Did I crack the game? Or should I try Hard?

[Goglas]

So tell me if I already found the unbeatable start of which I'd use every game and lose interest in the game because of it...eventually;
Start the game with most of your neighboring countries liking you. Sign Trade Agreements with them. Put your Marshal in one of your towns and your royal family as Merchants, trading with the neighboring countries.
Don't war anybody, don't build an army. If somebody attacks you, it's easy to repel them with a quick recruitment of 6 (More if your marshal is there) Peasants. Invest all of your money in the first military buildings (Say, Fletcher and Swordsman for Archers and Swordsmen). While you build your first army (Of Archers and Swordsmen), raise your Kingdom Power a bit for more money, happiness and in case you need to break one of your Trade Agreements soon.
Attack somebody.
Keep raising your Kingdom Power, transform one of your royals to a spy and recruit another marshal to help the first bring down your first enemy quickly and protect your lands.
Build Granaries for more food in each city, and for the ability to build stables and have your next army made up of horsemen (Build the breeding building or switch a merchant/recruit another one to bring you horses).
By this time your Kingdom Power should be on 5. Keep expanding, keep building in all your cities, don't forget to build Churches and Inns for books, happiness and the like, and you pretty much won the game.

So, am I right? Just over confident? Need to try the hard difficulty where the computer may "rush" you with a strong army?
Because once I understood not to attack right from the start of the game, and raise my Kingdom Power, this game, I think, became very easy.
I started a new game last night as Norway, did exactly that, and now I'm controlling Sweden, Denmark, a huge amount of northern cities, where Poland and Germany used to be, I'm attacking Novgorod and winning, and my entire population is happy (And for no reason, I even use a Cleric to adopt populations and raise the happiness to more than 20% - Meaning, Rebellion risk is on green).

EDIT: Oh, and I know I should also try the few things I did not use in this "start plan", like Spies and Builders, and what happens when a country wars you from the start. But the question remains: Is this game that easy?

[maks]

It is, mostly. Play with it, try things. Try diplomatic win. Try bsswitch. Try handicaps, like expanding without military conquers (inheritence/spies only). In Hard, of course, otherwise it's sort of pointless. Try mods.

[Laudan]

The game is not easy. Try a mod from Elvain or my self. Before BSS make an patch 1.05 we offer to test the patch, but BSS wont not.
Everything in the game is RANDOM. Hardcore gamer same Elvain know the weakness of the patch, so i say only one thing : Play the game with one of the mods.

To Frujin: I want test your KoH2. I send already a email to your company.

You will see in my mod not the strange behavoir, that the AI armies plunder the villages, no, the AI armies marched directly to your towns. ( same the players behavoir ) You will lose your towns. Peasants cannot win. Mostly two armies marched to your towns. Many things i change in my mod, but all changes only for a better gameplay. I want not see in my mod that a great kingdom control allthing, no, the game must playable till to the end. My slogan: Back to the roots. For example: Play the kingdom of germany in the high century. Can you win? Play in hard mode.

[elvain]

easy answer:
If you play all your games the same way, pick only those games with good starting conditions, the game becomes easy and boring. Hard dificulty adds little challenge, but not too much.

but you can still try self-restrict yourself or try some mods. Laudan's mod Hard makes the AI virtualy unbeatable iand there are also few other mods, including my Holy Rome - they also increase dificulty but not as much as Laudan's HARD

EDIT:
as proposed by max you can try other ways: diplomatic win, economy win (kingdom advantages), self restrictions. Another thing that increases dificulty is to turn off "pause during battles" option - while you lead a battle the game goes on and you can even lose a city.

One very simple way is to mod the game just yourself and switch kingdompower so it either gives you gold bonus and happiness penalty or gold penalty and happiness bonus - it helps a lot to balance the game. I personaly try to play with as few marshals as possible and make expansion through espionage and diplomacy (marriages). There are many ways the game offers. Try muslims, Orthodox, pagans - the diferences are not big, but nice

Generaly, for those who want to JUST WIN, the game becomes boring after some time, those who PLAY and discover, it is lot of fun. It just doesn't force you to use all it's width

[WiKi]

I agree with maks, Laudan and Elvain, the game begins to be more fun if you install a mod for it
in the original game if you have 10 provinces or so, allmost nobody will attack you anymore and the fun will be gone

you have to make your own rules and see if you can win with it
for example:
- if your nations has 60+ provinces, switch to one of its 1-2 province enemies and try to defeat the superpower you created
- chose nations that can reunite kingdoms like normandy, brandenburg, epir,..
- try to convert every province you have to your or another religion
- ....

there are just so many different different ways to play games in Koh

I allways start with 1-province kingdoms who are able to reunite kingdoms, have pause during battles off and fight every battle myself

[Goglas]

So I started a new campaign on Hard, and I'm trying all the things you said:
Playing as a country that starts with one province, has to unify into another country. I'm using spies and a Builder, had a Cleric for a while. Not more than 2-3 Marshals, trying to get a few, if not all, the Kingdom Advantages, tried to take land through Marriage and Annexation, etc'.
This is a whole lot more fun, and I've understood something as well: All I said at the initial post, and all I said here- That's what this game is all about, and I love it. I should just try to accomplish a few goals, not restrict myself to military, and enjoy myself.
Fact is, I've started and still playing 3 campaigns just trying to figure out the game. So like all good games, I'd probably finish a game or two, and let it rest for a couple of months until I have the urge to play again.
I'll try the mods you told me about as well, and see how it goes.

Thanks for all your answers.

[NikeBG]

As for a "military fun" campaign, though not necessarily military-oriented, I'd also recommend playing as a Pagan state. My game with the Golden Horde was probably one of my most enjoyable ones, especially since I quickly got to war with many kingdoms and none of them wanted peace for quite some time - I struggled pretty hard then, although it was before the 1.05 patch and the Papacy didn't even send me too many crusades. And there are also no clerics, i.e. no nostalgy-"buying", so it remains rather hard even when you get stronger. ;)