How can I make AI Rome stronger?

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

The Romans got kind of a raw deal in EB, since they are perfectly balanced if the player plays as Rome, but the Roman AI faction is pretty pathetic, rarely getting beyond Gaul and Illyria and often getting smashed by the Lusotanns and Carthage. So it's rare to be able to fight a historically sized Roman Empire later in the campaign.

How can I make a mod which makes Rome stronger in the campaign? What should the mod do? Give Rome more bonus money than any other faction so they can recruit more units? Make their units stronger when the AI plays as Rome? Add a gold-chevroned Roman full stack near Carthage at the end of the 2nd Punic War so they actually conquer Carthage instead of just taking Spain?

How would I do all of the above?

[V.T. Marvin]

This is actually a very good question, but given how pathetic the AI usually is, I believe that no perticular solution would be completely satisfactory. Two possible solutions however come to my mind.

1.- The easy one is to add into EBBS a code giving the Romans some extra money each turn, for example:

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType seleucid
console_command add_money seleucid, 5000
end_monitor

2.- The more interesting one: role-play it. I mean you can imagine that you and SPQR are especially close allies who joined together to defeat common enemy, say Carthage. You will do all the fighting, but give the conquered territory to the Romans. Then you leave them alone for a few decades so that they actually get hold of the newly acquired territories. Then you can just wait until they stupidly attack you. Once you will have common border it is always just a matter of time... :yes:

3.- To make their units stronger for AI only should in principle be possible: You can search for roman units in the EDU and change the value of secondary hitpoints from "stat_health 1, 1" to "stat_health 1, 2". That should make them stronger in autocalc. This method is used in EB to make horse-archer units and thereby nomadic factions a bit stronger under AI. I am unsure, however, if this method is usable for infantry units as well (the second value is supposed to represent the hitpoints of the mount, IIRC). :shrug:

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Thanks very much for the reply, extremely helpful!

I'll look into the extra money and secondary hitpoints ideas. Other infantry units like Gestatae will have secondary hitpoints if any infantry unit does, so I'll look at their entry and see if it's different to the Roman ones - and if it is, change the Roman ones to match.

The roleplay idea is good, but not if your faction is very distant from Rome, like Parthia, since you're just too far away to fight on Rome's behalf and gift them territory. I'd like to fight a very powerful Roman Empire as the Parthians late in the game, and for that I need the Romans to do well on their own without my help.

[Ludens]

I'll look into the extra money and secondary hitpoints ideas. Other infantry units like Gestatae will have secondary hitpoints if any infantry unit does, so I'll look at their entry and see if it's different to the Roman ones - and if it is, change the Roman ones to match.

V.T. Marvin is refering to the secondary hitpoint, while Gaesatae have an additional primary hitpoint. Secondary hitpoints appear to be a relic of an earlier version of the engine: it only affects auto-calc. If you give Roman units additional primary rather than secondary hitpoints, they will become more formidable (in an unrealistic way) in non-auto-calc battles as well.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

OK, thanks. Can anyone name an infantry unit that is really, really awesome in autocalc?

Are elite phalangites in that category?

[Ferdiad]

Chariots and units with multiple Hitpoints are usually good in autocalc.