I highly recommend hitting greece and macedon early on. if you are able to do so there are three wonders in it for you, which increase public happiness in all cities, increase sea trade, and reduce building construction time. i started the brutii campaign tonight after a break from playing for a while and just rolled through greece. this also prevents GCS from getting armored spartan hoplites, which totally suck. and yes, my faction leader has ten command stars, famous throughout the land.