What I dislike the most is when people try to recreate recreate history while playing EB. I believe history is history and EB is EB. I am a huge history buff and that is why EB is my favorite game. However, I play EB to have fun, to create alternate history (my favorite book genre! Just try reading Harry Turtledove- he's the best). I do not like using cheats either, even to make a game more historical. I use the fog-of-war cheat, but I don't consider that a cheat myself. I use it because of my curiosity to see what is happening to the other factions. I don't use the Force Diplomacy either. I never make peace with an enemy faction. I conquer their territories until they are dead. As for faction balance, I have not seen an enemy faction become too strong. Then again, I have played only one campaign until 200 BC. That was my Romani campaign, which I'm still playing. My Kart-Hadast and AS campaigns are still in their beginning stages. Usually, when I see a faction becoming too strong, I attack it and thus stop its expansion.