View Full Version : EB 2.? AI Faction Progression Thread
Antigonos Karchedonios
08-28-2014, 21:18
In the old EB I forum, back in my lurking days I always loved this thread: EB I faction progression thread (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?101742-1-x-AI-Faction-Progression-Thread)
So i thought this is a wonderful tradition to continue with the newest edition of Europa Barbarorum! :yes:
Post the minimap (after uncovering it with toggle_fow) and show us how the AI is progressing. If you have time write a short overview what the more active factions did so far and where war is going on. i start as an example:
100 turns = 25 years in my Boii campaign (M/M)
https://i.imgur.com/zqjktpi.jpg
Boii: I staret taking all the rebel settlements around me. Only war so far is with the Romanii when they tried expanding into the Balkans, couldn't allow this. Allied with Macedonia and the Aeduii.
Sweboz: Expanded slowly, they started a war with the Lugiones some years ago and just steamrolled them. I might have to intervene soon.
Aedui/ Arverni: Fighting the gallic civil war, so far Arverni winning, but Arevaci and Romani just joined in by declearing war on them.
Kart Hadasht/Numidia:Big surprise for me! Numidians started the war and took Carthage after a few turns. then they proceeded to take over the whole of modern Tunisia. Now the war is a bit cooling down in the recent years. Carthage was quiet active in Sicily at the beginning, taking Syracuse and messana after a few years into the game.
Arche Seleucida/PtolemaioiWarring in Syria and Asia minor, so far only Halikarnassos changed hands...Seleucids are also only at war with this foe, everybody else refreined from attakcing them, even the Parthains so far (they only took one settlement that had rebelled from AS earlyer) Big difference from most EB I campaigns.
Bactria Quite active from the beginning, made the Saka their protectorate after about 50 turns.
So I make another post after 200 turns, now it's your turn! ~;)
I started a campaign today:
http://www.pixentral.com/pics/1Edgq8QeXd2oZHoJ8aEAxGmF5qqUW0.png
68 turns in. Pergamon had no family members left or something and was destroyed without ever fighting a war.
The only really intersting war going on is Arverni vs Rome. The Arverni actually controlled two or three settlements at some point but the Romans were well...Romans.
QuintusSertorius
08-29-2014, 09:44
My Epeiros-as-Massalia game, 257BC (I think it's turn 63), on M/M and I've been tinkering a little (to keep the Romani out of Gallia and once to prevent Kart-Hadast falling to the Massylians; also given the Eleutheroi a lot of money on a few occasions):
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/1610808_10154507705765317_483867979371579592_n.jpg?oh=4a87b171df62f404e637b13bbefc6c68&oe=545F9B25&__gda__=1416525135_e46e5ce172863d359c17dd712478db53
Those three blue blobs under the frame are mine (yes, I only have three provinces so far).
In my game, the smaller factions seem to be racing away, but the larger ones are mostly stalling. The Seleukids seem to be having provinces revolt left, right and centre.
Lysandros
08-29-2014, 13:26
14204257BC
14199247BC
This is an M/M Seleucid campaign before applying the new AI. Obviously, I am not a very aggressive player and this game was also more for testing and getting to know the mod. I have to say that there is much to do for the Seleucid king even without a superaggressive AI (and I got addicted).
Anyway: The Koinon Hellenon lost to Makedonia though they at least kept having an army larger than the Makedonians' in Athens at a fort to the north of Athens. Unfortunately, it just sits there. The Koinon Hellenon further had conquered Crete, but you see the Ptolemaioi got it, so now the KH is reduced to Rhodos. At least they repel invading Makedonians (who had been too weak in numbers when I saw them there)!
I centred on Gaul for the 247 BC map because those other green Gauls (Areuakoi?) are hard to see on the minimap.
The Parthians have a province west of the Caspian Sea, probably because of a rebellion.
Interesting progression, I think, and I like it!
hello,
i thought i try to ask here: how you open the console in EBII - to be able to type the commands like toggle_fow (never played M2TW - only purchased it for this great Mod - so i dont know)
of course i tried the ^ button like in RTW but it doesnt work.
how you open the console in EBII
Press "@"
Hotseat_User
09-02-2014, 13:34
Kleitos, with a german keyboard, it might be one of the "Umlaut"-buttons. At least, that's what i remember...
'Ö' with a Scandinavian layout.
thanks for your answers :bow:- im gonna try these
QuintusSertorius
09-03-2014, 01:25
Restarted my Epeiros-as-Massalia game with the new CAI (v2), this is turn 71:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10600658_10154525550660317_1574434642786446439_n.jpg?oh=6aa2aa9b95e3dd6e4964748d9694c2b3&oe=545E4A48&__gda__=1417538654_47ac916ec47dc00605bba682b771cec8
Just rescued Pergamon from destruction, they left their capital undefended with three full stacks in three different directions.
Mouzafphaerre
09-03-2014, 14:59
hello,
i thought i try to ask here: how you open the console in EBII - to be able to type the commands like toggle_fow (never played M2TW - only purchased it for this great Mod - so i dont know)
of course i tried the ^ button like in RTW but it doesnt work.
Independent of the keyboard layout, the key just left of 1.
QuintusSertorius
09-03-2014, 15:24
Ha! Having just bitched about having to save Pergamon, here's 251BC/turn 86:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1908078_10154527393810317_814616402557071190_n.jpg?oh=15deb2afc098048c9e836f06391ce1ef&oe=545CF068&__gda__=1416207710_e7379d972d3d81116aa3938dd3abe743
Note how they've started to rebuild Lysimachos' Thraikian Kingdom, from the European side?
I helped Makedonia taken Krete, transported two armies there, the second one eventually did the job. The Bosporans finally got moving. The Lugiones have exploded (again). The Massylians have suddenly collapsed.
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/36348751568018198/A6A483A4D0C3E3C91CDEF6D08B22AFF23045ED5C/
Turn 41 (10 years in). Bosporan Kingdom, H/H. New CAI (ver 2). No meddling. Alliances with Sauromatae and Koinon Hellenon.
Macedon is the first to go (literally this turn) as the victim of the good old Pan-Hellenic dogpile. Either the KH or Epeiros killed its family members in battle as all their former possessions are a juicy power vacuum in Greece. KH and Epeiros are at war with each other and the Ptolemies and Rome respectively. Rome is really growing like a nettle and is fighting Carthage for Sardinia now. Epeiros has a chunky stack in South Italy but I think that'll only last until Rome turns around. Otherwise not much idea if anything exceptional is going on.
I'm a healthy 5 rust-red provinces on the edge of the Black Sea now. Have a nice few thousand in income and a standing army of hoplites, HAs and xystophoroi. Debating whether to kill one-province Dacia with a mix of hoplites and horse archers or to take a weakened Byzantium and then rush to grab some former Makedonian possessions before the Greeks and Epeirotes gobble them up.
joshmahurin
09-04-2014, 17:54
Glad to see Hayasdan actually took a province! Also interesting that Makedonia fell so quickly.
Glad to see Hayasdan actually took a province! Also interesting that Makedonia fell so quickly.there generaly is a loser in thr greek war with being such a small space and them at war from the start...in version 3 all small like hayasdan and bosphorous come alive..as dp pahlava, baktria , saba, soramatae etc...
Makedon, M/M, turn 50, CAI version from Aug 30:
14284
I took it as slowly as I thought was reasonable, considering Greece is pure chaos. Epirote failed to take Thermon several times. Took out 2 Epirote full stacks but didn't take any of their provinces. Used force diplomacy to force them into cease fire (both our kings died in the battle, so it made sense). Yes, that's them in Messina. They are at war with Carthage, that is controlling Rhegion.
