This allowed me to expand North against the Scandinavians and then south against the Hungarians, used the Bosphorus as my southern land boundary, and island hopped to attack the egyptians from Cyprus. As the Polish, I established alliances with the Lithuanians, Kiev Rus, and French. The diplomacy also seemed to work better - I don't believe I had an ally turn on me throughout the campaign.
The AI seemed to be more agressive both in attacking settlements and, especially, in attacking factions other than my own. I just completed my first campaign using SS 1.5 and throughly enjoyed it.
