1.x AI Faction Progression Thread

[SwissBarbar]

I have started playing EB again, and to get the feeling, I started a Makedonian campaign. I expand quite slowly, I don't want to blitz anyone and I role play a lot. It's 240 BC.

Makedonia (me)
Only ally is AS, which is allied to Makedonia since the game started. I conquered all of Greece and left the KH on Rhodos and Halikarnassos alone. And I wiped out Epeiros from their Homeland. When the KH started to attack Athenai from time to time, I decided to conquer Rhodos, so they cannot build great ships, and thereby cannot send armies to Athenai anymore. Krete, Mytilene and Pergamon are allied Kingdoms, at the moment there is a war going on against the Ptolemaioi, who attacked first. The Getai were allies, but they broke the alliance when the Ptolies attacked me (they are also their allies). But they have never attacked me, and I won't attack them as long as this stays as it is.


Epeiros
I LOVE Epeiros in this game. They had nothing left, except Taras, and it was besieged by Rome. Every turn I waited for the signal, that this faction has been destroyed, but it didn't appear. So I've sent spies and found out, that Epeiros managed to conquer Rhegion. Short after that, they took Capua and Roma as well. At the moment they are as strong as the Romans, and they besiege each other all the time. Let's see who can gain the upper hand at the end.

Romani
The thought it would be easy to defeat Epeiros. The Romani were in possesion of:
Roma, Capua, Arpi, Arminium, Arretium, Bononia, Segesta, Massalia and Tolosa when the war against Epeiros started. Now they have lost many settlements to the Celts and Epeiros.

Ptolemaioi
Most advanced faction, mighty empire and enemy of Makedonia

Seleukids
Have been crushed by the Ptolemies and Pontos first, then by Pahlava.

Pontos
Conquered a great part of Anatolia and even Byzantion, but then attacked Makedonia and lost Byzantion in the war against them. Now they have peace with Makedonia but are still at war with AS and also the Ptolies.

Pahlava, Baktria, Saka, Sauro
I used toggle_fow for the first time, to show you the cool Epeiros-Story, and was extremely surprised by the eastern factions What a great AI-Expansion! The Makedonians will be very much surprised, when the Pahlava appear in Anatolia (I think they could manage the Ptolies, because they will suffer from many casualties against Makedonia. This will be very expensive for them, so it will be easier for Pahlava.



Notice: I've never given money to any faction.

[IrishHitman]

Wow, you can conquer the Parthian Empire now...

[SwissBarbar]

Yeah, how cool is that

[IrishHitman]

Yeah, how cool is that

Are the Parthians and the Ptollies at war yet?

[SwissBarbar]

Nope...not yet ;-)

But they alternate in attacking Seleukeia and Babylon. (I have a Spy there). It's a matter of time..

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Simply amazing AI expansion! Onward, father Makedonia! Onward, brother Epeiros!

[Lovejoy]

Another big pic, sorry! ;P Its too bothersome to crop, besides; some pretty cool developments can be seen:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Amaze at the awesome army of Makedonia! They are moving all their forces into Asia-minor to confront the Pontic-devils. Lets hope they don't get any patriotic ideas moving throw their old home lands. They have left all of southern Greece undefended, luckily for them I am too deep into the iberian conflict to siege the opportunity. Besides; we are allies. I am the loyal type.

ALX.exe/CityMod/212BC/Roma/I yet haven't done anything to control the AI-expansion. If Ptolemoi gets too big, I probably will.

[Lysandros]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I know it's a bit hard to follow, but here are mini-maps from 237 BC to 200 BC of my game as quite a passive player (Arche Seleukeia). I made some minor changes to the game, but mainly I just removed the Central European Defense script and the government damage part of the script - which now causes the AI to be no longer blockaded by damaged government buildings which it tries to repair, resulting in a continuous use of the cities by the conquering faction. The government placement part of the script is still intact, of course.
I was surprised how factions now rise and fall - anyway, the first faction that failed were the Aedui around 205 BC.

[retep219]

I'm Getai in this campaign...265 B.C.

Yes, I know I blitzed. Increased movement a bit, I admit, I just can't handle slow games. So my own expansion is a bit cheap...

Anyways...AI expansion has been very interesting...as you can see, the Sauromatae have expanded across the entire steppe, I expect them to be fighting the Sweboz within ten turns! The Aedui are also massive; in addition to the fact that they control all of Gaul, northern Italy, and Vellika, they are also sieging a couple of Alpine cities with forgettable names and Emporion, and have the Arveni vassalized. Carthage also looks like it is going through decent expansion in North Africa, but the Romans have started up the Punic Wars in Sicily by laying siege to Messana.

