Vannila advantages!!!

[Macilrille]

Advantages with Vanilla over EB! Yes; sacriledge!!! I know...


Speed
Loading Times
Simplicity
Can run concurrently with other programs.


Sometimes I want something light and easy that can be completed in a few hours and run while I minimise occasionally to check my mail, etc; something noncommital. EB is not.

Add to that that
1) Vanilla propagates a sort of awareness of history to youth today that is by and large much better than what they get from watching 300, etc.,
2) It forms the engine and basis for our beloved EB.

So despite my love for EB and belief that it is far- faaaaaar better than Vanilla. Vanilla has some advantages and good points.

Flame ahead, I will spend a few hours mindlessly playing Vanilla.

[anubis88]

Agreed.
I for one wouldn't be studying History and Latin if it wasn't for vanilla MTW and RTW.

But EB is the reason i'm good at it, so i can have realy interesting debates with my professors.

[ziegenpeter]

A friend of mine, also a EB player but not active in the forum, told me the same thing a few weeks ago. I almost died of a heart attack.
But to be honest: I don't really remember RTW vanilla. I was a huge fan of STW, MTW and MTWII and then discovered that there are Mods for those games.
Before I wasn't really interested in antiquity, more into medieval times or the migration period. I played BI a bit but with RTW vanilla I never got further than the tutorial.
It's due to EB that I got interested in antiquity. I sometimes ask myself if the team could have made a mod about whatever time period and if I had liked it as much.
(<does this sentece make sense?)

[anubis88]

I remeber i was first suspicios of every mod, since i was young and i thought how could anybody know better then the guys whos made the game?
Surely they did everything accuratly and right... Thank god i grew up.

I remember in highschool i tried to convince my profesor that Rome was diveded between 3 families... They've must have thougt i was a loser... Now my profesor calls me when his interested about ancient history :)

[Brennus]

Agreed.
I for one wouldn't be studying History and Latin if it wasn't for vanilla MTW and RTW.

I second that, Rome TW played a big part in my decision to study archaeology.

[ARCHIPPOS]

Haven't touched vanilla ever since getting interested in EB.I was utterly bored of RTW (never having played BI or Alexander-passed a "no-pc" phase then) by the time i stumbled upon the EB mod. One thing i would like to add to all those mentioned before. It is very difficult to possibly enjoy a few turns of EB without mastering the challenges of RTW. EB is infinitely more complexe,demanding and difficult compared to RTW. And because of that RTW is necessary for reasons of chewing and understanding game mechanics. So yes RTW and EB are not opposed. If RTW is elementary , EB is advanced and that's all...

[Cute Wolf]

Yeah... and knowledge of RTW is required to create a good mod...

Everyone who want to have in-depth knowledge about EB, should mastered vanilla first

[SwissBarbar]

Exactly. The multiplication up to 100 may be boring after some time, but it is nonetheless important if you want to learn higher mathematics

[Teucer]

Can run concurrently with other programs.

Unless your machine is really old, you should be able to run EB and use other programs. Just put "-ne" at the end of the target box when you right-click the EB shortcut. Then you can use alt-tab to switch between windows without forcing EB to reload everytime you go back to it.

(Of course, if this trick is common knowledge, I apologize for being pedantic :) )

[seienchin]

I already stated in my "Stop Vanilla Bashing"thread , that the Vanila Strat map AI is quite superior to EBs map, which is too big for the Ki to handle.
You also had a lot(And I mean a lot! The greek cities once used their fleet to outflank me by moving from sparta to thessalonica in 1 turn, when i were a athens. Never happens in EB) of Naval invasions and vanilla never had that boring 200 hour war with the seleucs or egyptians, because they didnt have soooo many provinces and money help for every city.

Still Ebs units are far better and battles take longer than in Vanilla. Although I dont like seeing antic cavallery as medieval style knights, which every heavy cavallery in the game is, although most not having a saddle or stirrup.
On the realism side Ebs hellenic, roman and spanish units are incredible and historical accurate. If the barbarians are closer we will maybe never know^^
But what really makes EB soooo great is imo the building part and the trait system, which makes roleplaying so satisfying. Both are a little bit flat in vanilla, although as a player you are not constantly fighting 10star generals with your generals, who never get more than 3...

