Started an ironman abyssinia. It's fun.
Was in the middle of tearing apart Harer (? the "horn" of Africa) with de jure county claims, when one of the bugger's two remaining provinces had a 1500 Miaphysite rebel stack spawn literally right before I finish sieging the province, wiping out 600 troops... it wasn't the province I was going for and I was already at 100% (trying to get money to repay loans) so I peaced out and took the province, but the rebels then started traveling down through my lands, and as I had no boats and my army was in enemy lands...
long story short, my army, which was nominally ~3500, was cut in half by f%## rebels
of my own bloody religion... and of course my ambitious brother, of Axum, chose that moment to push his claim.... 1500 to 1000 troops, I assassinated his ass. But it was quite frustrating, especially as I immediately vassalized the rebel province after they won...
I then went on (after my army recovered a bit) to violate the Baqt and did a holy war for Sanaa/Oman against the Caliph... I was allied with the Byzzies through marriage, my army was around 4500 his around 5500 but up in Persia in either a rebellion or against the Karens. I sacked Mecca (it was a juicy greenish on the econ map, and I needed the money- all four loans and in debt, because for some reason two of my provinces started with no holdings, and I needed a market or two to get some friggin ships... and I wanted a tournament...
)and was sieging Medina before he got down there, but the ERE 5700 stack showed up right thereafter and wiped the floor with him.
The Caliph's army was actually smaller than mine at the end of it all- we both had around 6000, but I think he was down to 2000(!) at the time. And Mecca and Medina were noticeably redder.
Meanwhile the son of my murdered brother was pushing for seniority. I had managed to get primogeniture, and my first response, naturally, was to kill the ungrateful bugger. Literally the moment after I start scheming I get a "righteous imprisonment" popup- sure enough he's trying to kill
me. I imprison then banish him, takng 180 gold, his county and the single-county vassal, and used the money to pay off a loan. It was extremely satisfying. My son meanwhile is married to the genius daughter of a single-county muslim vassal I murdered jast because. I educated her myself, she's a proper Miaphysite Ethiopian now. I've also murdered at least three child counts for the money... the moral of the story is being an evil tyrant is fun and profitable. My income is around 110 a year, my army caps at 5500 or so, just shy of the caliph's maximum forces and in the top ten worldwide. My first rule died at 60ish, now I'm trying to get rid of my son's craven and stressed traits (despite being a skilled tactician and competent fighter...) so I can holy war for Mecca.