Took out KH's mainland cities. In a suicidal move, they landed an army next to Halicarnassus. I might take Rhodos soon because I know they are going to piss off the Ptolomei enough sooner or later. But then again, I might be grabbing land too fast.
Took (neutral) Crete 5 turns ago. I'm actually losing money from controlling it (with low taxes).
In a stunning turn of events (not really), Romans are ignoring the south.
As a side note, Syracuse falls rather quickly in all games I played so far.
Maldaran
09-05-2014, 01:08
Pritanoi VH/M on turn 145 with the first version of the CAI:
14288
145 turns in and still no factions have been destroyed.
Im allied with the Aedui Arverni Boii and the Arevaci.
After uniting all the tin isles i began sacking Carthage's Iberian colonies but after a few turns of the cities changing hands i decided to stop raiding and take them over. After awhile i was able to truce them out and began pushing north into the Lusotannan territory and now were at peace with them having just one province left. I've since begun raiding Carthage again taking Sardina as a jumping off point to raid further down their coast.
In the rest of the world, Pontos Nabatean Pergamon and Numidia are all vassals of either the Grey, Yellow, or White blobs of death and live relatively peacefully. Eperios Carthage and Rome are all best friends which is horrible. Eperios kicked the Koinon out and are half way through with Macedonia. The Getai have wandered over and took the province above Pontos capital.
The Grey death have seemed to be getting the uperhand on the Yellow, they've taken Cyprus and a few others and seem to declare war on each other every other turn. Further east the Baktrians have made it clear that past the Grey death is their territory, the Taksashila are on their last legs and might be the first faction to be eliminated with the Baktrians besieging the last two Taksashila provinces.
Pritanoi VH/M on turn 145 with the first version of the CAI:
14288
145 turns in and still no factions have been destroyed.
Im allied with the Aedui Arverni Boii and the Arevaci.
After uniting all the tin isles i began sacking Carthage's Iberian colonies but after a few turns of the cities changing hands i decided to stop raiding and take them over. After awhile i was able to truce them out and began pushing north into the Lusotannan territory and now were at peace with them having just one province left. I've since begun raiding Carthage again taking Sardina as a jumping off point to raid further down their coast.
In the rest of the world, Pontos Nabatean Pergamon and Numidia are all vassals of either the Grey, Yellow, or White blobs of death and live relatively peacefully. Eperios Carthage and Rome are all best friends which is horrible. Eperios kicked the Koinon out and are half way through with Macedonia. The Getai have wandered over and took the province above Pontos capital.
The Grey death have seemed to be getting the uperhand on the Yellow, they've taken Cyprus and a few others and seem to declare war on each other every other turn. Further east the Baktrians have made it clear that past the Grey death is their territory, the Taksashila are on their last legs and might be the first faction to be eliminated with the Baktrians besieging the last two Taksashila provinces.is this the release CAI??..i liked it as well, it was way too slow for many players and parts of it were broken...
but i like the idea of a very very long campaign and its something i aim to do later when the mod has matured with age... ps .there must be some amount of stacks on the campaign map can you post some pics and are they all standing around cities? ta
http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/36348931055969862/04A04AC698ABF9D711579DCD34C7446C997C459A/
Still in the lazy uncropped style. Next time I will be better. Turn 81/20 years in. Same Bosporan H/H campaign as before.
Interesting things:
I basically sent in an army to assassinate the Getai leadership then ended up leaving their provinces to head for Byzantion, making them the second faction to fall in turn 46. Wanted to just make sure my back was free but now feel slightly remorseful. The KH got to Pella after I prevaricated about it and headed for the essentially un-holdable bits of Dacia instead. Away from my deceptively small-looking empire...
Rome and KH are both big points of concern and both bullying the remnants of Epeiros. The whole East appears pretty indecisive. The Lusotannan took the northwestern tip of Gaul and both of the Iberian factions are spilling into Gaul. Pergamon are probably the nearest threat, assuming Rome and KH go to war with each other but I almost feel mean naval dropping a massive stack on their capital for an assassination. Carthage are doing alright, at war with both Rome and the Areuakoi.
Four main options standing out to me right now:
1. target the softer Dacian and Thracian provinces and try to secure them before Rome or the KH work their way over there.
2. Cross the Hellespont and try to create a littoral empire, fairly flimsy opposition with just Pergamon, Pontos and the Eleutheroi but I don't really want to spend the next 800 turns fighting the two Deaths once I'm through that.
3. grab the KH by the horns and try and kick them out of Pella and Greece while they're distracted with Epeiros and Rome.
4. disband my second stack. Use massive income to develop my homelands.
(5. Ship my second stack home. Backstab the Sauromatae massively.)
I'm really enjoying how open the Bosporan starting position is and that even at this point I've got a ton of distinct mechanical options with very distinct flavour overtones.
QuintusSertorius
09-05-2014, 10:58
Turn 153 (yes, no expansion from me since the last one):
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10583814_10154532416580317_3424175978436425529_n.jpg?oh=4490960523759bdb3b39c8037ff4671f&oe=547F26C1&__gda__=1416766142_d64052752a970cba5019754ca283efcc
It's all been kicking off the last 30 turns or so, suddenly the AI factions are starting to turn on each other. Karthadastim just decided I needed to go and have almost wiped out my allies, the Areuakoi. I need to save them, then humble those Phoenicians.
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-05-2014, 18:41
https://i.imgur.com/3NAutBP.jpg
Turn 50 in my pritanoi campaign. Everybody building up nicely and slowly (with the ususal exeption of Pergamon and Pontos). Only war so far is the first Punic War which is probably scripted when Carthage takes Syraucuse (?).
Only war so far is the first Punic War which is probably scripted when Carthage takes Syraucuse (?).
When either Rome or Carthage takes Messina(Messana), which is what caused the first Punic war historically.
I'm actually surprised to see Rome expand south in your game, in a few of my games so far they didn't take Tarentum within the first 90 or so turns.
https://i.imgur.com/3NAutBP.jpg
Turn 50 in my pritanoi campaign. Everybody building up nicely and slowly (with the ususal exeption of Pergamon and Pontos). Only war so far is the first Punic War which is probably scripted when Carthage takes Syraucuse (?).No not scripted, i made that happen solely through CAI work.
No not scripted, i made that happen solely through CAI work.
I'm positive there is a script when a player is involved...Or at least there was in my Rome test game.
Does that not apply to two AIs?
I'm positive there is a script when a player is involved...Or at least there was in my Rome test game.
Does that not apply to two AIs?not sure , i was able to move it around from my CAI work both as a rome player and without, surely if it was a script it would be consistent...i must check up on that ..thanks.
Maldaran
09-05-2014, 20:55
is this the release CAI??..
Sorry when i said the first version of the CAI i should have said the first version of the updated CAI that came out a few days after the release
Continuation from previous post:
Turn 100 Makedon, M/M, CAI Aug 30th version
https://i.imgur.com/oS754YW.png
Took Rhodos around turn 55, eliminating KH.
Took Epirote Greek holdings (turn 76 and turn 99). They lost Messana to Qart-Hadast and signed peace quickly afterwards. They are down to holding only Taras but they are marching a full stack towards undefended Arpi, while the Romani are busy fighting over Rhegion with the Phoenicians and, well, expanding north as is apparent. They aren't at war with the Romans yet, but something tells me that won't last long.