[KARTLOS]

I think you have inspired me to give it a whirl myself. Vanilla was a great game, I loved it when I first got it and played it to death, same applies to bi and alex.
I also think m2 was great- again I have played it to death and now only play broken crescent!

[Andronikos]

Vanilla advantage?
It exists :2thumbsup:

[Blxz]

Guess there was very little flaming. I also like vanilla and play it occasionally. Although much less often lately. Its much quicker and the ability to retrain units anywhere is very calming to my worn out nerves after a long time playing EB.

[GenosseGeneral]

well when i got R:TW vanilla i liked it really. of course i knew that there where many units which were definitely NOT accurate (egypt andwell, those ridicolously strong berzerks :dizzy2:) and of course i was annoyed by weak ai, op cav etc. before playing vanilla i did not have ANY idea about the roman army BEFORE marius, the armies of alexander and his diadochoi...
well to answer OP he is right aobu the fact, that vanilla offers a more "accurate" form of entertaining history than the named movie. ( I am a victim of this effect myself, as written before). i do also agree on the matter of speed and simplicity, since u can own any roman army with 4 units of katanks, what speaks for itself. i did start caring about game mechanincs when starting playing EB. so vanilla is what u give ur friends, first, since its more motivating in the beginning, before u introduce them to EB and make them addicted :2thumbsup:

[Zarax]

Well, vanilla makes for much shorter games for sure and less headaches.
I also suspect that taking away the senate has a somewhat detrimental effect on AI, although that would need much more research to be sure.

That said, even EB could still use a few touch-ups, TBH if there wasn't an EB2 in the works I would probably be pushing for a deeper use of the features of RTW 1.5 or BI... But that's a story for another topic (or mod).

[Horatius]

Well I love EB but, it's fatal flaw all technical, RTW Vanilla runs without any problems on my computer, lag or otherwise, the CTD and lag and other technical problems however are plagues in recent days of trying EB, which is my only complaint. The gameplay and the new recruitment features for EB are break through and add a very high historical depth.

[antisocialmunky]

I don't have to use my brain in RTW so I get let it defragment.

[ziegenpeter]

On a related topic: When i change the descr_strat to unlock other faction, can I even unlock macedon, pontus, armenia, dacia, numidia, scythia, spain and thrace (unlockable) or will a campaign drown me in the endless maelstrom of CTDs?

[Finn MacCumhail]

Yes u can. I even played Slaves and SPQR. But playing slaves u have no FM, and playing SPQR leads to CTDs from time to time. Dunno why.

[Cullhwch]

On a related topic: When i change the descr_strat to unlock other faction, can I even unlock macedon, pontus, armenia, dacia, numidia, scythia, spain and thrace (unlockable) or will a campaign drown me in the endless maelstrom of CTDs?

Try Macedon. They probably have the most fun Vanilla campaign. Their only real downside is that they absolutely suck at assaulting cities on huge unit settings.

[Cute Wolf]

Try Macedon. They probably have the most fun Vanilla campaign. Their only real downside is that they absolutely suck at assaulting cities on huge unit settings.

Well well... mercenary Bastarnae has their use for this specific needs....

[Weebeast]

I can only think of one that hasn't been mention. Ptolemaic kings and queens (or even other Greeks) were known to adopt local customs. Sometimes I like to have my faction leader (supposedly me when role playing) wear mascara and eyeliner to battle. In EB, Ptolies use the generic Greek portraits. In vanilla they got the portraits of true Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt.

[Intranetusa]

I remember in highschool i tried to convince my profesor that Rome was diveded between 3 families... They've must have thougt i was a loser... Now my profesor calls me when his interested about ancient history :)

LAWL XD

[ziegenpeter]

Woooha! I started a Germans campaign this evening and it was kind of funny. I conquered europe from the pyrenees to the carpathians and in the south I'm making my way into gallia cisalpina. Well maybe I will play another evening, but then I'll go back.
Or won't I? da Da DA! :7detective:

No seriously I took thet chubk of europe in 30 or 40 years and by EB standards I'd won the Swe campaign. But because its vanilla, I'll have to cnquer 50 provinces and become emperor...:inquisitive: