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I surprised no ones said tharce/daicans I look at there units and they seem the poorest alround although you havn't got much to worry about at the beginning it looks like it'll get harder later on
has anyone been them and dose it get harder later on?
I've played as the Dacians and they have been very easy. Since the mines give so much cash and they have so many around I'm swimming in money. I haven't even taken Greece yet.
Although this is little ahistorical but challenging, I once started a ptolemy campaign, but instead of fighting endless battles with the seleucid empire, I abandoned all my cities and put all my unit stacks including the generals on my available ships and set sail for the distant british isles. At the columns of hercules I got into a thunderstorm and lost half of my fleet and some generals, but I sailed on, always hunted by some seleucid ships, which followed me all the way to ireland.
Once I arrived there, I took my remaining army and conquered first ireland, then
marched on to caledonia and eventually faced the casse, who at this time had already taken control of all southern british provinces.
Playing on VH/VH settings this can get a very tough campaign because you cannot reinforce your troops with strong units until you take over the casse capital and your income is so low all the time, that your budget is in the red for a long time.
The saka are the hardest hands down. Their cities are disparate, poor and small, they don't start out with large armies, and you have to take about 6-7 cities before you're out of the red. It's just painful to have to 'play'...( more like 'work'). As well, you HAVE to fight every battle, or you'll never get anywhere.
The hay are challenging for quite a while as you fight battle after battle against the seleukids, but it gets easier once you've taken seleukeia, susa, arbella etc...
The lusotanni are a piece of cake to play: they have great units, it's easy to expand [kicking carthage out is easy], and they have decent income.
Aedui are annoying because the romans completely outclass you in units, ditto arverni. You pretty much have to mass gaesatae and cavalry.
The casse are tedious for same reasons as saka, but they have a way better starting position and their end units rock!
KH is not too tough as long as you can with the first crucial battles against Macedon at corinth and demetrias.[in the first couple of turns]
With Pontus, I took sinope, trapezous, and nikaia as quickly as possible and then crossed into crimea and took those cities. It's really not that challenging, but the lack of good cavalry is sorta annoying.
Epirus, Macedon, Ptolies, Carthage, Baktria and Seleukeia are easiest in terms of money, units available, etc...
Romans suffer for not having a very large area where they can recruit good troops early on...later not so much.
Sauromatae are easy! Horse archers own and the rebel stacks don't attack you unless you go near them.
Nothing remotely historical about it, but that's part of what makes it interesting. I myself, in my makedonian campaign, am considering having a major 'coup' of sorts, where I take my two family members who have control of Syracruse and Lilibeo, and giving mainland greece to.... somebody. Or just letting it rebel. I REALLY wish there were re-appearing factions, giving it to the kionon would make a lot of sense. Has anyone researched into forcing the game to make factions re-appear? What's marked as change once a faction dies? Does the game CTD when you try to give a city to a dead faction?Quote:
Originally Posted by Eratosthenes
As far as hardest faction, I'd say it depends on your play. If you play slow and defensive, I think a Pontic campaign would be the hardest, contending with those around you in antolia first, so that the Ptolemiac, or Seleukid empire is one huge challenge. You'll have to either chase seleukid to India or ptolemy into the heart of egypt to rout them out. Before that though, maybe the treacherous Hayasdan have yet to turn on you, or else are a stepping stone to your path of power. Going east, you'll either have to face blue death, or Pahlava, or, and it may take a little tweaking to get them to expand, the saka. In the west, you've got the greek states to contend with, and if you've let them sit and played slowly, they're not going to be happy about your invasion. To the north of them, if they bother, the Getai will also stand in your way. As you continue further west, you'll meet a gaulic, roman, or german empire. Or maybe even Carthage has gobled up Iberia and moved on up the Italian peninsula for a slice. No matter where you go, if you play slowly and let the empires develop, your always going to find a hard battle on your hands. If you blitzkrieg, well, hell, the enemy simply isn't there to resist you. Of course your going to win. To counter this, I think EB should move to a map befitting 4 turns a year. Or else somebody should make a mod for it. Sailable rivers would be farking awesome. If it it nerfs trade a little, well, too bad, counterbalance it with appropriate bonuses elsewhere. Played along side the BI exe, it may well turn out to be one of the funnest RTS games ever played, every time. *Goes off to read on how to make a map*
I don't know, I had a ton of trouble playing the Sauromatae. I finally gave up. I've only had an easy time playing Romani and KH, but I'm lost on how to win with Sauromatae, and its not that I can't win battles, I can't figure out how to manage finances. I didn't think it sounded plausible to try to build up my economy in such poor starting settlements, so I combined my starting forces leaving a unit guarding each settlement, and built a few extras with my initial cash since I was going to be in the negative within 2 turns anyways. Then I went campaigning, I captured 6 provinces before I ran out of steam, losing only 0-40 troops per battle and none of my family members. I even picked up some greek settlement on the coast of the pontos euxine. Now its 267BC, I'm at negative 33,000 mnai and climbing out at a rate of 500 mnai per turn with pahlava advancing on my borders with what's left of my army garrisoning settlements spiraling towards rebellion. I don't get it, did I conquer the wrong provinces? Should I have disbanded my starting armies and tried to build up my economy?
Seems to me the Sauromatae are tedious and unforgiving, but I guess such is life in the steppes.
Playing VH battle dificulty I'm surprised you got anywere considering VH/m is recomended. :p.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eratosthenes
Epeiros is pretty hard, split empire for the most part, two fronts and crappy economy.
Try Pontos NOW. You're lucky to take Trapezous, Nikaia, and Sinope and get out of debt before the Seleukids decide to attack you....better off forgoing Nikaia for Mazaka now, IMO...
Sauromatae....you can't keep your army. Not all of it. I disbanded plenty after taking Gelonus and Gava-Thissakata, and I was out of debt pretty fast because I conquered them pretty fast. Things would've gone a lot smoother had not a 760-man rebel stack appeared a turn's march outside of Uspe:furious3:
Just use the foot archers as garrisons when possible. Their upkeep is a little cheaper, they're more numerous, and just overall better on defense in a city...
Epeiros is easy; Rome takes forever to attack you, and Makedonia is so weak at this point you basically roll right down the Western coast of the Aigion, and then you can spank the Koinon Hellenon as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rilder
Pontus and Hayasdan are rather hard because its only a small matter of time before massive Seleukid full stacks start flowing through your borders, and your only choice is to win Heroic Victories every single turn.
The steppe horse archer factions are hard too simply because your income is utterly pathetic. The upkeep of the units are rather huge considering that they were nomads. Maybe there should be a script to give money for those steppe armies.
Elminister, those sig banners are just for members. Look in the Unit Development Art thread that is stickied to find the ones for public use.