Factions you have fallen out of love with

[olly]

I started a Pontus campaign last week as they have always been a favourite of mine due to their tough start, decent unit roster (including Galatians who I love), lots of options of what to do and who to kill as long as you are ready for the Selucids. Anyway, all in all, one of my favourite faction.

I'm about 50 years in and just about have all of Asia Minor apart for the Macedons and Ptolomies have a province each and a couple of independent provinces in the west. So far a very tough and enjoyable campaign.

I have the highest level of baraks in my capital and access to some pretty cool troops through it while in Galatia I can get lots of naked guys who are tough as you like. Looking good for me to go onto global domination and I should be the happiest boy in the known world.

Then it hits me. In most of my new provinces I can only recruit the very worst hellenic units like levy hoplites, archers, slingers and at best classical hoplites. The regional units don't really inspire me. I like to have a unit of axeman around and the odd levy hoplite or caucasian spearmen are cool but I just thought if this is all that awaits me unless I get to Babylon and spend loads on baraks I no longer love these guys.

This is no complaint. I love this mod. I have just fallen out of love with Pontus. Has this happend to anyone else?

[pezhetairoi]

Well, if you have been playing Pontos all the time, there will definitely be a stage when people feel jaded with it. Definitely. I loved Baktria too, but then after 3 campaigns with it, it kinda got a little tiring. Things like that will happen, yups...

Here's my tip: start a new campaign, close your eyes, and select a random faction. Much more fun that way. Hooboy, I remember the time my cursor landed on Hayasdan... What a lark that was!

[antisocialmunky]

The KH, they are too easy now.

[anubis88]

I loved to play with Carthage, but they've become a really easy faction to play... Plus they have the huge African elephants, which i don't believe they've used. They were my favourite along with seleucia in 08.x:yes:

[Magister Militum Titus Pullo]

I guess that, since I've started playing this game, I've become pretty fascinated the eastern Hellenic Successor states like the Seleukid Empire and the Bactrian and Ptolemaic Kingdoms. I mean, I'll always be a Roman nut, and the Audui and the Arverni had the potential to achieve so much more than they did. But there something about the Asian and Aigyptos-based Hellenes that I find appealing. Maybe, aside from the kick-ass heavy cavalry, phalangites and royal guard units, its the whole concept of colonialism, such as laying down their roots on foreign soil, and luring their western-born brethren from their homelands with the promise of cash and bountiful farmland, in return for military service. New nation-states inventing themselves and making themselves stronger. Apparently, Ptolemaic Egypt, in particular, was known as a hotbed of scientific advancement in that era.

[Hooahguy]

the romani were my favorite, but now its Baktria.....

[CirdanDharix]

I loved to play with Carthage, but they've become a really easy faction to play... Plus they have the huge African elephants, which i don't believe they've used. They were my favourite along with seleucia in 08.x:yes:
Actually, classical texts say that some elephants in the Carthie herd were huge compared to the rest. It's just conjecture but to me it seems more plausible for them to have bush elephants than for forest elephants to be towered.

[Emperor Burakuku]

I see lots of instability and polygamy here. AS, Rome, Cartage and Baktria... Parthia... hmm... KH... damn. I don't do barbarians in general. Of course Macedonia, how could I forget? Epirus, damn. Ptolemies... That's all I think.

[Senatus Populusque Romanus]

I am currently playing ROmani and it's got fallen out the love with.

Romani is, i think, the coolest faction in EB so far. Various recruitable mercenaries in Italy, and legions from barracks.

However, the things that ruins Romani are the tough reform conditions as campaign progresses. Especially Marian reform and Imperial reform.

It is DAMN hard to get those reforms and most of the time you never see Marian or Imperial troops.

Well, I am still playing Romani as my favorite faction though:laugh4:

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

When I saw Gladiator, I became a fan of the Romans, and I bought R:TW and was still a fan of them, and then I played a campaign with them in EB till 252 BC, and now I'm kind of a Hellene...

[Folgore]

Actually, classical texts say that some elephants in the Carthie herd were huge compared to the rest. It's just conjecture but to me it seems more plausible for them to have bush elephants than for forest elephants to be towered.
Yeah, the Ptolemaioi lent large sums of money to the Carthaginians for their wars against Rome. Some suggest that this could also have included (large) elephants.

