HELLO!!!!!

[PelicanMan]

Hello Everybody,
My name is PelicanMan, and I have been at TWcenter for a very long time. I just wanted to say hi to everybody and hopefully I will be able to get to know some of you.

Lets just say that I am GREEN when it comes to EB for Rome; I have played the DarthMOD for Rome for way too long and I wanted something fresh and I have always looked past this mod. Well, stupid me, I read into some of the facts, and it looks fantastic. I will be starting my very first campaign (VH/M) as Casse and I am going into it blind. I will let you know how I do!

One quick question. Is this mod 1 turn recruitment?

Thanks everybody!

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

Most units take one turn to recruit. There are some exceptions, notably fleets.

Enjoy your first game. And don't forget to make certain you activate the script.

[stratigos vasilios]

There are some exceptions, notably fleets.

and elephants.

Welcome to the .org PM ~:wave:, goodluck with your campaign. Let us know how you go!

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Be advised that VH campaign in EB is a lot harder than VH level in R:TW. VH Campaign in EB is a nightmare - the AI gets 10,000 mnai per turn (that's 40,000 per year) on top of whatever they get normally. Which means the larger AI factions can afford many full stacks of elite units. So you can find yourself fighting a full stack every turn. Plus all the AI factions hate you as if you were Adolf Hitler, even your allies hate you and will backstab you the first chance they get.

Still, if you want a VH campaign, Casse is a good faction to play since there are only rebels to oppose you in Britain, and then you've got a nigh-impregnable base from which to launch raids on Europe.

[TheLastDays]

Hello to you!

I would go for H/M and, yes, Britain's impregnable, because the AI never tries ^^

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,
So I decided to go with VH/M and I played a couple turns to get the feel for it.
So far, I really like it. The thing I could live without is the long time it takes after you end your turn. Other then that, the mod so far looks great!
I plan on putting in some hours into my game this week; I do not get much time to play due to having a family and all. Anyways, I will report as soon as I get some years in.

THE P-MAN

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Yeah, the waiting after you end the turn is a pain. Hope you didn't tick 'Follow AI characters' when starting the campaign. Still, I've always got a relevant history book on the desk when I play EB, so I can read between turns.

[Stark]

The worst thing to do is select following AI characters and leaving a FOW off when you click end turn. Make sure you have something to read then. :yes:

[Ibrahim]

welcome to the forum Pelican man! :beam:

[teoman10]

HELLO!!!!! PelicanMan.

You can solve the trouble with the long turn times by playing EB in window mode. That way you can do something else while waiting. I don`t have that issue anymore though since there are only 3 living factions
left :D.

[stratigos vasilios]

How long are you guys waiting in between turns? Also PM what is your OS like?

I have everything on full (graphics/unit size) and it takes less than 10 seconds for the AI to go through their factions. I've done 6 campaigns where I've gone to 90BC and still it has been a similar time in between turns!

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,
I played a bit last night, and to to let you know, I didn't blitz; I decided to learn the game a bit.
here is an image of what my current campaign is like.
https://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/97/unledwpk.png/

I took my time at the beginning and basically decided to take over Britain and Ireland. After playing a bit, I realized that I think I am taking it too slow; maybe because I want to learn the game. Anyways, I have a decent army (which I forgot to show in the image, I will show the army tonight) and wow do Generals make a difference in this game.

One complaint though; their generals are engaging way too fast.

Also, I just wanted to know what government types you guys think I should put for the towns I have already conquered. I put level 1 for Ictis and Ratae, and I put Level 3 for Ynes-Mon (I didn't know which one to pick for this). I am not sure if there is a guide as to what each can offer since there are so many AOR's in this game. Maybe someone could direct me to where I could find that out.
Anyways, let me know what you guys think.

Thanks!
THE P-MAN

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I play a lot slower than that with the Casse, since I always wait as long as possible before starting to expand.

Casse, unlike every other faction, starts off at peace with the Eleutheroi (rebels) - so they lose a lot of trade income once the war begins. So I wait to be attacked while building up my town for the first 20 years.

There's no hurry with the Casse anyway, it doesn't really matter if you take 50 years to conquer the British Isles.

