Any suggested house rules to make the game more challenging? (VI expansion)

[Cyprian2]

Nice to see some familiar faces: Caravel and "gollem" ("golden age" members and talented modders both). Great to read from you guys!

For some reason, around this time of year, I always get a hankering to return to this place of wonder and good cheer. I also get to playing a bit of MTW... I'm planning to start a campaign as the Byzantines with some house-rules of my own:

1) My armies will *only* be comprised of mercenaries hired from taverns that I build on turn 1.

2) Starting units will be disbanded.

3) No alliances allowed.

4) I will marry my princesses only to family members -- getting those marvelous "chinless wonder" traits for all my generals, and parking them in castles for the
duration of the campaign.

This may all sound a bit loopy, but it's something I've been wanting to try for a while. I call it the "Evil Empire" playthrough.

Would such a campaign be win-able? Let's find out!

PS. I'm still deciding which mod to use. It's between Caravel, Tyb's XL 2.3, and Axalon's Redux. Suggestions are welcome!