Ok so I thought I should start this petition which will most likely be rejected by everyone, but I decided to post it nevertheless.

I don't know how some of you feel, but I for one I'm sick and tired of fighting against 100+ knights in each war I fight. Every war I fought since I started playing this game involved too many factions and each and every single time I found myself in the situation in which I had to resort to temporary collaborations with other factions (usually smaller ones), just to have a fighting chance and just to balance the enemy's numbers a little bit.

The main issue is that this game allows us to have too many allies, which in turn facilitates the appearance of the so-called mega-alliances. There are factions that have 3 or 4 or even more allies and each time a war starts, half the map is involved in it. No kingdom can fight another kingdom without risking of entering in a war with 3-4 or more factions. This in turn forces that respective kingdom to seek its own allies, be them temporary or otherwise. This whole chain of events leads to the appearance of these mega-wars, which are so totally unrealistic for the Medieval period and which are so totally not fun and frustrating. Serbia's recent war is the best example for what I just said and I for one found everything that happened so very lame.

Perhaps I should first give a definition to what mega-alliance means, at least to me:

When 2 or more factions (there usually are more than 2) with over 35 knights forge a permanent alliance = mega-alliance. A faction with 35 or more knights is usually considered a large faction. Combining two such factions means gathering 60-70-80 knights (Protectors not counted). This alone is enough for their opponent to seek more allies and this in turn puts the basis of a mega-war. This game has shown us that large factions will ALWAYS ally with each other and that large factions (ironically not the small ones) are the most likely to forge permanent alliances with other factions, simply because they are too scared of fighting each other (don't ask me why). Poland serves as an example, Serbia serves as an example, Croatia serves as an example, the Byzantines serve as an example and the list goes on.

What this leads to is the following phenomena: when large factions don't fight each other, they get bored and in their attempt to seek some action they suffocate smaller factions either by not allowing them to grow, either by simply attacking them, either by forcing them to enter in an alliance with them. I believe Sicily is the best recent example. This in turn means that smaller factions will eventually have no other choice but to enter an alliance with a larger faction (or more larger factions), otherwise they will face annihilation. And that's how alliances grow even more and we get to alliances such as Burgundy + the Vatican + Croatia + Italy + France or alliances like Poland + Lithuania + Sweden + their subsequent vassals.

When 2 with around or less than 20 knights forge a permanent alliance = NOT mega-alliance. Why? Because in this case the number of knights is relevant more than the number of factions. If 3 such factions ally (temporary or otherwise) have under 20 knights, than you don't have to be a genius to see that 3 factions with let's say an average number of 15 knights have a total number of 45 knights, which is more or less pretty much the same number of knights that a single large faction has.

Now some people might call this fun, but I for one find it very lame. In my view, any kingdom that cannot fight its own wars is a weak kingdom, regardless of how many knights it has. I include myself here as well.

The most recent example is my own war:

I attacked the RA with the Pechenegs as friends (not allies) and with Khazar as mercenaries, while Persia would enter the war as a separate side on a later stage, in a limited way. Now the sides are like this:

Fatimids + Pechenegs + Khazar + Persia vs The Order + the Byzantines + Poland + Spain + Antioch (in a limited way) + Saracens (more recently). If Serbia would not have been busy I would have probably fought it too.

It's absolutely ridiculous and to tell you the truth I would have loved to be able to attack by myself the Order or the Byzantines. But that's impossible because 19 medium knights have no chance against 83 knights which Byz and the Order have combined.

And my case is by far the only one.


The solution:

1. People have to stop making alliance after alliance after alliance. So what you lose a war? Every single faction in this game has lost a war at some point. It's part of the game and without the risk of losing it the game would be completely boring. I'm not against alliances in general, but I am against large kingdoms allying eachother over and over and over again, leading to Medieval World Wars.

2. Changing the game's engine by decreasing the possibility of setting too many allies in the Diplomacy screen. I believe the game would change dramatically if people would be able to set only 3 factions as allies. This would of course not fully prevent people from making alliances, even if they could not set each other as such in the diplomacy screen. But it would at least prevent them from putting all of their troops in one place.

3. Keep only 3 possible standings: Neutral, Enemy, Ally. Honestly, who needs the Brother, Friendly or Nemesis standings? Setting a kingdom as Enemy has the exact same result as setting a kingdom on Nemesis. This would be done to facilitate point no. 2.

But in the end the best thing we can do is to limit ourselves and to understand that by making alliance after alliance we only restrict our own fun and we restrict the fun of the other players as well. We all want to have fun and we all want to fight wars, but for me as a leader of a small faction who had to resort to mercenaries each time I fought the Roman Alliance or the British Alliance the fun is decreasing each day and if things don't change than I for one will eventually quit the game just like Dietrich, Jjah and so many others did before them.

We already have so many players saying the game is boring and I do know players from smaller factions that are frustrated by the existence of these mega-alliances.