Turning off the 30k handout every turn...

Just wondering how it's done. I'm having to abandon my Romani campaign as i have to fight literally 4-6 full stacks of German and Aediu troops every turn, and it's taking me 5 hours to get through even one year, and it's only 215BC... I wanted to play this particular campaign right through to the imperial reforms but the amount of troops i have to fight it just isn't going to happen.

What i would like however is to keep it so that they get a handout of 10k if their bank balance drops below 10k, or 5k.

If there is already a thread somewhere explaining how to do this then just point me to it... Tanks very much.

Oh and can i do this mid-campaign? If so then i'll be able to continue with my current one which would be great.

The thread here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=80088
goes into the subject of adjusting the bonuses for the AI (a ways into the thread). Currently the system is 1200 per settlement per year. Any script changes are save game compatible (technically).

Hmm... After reading that entire thread, and taking into consideration the huge costs and upkeeps of units in EB, my question has changed.

If i turn off the handouts and the AI is mostly broke or close to broke for the entire campaign, i will be fighting nothing but skirmishers, or if i'm lucky, pantopadoi... :laugh4: And i hate skirmishers with a passion, since you can never catch them once they run out of ammo.

So anywho, i had an idea on how to make things a little better.

Factions that own 1-10 cities get 2500 per city per turn handout, and a handout of 10k if their balance drops below 10k.

Factions with 11 or more cities get no handouts from cities at all, but get 20k if their balance drops below 10k.

This way large factions won't always steamroll small factions, and small factions have a good chance of defending against large factions, or even expanding, which they tend not to do currently.

Would it be possible to index the subsidy to factors presumaby relevant to the cash the AI "should" be receiving?

Three examples, bearing in mind that I have no idea what I'm talking about:

1. Different amounts for each level settlement -- 500 for a town, 750 for a small town, and so on.

2. Certain amounts for each level of market and for each level of port, probably in addition to a base per-settlement subsidy.

3. Some multiple of the income actually produced by a faction's settlements.

If any of these are technically possible, I'd be more than glad to run some gameplay tests to see how they play out.

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Originally Posted by Dayve

Just wondering how it's done. I'm having to abandon my Romani campaign as i have to fight literally 4-6 full stacks of German and Aediu troops every turn, and it's taking me 5 hours to get through even one year, and it's only 215BC...

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That sounds like fun.....I'm sick of fighting off sieges when they bring 1 unit of archers :whip:

Fighting mass hordes of half naked Spearmen gets boring too... mow thru em like grass!

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Originally Posted by Brightblade

Fighting mass hordes of half naked Spearmen

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That sure paints a pretty picture :beam:

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Originally Posted by Brightblade

Fighting mass hordes of half naked Spearmen gets boring too... mow thru em like grass!

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I have been mowing through them like grass... For the last 20 game years, i've fought at LEAST 2 full stacks of Sweboz troops each turn, and now they are allied with the Aediu and KH, they are sending everything at me, so it ends up being 3, 4 or 5 stacks a turn. A few turns ago, i got so frustrated i took my most experienced army, marched up to two of Sweboz outer cities, waded through 5 or 6 stacks getting to them, killed another 2 stacks while sieging them, took them, razed everything, exterminated them, made about 30k, moved my army back to Sagestica, and on the next turn 3 more full stacks just walked over my border as if nothing happened.

How am i to continue, fighting 2-6 full stacks every turn? The last straw was when the Aediu declared war on me and started sending full stacks too.

It's not even a challenge, i am literally destroying armies of elite troops with my Camillian hastati/principes and leves and losing like 2 or 3 hundred troops each turn, sometimes as little as 100 troops or less, it's just the time it takes for me to progress and do what i want to do.

Maybe if you have some cash try buying good mercenaries and use them in autoresolve battles, at least to lower germanic potential.

I had a Makedon campaign a long time ago, and when I had taken over most of Seluekia, Egypt, and Dacia, turns took me and hour or two. There were just too many battles I had to fight, though it wasn't at all as bad as what you are dealing with Dayve. I don't think back then the AI got a bonus per settlement, maybe I'm wrong though, I think they just got a lump sum of 13k a turn or so. I remember I lowered the Eleuthoroi's bonus, which was 50 or 80k.

I didn't find a way around it, the AI generals had a command star bonus, so they're generals were almost always "outstarring" mine, which made autoresolve a very bloody afair for me. auto_win didn't work back then, and that was before I made a script for it. So I just stopped playing the campaign.

I remember a thread where a guy in the military was saying when he was on base he'd play 8 hours a day or so, and maybe make it through one or two turns. I don't like that kind of gameplay as much, since it's mostly battles that I seem to win pretty easily, and you really seem to lose the other aspects of the game, like character development/traits, that I like so much.

You could use the auto_win cheat, or maybe figure out how to remove the AI command star bonus, that way auto resolve would be a little easier to deal with.
Or maybe tinkering with the money the AI has will even it out. You know you can check how much money they have in the faction rankings scroll? I'm not sure if you can use the add_money -xxxx in the console, but there is a way to put another factions name in there, just like in the script. So if you even out the amount of aid they're getting, make sure they dont have 8 million in their treasury.

-Jarardo

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Originally Posted by Dayve

I have been mowing through them like grass... For the last 20 game years, i've fought at LEAST 2 full stacks of Sweboz troops each turn, and now they are allied with the Aediu and KH, they are sending everything at me, so it ends up being 3, 4 or 5 stacks a turn. A few turns ago, i got so frustrated i took my most experienced army, marched up to two of Sweboz outer cities, waded through 5 or 6 stacks getting to them, killed another 2 stacks while sieging them, took them, razed everything, exterminated them, made about 30k, moved my army back to Sagestica, and on the next turn 3 more full stacks just walked over my border as if nothing happened.

How am i to continue, fighting 2-6 full stacks every turn? The last straw was when the Aediu declared war on me and started sending full stacks too.

It's not even a challenge, i am literally destroying armies of elite troops with my Camillian hastati/principes and leves and losing like 2 or 3 hundred troops each turn, sometimes as little as 100 troops or less, it's just the time it takes for me to progress and do what i want to do.

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How about this:

KEEP THE SWEBOZ AND AEDUI SETTLEMENTS!!!!

Then once the Aedui and Sweboz have 1 settlement left with about 3 units. THEN abandon thier settlements and go back to play your Historical campain (if thats what ur doing, otherwise just "Romanize them")

I don't think we do give the AI 30k a turn, I think what we do is give them a nice bonus to start with and then 1200 for each settlement they own.

Foot

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Originally Posted by Foot

I don't think we do give the AI 30k a turn, I think what we do is give them a nice bonus to start with and then 1200 for each settlement they own.

Foot

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:book:
That is correct. I changed this to 800 pro turn and play a campaign to see what this will give.

sit a single unit in the alpine passes and auto_win the battles when they are attacked. You will have to renew them periodically, but you wont have to worry about your cities getting sieged, or lots of units needing retraining every turn, and you wont have to fight out every battle as it seems you are doing. Yes its cheating, but if you are getting 5/6 stacks a turn, thats hardly much fun either...

Edit: I have a similar problem, but they are very unimaginative in their choice of targets: Patavium and Segestica. I have solved the problem by having strong garrisons in those towns (6 cohors reformata) and the generals there have gained lots of defensive traits, so I tend to win the auto-resolve battles anyway. In case I lose (and get a draw) I then have a stack of cavalry sitting in Bononia as an emergency reserve to drive off the sieging enemy if they win. It doesnt happen often, so I take personal command in that situation and get crushing victories.