Something i've noticed when i play is that, no matter who i play as the usual big dog is one of the Muslim factions, and i only have the original so far, played VI, but i don't have a disc of my own yet. The other thing i notice is that there is generally one faction at war with just aout everyone, is huge, and borders me so i end up with only them as an ally as most times i play, i play just to watch and see what happens next, only taking territory as my army is able to do. A good example of this is a Danish campaign of mine, i've only attacked rebels at this point, have 6 provinces and already make over 20000 florins per year, but i digress. The super power i 1st noticed were the French who took England, and united most of france, now the Almohads are coming up from the iberian and have started to batter the French, who i noticed one day with the map cheat have pitiful armies, small, filled with second rate soldiers. Also if memory serves me well i believe this is the same campaign featuring a Byzy juggernaut of sorts, which has put the smacked down on eastern europe, and is working over central, the only thing i hope for is they don't have a lot of jedi knights, and if they do i hope my assassains can do their job.