Anyone notice those green arrows? Land bridges are back by the looks of things. That should make crusading through Byzantium a bit easier, what with no fleet required. It also opens up a whole bunch of other tactics and strategies for defending/invading Constantinople. I wonder if the English Channel also has a land bridge? Maybe one accross the Straits of Gibraltar as well?

It looks like naval invasions are occurring as well - Scotland seems to have invaded Holland. Unless Holland rebelled and became Scottish...

As for the lack of years - maybe that '10' is the amount of Florins, and the turns/years are not visible on the main screen, but through an information scroll or something. Just a thought.