Pergamon has expanded, taking Bythinia (not sure what the city name is, Nikea maybe?). They have been trying to take Byzantion for the last 40 turns or so, but their attempts at doing so have been half-hearted at best, while Byzation is defended by almost a full stack of Eleutheroi troops.
Pontos has expanded nicely. Seleukids have trouble holding onto their lands which is a very welcome sight.
Getai were attacking Tylis for at least 30-40 turns before they managed to take it.
Dalmatia is defended by a full stack of Illyrian troops and it resisted attempts by both Romani and Epirotes to take it. Might end up being my next target.
All in all, I'm very happy with how this looks.
Same save, turn 150:
https://i.imgur.com/hyo3ihM.png
While I was having fun simulating a dynastic struggle, all sorts of things happened. Romans completely rolled over Sicily, made progress into Gaul, and invaded Numidia.
Boii went into conquest mode, took Lugiones home city, turning them into nomads (I think, there was an event that said something like that). Unfortunately, they don't seem to be just standing around their old city and not doing much of anything.
After Pergamon was attacking Byzantion rather ineffectively for another 20 turns, a Getai stack showed up and rolled it over in 2 turns. Peragmon and Getai are now at war, we'll see how it works out.
Oh, and Epiros is still alive in Tarentum. It's almost undefended. It's like Romans have a blind spot there, it's silly.
I might need to stop mucking about and start conquering more. Ptolomei look like a juicy target...
https://i.imgur.com/eKefHUp.png
Turn 100 in my Pergamon M/M game.
Had a bit of an odd start, what with my faction leader dying of old age on turn 2 and my FM commanding my entire army being bribed on turn 3. Allied on turn 1 with Arche Seleukeia and they've kept me safe ever since. Currently at war with Makedonia, as they attacked (and captured) my faction leader while he was building watchtowers along the borders (only to release him without ransom). They're getting pretty beat up by Epeiros, so I managed to capture Pella without too much trouble. Just lost a major battle when I attacked 2 of their full stacks (5000 men) with my army (2000 men) near Tylis. Quite an interesting battle, which was more or less even for the first half hour, but my medium cavalry could not stand up to his heavy cavalry, so I had no troops to hammer his flank and they won the battle of attrition on the main battle line because of their numerical superiority. Still, I killed about 3000 of them, so once I've retrained my forces, I can go back in and take the town.
mmiki Your game seems great, I love the development of the AI. I love this thread in general :D
Pritanoi M/M. New CAI/Piter AI 1.0. Doubled all movement points (except ships which I increased 125%).
turn 22
https://i.imgur.com/NE9RrcJ.jpg
turn 41
https://i.imgur.com/Gr0BJLg.jpg
turn 63
https://i.imgur.com/Fi5FhkX.jpg
I am not sure why these are so big. The originals are not this big. meh
turn 86
https://i.imgur.com/WjjT6W3.jpg
turn 100
https://i.imgur.com/UNs9wQO.jpg
turn 120
https://i.imgur.com/4WjZNYs.jpg
turn 140
https://i.imgur.com/6aGSXhc.jpg
Nightshift
09-09-2014, 22:24
Hi, this is my Sweboz campaign first pic is turn 92, which is around the time I realised how the nomadic vs settlement thing works:14333
Turn 122: Wanted to raid Boii capital for some money as by now I didnt need to know what to do first as there was so much going on right now. Had to find out they had only one province left inside northern roman territory. Started a war with romans and then migrated west of alps after that they became a roman client state.
14334
Turn 144: Aedui have become client of Aruerni, both allied to Casse which are landing close to my shores now after I raided two of their settlements (what a story - with pirates sinking my fleet so I couldnt retreat from Britain, had to sack a second one before I could escape :). So now I have those three agains me but my eastern ally allways comes just in time to help me out. The grey dot south of me is still rebell after they got my faction heir to defect with full stack and an additional full stack inside town - noone is conquering this one the next decades..
So far no Faction eliminated only two beeing submissed into client states. Very nice campaign, lots of things happening:
14335
CAI is from Piete, sorry for small pics, first timer here.. Thx again EB team, lots of work ahead but as you can see I'm enjoying it alot.
Here's a technique the EB2 playtesters used to show faction "progress on the map" over time - a .gif file showing sequential views of the campaign mini-map in the lower left-hand corner. Here's an example from a 100 turn Lusotannan game last December:
https://i.imgur.com/PWjMQaJ.gif (http://imgur.com/PWjMQaJ)
A few things you'll need to know/consider:
1) Decide what a good sequence consists of. My snapshots are taken at 10-turn increments, but you could use some other number - it's best if the interval is consistent, however.
2) You will want to see EVERYTHING happening on the map, so first bring up the console (press the ~ key) and type in toggle_fow. This makes all factions visible on the minimap (and everywhere else).
3) The easiest way to grab the screenshot is (while playing in "windowed mode") to use the Windows "Snipping Tool" (Start/All Programs/Accessories/Snipping Tool). Just drag the cursor around the minimap and "save as" to a folder (file type should default to .jpg) And make sure to use a recognizable name (like "KH_turn_10") so you can easily identify the sequence later:
https://i.imgur.com/hIhLhL9.jpg (http://imgur.com/hIhLhL9)
4) After you've played long enough to accumulate quite a few screenshots, it's time to create the .gif file.
5) GIFMaker (http://gifmaker.me/) is by far the easiest way to do that. It's a website, so there's no need to install any software or run a specialized program. After clicking the GIFMaker link, it brings you to this screen:
https://i.imgur.com/z6yGsjt.jpg (http://imgur.com/z6yGsjt)
6) As per the attachment below, click the "Upload Images" button first (circled in red). That will bring up an explorer-like interface. Navigate to the folder containing your screen shots. Click the first one and then - while pressing the Ctrl key - click all the other screenshots you'll need for the .gif. When you are finished selecting files, click the "Open" button (also circled in red):
https://i.imgur.com/RzqIeyA.jpg (http://imgur.com/RzqIeyA)
7) You'll see a visual of the text file names uploading to the website, after which they will all appear as thumbnails (below). In the "Control Panel" at the upper right you can already see the gif action taking place. If any of your screen shots are out of sequence, just drag the thumbnails into the proper sequence. The "Canvas size" settings are fine, but please change the "Animation speed" to "2000" (circled in red), so people have time to recognize what's going on as the factions grow and shrink. Once that is done, click the "Create Now" button (also circled in red). Three new options now appear below the "Create Now" button. Select "Download the GIF image now" (circled in red), click "Save" in the resulting message box, and then (when the explorer-like interface appears) navigate to the folder containing your screen shots and give it an appropriate file name.
https://i.imgur.com/PPQVeIK.jpg (http://imgur.com/PPQVeIK)
8) Your new .gif file can be uploaded to IMGUR (like the one in this post) or posted at some other location of your choice.
Congratulations - you are now a .gif making expert!
Thanks for that Kull, that's pretty cool.
Here's 237 Pic of my Campaign as Pergamum:14338
My won the race after the rebellion :whip: , what is the reward? :2thumbsup:
Sweboz, VH/H:
https://s29.postimg.org/v92qbxw47/swe_265.jpg (http://postimage.org/)
https://s29.postimg.org/dhr3xhgpj/swe_255.jpg (http://postimage.org/)
https://s29.postimg.org/kjkg5xuxj/swe_245.jpg (http://postimage.org/)
https://s29.postimg.org/3o9wkoel3/swe_233.jpg (http://postimage.org/)
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-12-2014, 09:03
So this is turn 190 of my Pritanoi campaign, v 2 CAI, no submods. After reaching the Casse kingdom reforms I'll halt the game now to test the new Campaign and battle Ai with another faction.
https://i.imgur.com/Fn3hyzS.jpg
Only faction destroyed so far is Epeiros. Rather strangely Arverni struck the fatal blow by taking Epidamnos out of nowhere...
