it occurs to me that some other good basis for minifactions could be civs that were once planned but have since been cut. iirc, it was previously planned that the Hellenes were to be split into Macedonians and Poleis, with the Poleis having three or four factions that they can diverge into. that's since been reformatted into the current system with no splitting of civs to make each one more unique, but i think the posts concerning those are still lying around. i'll see if i can't dig them up. Iphicrateans (Iphicratean Hoplite) Thebans (Sacred Band Hoplite, Fire Raiser) Syracusans (Siege Crossbow, Greek Quinquereme) Thracians (Thracian Heavy Cavalry) (in addition to the Thracian Peltast mentioned before) Thessalians (Thessalian Scout) particularly, having some "maritime" civs like the Syracusans as minifactions could help, specifically, with the Iberians; iirc, they don't have any warships of their own and would otherwise rely on their buildings and ranged units to take out enemy ships or form an alliance with a civ that DOES have warships. on a predominantly water map, they could easily ally with a minifaction like the Phoenicians or Syracusans and thus gain access to mercenary sailors that form the bulk of their navy while their actual standing army is still mostly comprised of Iberian units here's links to those posts by Mythos_Ruler btw: Greeks, Macedonians