3 Campaign Victories Later...
I wanted to (briefly) write about my experiences with EB, because I'm curious if anyone else had similar experiences or felt similarly. These 3 campaigns were undertaken with Alex AI, Huge unit scale, no mods, and at the EB-recommended VH/M settings.
When I started playing EB, I was giddy and looking for a challenge. So I spent a lot of time playing with the Barbarian factions. After awhile I settled on sticking with the Arverni, and was surprised to find how quickly I learned to win battles with them. I eliminated the Aedui early on, and while Rome was challenging and defiant to very, very end, once they were out of the way I steam-rolled through everyone else. By 223, I won the game, and sadly, without ever really experiencing the Celtic reforms or being able to use any high-end units (like the solduros). I pretty much won this using levy spearmen, slingers, and the occasional swordsman.
Then I decided to try the Casse, as at the time, I had read some people complain about how hard it was to play them. The chariots definitely took time getting used to... But in many ways it was like playing the Arverni, but without cavalry and with FMs that die very easily. The first 10 years were by far the hardest, but as soon as I was able to hit the mainland, things got pretty tame. Towards the end I was wondering if I was going to be able to beat this in less time than it took me to forge my much larger Arverni empire. I won by 218, and again, I never achieved the late Celtic reforms or got to use any high-end units.
Being able to outmaneuver the AI with cavalry really helps, even against the tank-like Roman infantry stacks. That's what made the Sweboz campaign the hardest for me. It was a slow, brutal, bloody process - and I was forced to keep a fight going constantly on 3 different fronts. I thought that for sure this campaign was going to take more than a century to win. Without cavalry, I really felt like I was working every advantage - morale, javelin-flanking, firing flaming arrows into your own men knowing that the enemy'll break before you do. When I finally won, I was besieged in 4-6 different provinces, as it's very difficult to convince the AI that they've lost the war and should be giving up. Oddly, only Rome agreed to a peace. Anyway, it was 210, and even then, I never reached the German reform (I would've had to wait 20 more years).
I thought maybe I was just getting too used to Barbarian warfare, but after trying a battle as Macedon - which I won with ridiculous ease, using their phalanx and cavalry - I realized what the problem was. Medium battle difficulty is just too easy. I've read a lot of people complain about how unfair Very Hard battle difficulty can be, but except against Satres, I never really lost a battle using Medium. So since these 3 campaigns, I've settled on 2 new restrictions for myself - and so far, they've been working out great. 1) Play on VH/VH only, because you actually do feel heroic when you achieve a Heroic Victory. 2) Never continue a battle after you've won, which makes things particularly dangerous since the Alex AI does retrain their troops.
I've yet to finish a campaign to the very end now on VH/VH, so I can't really comment on just how different the experience is, but at least now, a campaign feels like it'd require more than a century to win. One other thing that I've noticed right away is that because of the huge stat boosts that the AI gets, there's no longer any way that I could win an Arverni campaign mainly using Lugoae and Iaosatae.
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Congrats on your success. I've been playing on M/M and while the Casse and Makedonian campaigns have been pretty easy so far, I had no success trying to blitz with the Arverni or Koinon Hellenon and I always end up failing to take territory and going irreprably into debt.
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Congrats Saldunz. Great work. Hope you have further fun using your new VH/VH games.
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
The problem is that the AI is just stupid, and VH doesn't help him.
I was i die hard VH/VH player till a year ago or so, when i found out medium was much better. I just don't use full stacks if i really don't need to win. I do win almost all battles, but i had quite a few shockes, like when the Sweboz invaded and my entire army routed, or when the sauromatae destroyed my Macedonian Legion.
On VH you can easily win if you are playing a phalanx faction, but you will see some unreal experiences if playing with the nomads. When you are volleying with arrows against your enemy, their light horse archers decimate your heavy ones, their village infantry copes with your heavies etc...
It will became frustrating, you'll see
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Indeed I experience the same problem, the only hard battles I experience are against the Eleutheroi hordes in central Europe, and sometimes if the Sauro's actually make a strong fullstacks with an overload of BGs.
You should post this in the EB empires thread!
~Fluvius
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
A friend convinced me to apply Darth's formations mod for EB. Try it, might work?
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Why do you people blitz? Jesus...
