Gripes and Compliments for EB

[Metalstrm]

Ok, first post here, so take it easy on me :)

Anyway, first of all I'd like to say a big thanks to the EB team for bringing such a great mod to us RTW fans. I was a RTR fan before switching to EB and I agree with most that it is quite a better mod. I especially like the small historical details and the obvious amount of research that went into the whole project.

Still, I have a few gripes. I have started the game on VH/M as recommended, playing as the Romani (I love them too much), attempting to follow a loosely historical pattern, and am currently somewhere around 255BC. Now my big gripe is this: I have occupied Messana, and am eyeing Lilybaeum just like any Roman would do. And my path is practically without obstacle. There are at most a couple/three Carthaginian units protecting the province and that's it. If I were a true Roman I would have grasped the opportunity and annihilated everything, but like I said, I'm attempting something semi-historical. Shouldn't they focus more on Sicily? I don't know whether it is a RTW problem or EB, but I find it a bit annoying. I mean, if I wanted to, I'd have had half of north africa by now...

One other thing, I'm still worried about difficulty as a whole, especially battle difficulty. I wonder whether the Romans actually had it so easy for them, but most battles I'm having end up with something like 95% killed (enemies) vs. 2-10% kills (mine). And on two occasions the Carts attacked with units that overnumbered mine twice, with me winning pretty easily. The only battle I've lost is once against Bononia; was my first time against the naked fanatics.

Hmm, dunno what else... Does the campaign get any more difficult later on?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

The problem with a weak Carthaginian Sicily is that the game doesn't like to do naval invasions or reinforcements. You can try using the BI.exe, as it should encourage naval invasions, or just attack them and then wait a long time for them to build a force in Sicily. They probably don't see you as a threat and don't bother sending any forces to the island.

Historically, most killing in a battle took place after one army broke and fled, resulting in a lot of causualties for one side and little for the other...

[Hax]

One other thing, I'm still worried about difficulty as a whole, especially battle difficulty. I wonder whether the Romans actually had it so easy for them, but most battles I'm having end up with something like 95% killed (enemies) vs. 2-10% kills (mine). And on two occasions the Carts attacked with units that overnumbered mine twice, with me winning pretty easily. The only battle I've lost is once against Bononia; was my first time against the naked fanatics.

Historical battles pretty much were pushing matches. It was a psychological battle. Killing an enemy general could really screw one side's faith = rout.

Look at Cannae, for example. Very few battles were actually Pyrrhic victories.

[bigmilt16]

USE BI. The carthaginians will fight for corsica/sardinia and sicily like no other!

[Ibrahim]

Teack me how to make it work for BI
make sure they're simple-easy, and common sensical instructions....

[Parallel Pain]

I want the stuff for BI + First cohort/elephant/phalanx minimod

Isn't there someone who knows how to combine the two and keep it balanced?

[NeoSpartan]

Yep M battle difficutly is easy for expirienced players. (I tried to do a roleplaying with VH/M and ended up getting all pissed at how easy it all was)

Go for H with Fatige Off, or VH.

[LorDBulA]

Battles to easy? Play with General Camera. It will make big battles much more difficult.

[overweightninja]

Teack me how to make it work for BI
make sure they're simple-easy, and common sensical instructions....

There is an automated installer that takes care of everything for you available here.

I want the stuff for BI + First cohort/elephant/phalanx minimod

Isn't there someone who knows how to combine the two and keep it balanced?

See my own and Titus Pullo's replies in the "BI and ALEX" thread :)

Cheers

[Metalstrm]

Ok thanks for the replies. Yes I'm using Barbarian Invasions w/o the formations mods, but haven't seen many naval invasions up till now. I'm gonna attack Corsica now and see what happens. Hopefully I'll get some return action.

Yeah the general camera is a good idea methinks... hmm. Or I could just let the whole army fight with minimal instructions. I wonder whether the actual Roman maniples would be getting constant direct orders from the general during a battle... I guess it was more something on the lines of "plan A... do such and such" and "plan B, do such and such". Anybody else know more on the subject?

