Quote Originally Posted by kalkwerk
The advantage would be that not all regions make you silly rich.

Also its to me a question of game atmosphere. It just doesnt feel right that some desert oase has the same size as Rome. I would like to see the potential to be only in the cities which historically developed to metropoles:
Rome, Carthage, Anthioce, Alexandria, Byzantium, Syracuse, perhaps Athens, although it in our time frame really couldnt compete with those other cities in terms of inhabitants.
That would require a mojor re-working of the MIC structure, since with the current system elite troops would be restricted to those five cities.

Try to think of Huge Cities as not "Huge" just bigger than everything else. Also you'd be surprised what a desert oasis can turn into with wells, irrigation and good roads.