Quote Originally Posted by Fish-got-a-Sniper
But if my understanding is correct, they can only recruit native troops in Italy until the Marian reforms, right? Then how do you wage war outside of Italy without worrying about a load of micromanagement.

Yes. It is a faction with ascending difficulty. That is, the start is compareble easy but it becomes much more difficult the more you expand. That's the reason why Rome is a good faction to start with. Also the Romans have a lot of very good (and cheap) average units but hardly any elites. That also will become challanging when the game procedes.

Karthage would be another one, but it requires more micromanagement right from the start because all your lands are seperated by water.

Also a good to one start with are the Sweboz: disband your cavalry and run amok to conquer all rebell settlements around, other factions will leave you alone for the first decades. Once you get your economy under controll the game becomes much fun - but also much more difficult as soon as you go on serious conquest due to the recruitment situation (the same as the Romans).


The Hellenic factions for example all have a descending difficulty. That is, you usually start with an Empire short before ruin and at war with at least one stronger neighbour. When you manage to survive the first twenty or so years the game becomes much more easyer because you can recruite your factional units across most of the map.