Rome is in fierce conflict with the Arverni over northern italy, Arevaci joined in a few turns ago. Also there is a constant struggle with Carthage in Sicily with approx. 2 stack each facing each other across the strait of Messena.
Seleucids threw Ptolemaioi out of Asia minor after many years of battle. (Pergamon probably helped, at least some stacks of them were around)
Lugii dominated most of Eastern Europe before beeing attacked and steamrolled by the Boii.
Sweboz campaigned against the Aeduii in northern Gaul. I joined in to hel only to be kicked out by their suerior troops a few turns later. Aedui instead of being grateful declared war on me too! I twice tried to take Condate (modern Brittany) from them, held it twice, was repelled twice by their superior infantry. A aimlassly wandering Lusotanian army out of nothing decleared war on the Sweboz and took the settlement in Northern Gaul.
Btw: Hayasdan owning Ekbatana and KH Olbia are my "fault" I had one useless Fm sent away across the sea ant the steppe to found a mercenary company and kill and plunder where an opportunity arose. He came as far as Ecbatana where he was finally trapped and died heroically.
Mithridates VI Eupator
09-12-2014, 15:20
It is interesting to see that that the Taksashilans are holding a province in Arabia. How did that happen? Did they march there, or did they do a naval landing?
I'm assuming that Horde in Ferghana is the Saka?
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-12-2014, 17:10
I think it was a naval invasion. They took that one long before attacking Baktria.
Yes the Horde are the Saka. They were hard pressed by the Phalava and Baktria struck the fatal blow only to be attacked in the rear by the Taksashilians an loosing their core provinces in only a few turns...
What i noticed in most campaigns is that hordes tend to wander around quite aimlessly and slowly declining in size (I guess from battles with AI). But I never saw them successfully resettle. (I remember from vanilla M2TW that the Mongols and Timurids were not that impressive either, not sure if anything can be changed in "horde behaviour")
Tyrfingr
09-12-2014, 21:01
Turn 66 of my bosporati campaign
Me - Just finished snatching up rebel coastal cities, basically making the Black Sea my private little pond. The makedonians, sarmatians and pontics have some ports...for now. Meanwhile, two other points of interest:
In Spain - The celts are winning the fight for the iberian peninsula, having ousted the carthiginians (and invaded the Baelearic Isles), and the lusotanians have actually fled to Britain.
In the Alps - Rome is going toe-to-toe against the boii and aeduii. Awesome.
What i noticed in most campaigns is that hordes tend to wander around quite aimlessly and slowly declining in size (I guess from battles with AI). But I never saw them successfully resettle. (I remember from vanilla M2TW that the Mongols and Timurids were not that impressive either, not sure if anything can be changed in "horde behaviour")
Massylia and Nabatu (and the germanics) will ruin your day. With Saka however it's probably related to their distance from the horde_target cities. Theyll probably get there eventually though. To be clear, hordes DO work in EB2.
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-12-2014, 22:44
My observations are mostly based on Phalava and Saka hording. So I get your point! I'll try expelling one of the germanic tribes next time and see what hapens! ;-)
Nice to see that you also focusd on this comparetively "minor" part of gameplay.
Here is a Pontus game with Campaign AI upgrade but not EB2.01. I wiped out Hayasdan so this isn't a great image for AI expansion but I was just really shocked when I saw the Arverni in Rome and the Iberians teaming up to wipe Carthage from Iberia. Arverni and Aediuo are at peace. I usually see the Lusotannians at war with Aeurokoi but I think they are at peace, and Epirus and Makedonia are at peace too.
The romans in Noricum already remind me of the Old EB .7 or so before the Boii death stacks were added so I wish the Boii were a bit more aggressive than their two provinces this time.
Tyrfingr
09-14-2014, 10:11
Turn 100 of my bosporati campaign:
All factions still alive, except for Pontos who left their capital guarded only by their heir and one single unit of eastern spearmen. Some spies open the gates for my "god incarnate" Basileus of the Bosporati, and thus the pontic kingdom fell - teaching them the valuable lesson of not meddling into other people's affairs.
At the end of this turn, I took Tylis. Now, only Maeotis stands in my way making the Black Sea my private pond. Taking Maeotis will be the last thing I do before upgrading to EB2.01, thus abandoning this campaign. It has been a fun campaign, although I must say I have barely been active on the steppes, focusing mainly on Asia Minor. For future bosporati campaigns, I will direct my focus towards the north.
Another point of interest, the Iberian peninsula is now completely celt-iberic. I really enjoy having the brown death of EB1 humilitated.
https://s23.postimg.org/cwtqz9ynf/0001.jpg
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-16-2014, 16:26
Turn 100 in my Bosporan campaign, EB 2.01 CAI V3a, New Battle AI. Hard/Medium difficulty:
https://i.imgur.com/SJ1COIZ.jpg
Just started a war with Hayasdan about their Black Sea provinces, no battles so far. Only war was a 3 turn war against Getai. They were first at olbia, I wanted it, conquered it, ther immediately offered peace and went expanding to the West.
Aedui are very active in Gaul, expanding as far as Noreia. Currently in a war with Rome about northern Italy. Arverni are loosing ground against Arevaci which previously kicked Carthage out of Spain. Arevaci are also at war with Romani, Lusotanna and Rome, but hold their ground very well, even expand into Gaul.
Carthage took all of Africa expect Numidian starting province. Numidia so far completely inacitve. Carthage lost the "First Punic war". Glad to see Romani finally went South!
Taksashila lost their capital after about 20 turns, which paralized them for the following 70 turns. now they're expanding again!
Boii were completely inactive until kicked out of their homeland by Sweboz, currently on the move...
AKH git destroyes when Macedonia conquered Athens and killed all their FM. Until then they held their ground. Epeiros and Macedonia continue to struggle over greece.
Pergamon is a miracle to me. They did nothing for about 90+ turns. Then Hayasdan came out of the East, steamrolled the whole Black sea coast including Nicomedia. Having lost this exansion opportunity they (Pergamon) took Byzantion a few turns later and then turned Berserk on the ptolemaioi holdings in Asia minor. Glad to see they finally did something.
Pontos, Pritanoi, and Numidia are still contesting for the most inactive faction. (Boii as well actually, they can be luck that they have
hording function)
Only thing that bothers me is that AI prefers to ignore me and fights amongst their own. That's ok for me, but a little bit more aggression would be fine...
GRANTO: If it helps you I can continue to take all 10 turns a picture and make a .gif file as Kull instructed. I finally figured out how to do it. ;-)
Turn 100 in my Bosporan campaign, CAI V3a, New Battle AI. Hard/Medium difficulty:
https://i.imgur.com/SJ1COIZ.jpg
Just started a war with Hayasdan about their Black Sea provinces, no battles so far. Only war was a 3 turn war against Getai. They were first at olbia, I wanted it, conquered it, ther immediately offered peace and went expanding to the West.
Aedui are very active in Gaul, expanding as far as Noreia. Currently in a war with Rome about northern Italy. Arverni are loosing ground against Arevaci which previously kicked Carthage out of Spain. Arevaci are also at war with Romani, Lusotanna and Rome, but hold their ground very well, even expand into Gaul.
