Ok, on discussion with Teun we're taking Hindu off the list of religions you can start with anywhere - if you want to start Hindu, you need to have or be next to a Hindu province.

Next up, are there any other religions people think should be on or should not be on the list of religions that are allowed regardless of placement, or any restrictions on that placement (say having indian religions only allowed east of a certain point)? Currently on the list are Jewish, Samaritan, Karaite, Buddhist, Jain, Aztec, Zunist, Hellenic, Nestorian and Messalian.

Has there been any thoughts on the DLC and allowing players to start in that area? I've heard people talking about ruling it out based on balance issues.

I'd suggest letting people play there. 2 reasons: first because we've been holding off starting the game pending this DLC.

Second, with so many republics and a few heretics balance is out the window anyway - particularly Eslin with a head-of-religion heretic republic.

For what it's worth I'd recommend switching off ruler designer entirely and ban historical characters (those who start with pre-determined stats). Demonstrate some skill instead of wiping the floor with the AI for the first 50 years. Just don't pick a character over 45.

Every game I've played since the last big weekend game has been this way and it's been great.

Play the game the way it's supposed to be played without so much min-maxing.

I'm going to end up Sunni most likely, and I'm not going to be head of any religion either way. And there is no reason we would start with randomised stats, everyone gets the same starting array. Starting historical characters gives some people a huge leg-up for no reason, the direct opposite of balance.

Nomad wise, we're probably going to end up with a ban unless there's some insanely good reason not to. I've tried them out, and you get huge amounts of monotype horsemen that wipe the floor with everyone else - this is the first time I've tried them and I have 15000 horse archers and I'm not yet 50 years in. There is no way any other type of government can compete with Nomads unless we put some serious restrictions on what Nomads can do.

I agree with Dahoota.

Regarding...?

Regarding the dlc and balancing. not sure about the ruler designer part. I think the part of starting your won dynesty is something i like.

Teun's hosting, so he's the final arbiter, but since we needed an early answer I gave my best shot - he's much harsher regarding balance than I am, and even I think that nomads are far, far too strong to be allowed in the game. First game I tried them I conquered Byzantium without even trying particularly hard, was screwing around testing mechanics as a 5 county start and 30 years later owned the ERE. Can't see nomads being allowed, they have basically no weakness and a ridiculous amount of monotype troops.

A question I have; do the player realms all start independent - or is their status bound to the vanilla CM situation?

Not a clue. Ask nicely and you can probably start independent if you want to.

BIG EDIT: NOMADS ARE ALLOWED, SOME RESTRICTIONS APPLY.