Which faction for the first game

[Martok]

I ran an Almo campaign until it developed a repeating crash problem which I put down to gavesave corruption. I chose that point to install the VI expansion, which I'd had for ages but not bothered to install (don't ask!).

I liked the gold mines, I liked having just two border provinces, I liked gaining general stars from rebellious Portugal, I liked being able to access the non-coastal ship areas but I'd only got as far as wiping out the Spanish and breaking through the Pyrenees by the time the game got corrupted.

I agree that the AUM's ate up just about anything, suffering few casualties in the process and racking up valour like nobody's business. As far as I was concerned, they were the Almo equivalent of BI's - and dirt cheap too, not just cost per unit but in terms of required tech level.

Word around the forums was that they were suspiciously overpowered, until the modifications made by VI are in place, that is. I have to agree but I also wanted to try them out for myself, in unmodified form, before entering into any debate about them.

I forget if the Almos begin the game with any fort in Granada (I think they start with a keep in Cordoba) but, let's face it, your getting a unit with +1 valour bonus starting from turn seven, at the latest. No other faction on the map gets that kind of starting edge, other than in their generals/kings units. How the AI manages to **** up the Almos so badly, when it is in charge of them, I cannot imagine.

In Viking Invasion, the Almos' AI was switched from "aggressive" to "defensive" (or whatever the opposite designation is). They start with the same assets as they do in original Medieval, but they rarely try to attack anymore (except the occasional invasion of Portugal, and/or to retake lands lost to another faction). That's why you can smack them around so easily with VI installed.