Noting things after the further gameplay during the Medieval and Renaissance Eras (First time playing through the latter in 1.18 update)
1. Switches work properly now, being able to do the first turn as a new civ in every such case.
2. The Moors are still extremely tough for Spain to challenge, they never end up being kicked out of Iberia through the Reconquista.
3. The Kushans were able to collapse India, thankfully preventing an overpowered India by the end of the Renaissance Era. Though the same cannot be said about Korea which survived through the Mongols and made it into the Industrial Era early on in the Renaissance timeline. Same with the Ottomans who ended up being so strong at their maximum extent matching the irl Ottoman Empire that they made it into the Modern Era by the late half of the XVIII Century, also dragging Poland there since they were vassalized by the Ottomans. Tried to defeat them while playing as Russia but they already had Riflemen and Artillery by the time I went on them with Cuirassiers and Musketeers.
4. Despite one of the latest updates seemingly being the fact that the Mongols target Ruthenia now instead of Muscovy, there wasn't any Mongol invasion of Eastern Europe taking place. Instead they had the invasion events for China, Turks, Byzantium, everyone they met, but never for Ruthenia after meeting them. Instead, they presented themselves as either neutral or very friendly both when I played as Ruthenia and later on as Muscovy, never gaining any foothold in Eastern Europe except for Crimea seized from the independents.
5. The problem with the roaming military units remain, like in case of French units randomly seizing and later holding Khazaria as a French territory until I had to take it from France by force in XVI Century.
6. The European Empires are finally very active at colonizing during the Renaissance Era, every single colonial power got pretty sized colonial empires.
7. Overpowered Arabia and China have also been prevented. But if in the first case it was me as Byzantium deliberately beating them down and thus making sure they end up being invaded by the Seljuks in a very weakened state, China collapsed from the Mongol invasions and later regenerated, with the mechanic where most of the tile improvements decline with the civilization collapse now working just as it should be.
8. Unlike in 1.17 when Poland was a formidable enough force which in almost every single Muscovy gameplay that I had was inevitably going after me in early XVII Century, this time they were either going after completely other nations or vassalized by France and the Ottomans.
9. Finally worked out a strategy of playing as Muscovy that is slightly different but still pretty much the same, only just readjusted for the larger map and different terrain this time. More heavily relying on the farmland economy works quite well now, allowing to grow cities which otherwise would be quite a struggle to do with Moorlands dominating across much of the Russian expansion territory. Still though, with the Ottomans "flying" so far forward I don't see any possibilities for myself not only to weaken them but to simply just catch up to them technologically, with them getting quite far forward of even the most of the other European Powers.
10. Probably it would conflict with the Muscovy goal of having 10 cities settles in Siberia, still though all of the previous and the current 1.18 version at least for myself seem to be greatly lacking on representing Western Siberian indigenous principalities which had the first encounters with the Novgorod Republic since around 1100-1200, also since then paying tributes to Novgorod sometimes. When the Khanate of Sibir came to be, all of them became vassalized by the Siberian Khan, later conquered by Muscovy in late XVII Century. May suggest here to include Kashlyk as an independent city-state which may also be conquered by the Mongols on their "march" towards Eastern Europe, becoming independent once more after the Mongols collapse.
11. Almost forgot to mention, throughout each time I played until Renaissance in 1.18, the Ottomans never stayed in Islam, always converting to Orthodox Christianity, and this time also wasn't an exception.
That's all so far, once again looking forward for the final 1.18 release, not sure if I'll play again until the final release of the 1.18 happens, but with every fix it seems to be getting better and better. Also can't wait to see the dynamic city name changes to be reintroduced in the future, so that there wasn't the city of Babylon on the map all the way until the modern era.
