Why I'm loving my AS campaign.... (advice more than welcome)

[Conan]

Hi guys,

I'm one of those players that after playing to roughly the lower half of 260 BC pretty much gets bored of there campaign and starts to play another faction. Its a vicious circle which has led me to never really develop any faction to any real extent. However my friends this has all but changed recently thanks to the mighty AS!

Currently at 253 BC on VH/M

Simply there is not a dull moment being the leader of AS. You have enemies on all fronts pretty much, each with its own way of fighting.

I have pretty much destroyed the Ptolemaioi, they have a settlement or two south of the Nile. This was relatively easy, done mainly with armies of lower level units, Pantodapoi Phalangitai are the mutts nuts.

Dealing with the Pahlav was hard work. Spamming range units and throwing most of my resources to the east I was able to beat them around 258 BC. It was long and bloody.

Now the Saka are descending and every time I see a stack of them on the campaign map its like sitting down too fast, wearing very tight jeans. A.K.A "the nut crusher". When your testicles are forced to be "compressed" from there natural size to that of bake bean. Any man reading this who has ever worn tight jeans will know what I mean. You don't feel anything at first but slowly and gradually that terrible "dull ache" spreads through your groan. The expression on your face generally is picked up by those around you, resulting in many asking -

"Are you alright mate?"

That's the feeling of dread I get when I see a Saka stack. There nobles are seriously tough nuts to cracks. The distance from capital penalties (moved capital to Seleucas) mean you have to pump a stupid amount of cash into that area just to maintain order, never mind fight any battles. Which on the open steppe is near suicide with the units available to you in that part of the AS empire. Heavily armored units would help but currently I would have to march them all the way from Western part of my empire.

Now Backtria are starting to attack me. This however is somewhat of a mixed blessing as once I take the capital I'll be able to recruit those elite units which are more "arrow proof" (Thorakitai) than the regional natives.

In Asia minor things are running rather smoothly. In the next few years I hope to wipe out Pontus. I've taken the Galatia settlement and hope to have Galatian wild men a.s.a.p. I will wait to I've delt with the east before I venture any further west than Asia Minor. Want to hit Greece with an elite army of elephants and true elite infantry. However taming the east I feel will taken decades and a lot of money, men and patience.

Money wise I'm bagging 16-20K profit a season. But with the vast expense dealing with the Saka plus the other 4-5 conflicts I dealing with it doesn't go very far. Ideally I could do with 3 times that to keep my empire developing building wise, as well as keeping the units rolling in. I developed my mines as soon as possible + ports and the investment is paying off.

Rebels are very annoying and are springing up every where.

Its the fact with AS its none-stop action wise. I love the wide selection of units available to AS (although I did cheat to kick of the cataphract reforms) can't wait to my first unit of Thorakitai Agematos Basilikou. I love the size of AS. You get the sense that you are controlling a mighty empire with vast resources, both financial wise + man power wise. But you could always do with just that little bit more. Also the fighting styles that you encounter ranging from almost pure HA to phalanx dominated warfare.

So can anyone give me any pearls of wisdom to help me through my current stage of AS?

Thanks

[Maion Maroneios]

Pah, you filthy Pretenders of Alexadros' heirs are nothing more than rabble. No better than those Rômaioi barbaroi if you ask me:yes:

On a serious note now, I'm pretty sure there are AS players around here who can help you out.

Maion

[Nachtmeister]

Nice and graphical, nutcrusher!! Almost felt it myself just reading... ~:shock:
Haven't played AS yet but felt an urgent need to spam this thread with the above remark.
However, I've read people mentioning that dropping the eastern AS provinces can make sense at the beginning of the game because they bring in less money than they consume if you try to hold them against the Pahlava. As they are already crushed though - *do* march armored units across the entire empire rather than taking casualties and try to blitz the Saka, fight them in their settlements with phalanxes rather than on plains (I get the feeling that the AI has unlimited ammo which would make horse archers almost unbeatable on the field). I *have* already fought against Saka FM units as Baktria. Even the Baktrian bodyguards are not enough for those - needed p. phalangitai to help in the melee. So - against them, attack is the best possible defense, kill them before they grow strong! Whenever you can't reach their settlements in one turn, be sure to position your army on a hill-slope so you have a big terrain advantage in case AI shows up with a full HA stack. And don't let the Saka expand into the plains in the west.