[Pharnakes]

When I saw Gladiator, I became a fan of the Romans, and I bought R:TW and was still a fan of them, and then I played a campaign with them in EB till 252 BC, and now I'm kind of a Hellene...

Welcome to the dark side. Here is your intoductory balloon, :balloon:. Note the colour.:laugh4:

Explanotry pamphlets are avalible form all good libaries and philosphia in Athens, Antiocheia and Seleukia. Thoose damn incestious yellow scum don't ussualy stock them, I'm afraid. Instead, a pamphlet on how to loose the richest kingdom in the world and end up the plaything of of a bunch of wanabee greeks with a major inferoity complex, are avalible on request.:clown:

[tapanojum]

My Pontus campaign at 240bc...kind fell out of love after conquering a good chunk of greece and some AS/Ptoly lands. I think the biggest factor was the fact that I won several amazing and longass fights only to have a CTD error right after. Each time that happens, I have less and less interesting in the campaign.

Maybe I should autowin every time I have a CTD to keep my interests going.

[Beefy187]

Galatians.... HEHEHEHE:eeeek:

My favourite faction is KH with all the roleplaying funness. But im thinking of starting a Getai campeign. :2thumbsup:

[llib]

Personally I play almost AS only, I tried Romans but losing availability to replenish majority of most experienced troops at the time is something I don't like. It's pity they can't be upgraded in a way of general bodyguards ;-) , or kept recruitable.

[pezhetairoi]

I agree about the toughness of Roman Marian conditions. My FMs all have mediocre traits, normal ones with nothing out of the ordinary. I had to give Popularis via console to my faction heir to get the Marians, since it was 198BC and I had had it up to here with waiting further, especially since my armies were getting further and further away from Italy.

[Constantine the Great]

I tend not to fall out of love with factions. I keep several campaigns saved that I could go into if I wanted, to get a new perspective if I'm getting bored. Right now, I'm focusing on my Seleucid campaign, but I've got a Romani one, a KH one, and Epirus one, with decent progress in each, waiting for me when I tire of Seleucia.

[tapanojum]

I tend not to fall out of love with factions. I keep several campaigns saved that I could go into if I wanted, to get a new perspective if I'm getting bored. Right now, I'm focusing on my Seleucid campaign, but I've got a Romani one, a KH one, and Epirus one, with decent progress in each, waiting for me when I tire of Seleucia.

I do that too, I play a campaign till I get bored and start another one. Later on as I lose interest I might continue a previous campaign and keep switching around advancing in all campaigns.

I'm playing a Pontus, Hai, and a Lusotan campaign.

[Palasta]

Fall out of Love?

No, Never Ever.

[pezhetairoi]

Well, I was functioning under the impression that 'falling out of love' was more of getting bored of a faction rather than a permanent avoidance of it... o.O

[Rottweiler]

I have played vanilla RTW, RTR 6, tried some early EB version and now I'm playing EB 1.0.

In all those I have never played a campaign with anything but Romans. I guess that makes me a fan of them...

[fatsweets]

I have recently been playing factions that I have not played at all or have played for less then a couple of years. Those being Sauromatae and Sweboz, I had fun with both of those for about 60 to 70 years and then was bored. So I did some pondering on who I could remember having the most fun playing with previous versions of EB. I came to the conclusion that I had the most fun with KH. So I started a new campaign in version 1.0 wondering what would happen. Guess what, I am having a but load of fun playing them again, I don't know what exactly it is but every time I play the KH it is fun. So for those of us who are looking for a fun faction to play and haven't tried the KH, I recommend them fully.

[Horst Nordfink]

Makedonia. I've no idea why. In EB 0.81a I used to play them more than anyone else, but in EB 1.0 I just can't get away with them.

I'm having far too much fun with Pahlava now anyway.

[Perturabo]

Not really fallen out of favour with.. but I have never played a Roman game since my first vanilla experience (a very boring troop roster, being coded to utterly dominate all other factions and speding almost every non EB game trying to keep them under control being only several factors).
Attacked my first Macedonian city with a cohort, noticed all these nice long pikes coming out the gates...

Charged headlong into said pikes with my infantry...:no:

Then the Mak heavy cavalry met me....

and then...

and then....

~:mecry:

Now I predominately play Greek factions.

