Experience of the Various Factions.

[PershsNhpios]

We have seen many a, 'favourite faction', thread, and favourite unit opinions also - however within these - there are very brief opinions and often poor reasoning.
Although they are fun and community-orientated.

And so, I make this thread, asking members to quote which Factions they have played the most with - their advantages - and their disadvantages.
How far they played with those different factions, and which pleased them the most.

For myself, I will comment first on the Arverni, and later Epeiros or the Getai.

(This is in the theme of the Faction Walkthroughs seen elsewhere.)

The Arverni

My current faction.
At first, some time ago on EB 1.0, I attempted an Aedui campaign.
I found the initial position of both tribes to be quite devastating in economic means, and quickly abandoned it - as I try my hardest not to cheat in all campaigns.

Then, recently I thought I would attempt the same situation from a lighter coloured side.
I found the Arverni slightly more desirable in both the positions of their starting towns, and the marginal superiority in troop strength.
The three Arverni towns are closer, the Aeduan Mediolanum being for the most part - an economic drain for the AI.

With my Gallic troops I found I could create one and a half good stacks, and already having discovered that I must attack the Aedui immediately, or face devastating deficit, I sent my army across the Saone at once, and besieged Bibracte.

There were three major battles with the Aedui, each was a nail in their apparently triangular coffin.
The first at Bibracte, the second in the plains in front of Avaricum, the third in the western passes of the Alps.
They were subdued before the winter of 271.

So this does not become an AAR, I will now explain the strategic neccessities I found with the Arverni, rather than to dwell on my personal campaigns.

Needless to say, the Arverni cannot exist, once having supremacy of Gaul - in sublime happiness with the Romans, the Lusotanann or the Sweboz.

The first will always now require the possession of Massalia, and always attempt to create the province of Narbonensis.

The second must, by restriction of the AI's tactical ability, absorb Iberia, and then pass northward through the Pyrenees for further military prowess.

The third, may at times decide against crossing into the territory of the Belgae - if it can conquer the Boii and Noricum - however the Sweboz have always several great armies by the time they are prepared to leave Germanica, and are therefore always a great risk.

I consider it best then, without damaging the player's personal strategy, (Whether he wish to conquer Britain, or leave Europe to it's own devices and from Gaul conquer Africa),
that the player should invade and exile the Romans from Italy, and with total control of the peninsula - place a small army on the southernmost part, and build Patavium as a fortress, with a larger army there.
Then the player should create a fort on the western end of the Pyrenees, and either build Emporion as a fortress, or create fortifications blocking the eastern pass.

The garrisons here would never have to be of great strength - and some players would prefer to conquer Iberia anyway.
I usually have set goals - estranged from historical belief - and therefore keep many factions like zoological studies, locked in their own assigned areas by military force.

As for the Rhine, the strength of the Sweboz may indeed neccessitate their demise - but otherwise the great river may be used as a fortress in itself at a further military expense.

Thus would one maintain a Gallic kingdom in the Celtic homelands and in Italy with little chance of being successfully assailed.
With the possible exception of a Catuvellauni invasion.

From here, there are many options for expansion - limited only by the power of the players navy.
I advise players to, 'think outside the box', and attempt wild colonisation attempts, such as attempting a Celtic possession of the Caucasus.

These often lead to very difficult battles, even on M/M, because of the huge gap between cultures.

But this freedom of conquering, once one has gained the right to make choices as I have shown, is what makes the game enjoyable for me.

[eggthief]

There's an AAR section u know. No offence or anything, but while u are writing your most exciting experience, I would recommend to expand it a bit and place it next to the others.

[Digby Tatham Warter]

Here's a few 'mi old sausage' based on V1.0 experiences.

Macedon,
Easy to play- lots of money after econemy gets going, excellent all round troops(elite cav, pikes, flank support inf).
Ideal central position for spring boarding from.

Dispand excess troops, take out the Greeks then Phyros, dispand more troops, and build up on the money side of things, concentrating on Pella and Athens, build up the barracks, then the world is your oyster my son.

The Seleukids,
Semi-easy, abit epic from the start with all those cities, some of the ones in the East tend to get a bit miserable and want to rebel.

