Pontos recruitment in Asia Minor, recruitment in general and related questions

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Hi. I am a fan of RTR mod for RTW 1, but only rather recently I discovered EB and I was utterly amazed. Living near Pella and being well informed on the history and geography of the region, I can say that I could never have made a better map or a more accurate unit selection and balance.

I am not sure which version I am currently playing. In C:\Program Files (x86)\EBTrivialScript\changelog.doc it goes only up to 0.18. Also I am pretty sure I have not properly installed BI, let alone Alex, for this mod.

Ok, now I am Pontos, a very interesting campaign in M/M, but I can only train levy phalangitai in Antiocheia and Amaseia, and elite phalangitai in Amaseia and Sinope, even though I own from Byzantium to Trapezous and to Sidon. I know I can train in Mazaka as well but I still have level 3 government. I have built level 1 government in Nikaia and even though Recruitment Viewer says I should be able to train regional troops, I cannot. The same is happening in Ipsos where I should be able to train pantodapoi phalangitai. Any idea why?

If I destroy my level 1 government in Antiocheia and install a level 4, I will be able to train Cretan Archers but will I still be able to train Pantodapoi Phalangitai? What if I later switch to level 1 again? Will I still be able to train Cretan Archers? Yeah, exploit, I know.

Concerning Sauromatae, I read around that they can train Hoplitai in Crimea if they leave the MICs there instead of destroying them. I read this when I was already rather advanced in my Sauromatae campaign and it disappointed me for I am a fan of infantry, and even more so of infantry with good defense, something that Sauromatai lack. So how exactly can Sauromatae exploit regional MICs of other cultures? How can other factions do the same? Is this only possible for nomadic factions (Sauromatai, Pahlava, Saka)?

Finally, is there a chatroom for low-end questions?

End of questions. Some personal adventures below (not AAR level).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

For anyone interested, my Pontos campaign was fun from the start. At various points I had to make decisions where to strike next. There was a moment when I neighboured 7 factions yet I had an army in Crimea, ready to attack Sauromatae who did nothing to me. Stupid, so I returned with 3 Polemon diplomats. At the time, I had taken all Seleucid possesions of Asia Minor, plus all Eleutheroi ones besides Ankyra (became Arverni) and that city to the south-east of Trapezous, which was taken by Hai. Ankara (Arverni) and Halikarnassos (KH) were very well defended, especially the latter with almost 2 stacks. Byzantium was Epirote, Pergamon was taken by Macedon, Side was still Ptolemean and Tarsos still Seleucid. At that point I was fighting only with Seleucids. In the end I decided to take Side, then Tarsos, then Antiocheia, anchor there my defence and move later to the east, first Ankyra and then either Greeks or Byzantium. Dozens of turns later, Epirus was killed by Macedons, KH accidentally by me (they had a city in Crimea but no FMs), I took Ankyra and Arverni asked for ceasefire years later, Hai still peaceful and allied (and strengthened), but I am now fighting in 2 fronts with the 3 strongest factions in the map. At least I am alive and, thanks to the AI stupidity and mines (on average 900 mnai per settlement, or 18k for 20 cities), I can feel safe despite the austerity and the multiple threats.

For the record, in my opening moves I started by going north against eleutheroi Sinope, then Trapezous, then I hardly managed to get Nikaia and keep it with several heroic victories against eleutheroi and Seleucids, then waited and defended in fear of destruction, then Mazaka and the other Seleucid cities phew.

I quickly tried several factions already while learning; Sweboz campaign is pretty easy (I blitzed until I had 7 cities, then rested, then got a few more and then I got Casse), Bactrian one is tricky early, Carthage start is easy. Lusotannans have the best feeling (perhaps it is merely the color, or the safe location). My next one will be a journey to India, perhaps as AS or another try as Bactria.

I can't personally help, having not used Pontos, but a question on your behalf for someone who might know: I found, I think on the Org, maybe TWC, a map of which Roman governments to build where, as well as maps of what regional troops can be trained where. Is there a similar map for other factions which would help or not?

A thought, though it is probably a dumb question: you are sure that you built your normal faction barracks and not the regional-type barracks, right?

I built both to some level. The thing is that I cannot even train Hippacontistai in Ipsos. In all other campaigns I had no such problems, only now in western Asia Minor.

The map you mentioned is the answer I dreamed of, but for Pontos I could realistically only hope for a mere suggestion for half a dozen key provinces (type 1 in Amaseia and Mazaka, type 4 in Ankyra for Galatian cavalry, type 3 in Rhodes and Kydonia for Rhodian Slingers and Kretan Archers, no idea about Antiocheia and other provinces).

EDIT: Another peculiarity, now with a new Seleucid campaign. I conquered Bostra, then lost it to Sabaeans for 1 turn. When I reconquered it, I did the following in the exact order: (i) I queued repair my previous level 3 government, (ii) I demolished the Sabaean government, which made Regional Pacification available, and (iii) I queued Regional Pacification.
Next turn, I had my level 3 government repaired, but I could build a new government on top of the existing one (levels 3 and 4 were available). Now, this is weird, isn't it? What should I do?

Also, a thing I noticed: if I reload the campaign and, in order to activate the script, I select a town of mine that is under siege, then the script isn't correctly activated and I need to activate it again... sometimes after I have already sallied out. This may be the reason for numerous CTDs that players keep experiencing.