How to you spice up your game??

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Just wanted to know with what rules/restrictions the people play EB..
I have seen some peoples rules and the list of them is reaallyy long

So how do you spice up your game??

[Ibrahim]

as AS, I allow only 2 field armies both 20 units-that's it-try that for a game with AS....
as Romani I play with 4 legions (40 units of legion+auxilia to deal with the carthigians
with Saba', I bann all good unis till I reack th greeks
all the others, I haven't played

[Gebeleisis]

do the saba have any good units until they reach the greeks except archer spearmen xD?

[Ibrahim]

do the saba have any good units until they reach the greeks except archer spearmen xD?

exactly my point...

[Dubius Cato]

Playing Hayasdan at the moment, my main troops are spearmen with 12/12 stats.

[anubis88]

Well i for one never do anything that would be ahistorical. I just try to play the game as historically as possible. With AS i tend to focus on those areas that were viewed really important or held by the AS and act acordingly.

[Admetos]

Same for me pretty much. As historical as possible, no blitzing, roleplaying, the usual stuff.

[Tristuskhan]

No retraining.

[quackingduck]

i dont worry about historical accuracy. ie. i always use armies of elite units. i have a full stack of sacred band/calvary right now on my carthanage campaign. i always build very expensive armies with the best troops my fraction can offer.

[johnhughthom]

My Romani house rules are:
2 legions in the Camillan era(an extra emergency one can be called up then disbanded as soon as the threat has gone) and 4 at the start of the Polybian, then slowly increasing as necessary. Only one unit of slingers per stack(one or two legions). Legions raised for 16 years then disbanded in smaller settlements, no retraining.
Try to expand historically, but if attacked respond how I think the Romans would have. Never attack a faction(though in my current game I attacked the Carthaginians as they had somehow taken Messana on the first few turns) but if I am attacked retaliate by wiping out most of their armies and only taking a ceasefire on my terms(which of course usually means having to destroy the faction).
I never exterminate, if the city is red I enslave.

There are a few more but I can't think of them right now.

My Saba house rules are:

Pray the Ptolemies are occupied elsewhere.

[Maximus Aurelius]

In my AS campaign i go for historical accuracy. Historical armies + follow historical expansion ( first kill the ptolemies . and then destroy the rebelling "kingdoms").

[russia almighty]

When I fight the Parthians as Rome, I imagine I am beating TPC's ass everytime.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Well .. I just started a new Romani campaign with lots of rules that would make it more interesting for me ..
I know people do not like cheats but in this game I desided to attach some of the cheats(only process_cq, add_money, add_population) to certain offices ..

So ..

FM who is Consul can use process_cq but only when he has more than 500 men at his disposal and only if the building needs 4turns max to complete and that army can not move from the town in that turn..
also he can use add_money but only as much as there is people in that town( example. Roma have 10000 people so add_money 10000 and the same time there must be very high taxes) .. this is sort of war tax .. can be used once in a year and consul can't leave from the town in that turn ...
and add_population means that Consul can use his influence to make people from neighboring provinces to come to live in that settlement (max 500 people .. how I use it? .. Want to give Ariminum 500 people from Roma .. "add_population Ariminum 500" and the same time "add_population Roma -500") .. this means that Consul can not move in that turn ..

There are similar rules for praetors, quaestors, censors, aediles, provincial governors..
If theire time in office ends they can not use those "benefits" anymore ..
Faction Leader(Princeps) have the same power like the Consuls..

Only Consul, Faction Leader and Heir, Praetor, Tribunis Milita can lead legions...
Consul and Princeps full stack/20 units, Faction Heir 16 units, Praetor 12 units and Tribunis Milita will lead 1 legion(2 hastati, principes, triarii, rorarii, leves, accensi, eq. romani)

This have made the game much more interesting and I like the real roleplayng option ..

[DeathEmperor]

My House rules and roleplaying ones are too many to list, but I'll write the main ones I used when I play as my dear Arche Seleukeia.

Difficulty: Almost always hard/medium

* No blitzing the ai. Usually give them 10-20 game years to expand while I do the same conquering Eleutheroi towns and fighting the ai off if need be.

* No cheats except for fog of war to check the ai's progress in other parts of the world.

* No all elite/high tier armies. Stick to as historically accurate as possible Hellenistic style armies. This includes the later Successors dependance on phalanx units instead of the combined-arms tactics of Philip II, Alexander the Great and the original Diadochi. (the reason for focus on phalangitais for me is cuz they're cheaper to train, maintain and reinforce with.

* Focus on historically important areas to my faction. This mainly focuses on Koile-Syria and Anatolia.

* Try to maintain a "pure" royal bloodline. As in every man who succeeds as megas basileus to the Arche is a direct blood descendant of Seleukos Nikator. I will however, bend this rule if a male born into the royal family by marriage to a Seleukid princess is named in honor of the founder (Seleukos) or his son (Antiochos).

* Stay out of European affairs till at least 200bc. Just so I can let the ai have their fun before a "Seleukid Xerxes" crosses the Aegean to expand his vast empire.


I genuinely enjoy my campaigns so much more with all these rules and more in my mind, than simply conquering the required victory territories as fast as I can.

[Laevex]

I am currently playing a Getic campaign and I find that it keeps it fun if I theme my armies. I have 2 totally HA armies in Skythia, a Thraikian army defeding Nikaia and Pergamon, a Celtic army complete with Scordisci elites on my western front as well as a couple of purely Getic armies - one based mainly upon Komatai style troops and one based upon the phalanx troops - to do my main campaigning.

I tend to use elite troops because for the Getai they aren't really THAT elite. For example the Komatai Epilektoi and Komatai Torakitai Stratiotai seem to be the natural result that would have come from the combination of fighting the Hellenic factions more and the increased coffers of the Getic empire (I like to call mine the Arche Getia now I'm a superpower).

All this and I don't blitz (it's 195BC and I still havn't achieved my VCs.)

[Arkanin]

Back when I was playing RTW, I had a lot of house rules, because the game was too easy.

So far my only rule with EB has been to play only VH/VH, right now my Lusotanan campaign was a bit challenging to start, but it got fairly easy pretty quickly... When I finish my first vh/vh campaign, I'll probably have to think of some rules, depending on how hard it was. I'll post those here eventually... I tend to have rules like no blitzing, you must attack faction X first, and so on.

If anyone wants a challenging RTW Vanilla campaign, by the way, play a VH/VH as Seleucia where you can't attack anyone but Egypt until they're conquered. People think Numidia is difficult without numidian cavalry... nonsense... try this one out. :D

[antisocialmunky]

EB isn't balanced for VH/VH. Especially naked things.

[dfeal]

No retraining.

No retraining? How do your legions cope with attrition?

And how do the players here cope with the expanding AI? I mean, I have found Baktria invading the Sweboz. So, how do you recommend I keep the AI wthin probable historical borders/regions?

[Dhampir]

I narrate and playact it for myself. I do different voices for different characters. It's totally not a sign of insanity.

[Parallel Pain]

Vh/Vh as well as using mini-mods