East meets west culture, the best combined armies in the game(only missing heavy horse archers, which I recruit above Armenia with a type4 gov).
Needs a careful balance of troops V's building up money making cities at the begining(get rid of expensive cav from the start).

A whole mix of potential enemies all seem to want a bite.
Attack the Ptolmies(spelling) as hard and fast as you can from the start.

[Hax]

The Seleukids,
Semi-easy, abit epic from the start with all those cities, some of the ones in the East tend to get a bit miserable and want to rebel.

East meets west culture, the best combined armies in the game(only missing heavy horse archers, which I recruit above Armenia with a type4 gov).
Needs a careful balance of troops V's building up money making cities at the begining(get rid of expensive cav from the start).

A whole mix of potential enemies all seem to want a bite.
Attack the Ptolmies(spelling) as hard and fast as you can from the start.

I advise against the last. What I did was take the Levant and their holdings in Asia Minor, gifted Hierosolyma to Kart-Hadast or Saba and make peace with them (if necessary with Force Diplomacy).

Then, focus on rooting out the Pahlava steppe-riders. It can either be bad, very bad, or terrible.

Bad: They have taken Asaak
Very Bad: They have taken Asaak and Antiocheia-Margiana
Terrible: They have taken Asaak, Antiocheia-Margiana and Zadrakata.

Your provinces in the east must not be underestimated, as they are very rich in resources, so do focus on recapturing those cities and kicking the Pahlava back to their steppes.

Finally, Baktria. They just betrayed in my game (259 BC) and have a considerable empire.

Baktria can be a very annoying place, and taking units everywhere can take a lot of time, as you can have no ships to transport them. As soon as Baktria betrays you, try to take Baktra and Kophen (if they have taken the last). This will completely unbalance their economy. As soon as you've done this, you are at least around the year of 230 BC.

I really advise on not killing the Ptolemaioi asap, for that will make it a bit of a boring game. ;)

[Subedei]

Baktria: Played em 3 times [2x EB, in 0.74 and 0.81, 1x RTR Platinum]

- very good mix of troops, with a lot of blingbling later on (elephants, phalanx-that can compete with every other Greek nation)
- lots of possibilities to expand (I always try to keep in peace with the sons of the steppe, aka. Parthia & Saka).

So I usually try to get ahold of India...which boosts the economy a bit. Then I try to build up the economy & pray the Seleucs do not attack me. Afterwards I attack the Grey Death from the South and try to find a way to the Mediterranian. :juggle2:

[Digby Tatham Warter]

I really advise on not killing the Ptolemaioi asap, for that will make it a bit of a boring game. ;)
Well were all different, and I never use force diplomacy, but from my own experiences not taking out Ptolemaioi asap makes for a boring game, if you have other plans, ie going west, or just building in peace, because I'm not convinced the Seleukids get much of it.

I say this because Ptolemaioi never left me alone in a long dragged out war, when money is in short supply for building up your top level barracks, and the wealthy infrastructure needed to support the puppies coming out of said top tier barracks(and the fleets needed to run the pirate gauntlet around Greece).

As a compremise, taking the first two cities below Damascus(EB name?) what I presume you call the levant ? sure helps with the peace and drags out the war with them for as long as you like.

And whilst on the subject of peace, I've found that if the Seleukids keep their cities bordering Parthia, well garisoned(cheap pikes and cheap archers) that the 2 peoples can live in peace quite well.

[KhaziOfKalabara]

Macedon,
Easy to play- lots of money after econemy gets going, excellent all round troops(elite cav, pikes, flank support inf).
Ideal central position for spring boarding from.

Dispand excess troops, take out the Greeks then Phyros, dispand more troops, and build up on the money side of things, concentrating on Pella and Athens, build up the barracks, then the world is your oyster my son.


No need to disband troops - use them all to attack the KH in Athenai and Sparte, and defend the coasts from naval reinforcements (if you're using BI), as well as defending Pella from the Epeirotai. If anything you need to raise more troops with your starting money, considering you're at war on all fronts; the additional revenues from captured cities can bring you out of the red within a year.

