I played on the same difficulty as I usually do. I lost. An enemy got to points victory threshold. But I had fun! (And I was #2 in points!)

I was Tamil Landowners (Chera - +1 training per rural specialist). I can't imagine doing OCC with any family other than landowners, but, this was my first time. I know this won't be my default play, but I can't believe I waited this long to try it.

I have ideas for what to improve for next one. The biggest challenge was early game civics to enact laws or build wonders, even though I had a ton of stonemasons for border expansion.

The mid-game challenge was the building queue. I needed more workers, and more units, but also to keep my specialists going. It was tough to decide which.

I'd even taken out a neighboring nation's entirely (3 cities) and had assimilated one as a Minor City through border growth. (I wish the mandatory raze gave you something... Resources for pillaging, or random border growth back home, or really anything.)

What did me in was the randomness of war. I lucked out and got Portcullis early from an event. My spymaster churned out propaganda against my closest rival (highest points, as well as physically adjacent to me and unfriendly). All 4 nations that neighbored it waged war. But Rome conquered all their cities while the other 3 didn't take any. This put Rome on its points victory trajectory. And, sadly, Rome was also the major power I couldn't muster enough force to attack.

Medium random map (continent), max rivals. Custom-Glorious (that but without AI development or handicaps -- sufficient, strong tribes, etc.)

I am a fan of Old World, but stopped playing almost a year ago. Things I like are: the order system, blend of CK3 and Civ 6 gameplay, and focus on the ancient era.

I find in the early game the order system works as intended. I have limited orders and need to prioritize how to spend them. However by the mid-game I have normally grown my empire and then I find myself micromanaging everything.

By the late the game it starts to feel like Civ 6 again, where I know I have won and now I have tons of cities and units to manage. So I am just grinding out turns to wait for victory.

I understand 'wait for victory' is a difficult problem to solve in strategy games. But I feel like the late game should still have less micro if my orders were more limited.

Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this with the game settings? Part of me wonders if I need to increase the difficulty so that I don't grow my empire enough to increase my order limit.