Helping the underdog

There's some factions, such as the Aragonese, the Pope, the Danes, the Swiss, and sometimes the Burgundians (hooray) that almost never seem to get large enough to throw their weight around. I've seen the Pope and the Aragonese manage it once or twice, the others never.

What I'm wondering is, are there things the player can do to help these factions make something of themselves? Some of them, especially the Swiss, I'd like to see become a fairly powerful force in the game. With how limited the diplomacy system is, I can't send them money or organize joint campaigns or capture land and hand it over to them, so what options are there? What's worked for you?
:shakehands:

Ajax

You can probably change them by giving them more gold or changeing their behaviour in the startpos folder.

This is a really good question. :bow:

Anyone had luck without moding the game?

I've always thought that these smaller factions should be attacked by small forces (mercs you can lose without too much fuss) to kill men enough men just to trim there support costs so they can make money again.

It may help them if you give them huge amounts of money, but their behaviour is

Code:

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SetBehaviour:: FN_SWISS                        CATHOLIC_ISOLATIONIST

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So you might want to change that to

Code:

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SetBehaviour:: FN_SWISS                        CATHOLIC_EXPANSIONIST

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hhhmmmm I think modding the game is about the only way you can do it, unless your a faction right next to them. Like once I played as the elmoheads, I unified Spain, and then I took Egypt and palestine. The Egyptians fell into rebellion and were left with only Arabia. I withdrew to Cyrencia, but built a citadel with a few hundred order foot soldiers(massive bribe) in Palestine. The turks were quick to jump on the rebels and they're armies became impressive quite quickly. Soon they were all the way into Egypt, but they didn't attack me in Palestine, as we were allies. But as soon as they were in Byzantium, that changed. They soon became a superpower and I was hard pressed to hold them off. However they pushed all they way into hungary in the meantime. Usually the turks get killed off within the first 50 years. But since I was there to weaken thier neighbors they were able to grow a bit and posed a much more intersting challenge.:duel:

Giving the computer a big pile of cash will usualy result in him bribing big armies and then still go bankrupt because of the huge upkeep. If you want to make small factions (or any faction for that matter), you have to give them a better income, or change the building prioritities so it does that itself. WesW's Medmods all increase the priority of ships, trade buildings and farm improvements so that the A.I. isn't broke for a change.

But does that mean it will train less troops? It is a shame that even if a faction like this has rebels around it they still seem to sit tight, and not attack.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Third spearman from the left

But does that mean it will train less troops? It is a shame that even if a faction like this has rebels around it they still seem to sit tight, and not attack.

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No, they will still train troops, but in the end go bankrupt anyway. I guess it will make them expansionistic, but after a while it can't train troops anymore and then the expansion stops.

I still think that changing their behaviour is the best way. If it's not in their nature to attack they won't do it.