Perhaps you could switch the UP of Venice and Genoa? Genoa generally has no more than 5 cities, which works well with Merchant Republic, whereas Venice as both human and AI always ends up with more than 5. In addition, Venice does more fighting and thus would have a greater need of mercenaries.
Also, I'm not the biggest fan of the UHV3 being first to build a colonial project. A more interesting UHV could be called "Lepanto" and be "control and assure that there are no Ottoman cities in the eastern Mediterranean islands (Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta). Of course this would require the Ottomans making an effort to settle or conquer those provinces, but imo something should be done to make the Ottomans more of a competitor navally like they were until Lepanto. Personally I think colonial projects should be the domain of the west-euro civs who established footholds in reality, but I also understand if you want to continue to stick to the UHV structure of "2 historical, 1 ahistorical but possible/alternate history".
Played as Bulgaria on Monarch, pretty easy game I thought. 1st UHV was easy, the Byzantine AI lost Hadrianopolis to barbs and put only 1 measly archer in Constantinopolis and Thessaloniki --> easy conquests and Byzantium collapses. Nobody challenges you for the land you need for the 1st UHV once Byzantium has collapsed--the only threat is the barbs that continue to spawn in the western Balkans and the Serb revolts (I hate this
and stick by my point in my earlier post that the scripted revolts should not happen if you have good stability). Orthodox points are beyond easy if you keep the cities you conquered/built for the 1st UHV-- just build Orthodox buildings and spread the religion with missionaries, supplementing that count with the free faith points from the endless prophets coming from Constantinople/Tsarigrad. Defending Mongols was easy- built the city in NE Wallachia near the Black Sea that gets all the resources in the fat cross (not on the coast though) and stacked Guisarmiers and Arbalestiers in there with walls and a castle + Pressburg castle. Ottomans near Hadrianopolis/Odrin/Edirne were annoying but destroyed all their units with a stack of double-flanking promoted pistoliers (hilariously overpowered unit imo when used correctly, since with 12 strength + 3 movement + 1st strikes + base withdrawal chance + flanking I and II if you have barracks and stable they rarely ever die when attacking
). Suiciding bombards is also quite effective.
Now playing as Byzantium. I noticed right away that Apulia and Calabria are unstable despite their historic place first in the Western Empire before 500 AD and then in the Eastern Empire thanks to Belisarius, so maybe this could be changed. Same goes for the rest of Belisarius's conquests (Sicily, Sardinia, Tripolitania, Tunis/Ifriqiya). Speaking of Belisarius, perhaps he could start the game with the Byzantines in Constantinopolis as a Great General? He after all was quite instrumental in pushing back the Sassanids, protecting the Emperor, and conquering the western Mediterranean during his lifetime from 500-565AD.
Now onto my next point as Byzantium: the barbs (especially Sassanids)!
Defending the barb axes and spears in Greece is quite easy, of course. But the Sassanid barbs having lancers at that point of the game is brutal, even on Monarch! Sinope is only ever hit by one lancer at a time so is easily defensible by an archer and a spearman. Caesarea is also easy to defend with 2 starting archers and its location on a hill. But Aleppo...defending it turns into a constant drain on your production and a massive bloodbath since getting walls takes forever and it's on plains. I would literally replace a defender just in time to keep the city, only to see another of my troops killed the next turn. I never lost the city, but those battles were interesting (actually, you ironically managed to realistically recreate the Byzantine-Sassanid wars through this arduous process of bloodbaths followed by troop replenishment ad infinitum. I love a good challenge but lancers in 500AD are a little excessive and the art (west-euro-looking lancers in eastern Anatolia) looks a little strange. Perhaps they should be replaced with horse archers?
Also I love what you did with the "penalty" for pillaging the preplaced villages, but be aware that I have often used them as a goldmine for both actual gold and also experience for my starting troops.
Also, too bad about 3Miro
Hopefully he can come back to CFC and the project soon, I always liked him a lot.
However I understand that they are rather overextended and due to the strength of Arabs + barbs they are weak. Actually, in a game my dad was playing he actually saw AI Bulgaria take Constantinople !!!
