Small vs. Large factions.

[Delicate Strawberry]

I'm curious how other people play, I personally prefer starting as a small faction, and building up. I'd quite like to play as Antonius in the IA campaign, but the amount of territory he starts with puts me off. I can see the appeal of starting off large and having to defend it, but to me it doesn't have the same struggle has building up from nothing to being dominant. Saying that, I'm playing as the Ptolemaioi, which are slightly larger than I'd like, but aren't too large, particularly in IA.

[FlashHeart07]

Start out small and outnumbered. And then you carve a bloody path to victory.
Even though you might as a large faction have a lot to defend, its not that difficult to win. One or two cities lost is not that big a deal and you are capable of pumping out massive armies from the get go. As a small faction, you have one city and if you lose that then all is lost.
The risk of losing is higher and so the prize for winning is greater.

[Ygraine]

For challenge I prefer smaller factions too. The AFP-submods are great in that way that they allow you to try the game with a small weaker faction with less units available in their default roster (comparative to fleshed out major playable factions, you can still get aor/mercs and such).

In general I think it's bad to give even large factions higher tier buildings to start out with (although I understand this sentiment for the AI, to make the AI major factions stronger) because to me this game is a lot about sandbox and building up from scratch the way you want to.

[Delicate Strawberry]

I personally like Syracuse a lot because they are in between two major factions, have one city, and have a different culture to their neighbours. Also they get crossbows now.

[Irishmafia2020]

I love small factions, but I usually lose fairly quickly with my favorites... Epirus, Syracuse, Lusitani, and Massalia are just dead in my hands! On the other hand I have had plenty of success with the Illyrians (Ardaiea - sp) and Athenians... I usually default to a medium faction that can hold its own at this point. Egypt, Macedonia, and Pontus are decently challenging. Actually, Pontus might be a faction you would want to try - they are small, but have a couple of cities and can overpower any one of their neighbors - but they will be attacked by several at once! Fortunately Trapezous (sp) is a loyal ally. and you can either destroy Cappadocia or be buddies with them and worry about Galatia... There is a nice balance of size, challenge, and location with Pontus as a faction! They do have kind of a weak roster though. although 1.1 seems to have added an AOR skirmisher cavalry at least. Pontus used to not be able to field cavalry until they went out and conquered a region that produced some, but at least that has improved. I actually don't prefer to play with Rome, Carthage, or the Seleucid Empire just because they are too big - although they all have some really nice unit rosters and faction features. Good luck with the little guys! Don't tell anyone how often you lose though - the forum rats act like it's impossible to lose even when four major factions attack your city in the first couple of turns with major stacks (Epirus/RIP)...

[Delicate Strawberry]

I keep meaning to play as a barbarian faction, since I only ever play as the Greeks. I am tempted to play as the Lustitani since they're not the stereotypical barbarian and have quite an interesting look to them. I've also barely played as Rome, and as I said I'd like to try Antonius, but possibly Caesar in Gaul would fix that urge.