On the rest of the world: Hayasdan and Sweboz have decent expansion, but are of course dwarfed by the Sauromatae. The Konion Hellion are confined to Rhodes, my attempts to teleport their armies from Rhodes/Crete to Lydia all failed miserably (they insisted on trying to walk back to Athens...) so I gave them up as a lost cause. Makedon is destroyed. No other factions seem to be doing especially well....

On my own campaigns: I started out by defeating all the rebels in the surrounding area, which wasn't that hard. Makedon declared war on me, I quickly defeated their field armies and won a few heroic victories while waiting for reinforcements to arrive from the Crimea. With a reinforced army and a consistent stream of units from Buridava and Sarmiszgethusa, I pounded Makedon into the dust. KH backstabbed me, I defeated them too, they did not have much of an army. Epeiros was even easier, their forces were very scattered. However, I noted that the AI behaved in a smarter manner than usual--when it became obvious that the war in Greece was lost, it loaded Phyrros and a good half-stack into a ship and sailed for Taras, where Phyrros won several auto-resolved siege assualts against various Roman captains thanks to his ten stars, ensuring the survival of the faction...as a Roman vassal. After Hellas fell, I invaded Anatolia, kicked Selekeia out of the peninsula, was backstabbed by my Ptolemaioi allies, took Side, and then captured Antioch/Damaskos, burned everything to the ground, and traded them with Seleukeia for peace and Mazaka. Arche Seleukeia is now severely weakened, leaving the Ptolemaioi with an opportunity...

As long as they have a nice war, I'll be happy...

[Jebivjetar]

Pahlava, 201BC

[the man with no name]

I'm Getai in this campaign...265 B.C.

Yes, I know I blitzed.

Is even that possible? All that in 7 years? 25 ******* seasons?

Pahlava, 201BC

Nice carthage expansion, white death? Getai look like a mini iberia and the romans are over 9000...
miles apart

[retep219]

Is even that possible? All that in 7 years? 25 ******* seasons?

Oops, I forgot to mention the modded increased movement. Edited the orginal post. Talk about a dumb mistake, lol. But other than that, no cheating at all.

Even the increased movement isn't THAT bad, it does make the AI build empires faster...look at the Aedui or Sauromatae.

Pahlava, 201BC

Nice game! I like Carthage...and especially the Romani, lol. Where the Aedui ever powerful? Judging by the spread of their remaining provinces, they once occupied a considerable area. Epeiros and Sweboz expansions, although large, are more regular, if I recall correctly?

[Jebivjetar]

Nice game! I like Carthage...and especially the Romani, lol. Where the Aedui ever powerful? Judging by the spread of their remaining provinces, they once occupied a considerable area. Epeiros and Sweboz expansions, although large, are more regular, if I recall correctly?

Yeah, Carthage rocks! They were extremely passive for the first 20years or so; i play with toggle_fow and i haven't see their armies at all (only the little ones)...and then, in one turn, fullstacks came out of nowhere (then i realised they were in ambush untill then) and in few years Italy was occupied with Carthaginian fullstacks, taking city after city, and now they ead Aedui.

Aedui were going pretty well: they beat Arverni and made them protectorate. Then the Romans came and almost destoyed them (they destroyed Arverni), but Carthies did their job in Italy so Aedui recaptured some cities.

Nice carthage expansion, white death? Getai look like a mini iberia and the romans are over 9000...
miles apart

Yeah, they remind me of 2 blood drops

[the man with no name]

Oops, I forgot to mention the modded increased movement. Edited the orginal post. Talk about a dumb mistake, lol. But other than that, no cheating at all.

Even the increased movement isn't THAT bad, it does make the AI build empires faster...look at the Aedui or Sauromatae.

Thhat makes more sense.

Yeah, they remind me of 2 blood drops

lol But still it's pretty amazing they got that far apart. I guess the carthies went really bad.

[Olaf The Great]

lol But still it's pretty amazing they got that far apart. I guess the carthies went really bad.

I could be wrong but it looks like the Romans conquered big pieces of gaul and Boii lands but were drained from war, so Carthage, which was allied with Aedui swept in and smashed them.

