The big empires: Carthage, AS and Egypt - Suggested house rules for starting campaign

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Find the big empires boring because you're already so big and powerful at the start of the campaign? This thread is for suggested house rules to make things hard for yourself at the start, so the AI factions have a chance to build up a bit without you blitzing them to death.

Here's my suggestion:
1. Before you spend money on your army, every town in the Empire must have been provided with the Basics of Existence. The basics are:
a. Basic Sanitation/drainage. So they don't live in excrement. Upgrade this to a Sewer for minor cities and larger settlements.
b. Basic Farming. So they have food to eat. Improved farming for cities.
c. A Wall around the settlement for protection: Palisade for small towns, Wooden Wall for large towns, Stone Wall for cities.
d. A Granary. So they have somewhere to store grain in winter.
e. A Shrine to a god. So they have somewhere to worship. Temple for cities.
f. Local festival. So they can celebrate life and feel happy.
g. Roads. To enable trade. Paved Road for cities.
h. A Trader. So they can trade for supplies. Market for cities.
i. A barracks (can be factional or regional). So locals can be recruited to defend the town.

Until every single town in the empire has all of the above items completed or under construction, you can't recruit any new units, retrain existing units, or hire mercenaries. You have to manage until that point with just your starting army.