""currently in 1218""

-That is what, 131 turns into the game? Imagine where you'd be in Shogun after that many turns, youd be in year 1563 or something. I never had any game last that long.

-But I do understand what you're saying. The fact is that a good player advances exponentially while every other faction advances in a more linear fashion. By making your early game harder, youre going to delay domination by maybe 20-50 turns, but youll still eventually dominate, albeit it'll be slower.

""so it's effectively game over""

-Yeah you're telling me! By turn 40 I already have clearly pulled ahead of any AI faction no matter what faction Im playing. Inevitably, the AI will NEVER be able to make a comeback against you once you're dominant.

""a new king with influence of 3 or 4 right back up to 9 influence""

-How do you do that? I notice getting alliances/etc boosted my king but what other ways do you have of getting it to 9?

""full on high-tech faction revolts""

-This would reward a faction for getting besieged with free units, probably ones stronger than its tech level allows anyway. If this went in, I know Id purposely get besieged so I could mass armies of uber-troops and then lay waste to everyone.

""move your general in to crush the rebellion and level up""

-Yes, I personally love this. You should be able to do this. I do not see why being able to do this is a bad thing. Occasionally the rebels get a very nice general, so it can be risky.

""I really don't see a problem with Portugal at all, not 1 revolt in at least 50 game turns since I conquered it.""

-Then you mustve kept the taxes very low and/or maintained a large garrison. I highly doubt you profited from Portugal immediately after conquering it. Now make every province in the map like this, youll see what I mean.

""people quaking in their boots when they play it""

-very very true, there should be a setting for rebel activity seperate from difficulty level, like a slider bar that lets you either tone down rebels/discontent or jack it up. A change like that sounds like it would satisfy you as well as whomever wants a challenging game without endless hoardes of rebels.

""I suggest having a cap of the effects of these units effects.""

-Considering you need a level 3 castle in order to produce spies, and you cant get then for the first 40 turns or so, spies have no effect on the early game. To further balance them you could increase their cost. Putting a cap on spies simply eliminates any real offensive use as 3 spies will never provoke revolts. Maybe you do not like using spies, but many other players do. Massing spies to provoke revolts is no easy solution to the game. It can be helpful in some cases, but it would be a very very slow means of conquering the world if you relied on it.