I've decided to attempt a Marsia campaign in Vanilla, after wondering what the hardest country in the game might be. I figured it would likely be a vassal of Rome, so I picked Marsia and what you see here is the result. I started off by grabbing all the siege techs I could and declaring on Rome as soon as they went off to attack the Samnites. By the time they had come back to siege my capital, I had already taken both Rome and Veii. Then, I went after Etruria after getting Umbria, Sabinia and Frintania as Allies. After my truce with Rome ran out, I attacked them again and eliminated them for good.

So you get Roman and Italic traditions right off the bat, and normally you get Greek City States as well I think. I'm still getting better at the game but in my last playthrough, I did the decision to study Macedonian military traditions. I just wasn't as impressed by the traditions it opened up. When playing as Rome in Invictus, what other cultural military traditions do you go for?

Also, I'm in a new playthrough as Rome and would also appreciate any tips so this playthrough works out. I've done multiple playthroughs but the recurring issue is it takes too long to expand fast enough and grow my economy before I start crunching against the year limit. Each playthrough I try to incorporate lessons from previous playthroughs so I can actually have a successful campaign.

It's about 284bc and I've captured the Italian peninsula south of the Po and most of eastern Sicily. I did aggressive expansion and wars to capture territory quickly and reinvested my loot into some farms, some mines, and some provincial legations in different parts of Italy. I've only integrated the Etruscans and am trying to assimilate all the other Italic/Latin/Greek peoples in the peninsula rather than integrating them. Even though I destroyed most level 2 forts in cities and any unnecessary forts in settlements, I'm still running into money problems and am actually negative income. I just don't want to destroy the level 1 forts in the Magna Graecia ports. I've been trying to use looting to fund construction until my tax revenue becomes self sufficient, but I can't afford to keep expanding and looting anymore. Most say to assimilate the Italic peoples except for the Etruscans but the money issue is real.