Mark has issued us with the necessary information which will form the basis of our ancients campaign.
There will be 4 empires - Rome, Carthage, Macedonians and Successors - operating out of their respective territories. Mark will 'run' everything else (including the barbarian empires that border the participating nations).
To add spice to the campaign, he's issuing victory cards - 10 objectives from which each empire will draw 1 card with their respective victory condition on. These could be 'Capture 4 islands' or 'Conquer 2 barbarian empires' or 'Eliminate a rival empire'. Only by achieving the conditions can a winner be found - and once it is clear what your victory condition is, you can bet the other players will do their damndest to stop you!
Each empire is bordered by some weak nations (easy pickings) but with each offering a special military unit (and providing additional income as well) there is the incentive for other empires to come calling in your neighbourhood. We all know which nation provides which troops (so Rhodes = superior slingers, Crete = good archers etc.) so it may require some diversions to build up a specific type of army. For example, the Carthaginians would need to cross the sea to get some decent archers, or Rome will need to head north to get some Horse Archers etc.
There is also the opportunity for diplomacy (and hence back-stabbing) as well as feints (so an empire could pretend to be after the 4 islands then hit a rival empire (the 'true' objective) as it tries to capture an island itself to stop you winning).
The other factor is that the barbarian empires will not sit idly by - they too will expand (albeit on a randomly generated fashion) but this could lead to some interesting scenarios should two rival empires AND a barbarian one all aim to capture the same territory at the same time.
Sea travel is very hazardous and can lead to armies being lost before battle is joined - but also provides the advantage of rapid movement without having to go through a rival's territory.
All in all this should be tremendous fun and add more spice to just a typical ancients battle. Each win / loss will have implications for the other players (such as seeing a rival lose heavily, thereby prompting a 'free-for-all' as all players pile in for easy pickings).
Obviously I'll keep you all updated as events unfold.