Hi Nagnar

I assume you're playing max difficulty.

Iron man rules?

You may already know this...

Caravel mod - florins very tight.
Redux - lots of VERY diff factions and troop types. At a min you'll have to learn the new cost-benefit outcomes.
BKB and XL some very small factions that take a lot of skill and patience to keep going never mind have prosper.

Personally I consider MTW2 utterly inferior to MTW.

Best regards
Victor

Sapere aude
Horace