I just finished my first game today.

Started as a petty king in Munster, and unified Ireland without too many major problems. My first-born son was an arsehole with awful stats and was plotting to kill me, so I had him imprisoned and switched to elective monarchy, which I kept in place for the rest of my playthrough.

After Ireland I quickly took over Wales, then teamed up with Scotland to pick apart England just as a series of Anglo-Saxon Cathar kings were throwing out the previous Norwegian overlords. Spent a while slowly picking off Scottish territories until I had enough to create the Empire of Alba, and when the reigning Scottish queen refused my offer of vassalisation, I invaded and installed a new king who was more open to the idea.

With the British isles unified, I started to look further afield for clay to conquer and kebab to remove. Iceland and the Faroe Islands had previously been taken by Scotland, so were already a part of my empire. I led a successful crusade which left me in charge of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and quickly expanded my lands there with a holy war for Damascus. I also ended up supporting claimants to the thrones of Denmark and Galicia, both of which were happy to join my empire once victorious. I then set to expanding my territories in Iberia, and between me, Leon, France, and Burgundy, we eventually succeeded in driving out all remaining kebab from the peninsula.

Things were looking pretty good and stable and I was happy to wait out the clock for the remaining decade or so, when in the 1440s a new crusade was called for Persia. With the help of my lovely vassalised Knights Hospitalier and Templar from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, I was able to defeat the Seljuk hordes, and so add the entire Kingdom of Persia to my empire just before the final deadline of 1453.

I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.