Since I wrote this monster to play the Romans, thought it only fitting that I provide some feedback from my perspective while playing Rome recently as I've tested the economy and playability of this mod.

First of all, I've played hours at a time without a single CTD....which I'm happy to report. Turning autosave off appears to have removed the only thing that will crash this thing.

Secondly, I am finally content with the state of the economy for at least most of the factions I've chacked or played as. Money is adequate at the start; doesn't get out of hand as the game progresses; and forces the desired 'decision making' with regards to where you build economic buldings or military. It's actually quite engrossing to have to consider carefully every turn where you should build something, and what you should build. Military buildings will gain you nothing in a lot of areas; whereas economic buildings will always be helpful. So there are many decisions to be made other than just building everything everywhere.

Third, unit strengths and numbers, particularly in terms of the Romans, look to be just about perfect. I have reduced the number of units in each Roman unit....for example, playing on 'large', a Roman unit of principes will be 60 men; 90 on huge. So almost every full stack to full stack battle between the Romans or anyone else will show a distinct advantage in numbers in favor of their opposition. This is offset by the greater strength and perhaps organization of the Romans, so that any full stack to full stack battle should be a near draw.......and my experience here has been that it's very close.

Fourth, faction 'viability' and the Free Peoples/Slave factions are performing absolutely wonderfully. I am in 236BC of my campaign, and both the Free Peoples and Slave factions are still around...especially in central Europe and Greece......the result being that expansion, although adequate, has been slow and methodical.

My Roman campaign started out quite tenuously by being attacked by both Syracuse and Epirus from the south.....and this does actually mirror history better, I think, than if only Epirus was present in southern Italy. The two factions, having their own goals and hatreds of Rome, teamed up at first to cause a LOT of trouble for me. Fortunately, the Gauls left me alone for a considerable time. Probably because they were preoccupied with the Free Peoples and 'Slave' factions.

It took probably 10 years to finally kick Epirus out of Italy...and then convince Syracuse that it was not a good idea to keep trying to invade Italy. Syracuse, by the way, is in my opinion one of the most dangerous factions in Roma Surrectum. They are well located, powerful, and rich....even though they start very small. I have been at war with them for 44 years...yeah, the whole game!

Once I dismissed the Greeks from Italy, I focused on consolidating my hold of Italy. Income ranged from 2-5000 denarii for a long time, so I focused mostly on building economic buildings and a few armies to guard passes in the north.
Taking Mediolanium, Patavium and Genua wasn't really a great problem.....except that the loss of men in each subsequent battle for these regions was huge considering the cost to replace them. (You will have a hard time with 'retraining' in this mod for a long time.....there just isn't enough money or time to do it. I have fought many a battle with a rag-tag mixture of beat up units from all over Italy. Also, the player will have to be careful about where they try to retrain units. Regions that can produce Hastati, Principes and such will show that they can retrain any of them. That's not the case, however. You'll spend the money TRYING to retrain them, only to find that the game didn't do it. Got burned there myself a couple times.)

In 240bc, or thereabouts, Scythia went under as Bosporan expanded north and finally defeated them. Shortly thereafter, Pontus was defeated between the Pergamum/Seleucid/Armenia pincher. I moved west and took Segestica from the Free People, then Scodra...which is one of the Legion recruitment areas you'll have to go for in this mod.

By this time, Syracuse, having given up on Italy, had invaded Greece by sea and took Sparta, Corinth, Athens, and Larissa. Epirus took Thessalonica from Macedon and everyone seemed to stall there for a while. So I thought the time was ripe for me to move in and take the Epirot capital myself. The result has been a bitter struggle for supremacy in the area, with hard fought battles and massive losses on all sides.

Rome is slowly but surely gaining the upper hand, but it's been a long war. The key to winning it was a naval invasion by Rome of Sicily and Corsica, which surprised the overconfident Syracusians. Corsica fell quickly because of the small garrison there. Lilybeaum put up a fight for a few years, and then angered it's captors by revolting constantly....the penalty was a destroyed and decimated city that Syracuse retook only to find it in ruins!!

Another Roman army invaded Sicily in 238bc and took Syracuse itself, and then Messana. That pulled the teeth out of Syracuse's war efforts....but even now they have beseiged their beloved capital in a vain attempt to recover it.

While all this was going on, the traitorous Gauls decided the time was ripe to attack the few Roman possessions in the north...even though we were allies and had trade agreements. Rome's retribution has been quick and ruthless. Lugdunum was taken immediately and its inhabitants put to the sword. Roman armies that had been guarding passes and content to leave the Gauls to the north now moved into Gallic regions and slaughtered everything in their paths. Their armies now run before us without even the decency of engaging in honorable battle. But we regard them as cowards and never to be trusted again...so their time will come as soon as we are finished with these blasted Greeks!!

In 237bc we took Larissa and Thessalonica, further cementing the Roman footprint in Greece. It is only a matter of time now before they wither before us.

The Greek Alliance, driven from Massilia, Spain and it's own lands in Greece, has moved with it's massive fleet and it's one remaining region (Rhodes) into Aetolia and now wages war on both Pergamum and Seleucid.....the latter is scary huge now, reaching from the former holdings of Armenia down into Egypt. Carthage controls most of North Africa, and Egypt is all but history, with two holdout regions sandwiched in between Carthage and Seleucid. There will be war with these two soon, I imagine.

Needless to say, the Marian reforms have not yet occurred. There has been little money to waste on buildings.....but as I write this, an Imperial Palace is being constructed in Patavium. My guess is they will come around 229-228bc.
Not exactly historical, but a fun time anyway for the REAL Legions of Roma Surrectum to appear, because there is a LOT of Empire to build yet.

The use of 'peasants' as 'colonists' has come in handy on a couple occasions already. When the Romans took Scodra they were so insane with anger and blood they killed everyone in the city. That left a substantial city with the ability to build Republican Legions with no population! (I executed the General who did this!) Anyway, used colonia from Massilia and a couple other Italian cities to re-populate Scodra...at great cost.

Income stands, now, at about 25-40000 denarii...which might sound like a lot, but it really isn't. As the Republic grows, so also the need for armies to protect it....and they are expensive. Every penny is used almost every turn just to keep people happy and replace the fallen..........