Carthage took all of Africa expect Numidian starting province. Numidia so far completely inacitve. Carthage lost the "First Punic war". Glad to see Romani finally went South!
Taksashila lost their capital after about 20 turns, which paralized them for the following 70 turns. now they're expanding again!
Boii were completely inactive until kicked out of their homeland by Sweboz, currently on the move...
AKH git destroyes when Macedonia conquered Athens and killed all their FM. Until then they held their ground. Epeiros and Macedonia continue to struggle over greece.
Pergamon is a miracle to me. They did nothing for about 90+ turns. Then Hayasdan came out of the East, steamrolled the whole Black sea coast including Nicomedia. Having lost this exansion opportunity they (Pergamon) took Byzantion a few turns later and then turned Berserk on the ptolemaioi holdings in Asia minor. Glad to see they finally did something.
Pontos, Pritanoi, and Numidia are still contesting for the most inactive faction. (Boii as well actually, they can be luck that they have
hording function)
Only thing that bothers me is that AI prefers to ignore me and fights amongst their own. That's ok for me, but a little bit more aggression would be fine...
GRANTO: If it helps you I can continue to take all 10 turns a picture and make a .gif file as Kull instructed. I finally figured out how to do it. ;-)yes please do a gif, i still have some code to add for the AI , what i would now like you to do is be aggressive and go to war with the AI and report how it reacts in strength to your advancement cheers.
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-16-2014, 17:17
ok, any particular wishes who to attack? (besides Hayasdan)
ok, any particular wishes who to attack? (besides Hayasdan)getai, macedon or lug...how much do they react and what king of strength do they come at you with?..ignore any peace deals they may offer.
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-17-2014, 20:52
https://i.imgur.com/HVX5FbD.gif
I didn't have muach time but before leaving to holidays for a week i thought I give a short update.
I declared war on the Lugiones and first nothing happend (my army was still in the South so I couldn't be aggressive first) but after several years all of a sudden 3 armies (1 not too small, 2 small) attacked 3 lightly garrisoned settlements of mine. I clould defeat them, but the attack was quite sudden and well coordinated. Once my army came up from the South I went attacking them (but the steppes are huge so you can't really see much progress of mine in the gif) And battled a full stack army of theirs in the steppe.
No further attacks on my border regions were made, but it probably didn' help them that their main troops were in the East against the Sauromata and Getai joined in on the war shortly after me.
About the AI factions: Boii spread terror in Northern Italy, but are now almost done (were defeated by Romani and Aedui several times).
Sweboz attack Aedui, seem to be winning.
Arevaci steamrolled Arverni, they escaped to the Boritish Islands where they hold their last setttlement.
Punic war still going on, Romani made one short expedition to northern Africa, captured Adrumento, but were replled. Fierce fighting in Sardinia!
Pritanoi and Numidia do absolutely nothing...
Shadowwalker
09-21-2014, 21:23
SSbQ campaign, M/M
EB 2.01
Grantos CAI 3a
Grantos BAI
Bogias Mod (which includes Konnys command star mod from EB 1, trait fixes, etc)
changed Campaign script (lower Kings purse increae/decrease for AI, just to test if this reduces AI stack spam)
An interesting campaign so far, much too quick for my liking but that's rather my than the AIs fault. I just was too annoyed by the huge income drop that came with the outbreak of the four major wars I experienced (see below) to sit back and turtle on.
The overall progression of the AI is rather slow in most cases, with some noteable exceptions (Sweboz, AS, Makedonia). There's a lot of stacks around, though.
My idea of decreasing the amount of money the AI gets (EB 2.01: +1000 mnai Kings purse increase when they lose money, +400 mnai/turn if not, -1000 mnai kings purse if the don't lose money and have more than 20k treasury; I changed that to 100/40/-100 respectively) was not completely pointless as there are less stacks on the map, but the worst stackspammers - AS, Nabataea, Pergamon, Makedonia, Lusotannan, Areuakoi to name a few - are still spamming, just a bit less. Pergamon had not 5 stacks at turn 100 but 4, for example.
There are quite a lot of naval invasions too (Pritanoi hold a belgic province, Sweboz hold northern Britain in return, Makedonia conquered Kyrene and repeatedly tries to re-conquer Arpi, AS grabbed Salamis from the Ptolemies, KH conquered Krete and Karia etc etc), infact I think it could be worth to raise the cost for ships (at least the recruitment costs), several factions have 10+ fleets within 20 turns after campaign start.
Furthermore I suppose the rebels get a bit too much help at the moment. Not against the player but against the AI factions, especially the small ones. Pontos tries to grab Sinope and Ankyra desperatey but fails, same goes for Pergamon (Nikaia), Getai (Sarmiszegethusa), Massylia (Kirtan, unless they are victorious with their first attempt) etc. And everytime it's for the same reason: the rebels expand/retrain their garrisons faster than the smaller factions can assemble armies, until they stop to send the armies out at all (which results in 4 stacks of Pergamon troops circling around Pergamon). And in the end there's always a larger factions around (in most cases AS or Makedonia) that can bring a huge army and grabs the settlement.
I will go more into detail about this campaign later, at the moment I lack time (didn't expect that creating that screenshot file would take -that- long, hehe).
Shadowwalker
09-22-2014, 17:00
As promised above, some comments about the performance of the various factions in my Qart'Hadasht campaign:
Romani
Took Felsina, Segesta and Patavium early on, didn't go for Taras though. Attacked Alalia then and blockaded virtually all my ports in the Thyrrenian Sea and my core cities (Kart Hadast, Atiqa, Adrumeto, Lepki). Very impressive as it was the first time I've seen efficient blockading done by an AI faction in both Rome and Medieval II. Attempting to secure a peace by paying tribute was rejected, so I started taking their provinces, even when they only held Patavium they rejected peace so I destroyed them.
Epeiros
Took Thermon and Rhegion early on, later Dalminion and Segestika, lost their possessions in Greece/Illyria to Makedonia then, snatched Arpi during my campaign against the Romani, have repelled a lot of Makedonian invasions of Arpi since then. Allies of me for 100+ turns.
Areuakoi
Took Arsé, Iltirta, Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
The EB 2 Casse, so to speak, in many campaigns they just don't expand. It seems to be dependent on taking Tole or not. If the Areuakoi are taking that town, the Lusos are just sitting back and mourn their fate. 4 Stacks linger around Oxtraca. Only expanded after I gifted them Iliberri. Allies since ~turn 10.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, as soon as they held Massalia they tried to conquer Alalia and Ebusus. Rejected every peace offer until I gifted them Lugdunon. Repelling Aedui attacks since then.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi and Pritanoi, peace with Sweboz, lost Nemetokema (spelling?) to a surprise Pritanoi attack.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a belgic province in the end, though, watched Sweboz take Dunopalator (that stack landed there about 10 years before it attacked the city, all the time a larger Pritanoi stack stood directly at the gates of the city, doing nothing).
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Made Lugiones a horde. Peace with Sauromatae, allies to Qart'Hadasht. Struggling with the last Boii province.
Boii
Expanded a bit, very slow, though, lost their possessions to the Sweboz then. Nothing more to say.
Lugiones
Started nicely (among the first to expand), lost the war against Sweboz, as a horde they travelled all the way from Klepidava to Uiennos (!) to resettle there. Were destroyed after attacking Massalia (me).
