Realism vs gameplay balancing?

[Aymar de Bois Mauri]

My post wasn't actually directed to you but more to Zanderpants. Have you ever wonder why so many ppl are now bashing the Americans ?? Same reason, cuz of envy and cuz your the richer and more military advanced nation. That said in the period covered by RTW Romans were the most unmatched military advanced faction and that's not my opinion it's just History.

It's also History that you should read more about. Contrary to what is depicted in RTW, Romans had no siege engines up until the 1century BC.
Hellenics were much more advanced than Rome until about 100BC. The Celts sacked Rome in 390BC because the Romans were defeated, by the Celts, in battle. Celts considered Romans uncivilized because they wouldn't wash with soap and didn't shaved their body hair, etc... I could go on for hours.

The "barbarian" term is used by a winning civilization to classify the populations that they defated. Greeks considered all non-greeks "barbarians", even Romans. Rome did the same. If the Celts had defeated Rome and occupied all of Italy, RTW would be called CTW (Celtic Total War). It's just that the adopted morale is the winner's morale.