1. England
2. Holy Roman Empire
3. Scotland

If England, every other country in the world can suck the longbow.
Also, Greg. You by your own admission have not played Medieval Total War II. So perhaps you should listen to those of us who have when we tell you tales of the Tanks of the Medieval world.

That sounds like a very good idea, but I suspect if I were to implement the change now and the leading faction after the first round lost in the second round of voting, supporters of the former faction would be upset with the rule change midstream.

I may, however, begin eliminating factions with zero votes, if only to ensure that new voters don't waste votes on factions with no realistic chance of being played.

Fair enough, but I played the hell out of medieval I. Did they really change it up that much?

1. France
2. Russia
3. Poland

If I remember correctly (and it's been a long while since my days of playing Medieval I), yes, it has changed substantially. Though the changes were more pronounced between Medieval I and Rome than between Rome and Medieval II: in several respects, Medieval II plays like an RTW mod with prettier graphics.

As for cavalry, they really became bulwarks in my army around the RTW timeframe. I don't remember using advanced cavalry tactics with similar results in the original Medieval title. (In fact, in Medieval I, my usual tactics involved using tons of archers, they seemed more effective back then.)

No see you should just do what me and my friend do on Medievil I; build entire armies of cavalry, backed up by a reserve army of cavalry and half another reserve army of cavalry. Who needs tactics when you essentially have the entire force of the Rohirrim at your command?

We've had battles where we've had a normal army consisting of all the usual fluff of light and heavy infanrty, archers, etc, which has then been defeated by whoever, and the entire army has routed, only to be replaced by an entire army of cavalry. It then just comes down to an all map select all cavalry hoedown and watching them trounce the offenders. There's no better way to go from an "imminent defeat" to a "victory imminent" status than a massive cavalry charge.

Not to mention that if you get an army filled exclusively with Commanders you have a self replenishing killing machine.

I've eliminated every faction with three or fewer total weighed votes: they're no longer serious contenders for a playthrough. That leaves us with seven remaining possibilities.

Vote Count Update:

11 - England
7 - Holy Roman Empire
7 - France
6 - Russia
6 - Poland
5 - Venice
5 - Denmark

Eliminated:

3 - Byzantium
2 - The Turks
2 - Scotland
1 - Egypt
1 - Portugal
1 - Spain
0 - Sicily
0 - Milan
0 - The Moors
0 - Hungary

You're free to double check the results: I might have missed someone. Regardless, it's safe to say that factions like Hungary and The Moors are officially out of contention.

The way I'll handle the issue of those of you who 'wasted votes' on factions without a serious chance is something of a compromise: You can recast your votes if you'd like only corresponding with your votes for factions who've been eliminated. So if you ranked Byzantium #1 (someone did) you can now reallocate those three votes for your #1 slot to your new favorite candidate among the seven remaining options. If you ranked Denmark #2, though, you can't arbitrarily change your #2 vote to the HRE or France just because you don't like England or something (it just creates potential nightmares for me in terms of tabulating results.)

Just do me a favor if you change your votes: don't edit your original posts, make a new post that includes your original list and the alterations you'd like to make.

From here I don't anticipate any additional 'elimination rounds' for the factions: with only seven left a clear victor will hopefully emerge.

Man, what's up with all the love for Britain? ...Hey, if that's how y'all will vote, that's what I'll play. I just always felt they were an easy, vanilla faction. Then again, some of my favorite factions to play as (Sicily, Hungary, Byzantium, The Turks) have already been eliminated. There's only one faction left that'd make my Top 5 (I won't spoil who it is, as I don't want to influence the results any particular way.)

Clearly, I don't have good taste. =)

With my No. 2, the Turks, eliminated, I recast my vote for Denmark.

Slap the single point I originally gave to Portugal on Russia.

That makes my list
1 Poland
2 England
3 Russia