So I have the entire eastern Med as the byzantines but Im finding it extremely cumbersome if not impossible to expand my economy to where I feel my empire should be. Im finding that regions that I conquer (like greece, anatolia) almost all the settlements need garrison IV and Chapel III on top of an aqueduct or a tavern, and they still slowly rebel. So I have one small army every 6 or 7 towns constantly putting down uprisings everywhere but that means almost all the money goes towards building maintanance.

In fact, the vast majority of my money comes from foreign trade. My empire would crumble without it. Im finding that Im going into debt as I expand into regions like italy and north africa because im essentially destroying my trading partners and switching them for rebellious areas with little economic value, like pretty much everywhere in my empire.

I could go for interest-based economy with the jewish settlements, but the key issue is that my own empires internal economy cannot support itself despite being half the Med, which shouldnt really be the case.. I am building up those rare resources and mines wherever I go but its still not enough for it to be economically viable to keep expanding.

Unless im missing something major im thinking im done with this mod as I dont think the economic stuff is sufficiently balanced.