[Factions] If it were up to you, how would you change the roster?

This is obviously pure speculation and musing, I don't think anyone is out there working on 1.3 with new factions or the like. With every new edition the prospect of faction changes has been one of those hot (and hotly-debated) topics. The entire dynamic of the game is altered with the placement of a faction in one region or another, particularly in respect of the factions already present.

So let's say you were appointed to make the next iteration of EB 1.x, focusing specifically on the factions you'd replace out of the current list. Which would you replace, what would you replace them with, and most importantly of all, why?

I would definetly want to include kind of "Italic Faction" to make it challenging for the Romans to advance/keep control of Italy.
I would include a kind of "free people" faction, to represent not hostile, but independent Greek colonies like Massila, Syracuse etc., instead them being rebells to grab on...
I´d like to have an Egyptian native faction ( a counter faction to Ptoleys ), who would annoy the Diadochi and get an opportunity to overthrow them ( perhaps i could try to realize this plan with Saba invading the south of Egypt and inpiring Rebellion there, but i´m not sure about the culture penalties )
Celtiberians are a must, imho, and hopefully will be included in EB II( while i am pretty sure the other mentioned factions won´t ).
Thats what comes to my mind instantly.

We're already at the limit in terms of number of factions, so you can't suggest new without saying which old ones you'd get rid of in their place.

For my part I'd ditch Epeiros in favour of Pergamon. Three Greek factions battling it out for Greece and southern Europe is a bit much, and historically Epeiros were the first to vanish (not long after the start of our timeframe either). While they were a "what might have been", it seems they're included more because they're relevant to Rome's development than anything else.

I'd also drop the Casse, who never do anything outside of the British Isles unless you cheat to make them spread. I'd replace them with the Belgae (as a bulwark against the Sweboz, though possibly too many in Gaul) or Boii (as a different barbarian faction in eastern Europe) or Celtiberians (though Spain is already pretty crowded).

As a third, possible option, I might drop Saba (nice to have a desert faction who rival the Ptolemies and Seleukids, but they rarely do well) in favour of the Bosphoran Kingdom (nicely placed between Sauromatae and Getai) or perhaps an "indepedent Greek colonies" faction comprising the likes of the Bosphorous, Sinope, Krete, Syracuse, Massalia, Kyrene and so on.

If I were the Europa Barbarorum fairy I'd wave my magical sarissa and get rid of the Saba.

The Saba, while admittedly an interesting and unique choice are one that I feel was a poor inclusion. Out of all of the other factions on the map, no one had virtually any interest or contact with the Saba besides trading as far as I know. It would be much better to eliminate the Saba altogether, and turn the entire Arabian peninsula into 'Eremos', freeing up five or six provinces for use elsewhere which could be invaluable. I'd also do the same with those three extreme-south provinces in Africa, beneath Carthage. As for what I'd replace them with, I'm not entirely sure but probably either Pergamum or Syracuse.

Anyone who yearns for this faction or that faction needs to do so with a mind to how relevant a given faction was to history (the Saba are inconsequential in my view), and also make sure that the faction would have a believable goal or purpose in EB2. If you were to include Galatia, for example, yes they'd be cool and fun and I like Galatia but they'd also be a single province country which never expanded very far beyond its own borders. What would a Galatia faction do? Rule over a multi-cultural Barbarian Empire in Asia Minor? I don't see it happening.

With a faction like Syracuse they could unite Sicily, free Southern Italy, subjugate Carthage, maybe meddle in Greece or establish a maritime empire among the Mediterranean Islands. Likewise Pergamum could try and unite Asia Minor.

Up the Belgae!

