When playing you will probably notice that you never get what you're looking for. Try to make the most of the unexpected, until Mr. Right turns up, or start again. The game gives you very little of anything. Big armies on long trips are out of the question at the beginning. Getting the correct balance between too much and too little is what can make or break you right from the start.

To start with, armies are greedy! They can literally eat you out of palace and caliphate. So to get things going, try this as a fairly accurate gauge. The ratio for one man per month is: 1 man = 3 units cash, 15 units food, and 30 units water. So a typical army of 200 men would consume an average of 600 cash units, 3,000 food units and 6,000 water units, and that's only for a month! Only send out armies you know can afford, as you're not allowed a budget deficit.

When the armies are ready, you have to find something not too far away for them to attack. This shouldn't be a caliphate as he will have too many men for you to fight. An independent fort is the answer. On your first attempts, send out two armies to the same castle. One can attack and the other can sit in reserve until needed. If the first army should be unsuccessful, you can bring up the second army for a crack at it. You should find that the fort is now substantially weaker.

If your first army was successful, choose the fort icon on the left hand side of the screen and select military. Take the supply option, then use the army as a supply post for the fortress. Your second army can then go on to continue your "message of friendship" to other tin hat dictators and the like, and spread a little sunshine.

If you choose the "Storm the Fortress" option, you stand a very poor chance of succeeding. You should instead march your army as close as possible to the fort and then choose the "Offensive" option from the military menu. This'll enable you to take the enemy head on, rather than trying to bribe your way in the back door, which is never a good option.

Trap door spiders have a novel way of attacking. They lie hidden until their prey walks past the door, then they leap out and attack. Use this method of ambush against other armies. First send out a spy to determine the size of the army. Then if its worth the effort, raise an unrealistically large army and jump the unsuspecting baddies, get the loot and go home.

Archery is one of the first methods of attack that you will be using, unless you bump into an army on your "Goodwill Missions", in which case it's down to sword fighting. With archery you must be careful that you know where your enemy is. They have a habit of getting behind your line of vision. Always keep on the move and try to avoid incoming arrows, to combat this. A good move is to aim, move, fire, continuously until one side is down.

When sword fighting, a surefire way to win is to bash the Arab over the head rather than slice it off. Move the mouse forward and then press the left mouse button to do this.

These are altogether a different kettle of fish. You should avoid getting too close. This means ramming is out as it invariably ends in both sides sinking. Get close, then let the archers and cannons loose at your enemy. When he has a fix on your distance, change your distance and restart.

If you have money to burn and you wish to buy castles, you'll gain a fort, men, and whatever else is in the fort at that time, giving you another foot in the door.

Finally and this is not entirely advisable, you can move an army out and give them enough supplies to last for a while. Then get a caravan to take the rest of the goodies out of the fortress. Sell the fortress to some unsuspecting neighbor and if and when it is bought, go on the offensive and attack it, thus gaining the money you sold it for and the fortress (if you manage to win). Either don't do this or only do it once or twice. Otherwise there goes the neighborhood.

If you wish to stop your castles from being taken from you, it's sometimes a good idea to keep a good sized army in the fort. This prevents your neighbors from becoming big headed and trying to take over your forts. One way of actually getting soldiers (besides your own) on your side is to corrupt them. But you need your spies to enable you to know how much is required to bribe them to fight the good fight.

Regular caravans from your fort are a very good idea. This prevents the enemy from getting their hands on your loot, if they attack and take one of your forts.

You`ve got to keep the masses happy, both military and non military personnel. You need incentives to keep them on your side. Being a good guy is not always enough. If they are mistreated for too long, they'll rebel, either by burning the taxes or killing you. Neither of which is a good idea. So avoid this if you wish to get anywhere in your regime.

Cities need certain amounts to be left behind or you lose them. Find out how much each city needs and either keep it stocked up or regularly supply it.

Every so often you have to be a generous ruler and give back to the people that which you took from them. This must be substantial amounts of money, or they'll think you're taking them for granted.

Whatever you do, you have to keep a balance in your forts or they will become independent, and you will have to fight all over again to regain your foothold.

Choose this character for a really testing game. It seems that his citizens aren't very happy and keep burning his taxes. Thus making it very difficult to get anywhere in the game.

He may be old but he has a nice balance of most things. His people tend to be quite loyal, but can be pushed if not kept happy.

Choose this one if you want a reasonably easy life. There's a good balance between taxes and lack of fires. But he has an island so you can see attacks from afar. However, watch that you don`t get carried away.