I played one game, and i did not notice something really different.
the indys where completely random, so even a province guarded by lots of niefel jarls was defeated easy as they just froze their commander to death. So it was not really more difficult, as most provinces where not harder to take than else, and the only thing that happened was that the atmosphere suffered.
Also the special nation (dont remember the real name anymore) imploded after 2 turns so i never got to see how they would have turned out.
But it is a nice idea and i think with some tinkering it might be fun.
I would try to make it less random, for instance try to seperate auras from other troops. And also only use units that fit to each other maybe not choose randomly from all units, but only from special lists like units from one nation.
I know that this would require great effort, but the game i played was just very random and not really different than any other SP game.
Maybe my game was different than intended, as the indy nation crumbled very early so my feedback might be based on bad luck and not what was really your goal to achive.
@lch: you are about 2 months late
Re: TESTING New Game Type
Come to 
Visit my 
Hybrid Mode
