I love both mods but AD1257 usually wins my heart. Not because I've been part of the team because I know and like many of the guys behind E1200, but because of the breathtaking amount of new extraordinarily beautiful and historically accurate models and textures, be it great helmets, kettle hats, aketons/gambesons, mailles, surcoats, horse barding, swords, heraldic lances, tunics etc. etc. I'm a sucker for historical dress and items and while E1200 has lots of beautiful items too AD1257, with texturers like the mighty kuauik, delivers a quality, quantity and accuracy rarely seen in any mod ( except perhaps in EB for RTW and the coming EBII for MTW or Gary and SirDigbyCaesar's textures ).
But you should play them both, they are in different periods and their foci are slightly different with E1200 mainly being about Europe and AD1257 being about the old world in its entirety. E1200 also features less stuttering on the campaign map and yet a more polished experience. Both also have the same high standards of historical research etc. and several of the same people have worked on both mods.
