I'm all for the game being more difficult but some of the start of game stuff is frankly ridiculous. Started a game as Massalia, first turn the Insurbres declare war, then the neighbour to the west, then the one to the east and my neighbour to the north have their army camped on the border. This isn't a challenge, it's simply forcing me to sit at my home permanently as I cannot make any move without any of them jumping in.

The insurbres are completely ignoring the fact Rome has declared war and moved towards their capitol, in fact all the factions just utterly ignore what others are doing in favour of ganging up right at the start. There is a difference between being challenged and being completely boxed in as you are so hopelessly outnumbered before you even have a chance to do anything except sit tight and repeatedly hit end turn, as any positive action will result in destruction, even if you win the battles.