I've gotten to personally modify the game files for my liking :
1. Increasing all the stats for each experience level for a unit, each upper level being marginally better than the previous with a big increase on 6th xp level (veterans) and 9th xp level (master elite). Experience always beats exuberance. For balancing reasons, it's now far more difficult to level up units thus having these 'master elites' is now a true sight to behold.
2. Making generals and admirals truly matter - i've added multiple boni to traits; for example the C_General_Good_Field_Commander_5 now provides chance to recover battle casualties, ambush ability, increase in all unit stas (melee, defence, charge, reload, accuracy and morale), decrease the risk of being assassinated , decrease the risk of premature/sudden death, increase the line of sight and lastly increase the campaign moving points. There's a change to spawn Bonaparte as a general for France (historic_characters tables) and he has this trait -- wanted to make his truly memorable, not so much for when I play as but against him or any other top tier leaders of men.
+Same for most high level traits and ancillaries for all agents - monarchs and ministers included - a good monarch may actually prevent a revolution, a prime minister will help prevent coalitions of all Europe against your ambitions, a chief of staff will allow for a greater land army (decrease recruitment and upkeep costs), same with a lord first admiral and so on. Nice boni became good, good became great. I get to contend with far greater enemies on the map now - both on land and on the sea because of those increases.
3. Increased the trigger chances for ancillaries; now I get to see Grizzly Adams, Actress, Personal Physician, Spymaster, Pamphleteer and all the other far more often.
+Successfully incorporated dormant traits like C_Honorable_Service (these provide management boni to ministers). It's actually a title of nobility ranging from knighthood to princedom for successful ministers.
4. I've changed the national specific traits : C_French_Elan_3 now provides a melee bonus at level 3, C_General_Prussian_Blue a reloading boni (might change it or add an infantry recruitment experience bonus for said prussians) and so on.
+ Made certain nations have a tendency for spawning specific kind of generals : the swedes will tend to be good attacking generals, the french - artillery general, the dutch will have their admirals go faster between the theaters etc. Following this change, i've futher modified the national roaster to match this - russians will have greater battalion size all around but worse statistics (this equals with the other nations for elite units in terms of unit size and stats), the british will have better accuracy on ships (giving them an advantage on ai vs ai naval engagements thus provinding a better chance GB will actually dominate the seas), winged hussars have the best charge of european cavalry yet are limited in number (on the campaign map), the french will sport more cannons in an artillery regiment and bigger cannons on ships and so on.
5. Battle statistics changes are mostly regarding accuracy (decreased it severely) and reloading speeds (increased them significantly). I've chosen the more arcade ammo count, the 1000 bullets from Imperial Destroyer 6.2. This way, line infantry will sit and fire and each other for whole minutes, slowly chipping each other whilst giving the chance for flanking manuevers, concentration of forces and artillery barrages etc.
6. I really like naval battles thus I modified the ships as well - bigger is now better in terms of firepower, resilience and auto_resolve results. The smaller vessels have increased reloading speeds, higher top speeds and generally better maneuverability - a pack of hyenas (frigates) albeit a large one may bring down an over 1st rate ship of the line. But watch out when the lion roars
+To better represent the barbary states, i've artificially inflated the xebec accuracy stat (auto_resolve advantage) thus making them quite fierce in the Mediterranean until civilized nations will sport 4th and 3rd ships of the line.
+ Decreased costs of recruitment and upkeep for naval units through tech and naval minister -- I get to see far greater and stronger fleets all around. The seas get quite terrifying yet a whole lot of glory and booty awaits the daring.
+ I've seen and somewhat implemented an idea found in the forum about diverse navies - the british having the best crew overall, the french having bigger guns to the points of unreliability on their 3rd rates for instance etc. Arguably, this is quite arcade but I really enjoy playing the russians and having greater armor on my ships even at the expense of maneuverability, really blitzing through with the frenchies or being the master of the seas with HMS Victory (best stats overall in the game, i sinked a whole french fleet with just it - autoresolve said it's madness, HMS said Victory
)
+ Replaced the carronde frigate with a 3rd ship of the line with same stats except added carronades : same auto resolve advantage yet playing it right on the battle 'sea' it obliterates almost all opposition when positioning them close to other vessels -- now they truly have greater firepower than HMS Victory (as stated in the on campaign description). It's great seeing them massacre even larger vessels if one manages to get in close.
If this gets interest, I will make a thread and provide the files and specific changes to them.
All in all, this mod is great and I really appreciate it for the hours of fun it provided; as with any grand strategy game having a story line going, some constraining house rules will truly bring the best of one's experience. Imagination rules the world, to quote the aforementioned historical figure.