AI faction expansion in your campaigns?

[Thorn Is]

noticed something that happened a few times, including my campaign, Makedonia has been forced to migrate into Asia Minor.
Doesnt always happen, but interesting when it does - since in my formor campaign I was Pontos...

[Proper Gander]

i'm playing as the Casse, and it's 257 BC. the KH are strong and seem to be in firm control of their Makedonian enemies. interesting!
rome is expanding up north. and the Averni are about to surround the Aedui, as they are sieging the provinces of western modern france.

i have had about 3 or 4 CTD's without a message telling me why. but it mostly worked again after a reload.

here's the map:

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Maks are doing pretty good in my pontos one:


It's 246 and I'm taking away all the Armenian cities from them. Had a good battle with them over Mtshketa - they had a large army but I just waited till they charged in and repelled them with some phalanx troops. One cool thing - as I was chasing them out, somehow an almost full unit of jav cav stormed in from the other direction onto my one unit in the center of town still. gah! But I kept them off and won.

The slowdown over building governments is keeping me from pushing too fast though - as I have to ferry my good units in from the west to replenish.

As for the AI factions:

- KH is down to Rhodes, and the maks just landed troops there and have three fleets surrounding the island. I think KH has three units left. They should be done for soon.
-Romans and Carthies are held back by the huge garrisons in east sicily.
-The Seleukid collapse is the most interesting thing though. The Pahlava are storming in all over and are sieging two towns in the center - and Ekbatana already has a huge rebel army there.
-Baktria must have failed to hold Opiana and it rebelled pahlava. Stupid, but we haven't found a way around that yet. Baktria is trying to take it back though.
-Interesting that Ptolemies are having a hard time in the upper nile. They took Damaskos and now are trying to take seleukid Palmyra too.
-But those seleukids have done something neat here - they took Side and Tarsos both. With me (pontos) above them in anatolia, they focused on the south and drove the ptolemies out totally. Halikarnassos and Pergamon are full of stacks of rebels, so no one is going in there.
-Epeiros on its last legs in two provinces, but are a protectorate of the Maks. They are the only protectorate in the game. Looks like the maks got a huge financial boost from the protectorate though. Too bad...
-Sweboz ain't doing much. Romans have broken out to the northeast of the peninsula now though - but face large stacks of troops there.

[Jebus]

Continuation of my Roman campaing, now at the fall of 182 BC.

I think I finally broke the Ptolemaioi. This war has been hell - they kept sending stack after stack after me, and I had five fleets ferrying armies back and forth. I even lost two of my three-gold-chevron veteran armies: I really am pretty good, but if you are attacked by three full stacks of Klereuchoi Agemata in a row (or at the same time, even) you WILL lose, no matter how good you are. I felt how the Nazi's must have felt fighting the Soviets: for every stack I slaughtered, two more came in its place. For every four cities I conquered, they conquered three back while I was retraining my armies. But after applying a scorched earth tactic (destroying their MIC's when I took their cities), I seem to have finally broken them. I don't see any full stack armies on the field anymore - just some leftovers - and they seem to have gone on the defensive. The Seleucids, the lazy bums that they are, now have eight full-stack armies around Sidon, and the only city they have taken in all those years of the Ptolemaiic war is Damascus. I guess now a race is going to start between the Seleucids and myself as for who can annex the most cities before the Ptolemaioi are gone - and my only remaining veteran army is currently stuck in Memphis, but a new one is being trained in Arretium. It's been a hell of a ride, but I've beaten them down. Hellenic bastards.

The other fronts, in the meantime, have closed. I've fully conquered Iberia, and by garissoning my cities with diplomats I have apparently stopped the North German bribing problem. Funny fact: when I re-conquered one of those cities, it had six level one Iberian governments, and eight (!) level one (yes, level one) Pontic governments. 14000 free gold for me - used it to treat myself to a free Curia Maxima.

Gold is starting to become a problem, by the way. One would think that a player owning 80 cities would swim in gold - but nothing is further from the truth. I have to spend about 100 000 gold each turn for construction (the only two cities completely built up by now are Rome and Carthage), and all the rest goes to re-training and re-building my armies. I'm constantly stuggling to make ends meet.


As you can see, the Armenians have now conquered even more of Russia. They went on a rampage on the Persians, whose only remaining city is now the one safely encased between the Baktrians and the Yuezi, whom they gained by rebellion. The Armenians are now fighting the Epirotes, who are now obviously winning the war against the Getai. As soon as the Ptolemaioi are completely gone (well, except for their Baltic province - which they, while it is still not garrisoned, have yet to lose to rebellion), I'm going to attack the Epirotes and open a front there too. Their treasury is now down to a million and a half - I guess those zillions of elephants they now own have something to do with that.

