Ulm's disciplined, heavily armed, heavily armored elite forces set out from their capital (turn 2 of this game), ready to spread civilisation amongst the barbarian tribes of the world... and promptly got their *** kicked in their first battle, loosing half their army to a mob of mostly militias
So the start wasn't as good as could be hoped, to say the least.
I overspent a bit on mercenaries after that, and now am trying to make up lost the lost ground.