This game is truly _extremely_ difficult without a lot of luck starting a good random seed. Out of about 15 tries, I only proceeded beyond two years once, and that was only to year four. In truth, I would not label it as "challenging", but as "utterly frustrating and hostile towards anyone playing it".
The starting situation is difficult to begin with, and the "exploit some assumptions a player would likely make" only compounds it, creating a game that is, to be blunt, openly player hostile.
Almost every time, I have to sell one land to get grain, leaving me only one land to sow. Rebellious peasants constantly require me to maintain palace guards, which die defending. Then I have to recruit more guards from the peasants, limiting how much I can assign them to sowing land and other tasks. Likewise, I am not able to assign soldiers to capture new lands to grow. In turn, this limits grain production, starving peasants and guards, seemingly making them more rebellious. Rinse, repeat, end of game
I would suggest if the design is ot exploit "assumptions made", a least state what those are. As it is, the game comes off as "I designed this game so you will lose, therefore, you lose, game over!"