one of those classics to complete your collection in a lifetime of gaming
it's one of those games with tons of stuff to do besides the economical, strategical and tactical decisions you make, a rare quality in a time where graphical details are more highly valued than content but on top of that: the graphical details are also there! whenever you think like i've seen this siege before it pays off to zoom in to the unit level and check those walls like when you'd be one of the combatants ... you'll see first hand what kind of trouble you'd be exactly in when you were one of those unfortunate soldiers.
the background of this game is off course like the name says: medieval history. it's a fairly detailed one featuring factions and religions; you could whine about the true historical accuracy if you're a historian and some questionable technologies like rocket artillery in the medieval times (theoretically plausible but even if things like that existed then the use was surely not widespread) but all in all it feels accurate enough if you're not a historian and as a result the immersion is certainly there ... for the real history you'd have to go back in time anyway, this is a game so designed to have some fun.
simply checking those attributes and followers of your generals allready makes me wonder why don't you see that in other games besides in this series? it's that care of detail in so many aspects which truly makes this game great.
the only gripe you can have is the AI which does overall does a fair but not a great job on the strategical and tactical worldmap with predictable (and exploitable) behavior and some occasional terrible glitch where the tactical combat AI decides to call it a day without attacking or retreating and in doing so entrapping you in a stalemate position when defending during a siege ... always set the timer for battles just in case but...
troubles like these are fast forgotten once the next battle start or when you try to influence the pope to have the next crusade in your enemy's back-yard instead of marching to jerusalem for the 50'th time. in this game you mainly create your own history ;).