1.x AI Faction Progression Thread

[schlappi]

Seems to me that in 1.1 AI Makedonia almost always loses out to either KH or Epeiros. In my game even with me (Epeiros) out of Greece, they still don't seem to be able to actually beat KH. Why is that?

Epirus gets kicked out of Italy pretty soon in 1.1, they have the resources to fully concentrate on marching on Pella and Illyria, making life a Hell for AI-controlled Macedonia.

[burn_again]

In most of my 1.1 campaigns Epeiros uses its Nellies to take Pella in the first turn and often Serdike in the second turn. Then the Maks are screwed. I have seen them coming back sometimes, if they manage to take Pergamon or if they can grab Athens early on.

[General Appo]

256 BC. Aedui. RTW.exe. No cheats ´cept toggle_fow and some Perect_Spy (and only to look at what the Baktrians and those guys are doing). No FD (though if the need arise...).



Arverni: Dead. Mohahahahah!

Casse: Not much, usual slow expansion.

Sweboz: Damn, looking much to good. These guys are really worrying me, though I have managed to negotiate an alliance with them.

Getai: Not much here really. Slow steady expansion. Been trying to take Naissos for some time now.

Qarth-Hadast: A bit depressing here really. Nothing at all ´cept some African conquests.

Lusitannan: Finally, someone to make me happy. Blitzed all the regions next to Carthage´s and are now going for Emporion.

Sab´yn: Meh. Really, just meh.

Sauromatae: Holy shit! When Foot said the steppes have teeth he wasn´t kidding. Killed of Hayasdan, took Sápmi and Pantikapaion, and are aiming for the rest of the Caucasus and Olbia.

Hayasdan: Owned suckers!

Pontos: Took Galatia early, I was hoping it would revolt to me or the Arverni, but no luck. Not really done anything since then.

Saka-Rauka: Some usual fighting with the Settlers of the Evil East , not much else.

Baktria: Some usual fighting with the Savage Indians of the Evil East, but not much else. Still friendly with the Evil Capitalists of the Evil East and the not-quite-so-Savage Indians of the Evil East.

Pahlava: Going good against the Sele´s, not much else to report.

Arche Seleukeia: Losing the war against the Pahlava. Lost Hekatomplyos to revolt exactly 6 times before the Pahlava took it. Lost Drangiane to rebels. No news on the western front, the Syrians war are at an standstill. They did took Sidon though, but that was years ago, and nothing really came of it. Should be praying that the Yellow Ukrainians and the Wannabe-Xerxes doesn´t gang up on them, or Scythian nobles will be dining in Babylon before the decade is out.

Ptolemaioi: Booooooooring. Took Kyrene, lost Sidon.

Koinon Hellenon: Kicking ass. Driven the Black Diadochi out of Hellas proper (well, apart from a stupid little island that refuses to surrender) and are looking comfortable against Epeiros, though that might chance soon...

Makedonia: Beaten badly by the Orange Philosophers but are hanging on in Pella. Perhaps not for long though...

Epeiros: Got driven out of Biggus Grekus by the ILF (Italian Liberation Front) but Taras revolted back and they´re now kicking the ass of those damnded barbarians.
Staying strong back on the mainland, even if they aren´t doing much ´cept taking Serdike. Have an alliance with me that might just prove very, very fruitful sometime soon.

Romani. Took Taras and Rhegion in the first years. Nothing´s gone right since then.
I did some really great campaigning in northern Italy, on both the strategic and tactical level. Anyway, the result was that I took all of Northern Italy, defeated 4 of their big armies and sacked (enslaved, razed every building and left) Arretium and Ariminium. Shortly after lost Taras to revolt. Been trying to attack me, but they´re still weak and I´m doing some very aggresive defending, striking their small armies on Roman soil before they can gather into one big one.

Aedui. Most glorious incredibly great Gallic tribe ever! WOOOOOOOOT111111111111!
Blitzed Arverni and most of Gaul, kicked the ILF´s ass and just made Illyria my clients (L4 Gov, have it in Liguria as well, will probably have it in all non-Gaul regions I take, at least the ones with non-Gaul but tribal regions) and have a Wannabe-Brennos army ready. And no, not the Rome-sacking Brennus, the other one. Might make it as far as Galatia, who knows.

[Ayce]

Shit dude, I've never seen the Sauro's do so good before!

