0.8x AI Faction Progression

[Teleklos Archelaou]

So, how are the AI factions behaving and expanding in your game? This is something we quite honestly have very little direct control over, but we do have indirect control. Evidence:

-We were having a bad problem with Baktria expanding directly into the steppe to the northwest after we gave them those two new provinces, but by making the road from Baktra go east on the south side of the river instead of the north, and by making Mazsakata and Bin-kath's provinces touch each other above Sogdiane, we have pretty much stopped this, or at least greatly lessened it.

-We've also kept Hayasdan from heading north so much by allowing passages out of the mountains north towards Uspe, but by not allowing roads, and by altering the province boundaries there too.

So, how is the AI behaving in your games? Minimaps with dates are *particulary* welcome here. I'll start you off with mine. (I'd recommend folks make theirs 200% normal size for ease of reading, but 100% is ok if need be):



======================
This is in 255, and I've been playing as the Sweboz.

Highlights:
-I'm really loving how Qarthadastim are expanding. Moving along the Mediterranean seaboard in Iberia is just perfect.
-Baktria is moving slowly, but we also are very happy that they have gone after Kophen first and are moving towards India. They have armies on the road to Taxilia right now, but haven't taken it yet.
-Romans had a tough time with Aedui at first, but have recently defeated them in north Italy. In the south they are sieging Syracuse now with a mixed army and a number of Greek units in tow.
-Koinon Hellenon were destroyed.
-Pontos is moving along very nicely. They haven't been too strong in other games I've played, so this is a nice change. Note that Pontos has taken Byzantion too, as well as Ankyra and Sinope and Trapezous and Nikaia.
-Sabaeans have taken two cities and when Gerrha rebelled from the Seleukids, it rebelled to them. Pretty good overall I'd say. No parthians here!
-Nomads aren't faring well it seems. We've talked about doing something to help them out more, but for now they are pretty weak it seems.
-Seleukids have been too strong for Pontos, Hayasdan, Pahlava, or Baktria to make inroads, but of course the Ptolemies are hard to stop, and they've taken Antiocheia from Seleukos.
-Maks and Epeiros are doing ok, but I doubt Epeiros can survive like that. They have to expand or they get crushed.

[Moros]

In my 0.8 campaign (will post a pic later) the romans started a conquer spree in the north. They have the south of gaul and some provinces in the east of Italy too. Some other factions seem to be kind of sleeping. Lusotanann only recruits a unit every turn and that's it. Same for the casse. The saba have conquered one settlement and are now building up an army as the rebels are damn strong. The Seleukids seem to have the upperhand in the seleukids vs ptolemaioi war. Karthadashtim don't do much but they are so rich. Sauromatae, haven't done to much as they are still to weak to expand. Saka have conquered 2 settlement and are doing it nic and slowly. Baktria has a lot of armies but look like they're going for a verry slow expansion. Pontus has made only one town theirs but face quite strong rebels. Macedon took athens but lost Korinth. Epirus hasn't done much except for conquering dalmatia and trying to fight of the romans. Getae are doing quite well, they have conquered 2 settlements and have build up a full stack to take sarmiszegetusa (spelling). Pahlava haven't done much. I'm Hayasdan and I'm understanding why they wanted to go north, that's what I'm doing as it is to soon for fighting the seluekids. And the rebels in the south are damn strong. So first some settlements in the north untill I have enough power to take those rebel powerhouses and turn my attention to the seleukids.

Edit: forgot the Aedui, Arverni and Sweboz.
Aedui, they are having the upperhand in the arverni aedui war. They conquered one or two rebel settlemetns (not sure) and one arverni. But the Romans are blitzing the rebels and will soon be knocking on some Aedui gates.

Edit2: oh yeah the Sweboz: they are doing good, powerfull armies and are conquering one rebel settlement at a time. They are going to be quite a rival for the blitzing Romans.

[Dram]

how do you make it so you can see everything on the campaign map?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

hit the tilde key (~) and then type toggle_fow

I ran an -ai game as ptolemies last night as I was going to bed. It made it to 221 without crashing. Now, that's not really 221 though, as the scripts don't load on the -ai games, and so there aren't four turns a year, just two.

Anyway, here it is, a little wackier than my first one:


-Unfortunately the romans headed into the one direction there was no other factions: northeast. Very odd there, but you can see the Arverni are pretty strong in southern Gaul, so they are avoiding them. RTW itself is to blame otherwise as the Romans aren't hopping on boats and going anywhere yet. Sicily is still there too though.
-Baktrian expansion is ok, though not as ideal as I'd like it.
-Saka are doing pretty well, but Sarmatians are sitting still.
-KH is still alive just on Rhodes, but Casse are wiped out.
-Bye bye Getai.
-Pontos has taken Byzantion now two games in a row that I've seen.
-Seleukids and Ptolemies aren't monsters, which is nice.

[Moros]

The casse, pahlava, Lusotanann and sauromatae worry me. And saba might need some extra power too.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Well, casse shouldn't really expand. Much. Every so often taking the british isles is what I think we hope for. ANd it just needs some tweaking up there. Casse should be damned hard for the player. Hardest of all probably.

