If you overreach, HCV vs decadence that creates aging tokens i get. It is a good feature for many reasons. A bit too harsh maybe but okey.
The Legacy side of it on other hand is way too harsh for small nations.
Because they are small compared with other nations they get a aging token, basically every turn. To stop this they need legacy points.
If they manage to take over some distant locations, that will generate legacy points, that will also give them a lot of decadence. More then they can counter. It can not be stopped. Try to start with gothones for instance. They will only have civil war after civil war. Stop them to getting to the lowest form of civilization is impossible. I am on my 5th or 6th go with them. fingers crossed, this time i might make it
So the result is that nations that are small at the start will crumble up and die. Whilst a big nation will only have problems to grow even bigger too fast.
Ideas:
One thing to fix this could be to take away the ranking system of the whole thing. Make it based on "missions" that varies from nation to nation. (Like the missions now). The effect will be that there perhaps could be at least a few stable small nations atleast.
An other way could be to keep the system as it is, but drastically decrease the effect from the rank of your nation. Not making the small size of your nation give a aging every 2-3 turns but every 10 maybe or 20. If you have it like that, a small nation could perhaps counter that effect of it small size by having a highly cultured society. Just in the same way that you counter having a larger nation with culture.
I am sure there are other ideas out there. I mainly wanted to get the ball rolling
By the way, Great game guys!!
Best regards
Loffas
