the aragonese are a difficult faction to tweak so that they're worth anything. however, that's not all bad. i dont want all factions being the same so that the player can play a tough game or an easier game. to get them a bit tougher when the ai is handling them, i give them an additional province to start, though not navarre. and part of the trick to getting them going is exactly what you touched on; you need spain and the almo's to be in conflict and france and the hred to be in conflict, so that nobody looks to the aragonese. the other thing i tried to do with them was to make them big ship builders so that they could invade to other places through the sea, and i've had some success in that regard, but not quite enough. the same is true of the burgundians, though they tend to last a bit better in my mod and maybe only because they get a little more income from the provinces i give them initially.

yeah, for the danes, i simply gave them more starting money and a bit of extra units or buildings, i think. this gives them enough extra money that they can start raiding a bit. oh, and i made them barbarian raiders and tweaked the barbarian raider ai stuff up more for ship building. so, i've had them take norway and sweden, or invade england, or invade livonia or some place like that. this works fairly well when the ai is handling them, though i still need something a touch more for them. they are still somewhat weak. what i really wanted to discourage with the danes was that silly attacking of the hre where the danes always end up losing, and i've accomplished this somewhat by adding forces to the hre in saxony or whatever that province is that adjoins denmark. the danes, as the ai, are still somewhat of a wildcard. they seem to be just too aggressive to be able to maintain what they capture, but then, in my mod, that's ok. i like the variety of game play this brings. a nice wild card faction that can influence other factors, but isnt necessarily a world conquerer.

i'm currently staying away from all unit tweaks, including support costs, so your tweaks there are of interest.

yeah, i played with the revolt factor on a couple provinces also. this is also a nice wild card thing. you can also use it with non-rebel factions to somewhat keep the ai from expanding too quickly, particularly if you've tweaked the happiness buildings up for everyone, this is a good way to province by province tweak it down again. i had to do this with the swiss when i added them. the swiss are really a later era faction and they were just killing everything by being in the early period, so, i make switzerland and the other province i gave them, high rebellion provinces. thus, if the swiss move their units out too early, they get backstabbed and it slows their expansion down considerably. i also gave them very few units to start and if someone does attack them and take their provinces, then the attacker is also most likely going to get a revolt and it will be a loyalist revolt, so the swiss are right back in the game again. it makes a nice offensive and defensive counter.

yes, the muslim factions only get the 3 behaviors. i modded the expansionist one to include the extra ship building stuff but didnt give that behavior to all, just some. thus, if given the chance, the egyptians will be pretty good sea traders, where the turks might build one ship after 100 years :)

hehe, one of these days you're going to have to actually play your own campaign and see what you've got ;) that's where i currently am and it's become a really tough game in the later years. i finally managed to wipe out the egyptians through assassination, but then the almo's re-emerged and took a TON of the old egyptian holdings before i could scoop things up too much, so i'm almost right back where i was with the almo's as i was with the egyptians, except for the shipping. i now AM the king of the seas and that's going to help.

the trade game vs the conqeust game is one where i'd like to see CA develop things more as well. it would be nice if there was a game mode for, like the GA mode, for building a trade empire, instead of trying to conquer everything. you'd still have battles and conflict and so forth as raiders and opponents tried to bust up your empire to prevent you from winning, but the emphasis would be on building an empire through a different sort of conquest, the monetary conquest. in this mode, i'd include things like allowing for vassal states, huge bribes to bribe entire provinces to your side immediately, much better shipping for everyone, land trade routes that not only work province to province, but also include routes off the board to simulate the old spice and silk routes and so forth. add in the actual value of things like iron and salt (didnt the romans actually use salt as currency at one point?) and that one buys and sells and tie all that into the tech tree and even influences and diplomacy, and you've got a completely new game mode without nearly the amount of coding it would take for a lot of other interesting additions to the game.

the whole, do i trade or do i fight or do i try to talk to my opponents to influence them is a badly neglected aspect in this game, and a lot of other ones as well. it actually amazes me that CA would move on to a completely new era and emphasis as opposed to expanding mtw into its true potential as a strat game. the possibilities in mtw are pretty incredible. i could easily see 3 expansion packs for this game just to expand into all the potential this game has and THEN move on to another era and faction emphasis.

hmmm, takes assassins out of the game? not sure i like that one, but, assassins can still be used effectively, at least by the player. you simply move them in groups and accept that you're going to have attrition each turn. also, my observation is that the level of the assassin does make a difference in avoiding watch towers and such, but it's hard to say for sure. it's more observable when you get some 3 and 4 star assassins going. they do seem to slip through the defenses better.

your overall game seems to be going more towards the peaceful trade game. higher happiness, fewer revolts, fewer crusades and so forth. i've somewhat done this as well, but not to the extent that you have. keep me informed on how it goes, and do try and play a game for more than 10 years ;)

K.