Government types: I use Level I in 'Roman' Britain, Level III in Caledonia, and Level IV in Ireland. There's some nice Irish units in the game.

[Brennus]

Welcome! Hopefully you will have a lot more luck with your campaigns than some of us (I completed Rome as Julii, Seleucids, Greeks and Carthage yet a succesful EB campaign still eludes me).

[Ibrahim]

How long are you guys waiting in between turns? Also PM what is your OS like?

just a few seconds.maxed out settings.

helps I now have an i7 computer.

[Blxz]

Yeah, not so long, 10 seconds at the longest I think. It does vary from time to time. i7 might be part of it, although the lack of muli-core support tends to hamper some of the more intensive battes. But even on my old desktop from back in the EB0.8x days I could get decent turn times of no more than 20 seconds at the very maximum end of the scale. If its much longer than that then check your background processes and maybe do a virus scan. EB is way better than say, Stainless Steel in regards to turn times.

[Oddnerd]

I think it has already been said, but hard campaign and medium battle is the way to go. Also, consider installing the game into Alexander TW, as the AI is significantly better at naval invasions (therefore making it possible to lose as the Casse.

[PelicanMan]

Is it even worth buying Alexander TW?
Btw, there has been no update as of late from my Casse campaign. I could tell you my life story, but me for one, is not interested in that kinda stuff; it should be personal. As soon as I get back to my game (probably tonight!!! YEAH!!!!) I will post some updates.

Booya, the P-MAN

[vartan]

Is it even worth buying Alexander TW?
I do not think anyone is truly in a position to answer this, but I will say something. If one has not purchased Rome at all, then definitely purchase the whole pack (RTW;BI;ALX), as they altogether will run you 9.99USD on Steam platform (last I checked, anyway). But if one already has RTW/RTW:Gold, then unless you really would like to play the Alex campaign, I don't think there is much incentive to actually obtain the game.

[PelicanMan]

Well, I had the original RTW, but the CD had a small crack to I could not install it anymore; so then I bought RTW Gold. I guess then I won't bother with Alex and his campaign.
Thanks!

Just a quick note; I am making my way up to Scotland in my campaign and I should have an updated picture tonight/tomorrow.

THE P-MAN

[vartan]

THE P-MAN
I sincerely love this enthusiastic attitude toward the game and of yourself. Keep it up and keep us posted :)

[PelicanMan]

hey guys,
just a quick update:
https://imageshack.us/f/853/unled2dil.png/

I went ahead with taking over Lower Britain, Caledonia, and now I am in the process of taking over Ireland.

I have to say, it has been smooth sailing atm.
I do have a question though: why cannot I build ships? I have level 2 port; do I need it to be level 3?
Also, caledonia, I set the government as type 4; I read somewhere that if I did that I would get +2 chevrons; I only see on the building description that I get +1. Was that on an earlier version? reason being, I want to get those skirmishers that a few people posted about because I know they will come in handy attacking the Romans down the road.

One more thing; after setting up a Type 4 government in Caladonia (scotland) I build the foreign levy, but unfortunately no units are attained through that. So now I am building the second level of foreign levy and after reading the building description, I will not get any units for that either. Could someone please clarify?

Once again, Thanks guys.

THE P-MAN (don't ask. lol)

[Sapper]

P-MAN, you are just beginning to find out how good EB really is. The depth of this mod is great with each faction able to do different things and geography affecting building and recruiting strategies as well as the warfighting strategies. You have two specific questions relating to the building of ships and how MICs affect recruiting.

Firstly you need to be aware that trading ports are different from naval ports (the ones you need to build warships). You need a trading port before you can build a naval port, but you cannot build naval ports everywhere, they are only possible in some regions. I have not played the Casse so I cannot tell you in which regions in the British Isles you can build naval ports I am afraid, but do make sure you have not just built trading ports. You should study your Builing Tree: https://www.europabarbarorum.com/webfiles/buildtrees/Build_Tree_Casse_v0.2.pdf

As for recruiting and MICs it is quite common for some levels of MIC to add no new troop types to what is recruitable.
You should study the Recruitment Viewer available at: https://www.europabarbarorum.com/downloads_misc.html Its not 100% accurate but its as good as it gets. It will show you the geographical availability of a unit type, whether you need native or regional MICs to recruit and what level of MIC you need as well. Tie this in with your Building Tree and you can work out what type of government to build to allow for the most useful combination of MICs.

