[Kingreno]

The Brutii... the powerhouse of teh Romans, if played well they are the strongest faction. Make sure to build temples of Mars in your main 2 unitsbuilding cities and Mercury for trade in teh others. I'd go for Apolonia for teh easy 5000 dinarii and the NOT take Thermon too soon, The greeks are strong early on, on high levels. The trick is: they will be attacked by 2 to 5 adversaries in the comming 10 turns. (Scipii in Syracuse, Pontus and Seleucids in Turkey, Thrace in the North, Macedonia everywhere). If Brutii attack too soon they will send all units to Brutii. Instead take over Illyria (2 cities in Croatia/Bosnia) first. These cities are small but both can support a mine (200 dinarii per turn+tradable goods!).

On Athens' walls: Attack ONLY if you have: 4+ cata's and can lose half an army. Otherwise just starve'em.

Forget Athens for now. Take Thermon after Illyria, it should be virtually undefended, then go straight to Sparta (what a prize!). You can take it by laying Siege, most of the time a small army will attack you and you can fighht them outside of the city. Or, wait out the 6-8 turns...

Keep Macedon at peace for now, try to grab Krete for trade and you MAIN GOAL: Rhodes. Thye colossus provides +40% naval trade. If you get: Southern Italy, Dalmatia, Thermon, Sparta, Krete and Rhodes you have 7 ports with a TON of trade. The game is.... over.