Just started playing this game. Having never played any of the other games in the series, I have no fucking idea what I'm doing. I picked random for starting realm, king, got some off shoot tiny country in what is modern day Sicily, and managed to fuck myself six ways from Sunday. Allied with a bunch of other countries in the region and joined in their holy wars against the Muslims, got my ass kicked, two of my sons and my daughter were all killed, wound up dying at age 70 completely broke, with pretty much everyone in the region hating me, started a new religion that no one liked or supported, and left my kingdom to my 7 year old son, who was quickly overthrown and killed.
Needless to say, I will be doing the tutorial this weekend so I can figure out what the fuck to do. But even though my first try as a ruler was a complete disaster, I can see myself getting totally hooked on this game. It's like "Game of Thrones" the video game.