I agree with all this. I've started playing with the -ian switch all the time now - otherwise the Danes are almost always deeply in debt in a few years. With the switch I can get them going a little by forcing them to invade Sweden and adding some economic development to their building queus.

I'm playing a Danish/High game right now. The Italians got kicked out of everywhere and ended up with a big stack sitting in Crete. They must have 30 ships - but the ai put all of them in only three stacks which it keeps moving around the north atlantic while the rest of the faction sit in the mediteranian helpless and deeply in debt. I'm trying to move their ships back to them, but if I forget for even a turn then the AI just keeps moving them back to the Atlantic. I'd like to just suicide them and see if the faction re-emerges. The Byzanties reemerged on Rhodes - huge stacks, no ships - almost instant debt and no way to move. I'm thinking that I'll just move all the italians onto the byz and see who survives.

There is a cheat you can use to give a faction some money, isn't there? I'd like to use it, but IIRC it gives the faction 1,000,000 florins. That's really too much - I'd just like to get them out of debt with maybe a little more.