After playing three short campaigns with the Egyptians, the Macedons and the Julii, I found that Macedon was my favorite faction. It has some nice beginning cities, good units and not a lot of wars in the beginning, so you can at least get your economy up and running. The only downside is the plague, but that can be used to your advantage . Apparently the Thracians have a grudge against my spies at the moment, now why would that be .

cheers,
grwn