No i haven't raised upkeep, just tweaked income to reflect the longer campaign length.

Interesting i always fight on the walls first even if the ai has siege engines because it will usually only make a few holes then attack, and the height advantage helps my archers.

And on VH, just like vanilla but less so, your relations will deteriorate with other factions automatically unless your doing things to improve them. I'd suggest starting a new campaign on H as relations do not deteriorate to bad, just to normal, and the cash boost is smaller.