I altered my early.txt to add novgorod as a playable faction becuase i heard it was more of a challenge. Andv let me tell you, it is. I have tried 3 campaigns and all of them ended in disaster(I don't ever save/reload as sometimes the empires fall is more fun than its rise i.e. lots of almost unwinnable battles and the victories, although few, are often sweeter).

One thing i noticed is that i produce an amazing ammount of low loyalty genrals. Around ever 3rd general produced has no loyalty whatsoever and often when i have him assasinated, the guy who takes over has no loyalty either. IS there any way to increase the odds of producing loyal generals?

As a side noter i highly reccomend playing the Novies. It is really hard. I had no problem winning with Poland on expert and I am not even close to figuring out how to win with the novies. They have no special units except boyars who suck the life out of your treasury. On one game a early flood of heirs(who come out as boyars) bankrupted me and eventually sunk my empire.