Saba will get better as more units get in. Sorta the same with lusotannan. We'll work on them.

Pahlava is the tough spot. They are encroached all around. We need to weaken the seleukids more maybe somehow. Or give the pahlava more spies in those seleukid towns to compel them to revolt. Something like that.

[Moros]

Yeah, you're right. I hope that the spies work for Pahlava or some other trick.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

What about making the Parthians the founder of most of the eastern seleucid towns? To make it easier for Palav to take and to represent them being more loyal to a Persian-like group rather than a Greek-like group.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

they are. Check the culture/creator/owner maps of that area and you'll see most of those provinces have parthian creators. And indeed, if the Seleukids lose a city to rebellion sometimes it will go parthian, which really helps them. That's what we have to keep working on though, making it awfully hard for Seleukids to maintain those places.

[abou]

My Seleukidos campaign.



I first started playing on H/M, but everything fell apart on me so I restarted on M/M. Their position is much more difficult than in 0.74, but I am glad to see that build times for buildings has been much reduced.

AI hasn't expanded that much, but that may be because it isn't getting the money it would on harder settings. Regardless, Pahlava attacked me as early as 269 BC, which irritated me and it took some very hard-fought battles to take only one of their settlements.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

they are. Check the culture/creator/owner maps of that area and you'll see most of those provinces have parthian creators. And indeed, if the Seleukids lose a city to rebellion sometimes it will go parthian, which really helps them. That's what we have to keep working on though, making it awfully hard for Seleukids to maintain those places.

A couple are, I meant all of them east of Susa.

[CountArach]

My Seleukidos campaign.



I first started playing on H/M, but everything fell apart on me so I restarted on M/M. Their position is much more difficult than in 0.74, but I am glad to see that build times for buildings has been much reduced.

AI hasn't expanded that much, but that may be because it isn't getting the money it would on harder settings. Regardless, Pahlava attacked me as early as 269 BC, which irritated me and it took some very hard-fought battles to take only one of their settlements.

EDIT: Nevermind, didn't read the title...

[Oleo]

Casse campaign 250 BC

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Oleo's Casse: Glad to see saka moving. Pontos too. Looks like Makedonia is doing well in all of these - they will be somewhat reduced in power in the next patch btw. Good to see Lusotannan expanding too. And saba in a cohesive group.

Abou's Seleukid: only seven years in, but look at the casse! Saka getting binkath is good too. And lusotannan is growing. All of that is good. Romans too strong early on it seems. Sweboz looks good. Only thing I'm consistently seeing that is bad is Sarmatian stagnation.

[Constantine the Great]

I'll add a picture and some more info later, but from what I can tell in my Baktria campaign, things are kinda wierd. Haysadan, Pontos, and Pahlava all declared war on Seleukid around 279 BC, but I stayed allied to Seleukid. Saka have taken one settlement and have parked an army close to Alexandreia-Esc-something (can't remember spelling) I've been able to take Kophen, but the town north of Kophen and the towns in the Indus Valley have very strong armies. From what I can tell, Rome chased Epeiros out of Italy very fast, and everyone has been signing ceasefires except Seleukid and their rivals. I'll put up a map pic in a bit.

[Gazius]

If I use toggle_fow, can I turn it off again and have everything go back to normal, or will everything be permanently visible?

[Justiciar]

Just re-type it.

[Gazius]

I was decidely pleased with what I saw when I turned off FoW that I just left the entire picture, not to mention I don't know how to use paint and photoshop hates me today. To see them not only expanding and dominating in greece, but to have launched a invasion of crete is a exciting improvement, at least to me anyhow.

It seems like a lot of factions, Lusotannan and Sabeans took one province, and now just mill around, while surrounded by large rebel stacks. The Getai are so surrounded by them that I think it's the main reason they have done nothing but create a fortress out of their only city. Carthage landed two armies in Italy, and then I ousted them out of Lilibeo easily with a rather cheap seeming bribe, until I was distracted elsewhere and they brought the hammer down on my head. Was quite worried there for a while, especially since I didn't want to give up my current operations in the north and south. Seems rather tame for the stage of the game. I'll post more as I go along. Also note, I'm playing M/M so maybe that has something to do with it.

[Oleo]

20 years later: 230BC:

Although they fight a lot, Carthage and Ptolemies arent really progressing. Macedon however is well insane is the word I guess. Rome allies with Macedon, Epeiros protectorate of Rome.



By the way 5 years later, Sauromatae decimated, all sweboz towns captured, although some are revolting and again, so sweboz is still alive.

My single belgian province is almost bordering Macedon

[Casuir]

Casse on H/H 250bc Gave myself a cash injection at the start btw, dont like slow starts. Wouldnt be anywhere without Barae though, mans practically a god at this stage.

Only town I captured that actually produced any units was Attuaca, rest all had the units they started with, Ivernis for example was only defended by two ordmhornaghta. Noticed as well some of the rebel cities on the continent are churning out lugoae every turn while others dont produce anything, some large stacks roaming around composed solely of them. Even the romans seem to favour them for whatever reason, have large groups of them with a few triari fighting their aedui kin.