[Os-Q]

Honestly, it sounds like you know what you're doing, and could share some advice with us :yes:.
I haven't played as AS, but these might be helpful:

Try using units with armour piercing weapons on the noble horse archers (slingers for range, maybe take Rhodes to get the island's armoured slingers, let the Saka charge your phalangites and then mob them with axemen, Thracian peltastai, Indian Bowmen etc.)

Guard Mode is very important for using spearmen defensively, they last longer in a slugmatch if they stay in formation.

Try using cover/ambushes to protect lightly armoured units, they can't shoot what they can't see.

Keep an eye on Carthage, they might send a stack or two of skirmishers and heavy infantry your way.
In fact, since you're playing on Very Hard, trust no one. As soon as your empire borders another county, that country will hate you.

Here's a new thread about fighting Saka as Baktria, might be helpful.
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=112388

[Mister V]

Interesting. I'm not very active on campaign maps (prefer to sit and build), so I'm somewhere around 235BC with almost no new territory (except Pontos and the Levant cities). I prefer seeing how the world develops around me (curiously, Epeiros went and kicked everybody's arse, aside from the Balkans they've even captured Capua). Also, I don't like fighting with low-level units (come on, I want to see Hypaspistai under my command, not some militia), which is why I find the attacks very, very tiresome (but hey, I needed someone else to play, Rome is way too familiar).

Also, keeping the far eastern provinces in check is troublesome. I hate the way enemy spies cause 35% unrest instantly (can't that be removed somehow?), and they tend to send some in neighbouring cities.

I'm also getting around 20K per turn, which I feel is low. I'm accustomed to bigger profits by now (if I played as Rome, I'd have all the naval trade around Italy/Sicily), so I just continue developing my farms, markets and all that.

I don't have any particular pearls of wisdom to share (except shraing my experience), but I do have a relevant question someone might answer: what's the situation when you get out of the East? Do you still get any good faction units or do you have to rely on locals?

[Nachtmeister]

Try using units with armour piercing weapons on the noble horse archers (slingers for range, maybe take Rhodes to get the island's armoured slingers, let the Saka charge your phalangites and then mob them with axemen, Thracian peltastai, Indian Bowmen etc.)

Actually, do not use indian longbowmen on them. their AP swords are great and they can even take out bactrian bodyguards in melee --- but the Saka use arrows as their main weapon and that is the worst weakness of the indian longbowmen. They would have no chance of reaching the riders before routing due to casualties. Unless that has changed since 1.1 of course.


I don't have any particular pearls of wisdom to share (except shraing my experience), but I do have a relevant question someone might answer: what's the situation when you get out of the East? Do you still get any good faction units or do you have to rely on locals?

If by "getting out of the east" you mean conquering India and maybe the Saka homelands as the AS - your best and most armored factional units are available in Baktria. But why don't you look the details up in the recruitment viewer? Just set faction "Seleukids" and MIC "Native", then first select "All", then scroll through the individual AS units. No Seleukid elephants in the east, for instance (but probably you will get regional elephants in the Indian provinces).
In fact I would say that getting access to some of those locals is the main point for conquering the eastern provinces! (Subeshi Archers...)

[A Very Super Market]

Subeshis are pretty good foot archers, with only slightly less range than the Saka. With some smart calvary use, you can destroy HAs with them

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Pah, you filthy Pretenders of Alexadros' heirs are nothing more than rabble. No better than those Rômaioi barbaroi if you ask me:yes:

On a serious note now, I'm pretty sure there are AS players around here who can help you out.

Maion

Ah Maion, never a dull moment with u is there?


