To answer kburkert,

I had the advice, at first, set to medium. It's usually where I have it set in vanilla RTW too. I believe I switched it around a few times. I will have to do some more gaming on XGM. Since I'm in the middle of a couple campaigns in RTW, I was distracted by those games and didn't want to get into learning all the nooks and crannies of XGM since the game played in a way I wasn't expecting. Because there was no build up, but I was plunged immediately into a life and death struggle with Macedon, I was getting frustrated with the different feel. I thought to be fair, I need to give the game a fresh start without the distraction of another campaign. It's a quirk of mine that I will get deep into a campaign and then start a new one before I've completed the last one. I've got about four different RTW games going at once right now. Seleucia, Carthage, Julii and Scipii.

My "complaint" about the mercenary hoplites having no spears was not valid. DBH said somewhere in one of his write-ups on XGM that these hoplites are not phalanx capable but play the traditional hoplite infantry role. So they're not supposed to have spears. I just didn't realize that.

I like the new skins for the most part. That was one of the things that attracted me to the mod in the first place, that, and the added depth to the "Greek" factions' schedules of units. RTW's Greek faction is so limited. You have no real good cav to speak of, and you max out the infantry development early.

I just wasn't ready for the lack of build-up. (Don't mean to belabor the point.) Had I been playing on hard or very hard, I think selecting the Greeks would have been sure doom. They are at a definite disadvantage to Macedonia at the start. The extra cities - Colchis and Mytilene - along with a strong established navy and a few heavy stacks of units, give Macedonia a definite edge. But . . . that's probably historically accurate for 280 BC. The Greek city states were in a very definite decline during and after Alexander. Macedon was a formidable political and military competitor to the 3rd century BC Roman Republic.

I definitely like the historic correction of "Egypt" in XGM with Ptolemaic Egypt. That's a real irritant with me in vanilla RTW. And, I want to take a closer look at the Seleucids in XGM. They have become me favorite faction in vanilla RTW. Their starting position in RTW is a nice challenge, they have good cash flow once things get going, and they have great depth of military units. They are geographically positioned well for acquiring all the ancient wonders which make good stepping stones on the route to conquering Rome.