While I am at it I find the following site excellent for reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of each unit type: http://europabarbarorum.heimstatt.net/

Enjoy!

[TheLastDays]

Cheers P-MAN!

As Sapper has already pointed out, you need to build naval ports, to be able to construct fleets. Not all regions are suitable for a naval port, only those with access to quality timber. IIRC, in britain that's only your starting region, with the town Camulosadade and the southern region in Ireland.

For the troops in Caldeonia: The caledonian skirmishers are factional units for the Casse, therefore you need to recruit them from factional barracks, not regional ones. In fact, on the birish isles, only irish towns will have regional units for you, all units on the british mainland are factional for the Casse (which is actually good for you :wink: )

EDIT: Btw, I highly recommend building at least one of the irish towns up as a lvl 4 gvt with regional barracks at level 4 (I think that's sufficient) to get irish nobles.

[FinnishedBarbarian]

Actually cassemorg isn't one of those regions suitable for shipbuilding, in mainland britain the only region where you can construct ships is cornovae which enables you to build second best ships for a celtic faction, best ships for casse are available in armoriae region below the cornovae.

[athanaric]

AFAIK only the Gallic factions can build tier 3 Barbarian ships. Still the tier 2 Casse ships are quite decent, especially if you compare them to what Pahlava, Swêboz, Saka and Sauromatae have to make do with.

[PelicanMan]

P-MAN, you are just beginning to find out how good EB really is. The depth of this mod is great with each faction able to do different things and geography affecting building and recruiting strategies as well as the warfighting strategies. You have two specific questions relating to the building of ships and how MICs affect recruiting.

Firstly you need to be aware that trading ports are different from naval ports (the ones you need to build warships). You need a trading port before you can build a naval port, but you cannot build naval ports everywhere, they are only possible in some regions. I have not played the Casse so I cannot tell you in which regions in the British Isles you can build naval ports I am afraid, but do make sure you have not just built trading ports. You should study your Builing Tree: https://www.europabarbarorum.com/webfiles/buildtrees/Build_Tree_Casse_v0.2.pdf

As for recruiting and MICs it is quite common for some levels of MIC to add no new troop types to what is recruitable.
You should study the Recruitment Viewer available at: https://www.europabarbarorum.com/downloads_misc.html Its not 100% accurate but its as good as it gets. It will show you the geographical availability of a unit type, whether you need native or regional MICs to recruit and what level of MIC you need as well. Tie this in with your Building Tree and you can work out what type of government to build to allow for the most useful combination of MICs.

While I am at it I find the following site excellent for reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of each unit type: http://europabarbarorum.heimstatt.net/




So when building ships, the two southernmost cities can build ships as soon as I build tier three ports. alright. sweet.

Thanks for the link for units; I shall study it at lunch. lol One thing though; I thought Scotland had a skirmisher unit that was uber - which is why I built a level 4 government and foreign levies after that. I guess I have to build tier 3 foreign barrack to recruit that unit (I read that they have a special skirmisher unit)

Anyways, Thanks for those tips!


Cheers P-MAN!

As Sapper has already pointed out, you need to build naval ports, to be able to construct fleets. Not all regions are suitable for a naval port, only those with access to quality timber. IIRC, in britain that's only your starting region, with the town Camulosadade and the southern region in Ireland.

For the troops in Caldeonia: The caledonian skirmishers are factional units for the Casse, therefore you need to recruit them from factional barracks, not regional ones. In fact, on the birish isles, only irish towns will have regional units for you, all units on the british mainland are factional for the Casse (which is actually good for you :wink: )

EDIT: Btw, I highly recommend building at least one of the irish towns up as a lvl 4 gvt with regional barracks at level 4 (I think that's sufficient) to get irish nobles.

