I'm pondering for ages now how to make S&A start faster, and today it struck me like a carrier
Most nations have a spy/scout from start, but S&A doesn't. Being a slow starter, it has to look out for weak indies. That means either wasting a turn on buying a scout, or wsting more turns by attacking into the wrong direction on the 3rd or 4th turn..
Most nations start with their standard, if not their best infantry. S&A starts with a bunch of pike footmen without any armor to speak of. Ressource are most likely low, so buying a decent sized squad of heavy inf needs 5 turns or more...
Than there's no cheap non-magic commander available, so massing medium inf and archers isn't possible, too.
Sadly, all those things cannot be corrected AFAIK, as it would mean modding things special to the theme, and you can't do that, do you?