I hate to self-advertise, but now I am working on some modding to make the game really hard - to a point that any veteran will lose it more than 50% of the time. Hopefully this mod will restore some interests.

For sure there are a lot of shortcomings of RTW, but for me it is still fun so far. (Or maybe not anymore, so I resort to making mods?

I find rebel groups popping up in an INSANE frequency in the barbarian & some eastern lands. I have to camp a diplomat in every town to handle the uprising before devastation occurs. I can't imagine how could players who restrain bribery handle them. Even from the current cheap bribery price my treasury is drained significantly. For other regions rebels don't really pop up this frequently.