There most definitely are sides to keeping your faction small. At the beginning its easier to keep the neighbours from stabbing you in the back - as long as the main lands are defended by a relatively small but strong and good quality army, others won't regard it as a threat nor as easy pickings. Also, getting to develop in peace without constantly having to fight off dozens of peasant units and roll over an undeveloped opponent is a welcome change indeed. And lastly, a small faction faces, even with a strong financial backing, a number of challenges.

Too bad that in my recent Sicilian campaign all the major players have been torn apart by either a civil war or each other, so they'll never get to their feet again. And the Byzantines, unsurpsingly, lost their fleet after getting jealous of my trade. I didn't even have to fight them on land, as the Turks did that for me. I did bribe one of their decimated armies for a single Varangian guard, which I'm training to become the greatest warrior in Europe (valour 6 thus far, can kill up to 70 guys in a battle), just to experiment a bit. Never did like those Kensais in Shogun, though. I'm thinking of trying to help one of the concurrent factions to their feet, but it sounds too much like work.