Well as to the OT yes AS is HARD to play. I personally hate playing as them, too much to focus on WAY too fast.:dizzy2::dizzy2::dizzy2: Crazy stuffs.

[Atraphoenix]

you simply like power, they are the most powerful faction at the campaign start.
I like playing with AS, but I mostly play Pahlava cos it is really a very hard challenge...
If you like to govern an established Empire, play with AS, if you want to build your own Empire, you may choose many factions that suits you. As the best cavalry in the mod for Pahlava, I play them, but believe me until the final conquest of mesopotamia you have no chance to sleep!

[Maion Maroneios]

Ah Maion, never a dull moment with u is there?
:beam:

Maion

[Mister V]

If by "getting out of the east" you mean conquering India and maybe the Saka homelands as the AS - your best and most armored factional units are available in Baktria. But why don't you look the details up in the recruitment viewer?
I actually meant going west, but thanks. I, uh, keep forgetting the recruitment viewer :embarassed:



If you like to govern an established Empire, play with AS
"Govern" as in "survive by the skin of my teeth", you mean. Well, I might be exaggerating a bit, but holding it together is not very easy.

I thought I'd share an OMG moment: in my campaign the Aedui just crushed the roman forces in Gaul and Iberia, while Carthage took Capua and Ariminium. I think this is the first time ever that I'll see Rome conquered by an AI faction. Either that or it will be the most spectacular comeback I've seen.
So far version 1.2 (last I've played was 1.0) is proving to be very interesting indeed.

No tips for those pesky spies?

[Mediolanicus]

Put your own spies and assasins in in your cities to counter enemy spies.

Holding an Empire together never was easy btw...

[brandt]

Hi guys,


That's the feeling of dread I get when I see a Saka stack. There nobles are seriously tough nuts to cracks. The distance from capital penalties (moved capital to Seleucas) mean you have to pump a stupid amount of cash into that area just to maintain order, never mind fight any battles. Which on the open steppe is near suicide with the units available to you in that part of the AS empire. Heavily armored units would help but currently I would have to march them all the way from Western part of my empire.

Now Backtria are starting to attack me. This however is somewhat of a mixed blessing as once I take the capital I'll be able to recruit those elite units which are more "arrow proof" (Thorakitai) than the regional natives.

In Asia minor things are running rather smoothly. In the next few years I hope to wipe out Pontus. I've taken the Galatia settlement and hope to have Galatian wild men a.s.a.p. I will wait to I've delt with the east before I venture any further west than Asia Minor. Want to hit Greece with an elite army of elephants and true elite infantry. However taming the east I feel will taken decades and a lot of money, men and patience.



Check the government buildings in the east. AS has a lot of level 3 government buildings which give a huge loyalty penalty, replace them with level 2 wherever possible except a couple of recruitment centers for allied troops. Don't count too much on taking Baktria. It takes a long while to build up to the MIC level you need to get a half decent unit .
Build up your mines.
Use HA to counter rebels. It takes infantry decades to cover the vast distances.
When using HA only atack when you've got movement points left. Shoot until out of arrows then withdraw. Do the same thing next turn. Don't feel bad about using HA, refusing to adopt new tacticts is for the KH not alexander's heirs.

[Mister V]

So that's what it is, the type 3 giving me trouble. Thanks, I didn't realise the penalty was that important.

Has anyone experienced a prolonged lack of good family members (more like a crisis)? From my Roman campaigns I remember that you could put almost any loser in a settlement with at least the tier 2 school (Akademia in my case) and in a few turns he'd be ready to govern something. I usually always had too much generals (with several random people usually drinking themselves to death in the capital). Now a third of my settlements has no governors (and the average age of a governor is well above 40), the ones that propose to my daughters suck, and my family tree is full of 40+ unmarried women. Now I would've been fine with that if people didn't die at 60-something here.
Did family mechanics change after 0.81? Because in my roman campaigns then my governors mostly died at around 75 (not to mention way back in RTR when I had my 99-year-old iberian faction leader take Alexandria).