In the east seleucid is at war with everyone around it, who seem to be all allied to each other. Saka are a protectorate of Bactria, doesnt really like they're up to much, two towns and about 250 horsemen to their name. Same with the Sauromatae, small armies and hemmed in by cities with huge rebel garrisons, doesnt look like they're going to get anywhere fast. Saba's got some extra provinces by rebellion by the looks of it, doesnt look like they're at much in their home provinces though.

Europes a bit more lively, Aedui getting hammered by the Romans and Averni, Casse are about to jump on their backs. Makedonias been banished to a couple of islands, Getai and Epiros expanding northwards, though the romans seem to be curbing the epirotes a bit. Sweboz not doing a whole pile, some devastation around one of the neighbouring rebel cities though.

Btw noticed a couple of things, dont seem to be able to recruit mala gaeroas or archers, had a gawk at the edb and see theres 3 seperate barrack threads. There 3 seperate reforms for celts? If so whats the conditions for them? Also seems to be a major pirate problem around the british isles, this intentional?

Top work btw, enjoying it far more than .7s

[Constantine the Great]

Look at Baktria go! And they still haven't taking that one rebel town that I'm stuck on!

Edit: Referring to Oleo's game.

[Moros]

About the gallic reforms it's in the FAQ.

[Bava]

Bactrian Campaign, 250 BCE, H\H with BI-exe.



One of the best campaigns i ever had(surely the most immersive one), seleukids are really strong, had a nice fight for alexandria-something (city under Bactra) for 5 years.

The most amazing thing is that Koinon Hellenon managed to send a full stack to Hallikarnassos and conquer it.

Edit: OMG!!! Had a look at the posts above, i´m doing worse than the AI Bactria in Casuir´s campaign! Grmmpf....

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Wow, that's nice parthian, saka, and sarmatian expansion in your campaign BB. Plus Casse took a province, and lusotannan a couple more.

Holy crap, the romans sent ships with troops and took corsica and sardinia!

A cohesive sabaean empire too. Static Ptolemies. That's a great map!

[paullus]

Edit: OMG!!! Had a look at the posts above, i´m doing worse than the AI Bactria in Casuir´s campaign! Grmmpf....

Its good to see some Getic expansion in these. And that's the best Saba expansion I've seen in just 22 years. could running off bi be helping?

[Bava]

Holy crap, the romans sent ships with troops and took corsica and sardinia!

Well, Qart Hadasht sent the faction heir + a full stack to reconquer it.
poor romans...


But i´m quite used to the Battle Of Sardinia ( i´m a RTRPE convert), the fact that KH took Hallikarnasos was the real surprise to me.

Will give you guys an update tomorrow.


***off to kick some seleukid butt***

[Constantine the Great]

I'd post my map if I could figure out how...

[abou]

Continuing my campaign. I did a full-screen shot so you could see what Casse was up to, TA. They are definitely on the move and doing much better than some factions with easier starting positions - Makedonia for example.

Speaking of which, I may have to go to war with Pontos to secure Anatolia for a solid base of attack into Hellas. Politically, intervention would be necessary to prevent the homeland from falling into the hands of improper successors.

[Bava]

I'd post my map if I could figure out how...

I´m using Fraps and Gimp2. Download both and run fraps together with RTW then press ~, type toggle_fow, press enter, take a screen shot (default key is F10) and edit it with Gimp (cut out the campaign map overview and resize it to 200%), upload it (imageshack is quite good). Voilá!

Hope that helps!

[Casuir]

Or you could just press printscreen and alt tab to your prefered graphics prog and paste new image.


240 BC, not a whole of movement, kept my own to a minimum.

Saka, Sauromatae, Sweboz, Saba, Makedonia and Hayasadan are all stagnant. Worst is Sauromatae who seem to have severe financial difficulties, their financial rating is a flat line from the start and their 3 cities are generating negative income. Military ranking is a slow climb so I'm guessing they have money problems from the start.

Hayasadan seem to have probs getting going as well.

Saba do quite well financially by the looks of things, though a rebellion in Kush brought 17 Ethiopian axemen guys into their camp who at 400 each per turn quickly drained their coffers. Dont seem to make any shapes at the neighbouring provinces.

On Naval stuff Cartage had large stacks on the Balearics and Corsica/Sardinia which it moved to spain and sicily respectively, also shipping stacks from North Africa this turn by the looks of it. North Sea is absolutly littered with pirates, counted at least 10 fleets, all with multiple ships. Given the prohibitive costs of navys you might want to tone this down.

Rebel AI seems to be ok, twice I've had cities laid seige to by spawned rebels and lost Ivernis to a band of goidils who assaulted it before I could get reinforcements there. Langers.

About the gallic reforms it's in the FAQ.

It says Aedui/Averni get them at 251bc, I'm at Casse at 240 bc without seeing them which is why I asked. N/m though I looked in the script and they dont happen for anyone till much later.