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions
Makedonia
Beast. First they took out KH in Greece, then simultanously attacked the greek isles, Kyrene, Illyria and Getia. After destroying KH and uniting Greece and Illyria they took the ptolemaic possessions in Mikra Asia and started invading Arpi - which is the first target they haven't kept (although they held the city for a few turns).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
Bosporan Greeks
Nothing much to say. Held Olbia for some time, lost it to Getai, then Makedonia. Still hold Kotais. Constantly attacked by Sauromatae.
Sauromatae
The usual expansion, one notable exception though - they held Trapezous for 3 turns, then the city rebelled and AS said "thanks".
Hayasdan
Yet another lazy faction didn't move at all until very recently, have virtually no armies since they took Mazaka (which rebelled from AS).
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 4 stacks around Pergamon and peacefully waited for the AS to come and destroy them. Which the AS did eventually.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again, eventually destroyed by AS.
Ptolemaioi
Nothing worth to mention, they only took Axum, but lost Salamis early on, struggling to stay alive since then, invaded by Nabataea (which held Diospolis-Megale, Alexandreia and Memphis at some point).
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Took Dedan at least, at war with Saba for ages. Invaded Ptolemaioi lands eventually.
Sab'Yn
Slow expansion eastwards, several attempts to take Axum (which they finally conquered from Ptolemaioi then). Attacked Nabataeans (Diospolis-Megale was no naval invasion, they went by land to there). Peace with AS.
Arche Seleukeia
Monster. About 30+ fullstacks (garrison not taken into account!), wiped out several factions. Steadily expanding, now they start amassing troops at the Hellespont and at the eastern borders.
Baktria
War with Saka since turn one. Bitter fights for Chach and Oyrta. lost both (and Marakanda ) to rebellions which was used by the other factions to step in. Now partially regaining strength, but attacked by AS. I expect them to fall soon.
Taksashila
Lazy buggers.
Noone bothered them but they still haven't even taken all of India.
Pahlava
Took Antiocheia-Margiane and Syrinx quickly. Lost Syrinx to rebellion and then to AS, their armies stand no chance against smaller AS stacks so it is rather surprising they are still there.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now almost destroyed (Chach is sieged constantly).
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, they snatched Tuat before me though, forcing me to quickly race for the remainder of the north african coast. They took their three desert provinces and then built up 5 full stacks which were sitting in the desert between Tuat and Garama.
Attacked me with a half stack at Kirtan in turn 201, got destroyed then since they rejected all peace offers (regardless how generous).
Feedback about the 3a Campaign AI and the campaign in general:
(1) AI is reliable if you have an alliance, but once you are at war with a faction you sinply cannot convince them to accept a ceasefire regardless how bad you beat them.
(2) It's odd that you can't establish good relations with any faction. Not sure if this is a Qart'Hadasht thing but the relations to the Sweboz, Epeiros, Ptolemaioi and Lusotannan always went down to "poor" or "very poor" over time, despite paying 1000 mnai/turn as tribute and having established trade routes with them. I was forced to spend large sums of money on them regularly (every 10-20 or so turns) to prevent the relations falling to such low levels.
(3) What's rather nice, though, is the fact that the allies of my enemies (for example Makedonia and Pergamon during the war with Rome) start to view you as a serious problem (relations: terrible) and that the enemies of your allies (Makedonia and AS as I'm allied with Ptolemaioi an Epeiros) have the same mindset. Nice touch!
(4) There are not many AI - AI alliances around, the vanilla M2TW "blobs" I haven't seen yet. Usually the AI factions pick a few alliances (Rome had Pergamon and Makedonia only, for example). There is a rather annoying pattern of most factions coming to offer alliances to the player faction, but only in a package with trade rights (which you can't give without possible trade routes). And they usually don't accept an alliance without trade rights, not even when you offer 20k or more money in addition.
(5) Many of the small factions still struggle to expand their "empires" while maintaining super-size armies due to the way the current money script works. I'm still trying to get a script working that replaces that flat "increase their kings purse to eventually astronomical values" by some faction-size-dependent money script but haven't made real success yet.
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
(7) The corruption level (or better: the player economy in general) is quite challenging, but not impossible. I played campaigns as "poor" barbarian factions, too, and these are hard (Aruernoi is really hard!) but if you spend some thoughts on what to build and where, you will experience the benefits. I love that even my current Qart'Hadasht campaign doesn't allow me to just build fullstacks all over the place. I have 3 at the moment: one in northern Iberia, one in Italy and one in Africa, not even super-heavy ones, just the regionally available units and only one unit of elephants. Add in two fleets (1 Penteres, 2 Trieres each) and I'm down to about 12k per turn (which I need to build up a treasury for the gifts to the four allies and for the war times when the economy drops down seriously).
joshmahurin
09-22-2014, 17:48
I love how Baktria and Saka switched places :P
As promised above, some comments about the performance of the various factions in my Qart'Hadasht campaign:
Romani
Took Felsina, Segesta and Patavium early on, didn't go for Taras though. Attacked Alalia then and blockaded virtually all my ports in the Thyrrenian Sea and my core cities (Kart Hadast, Atiqa, Adrumeto, Lepki). Very impressive as it was the first time I've seen efficient blockading done by an AI faction in both Rome and Medieval II. Attempting to secure a peace by paying tribute was rejected, so I started taking their provinces, even when they only held Patavium they rejected peace so I destroyed them.
Epeiros
Took Thermon and Rhegion early on, later Dalminion and Segestika, lost their possessions in Greece/Illyria to Makedonia then, snatched Arpi during my campaign against the Romani, have repelled a lot of Makedonian invasions of Arpi since then. Allies of me for 100+ turns.
Areuakoi
Took Arsé, Iltirta, Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
The EB 2 Casse, so to speak, in many campaigns they just don't expand. It seems to be dependent on taking Tole or not. If the Areuakoi are taking that town, the Lusos are just sitting back and mourn their fate. 4 Stacks linger around Oxtraca. Only expanded after I gifted them Iliberri. Allies since ~turn 10.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, as soon as they held Massalia they tried to conquer Alalia and Ebusus. Rejected every peace offer until I gifted them Lugdunon. Repelling Aedui attacks since then.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi and Pritanoi, peace with Sweboz, lost Nemetokema (spelling?) to a surprise Pritanoi attack.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a belgic province in the end, though, watched Sweboz take Dunopalator (that stack landed there about 10 years before it attacked the city, all the time a larger Pritanoi stack stood directly at the gates of the city, doing nothing).
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Made Lugiones a horde. Peace with Sauromatae, allies to Qart'Hadasht. Struggling with the last Boii province.
Boii
Expanded a bit, very slow, though, lost their possessions to the Sweboz then. Nothing more to say.
Lugiones
Started nicely (among the first to expand), lost the war against Sweboz, as a horde they travelled all the way from Klepidava to Uiennos (!) to resettle there. Were destroyed after attacking Massalia (me).
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions
Makedonia
Beast. First they took out KH in Greece, then simultanously attacked the greek isles, Kyrene, Illyria and Getia. After destroying KH and uniting Greece and Illyria they took the ptolemaic possessions in Mikra Asia and started invading Arpi - which is the first target they haven't kept (although they held the city for a few turns).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
Bosporan Greeks
Nothing much to say. Held Olbia for some time, lost it to Getai, then Makedonia. Still hold Kotais. Constantly attacked by Sauromatae.
Sauromatae
The usual expansion, one notable exception though - they held Trapezous for 3 turns, then the city rebelled and AS said "thanks".
Hayasdan
Yet another lazy faction didn't move at all until very recently, have virtually no armies since they took Mazaka (which rebelled from AS).
