So, the Japan patch added some nifty countries in the Philippines:
There's three big players, Tondo, Madyas, and Maguindanao. Then there's Pangasinan, Maynila, Cebu, and Butuan, OPMs. Of the lot, there's some religious diversity: Pangasinan is Mahayana Buddhist, and Maguindanao and Maynila are Animist. Everyone else is Hindu.
Tondo, Pangasinan, and Maynila share ideas, which have a running theme of maritime support and economic boosts. Cebu's ideas focus it on political stability, Madyas is really navy focused, Maguindanao has ideas that mainly improve its economy with a military-boost on the side, and Butuan has diplomacy and trade focus (with much-coveted additional merchant, diplomat, relations slot, and relations point.) Personally, I like Maguindanao and Butuan's ideas, but none of them are really bad IMO, and given the Philippines' position, Madyas arguably has pretty good ideas.
On the topic of Madyas, there's something else interesting about them: they're an oligarchic republic. I'm not experienced enough to really comment on how good or bad this is, strictly speaking, although I'm told that absolutism is crucial to the metagame these days. It would definitely be an
interesting game.
I'm currently having a pretty decent game as Maguindanao. Things would be going pretty smoothly if Borneo didn't threaten to intervene against me. If nothing else, a huge navy is the key to success here. If you have the biggest navy, you can lock down the sea and keep everyone off your islands.