I do feel there are too few eastern factions, but on another note why cant we just not have anymore Mongol types of factions. They do enough damage, what about a viking faction that emerges into Europe by sea and threatens coastlines all over Europe and the Mediterranean? If anything, in the East add more Sultanate style factions, less Khanate style (two is enough). Perhaps we could add the crusader states, like the the Kingdom of Jerusalem or the Principality of Antioch. Granted they were short lived, but they were very important bits of history and adding them would be better than adding more Khanate style factions. Instead of expanding the map eastward, why not westward? This game already builds up to the discovery of the new world. Adding more tracts of land to fight over in the new world would be more relevant to this game's context. Forget about all these eastern strongman factions. They are only in the game to begin with because of their relative importance to the development of of Europe, which is after all the entire basis of this game! So yes include Sultanates and Khanates of the east but don't forget they are only important to the degree that they influenced western factions historically. People aren't playing this game in Iran and Uzbekistan and that in part has something to do with the fact with the fact this game is about Medieval Europe not Persia or Transcaucasia. if any of these obscure factions are to be in the game, ask what their importance is, relative to the Europeans. So I say that people should be arguing about the best way to go west.