[Xurr]

Baktria: Played em 3 times [2x EB, in 0.74 and 0.81, 1x RTR Platinum]

- very good mix of troops, with a lot of blingbling later on (elephants, phalanx-that can compete with every other Greek nation)
- lots of possibilities to expand (I always try to keep in peace with the sons of the steppe, aka. Parthia & Saka).

So I usually try to get ahold of India...which boosts the economy a bit. Then I try to build up the economy & pray the Seleucs do not attack me. Afterwards I attack the Grey Death from the South and try to find a way to the Mediterranian. :juggle2:


In 1.1 its a bit of a rough start for Baktria. You start with a single province and any time you move an army out of it your neighbors seem all to willing to attack. Use a lot of cheap units and auto resolve battles to take the Indian provinces. Each has 2 units of elephants so you will probably lose a couple of times. Your main stack with the phalanx and Cataphracts is best used to fend off the selecuids who will be sending stack after stack at you.

Don't bother with trying to keep the peace with the Grey death, they will just attack in the next couple of turns anyway.

[Cartaphilus]

I've started playing the romans, and later the greek factions, but lately, bored of fighting with/against falanxes I've played de Sweboz, the Casse and, now, the Arverni.

I consider the Casse's campaign very easy. You can wait till you have enough money to expand your realm through the islands, and after unity is granted, you will land in Galia to conquer it without much trouble. The Arverni and the Aedui will not be a threat. It was very easy to me to fulfil the victory conditions.

With the Sweboz the game is similar, you have time enough to build a core for a future empire, and live untroubled by your neighbours. Then you will expand through the Rhine, the Alps and the Donau. I've abandoned the campaign bored when I had almost win the game again.

Now I find far more interesting the Arverni campaign, that I'm now playing. My progression was similar of yours, Glenn. But I forgive the Aedui, leaving Mediolanum untouched for many years - until I've started the conquer of Italy.
For years, I've have my borders in the Rhine at North, with a strong garrison in Bagacos to prevent german attacks; and in the Pyrenees at south.

But when I took Massalia the romans made war on me, and they forced me to sack Rome and the italian cities in a large and long war. Now the romans hold only Reghion and Messana in Italia, and two provinces in Iliria (circa 210 BC). But I don't want to exterminate them all for now.

I've decided to conquer the British Islands before the Casse united them, I've sent an army that landed in Ireland and start progressing conquering the last rebel settlement. Soon the Casse decided to attack me, and now are being anihilated, in a few years more they will be totally destroyed.

Now I'm in war with the germans too, but my reformed gallic army proved too much for them, and I've took tree german border towns, and destroyed their major armies.

My only and actual threat are the carthaginian in Hispania, they have reduced the Lusitanian to Gallaecia, and they attacked my two most southern settelments. I've beaten them hard and took Numantia, but they are now counterattacking me and putting siege with strong armies on Emporion and Numantia. That will be a great war, I hope.

But for now I'm tired to mantain four wars at the same time, the AI never surrenders, and force you to exterminate an entire faction to achieve some time of peace. In my campaign I've used the river fords and the bridges to stop the enemy armies, but the AI have continued his suicide attacks defeat after defeat.

The solduros, arjos and neitos are great units and can beat any enemy without problems. Mixing them with archers and lesser troops and some cavalry (the general and another unit) is enough to destroy any army.


...................

Edited: Does the "force diplomacy cheat" actually work? How, please. I'm tired of these boring unending wars.

[Midnj]

The game is a lot more fun with house rules when you play major factions.

[Korlon]

Edited: Does the "force diplomacy cheat" actually work? How, please. I'm tired of these boring unending wars.

It does... somewhat. Even though it can force a ceasefire, your relations with the other factions will still be bad. If they can, they'll just restart the war in the next few turns.