So basically, what I said to the earlier quote means that if I built a type 2 Government and the factional barrack then I should be able to recruit those AOR skirmishers? correct me if I'm wrong. = )

Are the Irish nobles that good? I heard their infantry is fantastic. We shall see.

I want to leave work so I could play. lol Don't think the wife would approve. haha

btw, holy crap does Casse rack in Cash.

I think I should have an update this weekend. I plan on building two armies and invading Spain and Northwestern Gaul (I really don't need Sweboz's land.)

THE P-MAN

[TheLastDays]

Yes, if you build factional barracks in Caledonia you will get access to the Balroae (Caledonian Skirmishers) and yes, they're sweet skirmishers :yes:

Than FB, you're right, it was the other region in mainland britain that can build ships, my bad ^^ - it's true though that only Arverni and Aedui get access to the Veneti ships which is a shame :no:

Also, yes irish nobles are that good. Their light infantry is fantastic as well, if you are the kind of player to use light infantry to it's maximum :yes:

[FinnishedBarbarian]

Well no ones perfect while checking the veneti ships I took no notice that they were available only to gauls which is somewhat odd because I always assumed that casse get almost every unit that gauls get (excluding the factional elites).

[Brennus]

After all this time playing EB I had no idea this site existed:

http://europabarbarorum.heimstatt.net/

My housemate shouted at me the other day cos I spent twenty minutes on the toilet when she was getting ready to go out (I didnt dare tell her I was looking up Hellenic ships).

PelicanMan, as a veteran, yet unsuccesful Casse player (7 games, no wins) my advice about Casse ships is this, and I am very sorry if it sounds patronising, never ever load your best veteran army into one of the tier 1 Casse ships and hope to transport it for more than one turn. The English channel can swarm with pirate fleets and as soon as you think they have gone they will catch you, sending champions, chariots and Caledonians to the bottom of the briney blue before you can unload them in green Gaul.

Good luck with the Casse!

[vartan]

Even when he's not starting threads but simply making posts, Brennus delights us with his integrated humor and game advice. What a champ. Ladies and gentlemen, Brennus!

[PelicanMan]

After all this time playing EB I had no idea this site existed:

http://europabarbarorum.heimstatt.net/
PelicanMan, as a veteran, yet unsuccesful Casse player (7 games, no wins) my advice about Casse ships is this, and I am very sorry if it sounds patronising, never ever load your best veteran army into one of the tier 1 Casse ships and hope to transport it for more than one turn. The English channel can swarm with pirate fleets and as soon as you think they have gone they will catch you, sending champions, chariots and Caledonians to the bottom of the briney blue before you can unload them in green Gaul.

Good luck with the Casse!

I noticed that every time I tried to swing around my navy ships to pick up the Army at my capitol; wow, 2 pirate ships against 6 tier 1 ships and I lost more then half of the fleet!!!! I ended up not going for Spain and took two rebel provinces in northern Gaul and do not know which direction to take afterwords. I will upload a pic tonight to show my current status.

THE P-MAN

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

The Casse either need to build a big pirate-bashing navy, or restrict their naval troop convoys to very short hops across the Channel (short enough to land the army in Gaul and then return the ship to port in the same turn) and then march the army to the target area overland.

[Brennus]

Even when he's not starting threads but simply making posts, Brennus delights us with his integrated humor and game advice. What a champ. Ladies and gentlemen, Brennus!

That message brought a massive smile to my face, thank you vartan!

[PelicanMan]

Hey guys,

So I put in some turns last night on my campaign and as you can see I have two standing armies which are about to back stab my allies(haven't done it yet). The Arverni Are left with two provinces and the Aedui are getting way too strong. I have marked up the image to show where my two armies are headed. Hopefully this doesn't break to many of my alliances. As for Britain, the Towns/Large Towns-cities are sitting comfortably raking in cash. I have built up Scotland to boost as much morale and experience as possible so that the Skirmishers come out as monsters.

