Yeah I'm really loving that mod. And as a note, it does have a lot of custom items in the various markets...so my very first initial impressions on that were wrong. Plus you can get more custom stuff by enlisting in an army and raising in ranks.
I decided to be the Aztecs. I like the idea of kicking the Spanish out, conquering the entire western world...and then raiding across the ocean the land of africa and europe. Sorta like europa universalis 3 with the random aztecs
Plus, if we have the entire land mass...it would be REALLY hard for anyone to travel over to take anything. It would be a huge journey, and you lose morale for being too long out at sea (think AI is effected too, dunno though). Still a long journey, with no safe areas to land.
At least the 1.6 version I have, isn't entirely finished. Incas are named wrong (probably easy enough to fix, its just a faction name change) and some things are still in testing mode. But, guess its an in development mod (though with that said, it has a TON of stuff and is pretty advanced).
My first fort battle was pretty epic. I decided to get all the other lords and attack that spanish fort on aztec's shores. Spanish can't really defend it (all their lords are mostly in europe)...so actually "easy pickings"
Huge thick line of Spanish musketeers on the wall, and my waves of Aztecs swarming toward them. Playing at 500 battle size. Aztecs dying all around, I stay back so I can just watch whats going on (me being morale support
)...aztecs reach the ladders...being decimated on the way up.
But, finally the first Aztecs reach the top of the walls. Spanish front line gets decimated. Not good close fighters I guess or Aztecs are just better. I then follow up, but even though we heavily outnumber the Spanish and breached the wall...its still a blood bath of hundreds of Aztecs dying.
45-50 minutes into the battle, many dead, many wounded...we finally take their fort. But that was epic, like a movie battle. So many died from their guns.
So, now whats left is Mayans (but they are easy pickings, I don't think they are really developed yet), Incas and the natives of north america. Plus some islands with spanish on them.