[Irishmafia2020]

Baktria is a fun game, but you have to use your starting money to order up three or four more units that can be used as reinforcements to your starting army. Then, take that army and conquer Kophen and that other city in the Valley to the northwest. Fight the Elutheroi stack there (or they will be aggressive and attack your cities), and you will have an army that is literally decimated. That is good, since they will not cost you anything to maintain, but they can quickly be retrained to full strength once you send them back to Baktra. You should be making 3-4 thousand per turn at this point, and you will be out of debt within a year (by 269 BC probably). Immediately, when you make a profit, train soldiers in Baktra. I know that their upkeep will cut into your profit, but the AS is oppurtunistic. They send reinforcements past Baktra to their two cities in the north. If you have a decent garrison they will not attack you, but will continue to their destination. If you have only a single unit or FM, then they will lay seige to Baktra, and you pretty much just lost the game. Therefore, you should train 2-3 decent units in Baktra as a garrison as soon as you can afford it. When your decimated main army returns, just pack them into Baktra proper, and reinflate (retrain) them when you need them again. In the meantime, use your profits to save up money every turn to buy mines. Every province in that region has mines, and usually the second level is available as well. That means that you will eventually be one of the richest factions in the game if you are patient and invest well. I think of the Baktria campaign as a "wild west" type scenario. You are an outpost of civilization drawn to the area by gold, and wealth, but you have to fight the fierce and independent natives to survive (Saka and Pahlava in this case). Altogether Bactria is an interesting campaign, but you have to micromanage your first 12 turns to get a decent start in 1.1 - I even had to restart a campaign after 10 years with 1.0
AS gets the best units, and a challenging starting position (a six front war) but they have access to the east and the mediteranean - they also make a profit on turn 1. Ptolomies have good units, and they are mostly secure in the begining. Pontus has medium units, but they are in a good position to expand in interesting ways. Pahlava and Saka are mostly HA factions, although they develop a few infantry units as well. Armenia is interesting, but weak and a bit challenging until you really get good at the game. Saba is non-hellenic in its unit make up and cannot expand far beyond arabia without mercs. Macedonia is my favorite Hellenic faction, because they have access to the mediteranean basin, and they also have great Hellenic units. They do not get many Eastern units, except as they develop their non-mative troop MIC in Anatolia. The Maks can conquer greece (without destroying either rival) and then find themselves involved with wars in Anatolia, Thrace, and Italy from the Early game against powerful rivals (Romans etc) and yet Greece will give them a solid and secure base from which to coordinate their imperial ambitions. Ideally, Epiros and KH play out similiar to the Maks, although all three have the option of leaving Greece under pressure from their enemies (Epiros to Italy, Maks to Anatolia, KH to Islands orAnatolia). Also,Force diplomacy is a great mod if you do not abuse it, and have some house rule pertaining to its use...

[Ayce]

Holy S#%t! Have you ever heard of ENTER?

[Cartaphilus]

It does... somewhat. Even though it can force a ceasefire, your relations with the other factions will still be bad. If they can, they'll just restart the war in the next few turns.

That's the point.

And I wonder if the minimod works with the 1.1 version too.

[socal_infidel]

That's the point.

And I wonder if the minimod works with the 1.1 version too.

FD does work with EB 1.1. But it doesn't really work, as noted, to stop wars. Tried it as AS with Pahlava and the next turn they attacked again anyway.

[Jaume]

Baktria: Played em 3 times [2x EB, in 0.74 and 0.81, 1x RTR Platinum]

- very good mix of troops, with a lot of blingbling later on (elephants, phalanx-that can compete with every other Greek nation)
- lots of possibilities to expand (I always try to keep in peace with the sons of the steppe, aka. Parthia & Saka).



Same. Expand to east and be careful with Sakas and, occasionally with Arche, it's all you have to do. And don't forget to recruit some Elephantes Indikoi :P. One thing I specially love of Bactria is that it only needs to expand to the East (at least at the very beginning), which means fighting only Eleutheroi. I like fighting Eleutheroi because when you conquer his city there are no reprisals, I mean they don't send to you an enormous army after attacking him because they don't have it. When you conquer his city, war is over.

[jhhowell]

I see nobody has mentioned Hayasdan yet. They were one heck of a fun game in 1.0. The start is a bit slow due to having one province, mostly weak troops, and a weak economy. Your bodyguards are among the best in the game so they'll win your early battles for you, and as you pick up your homeland provinces (and build mines) the economy won't be quite so bad. Even in the endgame I never found myself swimming in gold the way Rome does, though.

