I'm growing slowly used to it now, but there are still some problems that really get on my nerves. One example is the fact you are told to start a city around shipping timber to Rome for shipbuilding. You're asked to supply a shipment of 50 timber for around a year later. However, a few weeks later, you are also asked to supply a shipment of 20 weapons. Weapons require Timber and Iron to build, you cannot spare the timber because you are too busy saving it for the other requirement. Not only that, but you need a large number of weapon factories because they build so slowly.
By this point you already have an unskilled-labour intensive city that is literally leaking money from every seam for wages, and the moment a building evolves, you suddenly get a huge glut of unemployed labour, which leads to civil unrest. You suddenly find yourself not even able to think about such things as reservoirs or entertainment because you need a higher citizen class and you have too many factories around to find desireable land for their houses. Exporting in the scenario is pretty pointless because the only stuff you can export to other cities is.... Iron or Timber.
Just to add to the fun, you also get told that a Gaulish army is approaching (about 2 months before they arrive) and that you need to build defences and a Light Infantry legion which requires..... Weapons, and you don't stand a chance of arming then with the amount of warning you are given, so you have to set up your Weapons construction and Legions before you are told that there are enemies around, and somehow come up with enough to supply both Rome and yourself.
Basically, it all boils down to the fact you have to play the scenario through once to find out what is going to happen, and then, when it inevitably all goes pear shaped, restart with a fore-knowledge of what is going to happen. I'm quite willing to sacrifice favour for the sake of expediency, but the program seems to require a certain level of Telepathy because rather than merely having to act fast to deal with a shortfall in a requirement, it is more or less impossible.
I think one thing that could be done to improve it is slightly increase the factories turnover time. I had 3 Pottery factories running at full tilt, and one clay pit, and the warehouses were still filling up with clay so that nothing else could get in.
In fact, I'm going to suggest that on the Caesar 4 Forums tomorrow.