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 4 stacks around Pergamon and peacefully waited for the AS to come and destroy them. Which the AS did eventually.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again, eventually destroyed by AS.
Ptolemaioi
Nothing worth to mention, they only took Axum, but lost Salamis early on, struggling to stay alive since then, invaded by Nabataea (which held Diospolis-Megale, Alexandreia and Memphis at some point).
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Took Dedan at least, at war with Saba for ages. Invaded Ptolemaioi lands eventually.
Sab'Yn
Slow expansion eastwards, several attempts to take Axum (which they finally conquered from Ptolemaioi then). Attacked Nabataeans (Diospolis-Megale was no naval invasion, they went by land to there). Peace with AS.
Arche Seleukeia
Monster. About 30+ fullstacks (garrison not taken into account!), wiped out several factions. Steadily expanding, now they start amassing troops at the Hellespont and at the eastern borders.
Baktria
War with Saka since turn one. Bitter fights for Chach and Oyrta. lost both (and Marakanda ) to rebellions which was used by the other factions to step in. Now partially regaining strength, but attacked by AS. I expect them to fall soon.
Taksashila
Lazy buggers.
Noone bothered them but they still haven't even taken all of India.
Pahlava
Took Antiocheia-Margiane and Syrinx quickly. Lost Syrinx to rebellion and then to AS, their armies stand no chance against smaller AS stacks so it is rather surprising they are still there.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now almost destroyed (Chach is sieged constantly).
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, they snatched Tuat before me though, forcing me to quickly race for the remainder of the north african coast. They took their three desert provinces and then built up 5 full stacks which were sitting in the desert between Tuat and Garama.
Attacked me with a half stack at Kirtan in turn 201, got destroyed then since they rejected all peace offers (regardless how generous).
Feedback about the 3a Campaign AI and the campaign in general:
(1) AI is reliable if you have an alliance, but once you are at war with a faction you sinply cannot convince them to accept a ceasefire regardless how bad you beat them.
(2) It's odd that you can't establish good relations with any faction. Not sure if this is a Qart'Hadasht thing but the relations to the Sweboz, Epeiros, Ptolemaioi and Lusotannan always went down to "poor" or "very poor" over time, despite paying 1000 mnai/turn as tribute and having established trade routes with them. I was forced to spend large sums of money on them regularly (every 10-20 or so turns) to prevent the relations falling to such low levels.
(3) What's rather nice, though, is the fact that the allies of my enemies (for example Makedonia and Pergamon during the war with Rome) start to view you as a serious problem (relations: terrible) and that the enemies of your allies (Makedonia and AS as I'm allied with Ptolemaioi an Epeiros) have the same mindset. Nice touch!
(4) There are not many AI - AI alliances around, the vanilla M2TW "blobs" I haven't seen yet. Usually the AI factions pick a few alliances (Rome had Pergamon and Makedonia only, for example). There is a rather annoying pattern of most factions coming to offer alliances to the player faction, but only in a package with trade rights (which you can't give without possible trade routes). And they usually don't accept an alliance without trade rights, not even when you offer 20k or more money in addition.
(5) Many of the small factions still struggle to expand their "empires" while maintaining super-size armies due to the way the current money script works. I'm still trying to get a script working that replaces that flat "increase their kings purse to eventually astronomical values" by some faction-size-dependent money script but haven't made real success yet.
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
(7) The corruption level (or better: the player economy in general) is quite challenging, but not impossible. I played campaigns as "poor" barbarian factions, too, and these are hard (Aruernoi is really hard!) but if you spend some thoughts on what to build and where, you will experience the benefits. I love that even my current Qart'Hadasht campaign doesn't allow me to just build fullstacks all over the place. I have 3 at the moment: one in northern Iberia, one in Italy and one in Africa, not even super-heavy ones, just the regionally available units and only one unit of elephants. Add in two fleets (1 Penteres, 2 Trieres each) and I'm down to about 12k per turn (which I need to build up a treasury for the gifts to the four allies and for the war times when the economy drops down seriously).Thanks shadow walker , yes theres still work to be done but were on the right tracks.
(Numidia, v3 campaign AI, M/M)
It has been quite a while since i threw off the Carthaginian yoke off their own mainland to claim it as their own, all accomplished by my magnificent starting faction leader. After Carthage provoked yet another war so they don't have to pay tribute he had decided to go for the last conquest of his life, overseas, to Sardinia, but he died during the siege, not to see that his troops managed to take the city by themselves. I have been trying to not be too speedy for conquests, for i wanted to see what the reform for Numidia is like, however, since i managed to conquer most of nearby cities in just one faction leader's lifetime it probably was not succesfull.
After i've had tons of money from tribute i thought that perhaps i need to start spending it and i started looking up to Rome, they seemed really powerful and strong from what my spies discovered and i wanted not to have any trouble with them unlike Carthage. But no matter what, they did not want to ally me. However like 20 or 30 turns later i have discovered out one of the northern settlements have been taken by Arverni, which only made me a bit suspicious. A few turns later, i walked around with him and it seemed like Arverni gained even more ground so i decided to check out Italy again, and what i saw was quite different from what you would normally see in most Total War games or first EB:
14467
That's right! The Roman Republic is pretty much drawing it's last breath, and i did not even take any part in that. Now they only have 3 cities with only Capua having any semblance of an army left. I guess since this happened, i might as well help them finish them off. That's pretty much the only notable thing about my playthrough.
And this is how much time it took them to fall from grace:
14468
Another interesting thing is that Makedonia snatched Kyrene when it rebelled from Ptolemaioi. It had a fullstack with a phalangite unit spilling outside town and i have seen both factions field big armies in the area attempting to take it over, but ultimately, while Ptolemaioi were too busy loitering around to siege for most part the Makedons seem to have simply took it in one fell swoop after some point. I have them as my allies too which is making me happy as it means that city could become a staging point to launch a combined assault on Ptolemaioi, whose empire i need to destroy in order to "win".
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
Costs are OK. Replenishment Rates? Yes, that we'll look at.
Antigonos Karchedonios
09-30-2014, 20:21
150 turns Aedui campaign H/M, (EB 2.01, CAI 3a, BAI, Trait hotfix):
https://i.imgur.com/ycypd8u.gif
I exanded slowly, taking the rebels around me first. After about 40-50 years I started a war with the Arverni over dominance in Gaul. I won and made them my protectorate (used Forced Diplomacy). Afterwards I helped my allies the Boii in their war against the Sweboz (had to reconquer their starting provinces for them). Now started the invasion of Northern italy, heading for Rome :-)
Takashila died around turn 20 (again), Kart Hadasht around turn 138, everybody else still alive.
Pergamon was surprisingly active in Asia minor from the beginning, was really nice to see them attacking the Ptolemaioi.
Pritanoi tried several times to invade modern Brittany. As it was owned by my protectorate i expelled them quickly enough, but in the last few turns they managed to capture it as my armies are distracted at the moment. Their province in modern Netherlands was gifted by me to secure my border against the Sweboz.
Numidia took out Carthage, never seen this beofre with CAI version 3.
KH won the war in greece, never seen that before either.
Everything else pretty much the usual...
