[Solid Snake]

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. =)