I have tried all the ones I mentioned now.
My opinions (in case you're interested):
Blood and Steel: Really good mod, a lot of love went into it. I have two problems that break it for me though: Huge armies...and huuuuuuuge armies. Even though big battles are cool, in the end it comes down to batches of 80 or so reinforcements. So when you're fighting a huge battle, I really like putting my troops into the right position and such. After the 2nd batch of reinforcements nothing is left of this and it's just a killing field. Basically I would like the battle to stop then. Really cool mod though, with cool weapons, remade sieges which are awesome. Definately try it out if you like huge battles. it also has some early gunpowder weapons which are quite interesting. Also, a lot of cool scenarios happen in normal battles, with rock formations, bridges etc, which is cool.
Prophesy of Pendor: Have given it a bit of a try, not enough yet though. i got a bit frustrated that a huge heretic army can come out of nowhere in the first minute and kill you, same with knights of the X. I'll definately give it another go though, as it looks very interesting.
Brytenwalda: Started it, and want to try it out more. I like the emphasis on infantry, giving a totally different experience. The thing that made me quit was the fact that there's a loooooooooot of villages all lumped together, all with very long and unfamiliar names. Also I had a really weird bug where a village had disappeared, and there were flying trees on the landscape...so I couldn't find the NPC I needed. But I just have to start it up again at some point and sit through it, as it all looks extremely promising.
1257AD: This I have been playing whole day. I love the remade scenery. Thick forests are cool. The cities are absolutely huge (and beautiful), the worldmap is huge...everything is huge! I started off as a merchant in Ireland. Got a mission to collect tax, stole the tax and migrated to the holy roman empire and I've been wreaking havoc with the people there while trading all over the world. It does have some problems though.
- A lot of companions don't have text yet it seems (or is that a bug only I am experiencing?), so I actually don't know how much money they're asking before I hire them, don't know what they do/backstory etc.
- The villages are huge, however, when you get the: 'you are being ambushed by bandits', somehow these bandits don't spawn close to eachother...one time it took me about 8/10 minutes to find the 2nd bandit...which is hardly an ambush I'd say..since I had to go and find THEM.
- I need to buy a new computer to make this run fluently.
So at the moment 1257AD is the winner for me, but I'll be sure to try the other ones. I'll also try the Sword of Damocles at some point, after I beat the frenchies in the ground with my holy roman empire!