Wow, as of this writing, 11 votes are in and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire being a later historical moniker, I think) is the victor by a landslide.

Thanks for the suggestions on mods. I am undecided which ones I should use, if any. I tried out LTC, I was impressed by the smooth installation and the work Lusted put into it, but I got nowhere. I was defending Durazzo with militia spearmen against wave upon wave of Venetians for 20ish turns. It was a struggle just to build up settlements much less expand. As for the Garrison mod, that might be useful.

I am leaning toward vanilla, but with double or triple King's Purse for AI factions. I'm going to be a relative noob with the ERE troop roster. To be honest, I suck at HAs. Part of the reason I'm doing this is to go outside my comfort zone as a player and see what happens.