[quote=@Taeryn]
Korea and Japan worked together (I like to bring people who currently aren't to common ground) and had the "pick of the crop" in terms of settlement which they exploited pretty well - the Japanese economy was also pretty, surprisingly, robust. It's also a nice counter having multiple important asian nations rather than just one or two usual suspects.

The Andean Alliance as it stands should be a power of relevance and it was one of the lesser major powers in a previous iteration. Italy.. well, Italy was the one who essentially had to cling to being roman to be relevant, to be fair. I mean, the Andean's had a reasonably comprehensive plan for survival while italy sort of ejected itself from the EU and winged its way out of there like a true Aquila.

Such champs. They probably have the papacy too, now that I think of it.
[/quote]As you said we shouldn't be bound by what happened in the old game. If we happen to follow it that's nice and diversity rather than Europe+USA based factions alone is always a refreshing change in these games.
But whether the Andean Alliance will exist here probably depends on whether a player takes it.
Kingdom of Hungary is probably going to be the "Italy" of this game. Their male population are also having a tendency to own huge mustaches. Enough that their warcry is occasionally that: [b]"Our mustached nation shall prevail!"[/b]
That aside they're surprisingly reasonable and probably going to be a neutral faction with somewhat fucked up positioning between two major powers.
Doesn't bode them well but makes the NRP for me more exciting to play them as.:lol