Everything seems to be pretty random.

The Danes are very strong in my game (the first one i started as England), i eliminated the Scots and have almost eliminated France but the Danes will be a big threat. The HRE is fishting with the Milanese whilst the Hungarians are fighting both the Venetians and Byzantines (BYZ down to 1 city). Spain has defeated Portugal and has all of N Africa as well as all Spain. Russia tries to fight with Denmark but fails miserably and has nearly gone.

Don't know about the other map areas yet.