I myself prefer the Eggies over the Turks. Part of that is because I start in possession of the Holy Land, but another big part is that Egyptian armies are (at least in my opinion) a little more balanced that the Turks'. Eggies get a nice mix of most unit types: infantry, missles, light & medium cavarly, etc. The Turks, on the other hand, seem to be composed of mostly mounted missile units early on, and then switch to all-Janissary armies in the mid-to-late game. I know that's oversimplifying things somewhat, but I've never quite been able to rid myself of the image of Turks attacking me with hordes of horse archers.