[antisocialmunky]

Don't forget +law buildings counter corruption.

[Mister V]

Yeah, I know that, but I was looking for soemthing that would make my FMs live longer. Seriously, so far my oldest one died at 65, whereas, as I've said before, it was normal for my Roman generals to die at 75 (some got to 85+). I thought maybe hygiene buildings and academies would help, but as far as I remember they didn't make a difference before... I also never get any Man-of-the-Hour events, even after Heroic victories.

Is there a file that controls it? Can I make slight adjustments?

P.S.: one funny thing I thought I'd share. Almost all my family members (save two or three) are ANGRY! :furious3: At the world maybe, or at their reduced lifespan, I don't know, but nearly all of them have Unquenched Anger :beam:

[Malrubius]

Yeah, I know that, but I was looking for soemthing that would make my FMs live longer. Seriously, so far my oldest one died at 65, whereas, as I've said before, it was normal for my Roman generals to die at 75 (some got to 85+). I thought maybe hygiene buildings and academies would help, but as far as I remember they didn't make a difference before... I also never get any Man-of-the-Hour events, even after Heroic victories.

Is there a file that controls it? Can I make slight adjustments?

P.S.: one funny thing I thought I'd share. Almost all my family members (save two or three) are ANGRY! :furious3: At the world maybe, or at their reduced lifespan, I don't know, but nearly all of them have Unquenched Anger :beam:

There's no way to control age of death or man of the hour through the files that I am aware of. There is a random chance of death each season beyond a certain age, and the rate of births and new generals being offered is based on the expansion of your empire.

Your generals may be getting the Anger trait from the temple of Seleukos or whatever the temple of battle is named for the Seleukids. I don't have a copy of edb handy so I can't be sure about the name. I looked at the trigger and it's a pretty good chance if your general is Vigorous and builds the temple or sits in a settlement with it.

[Mister V]

How come they're dying so soon then?..

I love this campaign. OP: I'm sorry for hijacking this thread... fate is at work here, not me:no:
This is probably the first time ever that I'd say this: what's hapening in the world (far from my faction) is more interesting than my own state of affairs. I predictably conquer and crush neighbours, manage the cities' daily business (the only thing fun that happened is my general getting the Cat-Killer trait in Egypt) - however, what's happening elsewhere has me hooked. It's like a rollercoaster action movie. It is so cool that one could write an AAR about it (now that would be something new, an AAR about AI factions with you as observer?).

In short, everything west of Greece is one bloody battleground.
About thirty years ago (it's 203BC now) Rome exploded onto the stage, taking several southern Gallic provinces and going as far as Iberia (Emporion) and going a bit west (Vindobona I think). Then the massacre began. Rome's forces were determined to pound the Aedui into oblivion when Carthage and Epeiros both struck at the south of the Italian boot and advancing as far as Arretium (what I talked about earlier). Roma itself was almost taken when something happened between Epeiros and Carthage and they started killing each other. The Roman legions promptly returned and soon the legionaries were using their pilae to roast carthaginian marshmallows. Rome even invaded Sicily, but was only able to take Messana as the Carthaginians fought to death.

Meanwhile, the new gallic colonies having been left undefended, Aedui troops rolled over them and even tried to take on Iberia. Roman troops, after a few years' retraining and rebuilding, struck Gallia once again, this time taking almost the entire territory in several years of bloody battles.

