Cheating!

Me cheat - never! :laugh4:

I was reading a thread over on TWC in which someone was wondering how the AI had so much money to spend on furnishing army after army, where his faction was grubbing about to make ends meet.

I learnt it's all down to scripting. Apparently, the EB script gives 1200 mnai (2200 - slaves/rebels) per settlement. The argument is "You've got the brain; the AI gets the money". (It also explains how, in my current Roman campaign, Macedon, who have been reduced to a lonely exile on Lesbos, have managed to build two full stack armies on the island! Pity they've no way of getting off :laugh4: )

I can accept that, and it's probably one of the elements that goes towards making EB such a cracking game. But I am curious, what would a game be like without the AI getting its subsidy?

Well, I'm gonna find out. I've copied the entire game into another directory, gone into the script file and reduced the subsidy by a factor of 10 across the board (1200 = 120 etc.), and we'll see what happens.

I suspect that it's going to be such a cake-walk that I'll be scampering back to my proper "balanced" campaign in no time.

However, let battle commence!

What happens is simple, the AI goes into debt with absolutely no way of getting out of it, as they don't have the brains to disband their troops. So their infrastructure will be exactly the same after 100 turns as it was at the start. They will only start getting back into the black once you start beating up on their troops, but even then they will be so far in the red that it will take years for them to build something.

Even if it manages to come outof debt... it would be way behing technologically that you will feel bored kicking crappy troops!!!

Don't play on VH or the AI gets the 10,000 a turn bonus. Then the change won't be so drastic and that's no fun.

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Originally Posted by Grod Tepes

Me cheat - never! :laugh4:

I was reading a thread over on TWC in which someone was wondering how the AI had so much money to spend on furnishing army after army, where his faction was grubbing about to make ends meet.

I learnt it's all down to scripting. Apparently, the EB script gives 1200 mnai (2200 - slaves/rebels) per settlement. The argument is "You've got the brain; the AI gets the money". (It also explains how, in my current Roman campaign, Macedon, who have been reduced to a lonely exile on Lesbos, have managed to build two full stack armies on the island! Pity they've no way of getting off :laugh4: )

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Ahem...

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=83349

~D

Just a point, there isn't an actual difference in troop production, just building production.
You would just face endless hordes of pantadopoi.

If you removed the repopulation script, you'd have a world of tiny villages waiting to be conquered.

Well, that was both an interesting and boring exercise!

I set myself up as the Greeks and just went through Macedon and Epiros like the proverbial knife through butter. Once their initial troop allocations had been seen off, that was it.

As you said, Arkatreides, they were so poor and in the red they couldn't even afford the ink to sign the peace treaty. That's my curiosity satisfied, and my faith in the EB team's balancing both confirmed and strengthened.

Now it's back to my Roma campaign. It's 227 BC and I've just lost my second faction leader, Caius Aurelius Africanus, at the ripe old age of 61. He was one hell of a fighter and I'm going to miss him. He led his Consular Army for thirty five years and in that time conquered Sicily, Illyria, and Epiros. Confined Macedon to the island of Lesbos. In his last campaign he took Athens, which finally kicked Koinon Hellenen off the Greek mainland altogether, and earned him the title Imperator.

It's just a bit of a bummer that he died the next season (obviously exhausted by his endeavours) just as he was to start his return to Rome to claim his well-earned triumph. C'est la Vie!

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Originally Posted by Grod Tepes

It also explains how, in my current Roman campaign, Macedon, who have been reduced to a lonely exile on Lesbos, have managed to build two full stack armies on the island! Pity they've no way of getting off :laugh4:

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Heh there is a landbridge between Lesbos and the mainland, so don't count them out. Also all true islands have at least 1 city that can build up to a level 1 or 2 military port.

Yeah, one time I saw Makedon go to just Lesbos and counted them as dead. I looked later and they had taken Pergamum and build Lesbos into a big city.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fondor_Yards

Heh there is a landbridge between Lesbos and the mainland, so don't count them out. Also all true islands have at least 1 city that can build up to a level 1 or 2 military port.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MarcusAureliusAntoninus

Yeah, one time I saw Makedon go to just Lesbos and counted them as dead. I looked later and they had taken Pergamum and build Lesbos into a big city.

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Ooer! Thanks for the warnings guys. I'll have to keep an eye on them then. :2thumbsup:

Both Pontus and the Selucids are very busy with each other around that area at the moment so, hopefully, that will distract Macedon long enough for me to consolidate on the mainland to the west.

It looks like my new Faction Leader is going to have to earn his spurs the hard way.

I've seen the Makedonians isolated to Lesbos, then regain enough strength to reconquer Greece and western Asia Minor, exterminating the KH. I dunno what it is about them... I guess they like giving the KH a head start.