[General Appo]

Yeah, scares the shit out of me. Though in just the 2 yearss I´ve played since that screenshot they´ve aleady had 3 revolts that still havn´t been smacked down. They have however taken Ani-Kamah. I noticed in the RV a couple of days ago that Kappadokia has the Nomad resource. I´ll be funny if they take it and start churning out HA´s in the middle of Turkey. Even funnier when my guy in Greece finally reach Galatia, then we´ll have the Gauls and Sauro´s kicking as in Anatolia. Heirs of Alexandros, tremble, your doom is approaching.

[Janius]

Romani VH/H, Alex.exe

The year is 222BC:



Some notes:

Aedui have taken control over Gaul, making the Arverni their procterate.
Currently they are at war with Lusotannan, trying to take over the Pyrenees.

Macedon is the domanting faction in Greece, at this moment they are besieging the last KH settlement there.

In Asia, Pontos, Ptolemaioi, baktria and pahlava are kicking Seleucid butt. At this speed, I estimate them to go down before 200BC.
This is btw the first time ever that I actually see pontus expanding like this.

Great campaing so far

[Hax]

That's some really awesome expansion you have there, especially on the Pontic and Pahlavan parts.

[Marcus Ulpius]

My Romani campaign, year 224 B.C. (RTW 1.5 installed, no BI or Alex)




I've managed to kick the Carthaginians from Africa, while Lusos are doing the same in Iberia.

Arverni are in a dire situation, being at war with Aedui and Sweboz.
Aedui are fighting Sweboz and actually managed to take a settlement in Iberia (may be Luso-Aedui war is not far away).

Casse are very slowly expanding in Britain.

Sweboz are scary. Taking most of Central Europe and having some Bastarnae town rebel for them. They've already tried to raid Northern Italy, but their two full stack armies were destroyed under the walls of Mediolanum, which I'm turning into an unassailable fortress.

Further to the East, Epirotes are dieing out after managing to nearly destroy Macedonians. But somehow the Macedonians have turned the tide and now Epirotes are languishing in Pannonia and Macs have also killed off KH (only Rhodes left).

Getae are slowly expanding into Thrakia and are not doing anything remarkable.

The biggest surprize are Pontos which have pushed the Seleucids out Of Anatolia, managed to take Byzantion and Pella and are sending decently sized armies towards the last Seleucid possessions in Asia Minor.

Ptolies are slowly eating Seleucids and fighting Saba.

Seleucids are throwing everything they have at Ptolies while they enjoy a ceasefire from the Pahlave who also managed to grab some of the Seleucid territory.

Baktrians are winning against Saka, who in their turn are fighting Sauromatae, which are also attacked by the Haya.

As for my plans, haven't decided yet whether to attack Lusitania or start my Macedonian wars. I'm planning to play defensively against northern barbarians until Marian reforms.

[Spizania]

Pahlava are stopped dead by my policy of fortifying everything I can with stone walls, although they have allied with Hayasdan and Saka, who are both not currently at war with me, but the Hayasdan dont seem to be having much look expanding at all.

Pontus they made the mistake of trying to take Mazaka, so I beat them down and took Amaseia, beating an understrength stack composed of tonnes of Eastern Light Cav and skirmishers, with one unit of Chalkaspides and a couple of understrength units of Pandapoi thrown in.
Another victory for the Pantapoi, I had thought about reducing them just to Galatia, but I have bigger worries.

Ptolemaics: I took all Egypts asian holdings and Alexandria, Memphis and Paranaiton, they seem t obe recovering slightly and keep half heartedly seiging and assaulting Memphis, only to be driven off each time with light losses to my force and huge losses to them, since they seem to love attacking with a ram and a ladder.......

Sauromatae was doing well, took Trapezous which then apparently rebelled to the Koinon Hellenon and is full of a full stack of Im not sure what, as I dont have a spy to spare to go look.

Bactria has broken its alliance with me but hasnt declared war, but unfortunately has overrrun the last of the settlements between me and India, preventing my expedition of doom to secure a supply of Indian uber-archers. Not that I have troops free for that at the moment, but luckily Ive fortified my border settlements with stone walls and large complements of Persian Archers.

The western "barbarian" factions dont seem to be doing much, the Gallic civil war seems to be happening to the advantage of the Aedui at the moment

The real suprise is Getai and Epeirots, especialyl the latter, they have driven Macedonia out of northern Greece pretty much, are seiging the rebel settlement of Thermon and are fighting the Macedonians around Demetrias, although the Macedonians appear to hav elocal superiority of numbers, there are just so many epeirotes, they are fighting the Romans to a standstill in the north and are, as you can see, now loose in Asia Minor, Im at peace with them at the moment, but I may have to delay my Pontus bashing to defend Ipsos and Sidon if they turn agressive again, which they are sure to do.

