Played this against King Billy a few weekends ago. We thought it looked really tough on the Romans. It was in the first game...
First game I was the barbarians, and Bill the Romans. We were right, the poor Romans got slaughtered. If the barbarian player starts with a couple of 3 or 4 unit move cards, they can very quickly roll up the banners needed where ever they attack. That, combined with an opponent that seems to have forgotten how to roll dice. The Romans maybe got a banner or two.
So we swapped sides... And the Romans this time did much better. This was the beginning of a string of poor luck for Bill (that carried into other games we play, aka - ASL) that not even the most hardy and patient of characters could survive. You know, the sought of rolling like "Aha! I need one hit against your unit to win! Roll 4 dice and miss them all, leader directed even... and then the battle back does four hits...". It was a true testament to Bill's character that all he did was sigh.
Hopefully soon, Bill will remember how to roll dice again