The first game I plaed in the seies was Medieval 1. Controlling the seas was key. station ships in each sea province in a chain and you could just bounce massive armies from Scandinavia to Egypt in the blink of an eye. I went back and played Shogun 1 as well. My favorate so far has to be Shogun 2, although I enjoy the gameplay mechanics from earlier games as well. It shouldn't take decades traveling from one end of the map in a ship to the next.