best faction to turtle with?

[Quintus.JC]

And why does everybody abandon Syracuse? It's so easily defensible! Stone walls and hoplites are all you need agaonst those hastati, and those are both already there!
And either way the Romans go for Lilybaeum first and they leave Messana lightly garrisoned with just faction leader, 1 or 2 hastati. So pretty quickly Sicily becomes a Roman graveyard.

In my Greek campaigns the Scipii always attacks Syracuse first, and instead of stone wall I probably would of prefered wooden wall because of fighting on wall top with hoplites will make them fight with swords instead of spears. It is denfensible but in my different campaigns the AI is actually smart enough to starve me out, and my hoplites are no match for the Romans (outnumbered).

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Another reason for abandoning provinces for me is often to prevent or delay war with another faction. I always abandon/sell Sardinia and my Sicily holdings as Carthage to prevent an aggressive war with the Scipii. It does actually seem to work, with the Romans seemingly ignoring my African existence for a fair while longer than they would if they were to have declared war earlier.

I believe this could be due to the AI and its following of senatorial missions. If Rome is not at war with the faction, I believe that the senate is more willing to direct their subject families on a slightly different path. I'm not too sure about this though. The same may also apply to non-Roman factions who would rather continue an existing war rather than starting a new one.

[Flying Pig]

Same as always, really - You can run a city-state that is impossible to capture as there is no castle/city difference, and so I'd reccomend either the Britons (for their island position) or Greek Cities. Romans ar a no-go seeing as the senate are all warmongerers.

[Dafuge]

I think Carthage, or Spain. Basically with either one Blitz Spain/Sicily and abandon all other regions and sit there.