I would have to go with the Turks.

Excellent horse archers, excellent foot archers and perfectly good infantry. My only real complaint is I feel cheap using them, as the computer seems almost totally unable to stop a well coordinated horse archer and lancer army.

My second would have to be the HRE.

You are in a position to expand in all directions. If you want an easy, quick and exciting game you can rapidly strike in all directions, crushing all those in your path. If you want a more challenging game you can sit tight and weather the storm of the many inevitable enemies you will have to fight.

In fact I like all the factions.

I’m a little surprised no one voted for Hungary and Poland. I more or less understand why no one voted for Hungary just because they don’t have anything that the Turks, Egyptians and Byzantines don’t have a better version of. Even so they allow you to play a catholic faction with horse archers, are on the border with Islam and orthodox Christianity and are in a generally cool geographic location (at least for me).

Poland has Polish Nobles which are in my opinion one of the best units in the game by far. Lithuanian archer can deploy stakes and woodsmen are incredibly powerful for their exceedingly low price.

It seems the eastern European factions are underestimated. Perhaps it is more game play factor that effects their popularity than effectiveness.