LOL

Imo (and i have been drinking :p) the vikings should start with some really misplaced armys to be the pain in the ass they were. Not huge conqering armys, but small bands of them in England, Portugal, Italy and france. This ofcource needs alot of playtesting, but it wold probably be alot of fun.

They wold never in any case be able to hold on any provinces in the south, but as a player you wold be able to loot southeuropean citys (realistic) and if you play one of the other factions you should start with armys facing the obvious borders, and be forced to deal with them in yous unprotected "backdoor (realistic).

The byzantine/muslim/khazar armys were huge organized dreadnoughts, batteling out huge battles compared to the northern kingdoms. And they should, by setting economy/sterting armys/diplomacy/technology/personality be forced to focus on huge battles among eachother, and then being vulnerable for smaller attacks away from their fronts. (if possibele)

This is just my oppinion, but for all offencive factoins of the time, having armys spread way past their borders wold make the campaigns very interesting.

Ofcource, small raidingpartys shouldnt stand a chance against any of the factions main armys. But having vikings all over Europe (specially in britain) and muslims penetrating in Byzantine areas, Franks penetrating Al-Andalus areas, aso. wold be very realistic.

-Skel-