"To mod or not to mod?" :)

Just get the peasants out, mess abit with the AI personalities, make available any faction you want to play that is not, switch the terrain in provinces to match the map - and go for it. About 45 to an hour mod work.

It may be interesting using the -ian thing to play a faction for 3 consecutive rulers and then switch to another faction for another 3 rulers (for the benefit of all). It avoids the superfaction boredom and offers fresh challenges. When i tried that i played 3 different cultures/religions; islamic, orthodox, catholic - just to complement the variety.