That's right. Squalor.

I was a little disheartened in my campaign (hard/hard) with the ease in which I steamrolled the Gauls. But now Im fighting the Germans, British, and Macedones(been fighting them for a while now) and my main limiting factor is money.

I need low taxes otherwise I would be plagued with revolts, I have let me cities grow too large and my empire too fast. Also my AI goveners almost made me go bankrupt from building millions of units until I put the spend slider all the way to "Save". I gave up on disbanding all those units the AI created for because they'd simply make them again (I had my setting on spend rather than save), but thank god they did make them because I REALLY need them now.

The Spanish (my allies) have had armies hovering dangerously close to my border, and if they were to attack I doubt I could repel them.

Squalor is the magic formula that MTW needed to stop you reaching that critical mass point where nothing could stand against you. I am finding my campaign extremely enjoyable and very challenging.

Think ahead when building your cities, lest you suffer from imperial overstretch like me. This is going to take some time to sort out I feel, I may even need to negotiate some cease-fires so I can concentrate on the political/economical side of my empire for a while.

Anyone else finding the game much more challenging and enjoyable due to the economic side of things?