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Well, Curt . . . . . .
It's a typically dense tree, with several immediate pathways to rewarding techs, but the paradigm is at 4x and it's not a giga map, so tech won't be impossible to acquire, but difficult. The tree itself branches in some unexpected directions. The medieval period wasn't about the development of warfare. Phillipe Contamine's War in the Middle Ages makes clear the fact that warfare didn't change much. The same old Roman siege engine were employed by medieval armies. There are a lot of unit types in the scenario, but very few unit types will appear in the pedia. The layperson tends to think of knights and crusades when considering the Middle Ages, but the advancements made fell outside the realm of war.
Much of the surviving histories of the period detail the political events; wars, treaties, dynastic partitions, papal-emperor squabbles, and lots and lots of religious rhetoric. This is all pertinent, but there is much more lurking beneath this glittering surface.
The real issue during the medieval period was demographic. The classical world, eventually run by the Romans, topped out at around 45 million. During the crisis centuries, 5-8, the population of the Mediterranean basin dropped to about 23 million. The spectacular aspect of the medieval period is that, starting at about where this scenario starts, a demographic boom began to take place in the European region of the Mediterranean basin, and the greatest increases seem to have occurred on the north European plain (France & Germany), Scandinavia, and the British Isles. The population peaked in the 13th and 14th centuries at about 80 million. For all the talk in the contemporary literature about being "blessed by god," the real reason for Europe's resurgence, the reconquista, the crusades, the seizure of lower Italy and Sicily, the rise of Italian seapower, was simple population--there were more soldiers.
There are several categories of techs. There are quite a few "peasant" techs involving agriculture. There are quite a few nautical techs. There are several techs that lead to the Feudal States [The Republic] tech.
And then there was Prester John.
It's a typically dense tree, with several immediate pathways to rewarding techs, but the paradigm is at 4x and it's not a giga map, so tech won't be impossible to acquire, but difficult. The tree itself branches in some unexpected directions. The medieval period wasn't about the development of warfare. Phillipe Contamine's War in the Middle Ages makes clear the fact that warfare didn't change much. The same old Roman siege engine were employed by medieval armies. There are a lot of unit types in the scenario, but very few unit types will appear in the pedia. The layperson tends to think of knights and crusades when considering the Middle Ages, but the advancements made fell outside the realm of war.
Much of the surviving histories of the period detail the political events; wars, treaties, dynastic partitions, papal-emperor squabbles, and lots and lots of religious rhetoric. This is all pertinent, but there is much more lurking beneath this glittering surface.
The real issue during the medieval period was demographic. The classical world, eventually run by the Romans, topped out at around 45 million. During the crisis centuries, 5-8, the population of the Mediterranean basin dropped to about 23 million. The spectacular aspect of the medieval period is that, starting at about where this scenario starts, a demographic boom began to take place in the European region of the Mediterranean basin, and the greatest increases seem to have occurred on the north European plain (France & Germany), Scandinavia, and the British Isles. The population peaked in the 13th and 14th centuries at about 80 million. For all the talk in the contemporary literature about being "blessed by god," the real reason for Europe's resurgence, the reconquista, the crusades, the seizure of lower Italy and Sicily, the rise of Italian seapower, was simple population--there were more soldiers.
There are several categories of techs. There are quite a few "peasant" techs involving agriculture. There are quite a few nautical techs. There are several techs that lead to the Feudal States [The Republic] tech.
And then there was Prester John.
This is going to be a classic.
Don't even ask 
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