MEIOU and Taxes provides a much better experience than in the vanilla game with the introduction of an overhauled map, dynamic province development, plus communication efficiency mechanics. The result is that unless a human plays Portugal or Spain, the New World is still not conquered even by 1600. Another gameplay overhaul mod Yes, and you’ll love this one to death. None of these problems are insurmountable with a human player, but with AI, it places too many barriers in the way of New World exploration & conquest. #4: M&T mod also seems to have taken out the vanilla Exploration idea that gives you permanent casus belli against primitives, making #3 even harder. #3: There's no way to just jump ahead and go straight to conquering the Aztecs or the Incas, because you need an adjacent province to fabricate claim.
And because of #1, a foothold in the Caribbeans takes decades. #2: Colonization range is much shorter compared to vanilla even in the mid 1500s, with diplo tech in the mid 20s, Spain cannot colonize any province in today's Mexico if it does not have a foothold in the Caribbeans. #1: M&T only allows for 10~20 settler increases per year, making colonization painfully slow. I just tried the Meiou & Taxes mod for the first time - gorgeous mod, really fun, but the mod has a problem with AI Spain/Portugal not being able to conquer/colonize the New World. Sorry for the provocative title - just angling for more views & opinions really.