Sicily

[complete noob:(]

Is Sicily scripted to attack the player?

Because when i play as the Moors, they attack Algiers, when i play as France, they attack marseille, when i am Milan they land near Genoa, when i am Venice they land at Durazzo (although i think they do that anyways), and when i am portugal/spain they land outside Valencia. All of these happen within the first 5 turns.

So does this happen to anyone else?

[Diamond]

I have no idea what you're experiencing. Sicily typically does most of that, but it usually happens over time. I believe they may be scripted to attack Durazzo and possibly Corsica, but the latter seems less ordinary. I've seen them land at Valencia pretty frequently, and Marseilles on occasion. The AI typically attempts to expand to whatever free land there is nearby before attacking the player; that's why Milan tends to backstab - she runs out of rebel territories to conquer after Bern and occasionally Marseilles, so she attacks a neighboring faction (usually whatever the player is). Sicily has the same dilemma. There isn't much to conquer in southern Italy, and she usually will not attack the Pope and gets excommunicated. Remember, each AI has its own setting on how it conducts its warfare, based on rulers. If you've used a modding tool such as Geomod, you may change this. Each setting is named after a warlord, such as Napoleon (which tends to focus on artillery and land-based warfare) or Genghis (a lot of cavalry supported by archers and artillery). Sicily's setting is, I think, to establish naval dominance, so she typically tries to land everywhere, including all of the places you just stated. Saying Sicily is scripted to attack the player, however, is false, I believe. This can be tested simply by playing a game as Denmark, but not moving from Scandinavia and waiting through the whole game with a rather weak military; eventually, if Sicily was indeed scripted to attack the player, she would land a force near Scandinavia when she has the resources and/or run out of weak neighbors.

[stratfiend]

Dunno about first 5 turns or particularly scripting, but I have noticed certain factions tend to have their eyes on certain settlements. On almost all the campaigns I've played multiple times it's clear to see that sometimes it's best not to take a particular Rebel settlement because the AI faction will be dead set on taking it. If you take it first, they're going to invade you unless you have enough units stacked on it that they consider it a worthless attempt. For example, I played the Sicily campaign 3 times in the past 2 weeks and noticed that if I left the northern island (forget the name, Ajaccio or the other one), Milan wouldn't attack me. By the same token, the coastal Greek settlement NE to their start (forget name, Zagreb maybe?) attracted immediate Venetian attention. If I didn't take it, they would within first few turns. Next campaign I took it and they attacked me almost instantly. Next campaign I took it but left a good stack of units on it and they parked an invasion army next to it for a good 10 turns without actually attacking.

I'm not completely positive on the diplomacy scripting in this game, but perhaps you should make more attempts on that as well. Build a few Diplomats to begin with and send them around making deals. Offer Trade Rights, then Map for Map (ask for some money too if they consider it "Generous"), try for an Alliance if they'll have it and it doesn't conflict with your current alliances/invasion plans, and attempt gifts of 500 florins. I've played a few campaigns where it seemed like no one wanted to attack me because I kept them mostly allied and happy with me.

[Silverheart]

Sicilys´ starting position makes Tunis->Algiers, Durazzo, Cagliari->Valencia or Ajaccio->Genoa their best choice for early expansion, and they typically choose either of them. In my campaigns, however, almost always go for Tunis, Algiers, Cagliari and Durazzo - only very rarely see them go to Iberia early on, and I have never actually seen them expand to Genoa except for by sending fleets and sinking the Milanese navy.
But to answer your question, they´re not scripted to attack the player - you´ve just had bad luck (or good luck, considering how much more exciting it must make the game )

[eXistenZ]

yes, like silverheart says, because they are so central in the map, they like to expand in all directions.

if you play as sicily, you are also likely to get attacked by the mentioned factions if you have expanded a bit. especially naval invasions on sardinia from milan, france, spain and the moors.

[lolIsuck]

Sicily is meant to be the bastard of the game, together with Milan. They will just attack you randomly because they can.

[trustno1(2)]

I was just playing as Portugal. I started expanding into northern Spain, then sent a fleet over and took Caglari before the Sicilians. I had a diplomat on board, and made an alliance with them. Next turn they attacked me! I had not attacked any other factions yet, and I was playing on medium difficulty. Those little backstabbing cowards! In a few turns I took and exterminated the populace of all of their settlements! That ought to teach those dirty little bilge rats!

[Host of Valhalla]

I doubt factions are "hard coded" to attack certain settlements (except if it's one of their starting ones that you occupied, at which they will do everything in their power to take it back.. especially capitals.) However, depending on the difficulty you selected, the nearest faction is "hard coded" to attack you (not just one individual settlement) anywhere from every 4 to 20 turns depending on whether your neutral to all, or have taken a certain number of settlements. But know, that according to the majority of M2tw players, including myself, the most treacherous, backstabbing faction is not Sicily, but Milan! Always beware of Milan.

[lolIsuck]

No, there are no scripted attacks on settlements but they're just Satan's spawn.