I have been really enjoying this game since publication. It really evokes the feel of the times, and your decisions are crucial.
Just today, I was having a blast as Spartacus, raising rebel slaves all over south Italy, defeating the first serious Roman attempts to regain the south, taking Metapontum, and feeling invincible. After I took Rhegium, the chance to invade Sicily arrived. And everything changed.
A few turns later, Pompey wiped out my army, which had starved on that blasted island, unable to take the walled cities without siege making the breaches that never came, without siege equipment. And my secondary army, created in an attempt to make the limited supply go further, was taken out by Crassus. And the pirate fleet that would have made the difference and took half of my gold to buy it, never arrived, as those treacherous pirates betrayed me just like they did the real Spartacus.
I salute the developers, who have done a magnificent job!