Introduction
After the failure of my first attempt at this game due to the same bug that killed my Roman game, I'm going to try once more. There's a few things I've learned, both in terms of behaviours in the game, historicity and some technical points too.
This is a M/M game with rtw.exe. I know BI.exe is more stable, but I just don't have the patience to deal with the stupid naval invasions you get. I won't be using an optimised script, instead I'm going to excise everything on client rulers entirely, since it's the source of most of the bugs I keep getting. It's not without a great deal of regret, because I think they're one of the coolest things about EB and a really clever idea.
House Rules
I'm going to attempt to be a bit more hands-off about the AI behaviour, but at the same time I still don't want any faction dying off early, and I'll still make use of Force Diplomacy and move_character when I think it necessary.
At the start of the game I'm going to move my armies to Pergamon, and take the city. Once that's done I'll use process_cq to speed up construction a type IV government, top-tier regional barracks, then destroy the government and replace with a type II. I'll also build up the walls and mines in a similar way. That done I'll move my capital, destroy all the buildings in my original settlements and let them go rebel. I'll also exact peace settlements with payments out of all the people I'm at war with (without using FD, though).
All told that cash will be the nest egg representing the silver Philetairos had control of that allowed Pergamon to flourish. Unlike before, I won't be automatically expanding to take Nikaia and Byzantion as "starting settlements" - I'll just start with Pergamon itself. Then I've got to move from there fair and square.
My aim will be relatively slow expansion, taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves and trying to avoid the wrath of the larger powers. Slow doesn't mean glacial, though, Pergamon was historically a pretty aggressive power. That was how you survived in that environment.
I'll also keep to the borders of the Thracian Kingdom as my upper limit of where I can go, along with Greek colonies (places like Chersonesos, Kyrene, Syrakousai, Massalia). My aim is to create a new Pan-Hellenic Empire eventually, though I won't be engaging in a conquest of the Greek mainland.
Armies
Pergamon used a lot of mercenaries and foreigners in their armies, I'm going to do the same. Mostly because I don't like a lot of the Hellenic roster anyway, but also because there are some very good regional and merc troops.
Core of my line will be Celto-Hellenic hoplites, representing Galatians settled in Mysia and trained in the Greek manner. They're part of a "revolution" in military tactics in my game away from the more regular Successor pike-based armies. They'll be flanked by Theurophoroi, and them in turn by two different units of regional infantry.
Skirmishers will be slingers, archers and peltastai. I'll also use lots of regional cavalry, the hammer to my infantry anvil. Generals will be active participants in battles, playing the role Alexander used to.
I'll "swap" my starting army for one that's more appropriate, disbanding the original units and using create_unit to replace them with new ones.
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