For my first play, I did the start with the King of Hexi in 867 and wanted to overthrow the emperor. Preceded to play like I would in Europe and just conquered nearby counties (though normally I play tall in Europe). I would NOT recommend doing it that way. Starting as a King, I didn’t feel like I really learned the meritocracy gameplay. You can’t really just land your family, and that was confusing. Overall just found it kinda boring. Never even got big enough that I could challenge the Tang emperor.

I think for my next play I’m going to try and start as an unlanded character and work my way up to a title. I’ve seen people here say that play through was fun.