1.x AI Faction Progression Thread

[LusitanianWolf]

Lusotannan campain at 263 Bc with Alex.exe and Jirisys Mega Pack (Vh/m)

My first with Alex exe and is being quite fun!
I had played Lusos many times (can you belive that? =P ) but usualy I first blitz the Carthies ou of Iberia and then focus in economy and in conquer the rest of it but now I'm doing the things the other way: conquered 2 eleutheroi settlements, paid some tributes to Cartage while developing some basis economy and them waited for them to betray me. Belive me, fighting them all over iberia is much more fun to just siege eleutheroi towns so I'll let them stay around more time. Theire bringing reinforcements by boat (mostly sardinians and balearians), I'm hoping that they bring some elephants, but unfortunly AI almost never use them in my campains, maybe with Alex things will be different (I hope).

And btw LOOK AT THAT GETAI, who gave them steroids?
Thinks are pretty hot in the steppes, almost a shame I'm so far away
And lol, Casse was destroyed very early by eleutheroi.

Its being a fun campain

[Greenlizard0.]

Epiros, medium/medium (bi.exe)

An invasion of Punic troops in Italy from see. (They didn't came from Messana).



In 272 I took Pella and Demetrias and Serdike, the Koinon Hellion took Korinthos the same year. Removing Chalkis did cost the Greek more time though. I lost Taras twice, yet nice rebellions gave it back.

The Koinon sieging and taking Mytilene, while Makedon had succeeded in invading Rhodos isn't someting I've seen often. (Note: In the second picture The Koinon is invading Rhodos). And Pontos has Pergamon.

Edit: AS has Salamis.





However succesful the Free Greeks have been so far, they made a huge mistake in sieging Demetrias, the first time I'm in war with them. I have four full stacks (thanks to the mines, and I have even 5000/6000 mni each turn), they have one stack (with some non-professional alongside some professional troops).






As you can see, the Ptolemaoi, Bactria an Pahlava are doing wel.

[Grouchio]

Anyone care for some more Empire building?

[Satyros]

Don't have a screenshot at the moment but by 230 my Sauromatae empire is quite large , the most successful attempt to date . Alex.exe vh/m huge size units , have "cheated" to win previously ctd'd battles as I hate having to replay at least half an hour of constant micro with the horse archers . Usually I have much more casualties than playing the battle manually ( again ) but I can live with that*edit* After the Ptolemaioi have attacked I can't live with that any more , if this campaign dies , it will be because of my hatred of replaying ctd'd battles *edit* . I hate replaying the same battles . Otherwise I don't cheat at all , not even the "legitimate" cheat of " force diplomacy" .

After uniting the tribes around the starting territory and capturing pantikapaion and ... the other crimean city and olvia ( some heroic victories ), I initially expanded to the west , captured the skythian lands and even expanded a bit ( 2 provinces ) in the baltic , attaching two allied tribes to my growing empire .

Since Saka Rauka proved to be the best ally ever in EB ( almost 40 years of alliance with common borders and without attack ) I then continued my expansion to the south , I passed the Caucasus mountains and destroyed Hayasdan and on the other side of Euxeinos Pontos I stole Kallatis and .... the-city-immediately-to-the-west from Getai . Again tough resistance from both of them . The Getai are quiet ever since , they have probed once or twice with a single unit towards Gawjam Bastarnoj but were beaten back immediately from local militia .

Beside the Getai where nothing interesting is happening , at the moment I am facing the KH which for the past 10 years ( or more ) is rather obsessed with Kallatis , even though it has no bordering province ( Tylis still owned by Eleutheroi ) , they have been very active launching expedition after expedition by sea to Kallatis , I must've killed over 25 thousand of troops . I also face the Ptolemaioi who declared war on me the very next round after we shared a border for the first time .

Other than that I have a severe financial problem , with 21 cities now I still can field 3 quarters of a stack worth of HA units of which 5 units are elite ( of which only two are Aorsi Nobles - not the best one there is ) and the rest are regular non elite Sauromatae Archers or Aorsi Riders . These are splitted three ways : 2 Sauromatae Noble Horse Archers with a family member go rebel hunting , 1 SNHA with 3 Aorsi Riders and 4 SHA and one FM are in the Balkan front and 2 Aorsi Nobles 2 SHA and 2 AR and 2-3 FM's are on the other front , Caucasus etc , the rest of my economy supports guards in the cities , all Sauromatae footmen .

The thing is that I may have some profits now , but I think that if I invest on a third "army" ( practically another halfstack - the rebel hunters barely count as an army ) to conquer more territory I don't think that with the additional garisson costs I will have any profit at all , perhaps I will lose more than I will gain , financially speaking . Non HA armies are worth nothing if they're not supported by elite cavalry , so it's a financial dead end methinks .

Moreover I want that 6-8k profit margin to develop my territory ( slowly ) .

What I think kills me is unrest . Contrary to our settled neighbours we don't have enough happiness / law buildings and on top of that we have many FM who simply want to be in the wild / seek the glory in battle who don't make great administrators .

At the end of the day it's ok , because I was forced to play like a steppe horde is supposed to : I organize raids deep into enemy territory with the sole purpose of sacking cities ( so as to develop territory faster ) :D

Am I doing something wrong ?

Let me know if I do .

Satyros

P.S. : I moved my capital to Tanais , which was a brief relief , but further down the road squalor will hit hard my captured cities . With the exception of the 2 Baltic cities I have migrated everywhere .
P.P.S : If this is not the right thread for this post , perhaps a moderator can move it somewhere more appropriate ? Thanks in advance .
P.P.S. : The Ptolemaioi are monstrous ! Monstrous I tell ya !They've taken ALL of western Seleukeia including famous cities such as Babylon and Seleukeia , they have even managed to keep their provinces in Mikra Asia and currently attack my ally Pontos . I have decided to build a HA army of Doom ( which means about 12 units ( 50% elites ) , 14 with the addition of two FM's and DESTROY THEIR CITIES .

[philosopher260]

excuse me but i got a little confused.......this is the barbarorum 1 or 2?????thank you

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

This is Europa Barbarorum 1.

[moriluk]

Interesting expansion here from Romani. Especially since they were going after Sicily when Gaul had Roma. They continued attacking Sicily while the Celts took everything else. Taras is about to go but Athens is strong and they have owned that and have been allied with Makedonia for almost 20 years.

Using BI h/m with minimod, city mod, realistic movement mod, and some other stuff. AI victory conditions is on. Pontos was wiped out 265. This is my first campaign with realistic movement mod. I thought I would not like it but I actually do, especially for ships.
232bc