Here's an idea that popped into my head when I was caught in nostalgia about native SP. There some Khergit once said that it's the eternal cycle of the steppe that when old rulers get fat and old, new warlords come from the east and conquer the land for themselves. In my opinion, this fits very well into the clan diplomacy clusterfuck that is strategus now. This also makes me present a question:
What if strategus had foreign invaders and wandering armies that could randomly attack fiefs and bigger parties? And with armies I don't mean the 49 man parties, but 1000 troops or etc. They would have matching gear (maybe we can make a list of gear that fits a theme, AI buys from that list?) and would wander around and attack a fief now and then.
Let's make an example: Hospitallers currently control the steppe area. A new warlord comes from the east, bringing his army of 1000 men to conquer a village. He moves around in the area near Ada Kulun for a couple days, perhaps attacks a couple bigger parties, then lays a siege on the village. If Hospitallers win, they'll gain all the items he had with him. If he wins, the village will be transferred back to AI. Same could be applied everywhere in the map, with a couple random AI armies for each terrain type.
You can ask me, why on earth I'd want such a thing?
Well, simply because I think strategus is boring. People just gather resources and play the diplomatic game. There's no big field battles, only clans taking towns from AI which is quite gimped. There hasn't even been a proper war in a long time because the damned economics makes fighting too expensive. The towns that are on the maps edge are safe from everything, because the world just ends there, no enemy armies can shake things up for the clans residing there. Keep in mind that the AI party would spawn randomly in somewhere in the terrain type, so those clans who are in the centre are not safe from them either.
People are not even having battles for fun anymore like in first strat. Some people still probably remember my theme battles, and this may smell a lot like the same thing. It's true, I liked my theme battles and this would carry on the tradition in an automated form. Making this option viable would make strategus more fun for everyone. Hell, if sensible automation is not possible I could spawn the armies and equip/hire rosters for the battles myself if I just could (without being biased towards anyone, everyone would get their equal share of suffering from the "invaders").
So, a simple question, would you want this feature in or not?