I am gonna have rocks thrown at but here goes, i have played the Scipii a number of times and to be honest I think these to be the hardest my reason is that they are to cover a huge area with very few of their cities within one year of each other so if or when the egyptians do attack they do with like 5 stacks where as i find i have deal with 1 or 2 at the most to battle with, then throw in the numidians and all that money from trade is thrown away on defense, the Brutii being the easiest in my opinion The phalanx is very powerfull its also very slow so if you attack with hestati (auto fire) and velites they will already be a quater of their strength with out you even being one man down. then let your hestati get stuck in and then use your cavalry to slaughter the routing cowards and the julii not being hard only slow gruelling as its a long task to take gaul and spain as you have to be very selective in your troops due to cost however it is very rewarding it just takes longer to reap the rewards unlike greece and turkey for the Brutii being quick turn around