Saba are doing nothnig as far as I can tell, might give them a tonne of money at some point, if I can remember what teh console command is.
I was also planning on doing an AAR of the rest of this campaign, detailing the sure to be epic war between the Seleukid empire and the Epeirots-who-are-Pergamon-without-modding

[The Persian Cataphract]

Out of what I have seen, Pahlava is taking the "Caspian empire" approach, and from there starts to pour into Medea, and sprawl out to the south and the east (A very desirable, and historically plausible model). Very nice.

[Tyrfingr]

Attempt as Pontos to recreate the Byzantine Empire of Basil II, 211BC



* Saka Rauka Protectorate of Nisa

** Free City of Asaak

*** Aedui Protectorate of Rhaetia

**** Arverni Protectorate of Sequallra

In the east, I only have to conquer Cyprus and Sidon from the Ptolies, then my eastern Byzantine Empire's borders will be secured. In the west, I have to conquer Singidunum and Segestica from the Aedui, and Taras abd Rhegion from the romans, then my reconstructed empire of Basil II will be complete.

With the help of some Forced Diplomacy, I have contained the Lusotanni on the right side of the mountains, though they constantly pour through to attack the romans. In the south, the carthaginians have expanded into Egypt. In the north, the germans have started to come down heavy on the gauls, but I plan to FD their Belgae settlements to the Casse, to stop them. Otherwise, not much is happening....

[SOSamurai]

Casse campaign year 258 B.C. with RTW 1.5 (no BI or Alex) and no mods/cheats (except EB 1.1 and toggle_fow ofc ).




I'm very impressed with some of the AI expansions so far. The Epeirotes started well enough which was typical, but so did the Makedonians crippling Koinon Hellenon pretty quick (they're down to just Rhodes now), and after a while they turned on the Epeirotes. Although the Maks have gained the territories, the Epeirotes seem to have slightly more armies and could do some damage, depending on the AI, though they seem to be more focused on rebel settlements atm.

Baktria are the other faction performing well. After afew settlements in the region changed hands afew times early on, Baktria came out with the spoils in the end and then managed to take additional settlements from both Saka and Pahlava. Now Baktria's forces are spread pretty thin, but Pahlava and Saka have practically no millitary presence at all. The only people that should give Baktria any trouble now are the AS, who have been pretty quite on that front.

Everywhere else is pretty typical and uneventful as far as I can see.

I've just conquered the last settlement on the British Isle, I now need to decide where to land. I want to head towards the Sweboz and let the Gauls fight themselves alittle longer, but Sweboz has 6-7 full stacks to my one.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Makedonian campaign, RTW.exe, EB 1.1, H/M


262BC




252BC

Same campaign:

242BC:




232BC:



The Hai are constantly trying to take Aghvan, while they "civilized" Uspe.
The Getai are my allies and act as my buffer against the Sarmatians, constantly warring them since ever.
The Sarmatians have an incredibly strong HA-army in Bastarnolandam. Early in the game they took the Crimea. I had an army underway to "liberate" the Hellenes there, but decided I needed the soldiers more in Pontos instead.
I wiped Pontos out cause they were simply in the way.
The AS betrayed me and decided to make peace with the Ptolemaioi instead, after I bought Nikaia, Sardeis and at last Ankyra from them. They are on the offense against the Parthians.
The Ptolemaioi have control of all of Syria and Babylonia except Antiocheia.
Baktria is under constant pressure.
The Carthaginians finally got it going, the Lusos are almost destroyed.
Arverni are allied to Rome and I must say they impress me the most of all AI-factions in my game.
The Romans are constantly warring the Aedui and I must take care that they do not pour into Gaul and build the famous Roman bloodknot. They just conquered Messana and the Punic war started. I hope for action.

[Rilder]

My Koinon Hellenon Campaign.

237BC.

Nothing too exciting except for

EPEIROTS IN ROME.

They must of got off there asses after I pretty much threw them out of the greek peninsula and beat rome to hell.

Its amazing how good there doing since they have like 3 full stacks just buggering about in north Illyria.

Also Apparently a Bosphorian province rebelled to me, the Saurmotte (I can't spell there name) are sieging it though so I'm just gonna let them have it.

Also is it just me or is the Bactrian Empire starting to look like the head of a cow?

[Dumbass]

Hah, if Baktria captures that Alexandreia_blahblah settlement, it will look like the Dairy lee cow.

