[I just posted something like this post in the RTR Roma mod forum, but am repeating it here as some criminal patrons here encouraged me to try the dratted thing. ]

Anyone here care to walk me through the first few turns of the Roma mod? It was recommended to me in my thread on RTR in this forum and I really like the look of it. (Could be influenced by the very nice v6.0 Roman skins.) But it just seems maddeningly hard to start.

I consolidated my forces into one army. Spent all my money building two buildings and now am making a small loss, running a deficit. The Greeks in southern Italy have very scarey armies, so I avoided them and went to attack the Arretium. I was attacked by a full strength rebel army and had a Pyrrhic victory, losing nearly all my army.

Any advice I can get would be appreciated, but I have a few specific questions:

(1) With the economy, how far in debt can you go? Is there an overdraft limit? Do you pay interest? Do you get sacked if you beyond a certain level of debt (what level)?

(2) How do you manage the early economy - disband some troops to save costs? or build more troops at the cost of a deficit? I've read you should fight exhausting battles and then retrain to resurrect your army - is that the idea? I've been trying to balance my books, which seems to rule that out. But is balancing your books a mistake?

(3) What should be your early build priorities? I liked the idea of an archery range in Rome - but did not see how to afford any troops without going into the red.

(4) Any hints on fighting battles? Against the rebels, I deployed a long line of hastati and principes, set to fire at will with javelinmen at the front. The AI matched the length of my line, swept aside my skirmishers and virtually wiped out my principes/hastati in mutually assured destruction. Only aggressive charges with triarii and my general's cav saved the day. I've read that you need to exploit the AIs stupidity to win - any examples of this?

I really like the appearance of this mod, but right now it just seems far too difficult for me. Any help getting over the initial learning curve would be greatly appreciated. Uninstalling and going back to RTR just feels deflating. I suspect if I could get the hang of this mod, it would keep me going for a long time.