Amazing, simply amazing!! I loved every second of it. My first campaign was Rome. I built Rome to a point where I destroyed the Gauls and had all of their land, sent Carthage into unstability, and pretty much was a thriving culture. I soon found my Praetorians fighting off hordes of barbarians but I beat them all back. There's only one thing I was confused about.
I know it's rising and falling of empires, but what if an empire doesn't have a reason to fall? As Rome, none of my cities were unhappy, and they were all healthy. I'm technologically advanced and I'm certain everything was fine everywhere. Suddenly, my four cities in Gaul wanted to declare independence. Well, I wanted to keep them, so I said no, so France rose up to take over. After a very bloody war (in which after defeating most French units, my own units rebelled against me and joined France... even though I sent them from Rome itself...) I lost a few cities, and gradually every city besides Rome gained independence. I'm not upset with this, I was amazed at how realistic it was. The only thing I was concerned about was that there was no reason for this, so if I were to somehow recreate my empire, am I just going to lose everything?
Also, the weirdest things just happened. Spain came into Sicily and took an independent city that rebelled from me. Then they gave me it for free. The French then did the same thing with the city that rebelled a few tiles north of Rome. Uh, what?
I know it's rising and falling of empires, but what if an empire doesn't have a reason to fall? As Rome, none of my cities were unhappy, and they were all healthy. I'm technologically advanced and I'm certain everything was fine everywhere. Suddenly, my four cities in Gaul wanted to declare independence. Well, I wanted to keep them, so I said no, so France rose up to take over. After a very bloody war (in which after defeating most French units, my own units rebelled against me and joined France... even though I sent them from Rome itself...) I lost a few cities, and gradually every city besides Rome gained independence. I'm not upset with this, I was amazed at how realistic it was. The only thing I was concerned about was that there was no reason for this, so if I were to somehow recreate my empire, am I just going to lose everything?
Also, the weirdest things just happened. Spain came into Sicily and took an independent city that rebelled from me. Then they gave me it for free. The French then did the same thing with the city that rebelled a few tiles north of Rome. Uh, what?