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Megas Methuselah
Why do you people blitz? Jesus...
Leave visitor messages on his and/or FC's pages and you may get your answer!
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Thats not even blitzing imo... can be done alot sooner. My question to people who DONT 'blitz' - what the hell do you spend your turns doing? I micromanage my economy, upgrade every city every turn when building is complete, educate family members, move them to places like the isle of darkness to recieve druid training if im playing Casse, put down rebels etc. But I've got all these armies lying around... So I use them. At 244BC as Casse I've got Britain, Gaul, Germania and northern Italy. I never tried to blitz. In most cases the moment I shared a border with another faction they attacked me. If I defeat a big army and their nearby city is lying there undefended, I'll take it.
I'll admit - If I did Casse again, there would definently be a case for taking Britain then waiting 50+ years on the island so that other factions can grow, but Casse are really the exception in that they are the only isolated nation.
Anbubis88 - I was thinking about this recently as well. Forcing yourself to follow a house rule of not having more than say, a 3/4 stack or even only a 1/2 stack would make battles more challenging without causing unit imbalances that H/VH settings cause.
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Because the AI is often walking around with severely depleted units I think it's also a good idea when waging war with a new faction to kill all these crappy stacks off then stop attacking them for a while so that they can raise new armies. I did this against Rome and now that I'm their only enemy they share a border with (they kicked Carth out of Sicily) they are producing lots of quality full strength units in Italy which are giving me some decent battles. Earlier they were in Gaul when we first went to war and every stack they sent at me I'd be excited to think it was a full stack but they all ended up being full of 1 soldier gold chevron triarri or whatever.
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Saldunz - I agree with Vartan completely. VH/VH huge units is the only way you will get a challenge in battles. I tried playing on medium but sheesh, talk about a no-brainer. Also if you want a bigger challenge go for the map conquest on those settings. Settlement and troop management as well as the logistical issues make it a much more enjoyable experience in my opinion. (still working on my Casse campaign atm)
Also by doing this you are pretty much guaranteed to see all the reforms and you can look forward to a greater sense of accomplishment........... provided you don't use cheats :)
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Congrats, BTW, you should start to play slower and try to roleplay about your empire and their Everyday's live.... BTW, I almost completed all my campaign with H/M or VH/M... the only campaigns I completed with VH/H difficulty are Epeiros, and I must admit that I almost never assault any settlement... just starve them with fullstack led by captain.... oh yeah, and without the Phalangitai, everything was weird, especially when mere Cammilan Hastati devastate my Taxeis Triballoi
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Just have to ask Dram said you can give Casse members druid training? Is that the settlement on Angelsy (north Wales can't remember its EB name) and what effect does it have?
Thanks
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Ynes-Mons is the name of the town. It has a wonder called the 'isle of darkness' which is kinda the opposite of what it does. If a general spends 4 seasons in that town they will gain enlightenment and an attribute called................... yep 'isle of darkness'. The trait gives a +2 to influence.
The town also already has the highest level of school so while you are there you gain some nice traits and usually a heap of cool retainers like druidic surgeons, natural philosophers, geographers etc.
If u are playing as Casse or conquer the town as someone else, make sure u send ALL generals there for the training. The longer u leave them there the more cool crap they get.
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Megas Methuselah
Why do you people blitz? Jesus...
Because fighting streams of fullstacks of the same faction while defending your lands is just not my idea of fun.
I'd rather take the fight to the enemy and fight different cultures, actually accomplish a feat against the enemy and win heroic victories with a depleted army.
When a faction attacks me (which they usually do, when they dont, they wont be bothered), I sent an army that way. If I have a chance to break their lines and take some cities, I take that chance.
For a broader explanation, head over to my profile page like Vartan states (I know your cool, but you have been asking this in around 3 threads lately).
And welcome back from your "vacation".
~Fluvius
Re: 3 Campaign Victories Later...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
VIPERLORD
If u are playing as Casse or conquer the town as someone else, make sure u send ALL generals there for the training. The longer u leave them there the more cool crap they get.
Errr... easier to do if you don't have to send them all the way from Sabba empire...! On another note... YEEPEE! that's the settelement I'm starvimh out in my sweboz campain!
And to answer Megas for blitzing : Because to conquer the map before 240bc can also be considered as an ''Heroic Victory'' :)))
