Quote Originally Posted by professorspatula
In effect, 80 years or more of achievements had been lost by a bunch of drunken and filthy beggars in armour.
I had to laugh at this. So true though historically as the others have said.

Quote Originally Posted by professorspatula
The worrying thing is the frequency that the AI repeatedly takes control of other nation's regions, often the control switching back and forth between 2 or more nations. It's no wonder the AI ends up with so many barren regions as it's manages to reduce the technology there to something resembling the stone age.
A handicap for the AI that stunts it's progress and is an annoyance for the player. I recently lost Switzerland, Tyrolia, Saxony and Bohemia in 4 civil wars that I've since recovered from, but the all provinces suffered the damaged buildings problem and reverted from castles to keeps. Hundreds of years of teching up will have to be redone. The civil wars occured because of 3 failed crusade 'markers'. Three markers were in Bohemia and I launched 1 to antioch, it was about 4 provinces away when the poles attacked bohemia and put it under siege while my main army was taking on the french. The chapter house destroyed and three crusades failed, big civil war, good provinces lost and hundreds of years of building down the drain. Annoying.