Having said that, not only have my tactical skills increased since then, but the Romans in EB look really, really good and I am tempted to give them a try.

Still a Greek at heart, but the Celts can be fun for a break.

[Emperor Burakuku]

I see lots of instability and polygamy here. AS, Rome, Cartage and Baktria... Parthia... hmm... KH... damn. I don't do barbarians in general. Of course Macedonia, how could I forget? Epirus, damn. Ptolemies... That's all I think.

Sorry, not out of love. In love... I think I need glasses...

[BerkeleyBoi]

The inability to recruit more Ethiopian units made me a little disappointed playing as Saba, though I never got sick of it. Just the save file disappeared.

I used to play as KH a lot, but I got it got a little too easy, especially since your home territories, after killing Makedonia, is too easy to defend. Since then, I've been interested in the eastern factions more, though I am currently taking a short break from EB.

[Chris1959]

Macedonia the starting position is a little to easy, and for some reason Carthage. All through school I was fascinated with the exploits of Hanno, Hannibal et al, I should have been a sucker to play them, yet right from vanilla after a couple of moves I give up. I think it's because the naval side of the game isn't that sophisticated.

[blank]

KH. Only made it to about 225 BC, by that time i was swimming in cash (= autokill campaign usually), and retraining was a real bitch. And Ptolemies attacked Rhodos every single turn...

[KuKulzA]

I liked Lustanna, Sweboz, Aedui, Safot Softim biQarthadast, Sab'Yn, Getai, Sauromatae, Saka Rauka... they can all be enjoyable...

but my favorites would be Getai and Sauromatae :yes:

[Spoofa]

Rome, in .81 I played and loved them so much, and with the new features 1.0 would bring i was very excited, but after playing for awhile they just stopped being fun to play, i have yet to play a romani 1.0 campaign past 242 :sweatdrop:

but Makedonia, now THAT'S a different story, I'll always love my fuzzy drunken makedonians :laugh4:

[Morte66]

Macedonia the starting position is a little to easy, and for some reason Carthage. All through school I was fascinated with the exploits of Hanno, Hannibal et al, I should have been a sucker to play them, yet right from vanilla after a couple of moves I give up. I think it's because the naval side of the game isn't that sophisticated.

I'm playing Carthage with BI.exe at the moment. I disbanded half the starting garrison in Corsica, figuring the Romans would ignore it and it couldn't stand a siege anyhow. In 268 a Roman fleet put an army ashore; nice one BI.exe.

Since then I've maintained a navy, destroyed one Roman army at sea, and finally invaded Italy in a surprise maritime operation that sacked Rome. Now I'm mopping up in an Italian land war, but I need to clear the sea of pirates so I can ship my army to Massilia (good MIC, I want to get it ASAP and start building).

In the longer term, with all these dissimilar troops -- Celts, Samnites, Iberian, Punic, Balearic, maybe Cretan -- I think I'll be in the shipping business for a while.

The naval side is not that sophisticated, but it seems you can occasionally have a bit of fun with it.

[Chris1959]

Morte66 I,m currently playing the other side of the fence with BI.exe, and had tremendous fun with the Punics suicidal determination to re-take Sardinia. In the end I got annoyed and as their full stack landed near Karalis 4 legions swooped into North Africa and blitzed a lightly defended Carthage, Uttica et al. The disappointment was that Rome led the Naval race from day one!

[Morte66]

4 legions swooped into North Africa and blitzed a lightly defended Carthage, Uttica et al.

Cool, that's just what I'd have done.


The disappointment was that Rome led the Naval race from day one!

Rich bastards. ;)

Hah, they were laughing on the other sides of their faces when my armies outmanoeuvred them and conquered their precious republic in a couple of years.

[Jorduan]

I've been playing as alSabyn for a while now - All I have left to take is the southern persian and indian territories. I took great joy in reducing the Ptolemies to having 2 insignificant cities left, and now Im at war with my age old ally the seluekids in persia and with KH in asia minor - but now its getting very long having to kill of seiges with my archer garissons every other turn - also I took the southern indian city with a full army and its soo far away from my capital (in Thebes) that it will take a ridiculous amount of turns to get it to a decent order. Also - the limitations of construction for the Sebeans make it difficult to reach huge cities in the arabian peninsula with huge levels of squalor.
Im determined to finish the campaign but it really is taking forever. Im looking forward to trying out Epiros, Getai or Samartians but I'm starting to question whether to finish the sebean campaign or not. What does anyone think?

