Nice stuff, Monk and Walternat0r.

On the Mongols, I've found they seem to be a bit lethargic too, just sacked two Khwarezm cities and have been just hanging around ever since. It's just about the only disappointing thing I've found about SS. To be fair though I suppose they aren't much better in vanilla.

I definitely approve of the scattered trade empire appearance. I too very much enjoy picking up all the little miscellaneous islands and isolated provinces here and there. One of my most enjoyable campaigns in RTW was as the Greek Cities; I set myself the target of not only keeping my original holdings, but also expanding to retake anywhere that was once a Greek colony. This meant launching naval expeditions to all sorts of places like Crimea, Sardinia, Cyprus and Spain, followed by some tricky campaigns to defend them against the locals. Loads of money from my massive trading empire, but a logistical mountain to climb in ferrying enough troops from the mainland to all my far-flung colonies.