It seems to me that the TW formula has always lent itself well to playing as a faction that starts off small, a burgeoning 'underdog' which you steer to greatness against stronger foes.

In the case of the opposite, however, the 'declining established powers' tend to be less convincing. I guess there are real limitations on how well you can recreate internal instability and administrative difficulties in running huge empires in TW games, considering the series' focus on battles and warfare. Nonetheless, when you look at RTW's Seleucid Empire, ETW's Mughal Empire, TW:A's Roman Empires, it usually seems like they can only barely summon up a couple of paltry armies before inevitably being completely steamrolled a few turns into the game. I always found this overly deterministic, because although these states were on the way downhill in the time when their games start, in most cases they were able to last far longer and put up more of a fight than their TW equivalents. Mods often remedy this, so given that I've only played up to Attila, I wanted to ask fellow TW gamers if you feel it has been the same in more recent titles? And regardless, does this trope ever bother you?