[jabarto]

The Casse. They used to be my favorite faction, and I still like them, but lately I've been on a "conquer as much as humanly possible" bent, and as such the Makedonians have really been growing on me. That, along with my fervent efforts to get good with Hayasdan, have pushed the Casse onto the backburner for a while.

[Moosemanmoo]

I've never been able to get into the roman mindset, theres something I find truly dull about them, that may just be me but I can't see where the romani fanboys are coming from?

Iv'e always liked the hellene and the carthaginians, why do I always support the losers?


Back to topic: The casse, no offense possible distant ancestors, but you bore me

[Pharnakes]

A man after my own heart.:beam:


Hmmm, just to be sure, what is your opinion on galatians?:inquisitive:

[Moosemanmoo]

I find them riddiculously annoying and out of place, despite historical proof mumbo jumbo

I dislike how much the ptolemoi relies on them in my campaigns against them, I just don't think they belong

[Pharnakes]

:balloon2: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon3: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon3: :balloon: :balloon3: :balloon3: :balloon: :balloon3::balloon3: :balloon: :balloon3: :balloon: :balloon:
:balloon: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon3: :balloon2: :balloon: :balloon2: :balloon3: :balloon2: :balloon: :balloon3: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon: :balloon::balloon: :balloon2: :balloon: :balloon2: :balloon:
:balloon: :balloon3: :balloon:

[Moosemanmoo]

Aww you spoil me:bounce:

[Ymarsakar]

My first campaign with EB 1.0 is my first campaign ever in EB, which is using the Romani.

I'm currently at 160 BC. Got the Marius Reform in 172 BC via console. I had plenty of generals with sharp/charismatic/vigorous, and I could get 3 influence and 3 command stars easily. It was that Popularis thing that was hard. It required years and years of a character with tub thumber speech skills and sitting in a settlement. How he is going to get 3 stars sitting in a settlement, I know not.

I'm currently at 75 settlements, or just about, given that I am expanding into Anatolia and fighting the Ptolemaio super power. Not so super now when the middle of their empire is rebelling due to my spies and saboteurs. Cuts down on sieges as well.

Btw, if you don't like playing sieges or are fed up with it, get a full stack with a good commander to siege one of your enemy's cities. Then... wait for them to attack you from behind.

Then you get a field battle. Destroy their army completely and you will have destroyed that stack that was going to siege your city. Destroy the city garrison army as well, and you will take the city without a siege. So this kind of takes care of defensive and offensive sieges for me, unless I choose to siege. Sieges are way too long. Field battles are much more fun. Not as fun as defending river crossings, those are mega fun.

For those, like the person with the Saba campaign, that wish to take on the end game, I recommend you get an army of spies and assassins, then train them. Assassins can be trained by recruiting them in a max level merchant square, then assassinating all those 95% chance to kill captains of stacks. I killed me a couple of enemy FMs too. Especially useful when those FMs have 18 armored horsies.

After I took Eastern Siciliy and started the war with Qarthadastism, one of my ships saw that Carthage had few if any defenders. After I occupied the entirety of Sicily and had defeated two Carthaginian full stacks, I went and hit Carthage. Then from Carthage I used numidian garrisons and imported Italian hastati/principes to take Carthage's three critical cities where most of their faction barracks were. That essentially made Carthage only capable of launching a couple of full stack attacks on my part of Africa every few years. Gave me time to take on the Gauls, given that I left the Epeirotes alone except with retaking the city in Italy.

AI is very bad about garrisoning their port cities that aren't bordered with an enemy. Probably because the auto build que is set to financial or cultural, rather than military.

For those that are getting tired of Romani early on, the reason I find it a challenge and refreshing at times is due to the fact that you can only use Italian factional units for the core of your army. Rome had to use mostly auxiliary units to supplement their army. And I found that I had to do the same. Thus, my strategy and army composition changed drastically based upon where I was fighting. In Africa, I was limited by the fact that I didn't even have Polybian reforms yet. In Gaul, I was limited by the fact that I had to build up the regional MICs to have a chance of standing up to the Averni/Aedui/Sweboz elite troops. Which they tended to build as half stacks if you let them.

