Who is normally the strongest AI in XL?

[General Dazza]

I my Crusader campaign (XL, high, GA), I've got an interesting mix in terms of main competitors from the AI factions.

As you'd expect I've got the Horde dominant in the Steppes and the Almos in Spain. But the other two dominant factions have surprised me.

The Danes have steamrolled most of central Europe and initially were my main opposition points-wise. They've pushed the English, French, HRE, Poles, Hungarians and the rest into support roles.

But the Sicilians have since pushed up from their island to take out the Pope and then move round into Greece, Serbia and now dominate the gap between the Horde and the Danes. The Sicilians are now the highest point scorers.

I was wondering who normally dominates frpom among the AI factions? I know the almos and eggies are regular strong AI factions - but who else?

[Roark]

If the Pommies restrict their animosity to the French, I find that they dominate the West in High. Bills and Longbows turn the tide in a big way (certainly moreso than French Men at Arms). As the Aragonese recently, struggling to hold back the Almos and maintain good border security with the English, I was unpleasantly surprised by an English naval invasion of 3 full stacks in Leon, wiping out the remnants of the Spanish.

[General Dazza]

If the Pommies restrict their animosity to the French, I find that they dominate the West in High. Bills and Longbows turn the tide in a big way (certainly moreso than French Men at Arms). As the Aragonese recently, struggling to hold back the Almos and maintain good border security with the English, I was unpleasantly surprised by an English naval invasion of 3 full stacks in Leon, wiping out the remnants of the Spanish.

The British have had an interesting experience in mine. They've been pushed of their island by the Scots, and the Aragonese (not Almos as I reported earlier) have pushed up from Spain. With the Danes as well, at one point the Brits only occupied a couple of territories (and one was Egypt).

Since last post I've played another 10 years and the Danes have fallen back and the Sicilians are rampant. They have 4 stacks in Constantinoiple facing my 3-4 in Nicae.

[doctrellor]

Normally?

Good question...

I have seen the Eggys, English, Danes, Almos

Rare Big guys: French, Novrogrod, Castile

Really rare, but scary when big: Byz

[Martok]

The Fatamids still have a tendency to dominate the East, although they often have to slug it out with the Byz first. The Byz themselves are often a superpower in Early, but they also usually get rolled up by the Eggies sooner or later. I've actually seen the Danes become big on quite on a number of occasions, and it's not that uncommon for the Sicilians to do well also. The Cumans tend to experience an early surge, even to the point of threatening to overrun central Europe....only to suffer a swift collapse. The Byzantines are often the culprit in these instances, as they like to expand northwards more often than not.

In addition, I've noticed the Pope generally seems to be more expansionist in the XL Mod. It's still rare for him to become a true superpower, but I've seen a number of campaigns where he's wiped out the Venetians & Genoans and taken over northern Italy.

[General Dazza]

This campaign is an absolute bloodbath! And it has little to do with me. It's 1300 and I'm down to only 10 AI factions, with a couple about to disappear (including the English in Egypt, who are about to be crusaded). Europe is a like an all-in brawl. The Sicilians have taken over most of central europe.

Is it always like that? I don't know if it's just because I've sent emissaries, princesses and prients more widely around the map, or that I'm on the edge of the map and have been turtling for about 25 years to build up my provinces and get hospitaller and co foot knights and knights.

[doctrellor]

Yeah it's common for the Mod to go balistic and be a bloodbath in the 1200's, especially from 1250+

The big guys build up and start to steamroll.. the smaller factions dissapear. I think my Lithuanian game has 8 factions, 9 with the Mongols who will be wiped out VERY soon..lol

The 1090's 10 around 1175, I find maybe 2 factions dissapear...and from 1200 to 1250, maybe 3 more

The factions that generally get wiped out..

Venetians by HRE/France/Papacy
Genoese by France/HRE
Serbs by Byz/Hungarians
Almos by Castilians
Aragorn by French/Castile
Swedes by Danes/Novo
Norwegians by Danes
Lithuanians by Novo
Cumans by Kiev
Turks by Byz/Eggys

so by 1250 I find 9 factions gone generally, then the bloodbath starts!

By 1300, Factions reappear as the powers start to over-extend and unhappiness grows letting rebels factions appear...unless there are superpowers to generally control thier own "area" like in several of my games

I have seen whole factions just vanish to only reappear like 2 or 3 years later.. like the English/French/Eggys/Almos. This hits the Muslim factions much more than the European or Russians ones

[jadast]

This is what makes this game so replayable. I have seen many different factions become dominate. It is interesting to see how things change when I play different factions. My current Turkish campaign saw the immediate fall of the Byz, Egyptians, Almos but the rise of the HRE, and the Poles.

[danfda]

This is what makes this game so replayable. I have seen many different factions become dominate.

Amen to that. But for what my opinion is worth, the normal AI dominators (at least for GA) are Castile and the Danes. France usually neuters England before collapsing into civil war, The Almos quite often expand, but moreso they fall to the Castilians and/or whatever other superpower starts sailing all over the place. I've seen just about every faction become a goliath, and every faction fall apart in two dozen turns. Its a great game.:yes:

[doctrellor]

Amen to that. But for what my opinion is worth, the normal AI dominators (at least for GA) are Castile and the Danes. France usually neuters England before collapsing into civil war, The Almos quite often expand, but moreso they fall to the Castilians and/or whatever other superpower starts sailing all over the place. I've seen just about every faction become a goliath, and every faction fall apart in two dozen turns. Its a great game.:yes:

Agreed

I saw the Almos OWN Spain, France and Eggyland to fall apart due to no heirs, and 8 years later afetr the Turks took Eggy, I took N Africa/South Spain, the Almos came back and kept fighting the British like they had never stopped before thier civil war...lol