I know DEI's 287 BC start date is a core is a core staple of the mod. I'm not saying "get rid of the current Grand Campaign." I'm arguing for a new sub-campaign like Alexander that is literally the Grand Campaign with the clock turned forward.

What are the problems with the current start date?

Iconic historical characters that actually expanded the factions I play as take hundreds of turns to spawn. I like history, I love Greek and eastern factions like Parthia, I love this mod for how much it cares about it, I think its ridiculous that nearly every one of these factions' important characters like Mithridates I of Parthia, Tigranes of Armenia, Scipio Africanus and Hannibal requires such an absurd amount of time to actually replicate and surpass what they did, and not have them be nobodies who finish off your world conquest before you give up the campaign from boredom.

All of these guys were not only awesome but really did much of the fighting and expanding we do in our campaigns, and it would really make the mod so, so much more immersive. I also want to be able to play as them without waiting hundreds and hundreds of turns to spawn in, having a campaign not set in 278 BC will help this tremendously.

What better start dates are there?

The start of the Second Punic War in 218 BC is a no-brainer, especially as the starting situation largely for the rest of the world isn't as different as the current start date.

-Scipio and Hannibal
-Parthia is about to start expanding when it did
-Armenia was starting to change dynasties (lots of cool civil war potential)
-Phillip V of Makedon going to start the Cretan War, the most epic Greek War you've never heard of that almost made Makedon a superpower again

Other ideas
The Third Punic War in 149 BC
-Carthaginian survival challenge/epic comeback
-Rome stands ready to dominate Greece
-Fully reformed Greek unit rosters
-Mithridates I of Parthia being the second Cyrus the Great

The First Mithradatic War in 89 BC
-Caesar and Pompey's early days, 'nuff said
-Parthia's big but not a superpower yet, it should have about 6 regions and a few clients
-Early Kushan Empire

"Pax Romana" in 9 AD
-Teutenburg Forest/ Germanicus' campaigns
-The British Factions will actually be able to fight Rome for once, with Boudica not that far away
-Again, the Kushan Empire is just too awesome not to be in this mod
-Late period unit rosters we all love

I could go on, but seriously the ancient world is such a huge timeframe and having such a Rome-Carthage centric-start doesn't the rest of the world, and even Rome and Carthage to some extent, the justice it deserves.