Shadowwalker
10-13-2014, 18:36
SSbQ campaign, M/M
EB 2.01
Grantos CAI 3a
Grantos BAI
Bogias Mod (which includes Konnys command star mod from EB 1, trait fixes, etc)
Quintus Sertorius' latest hotfix for cavalry, thureophoroi-style units and javelineers
I'm still fiddling around with several things to try and improve the campaign behaviour/reduce the stack spam. This time I reduced the bonus to AI governors (set all three levels in the trait file to the values of "AI governor" level 1, except the taxes. In particular I thereby lowered the the unrest, loyalty etc bonuses, forcing the AI to have bigger garrisons. I also set all kings purses of the AI factions down to zero and cut the eleutheroi kings purse down to 20000 to prevent (most) rebels province fielding 2 fullstacks after 100 turns. (This does not stop a player but the AI only from my experience).
I also reduced the money script to raise the kings purse by 300 (instead of 1000) mnai for any AI faction that loses money (and to reduce it by 400 mnai once the faction is not losing money and beyond 20k mnai).
This seems to have 3 effects at least:
- The AI fields a lot less stacks, especially the big powers like Makedonia, Seleukids and Romani are not fielding dozens of stacks anymore.
- The AI expansion takes a bit longer to really start and some of the smaller factions seem to have a somewhat better chance (KH, Pahlava especially).
- There are more rebellions in outlying provinces, slowing down potential monster factions.
Romani
Took Cisalpine Gaul (except Mediolanum) relatively fast, conquered (in reminiscence to EB 1.2) southwestern Gaul then. Took Taras after a while too, didn't make any attempts on Rhegion though. Declared war on me soon after I took that settlement. For 10 years or so there was a rather bloody war for both Rhegion and Alalia, since around turn 140 there have been several short wars between them and me, which were always started by an attack on Alalia. As soon as I repelled that siege and sunk the transport ship, they sued for a ceasefire again, but never agreed to any trade rights anymore, not even when I offered a couple thousand mnai as well.
Epeiros
Usual EB II expansion: Thermon, Dalminion, Segestica. Several failed attempts at Rhegion. Losing to Makedonia (as usual).
Areuakoi
Almost the same expansion as always (except Tolé and the southwestern Gaul provinces). Took Arsé, Iltirtaand Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
Nothing. Literally. Allies since ~turn 10. And the only fights they picked where when one of their usually two stacks near Qxtraca rebelled.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, wars with Rome and Aedui. Fought a bitter war over Massilia, it changed hands at least 6 times. Slowly losing to the Aedui now.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi, peace with Sweboz. Basically the same expansion as the last time.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a couple provinces since turn 140.
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Doing a lot worse than last time.
Boii
Took one province, failed at taking any other settlement then, despite several attempts (in all directions).
Lugiones
Doing a lot better than last time, keeping the Sweboz at bay, fighting for Scurgum with them since decades.
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions. So - same procedure as last time.
Makedonia
Beast. Again. I could quote the comment from last time, except the fact that they didn't manage to take Krete from the Massylians (which I helped to defend by teleporting several armies from Thugga to Knossos during the game).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
The only difference was that they managed to take Demetrias early on (between turn 20 and 30 iirc) and even sieged Pella at one point, but their units are simply no match for Makedonia.
Bosporan Greeks
Some expansion both west and south (they didn't travel by sea to Sinope and Trapezous though, they wandered eastwards around the sea, despite Kutatisi being rebel still, they didn't attack it).
Sauromatae
The usual expansion. War with the Bosphorans, suprisingly enough at peace with the Lugiones though.
Hayasdan
Lazy buggers. Around them the Seleukid provinces rebelled one after another, but they resisted the urge to leave their mountain fortress. I'm sure that Karkathiokerta was taken by accident. ;-)
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 2 stacks around Pergamon, not moving. Destroyed by whatever (no actual faction involved there) reason.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again. Switched to Kutatisi then and took it. Lost Ankyra to rebellion (now Aruernoi), Sinope and Trapezous to the Bosphorans.
Ptolemaioi
Doing better than last time. They may not have taken a lot of provinces (though they managed to conquer Pergamon after it was rebel and they also kept Salamis despite several Seleukid sieges) but they have set up a nice border defence and also have not fallen to the Nabataeans.
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Tadmur eventually rebelled to them when the Seleukids took it. Only one attempt to take Diopolis-Megale, failed. Quiet since then.
Sab'Yn
Rather nice. Axum rebelled to them when the Ptolies took it, but the Sabyn had been sieging the town several times before so it was no completely by accident. They slowly crawled eastward, too, even taking Pura (first time I saw this in EB II).
Arche Seleukeia
Worst progress in all EB II campaigns so far, still rather nicely until Pahlave decided to settle in the eastern provinces. Holding on to their core provinces, though. A lot less stacks than usual (still 10 or so aside the garrisons) which is nice to see.
Baktria
Lost both Marakanda and Oskobara to rebellion but took advantage of the vanishment of Taksashila then. On their way to unite India under their banner.
Taksashila
Destroyed before turn 20. I'm not sure if it was a Maurya army or one of the rebel stacks India fields anyway at game start. They had a lot less units than usual.
Pahlava
They took advantage of rebellions in the east - Antiocheia-Margiane, Marakanda etc. Exploded around turn 100. By far the best expansion I ever saw of them in EB II.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now slowly gaining power - fighting the Pahlava.
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, took the two desert provinces too and thereby completely surrounded them. Made the mistake to ally with them and then tried to get them out of Thugga. Plan was to make them switch their capital, so I conquered Krete and Kyrene and gifted it to them. They switched the capitol to Kyrene but would not sell Thugga even for 100k. When the Ptolemies attacked them in Kyrene I had to pick sides (was allied with both) and picked the Ptolies. Of course the Massylians soon after attacked me, trying to take Kart-Hadast. At turn 200 I am just sieging both Thugga and Kyrene.
What I still don't get is the reasons for gaining or losing reputation. I never did anything else than occupy settlements. I only broke one alliance (when I was forced to decide between two allies), I never declared war on anyone. I always released (in a very few, maybe 3 or 4, cases ransomed) prisoners. I never used assassins or sent spies in enemy settlements.
But nevertheless I - without doing anything but to occupy Thugga at turn 203 - had my reputation drop from "reliable" to "very untrustworthy" in one single turn.
And I have no idea why.
TheWildHost
11-27-2014, 03:47
Turn 200 M/M Hayasdan Campaign
Interesting things
Aedui; (Dark green Gauls) Died about 10 turns ago, Rolled over by the Sweboz
Sweboz; Steamrolling, Most of Europe Under their control, everything north of the Alps is basically theirs (with about 4 isolated Lugi/Boii territories)
Rome; Got southern parts eaten up by Carthage & Epirus, North taken by light green gauls, Rome taken by.... The New Celt/Iberian faction?!?!?! Has 1 territory (which is under siege by 2 full stacks)
Makedonia; Won greece
KH; Took the two islands, and also the province next the Bos start.
Bos; Has about 4 territories
Saur; North of the Caucus and west until Sweboz is theirs
Getai; Actually in a pretty good spot, control their section of the black sea and Byzantion, but will probably be steamrolled by Sweboz/Makedonia
Abu; Took most of arabia and part of Upper Egypt (Southern) however the Ptolies took 1/2 provinces in west Arabia (EDIT; Sorry, looks like that Provence rebelled actually)
Pergamon; Died around turn ~80, their family died so no one took over their province until around turn 120
I Allied myself with the Saur and SA as soon as I could, and got trade rights with everyone else. Baktria/Pahlava/Saka in the usual giant power struggle. SA and Ptolies are at a stalemate but the Ptolies own a good chunk of Asia Minor thanks to Pergamon dying. The New Suez Canal faction has done nothing.
14790
Mouzafphaerre
09-26-2016, 15:02
EB 2.2b H/M Huge
Saba, turn 500
18945
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