Eastern Invasion

[Noncommunist]

If a player from west helps eliminate the mongols and timurids to prevent them from killing off Egypt and Turkey, will either of them eventually become strong enough to then become something like the the Ottoman Empire and they could threaten the west or would they just stay the way they were?

[ReiseReise]

The AI. Pose. A Threat. Ha. I would laugh but it hurts too bad. I bruised my ribs tripping over a fence this weekend.
But seriously, the Mongols and Tims are supposed to be what you are looking for, if you can whoop them you can take out anything the "regular" factions can throw at you. The only suggestion I have would maybe be to try to stay at peace with Turk or Egypt and give them massive amounts of money to build up an empire, then go to war over the empire you bought for them.

[Noncommunist]

Okay, a threat to the AI factions and have the Turks or egyptians invade the balkans and possibly go further

[Slug For A Butt]

The AI. Pose. A Threat. Ha. I would laugh but it hurts too bad. I bruised my ribs tripping over a fence this weekend.
But seriously, the Mongols and Tims are supposed to be what you are looking for, if you can whoop them you can take out anything the "regular" factions can throw at you. The only suggestion I have would maybe be to try to stay at peace with Turk or Egypt and give them massive amounts of money to build up an empire, then go to war over the empire you bought for them.
ReiseReise, I don't think there is any need to be as scornful as you sound. The day perfect AI is invented is the day robots will be serving in McDonalds and you will be out of a job.
But seriously, the Mongols and the Tims are the biggest threat in the game but that is not what he was asking.
I think in answer to the original question, the answer is NO, they will never become as powerful as the Ottomans were because the AI is programmed. It is not religious, ethnically inclined, vengeful or territorial, therefore any faction is just like any other... just with better units.

EDIT: Instead of using the cheats, what is wrong with allying with the Turks and giving them gifts and military help? I hate cheats.

[Noncommunist]

I was imagining that I would be giving them a territory or two to let them into the balkans and also helping them to get rid of the Mongols and Timurids.

[khaos83_2000]

I actually removed mongols and timurids from some of my game. Guess wat, in my games egypt and the turks can't seem to eliminate each other. Most of the crusades to the Holy lands mostly fails. And the gold and green shade at the west are very prominent.

[Zenicetus]

Okay, a threat to the AI factions and have the Turks or egyptians invade the balkans and possibly go further

I think you could manipulate this, using the Turks as your Ottoman empire faction. Maybe start as Venice or Milan? You have to be close enough to help out militarily, but not in the direct path of an Ottoman invasion into the Balkans and (eventually) Europe. Your own expansion could head mostly north and west, as a sort of advance wave.

Take out the Byzantines first, and gift those provinces to the Turks so they have the land bridge (or leave them as rebel, if the Turks are strong enough). You'll probably have to declare war on Hungary and either remove them, or seriously weaken their southern empire, leaving only rebel provinces there as a trail of "breadcrumbs" for the Turks to follow. Help out with the Mongol invasion when it arrives. Try to control the Pope so all Crusades hit Egypt or the Moors, but you might not actually want to remove Egypt. If you want the Turks to move into the Balkans and Europe, you might need a fairly strong Egypt to push their expansion in the other direction.

It sounds like a fun project.

[Noncommunist]

Thanks for the ideas, I'll try your plan sometime in the future