I have never lasted longer than 20 years on Normal/Normal with the seleucids as you have the worst possible start position the game... IMPO but I read that the other hellenics are weak, I agree with this so I decided to give the Greek Cities the Spartan warriors as their main troop unit by making it so their much cheaper to train and can be trained from the large-town barracks and not just in sparta lets just say As the romans i am having way to many close calls and even defeats wiht these guys but its great fun lol. Sorry for rambling and going off topic guys. But if you wanna spice things up then just give the weaker factions more powerfull units earlier once again sorry for the rambling.