Anyways, have a look, let me know what you guys think I should/could do.

https://i52.tinypic.com/2aka2t.jpg

[The Croatian Knight]

Hey guys,

So I put in some turns last night on my campaign and as you can see I have two standing armies which are about to back stab my allies(haven't done it yet). The Arverni Are left with two provinces and the Aedui are getting way too strong. I have marked up the image to show where my two armies are headed. Hopefully this doesn't break to many of my alliances. As for Britain, the Towns/Large Towns-cities are sitting comfortably raking in cash. I have built up Scotland to boost as much morale and experience as possible so that the Skirmishers come out as monsters.

Anyways, have a look, let me know what you guys think I should/could do.

https://i52.tinypic.com/2aka2t.jpg


Maybe just use your 2 armies to take the strongest town first?

[Arjos]

You can gamble it, by storming with two armies, but you don't want to leave Bagacos undefended...
Maybe a garrison of 4 spearmen and 2 swordsmen should be enough :)

[PelicanMan]

You can gamble it, by storming with two armies, but you don't want to leave Bagacos undefended...
Maybe a garrison of 4 spearmen and 2 swordsmen should be enough :)

Exactly what I was thinking; I have a unit in the capitol plus another one on queue; same with Bagacos (1 swordsmen unit there and another one in the queue)

Maybe I should send 2 units back from the stack? I do not have any movement points left so it would have to wait until next turn (and I will also see what the AI has planned.)

Any other suggestions are well appreciated!!

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

Building up Scotland for morale bonuses won't really work. Issue being that there seems to be a bug in the Rome-TW engine that causes these morale boosting bonuses from temples and such not to be effective. You can use it for role-playing purposes, but do not expect the RTW engine to grant you an increased performance of your scottish (forgot the name of the city) trained troops on that basis.

The issue of the poor defence of Bagacos is mainly due to the Sweboz. You don't want to end up waging a two or three front war (which you could get yourself into if Lusotannan / Carthage have expanded). Just keep a solid garrison in Bagacos, and that should ascertain that the Sweboz will think twice before attacking you.

If you have an alliance with the Arverni, you may want to consider gifting them a town, if that prevents you sharing a border with another major regional power, to allow yourself some more time to build up your economy and your Gallic settlements. Even though you are playing on large unit settings, depopulation of some of those provinces can be a serious concern.

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,
So as you can see, I went for the attack.

https://i39.tinypic.com/mjvddu.jpg

My main general held the bridge against 4 full stacks and I demolished all of them ( three 10 star generals). I refilled the stack and sent back the other units for retraining. They should be back in about 6 seasons. = )

I personally think that the healing for their generals is wayyyy to powerful. So far, this campaign has been a breeze. But I guess it might change when I fight the Romans.

Anyways, I made peace with the Aedui and now I think I am going to turtle in Northern Gaul and go for all of Spain.

I decided that instead if conquering the whole known world, I might as well go for my objectives. If you guys feel otherwise, let me know what you think and I might change my mind. Oh, if you have any opinions on what you think might happen or what I could/should do, let me know.

Thanks!!!

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

I don't know if you have read the FAQs, but you could be looking to get ready for the Celtic reforms? As well as develop the economy and population base in Gaul, so you don't have to depend as heavily on reinforcements from the Isles.

Keep a decent stack on the bridge near Avaricum, to make certain you won't be receiving stabbity stab from the Romans or from the Gallic factions. Send a spy / diplomat to Spain and see what is going on there. If either Carthage or Lusotannan expand up north, then you can have a very interesting theatre up there.

An option would be to take out the Sweboz, though their lands do not offer that much in economic terms.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

My advice is to keep the Romans at bay by stuffing Gergovia full of spies until it rebels - even if it takes six or even nine spies to get the job done.

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,

So far the campaign is going as planned. I have secured almost all fronts in southern Gaul.

https://i42.tinypic.com/142655d.jpg

I have been dealing with the Romans but they have only sent four 1/2 stacks and I demolished them. I had another battle where I was besieging Gergova (roman city) and I got attacked from the rear, so I had a half stack to my rear and the same at my front. That battle was pretty crazy but I basically handled one army as fast as I could before the other could reach; otherwise I would have been in for quite a bloodbath.

Now I plan to turtle and hold Gaul and start to invade Spain so I could reach my goals and finish this campaign.

