eadingas, i actually meant to say that i'm not too bothered about keeping them as single provinces, but somehow forgot to put that in .

Roman-phobic - i'm not sure how you got that? i just don't like the idea of Romans = civilisation Rest = Barbarians . The game is Rome:Total War, so i'm not bothered about the stress being on Romans. you get what it says on the tin!

I pretty much agree with most of what you say - in historical terms i disagree with the view of britain as on the outskirts of civilisations - but for rtw in terms of empire-building gameplay, the regional conglomerations of iron age britain can't really be considered in the same league as Rome