And I didn't encounter any resistance in my raid.

In a way, that makes me sad because it means I don't get to fight.  But logically speaking, it gives me a pretty big advantage against one of my neighbors, who WILL have to fight.  And to be fair, my army isn't quite ready to fight anyway.  I still have a lot of painting to do to even get my initial 300pts raiding party ready, let alone my 500pt army of conquest.

So now I can spend the season building my army up, and my "raid" will net me some extra gold.  It seems that my neighbor was not so fortuante, and will be fighting against some Normans this season.  They will probably beat the crap out of him and leave him in a weakened state, which could allow me the chance to force him into an alliance.  I don't have a large enough army to actually invade and conquer him yet (that takes at least 500pts), but the threat of me achieving that goal before him might make him consider an alliance.

I'm not knocking my fellow Andalusian prince BTW, but I know that I'M warry of the Normans, so he should be too.  I hope I get to watch that battle so I can see how an Andalusian army fairs against our northern neighbors without having to risk my own men in the battle.