Sooner or later (sooner if you play on campaign difficulty harder than M) AS and Pontus will betray you. As usual the invading armies will telegraph the DoW a turn or two before they actually attack, so it should be easy to organize a defending army or two as needed. A quick lunge to take Karkathiokerta and if possible Ecbatana really helps. The former has nearly perfect defensive terrain, the latter is fairly rich and gives you more depth in the SE. After many many years of siege sally battles, your archers, horse archers, and bodyguards will have slaughtered all the troops AS can throw at you, so you can go take Susa, Seleukia, Babylon, and Persepolis in fairly quick succession. At that point, AS is broken and you're the new eastern superpower - and get to play with the reform buildings.

The key to Hayasdan IMHO are the horse archers, especially the lovely cataphract HA. They're super-expensive, but have one or two in every army anyway. Several regular HA can back them up. Kinsmen provide your best heavy cav (not as good as cataphracts, but much wider availability). Infantry can be sort of decent (Srakir Martikner, Babylonians, Pantodapoi Phalangitai, etc.) but are mostly there to screen the foot archers and give the cavalry an anvil to maneuver around.

I ended up getting bored in the 210s sometime, crushing Ptolemaic armies in the Judea/Sinai region. I still have 1.0 installed, so it's possible I'll go back sometime and push through to the final victory conditions (mostly picking up the rest of Asia Minor and crossing to Macedonia, at this point).

Re: AS, I'll second Digby's point about the eastern border. My AS game was exceedingly dull (even on VH campaign difficulty) since nobody dared attack me. Fortify the east, stomp the Ptolemies, build up the economy and quash rebels. Blah. AI AS always seems to face a five front war - that's the excitement I was hoping for. :beam:

[PershsNhpios]

GETAI

I played a very long campaign with these mountain folk on 1.0 and I don't think a great deal has changed for them in 1.1, so I will give comment on them.

The Getic people have perhaps my favourite starting position on the entire map.
I love isolated starting positions - although they give an unfair advantage - however the Getic position is the best.
This is because you don't need any large naval force, like the Casse.
You have rich, easily accessible provinces, unlike the Saba,
You are not charged with greatly expensive troop types, like the Lusotanann.
And you are not surrounded by unfairly powerful Eleutheroi and poor financial yields, like the Sweboz.

In addition, you are in the centre of the world map - which means any wild expansion route is possible.
Here are some things I tried when I had conquered a Kingdom for myself;

A naval invasion of Hayasdan, attempting to control the lucrative Carduchian lands by way of assault from the Chersonese. (Failed.)

Holding Crete, an expedition led against Alexandria in an attempt to hold the capital city and establish a Getic colony underneath the Pyramids. (Succeeded.)

A glorious conquest of Sicily, entangled with dreams of controlling Italica. (Failed, but only because my one stack of troops was hemmed in by both Carthaginian and Roman armies in Messana.)

And lastly, a dream now broken of creating a Thracian Persis, which - although I controlled all Hellas, and 30 provinces - yet proved impossible for all my might due to the sheer number of enemies.
My Getic Anabasis was nowhere as happy in ending as Xenophon's..

So for this reason the Getic tribes are at a terrific starting point - although these kinds of abstract resolutions are possible with any faction with access to boats.

Another reason to complement them is their easy rise to power, because the three civilised butchers in the south will be at an exhaustive war for sixty years, or until the Getic player wishes to sweep in and conquer that entire peninsula.

Once Hellas has been secured - conquest of any desired AI faction is really at the hands of the player.

One should attempt to make use of the available chokepoints given - as I explained for the Arverni.
The first is at the Golden Horn - secured by either treating Byzantion or Bithynia as a fortress.
Be aware, holding the latter is a declaration of war on the Seleukid Empire and Pontos.

The second is the Crimea - establishing Tanais as an outpost against the Sauromatae and later - most importantly the Hai.

The final chokepoint is Patavium - which will no doubt lead the player to conflict with Rome - but it is still possible to simply hold your post patiently, and in doing this I have found the AI will find other means and directions to expand upon.
That is one way of influencing AI expansion!

Apart from these things;

Conquering Hellas early, establishing chokepoints, and making use of the many, many mines available to the Getai;

the rest is very simple - rule over the Getic Throne - and conquer those who you please.

[Hax]

Just to add to Glenn's comment; I think it would be very interesting to see a Getic kingdom controlling the entire Amber route. Cool, huh?