1.2 Faction observations

After playing several campaigns with 1.2 I've noticed the following, please comment yourselves after reading. Milan's aggressiveness has been stepped down and Venices stepped up. The Pope is more likely to aquire territory especially Florence if not immediately taken. Diplomacy leads to more enduring alliances that greatly shift power balances. Case in point I've only once successfully played the HRE and thats was on easy. Just finished a campaign on medium with the HRE which I wrapped up in less than 125 turns the fastest I have played any long campaign. The trick to it was keeping France sweet while I finished off each faction that backstabbed me one at a time so that I owned Italy rather quickly. By 75 turns in I had 25 territories and and impressive economy that I was able to just expand as I wanted to till I finished up with taking Rome. Haven't tried playing as France yet, but they had the same problem as the HRE of keeping multiple attackers at bay while they consolidated in the beginning. I'm hoping I could play them much the same way know by blitzkrieging several rebel settlements in the first 25 turns, consolidating and building a economy in the next 25 turns then finishing off any backstabbers by turn 75.

Im playing a Very Hard/Very Hard campaign on 1.2 as Venice just now and I will say two things.
I don't know about Milans' aggresiveness but they are still pure arseholes. Also, the HRE broke our alliance and attacked me. Im not saying that's a problem since our relations weren't great but I expect loyalty dammit!

That is all.

One thing I'm facing in my spanish campaign, is that factions are very likely to declare war on the pope even if he has not attacked them in any way. First, Milan attacked him in florence, sicily in ajaccio and then the french just declared war without joining the fun. This happened quickly, about 5 turns or so.

Yeah, and Venice are one their way to take over Italy here too...