@Emacz 's mod introduce a lot of changes that makes you play differently then with usual vanilla/com mod civs (In witch all civs can be played nearly identically). You can have a great time having to think about optimal times to attack with this new mechanics, and very often, it is leaning toward you attacking early on, because of the slow economy of Sparta as an example. You also have a lot of changes on how you balance your economy with Spartans. When successful, you might manage to get a small group of elite units capable to fight off a player that had a much larger economy then you, right before his economic dominance become a problem.
On the other hand, the community mod champions in p1 are only viable on very specific map/settings. The only times I felt they would be good is on "fortress" map where you start with extra stone and metal from treasures, and have a market to buy more metal from others players selling metal for food/wood.