I have run 3 tests (tested just 3 early game campaigns) and I think I have now some solid information to provide concerning what I have seen in all of them. I am going to decribe the 100 first days of my last run:
- Day 23 - NE was being able to hold pretty good against Khuzaits, but then received war declaration from Sturgia and WE (Sturgia made peace with Vlandia pretty early, same for WE making peace early with Battania, and same for Aserai making peace pretty early with SE). The result, NE at war against 3 Kingdoms at 23 which only were at war against NE...
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- Day 28 - NE is still at war against 3 factions, and lost 2 castles (Khuzait took Syratos while Sturgia took Mecalovea)
- Day 31 - NE made peace with Khuzaits
- Day 35 - Aserai and Vlandia declared war on WE (Now WE is the one fighting against 3 factions - NE, Vlandia, and Aserai -)
- Day 38 - Asewai and WE made peace
- Day 40 - Vlandia took Thractorae castle from WE
- Day 41 - Battania declared war on Vlandia
- Day 42 - Vlandian and WE made Peace
- Day 42 - Khuzait declared war on SE
- Day 49 - Sturgia took Spinosa Castle from NE (NE is still at war against Sturgia and WE, while these factions are now just at war against NE)
- Day 50 - Aserai declared war on SE (SE now at war against Khuzaits and Aserai, while these factions are just at war only with SE)
- Day 52 - NE re-take Mecalovea castle and made peace with Sturgia (meanwhile, Vlandia was losing war against Battania and lost Rovalt)
- Day 58 - SE lost fiefs (Onira was taken by Khuzaits while Levania Castle was taken by Aserai... SE was still at war against both factions at the same time while these factions just at war against SE)
- Day 59 - Sturgia declared war on Battania (thanks god they did not declared war on Vlandia which was losing the war against Battania)
- Day 61 - Vlandia re-take Rovalt and made peace with Battania
- Day 62 - NE took Lageta from WE while WE took Diathma from NE
- Day 64 - WE declared war on Aserai
- Day 65 - Aserai took Vostrum from SE (SE still at war against Khuzatis and Aserai at the same time, but at least Aserai is now also at war against WE too)
- Day 66 - NE and WE made peace
- Day 67 - SE and Aserai made peace (too late after losing 3 fiefs)
- Day 68 - Khuzaits declared war on NE (now Khuzaits at war against NE and SE at the same tiem)
- Day 69 - WE declared war on SE (now SE at war against WE and Khuzatis at the same tiem, but Khuzaits are also involved in two wars, while WE too because it is still at war vs Aserai)
- Day 70 - WE and SE made peace
- Day 72 - Khuzaits and SE made peace and now they are just at war agaisnt one faction (NE) as usual... Monchug should be the best strategist in Calradia because he is always ganking other factions while it is pretty weird to see Khuzaits involved in two fronts wars.
- Day 87 - NE was doing pretty well against Khuzaits in a 1v1 war but for some reason... Why
... NE decided to declare war on WE... At least WE were also at war against Aserai in that moment.
- Day 95 - WE re-take Lageta from NE (Lucon and his pretty silly decision to declare war on WE...)
- Day 96 - After some days of peace, Vlandia declared war on Battania, and now Battania is at war with Vlandia and Sturgia at the same time (the war between Sturgia and Battania has been pretty even)
- Day 97 - Sturgia and Battania made peace
- Day 99 - NE re-take Diathma from WE and was able to break a Khuzait siege on Amprela (good for Lucon this time)
- Day 100 - WE besieged Diathma and I do not now the result because stopped to check the campaign. Here you have a screen at day 100:
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Some conclusions:
- The number of war/peace declarations have been drastically increased and wars last for just few days now. I personaly do not like this change, not sure if it is improving or making worse snowballing, but I do not like that now all wars feel pretty random and short. In 1.5.5 we had some wars lasting for a lot of time, which feels much better than tons of +-20 days wars. Especially in the first 50-60 days, we can see an insane amount of wars.
- Empire factions love to go to war against a lot of enemies at the same time. I cannot see this behavior in other kingdoms or at least it is not as common as it is for Empire Kingdoms... Maybe the increased chance for declaring war to Kingdoms having fiefs with the same culture is making the Empire ingdoms to bee stupidly aggressive. Makes sense to declare war to factions having fiefs of the same culture because this allows to re-take fiefs but it does not make anything good for the Empire Kingdoms. Would be great if Empire factions would not be so much aggressive as they are now.
- We have now less consistent wars between kingdoms which are far away from each ones. This is probably something related to kingdoms declaring tons of wars and making peace in a short time (maybe because the AI tries to honor the truce and then declares war on other kingdoms which are not close). I did not see this in my last run though but it happened in the first and second run.
- The AI looks now less cautious when attacking settlements. This is probably good for people asking for more defensive sieges but, is this better or worse for snowballing (maybe better because fiefs are easier to defend against smaller forces but hard to say...?
- Khuzaits do not feel as OP as before when fighting 1vs1 wars. The problem is that Khuzaits have always a pretty easy time on ganking Sturgia, NE or SE while these factions are already involved in other wars. Applying the Mexxico's mentioned changes about cavalry, forcing the AI to try to siege closer enemy fiefs and making Empire Factions less retard to avoid them constantly going to war against 2 or 3 factions, will probably improve a lot snowballing.
- I have to say that snowballing feels much better now, at least on the first 300 days... I do not like the pretty short wars though and I think it is not good for snowballing. Having less war/peace declarations and much longer wars would be better for sure.
- Sturgia finally feels strong! at least in the first 300 days.
I am going to sleep now but let the game running and check tomorrow how is snowballing.