That's ok

How’s the performance? If I recall the reason the devs were hesitant to add something like that was because they didn’t think it could run well.

Yeah sorry my bad 

The campaigns gave you a general overview of historical events, and the gameplay taught you about the technical development of technological advances, mainly resource management. He didn't teach you much about social progress and setbacks. It did not teach about the decline of empires. It's difficult to bring that trait to a game.

Another thing that nobody mentions is the early game mechanics and build order. All civilizations start the same way. With a minimal difference from the Germans and Mauryas