Sure, I find it annoying to have to ship troops from Italy to Greece to ensure that I have solid troops for my expansion campaign. But all of that is a matter of logistics. Tactics and strategy are nothing without logistics. It is just one more challenge of playing an empire that spans a large area and different geographic locations.

It forced me to use mostly local troops, often, for defense. So when it was Massilia and Greek cities, I used mostly levy hoplites. Cheap too. Once my economy reached the 250,000 and 350,000 total income stage, then I could start cranking out full stacks of Italian troops Brihenti, then shipping them to my front lines for carnage.

Then I would just transfer members from wounded units to ensure that I only fight with full strength units. My Pedites Extraordinaire got to 2 gold chevrons that way. I also tended to focus on building highways in order to ship a couple of elite units that I wanted to train back in Patavium, Italy. So this forced me into emulating Rome historically with the use of roads. Which I found interesting and challenging.

Rome until you get Marius Reforms, can't build factional MICs anywhere else. That, I found problematic at first since I didn't know what was wrong. After I got used to thinking of it as the way it has to be, I adapted. Since I can't use most of my faction's elite and Italian units, I had to focus on learning the tactics of mercenary and regional troops. So when fighting in Iberia, which took only a few years to conquer all the Lusotannan and Carthaginian cities, I was exposed to massive use of Iberian local units such as Milites and light infantry. A change of pace from fighting with Luggaoe, that is for sure.

Then In Thraikia, I was able to get the Elite Thracian Falx users. Lovely troops. This would be the same for most every other faction, of course, but for a Romani player it is an increase of an entire order in combat power.

Most of my armies are composed of either local levy troops, Alpine phalanxes, or some type of heavy infantry like Neitos.

Also the fact that Roman is slated to expand to a very large area, gets me used to developing economically and ensuring that I have very good leaders, due to education buildings and high level temples, to maintain my expansion holdings.

When I finish the Romani, I'll switch over to Alexander and play Baktria, because I love the Baktrian 26 armored family horsies. I can just imagine the edge that will give me. I also want to use armored elephants, considering that 5k to my 350k economy will only decrease my profits from 51k to 46k. Not that of a difference for one elephant unit. And I only play on using elephants as Baktria for when I'm challenging the other superpower, whoever that might be in the West.

It should be a shorter campaign than Romani, with more emphasis on tactical combat and use of phalanxes.

As Romani, it is very hard to fight phalanxes head on or even side on, given the fact that your cavalry is non-existent almost. And will be non-existent after Marius reforms.

I haven't become bored with Romani yet, due to sudden changes of tactics it requires from me. Once you get bored with one area, like Gaul, you get to expand into another area, like Greece, that requires slightly different dynamics to win.

My hardest challenge, and the most fun, was taking on Sweboz, Arverni, and Aedui when they all had their factional homelands pumping out full stacks to attack me. My spies and assassins delayed those factions long enough for me to bring in a couple of decisive blows. My economy wasn't that good though, so I couldn't maintain more than one full stack for offensive use. So it was slow expansion going. Take a city, defend that city, build that city up so that my economy will benefit, then recruit more troops.

I had to fight off many many full stacks besieging my cities. Usually I relieved them with my specially chosen full stack or local garrison troops, so that I can fight an open field battle instead of the long sieges (higher chance of crashing in sieges too).

So I don't really get the same game play dynamics as other people running different faction campaigns. When the Romani takes hold of Italy and Africa and all the ports of Spain/Greece, the money that will be flowing in is enough to pump out many many full stacks and garrison full stacks. Especially with Vigiles.

I've increased my income by quite a lot with building that extensive harbor upgrade too. Worth it to go from 2 trade routes to 4, in my view. Long term economic advantages will give you enough money for another stack or two, if you build extensive harbor upgrades when you can. Good investment for ending the late game stalemates.

The Getai have really good combat troops and some special beserker and battle temple character traits that nobody else can get. Folks that love infantry and tactical battles with huge armies, will love Getai. I prefer Hellenic cataphracts and 26 armored horsies, so I have decided on playing Baktria next. But if it wasn't for that, Getai would be my next logical choice. A little bit too close to Rome though, so I don't want to do the same things over again.