Commentary as I read-

1.1 - In terms of Mods I was keen originally keenon Europa Barbarorum or Deus lo Vult, but seeing as how most people prefer MII and Stainless Steel incorporates many similar improvements to Deus lo Vult, I think Stainless Steel would be our best bet. No matter how good Broken Crescent is, it just feel wrong to play MII:TW without England, France, the HRE and Spain.

1.3,1.4 - 1.3 is definitely the correct choice, and I am just in love with 1.4. I could not imagie that aspect being dealt with in a better way than what Tincow describes in his commentary. Certainly every Avatar should be given at least enough rope to hang themselves with.

1.5 - I like the idea in general, and I'm glad that there's a way to counter it should we so desire. However, one thing that I did not like about post-cataclysm KOTR was the detachment between the military forces of our enemies and the reality of thier military situation. It would be one thing to consolidate and move AI units that alreay exist, but to go back to adding multiple full stacks of heavily upgrading troops at regular intervals would be to repeat KOTR's worst mistake.

2 - I see no problems with how these rules are written, and I am greatly looking forward them. However, I do have a few questions and suggstions. I believe that Faction Heirs should get royal armies. It seems impossible for the heir to the throne to *not* be royal. I would like the power "Owns one ____ Army, above and beyond any Private Armies owned by their vassals." to be clarified, specifically the meaning of the "above and beyond" portion. Finally, it seems a little odd that the title of 'Grand Duke will most likely be achieved a fuedal pole rather than feudal tree.

3,4,5 - Everything looks good here.

I agree with Ramses thoughts about ships. In my opinion navies in the rules should function similar to armies, except maybe requiring a higher rank.