Paris did nothing wrong
the meme is that Paris Is The Worst, but like, in this game he really isn't.
In the Iliad Paris takes some hits for offending the Ancient Greek sense of honour and being an archer rather than hand-to-hand fighter, which are both just based on the weird hangups of men of antiquity who were big on pederasty and shitting in holes in the ground, but in the Iliad he's also portrayed, like everyone else, as someone who's just a puppet dancing on the strings of the Gods on the way to a fated death who got snared up in the mess because Zeus correctly recognized him as an honest judge of character.
And in some tellings of the Trojan War he's portrayed as straight up abducting Helen from Menelaus, which does make him a weird kidnapper/ rapist dick in those versions.
But in some tellings, and this is the interpretation Troy Total War uses, he and Helen really are in love and having a great romance. Which means that the Trojan War in this story is really a story about a well-groomed metrosexual himbo and his family trying to protect his wife from her fucking deranged ex-husband who has rounded up a posse to kidnap her back like she's a beloved jar of pennies. Listen, Young Kings, Menelaus ain't a role model; if your girl is unhappy enough to leave you for another dude, you're allowed to feel what you need to feel and tell her u don't have a space for her in your life any more, but if you love someone you gotta let em go and live their truth, not arm up a mighty fleet of Achaeans to burn down the rebound dude's civilization like some creepy aegeancel. Whereas manning up and protecting your wife from her incredibly aggro brendan gleeson-lookin ex-bf stalker from the sticks and his even-crazier drinking buddies is some real King Shit.
In a game full of shouty dudes motivated mostly by jealousy, rage, and jealous rage, he's motivated by real, genuine love. He seems like he just wants to hang out with his hot gf and talk about poetry and skincare routines and probably articles in The Atlantic and whatever but if everyone else is gonna go crazy he will pop a motherfucker in the head with an arrow if they have a problem with that. Seems reasonable honestly. 'I Have My Own Code' damn rite u do, code also seems to involve wearing some threads that can actually breathe in the Mediterranean heat. what material is paris' leopardskin rly made of? boyfriend material
Plus, he's just a solid faction. The Trojans have some of the best units of every kind, and even though ranged supremacy is a bit toned down in this game, his bonus to missile units and high-end unique archers are fucking phenomenal. Hector's Chosen are great but as fast melee death-dealers you can sub in some Mythical Units for them without losing much, but there is no other unit in the game that can quite match Trojan Princes at what they do. Helen, My Love can be an annoying mechanic, but it very quickly becomes your method to boost the growth and happiness of newly-conquered settlements as you conquer them, which just means less waiting around for new acquisitions to stabilize, since generally you'll be hosting feasts in new settlements he ends the turn in as you conquer them and the feast clock expires. It means every few turns you'll have some annoying debuffs for a turn or two, but since the cost of hosting feasts is so minimal it's never a biggy. I think overall his faction mechanics aren't the best or most engaging compared to like Aeneas or Odysseus but his roster and faction bonuses are still top-tier.
tl;dr protecting your wife from her psycho ex is pretty cashmoney tbh