Play as Syrakousai

Hi all! I´m new to the forums, although i´ve been reading it for a year or so. Well I´m not a native speaker so excuse me for my english... Anyway, i wanted to talk with you about the city of Syracuse.

I´ve always been a fan of "western greeks", the Magna Grecia... When I had played EB for a while (the greatest mod ever made by the way) I tryed to mod it a bit to play as the city of Syracuse.

I don´t have a lot of modding skills, so what i did was start a Koinon hellenon campaign, chose a good leader and move him to Syracuse with the ships. Then I used the "auto_win attacker" command to take it fast.

I noticed that if i bribed the city, Hiero, the original ruler, would die at the next turn. Also, he can´t be moved from the city, i think it is because he have the trait "client ruler", used on older versions of EB.

Anyway, I´m having a blast with my new "faction", and my campaign start around 270 b.c (2 years that i waste moving troops, negotiatings ceasefires...). But overall, i´m satisfied with it.

I wanted to suggest Syrakousai as a new faction on EB II :juggle2:, but seriously, after reading all the info the team of EB collected about the city, i think it´s a great candidate. I´m no expert in ancient history, but i´ve read a few books and known a bit about classical history, and in my humble opinion i think it would be a great greek western faction to play as.

I´d also like to ask for help if anyone has tryed the same as me before, i mean, using the koinon hellenon as Syracuisoi on EB. I´d love to hear some ideas about how can i do it best (without wasting years moving troops) and specially, what would be the best way to represent it historically around 272 BC.

Thanks you for reading

Thing is, Syrakousai's influence never really spread beyond Sikilia. In a smaller mod, they would be a great candidate, yes.

Neither did Casse or Saba... But they're still in.

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Originally Posted by Bucefalo

(without wasting years moving troops)

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use toggle_fow to remove the fog of war, move your cursor so that it points on some free space on Sicily, then use show_cursorstat to get the coordinates of your cursor and then use move_character "<insert character name>" <x>, <y>.

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Neither did Casse or Saba... But they're still in.

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The Cassi confederation had relationships with the Menapii tribe of the Belgae and they had established themselves as great traders in the Tin Isles.

The Sab'yn controlled a lot of trade flowing from India to the Mediterranean.

Thank you Tolg for the command, it works great except for long named characters...maybe they have a different internal name, i´ll see what i can do.

I know Hax that Syracuse never expanded outside of Sicily, but I think it is a interesting faction with great potential (it is not what they did, it is what they could have done). After all, this is a game about changing history, and i just thought it would be cool to think what would have happened if the greeks of Italy were united under one banner. Maybe they could have fend off against the romans?
Nevermind that is just pure speculation:2thumbsup:

Im more interested to know how i could represent best a Syracusai faction on EB mod. I don´t know if it is possible to keep Hiero as a character without him dying next turn, or if it is possible to mod the file "descr_campaign" to change the initial position of the koinon hellenon. I wonder if the script will cause conflict and CTD.

Anyway, It would be interesting to do the same with others "little factions" that aren´t in, such as Galatians, Pergamon, Numidians, Celtiberians etc. Don´t you think?

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Originally Posted by Hax

Thing is, Syrakousai's influence never really spread beyond Sikilia. In a smaller mod, they would be a great candidate, yes.

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In the interest of historical accuracy, Agathokles, who gave a daughter to Pyrrhos as a bride, did manage to invade Carthage. Syrakousai in their greatest extent controlled all of Sicily, but for some Qarthadastim holdouts, a big part of Magna Grecia had a lot of colonies in both Illyria, North Italy and even on Napoleons' island (Syrakosion limen).

That to me sounds like a lot of land property. Problem is that most people just don't know about it.

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Originally Posted by Bucefalo

Thank you Tolg for the command, it works great except for long named characters...maybe they have a different internal name, i´ll see what i can do.

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Originally Posted by bovi

The character name is complicated

If he's named Appivs Cornelivs Blasio, for instance, his real name could be "AppivsG Romanvs", "AppivsJ Romanvs" or any other letter between A and K after his first name.
for Romans, and "Firstname Middlenamelastname" for others (make note of capitalization, hyphens and lacking space!).

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You should read the frequent issues thread:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=103681

It's actually about CTD and the like but the tips provided there can be useful for many other occasions as well.´(It's where I got the quotation above from and also where I learned about the move_character command.)

