Playing as Pontos(I finally have managed to get past the point where I could lose at any moment!) BI with the Balance mod is going well. The KH landed troops near Pergamon and Halicarnassus(though they failed to capture either of them.) I snagged Pergamon, and the Ptolies got Halicarnassus. The Romans and Carthies are at war over Sicily(the Romans have expanded....shockingly correctly too.) The Ptolies have thev Seleukids on their heels(but they ain't finished yet) and they just betrayed me(and they're going to get rocked, already have Halicarnassus under siege, and Oxydates is going straight for Tarsus after he relieves Mazaka. I would recommend it, as it seems to help more than naval invasions. Here're a few examples from my campaign...
-Hayasdan just took Trapezous. Grrr...I wanted it!
-Sauromatae captured Tanais, expanded west(capturing Gelonus and whatever is west of that) and have besieged Chersonesos(I know because I got the event pop-up...but I have no navy )
-Maks have expanded nicely and are currently trying to get their homeland back from the Epeirotes, who have the entire province festooned with forts.
-Carthies and Lusotannan have expanded heavily in Iberia, and will probably be at war soon.

And I've been playing with BI.exe for a while now, and can safely say that this is more or less the norm....