I love the battle card part of the game. Yeah sure, you're going to lose some battles you should have won, but that's all part of it.
What I didn't like were the event cards. Some of those can really bitch slap you if they come out at the wrong time. When I'm playing a two player game, I really just want to be playing against my opponent, not my opponent and the damn game. It seems like a problem that can be mitigated if you know the event deck, but that takes something like a couple dozen plays with a dedicated opponent, and that's not going to happen in this house. If there's only two of us, we'll just go out and shoot pool, or if grounded, break out Dungeon Twister. Now there's a game that deserves the kickstarter treatment.
It's probably also worth noting that as a beginner, I find that it's much easier to play Carthage than Rome. With Carthage, you have history to inform you. You just hump Hannibal over the alps like he has always done, but as the Roman player you are just totally out to sea. Do you meet Hannibal in the alps, do you hold tight in Rome, do you f' around in Hispania, do you take the battle to Carthage? I've played Rome several times and still have no idea. I suspect the answer is that you do what the cards encourage you to do, but there again, you have to know what's in the deck. Maybe this is just how card driven war games roll. I don't play a lot of them.