Ethiopia! Jewel of East Africa! Seat of learning and mother of ...
Eh, I'm not convincing anyone. Circa 1399, Ethiopia is kind of an awful place to live. Eight provinces, exactly one of which has 3 base tax; the others are all 2 or 1. Tribal despotism, meaning I can't expand above 9 provinces or dire things will befall, not to mention that 50% research penalty. African tech group, the second worst in the world. Crappy units and no cavalry, ever. A religion shared by no one for thousands of miles (which at least means I won't have to worry about stability hits from aggression). Three different religions in my own borders, which pretty much guarantees religious rebellions and plenty of them:
Have you ever tried to put down religious rebellions with African infantry in an area with no forts? Even if you slaughter the opposition, they will (unless you can trick them into entering an unoccupied province) retreat into and force-convert the next province over. Not fun. My converting days are clearly going to have to wait for better units (due, at the current rate of advancement, never) or forts.
On the bright side, I do have a gold mine. And an irreducible .08 inflation rate. Also, I'm the strongest nation in the known world. The known world consists of me and Adal.
Clearly this is too easy a start, so I set the difficulty to Very Hard and the map spread to 200 years. Otherwise we might westernize too early, and I can't have that.
My objectives? KILL EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE.