I'm playing as the Julii and I just got the Marian reforms 220 bc. I hadn't even built the imperial palace yet....some other fellow roman helped me with that. I am having great fun playing with the 1.2 patch, the romans don't steamroller everyone now. The Brutii are taking a beating and the Thracians and Macedonians have been slowly taking over their cities, the Scipii have just taken Carthage but haven't advanced further into africa.

As the Julii I have been fighting against the Spanish, Britons and Gauls and it has been kind of a stalemate. The Marius reforms will help me get on the offensive again. It has been fun fighting stacks of chosen swordsmen, bull warriors and chariots with mostly Hastati and Principes, especially now after the secondary weapon bug has been fixed.