I tried the Roma mod but found it too much like a frustrating brain teaser rather than a fun historical wargame (yes, it is for RTR but greatly weakens your Romans stats and money while vastly pumping up all enemies in numbers). However, it did inspire me to go back to RTR and play with the restriction the original poster mentioned of only recruiting Roman units from my two starting towns. The game is still a little too easy, but close to the sweet spot. It gives the game some character to have a small hardcore of experienced Roman units supported by mercs appropriate to your location (currently run around with a lot of Libyans and Numidians in North Africa).

The RTR mod gets rid of the need for a lot of troop restrictions as Romans. Cavalry and missiles are not so overpowered as they are in vanilla SP, although RTR javelins and slings are suprisingly good. A historical Roman army - lots of heavy infantry - might even be close to optimal in RTR.

I agree the RTR mod is a big of a slog. Not sure they needed to increase the number of provinces. But right now it's got my interest.