[Jebivjetar]

Pahlava, 192BC



My empire expanding even further. My allies, Hayasdan and Pontos, are attacking the remains of collapsed Seleucid empire in Asia Minor (Hayasdan is sending fullstacks through Pontos lands trying to take Nikaia. I was surprised because Hayasdan is not attacking me although we share borders, but instead they (Hayasdan) try to capture cities from AS which are far away from their homeland. I appreciate that so i give them tons of money.

Furthermore:

Romans:were almost destroyed, now they are beating Aedui.
Carthage: was holding entire Italy, but Epeirotes are invading from the north, and Italy will soon be Helenic. Carthaginian fullstacks are just standing in Africa, traveling nowhere. I wonder where will they strike next.
KH: Declared war on Ptolies and they took two provinces in Asia Minor. Right now they are attacking Cyprus via sea.
Saka Rauka: i love to fight against them (two catatanks armies clash is hell of a fun)
Saba: i wipe them out while they try to take Damaskos and Gerrha from me. Those poor fellows just ain't have answer for my mighty, victorious and unbeatable parthian-hellenic armies with horse archers reinforcements.
Lousitanna: doing good: expanding into Gaul.
Casse: they just sleep, man
Sweboz: fighting eleutheroi armies mostly
Ptolies: doing nothing, they sleep too. I plan to invade them in the future.


EDIT: sory for my bad english; but i'm a warroir, not linguist

[IrishHitman]

Romani Campaign
233 BCE

Military Fronts (Current and Planned):
Greek Front:
My conquest of the Kingdom of Makedonia is now complete, after the war started in 249 BCE.
It was a long struggle. The Maks could do little about it though. My expansion east will end there, for now. Cnaeus Macedonicus has to return to Rome for his triumph, and I want to keep the status quo in Thrace, it'll keep the Getai, Epirotes and Macedonian exiles busy with each other. My occupation army has arrived and is camped outside Pella. An invasion force from Euboea has Athens under siege, but the city's defenders will slaughter them, so I'm not even bothered to send a relief force.
The Epirotes currently hold Byzantium, part of Illyria and part of Thrace. My alliance-of-convenience with them has outlasted its usefulness, and I may send an expedition to crush them as soon as they start fighting the Getai.

Southern Front:
Carthage has been kicked out of Iberia entirely, leaving Carthage to stew, with the only real option being attacking the Ptollies or the AS in Cyrene (Yes, that is the Arche you see between the Ptollies and Carthage). I am debating whether to seize the key cities of Carthage or conquer Gaul instead.

Northern Front:
Central Gaul is a Somme of a battle.
I have a spy directly where the Aedui, Arverni and Sweboz borders meet, and the carnage is immense.
I was allied to the Arverni, but changed to the Aedui when the Arverni put an army too close to Italy.
Those German hordes are likely to win though, as Lusotannii armies march north. Looks like the Arverni and Aedui will be defeated because the Lusos came from the rear, not because of German aggression.

Other stuff:
The East:
As you can see, the development of the AI has been very interesting indeed.
The Ptollies have conquered deep into Seleucid territory, but cannot sustain that for very long (in my opinion). Pontus is cracking serious heads in Asia Minor, they'll take much of the area soon, as the AS weakens. The Maks in Pergamon have basically just sat there. Further east, we have the Hai, who have been pretty passive if you ask me. They seem unwilling to face the steppe hordes or the AS.
Into Persia, and we see revolt. An independent state on the Persian Gulf Coast. My spies haven't reached that far yet, so I can't see if the AS are doing anything about it.

At the edge of the world, we have the Pahlava making devastating progress.
We also have a strong hint of Bactria kicking some ass, if you take notice of the tiny spec of dark blue on the map, east of the eastern most AS provinces along the Indian Ocean.

[Jebivjetar]

Pahlava, 182BC

[retep219]

Pahlava, 182BC

Massive Epreiros. Carthage is falling apart....

Lusotana is growing. Judging from patterns I've seen in previous games, it will explode across current Romani and Aedui lands soon, then start a massive war with Sweboz and Epeiros. Who knows who will win? Getai look fairly dormant--Sauromatae would swallow them up if Getai stacks weren't favored so much by the autoresolve. Epeiros might attack Getai, I suppose--what is their relation?

Anyways, great game so far! I don't know how you can resist blitzing the world, lol.

[Jebivjetar]

Massive Epreiros. Carthage is falling apart....

Lusotana is growing. Judging from patterns I've seen in previous games, it will explode across current Romani and Aedui lands soon, then start a massive war with Sweboz and Epeiros. Who knows who will win? Getai look fairly dormant--Sauromatae would swallow them up if Getai stacks weren't favored so much by the autoresolve. Epeiros might attack Getai, I suppose--what is their relation?