Roma has once again underestimated the will and determination of its enemies. While the legions were in Gaul, not only did Carthage build up again in Sicily, but Epeiros' armies came marching right into northern Italy, taking Patavium, Mediolanum, Bononia, almost cutting off the central Italian territories from the rest. And Carthage, of course, took the opportunity to capture Rhegion, Capua, Taras once again, besieging Arpi and knockin' on the gates of an almost undefended Roma. And if that wasn't enough, the Lusotanans became royally pissed that no one seemed to notice them, blitzed Carthaginian setllements capturing the whole peninsula and striking at Roman territories in the Pyrenees. On top of that, the Romans encountered heavy Sweboz resistance in the north.

https://img8.imageshack.us/img8/6360/romescrewed1nh8.th.jpg (https://img8.imageshack.us/my.php?image=romescrewed1nh8.jpg)

Will Rome survive this calamity? Stay tuned for the next episode of "272", the No.1 realtime show of the civilized world! (now the second top rated show in the barbarian world according to the Antiocheian Institute for Study of Inferior Peoples)

[Maion Maroneios]

Mighty Zeus! Praise the Karchedoi for delivering the fist of His divine fury upon the damn filth, the Romaioi. I am very happy now, I'm actually so happy I may consider going to that boring English seminar now:yes:

Maion

[BurningEGO]

Well as to the OT yes AS is HARD to play.

I find it far easier to play them then any other nation i have played (Epirus, and the Greeks are far harder).

Beaten Parthia in the summer of 267 (or 266, cant remember), and am at the gates of Egypt already (last province taken was Judea). Parthia in VH/VH are nasty with all these missiles butchering your armies, but after mustering about 3000 Pandotapoi, there arent just enough arrows to kill you.

https://img12.imageshack.us/img12/2020/0023pz3.jpg (https://imageshack.us)

Killed the faction heir in that battle (click on the button above to see screenshot) in a hard fought siege in Hekatompylos at the start of the game. 800-1000 dead parthians, and about 1500 dead pandotapoi. Quickly retrained the army and mustered a few more Pandatapoi, and killed the faction leader that was standing in Asaak.

Dont understimate the power of the weak!

At the same time i used 3 pandotapoi phalangitai and 2 thureophoroi (plus a general) to lay some lenghty sieges to some egyptian holdings (Side and Tarsos, you know, these 2 egyptian provinces in Anatolia). And after Parthia was done, i could finally focus at 100% in Egypt (thinking of attacking Baktria, by the way).

Regardless, just wanted to say that allowing Parthia to take over your eastern territories, is one of the worst things you can ever do. These guys are powerful already with a few provinces, mainly thanks to their awesome cavalry/missile troops (which in VH/VH seem to tear even the most powerful troops apart).

Havent had problems with the reds up north, but shouldnt a crapload of Parthian Spearmen + Archers + Median Cavalry do the job? Quantity has a quality of its own, you know.

EDIT: What are the requirements as Seleucids so that you can get the Cataphract reform? I believe i heard that you have to loose 2 big battles against Parthia... Hope i am wrong.

[BurningEGO]

260 BC. After realizing how weak and poor i was, and how much a campaign against the Saka would cost, i decided to erect a couple of stone walls - in Baktra, Antiocheia-Margiane, and Nisa.

Its the most wise frankly.

The cash is in the west. And these 3 provinces with proper garrisons (and stone walls), will never fall. And there is no way these barbarians can go any further south.

[Conan]

260 BC. After realizing how weak and poor i was, and how much a campaign against the Saka would cost, i decided to erect a couple of stone walls - in Baktra, Antiocheia-Margiane, and Nisa.

Its the most wise frankly.

The cash is in the west. And these 3 provinces with proper garrisons (and stone walls), will never fall. And there is no way these barbarians can go any further south.
Yesterday 23:45

Think I'm seriously considering this course of action also can anyone else give this tactic there seal of approval?

[BurningEGO]

Your choice really, but my eastern campaigns were causing a big hole in my pocket. And after I faced a full stack of Saka, made of noblemen and a lot of horse archers while defending my city of Khwarazm, I made up my mind. I had just attacked Baktria a couple of turns before that, and i couldnt deal with 2 fronts at the same time, due to short income. My campaign against Baktria was almost ending in a fiasco when the AI showed up with 2 full stacks, against my parthian spearmen and persian archers. Hopefully i lured them to a river battle and killed them all.

