Try every faction u want, all r interesting, but dont try the romans. U just get ordinary units at the beginning, especially a crap of cavalry(except eqvites extraordinari). Compared to the "almighty greeks" your core army is bunch of amateurs. Then ull get some nice reformes if u manage to activate them. Past-reform units(i mean the marian and the augustan) are a bit better, but only a bit.