Also, lots of names are listed in names.txt.

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In the interest of historical accuracy, Agathokles, who gave a daughter to Pyrrhos as a bride, did manage to invade Carthage. Syrakousai in their greatest extent controlled all of Sicily, but for some Qarthadastim holdouts, a big part of Magna Grecia had a lot of colonies in both Illyria, North Italy and even on Napoleons' island (Syrakosion limen).

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Yes indeed! I just realized Agathokles' attack of Carthage herself as I went to do grocery shopping. However, this attack was to lure Hanno away from Syrakousai (which was then under siege by the Kart-hadastim). The rest of your post is very interesting though. What would the Syrakousian victory conditions be then? Control Syrakousai, Messene, Lilibeon, Kart-Hadast, Atiqa, Alalia, Karalis, Capua, Arpi, Taras, Rhegion, Segesta, Dalminion, Segestika? Maybe Korinthos as well, seeing it was a Corinthian colony?

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Originally Posted by Hax

Yes indeed! I just realized Agathokles' attack of Carthage herself as I went to do grocery shopping. However, this attack was to lure Hanno away from Syrakousai (which was then under siege by the Kart-hadastim). The rest of your post is very interesting though. What would the Syrakousian victory conditions be then? Control Syrakousai, Messene, Lilibeon, Kart-Hadast, Atiqa, Alalia, Karalis, Capua, Arpi, Taras, Rhegion, Segesta, Dalminion, Segestika? Maybe Korinthos as well, seeing it was a Corinthian colony?

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I think it´s very reasonable the victory conditions you posted.

Thanks a lot for the info guys, I guess I´ll have to start learning more about the rest of commands, i didn´t know quite a few:dizzy2:

I´m not very sure if a Syrakousoi general would fight traditionally on foot like the greeks of the mainland or rather on horse. I´m leaning more towards a mounted bodyguard.

What do you think it would be the general composition of a Syrakousioi army?

Hoplites/Peltastas of course, I guess mercenaries (I´ve read even about Iberian or Italian) and some cavalry.

Although there is one thing that really intrigues me... i read the description of the Syrakousioi Hoplitai of EB, and it refers to a different fighting style (more mobile) more able to fight in the west.

Does anyone knows something about it? I would be very interested to known the providers (dont remember the english word right now, the ones who provide evidences) or how i could get more information about it.

Thanks you very much

The tyrannoi of Syracuse had an influence outside of Sicily at their peak! Dionysius I of Syracuse held sway over most of Sicily, and ports in Magna Graecia - southern Italy - such as Kroton and Locri. In addition, Dionysius recruited Gallic mercenaries from the northern Adriatic (Senones), supported Greek enclaves in northern Italy (Spina) and the Adriatic Sea (Lissus & Pharos), and was an ally of Sparta.

King Agaothcles of Sparta also sought to dominate southern Italy, and made alliance with the Bruttians so as to dominate Kroton and Locri. And he famously sought to overrun Carthage and Libya in alliance with Ophellas - the ptolemaic governor of Kyrene...

So at its peak, the tyrants of Sicily were super-powers of the central Mediterranean.

H.

I would certainly be interested in a mini-mod with that allowed me to play as Syrakousai. In fact, would love it as I'm almost always drawn to playing nigh-on-impossible starting positions. Evidence? I've played Pontus, Hayasdan and Bactria successfully. But god they were difficult.

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Originally Posted by Minister of Fear

I would certainly be interested in a mini-mod with that allowed me to play as Syrakousai. In fact, would love it as I'm almost always drawn to playing nigh-on-impossible starting positions. Evidence? I've played Pontus, Hayasdan and Bactria successfully. But god they were difficult.

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You could always just use the move_character command to move your people over to Syracuse. Then use the auto win attacker command to take the city, then force diplomacy to give Rhodes, Sparta, and Athens to Makedonia.

Epeiros would probably be a better faction to migrate to Syrakousai with since Pyrrhos had rebuilt their army in his style.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, Baktria? They are difficult, but I would hardly but them in the same category as Hayasdan and Pontos.

SABA. You forgot SABA.

Potocello/ Marcus: Thanks. May give that a try.

A Very Super Market: You're right. Bactria was not nearly as difficult as either Hayasdan or Pontus.

antisocialmunkey: Saba? That is one I have to try in the not-to-distant future.