mod VS HFM-Expanded

all nations uncivilized https://www.moddb.com/mods/everyone-uncivilized, Napoleons legacy https://github.com/napoleons-legacy/mod

Here is the moddb link and here is the github one. The former is completely stable but only gets updated from time to time while the latter is updated daily and thus may have some bugs but reporting them normally gets it fixed in less than a day. Its not that common an occurrance tho and most are pretty minor so I normally dont worry about them when I playing.

Cough cough https://github.com/JmanThunder/HFM-Expanded

Try HFM Expanded: https://github.com/JmanThunder/HFM-Expanded It is updated daily unlike HPM and HFM which have both been dead for over a year. It adds lots of content and QoL improvements to HFM and actually runs faster than it.

You aren't using a mod. Here's a mod that has Egypt as an Ottoman vassal at the start: https://github.com/JmanThunder/HFM-Expanded

https://github.com/JmanThunder/HFM-Expanded Just download from here and tick the box on starting that says HFME SW while also starting with base HFME

There is no definitive answer because it is an opinion and opinions are subjective. I personally find the idea that flavor=railroading is total bs and would always recommend HFM over HPM for the simple fact that it has more content. In fact I prefer HFM Expanded to HFM because it adds more flavor, UI modding, music and more. Link: https://github.com/JmanThunder/HFM-Expanded I mean more small events and things appear in HFM than HPM, but is that a bad thing? I find railroading is something that majorly impacts the game in an unavoidable way, like Muscovy being railroaded to fight Scandinavia in DoD, or the formation of Germany. Flavor scattered about is not railroading, it is content. If you don't like content you should play vanilla. That's my opinion, I respect that other some other people disagree.

HFM is still getting updated daily through "HFM Expanded" mod. You can find it here https://github.com/JmanThunder/HFM-Expanded