I've been getting pretty annoyed by the fact that almost every non-roman faction sucks..

I've tried all the ones I thought would interest me and they all have some huge ass disadvantage that makes the game no fun.

Germania - Britannia's chariots vs. Germania's spear warbands
Carthage - Being attacked every single turn and having to play defensive with really shitty units
Egypt - Chariots again and all the starting armies are really really lame and you get attacked on the second turn (damned rebels beat me)
Greece - A combo of all the above (more or less)