*Modded: Aditional European Powers And Some Other Minor Improvements... (F.o.F.)*

You've selected a mod which introduces extra European Powers, this is a popular choice for mods: four new powers are added in this mod, chose wisely:

The Germans:
At the time of the American Revolution, there were actually more Germans than English in the Rebel Colonies. Though "Germany" as an actual nation would not emerge for centuries yet, the German colonial population was very influential, creating among other things, the Mercator Map used by many people to this day. The German Special Ability is 'Disunity' as there is no such thing in this era as a nation of "Germany" German troops may attack other European units with impunity even if they have made a peace treaty: PROVIDED they are occupying a square owned by the Germans. Elsewhere, there is still a 25% chance that the Germans may attack without breaching the peace.
The Germans Start with an expert Soldier with Muskets, a Free Colonist with tools, and a Caravel. The Best early founding fathers for someone playing the Germans are Francisco Coronado, Pocahontas, William Brewster And William Penn

The Danes:
Denmark briefly played at the colonialism game, and still owns Greenland as a result. What if they had made a much bigger play for New World possessions? The Danes were once Great Explorers and Warriors, might that ethos have continued in an alternate world? That is what is posited by this European Power. Playing as the Danes you have the advantage that your unit's gain a +25% attack and defense bonus against OTHER EUROPEANS allowing you to dominate the new world by conquering not the natives, but rival colonies! The Danes start with an expert Soldier with Muskets, a free colonist with tools, and a Caravel. Additionally, expert soldiers appear for recruitment in Europe slightly more often. The Best early founding fathers for a Danish player are Sieur de La Salle, William Penn, William Brewster, and Francisco Coronado.

The Russians:
Russia at one point owned Alaska, and could, in theory, have made a far bigger play for new world territory than they did in our world. The Russian special advantage is that furs and fur coats will NEVER Decrease in price in the European markets below that at which the game starts by default until the beginning of the revolution: with Russia's cold winters their appetite for fur products is limitless!
The Russians begin the game with two Free Colonists, one armed with Muskets and one burdened with Tools, and a Merchantman. The best early founding fathers for the Russians are Henry Hudson (Duh, bring in double furs when prices can never collapse? Yes please!) Ferdinand Magellan, (see Bellow) and Francisco Coronado. It also is a peculiarity of the Russians that they start the game on the WESTERN map edge...

The "Black Sails":
During the colonial period, there was briefly a the Pirate Republic on a Carribean Island which ultimately sank into the sea in an earthquake, like a (much less enlightened,) real-life Atlantis. This 'European Power' posits the question of what might have become of the world if such a Pirate Republic had instead been based in the Azores which are far more tectonically stable...

The special advantages of this power are: First that they can much more easily CAPTURE the ships of rival powers. If a ship is defeated by an attacking "Black Sails" ship, there is a 5% chance it and all its cargo (colonists included) is transferred to the pirate players ownership. This chance increases to 75% if the ship would normally be sunk in an unmodded game. (1% for defeat 25% for sinking is standard with this mod.)

Additionally, Sir Francis Drake's bonus (when he joins the Congress,) applies to ALL "Black Sails" vessels, not just Privateers.

Lastly, Expert Soldiers, Elder Statesmen, and Jesuit Missionaries appear as possible colonists significantly more often than normal...

The price of the "Pirate Republic" pays for these three advantages is steep. Firstly until Jakob Fugger, Benjamin Franklin, Jhon Paul Jones, Hernando De Soto, or William Brewster join the Congress peace with other Europeans is not POSSIBLE. Furthermore, the pirates have a vastly increased chance of indentured servants and criminals appearing on their docks than other European countries. Lastly, it takes 10% more Liberty Bells for each member of the continental congress to be recruited.

The pirates start the game with a Free Colonist armed with Muskets, and An Indentured Servant burdened with Tools... Loaded into a Privateer!

Besides the obvious, to either negate their disadvantages or capitalize on their advantages, the best Continental Congress members for a pirate player are Pocahontas and Father Jean De-Brebeuf.

Now, to discuss the other changes made by this mod:

Firstly, as was mentioned above, this mod allows the CAPTURE of enemy ships. (And your own...) There is a base 1% chance that a 'defeated' ship will instead of returning to its home port for repairs be captured and return to one of your ports and become part of your navy. If the ship would be sunk in an unmodified game this chance increases to 25% instead. This also ties into Jhon Paul Jones: in addition to giving you a free frigate when he joins the Congress, Jhon Paul Jones has another benefit now. Until Jones joins the Congress, unless you have a shipyard in one of your colonies you must pay a percentage of a captured ships purchase costs equal to the current tax rate as 'prize money' before the crown will release the ship to you. Once Jones is in the Congress all captured MILITARY ships (frigates, privateers, and galleons*,) are released without having to pay prize money.
*(Galleons are considered military transport vessels: for bringing invasion forces to a war-zone and hauling back the booty...)

Another innovation of this mod is that units have health and fatigue bars now: if you're willing to be sufficiently ruthless, a wolf-pack of about 20 Privateers with Sir Francis Drake's bonus can drag down a Man-O-War, by wearing away its fatigue and health slowly with repeated attacks. If you are playing the Black Sails this is a very good idea as the chance to CAPTURE a Man-O-War is not to be undervalued!

Additionally, Frigates now have a true advantage over Privateers: the ability to perform shore bombardments! A frigate can fire on adjacent enemy land troops and damage or even destroy them, which the troops cannot fire back unless they are Artillery or inside a city with a Fort or Citadel. Furthermore, only Frigates, Man-O-War, and full health Artillery are capable of 'Reducing' a Fort or Citadel by Bombardment in order to crack heavily defended enemy strongholds.

On the more mercantile side of things there are several changes as well: for starters, there is a new tradeable resource: Native Art, which can only be obtained by trading with native settlements. This is the inverse equivalent of Trade Goods, only available in the new world and sold in Europe, and will start off very high in European markets, but also collapse quickly, so be sure to trade in a full shipload all at once.

Another change is that you can customize which products are sold or kept back by the Customs House, so for example, you could set Horses as saleable but turn off all base goods like sugar cane, furs, tobacco, and most importantly, ORE. You can also adjust sales thresholds to a degree, so, for example, you could set the threshold to 150 before selling 100 units, keeping 50 units in reserve...

In a somewhat related note, cargo is now loadable and unloadable in smaller chunks by pressing the control key, so you can, say, unload only fifty of 100 units of cargo, especially useful for moving around things like horses, tools, and guns.

Additionally, several Founding Fathers which had one time effects in the original game now have ongoing effects of various kinds, because your picks for founding fathers should never be rendered useless. As an example, Jhon Paul Jones, in addition to what has been discussed already, adds a free frigate to the colonial navy once a decade on the anniversary of his joining the Congress, making him a very strong early game choice, rather than a niche late-stage one. As another example, Francisco Coronado continues to reveal the location of all settlements on an ongoing basis throughout the game once he is recruited, and slowly reveals the map AROUND the settlements with a new tile exposed once every year.

Finally, in the base game at the beginning of the 1600s years start to have TWO turns, a spring and an autumn: in this game that still happens, but at the start of the 1700s the game goes to having 4, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, making it longer overall.