For the rest, nothing much happened. The Casse still haven't done anything, and the Baktrian army stacks are still sitting behind their borders, looking at the undefended cities of their Seleucid enemies.


I am now far more certain of victory, though.

[Dooz]

Hell yeah baby, Armenian empire runnin' wild on your ass!

...

Anyhoo, I love the EB economy. You rule almost 1/3 of the world and it's not "end-game" mentality where it gets boring because you're infinitely rich. I think the balance is really great. You conquer territory, support just enough for garissons and keep your main army going. Maybe have some more anti-rebel armies here and there. Perfecto.

Then again, I'm playing on M/M, and in most of my territories, tax is very high and I'm just getting by. On harder difficulties, with more realistic taxes, I think I'd be in trouble........ Looking forward to future campaigns.

[QwertyMIDX]

EB is best on VH/M, that way the stat balance stays in place but the AI is more aggressive and the rebels will attack faction cities.

[LorDBulA]

Whats very importent AI also makes less suecidal decisions.

Jebus great campaigne i must say.
Can you post more stats about your Empire?
How much chash you earn, how much your army costs, how much man you have in armies, what about brigants etc...
Or it would be the best if you could just post your save in this thread.
I would really kie to see how big empires works in EB.
We never had a chance to paly that far.

[Jebus]

Whats very importent AI also makes less suecidal decisions.

Jebus great campaigne i must say.
Can you post more stats about your Empire?
How much chash you earn, how much your army costs, how much man you have in armies, what about brigants etc...
Or it would be the best if you could just post your save in this thread.
I would really kie to see how big empires works in EB.
We never had a chance to paly that far.

It would be my absolute pleasure, if you could perhaps direct me towards a site that would host my .sav file. I've tried three so far, and they all said my 'file type is not allowed'...

What I CAN do, though, is post some stats.

I am now at the summer of 170 BC.

Empire:



Faction scroll:



Finanial scroll:



Notice my huge army upkeep. I guess about 100 000 of that is caused by the fact that I am forced to garisson my cities with hastati or mercenaries... Which costs a bundle. I am yearing for the Marian reforms, because then I will apparently be able to produce Vigiles for all my cities, which will most likely cost a lot less to keep the order. It's a shame to have to pay about 500 a turn to garisson a city like Mediolanum, safely tucked away in the middle of my empire. Oh vigiles, how I yearn for thee.

[LorDBulA]

Just .zip the file. Or use any program to pack it.

[Malrubius]

It would be my absolute pleasure, if you could perhaps direct me towards a site that would host my .sav file. I've tried three so far, and they all said my 'file type is not allowed'...

Try zipping it up? Save energy and your sanity!

[Jebus]

After trying four more sites, I finally did it.


The things I do for you people...

[LorDBulA]

Thanks a lot.

[Jebus]

No problem.

Could you perhaps conquer the Seleucids for me, and then send it back?

[Dooz]

Jebus, how come you have to garisson with hastati or mercenaries? Haven't played Rome yet, so just curious, you can't train lower level troops in newly conquered cities? Or is it for public order purposes?

[Jebus]

Jebus, how come you have to garisson with hastati or mercenaries? Haven't played Rome yet, so just curious, you can't train lower level troops in newly conquered cities? Or is it for public order purposes?

Yes, it is for public order purposes. And to avoid that a newly spawned stack of rebels can just walk into your city unopposed.

Also, the auxiliae you can train in conquered territories have more often than not a similar upkeep cost as the hastati. And you can't even train these in certain areas (e.g. the desert), so you're forced to garisson them with mercs untill cheaper garisson forces arrive. And you can't train these untill you have a suffecient surplus to have their upkeep cost added to the mercs cost temporarily, etc. etc.

[Dooz]

Yes, it is for public order purposes. And to avoid that a newly spawned stack of rebels can just walk into your city unopposed.

Also, the auxiliae you can train in conquered territories have more often than not a similar upkeep cost as the hastati. And you can't even train these in certain areas (e.g. the desert), so you're forced to garisson them with mercs untill cheaper garisson forces arrive...

Ah, I see. Thanks.

[Hyperstyle]

Getai campaign, H/M






Some notes:

Macedon got a fullstack army of slingers

Casse got a full stack army but won't attack caledonia.

Just in the last few years armenia and sweboz started to expend greatly.

Rome isnt expanding much because of the large arveni,carthagian and epirote armies swarming around.

