Do A. I. factions win before you?

I was playing as the house of Julii. Early in the game I got a notification that says defeat is imminent and Egypt was winning. I didn’t really take heed of what it said and kept pushing to the north. When I was about to capture few settlements needed to be held to achieve victory(short campaign), another notification popped up saying Egypt was victorious. Should have sent an expedition to the south.

So have you had any campaigns that an AI faction happened to achieve the victory conditions before you?

If you have the game patched to v1.5, you can continue to play even if another faction has achieved their goals before you. The game just flips into full campaign mode, IIRC.

Personally, I don't recall if I ever lost a short campaign, but I do remember getting the "defeat is eminent" notification, and from the Egyptians as well. Since the AI always mis-plays the Seleucids and other Middle East factions, the Big E always runs rampant if there is no player competition.

I don't like to strain too much, especially with the maintenance of public order, so I usually play at an average level of difficulty. In this mode, not only is it impossible to lose to AI, but in general it is easy to wage a war on all fronts at the same time. However, if you want to tickle your nerves, then by modding individual AI factions I provide bonuses for unit experience, weapons and armor. In this case, strong competitors appear, with whom sooner or later one has to face life and death with an unpredictable outcome.