Thats another tip of my part - there are plenty of rivers in that area, whenever in trouble, try to make full use of them. Facing a lot of Horse archers in the open is pretty much suicide for me, at least with the crap troops i am forced to use.

Of course the stone walls are just a temporarily solution - it will allow you to improve your training buildings in the area, while allowing you to focus in the west and get rich. Just be sure to have proper garrisons in every city. A couple of phalanx for the gate, and a lot of parthian spearmen (not properly good troops, but require only level 2 native barracks to train, and besides, Saka hasnt been attacking me with good foot soldiers, except for archers!) for the walls, backed up by some archers will do the job.

[Nachtmeister]

How do you get the Saka to actually try a suicide assault against your walls manned parthian spearmen and archers rather than just sitting at a safe distance (outside of your archers' range) with some HAs, starving you out? Small garrison?

[BurningEGO]

That rarely happens. When their ram demolishes my gate, they just charge through. Bless the Gods for such a dumb AI.

When their ram gets burned... Thats a totaly diferent story. If you got battle limit on, its easy, if not, well, things get a lot harder, if the AI for some reason gets stuck and doesnt retreat as it hapened sometimes to me... But usually, when they loose all infantry, and havent opened any gap in the walls, they will just retreat.

If they get stuck for some reason i would most likely use some division as bait. If it didnt work, i would use my archers to kill as many horses as possible (remember to change formation to loose fewer men), and then i would use my general alongside with whatever units i got to kill them.

I usually got 1500 men defending each city, and i havent had a problem yet.

Of course, if the enemy is just using pure cavalry armies, they will be unable to assault your cities, and in such cases i usually amass a lot of men from my other garrisons to repel the attack. It takes 9 turns or so for a city to fall, which gives you plenty of time to organize a proper force.

[A Very Super Market]

Yes, the Saka are a pain when they besiege you with a cavalry army. Honestly, you best move is to quickly kill both Parthia and Saka. Parthia tends to settle down more and get more infantry, but Saka will continue to spawn annoyingly strong units, especially if they get their reforms (By holding Alexandreia-Eschate for a year) Don't let them do this. Even if it means war with AS, they have enough problems, and won't really commit to an attack. Take Kophen before though, to support an army.

[Banzai!]

Here are my tips:

Playing AS your empire is so big that you will have to autoresolve much of your battles. This works to your advantage. The HA armies of the east are small in comparison to phalangite units and do not autoresolve well. Thus spam phalangites in the east and autoresolve what battles there are. You can conquer Saka and Parthia pretty easily just by spamming phalangites and autoresolving. (Also, Eastern sieges are butt easy with phalangites ; rush your phalangites into their unprotected villages and say bye bye to the cavalry stuck in the plaza). You can always make one proper army and fight on the battlemap when you feel like it.

Basically you are an EMPIRE with enormous MANPOWER, TERRITORY and WEALTH and an EMPIRE fights by SPAMMING.


EDIT: Note that I play with 0-turn recruitment, rebels/pirates deactivated and distance-to-capital/squalor penalties off, which makes this strategy more viable.

[mikil100]

Here are my tips:

Playing AS your empire is so big that you will have to autoresolve much of your battles. This works to your advantage. The HA armies of the east are small in comparison to phalangite units and do not autoresolve well. Thus spam phalangites in the east and autoresolve what battles there are. You can conquer Saka and Parthia pretty easily just by spamming phalangites and autoresolving. (Also, Eastern sieges are butt easy with phalangites ; rush your phalangites into their unprotected villages and say bye bye to the cavalry stuck in the plaza). You can always make one proper army and fight on the battlemap when you feel like it.

Basically you are an EMPIRE with enormous MANPOWER, TERRITORY and WEALTH and an EMPIRE fights by SPAMMING.

SPAMMING? http://inventorspot.com/files/images/1559606_340_1116081430036-spam.jpg

FEAR US!



whenever I play as the Seleucids I usually abandon my eastern fronts and make a garrison city where they can siege all they want, cavalry don't like phalangites.

