How does it make any sense to call "What if" questions bad history on an EB board? The whole game is a what if question. When I play as Carthage, I'm not going to expand historically like they did and then stop and wait to be conquered by the Romans, I'm going to play as if Carthage won out against Rome, creating my own alternate history. I just don't understand how making that statement on this forum makes any sense. If I was in some thread where people were researching Pyrrhos and Epirus and I came in and asked "What if Pyrrhos hadn't been killed?", now that would be inappropriate, but I see no problem with discussing the question here. I know when I play as Epirus, I don't immediately send Pyrrhos down to get killed near Argos.

Anyways, thanks for the answers so far. Somehow, in my Epirus game, I got lucky and Rome never attacked me at Taras. I built up some MICs there and made a bunch of troops, then sent a separate army led by Pyrrhos down to Rhegion and Sicily. Then I sent one of the sons, I don't remember which, to Taras. The Romans finally attacked after I wiped out Carthage in Sicily, but I'm easily defending against them with some levy pikemen and peltasts.