The mod already decided they won't do the hard category.

Doing the exact thing I did in my run but in easy saves me like 10 minutes. It can't all be luck right?

With 400 hours you should know this but I had to make sure: The vassals who aren't in the top anymore can be brought back up if you give them a land or two.

Difference is in easy mode any peasant army can take an unsecured settlement(given enough luck, as you need to do this at least 7 times) and immediately the country is down to became your vassal. In hard difficulty that wont work. Only way to get a vassal with one peasant army is to go there, avoid any fights and plunder as much as possible hoping for the enemy to get exhausted and give up. this can take a lot of time tho. Also in easy mode, when you declare war, enemies rarely try to attack, while in hard mode the first thing they try is offensive. I don't know if it's worth creating a separate category. I am already planning the easy mode run just a shame as my hard mode run becomes obsoleted by my easy mode run.

I have been submitting my runs in the Ultimate Emperor category but the top run there is easy mode and mine is hard. How could I sort this out?