Ok, that's sweet, but one thing.
Maybe balance the other dates before going into a whole new territory.
- Norway still wins the Norman conquest 9 times out of 10
- The abbasid sitll blobs too much from being stable (y'know what, lets just change this statement. ALL caliphates, sultanates, and large islamic territories blob too much from being too stable)
- Even after the crusades, Iberia still ends up muslim if it's not totally shattered (and even if it is shattered, the kingdoms still tear themselves apart until muslims pick at the remains).
- The HRE is too stable and keeps taking hungary
- Karl couldn't form the HRE to save his life 99 times out of 100
- Speaking of the HRE, the the mess that is central europe in the old gods start still can't keep itself even remotely stable, and ignores when there's literally any outside force threatening them until france is muslim and Germany looks like the the german states post HRE collapse, just a few centuries early
- Ghengis khan can't expand for shit because he keeps doing it one war at a time
- Crusader states can't survive because jihads are still half cooked
- I get that there's supposed to be instability in the ERE, but they literally cannot defend themselves for the life of them. If it's a start date where Rum is at its peak, more often than not it ends up steam rolling the ERE
- Slavs in charlemenge... Really, christianity as a whole in charlemenge. It just doesn't survive, ever.
- Also, Orthodoxy can't really spread north in any way. One of the most important parts of rus culture is just kinda out the window on that part
- Speaking of, thanks to Rus never being able to organize itself, the North never really gets conquered.
- ALSO speaking of rus, pretty much 3/4ths of the kingdoms tend to be under some sort of nomadic control, and they never even try to get out.
- And Khazaria... just... just look at some of the damn memes. It's funny the first few times, but seriously, that just shows how half baked nomads' balance is.
These are just a few of the most major problems with all the start dates. I appreciate new content, and I think the vast majority can agree, but there's a point where someone has to look at the state of the game and consider if it's time for throwing more food on the plate or time to clean some of that food off the plate. It's not like more content can't be added while fixing this stuff. I mean, Islam is basically feudalism but more broken, and really shows its age as the first expansion because of it. That's an example of something to overhaul as 'new content'.
At least put some weight into the AI's decisions for outside dangers. Like, if Iberia DOES become muslim, maybe have the Karling kingdoms stop the infighting and look to suit up against the behemoth on their doorstep.
Again, I'm liking the approach into the 10th century, but PLEASE tell me there's a lot more back-end stuff working on all of the ahistorical flaws that are from poor balancing and half-finished mechanics?
What's with all the free stuff? Not that I'm complaining, but it is a bit odd.