[Roy1991]

Rilder, don't be too exited about Epeiros' performance in your campaign


Hayasdan, 225 BC.
(not the same campaign as the one I posted a few pages back, started a new one on 1.1)



Epeiros destroyed the Romani in 258BC

At first my Hayasdan empire expanded really fast, but I'm now facing strong opposition on all sides
The Ptolemaioi aren't a threat anymore, but the Saba have several full stacks in the area, and keep besieging Petra & Damaskos.
The Arche Seleukeia is slowly making a comeback in the east, while the Macedonians recently declared war on me in the west.
In the north the Sauromatae are becoming more aggressive, but nothing too serious so far. I lost Uspe, and they besieged Kotais several times with small armies.

[Olimpian]

Rilder, don't be too exited about Epeiros' performance in your campaign


Hayasdan, 225 BC.
(not the same campaign as the one I posted a few pages back, started a new one on 1.1)



Epeiros destroyed the Romani in 258BC

At first my Hayasdan empire expanded really fast, but I'm now facing strong opposition on all sides
The Ptolemaioi aren't a threat anymore, but the Saba have several full stacks in the area, and keep besieging Petra & Damaskos.
The Arche Seleukeia is slowly making a comeback in the east, while the Macedonians recently declared war on me in the west.
In the north the Sauromatae are becoming more aggressive, but nothing too serious so far. I lost Uspe, and they besieged Kotais several times with small armies.

Damn...

[johnhughthom]

That is some crazy Epirote expansion.

[Tyrfingr]

Bat shit crazy epirotes, and how satisfying to see the Lusotanna reduces to a brown smudge on the tip of the Iberian peninsula.

[Chris_]

I just started a Romani campaign (VH/M), and I'm going to track the AI's progress. So, being a programmer, I made a program that when I press print screen, gets a screenshot, cuts out the map, saves it to a file, figures out the season + date, sticks that on the image, and saves it as a gif. Then I can stick them together later and make an animation out of it.

When I get further into the campaign i'll link to it.

[V.T. Marvin]

That looks very nice indeed, Chris.
You may wish to upload your program to a mirror and post a link to it somewhere on the forum (EB Unofficial Modding Projects, maybe?) for others to use it too.

[Chris_]

I will, just need to make some UI improvements, and test it for a bit, to see if any bugs turn up.

[V.T. Marvin]

If I may, it would be very nice if your program will do the action triggered by some other key than just PrintScreen. It would thus allow to take normal screenshot (i.e. in battles, etc.) and from time to time use your program to produce and AI map.

And if it somehow managed to toggle_fow on/off it would be even better, though I do not know if it is possible or worthwhile to do that. I am no programmer at all.

[Fondor_Yards]

You know you can turn fow off yourself in game, hit the ~ key, then type in toggle_fow. Just would need to do that before you take the SS.

*I would also be really interested in that program, sounds like a real time saver.*

[Chris_]

Got to 262 BC in the Romani campaign. I just won a big battle against the Aedui, when they attacked Bononia with a full stack. Thing is, over half of the stack were slingers, so the battle got a bit insane, with 1000 slingers on skirmish mode running all over the place.

A link to the animated gif of the campaign so far is below. I kept it as a link as it came out a bit big (~ 2MB!), but it does have 40 turns in it. I'm going to try and come up with a cunning plan to cut down the size (other than rar/zipping it).

Behold, my campaign in 8-bit color! : https://i338.photobucket.com/albums/...seden0/out.gif

[V.T. Marvin]

@ Fondor_Yards - I know how to toggle fow manually, what I meant was asking whether the Chris´s program could do that automatically.

@ Chris - If that was an advertisement for your program, it could hardly be any better. Excellent job! It reminded me of the replay-world-map in the old Civilization games. It would be nice have something like that for EB too. It is a bliss to end a long-long campaign and just watch how the world map gradually changes to your color all over...

A suggestion - sorry if it is bothering for you - if the program could be activated by a script, it might maybe even possible to have it activated by pressing the end-turn button. Together with automatic fow on/off the end product could be this wonderful animated map just like you have made. I am just dreaming...

[Chris_]

I'll have to look into the possibility of integrating it with RTW script. If what I want to do is possible, I have an idea that would be able to produce high quality replays, without the ridiculous filesize that the animated GIF would produce

[Maion Maroneios]

Guys, is it me or are the Romani somewhat weakened? In my Makedonia campaigns so far with 1.1, always have to help them against the Epairotai after I kick them out of mainland Hellas. It also seems that the March of Time takes auwfully long to take place...

[d'Arthez]

Chris, that is an awesome program / utility you have made.

[General Appo]

Indeed, brilliant.