I also had a bridge battle with the romans and annihilated them with minimal losses (pic below)

https://i41.tinypic.com/acafdx.jpg

If you guys have any ideas on what you think I should do next instead of invading Spain, let me know. I haven't fully committed to taking over the luso's yet.

THE P-MAN

[athanaric]

You should watch your neighbours closely, especially the Lusitanians. If you campaign in Iberia, make sure to completely throw out the Carthaginians as soon as you share a border with them. Oh and keep at least two fleets of at least three tier 2 ships at all times. Otherwise you'll get flooded with elite phalanx, elephants, Balearic slingers, and Libyan spearmen. Yes it sounds fun fighting against them, but only the first three waves or so. For every unit you have, the Carthies have a nastier version with more armour and better missile range. Plus infinite money.

It's probably wisest to take up a defensive position in Belgium, since your victory conditions don't require you to hold Germanic lands and you can't recruit many useful units there (unless you play as the Suebi, Gauls, or Romans, which you aren't).

[Ludens]

It's probably wisest to take up a defensive position in Belgium, since your victory conditions don't require you to hold Germanic lands and you can't recruit many useful units there (unless you play as the Suebi, Gauls, or Romans, which you aren't).

Agreed, Germany isn't worth taking for the Casse. The provinces are poor; and you'll have to fight through hordes of Sweboz warriors to take them. If you aren't already at war with the Sweboz, this may be a good time to engage in some diplomacy. I find that paying other factions a token tribute (200 mnai) makes them far more reasonable in diplomacy. They'll still declare war if you have something they want, but they won't hate you quite so much. (My theory is that, like in M2:TW, diplomatic relationships with the A.I. deteriorate every turn unless a positive interaction takes place. Regular tribute, no matter how small, counts as a positive interaction.)

Whether or not the Sweboz are amenable, station a decent field army and a competent commander in Belgium. Chances are they will attack you there at some point in the campaign, and since you're their only neighbour.

[Ca Putt]

I'd also send a spy to iberia and Southern Italy, just to see where Carthagians and epirotes stand.

[Arjos]

If you are still eager to play this campaign, strengthen your Sweboz/SPQR border and start to invade Iberia with the goal to conquer it all; but if you are starting to consider a new campaign, I'd say just storm the victory conditions' regions :)

[PelicanMan]

Hey Guys,
Just a quick update.
I ended up sending spies to northern Italy and Central Europe and to my astonishment, Rome is having a b***h of a time dealing with the Gauls. I also took the advice of giving the Sweboz 200 mnai per turn for 30 years to keep peace with them (hopefully they do not attack!)

I defeated three small armies of the Romans and their diplomat came and offered a ceasefire. Instead, I counter offered asking for Massilia (don't remember how its spelled), trade rights, and money. Then counter offered giving up massilia and trade rights, and asked not to attack. I was surprised by the fact that they actually gave it up!!! unfortunately They gave me freed slaves as units and they completely suck so I sent all 8 units to attack Tolosa knowing that they would loose, but hey, I weakened them sufficiently.

Since I have secured my way points, and I just had a Family member trained in Ynes-Mon, I am building an Elite army and sending it off to conquer Spain. From then on, I will decide whether to continue the campaign or not.

Anyways, any advice would be appreciated!

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

Sounds like a good plan. You could have disbanded the freed slaves in Massilia or elsewhere to give a boost to the local population. Darioritum is a prime candidate for that, though it is a long walk from Massilia to there.

The only thing you can do is try to achieve the reforms. Will provide you with a few extra recruitment options.

[PelicanMan]

Hey D'Arthez,

Time of Bondsmen
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 5 (forum)(L3 Market) collectively

Time of Soldiers
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 9 (forum)(L3 Market) collectively
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 5 Large Cities collectively
-Casse, Arverni, and Aedui must build at least 5 Large Temples ('awesome' level)(L3 Temple) collectively

So if I meet all those requirements in any cities, I will get reforms??? Will there be a pop up that lets me know about the reforms?

THE P-MAN

[d'Arthez]

Yup. There should be a pop up to tell you about the reforms (not really sure, my last Arverni campaign was 2 years ago), and you will see markers in all your owned cities for "Time of Bondsmen" and "Time of Soldiers"