I restarted the scenario with my new learnings of what to do and what to avoid. This time I got quite close to a historical result - the Persians were largely driven off and the Western Empire is in shambles. This was not the result of any game balance - just the luck of the cards. The Visigoths got good cards and gave the Romans a civil war, rise of piracy and several civil disturbances. While they held Rome, they are now fatally weakened and will collapse next turn.
Having a number of settlements (not cities) away from the front make a big difference to your military strength, but these too are vulnerable to certain event cards. Keeping your treasure and cards intact for the combat period is also very important. The event cards are very significant - to the point where I feel I am a captain trying to sail a ship through a tricky gale of cards, rather than an emperor having a plan that has a few event speed bumps to negotiate.
The solitaire system makes for a very challenging game. However with only stylised cultural traits, it lacks the detail to give you the feel of being a late Roman Emperor. Good gaming for mates, but just a game rather than a simulation.
As an FMW game, I think it will be great. It does have the ability for us to play as allies against the AI, but I think it would get nasty quickly as we accidentally fire some event cards at each other. As the VP scale shows who is winning at each point, I think we would quickly slip into balance of power play.
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