Some questions

[Damnas]

Hello everyone,

I recently bought R:TW and quickly got bored with it (conquering half the world while my Roman family allies were still barely out of Italy was a massive turn-off) and then got my hands on EB. After some migraines and tearing my hair out, I finally managed to get it to work on my Mac. I've browsed the forums for the past couple of days looking for answers to certain questions, but I'm still clueless about a few of them, so here goes...

What's this about the BI exec? So far, I wasn't too impressed with the AI and apparently playing through the BI expansion makes it better? Do I just have to launch BI and play EB for it to work?

Unit sizes. In my version, most units are within the 60-120 range but I've seen screenshots with 200+ units. I think I read somewhere that Principes could be within the vicinity of 160 or something. Mine are at 80. Is this some bug, or an additional mod?

Spies. I'm not too clear on how they work. I tend to lose regiments of spies trying to infiltrate enemy cities. Also, is there any benefit to establishing a spy guild network in cities I own?

Client rulers. I'm somewhat tempted to have a recruited general in all client provinces I own, but wouldn't have too many of them screw with the family tree?

And yeah, probably more but that's all I can think of for now.

[Alrik]

Heh, hi ;)
I'm still on my first EB campaign, but I've got a few of those questionmarks straightened out, not all though...

BI - Don't know...

Unitsizes - In the options menu in the main menu, before you load or launch a game/campaign, there's an option of unitsizes. I frankly dislike the set-up of it quite a bit, default is called "Large" and not normal and for some reason everyone making a unit list uses the "normal", or "small" numbers. There is a "Huge" option, which will give you the unitsizes you spoke of. Do take notice that the size of units obviously has a great impact on the game.

Spies - have three uses, opening gates, causing unhappiness (so that enemy cities may revolt.) and counterspying, i.e. helping you catch enemy spies and assassins. And yes they die in droves. Personally I think the unit is broken. The opening gates part of it is waaaay too good.
They also have a really good line of sight, and thus funciton perfectly as imformants on the doings on foreign territory, wich I think is the only way I'll use them in my next campaign, if I use any at all...

Client rulers - Aren't family members unless you adopt them. Normally this includes them leading an army to victory and you getting a "Man of the hour"-message, though I think it's called "Man of great potential" in EB.
I wish I had started using them earlier, that had helped quite a bit. They do however clog up the army-list...

[d'Arthez]

Downside to the client rules should be noted:
- They cost a small fortune
- They do count against spawning new family members

Spies are very useful opening gates of enemy cities, and for watching enemy movement in border areas. They have great line of sight. They need to be trained though, and they are relatively useless performing operations, until they have gained 4 or 5 skill points. Same with assassins. Espionage on armies led by captains / assassinations on armies led by captains are usually your best bets to train these units up.

Not sure if BI really enhances the AI much. It is probably a bit faction dependent.

[Ca Putt]

There should be a submod that let's you start the game with BI which gives you some extra features(night battles etc) the effect on the AI is disputed, not sure if it's for Mac tho.

Spies can also be trained by sitting around(and looking out for enemy spies) in your larger settlements, best if there is a large market(the higher the level the better) in that settlement.

[Blxz]

Client rulers can be interesting but look out for the area of recruitment. Building level 4 governments in your core cities will restrict your troops greatly. Better for the outskirts of an empire or for towns that have very high revolt risk issues.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Client rulers can be interesting but look out for the area of recruitment. Building level 4 governments in your core cities will restrict your troops greatly. Better for the outskirts of an empire or for towns that have very high revolt risk issues.

Indeed, best use of Type IV is in cities that are far away from your homeland and not of your faction's culture, so you can't recruit a lot of factional troops anyway. In such cases, the regional units available are usually better than your factional ones.