Pah, all that BYZ hate. Byzantium
is pretty overpowered compared to real-life but that doesn't mean it still isn't a challenging game.
Anyway.
Death&Taxes 2.1. This started out as an observer game, with Japan. It was kinda boring though (and Yamana was close to forming Japan), so at around 1500 I switched to newly-released Funj, thinking that I'd westernise Funj, give it a fighting chance, then move on to some other nation. Shouldn't be hard, I thought, since in my previous experiences with westernisation the main problem was always finding the neighbour, and in this game the Mamluks were right above me.
It turned out to take much, much longer than I thought. Moving the sliders alone took almost a century, and then a few more decades waiting for the right ruler. In the meantime I've had to dodge a predatory Oman (later Najd), since I am completely unable to compete militarily. The Arabians have huge doomstacks, which take crazy attrition especially when I've scorched the land, but that's meaningless since there's such a huge disparity in combat ability. I've had to reload twice after being annexed by the Mamluks and Najd. Needless to say this is probably the last time I play a sub-Saharan nation.
Some interesting powers have formed though. The coolest was seeing both the Mughals (Timurids)
and Hindustan form. Persia has been doing much better since it took Fars from the Mughals. France is also a nice solid colour this time. Muscowy has replaced Novgorod as the steppe predator, hopefully it forms Russia soon. Great Britain is Scottish. Bohemia has a Jagiellon king, and is so close to forming Jagiellon, it just needs Pecs I think. It hasn't made a move on Hungary for more than a century though. There also was a Greater Serbia stretching from Trieste to Edirne, but then they got trolled by Spain since Serbia is Orthodox. Further east Japan formed (with a little help from me - cancelling vassals and such). That red in Bengal is not GB but Japan.
Religion-wise this game is nothing spectacular - the Reformation fizzled out, only Austria and a handful of German OPMs are Protestant. Korea is Shinto, and between Hindustan and Bihar India is all Hindu.
I had some funj, but I'm quite tired of sub-Saharans by now honestly. I might continue this game as Bohemia, see if I can get Jagiellon to form.