before they become outdated). Take over Spain and the Aragons. You should have 2 border provinces to defend against France and Italy/Germany (depending on how the Catholic nations act).

I'll ignore France, move onto the British isles, and then to Denmark, and the northern lands. Sweden, I think, had rich lands. Once you have secured those lands, you should have enough power and money to make your own decisions. Trading with both Italy and the Eastern ports, you should become rich. Build up money, built up a navy, make alliances, see who took over what, and take advantage of the situation.

step 2 in conquering the world: EUniversalis.... now that takes a whole lot of time...

Does that game really get that into it? With the popes and stuff? Or did you make it up yourself?

What do you mean? Assassinating popes? Hell yeah =D

Monopolizing the College of Cardinals? Hell yeah =D

Using the Pope to call Crusades against your enemies, and at the same time, emptying your fellow Catholic's garrison? Hell yeah =D

Having high relations with the Pope, while he has low relations with your enemies? Hell yeah =D

I really like the music, i like playing rome and its similiar to that, something you can listen to for hours!