If it were to me.. Id scale back the timeline, remove the Saba and Include Samnium <3

I've been thinking (abstractly) about the possibility of alternative campaign layouts. What I mean is, when playing for example the Lusotannan, I don't really care about factions like Saka, Baktria or Saba, instead I'd rather have another iberian faction, so the early game would be more exciting than just fighting Eleutheroi. When playing Qart-Hadasht, I'd fancy a numidian, a mauretanian faction and an iberian faction. When playing Baktria, it could be exciting to have an emergent Yuezhi invasion (i.e. a real one, not Eleutheroi), while I wouldn't really need Casse or a second gallic faction. From seleukid and ptolemaic perspective some minor states in the vicinity like Kyrene, Pergamon or Galatia could be cool, instead of some other factions I'd only fight if I'd go on world domination tour (what I personally don't do anyway).
I think you get what I'm talking about. With several alternative campaigns instead of one it could - at the price of extra workload - be possible to buff up the assortment of factions considerably. Feel free to utilize my idea, I won't be doing it anyway ~;)

Generally agree with other posters. I'd ditch Casse and Saba for an Iberian faction to take on the Lusotanns, and a Numidian or Mauretanian faction to take on Carthage. Swapping Epirus for Pergamon might also be worth considering too.

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Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius

I'd also drop the Casse, who never do anything outside of the British Isles unless you cheat to make them spread.

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Lies!! I will go find a screenshot of the casse controlling parts of gaul and have made both other gallic factions their protectrates. I forget who I am, saba or saka or someone on the east but this is uncheated and out of my influence.

EDIT: Ok, call me a liar. Its either not on this computer and instead on my other computer at my other house (possible). OR I have deleted the save. My only saves here are Casse (well of course they are in gaul but that doesn't count) and the Hai (nothing out of the ordinary except for the pontic assasin squad that has wiped out 6 family members and almost killed off the Haikan royal family).

I checked my TGA folder and there are 3 pics there but all black from anti-aliasing. I WILL check at my other house likely on the weekend to see if its there and post the pic then.

Only other option is you take my word on it....

NEW EDIT: Well, couldn't find the pics but lo and behold the casse invaded in my new macedonia game. Added the pic to a new post at the end because I like new posts and because its more likely to be seen by people.

the ONE major peev ive got with EB right now...is that Syracusan and Massalian hoplites cant be recruited by everyone, or at least not even by major medi. powers. one of the big things i enjoyed about RS was the addition of many city hoplites....if only EB could add them in using the same .cas files for each one, with just different textures....hmm

I would shrink the scale of the map sigificantly so that its based far more on the Mediterannean and add many more provinces to historically key areas, meanwhile losing Britain, Arabia, the Baltic and anything east of Iran. That would remove Saka, Saba, Casse and Baktria. I would replace them with Numidia, Belgae / A N Other Germanic faction, Pergamon and a "Western Koinon Hellenon" faction which included Syracuse. Optionally I would remove Epirus and add the Boii.

If we kept the map the same I would second the suggestion of removing Saba and the Casse - making Britain and Arabia one province each. I would add Meroe to counter the ptolies in Egypt (historically they successfully resisted all invasions of this time including from the Romans at the height of empire) and add a faction to central northern europe. Hopefully using BI - the Cimbri as a horde.

Make hoplites good.

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Originally Posted by antisocialmunky

Make hoplites good.

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Classical hoplites are brilliant. Not sure what you mean.

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Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius

Classical hoplites are brilliant. Not sure what you mean.

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Don't worry mate, he's always been misunderstood. He can still make them quite good online with his hoplite push. Now that's classic ;-)

As a follow-up to my little statement that the casse tend to invade the mainland in my games I have a little pic that people can see in my new macedon game. The casse have taken some land via invasion in gaul but haven't even taken the whole of britain yet. Interesting. I know its a proper invasion rather than a rebellion or anything else as I have seen the army beseiging the citiy many times then peace due to the weird BI.exe bug of naval invasions then making peace. But they finally took it, here is proof.

https://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af98/Blxz/casse.jpg

Finally some real evidence to back up some of the crap i say.

Must be a bi.exe thing. With rtw.exe, the only factions I've ever seen move troops by ship are Qarthadast and Koinon Hellenon.

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Originally Posted by Cambyses

I would add Meroe to counter the ptolies in Egypt (historically they successfully resisted all invasions of this time including from the Romans at the height of empire)

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Meroe requires a new culture slot and all slots are already filled, even if you take out the factions you say you will.

1) Take away Koinon Hellenon, Epeiros, Arche Seleukeia and Romani
2) Replace with four NEW ROMAN FACTIONS!
3) ???
4) Profit!