Factions that do little or nothing

[The Darkhorn]

I play MTW:VI (no patch downloaded yet...I'm lazy). There are several factions that consistantly do nothing in my games (I've recently played as Poland, Byz, and Sicilian Normans, but it applied when I played some others too).

DANES: maybe, maybe, maybe Sweden if I've not already taken it. Then they sit there and do NOTHING. Yet, I can build an impressive empire with them.

THE POPE: NOTHING but interfere with me and side with aggressors who attack me unprovoked....unless he re-emerges b/c someone took him out (I don't fight the pope)....then he usually takes all of Italy at the least.

ENGLISH: ALWAYS death by Frog. ALWAYS. The only time they are not wiped out by Francois is when I am Francois...and then sometimes too.

ARAGON: Will sometimes take a province or two....only to lose them later, but no one ever eliminates them. I've played them once and had to cheat to even survive.

ALMONDS: (what my boss calls them): Initially successful, then ALWAYS wiped out by Spain and/or HRE. Constantly re-ermerging with 90% archers and handgunners. DEATH by sword within a decade or so.

TURKS: With one exception. In current Polish campaign, they are still around, though weak in 1330. Perhaps b/c I destroyed the Purple Turk Eaters?

Are these results consistant in your campaigns?

[matteus the inbred]

yeah! pretty much. Almohads sometimes make it actually, it's them or Spain.

Aragon, absolutely rubbish, and i can't do much better myself. i mean, ONE province???
Poland, does nowt, picks fight with Byz or HRE, dies. check.
English always crushed by Frogs. check.
Turks always die, reappear, die again, reappear again, die again...
Pope...gah. unless you're Hungarian. he's very nice to you when you're Hungarian, got given 1,000 florins three times in ten years once

[rvg]

In my games Danes almost always stagnate, Byz are almost always reduced to one dinky island province (usually Rhodes). Spain beats the Elmos about 3 times out of 4, while France beats the Brits 9 times out of 10.

Also, I have yet to see a strong HRE. They get nibbled to death by their neighbors from every direction in almost every game.

Egypt usually does very well though.

[Microwavegerbil]

I've been toying with XL mod lately, while waiting for the early period in the newest medmod to come out, and here's what's been happening.

The English are the new bad boy in town, even if they get kicked from the mainland. Having the Wessex-Flanders landbridge offers them some safety and time to build up before massively invading most of Europe.

The Eggies have been strong and captured from Egypt to Constantinople every single game I've ever played on XL.

The Danes build MASSIVE fleets and invade the mediteranean, then sit there.

The Spanish usually win control of Spain, even if they get eliminated. In my last game the Almohads killed them off, then they reappeared and took all the way to the Egyptian border.

The Genoese or Venetians do well, usually not both in the same campaign though. Then the HRE eats them.

The HRE doesn't grow super-quick, but they usually hold on to what they've got and take out the Genoese and Sicilians.

Unmodded, I tend to agree with the above posts, usually the Spanish in the bottom left, the Eggies in the bottom right (very occasionally it'll be the turks), the French in the top left, all converging on the hodge podge of semi-weak factions in the middle.

Edit: As a side not, I realized I just did the factions that ALWAYS do something instead of the other way around. Doh.

[miho]

Has anyone ever seen the Russians/Novg beat the horde. It only happened once, but they were very strong untill they attacked me. That was a huge mistake for them.

[littlebktruck]

In my experience, the Sicilians do nothing but build some ships and have a go at my navy every once in a while.

[Yoyoma1910]

If you really want you can change the code for thier humors, and make them more aggressive.