[QwertyMIDX]

You have Roraii don't you?

[Jebus]

Who, me?


No, I don't have Rorarii, as the Polybian reforms have already happened.

[jerby]

you're quite the gammer Jebus..wow...
how mcuh time did you spend on this? how many hours a day do you play it?

[Jebus]

I dunno... About three to four hours, I guess. My girlfriend's got examns and I got bornchitis, so it's not like I got that much to do anyway.

Plus, it's fun.

[LorDBulA]

I advice you to not fight bridge battles.
They are so unrealistic and stupid.
I can assure you that it will play much better.
I wonder if you could hold halicarnasos withough exploiting river crossings.

[Jebus]

Heh heh.

It wasn't really about the exploiteable river crossings - IIRC I autocalculated the battle that ensued the next turn anyway, since the attacking army an all-archer army and it would've been a waste of time - but about holding the armies above the river away from Halicarnassos until that fleet transporting reinforcements arrived, and leaving the troops in Halicarnossos facing an army they could defeat by themselves.

It worked - the Ptolemaioi are gone from Asia Minor now.

[King of the dutch]

ok here goes

[img=https://img236.imageshack.us/img236/4193/map258cut6qf.th.png]

Edit: great it worked! Question though. How do i get the image on my post like you guys?

Anway its 256 and as you can see i kicked the Macedonians out of ....macedon. They are in Milete now. Everyone is slowly expanding except for the Sauromatae. I'm a little further on now and Epiros got eliminated. Casse have almost al of Britain. Cartahge is holding in Spain. I'm waiting for the seleucids to get torn up so i can attack 'em too. Romans have just moved into illyria now. Only segesta and Mediolanium are left for them in Italy. Adui and Averni have picked up their swords again. Sweboz is almost in contact with getai now. Armenians do their thang. That is move up the black sea. (i find that interesting and surprising as wel)

Well its exciting. btw, i really have a hard time getting commandstars, in fact none of my generals have any. In fact most of 'em are getting worse and worse despite running around sieging cities and killing and maiming and stuff. And the nightmare trait is a bit harsh for exterminating 1 city. Maybe after 2?

grtz kotd

[Dooz]

KOTD, to make your image visible, just choose a different option of posting from the imageshack site. Thumbnail 1 is a good one if you have a larger image. It'll post a smaller version of it, visible here, then you can click on it to view the full version.

And the nightmare trait seems pretty decent. It only goes to those who are unselfish and other such nice traits I believe, so it makes sense. How many cities and innocent people would a good-hearted man have to demolish before having to feel any guilt?

[CorporateSlave]

Does anyone else feel that the Armenians are a bit more aggressive then they should be? I think this point was raised elsewhere, but jebus' campaign drives home the point. Should they be nerfed? Or the neighbours, such as Sauromatae improved?

[Dooz]

Yeah, that's a point that's been brought up, but it seems that in different campaigns they end up developing differently so it's not a constant thing, as with any other faction. I think that's the way it ought to be, why not? In my campaign Iberia and the Getai were powerhouses and Armenia was still pretty much where they started. I think it's good to have the chances of diversity.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

It's good to have a chance, yeah, but they clearly are more successful in almost every game than Pontos, while Pontos became the faction historically that expanded much more. Either way, it's hard to get these all worked out when our unit lists and unit recruitment still are quite a way from being fixed. We would probably be wise not to fool around too much trying to tweak things like this yet till we get those two problems sorted out better (or we'd have to tweak again once that's done).

[Spendios]

Pontos "may" suffer from not having elite units neither in infantry or in cavalry, Armenia is far better in cavalry (which is historical) but Pontos hasn't "elite" infantry to compensate.

[Wardo]

Hi, here's the AI expansion in my first EB Campaign as the Casse.



I spent the early decades isolated in my home island but after a while I couldn't restrain myself any longer and I had to attack, so I made a viking invasion on reverse and landed in "modern Sweden", expanding from there.

As you can see the great kingdom of the Britons has "liberated" and "allied" with the Scandinavian protectorate which claimed territory from the evil Sweboz as the true, rightfull rulers of the North, and we're now also moving West to free the lands our ancestors left for Britain, I've reached my Pax Britonnica though, to the East my army is battered, weak, small and if the Sweboz mount a large offensive they will gain land, I can't expand to the West right now because of the large masses of Roman armies in the South, I'm struggling against these Romans, their armies are huge and powerfull and they have gained the allegiance of some of the Southern tribes, those traitors, we shall exterminate their settlements if we ever conquer them! That should teach them a lesson! Great campaign, great fun, I can't wait for the next EB build.