XL Faction dificulty

The other day I was playing with the Scots and decided to take a break and start a campaign with the bizantines. I was quite shocked, as I usually am able to get all the way across the middle east an egypt, but this time I really had a hard time, with my allies betraying me and the egyptians attacking me as soon as i started fighting the turks. Is it me or is the XL A.I much harder? I mean I got into war with six factions despite having an emperor with a high influence and nice garrisons in bulgaria and greece, the AI was at least way more agressive.:skull:
Has any of these things happened to you? Isn´t it true that despite the fact that the text for the old factions has not changed the faction difficulty is harder? :wall: Same thing goes for a few of the new factions, the lithuanians for example, their units get outdated really quickly and besides you have enemies on all sides.

The difficulty levels stated in the pre-campaign menus for each faction are kinda irrelevant for XL. The game is so transformed and different from 2.01 that it's best not to pay attention to them.

XL is harder largely because you've got many more royal families popping out princes + Royal Bodyguard equivalents with comparatively nice stats.

Plus, their primary provinces (eg: Bulgaria, Serbia, Armenia) have improved resources and income.

They're therefore harder to conquer and they have the potential to grow and attack you (unlike rebels).

Agreed, harder is fairly irrelevant..

I am playing the Volga Bulgars and I allied with the Cuman and Kiev, and hit Lituania/Novrogrod hard and tok them out..

The Fatamids took out the Turks, and Kiev took out the Cumans, so I am allied with Kiev which seems to have blasted apart Hungary/Poland and so is going West and so left me alone...So while the Fatamids attack the Byzantines, The Kiev steamrole Europe, I am taking a Northen route thru Sweden/Denmark...

So one might say were doing a 3-way attack all going West...

Kiev also helped me in my attack against Lituania and Novrogrod

Cuman also helped my in my attack on the Byzantines

So for a few hours playing XL, I can say a few things...

1) The AI is a lot more agressive
2) The AI looks at alliances more seriously in terms of helping out
3) It's tougher to expand just because of all the factions which is much more realistic than the AI (rebel) groups.

So overall, the AI was really boosted in XL and so plays a much better game