After a year since i wrote the first post in this thread i found no reason to cheat with Pahlava anymore. I guess it's the same with all EB factions, especially with "difficult" ones: once you learn what is the best expansion-route for your faction, army composition, tactics, and what is the most likely behavior of surrounding factions, it gets pretty easy to play. Few months ago i started Pahlava campaign anew, and it was, more or less, a piece of cake to reach Antiocheia and to have stable economy able to support decent army at the same time.