First, thanks for an awesome mod! This mod (and its sister-mod Norman Invasion) is a bit like EB, except the different time frame and its stability.
Am I the only person who find the factions staring on or focusing on Great Britain to be very hard to complete the game with? It's very symptomatic that the two factions I've won the game with are the Norwegians and the Ui Niall. I find it rather easy to win with these factions because the only thing you need to do is to take out the AI factions on Ireland pretty quickly, and then you can conquer the rebel settlements one by one, and build up Ireland to be an economic powerhouse, and then conquer the prvinces remaining for victory. That is simply not possible on Great Britain. It's too big, and its factions are too strong, compared to Ireland. So, ehm, how do guys do?
Also, is it really right to label the Mercians as marauder in difficulty rating? They start out with poorly developed lands and are surrounded by (potential) enemies. Wessex, while facing the Danes early one, have rich lands and fewer directions from which enemies can come.