Quote Originally Posted by geala View Post
To make it not entirely ot, two remarks:
I also have difficulties to play as the "barbarians", I just have the feeling they were not able to create a unified empire that early although they were good fighters.
Roleplay it then not as a unified empire, but as a confederacy of various tribes electing their leader, or a hegemony established by one tribe over others creating a complex web of vassalages, protectorates, allies and subjugated foes, for example.