Thanks for the great feedback. Glad you're enjoying the map.
The neighbor bug reported by vfb has yet to be fixed, but I'll try to get that as soon as possible. As for mods that I'd recommend, either the CBM (Complete Balance mod) if you want more actually cost efficient choices, and if you want to face national troops from the AI, Better Independents (linked from my sig). Be warned that the Better Independents mod makes the AI plenty tougher than it is usually because recruiting crap has been disabled unless the crap is a national unit.