No matter what my most irritating faction is the romans, I always end up fighting at least two of them at once. Currently I am waging a two front war against the Scipii (North Africa) and Brutii (Greece, Italia), it takes me hours to capture a settlement in each area. Hint for those annoyed by the Seluecids, if you start on their border blitz them. The Seluecids start the game off weak, they have alkmost no way to counter archers or cavalry. So if oyu are Egypt what you should do is have light infantry hit the front of their phalanxes and then charge the rear with cavalry or just use archers to kill them from range. As the Britons the Julii have kept me from making significant gains in Italia because the Britons do not have heavy enough troops. If you are on the border of a faction that can become extremely strong mid to late game the best strategy is to force a decisive winner takes all showdown. Do not have a cautious game plan throw all of your troops into the grinder, make risky decisions on the battlefield, bottom line don't bleed the tough factions slowly decapitate them and burn their corpse. Beat them until there is nothing left to beat. Never allow your economy or population to come in the way of your military's need for a quick and brutal conclusion to a conflict. If you find yourself thinking, "But if I lose I might not recover..." you probably have the right idea!