That's right, charity - helping the little guy.

We all know there are factions out there, in vanilla, in every mod, who just do not stand a chance.
Unless you do something about it. Without wishing to resurrect the turk thread further down this page, I wanted to draw more attention to the central idea of phenomenal achievements among the minor factions.

What are your experiences? Have they proven themselves capable of making it alone? Do you help them? How? What factions do you see crumbling so often and which ones have you helped to survive?

In vanilla it was always the Papacy who I assisted as a faithful catholic, and I often brought his Holiness into the status of a military power by severely reducing his surrounding enemies and then retreating to allow him the reward of taking a province.

Once a faction has a few armies and a profit, they all tend to enjoy a certain bloodlust.

One simply needs to stimulate them!

I also want to improve the lifestyle of the Turkish people in my XL game as the English, as currently they are in fear for their existence.
The only possible way would be to launch a successful crusade to Egypt. That will not happen in my state of affairs.

But I would also enjoy seeing Norway or Bohemia profit, though it is too late for these unless I send spies into Danish territory (and I will!).

As for achieving status of their own accord, I have seen quite some twists of fate which have lead to unusual circumstances, but these have all been due to a minor faction which re-emerged to inherit larger shoes.

I think these little fellows do occasionally have their day, but I probably haven't played enough campaigns to have witnessed them yet!