That took no time at all.

The highlights:

– 50 playable nations
– 280 BCE – 27 BCE (from Pyrrhus’s invasion of Italy to Octavian taking the title Augustus)
– No historical events
– “Characters” can be given political appointments
– National ideas are back
– six types of unit (militia, heavy infantry, cavalry, archers, horse archers, elephants)

One very unusual statement from Johan Andersson:

“Religion also plays a big part, as [religion was] much more [important] back then.”

The answer seems to have been edited, so I don’t know if he means “important”. And I’m not sure what is meant by “big part”. For most of the elite classes in Rome and the Hellenistic World, official religion was a means to sanctify their control. Rome easily absorbed the gods of other polytheistic states, and the Maccabean Wars excepted, it’s not like you can point to any sustained struggle over clashing religious rights. When the state did crack down on religious rites and festivals (like Mystery religions) it wasn’t because of any belief that they were wrong so much as because they were considered dangerous or morally corrupting.

Not that the Romans were above using other people’s religious beliefs as propaganda or fodder for mockery. The child sacrifice of the Carthaginians, the animal worship of the Egyptians, the monotheism of the Jews, the nature worship of many Celtic peoples…all were less civilized than the ritualized superstitions of Rome and Greece.