Anyways, great game so far! I don't know how you can resist blitzing the world, lol.

Well, Carthage conquered entire Italy and was pushed back by Epeirotes. Now they (Carthaginians) are sending their fresh new fullstacks and it's a matter of year when they will regain peninsula. Another wave of 4-5 Carthaginian fullstacks is approaching Kyrene and i think that Ptolies will suffer very soon now.
Epeirotes finally managed to conquer 2 heavy defended eleutheroi settlements (the ones with endless respawning armies: Dianzes, Satres and company) and i think Sweboz will attack them pretty soon. Getai are Epeirotes protectorate about 50 years now, and they are doing absolutely- nothing

Yeah, i was blitzing at the start (i had to do that just to survive for first 20 years or so: i blitzed until i reached Seleukeia and Babylon) and after that conquest when i finally get some money income i started to build my economy and settlements, and fighting only if necessary. Now i'm in defense mostly because i expand slowly. India is my primary object for subjugation. Anyway i plan to destroy ( annihilate, wipe outta of existence) those Sabeans because they are boring and trying to take some of my hardly earned settlements with their crappy armies...

[IrishHitman]

Those elite African phalanxes need a change to somewhere between levy and pezhetairoi level...

[Jebivjetar]

Pahlava, 172BC

[Moosemanmoo]

Looks like the Epirotes are set to dominate europe

[Skullheadhq]

Looks like Sweboz is busy doing a WWII

[Moosemanmoo]

Operation Barbarossa here we go!

[DaciaJC]

Looks like there are a lot of colors in places where they shouldn't be.

[Mr Polska]

And the Casse STILL haven't done anything.

[Hax]

Hehe.

Warning - Big picture

Epeiros, 230 BC:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[IrishHitman]

Hehe.

Warning - Big picture

Epeiros, 230 BC:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hurry up and beat someone other than the Maks
You seem to have a taste for destroying the independents...

[WarpGhost]

Pontus, 236BC

This is probably the most successful I've ever seen Carthage (who had 2 Italian holdings until fairly recently), Greece (who annoyingly managed to swipe the last Seludic holding in Asia Minor to deny me Anatolian hegemony) and Rome.
The Selucids were also at their strongest I've seen, they did a good job of holding up the Ptolemy for a long time and even beginning to nibble away at them. Its taken me a long time to wear them down (they still keep surprising me with full stacks; they also have 2 poised to take India which would really help them but the AI just wont move them in to take those cities, leaving them dithering for many years instead), but through a war of attrition and multiple axes of attack I've finally wrested all the territory I've needed from them (I've forced peace out of sheer boredom of fighting Hellenic warfare styles!). The knock-on effect has been to give the Ptolemy the opening they needed and they've cashed in on the Selucid's preoccupation with me to move in; the map doesnt do Selucid resistance the justice it's required, they've really put up a hell of a fight.
Current plan is (with Ptolemy and Greece my long-term allies, those borders are pretty secure) to sweep round the Black Sea anti-clockwise through Armenia, to Sarmatians, to Getai, to Greece, and then carry on down onto the Ptolemy.

Saba, 244BC

This is probably the most interesting AI progression I've ever seen! Dont be fooled by the date; the AI moved swiftly early on and we're undergoing a more sedate period now. Firstly, this is the only time I've seen Macedon do more than barely survive, let alone actually prosper! They've just taken back their old capital and one of Epiros' Asia Minor acquisitions, though time will tell if they can handle Epiros and Pontus whilst finishing off the last Greeks. The Epiros were very rapid movers early, though as I've said Macedon have started to push them back.
Sweboz have moved in strongly, taking territory from both Gaullish tribes. Before I've never seen them expand this far west, if they've expanded its mainly been into Euletharoi lands. The Selucids have been at their weakest ever, with Ptolemy moving in with shocking speed and success. Parthia and Pontus have also made far more inroads than I've previously known (usually the latter dies or is bottled up for the entire game, similarly with Armenia).
Sadly Carthage and the Gauls have been a bit of a dissapointment, but I think there's been more back-and-forth between Saka and Bactria than the map shows. Im currently moving up into the underbelly of Ptolemy Africa and also making designs on India, rather than taking anyone on head-on.

@Lysandros: Where and how have you edited the government destruction script? That sounds like quite a useful move.