Is it possible to change the starting provinces?

[AdamW.]

Is it possible to change the starting provinces? I'd like to start off as Arabia using the Egyption faction. The Byzantine empire would rule all of the eastern Mediterranean and north Africa all the way to Spain, and the Kwarazmians would rule all of Persia and Iraq. That way, it would be like the year 632, during Islamic expansion. Is there any way to mod this game so that it could play like the year 632, a much more interesting time period?:hmmm:

[Chim]

You can edit the starting settlements n the descr_strat.txt file.

[gewehr36]

All of those factions do that within 30 turns of the normal game.

[AdamW.]

You can edit the starting settlements n the descr_strat.txt file.

How do you do this? Will I be barred from doing this due to administrative control? How exactly do I subtract and give provinces to Egypt?

[Quark]

AdamW.
Each settlement is defined it the section whose faction owns it, so for instance if you find Egypt, you will find under it the info on Cairo. Should you wish to swap things around therefore all you need to do is swap the rebel settlements into Egypt and vice versa.

What you then need to do is find the rebel army which occupies that settlement (near bottom of file) and move that into the Eygpt section as well, making sure that the units are approbiate of course.