And the only problem I find with the VH battle setting is that naked fanatics become simply immortal, defeating the whole purpose of the mod, realism.

Edit!!: Ahh dammit guys, ok I take back the part about the lack of naval invasions. I had installed BI and EB for BI, but was actually still using the old RomeTW.exe! Lol, I forgot I had to use the other one! Anyways, now I've loaded it using BI, and apparently it loaded the savegame just fine. Is that normal, or should I restart the campaign to make sure? I'm fine with continuing the game from here with BI, as long as I get all the extras with it.

[pezhetairoi]

It loads fine on BI, you're actually loading the MOD's .exe, it's only that the BI game engine becomes the foundation rather than RTW.

[Korlon]

Yeah the general camera is a good idea methinks... hmm. Or I could just let the whole army fight with minimal instructions. I wonder whether the actual Roman maniples would be getting constant direct orders from the general during a battle... I guess it was more something on the lines of "plan A... do such and such" and "plan B, do such and such". Anybody else know more on the subject?

This would not work out as historically as it should. As you might've noticed, each maniple has an officer. The officer would direct the unit as battles went on. If they saw a chance, they would not bother asking the commanding general to do what they need to do. Of course, this just doesn't work in RTW, unless maybe you set them on AI assistance, but that doesn't work out too well either.

Most of the planning would happen before battle as you would imagine. Though there were still orders going around I would bet as the battle scene changed.

[bovi]

If you want a real challenge in battles, line the army up the way you want them, then group all or most of them and set them on AI control, while you control a unit or two on a flank, pushing the offensive. Or all the cavalry, if you prefer, or take control of only the general and spend your time rallying those who rout. The trick is, the more you leave in the AI's arms, the more even the battle becomes, as there is blinding stupidity on both sides.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

If you want a real challenge in battles, line the army up the way you want them, then group all or most of them and set them on AI control, while you control a unit or two on a flank, pushing the offensive. Or all the cavalry, if you prefer, or take control of only the general and spend your time rallying those who rout. The trick is, the more you leave in the AI's arms, the more even the battle becomes, as there is blinding stupidity on both sides.

Yeah, I tried that once - roleplaying as a single unit! It was really pretty cool, trying to keep up with the army and still help the battle as much as I could.

[craziii]

hehe, why not set the whole army on AI control? and just control the general unit, it will really be nice for RP if you like it that way.

[General Appo]

Yeah, the story of the general who just couldn´t get his troops to listen to him. Though it´d be even worse to roleplay as a skirmisher unit or the like.

[lobf]

I'm using BI and the victory conditions mod. The AI frequently invades navally and sent a boat to Sicily every few turns in my current Romani campaign. That made me get kind of frustrated, though, so i destroyed Carthage a little earlier than historically. I left them with Iberia so they will hopefully put a check on the Sweboz who have now conquered all of Germany and Gaul minus a handful of scattered Averni settlements (who until a few years ago controlled all of modern france with two settlements past the Pyranees.

It's been sweet in other ways, too. Rhodes and Crete have been held by the KH, Makedonia, the Ptolmies, and Pontos. The KH sent a huge army to the western mediterranian holdings of the Ptolmies but got back on their boats and headed back to Crete to fight a Mak full stack. Epiros has made numerous (unsuccessful) excursions to Asia minor from Illiria.

Also, I imagine because of the VC mod, other factions have been more dynamic (with the exception of Lusotania.) Pontos captured the whole northern Asian minor coast down to Rhodes, were reduced to Rhodes and one other settlement above their former Capitol, then came back with Hayasdan and mopped up the AS weakened by the Ptolmies. Now the Ptolmies have the southern part of Asia minor, Pontos has almost returned to her former glory, and the Hai have expanded eastward and are coming in contact with a Baktria that takes up the entire eastern border of the map and into central Mesopotamia.

[Metalstrm]

One other compliment: I just noticed my country's (Malta) neolithic temples were included as a special building for one of Sicily's provinces, and there's some nice info in the description box! Nice touch, though I have no idea what the name of the building is... must be in Cartaghinian I guess.