Got a reminder that it had been a while since I got back to these so, here's another one. 
Rome is the T-Rex of the Old World universe. As you play more games, you'll notice an unmistakable trend. Any time Rome is in the game, assuming they're not hemmed in by poor geography, they'll be at the top of the power chart. There's a reason for that, and the reason is this:
Almost everything about Rome is geared toward making it easier to kill enemy troops.
They get bonus training points. Their shrines are almost all geared toward military. They have access to the Champions family. Their troops earn XP 50% faster than everybody else, and of course, they get an extra point of fatigue, which means they can march farther, every turn, than just about anyone else.
Rome is an absolute MONSTER of a civ. Playing as Rome is almost like setting the difficulty level one step lower than whatever you actually picked. Even better, Rome is incredibly forgiving of mistakes. Play Babylon wrong and you're dead. Play Persia wrong, or Egypt, or Assyria, and you're dead. Play Rome wrong though, and you'll be able to recover. They're just a tough nation.
For me, the sweet spot family combo is Champions/Statesmen/Landowners, but you could easily swap in the Patrons for the Statesmen, depending on how you play.
For me though, the Champions further buff Rome's militaristic leanings, while the Statesmen give me gold to create an economic buffer and the Landowners give me cheap/fast specialists, giving me an easy way to jumpstart the economy as a whole. That's just a virtually unbeatable combination.
An alternate configuration is this: Rome is so good militarily that they're probably the only nation in the game that could get away with ignoring the Champions family and running Patrons/Statesmen/Landowners. I wouldn't recommend it, but Rome is tough enough to DO it.
Playing Rome is pretty easy and straightforward. Champions city settled first, then go beat the ever living horsehocky out of any tribes near you (tactician leader at the start means if you assign him as a general, you won't take any real damage fighting the tribes, but usually, he'll help you more as the city's governor).
While your excellent military is curb stomping your tribal rivals, your Statesmen cities are building auxiliary troops and your Landowner cities are training specialists to bolster the efforts of your workers to build a world class economy.
The Roman UU is a fine enhancement to this, once you grow your Kingdom to the point where you can start producing them (first generation UU is actually more efficient than the later one). It's nothing fancy but it is brutally effective, having incredible ranged unit defense (Testudo) and the ability to crush enemy infantry units like cheap beer cans. While they lose cleave damage (splash), they gain the deadly agility to ignore ZOC, and with their extra mobility, that makes them almost as good as cav units...you can use a sprinkling of UUs to systematically carve large enemy forces to pieces.
By around generation 3-4, if you can engineer a Zealot leader, everybody in the game world is doomed. Your troops already have 4 fatigue, and by the 3rd-4th generation, you've had time to build a world-class army. Adding a Zealot ruler at that point gives every unit you have FIVE points of fatigue. It doesn't matter where your troops are, you can get them where you need them quickly. That's death to...well, everyone.
Embrace the T-Rex! All Hail Rome!
Rome is the T-Rex of the Old World universe. As you play more games, you'll notice an unmistakable trend. Any time Rome is in the game, assuming they're not hemmed in by poor geography, they'll be at the top of the power chart. There's a reason for that, and the reason is this:
Almost everything about Rome is geared toward making it easier to kill enemy troops.
They get bonus training points. Their shrines are almost all geared toward military. They have access to the Champions family. Their troops earn XP 50% faster than everybody else, and of course, they get an extra point of fatigue, which means they can march farther, every turn, than just about anyone else.
Rome is an absolute MONSTER of a civ. Playing as Rome is almost like setting the difficulty level one step lower than whatever you actually picked. Even better, Rome is incredibly forgiving of mistakes. Play Babylon wrong and you're dead. Play Persia wrong, or Egypt, or Assyria, and you're dead. Play Rome wrong though, and you'll be able to recover. They're just a tough nation.
For me, the sweet spot family combo is Champions/Statesmen/Landowners, but you could easily swap in the Patrons for the Statesmen, depending on how you play.
For me though, the Champions further buff Rome's militaristic leanings, while the Statesmen give me gold to create an economic buffer and the Landowners give me cheap/fast specialists, giving me an easy way to jumpstart the economy as a whole. That's just a virtually unbeatable combination.
An alternate configuration is this: Rome is so good militarily that they're probably the only nation in the game that could get away with ignoring the Champions family and running Patrons/Statesmen/Landowners. I wouldn't recommend it, but Rome is tough enough to DO it.
Playing Rome is pretty easy and straightforward. Champions city settled first, then go beat the ever living horsehocky out of any tribes near you (tactician leader at the start means if you assign him as a general, you won't take any real damage fighting the tribes, but usually, he'll help you more as the city's governor).
While your excellent military is curb stomping your tribal rivals, your Statesmen cities are building auxiliary troops and your Landowner cities are training specialists to bolster the efforts of your workers to build a world class economy.
The Roman UU is a fine enhancement to this, once you grow your Kingdom to the point where you can start producing them (first generation UU is actually more efficient than the later one). It's nothing fancy but it is brutally effective, having incredible ranged unit defense (Testudo) and the ability to crush enemy infantry units like cheap beer cans. While they lose cleave damage (splash), they gain the deadly agility to ignore ZOC, and with their extra mobility, that makes them almost as good as cav units...you can use a sprinkling of UUs to systematically carve large enemy forces to pieces.
By around generation 3-4, if you can engineer a Zealot leader, everybody in the game world is doomed. Your troops already have 4 fatigue, and by the 3rd-4th generation, you've had time to build a world-class army. Adding a Zealot ruler at that point gives every unit you have FIVE points of fatigue. It doesn't matter where your troops are, you can get them where you need them quickly. That's death to...well, everyone.
Embrace the T-Rex! All Hail Rome!
I'll try and leverage their military capacity to the limit!
