Playing on normal / normal (I know, I am a wimp).

2nd attempt. First attempt was going fine, I justed decided to restart after a few years for some reason.

On the first attempt, I had to deal with the Visigoths, the Constantius rebels, and the Vandals.

Unlike a lot of folks, I didn't do the destroy-every-building to raise cash thing. I disbanded most of my military in Africa (all of the fort troops), but retained most of the other troops. I lost most of the cities in Africa to rebellion except for Carthage, but was able to retake them with my remaining troops (and promptly sacked them for money) over the course of 5 years or so.

On the second attempt, I've had almost everyone declare war on me.

The Visigoths and the Vandals committed suicide on a couple of my fortified cities (literally, they killed off their faction leaders and disappeared) by 414, during which I was dealing with the ururper Constantius.

Well, the Burgandians decided to attack, followed by the Alemmani, Lombardi, Franks, Huns, and Ostrogoths. Pretty much all at once. Oh yeah, the traitorous scum in the east decided to attack my cities in Africa, which were already been raided by the Berbers.

I smashed the Ostrogoths pretty easily (Italy is a war machine, providing you have money and time to build), ditto for the Burgandians. I took the Alemman cities, and they horded and went north rather than south (good thing), then proceeded on a slow conquest of the Franks. The Saxons, presumably with the Alemmani finished them off.

The Huns attacked me throughout Pannonia and Illyrica, taking the lightly defended Aquincum and Carnuntum after many repeated sieges, and the much better defended Salona as well. To the point where the population was depleted and I wasn't able to raise levies to defend the city. Subsequently, I counterattacked with some of my best Italian veterans from the Visigoth and Ostrogoth battles, 4 stacks in total. I managed to retake Carnuntum and Salona, as well as some useless German villages in the north, but at the expense of extreme attrition, and the valiant death of one of my generals at Campus Quadi when the Huns counteratttacked and retook that town.

It's 430, and I'm holding on my own in Germania, having reinforced the theatre with units from Gaul. I managed to Take Dirrahius in 429 from the ERE. But in Africa, the ERE took Lepcis Magna from me and they own the seas including the Aegean. I don't have enough Roman troops in Africa to fight off a real invasion by the ERE, and am having to defend against the Berbers from the south.

In Gaul and Hispania, I am having to keep a high troop density because the cities are in continual revolt, tying up troops that could be better used at the frontier. And the Alemanni hordes have entered Gaul again with 4 stacks, and the Saxons just declared war. Luckily the Frankish cities I took are among my best in military potential, so I should have a decent chance at holding the line in the north.

And I never have enough money. At the start of every round I have maybe 6500 denarii, which is enough to buy one building and a few units. And at the start of every round I typically have 4-5 cities that are red, 3-4 cities that are beseiged, 2 cities that just had a siege lifted (and need the units retrained). And dealing with the assorted brigans of the "Free Peoples" is annoying, especially since they frequently have decent quality troops.

And despite all those problems, I still have fewer problems than the WRE had historically. The lack of money thing is interesting.