[soup_alex]

How do you get the Saka to actually try a suicide assault against your walls manned parthian spearmen and archers rather than just sitting at a safe distance (outside of your archers' range) with some HAs, starving you out? Small garrison?
I can't resist commenting on this, having switched (GRADUATED, if you prefer) to EB from MiNO. After fighting the Byzantines under typically brainless TW AI, cavalry-centred seige armies are a pet peeve of mine. No, worse than that: they infuriate me. I hereby declare that any damn Vardariotai seen approaching my bloody castle will be met with torrents of vitriolic abuse and discarded contraceptives.
Even worse is when they do bring along some peasants to push the ram, but their spies succeed in opening the gates and their entire army sits back in staggering confusion.

...fortunately for me, my current EB campaign is taking place in lands far away from such annoying steppe-peoples.

[BurningEGO]

By holding Alexandreia-Eschate for a year

Explains why i have been spammed by awesome cavalry units recently. There is a dude with 7 command stars besieging my city with 800 cavalry units. With units with more then 30 defense points.

But anyway, the FAQ states that Saka has to hold Baktra, Marakanda, Alexandreia Eschate, Antiocheia Margiane, Alexandria Ariana or Taksashila for 4 consecutive winters. Which means 4 years.

[Blxz]

Here are my tips:



EDIT: Note that I play with 0-turn recruitment, rebels/pirates deactivated and distance-to-capital/squalor penalties off, which makes this strategy more viable.

Could you tell me how to edit and remove/deactivate the distance to capital and squalor penalties. I have always found them to be the most annoying thing in the game.

Honestly if it reaches a point where I have killed everyone in the settlement down to 400-500 people, have double that number of powerful soldiers standing guard over the last cowering lot of peasants and the tax as low as it will go but they still rebel coz my capital is too far away, then somehting needs to change. This town is even eligible for a Type 2 Government, its not THAT far away. (it is AS type 2 so its actually damn far away in ex-parthian controlled territory...)

The game is just too frustrating to play if it gets like this for every new town.

[BurningEGO]

Such will make the game terribly easy.

When i conquered Nisa from Parthia, i remember i had to move my capital nearby, because if i didnt, i would loose the town and the AI would receive a full stack.

Although by now i am heavily considering moving my capital back to Antioch. I am getting most of my cash from my coastal mediteranean provinces. If you got problems with the population, apointing good governors is your best bet. And in this game, you got plenty of them, and they get skillfull pretty easily, even without an academy. Hell, i got so many, but so many governors, and even so i keep being spammed with adoption/marriage proposals

[Mister V]

Well actually patience is your best bet. I can deal with it (patiently sitting there and building stuff to make 'em happy), but it does get annoying to the point of not being fun anymore. Of course, the added challenge of keeping a huge empire is present, but often it becomes unrealistic.

But I would love to play with 0-tun rec and those distance to cap and squalor at least toned down. Could you tell me what mini-mod you use?

[Conqueror]

The HA armies of the east are small in comparison to phalangite units and do not autoresolve well. Thus spam phalangites in the east and autoresolve what battles there are. You can conquer Saka and Parthia pretty easily just by spamming phalangites and autoresolving.

That's just cheating! You should do it the hard way and fight the field battles (hire lots of archers, never attack only defend, stay on the high ground... and pray to the gods!)

[Mister V]

Yeah, like the player doesn't have anything better to do than to fight small boring battles ten times a turn?
(unless that was sarcasm)

[Conqueror]

I was replying to a suggestion on using autoresolve for conquest of territory. If you're simply going to maintain your borders against a stupidly stubborn AI and want to escape the boredom then by all means, don't bother with the battles. But when you're going to expand your empire and take out another faction, you should not take advantage of the quirks of the autoresolve. If you're going to do that, then you might as well enter some cheat codes to move all the enemy armies to Ireland or something.

[Mister V]

Oh, right, sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought he was talking about defense (because that's what I do for the easter border).