1.x AI Faction Progression Thread

[jtareb]

I'm playing as Romani on med/med and I've already noticed a more aggressive ai, especially in using naval landings. In 1.0 I could blitz the carthaginians out of sicily without much trouble--this time they landed two full stacks to protect lilybeaum. The getea also seem to be much more active. And having reached 210 bc the AS and the Ptolemies are still stalemated around lebanon whereas in 1.0 one would have already destroyed the other by then.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I'm playing as Romani on med/med and I've already noticed a more aggressive ai, especially in using naval landings. In 1.0 I could blitz the carthaginians out of sicily without much trouble--this time they landed two full stacks to protect lilybeaum. The getea also seem to be much more active. And having reached 210 bc the AS and the Ptolemies are still stalemated around lebanon whereas in 1.0 one would have already destroyed the other by then.

Now that sounds absolutely fantastic! Especially the bit about a massive Carthiginian army in Sicily - finally a challenging battle for that island!

[Reality=Chaos]

I don't have pics but I'll give an update on my h/m Getai campaign 256BC. The Saka and the Pahlava are slowly eating up seluekid territory.
Baktria took Kophen but has been queit.
Hayasdan are expanding though for the past few years it has been at a sloths pace.
Saba have taken the southwestern corner of the peninsula
The ptolemies and the seleukids have a big fight going on. No clear winners yet though the grey death took Side from the ptollies. The ptollies have taken the western (libyan) provinces, though they've not taken Cyrene or the little province beneath.
Pontos is at war with epeiros and the seleukids. They've taken Ipsos from the silly's. A couple of years ago the silly's actually conquered (the then eleutheroi Galatia) Pontos has just lost Byzantion to Epeiros.
Makedonia are in a war with KH for southern Greece. They Chalkis, Myrtylene and Korinthos left (pella was taken by epeiros, Demetrias by the KH.
KH war in southern greece. Looks like stalemate at the moment.
Epeiros was on a roll, but they just walked into me. They've just lost Serdike, and an army is underway from Tylis to take Byzantion.
The sauromatae are scary (luckily I'm allied with them, for now at least..) They took Olbia and the neurii provinc in no time and have a lot of half and full stacks walking around.
Rome is doing quite decently. They've taken the peninsula excepting rhegion (and the've not been trying to take it either) And they took massilia.
The quarthadastim are slowly expanding in Africa. Mauretania (the three westernmost provinces in africa), are the only provinces left to the eleutheroi there
The luso's are slowly taking Iberia
In Gaul, the adeui have taken all of western Gaul. The averni have not expanded yet though not for lack of trying.
The Sweboz took their homeprovince except fro norway so far. They are in a rather succesful looking war with the adeui
The casse took Cornwall, and tried to take wales unsuccesfully so far

[gamegeek2]

For the record, these are what I usually saw in 1.0

Romani: Tend to take Italia and not more, maybe spill into Sicily or Green
Epeiros: Takes Pella, Demetrias and loses steam
Maks: Eat the Thracian/Getic homelands and go north
Getai: Go north, usually struggles against Maks
KH: Takes Attike, Peloponnesos, takes Demetrias and Pella from Epeiros
AS: 9/10 times gets Asia Minor, Syria screwed by the Ptollies
Ptollies: See AS.
Pahlava: Confined to warring with Saka for the steppes.
Saka: Fights Pahlava for the steppes, often eaten by Baktria later on
Baktria: Tends to go for Indo-Greco-Iranian provinces, often eats Saka homeland
Casse: Takes its first province about 250.
Aedui: Usually defeat Arverni due to easier rebel access.
Arverni: Struggle versus Aedui, but usually last until about 200.
Lusotanaan: Monopolizes Iberia, slow to break alliance w. Kart-Hadast
Qarthadastim: Take nearby Africa, sissy-fight with Ptolemies over Libya.
Saba: Little better than Casse.
Pontos: Eaten by AS or carves out a niche before the Ptollies stomp 'em
Hayasadan: Heads north instead of south.
Sauromatae: Casse-speed expansion, with the exception of Maeotis.

[Tarkus]

I haven't started a 1.1 campaign yet -- haven't even downloaded the new install -- but after reading this thread I'm struck by the sweeping conclusions people are making ("Faction X much better than before"..."Faction Y doesn't do anything anymore") based on just a few years of playing through a single campaign.

This is a simulation, folks...with each faction's activities subject to the whims of fate (Fortuna?!) over the years AND between replicate campaigns, even played by the same person on the same computer in an iterative fashion. I would think a little more experience collected by our great and enthusiastic community would be warranted before significant conclusions are drawn about the long-term strategic behavior of one or another faction. After all, it's only been four days!!!

[Reality=Chaos]

Still some trends are emerging. And it's all good as far as I'm concerned. Every faction is seriously trying to expand, unlike in 1.0. Some are very unsuccesful so far (like the Casse in my game) but try they do, which didn't happen in 1.0. So far I like the AI expansion. It feels more... I don't know... challenging.

[mini]

and is this with BI.exe or RTW.exe?

As I gather, BI exe gives a better AI?
I got BI, but i always get an install shield error when i put the cd in, so i'm forced to stick with rtw.exe, which installs just fine.

[Reality=Chaos]

Mine is without BI.