Achaean Empire
Peloponnesus, Attica, Boeotia (capital: Argos)
Pacifist - Militaristic (5)
Mercentile - Industrial (5)
Isolationist - Expansionist (4)
Army - Navy (4)
Religious - Scientific (2)
Centralized - Regional (2)
Merciful - Merciless (2)
All of the original Hellenic tribes developed much as in OTL, until a force of marauders came south from Thessaly and laid waste to Thebes. With their new lodging in Boeotia, the raiders slowly expanded south, ruining army after army of Achaean tribesmen. Eventually, an Argive named Eurylochus gathered an army of men armed with new weapons, called "bows". These "archers" stood on a hill, and fired their arrows into the marauders' camp, which fell into disarray. Then, a conventional army of club- and axe-men charged the encampment and destroyed the great horde outright.
This Argive success left the village with a huge army, and nothing to do but conquer nations. Eventually, all of the Hellenes capitulated to the might of Eurylochus' army. The army was now disbanded, and later that year another horde came from the north. These were bought-off with the combined treasury of all of the Achaean tribes, and the peninsula was safe again.
The kings after Eurylochus left a garrison of men in the north, to protect against more barbarians. The main effort of the Achaeans was to establish colonies on islands, which they did, first Ithaca and Cythera, then Corcyra, Zacynthus, Pylos and Sphacteria, Crete, Euboea, and so on, until the Achaean tribes, by 2448 BC, had a naval empire stretching from Corcyra (OTL modern Corfu) to Lesbos, and from that northern frontier to Crete. All of the islands in the Aegean were colonized but one: Rhodes, which retained its independence, led by a charismatic leader, Ieson.
2448 BC was the year of the great Schism, when the current King, Telysseus IV, tried to move the capital out of the great collection of huts called Argos to Laconia. Almost the entire kingdom rose up in revolt, and the last King of Achaea died with his army as he tried to defend his Laconian palace, which was burnt. The people decided that the government should always rest in Argos, and that the hereditary leaders of all of the Achaean tribes would all decide on things together.
By 2000 BC, this system has started to grow corrupt, as the chiefs start to bribe other chiefs to vote for their decisions, and now the Athenian chiefs control everything. The massive navy is still in place, as is the long vigil to the north, where a recent flood of refugees from the Mortisian realms has swollen the population to twice its original size. These new invaders are watched by the Achaeans, but their own nation is slowly eating itself from within...
OOC: I always wanted to be a Greek nation in one of Jason's NESes. In fact, I always wanted to be in one of Jason's NESes period.