Quote Originally Posted by Quillan
Well, if religion (specifically relations with the Pope and such) is causing you problems, play a non-catholic faction. Try Byzantium, Russia, the Turks, Egypt or the Moors. The Moors would probably be the easiest overall. The majority of Crusades seemed to be called against the Holy Land, so it's unlikely western Africa would be a target. That gives you two safe borders. You can run your imams into catholic Spain for piety increases, then call jihads against the city of your choice. If you prefer orthodox to muslim, Byzantium is a nice faction to play, assuming you don't mind being at war with all your neighbors at once, the potential for being a target of both Crusades and Jihads, and being a secondary target of the Mongols and Timurids.
Actually, I'm a very vain person. I like Blue and I wanted a faction with guns. I thought it might be nice for a change to shoot the enemy instead of having to hack him to pieces. Why does the color matter so much? I dunno. I think it's a personality trait to have every factor precisely the way I want it