Some thoughts on 2.2f

I'm playing a Kimmerios Bosporos H/M campaign. So far I'm on turn 65 and I have five settlements, most recently Olbia. I thought I'd just share some of the things that struck me.

The AI seems extraordinarily peace-loving. For the first few turns there were hardly any factions at war, and whenever anyone started a war they were quick to end it. To take one example, Koinon Hellenon and Makedonia made peace during the first few turns and haven't been fighting since. What I like about this is that it seems to prevent blobbing, but maybe it's a little too peaceful? Arche Seleukeia has lots of allies and haven't been at war with any of their neighbours for a long time. I first got into a war when my ally Sauromatai apparently attacked Pontos, whereupon Pontos blockaded one of my ports. Before I had time to panick though, Pontos made peace with both the Sauromatae and me.

The AI does seem to go after independent cities very aggressively. After most of the eleutheroi settlements were already taken, Histrie in Mikra Skythia actually became the target of four separate armies. Pontos landed first it seems, but a KH army got there before them. After KH failed to take the city, Pontos made its own attempt and Pergamon landed in the province. After Pontos' attempt failed, the Getai marched in and took it for themselves. The area around the Black Sea has become a patchwork with Pergamon holding Odrysai, KH Byzantion while Pontos occupies Paphlagonia and the Caucasus.

That brings me to another point: the AI is good at making naval landings, and that's great! Although Pergamon has landed a single unit of hippeis outside of Chersonesos and don't seem to know what to do with it.

The AI also makes ships. Lots of ships. The Black Sea is full of ships from KH, Pergamon and Pontos. The AI's favourite way of declaring war still seems to be blockading an undefended port, and I've had KH, Pergamon and Pontos do this to me thus far. For KH and Pergamon I was able to quickly make peace with them, in both cases the peace offer was "very generous" and the KH actually replied "Are you serious? We gladly accept, o phile!". Just before this happened Areus Lakedaimonios had marched up from (Getai) Mikra Skythia to Olbia, where I killed him and destroyed his army. With Pergamon I fought no battles. Looking at our military ratings now, both KH and Pergamon are above me. Regrettably, I forgot to check it when I was making peace with them.
With Pontos though, my peace offer is "very demanding". They're also stronger than me. Now a few other factions also seem to be getting into wars, although a few "obvious enemies" like KH and Makedon or Pontos and Pergamon seem to be at peace. Will the AI only start making war on other factions once there are no other targets now?

About AI, it's held back a bit first 100 turns by recruitment limitation script. Afterwards, things will heat up.

The port blockading is actually AI problem that's been persistent in M2TW. The faction doesn't actually intend to attack you, so you can make peace with these easily, especially after you send the offending fleet to the bottom of the sea. When they do attack intentionally, you'll feel it, and making peace won't be as easy.

BTW, that single unit landing near your city...that's probably AI preparing to attack. Given enough time, it will gradually add more and more units to the stack, until it's ready to attack.

Thanks for the reply! Interesting, I suppose Pontos is really out for my blood this time. I suppose I can expect to see more AI factions go to war with each other soon.

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Originally Posted by Sarin

BTW, that single unit landing near your city...that's probably AI preparing to attack. Given enough time, it will gradually add more and more units to the stack, until it's ready to attack.

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Its a nice surprise since just because you don't border a faction by land and that they are far away doesn't mean your safe.

Currently playing as the Getai and I've experienced invasions from both neighboring and far away factions while holding on to two of Getai-occupied coastal settlements of Olbia and Histria a few turns after the 100 turn started. 1st was the Sarmatians who crossed a city currently a territory of the Bosporans and then attacked the Getai-occupied city of Histria and then the Bosporans decided take advantage and besiege Olbia.

Then a few turns later, Pontus suddenly attacked from the sea and besieged Histria with a large stack while I was busy besieging a city from the Pergamon faction.

The most threatening invasion force yet however was from Hayasdan who besieged Olbia with a rather large force led by 3 FMs and filled with a good balance of regular units (Armenian and Anatolian Units plus mercenaries) and elites (Armenian Cataphracts and Armenian Royal Guard.). Before I had the chance to battle them, they sent a ceasefire and they left after I accepted their offer.

Its not only me who experienced faraway invasions as both the Sarmatians (on foot crossing between territories) and the Bosporans (by sea) besieged the Pergamon cities of Byzantium and Tyria respectively but failed to occupied them.

Strangely, I see few armies led by an FM. most of the armies I've encountered are leaderless.

Naval invasions are quite common. I'm playing as Makedonia, and due ot its central position, it's naval invasion every ~20 turns on average. KB, Sarmatians, Ptolemies, Pontos, SPQR, Carthage, Massylia, and recently even Aureakoi invaded me by sea, most of these multiple times.

I keep 5 units+governor in every settlement and several armies around borders, but it isn't really working as deterrent.

The traits system is a bit wonky in my opinion. All of my Getai FMs have the loved by the Tarabostes trait, not one of them is hated. Also, I can't get rid of the uninspiring leader trait no matter how many battles I win with that FM.

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Originally Posted by Tactics Mayers

The traits system is a bit wonky in my opinion. All of my Getai FMs have the loved by the Tarabostes trait, not one of them is hated. Also, I can't get rid of the uninspiring leader trait no matter how many battles I win with that FM.

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It's the activation of all AntiTraits. Everything in the EDCT is being looked over at the moment, they'll be deactivated again in 2.2, but it's nowhere near finished yet.

Will the next be a patch 2.2G? Was thinking to try to make a regional description. Are you still missing any on Sicily?

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Originally Posted by Christianus

Will the next be a patch 2.2G? Was thinking to try to make a regional description. Are you still missing any on Sicily?

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Still missing ALL of the province descriptions for Sicily!