The new system is interesting, and I think fair. To many posters' points, it can be tedious at times, but others it is quite interesting. I've done two tries with Persia. The first I went with the Education reform as my first pick. Annexed Abu Dhabi, Bukhara, and Khiva in the lead-up to Westernization. Got into Russia's sphere and civilized in the 1880s. My max RP generation was in the low 3s before I civilized. After civilizing, I still had a hard time with the budget and eventually the Turks DoWed me. What shocked me was that Russia refused to intervene, and I was in real bad shape.
I read some thoughts from those who have played through Westernization a few times, and gave it another go. This time I had as my strategy the goal of getting in the UK's sphere, in the hopes of higher techs. Annexed Makran early and then Sindh, which gave me a border with the UK (with whom I brought relations to 200). The one downside to eventually getting into the UK sphere was that my tariff income went to 0.3.
I went for the Admin boosting reform first with the logic it would help with clergy promotion (brought Admin efficiency to 100% in Tabriz, my largest state by population, then switched to clergy). That's when events got slightly out of my control - Panjab, a UK sphereling, DoWed me and called Bukhara to the war. I had Afghanistan and Kokand as allies, and they very effectively acted as cushions. Afghanistan was largely overrun and peaced out of the war, which turned out to be great: Bukhara no longer had a land connection with me, and Panjab lost much of its army to attrition in Afghanistan. I was left with an open door to invade Panjab. At the beginning of the war I had no intentions of conquest, but my infamy had dropped low enough and seeing that Panjab was in the UK sphere, I decided to annex it (with the logic it would be harder later).
One of the reasons I targeted Sindh early on was for its tea RGO. I've been reading that tea seems to be the biggest difficulty for clergy POPs, and once I conquered Sindh I found my clergy in much better financial shape. Taking Panjab only increased that benefit, and with so many POPs to tax and tea in high demand I was able to bring my finances to much better health. I coasted for much of the Westernization process, taking Kalat in the interim. Many POPs in Panjab migrated to other areas of the Empire, so by Westernization a state that had 1.8 million POPs had ~800K. However, even with that drop I used a clergy NF in Panjab and was able to significantly raise my clergy % (for an unciv). By Westernization in 1879 I was bringing in mid-4 RPs per day.
After Westernizing this time around, I got fairly similar techs, even considering being in the UK sphere. First tier for all categories with a few second tiers thrown in (not the best haul but so it goes). However, my economy exploded and by building factories in a few populated states I was well on the way to industrial progress. My new tax base allowed me to greatly expand the military - I was even able to purchase some ships. I took Abu Dhabi early on knowing that it would fill up with Persian POPs when conquered (I have since made it into a state). My first big test came in a war with the Turks. They were battling an alliance of the UK and Russia, with Germany and Austria on their side. The English were besieging much of Mesopotamia, which was my target. I justified a Free People wargoal for Iraq, and early battles met with success. However, the UK and Russia made peace shortly after I DoWed, and suddenly a steady stream of Austrian troops came pouring into Mesopotamia. I was pushed back into western Persia and won defensive battles only when odds were stacked in my favor. I had 5 30K-men armies and reserves called up. The war lasted almost 5 years, however, I was not bankrupted (maintenance only became a real problem towards the end - for a significant period I was still able to run a surplus). I eventually prevailed and was able to free Iraq and am now in the late 1880s with my next target as Afghanistan.
To sum up, two completely different outcomes on Westernizing. I civilized not too far apart in terms of time in both games, but the difference was in how and what state my economy was in after. I think the tax base from Panjab and the easy access to tea made the difference in trial 2. Not so sure the UK sphere helped as much - what it did do was make Army reforms cheaper (I only did two Economy reforms: Admin and the lower-tier Construction; no Education reform this time). In both games though I have noticed that the sphere leader is reluctant to enter into wars, regardless of badboy.
