1.x AI Faction Progression Thread

[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

[Velho]

Just battle with romani, Thoughted that well lets take out the 1800 men stack but accidentaly got into battle with 2700 men vs my 972 men

[seleucid empire]

seleucids campaign 246 BC on H/M using Realistic Movement Mod

sothis is what happens when you give Rome and Carthage realistic movement...

[Velho]

Romani E/E 225BC

My first campaing what has lasted about 200 turns I have 76 settelments at the moment and trying to get the 90 before ill slow my progress down



Here is picture about my faction leader and his army + his 120 men strong galatikoi tindadoae guards.
they got their silverchevron from smashing plotemaioi stacks




Seems that epeiros has some good stacks out there, and yeah i have done principes spam abit

[Vlad-Tudor]

This is my campaign with the Getai. I haven't seen anyone achieve the victory conditions, so I might just post the empire here. Campaign is on M/M, I usually do play like this because I like bribing FM from time to time so I can culturally enrich my factions with some foreigners.



Some addition details about it:

Just because I have achieved the victory conditions doesn't mean the campaing is over. I was thinking to start a AAR from the victory condition with the Getai in this campaing. The same season I achieved victory 230 I had the Egipt betray me - tho they did not attack me; we have no next to next city just an sea invasion is possible.

So where do the Getai stand at the moment? In the north east no real theat, save borders, lots of Eleutheroi to expand. Britain seems tempting to take with 2, 3 stacks, since it's easy to defend. I have an alliance with the Sweboz who are fighting the Aedui and Arveni at the moment, I'm in a war with the Romans who still have two cities. I did chose not to eliminate them so I won't get in a war with Carthage, whom is their enemy. Even so, earlier in the campaing the Romani and Epirus, worst enemies, no? Well they allied against me :D. I hope I can still keep Carthage neutral, else it will be messy. The Getai have a really bad navy, I can't compete with carthaginian war ships. Not even Egiptian ones. At the moment I have, as you can see on the map, a large town in Africa, that i need stone walled asap. Bribed it for the carthaginian FM. That guy is now pointless and skilless. Still is a Carthaginian.
Anyway, what I was planning to do is fortify my borders, all stone walled cities, outposts, forts on the main roads and go take Alexandria and the surrounding with something like two stacks. That might hurt Egipt. This or obtain back the neutrality, which would be better for the time being since most of my offensive stacks are in north ( i have the borders well garrisoned, tho').
Best expansion would be for me to get the western Mediterranean Sea, of course, but the Egipt.. they are the second factions in rankings and a prolong war with them being so far away would leave me in a way way bad shape. War will come, undoubtedly.

[Miaow]

Aedui campaign, 231 BCE, VH/M.

Only provinces left for the victory conditions are in Britain, while my continental extension is greater than needed. I'm currently at war with Rome, the Sweboz and the Lustoanna, though none of them is a threat at present. Roma is currently under siege and should fall next turn (for the fourth time this campaign, this time I'll just finish the SPQR off).

I've been roleplaying and haven't expanded as fast as I could, managing to avoid war with the Sweboz for a long time. The silly Germans were obsessed with Eburodunum as far as I can tell, but never managed to beat the scripted defenders (they never even took Heruskolandam, and I beat them to the Belgae provinces). When I got around to sending a strong enough army to wipe out the Boii, the Germans promptly attacked me. Their assault on Eburodunum was en epic battle I ultimately lost: my governor and last man standing fell in the central square with 2 minutes left on the timer, and the Germans lost 1400 of 1600 attacking soldiers. They held it for less than a year though, just the time to recruit a general and give him an army, and in general they've been losing the war since they started it.

I've also got a border with the Getai but they've been turtling up since achieving their present borders maybe 20 years ago, and are allies (but so were the Sweboz).

The fight for Greece was fairly balanced for a long time, with Epeiros holding Makedon and Makedonia holding Epeiros, which I thought was hilarious. I was bankrolling Epeiros and the Koinon (Makedonia having gone Philoromaios), through legit tribute, not console, so probably negligible on VH campaign, but KH and Epeiros did ally and Makedonia eventually crumbled under their combined pressure and became a protectorate of Epeiros.

In the East, AS did better than I've seen it do before, at one point going up to Jerusalem, before being kicked back to the Euphrates by the Yellow Fever. The combined attacks of Ptolies and Pontos drove the AS out of Mikra Asia, but they've struck back and taken Antiocheia back. Armenia seems to always do well in 1.2, Sauros are being driven West by the Saka and Hay. In the steppes, Saka and Baktria have been dancing, Baktria's been overall getting the better, though they've been bigger than in that screenshot. Pahlava are being nibbled at by the AS, as usual.

In Africa, I think it's the second or third time Kush revolts to Saba. Since Saba finally got Ma'in, they might have a real war with the Ptolies on their hands. If the AS don't keep up the attack in the Levant, then things might get really ugly for the Arabians.

The West is obviously dominated by my Aedui at this point. I started out by talking Vesontio from the Arverni and beating their armies until I could force a peace so I could expand East and North while holding back Rome. The Romans rapidly got too insistant to ignore, and that first war against them was really a gruelling affair. Eventually though I managed to field two full stacks at once, so I could beat them and sack Roma, which I returned to them (much damaged) in exchange for peace and tribute. They attacked me after only a few turns, so I retook Roma over the bodies of their Freed Slaves and this time made them a protectorate when giving it back (completely wrecked after two sacks). I got a ridiculous ammount of money out of that, much more than I expected from the SPQR with a gutted capital, but I guess it just shows how much the VH AI "cheats". I really would have preferred getting less money as this feels like an exploit, but protectorate status is the only way to make them keep to the treaty. It also takes all the aggressiveness out of the AI, which is why Rome never went South (except for taking Taras fairly early).

My one bit of console cheating was giving Arsé to the Carthies, because in 250 or so they still hadn't moved at all. This soon led to the Lusos attacking them in Arsé and taking all their Iberian provinces except, ironically, Arsé. It did kickstart Carthie expansion in Africa though, so I'll just roleplay it as meaning Hanno and the landowners' party hold sway in Qart Hadasht.

I did some expanding against Eleutheroi and building my economy until the Arverni, after some hibernation, took Tolosa and Burdigala. I crushed them then, of course Rome was still allied to them and broke the protectorate. I threw together a new army in Italy while my two armies in Gaul crushed the Arverni and sacked Rome again, reducing the Romans to a protectorate again after wiping out the Arverni. At this point, all of Gaul was mine. I took Eburodunum and Vindobonna then, before crossing the Pyrennees. This brought me into conflict with the Lusos while Eburodunum brought on the Sweboz backstab, which Rome used as a pretext to revolt again. I really tried to not wipe out the Romans, but peaceful coexistence is just impossible with some people.

Oh, Casse on their isle have been doing their usual thing on their own. Of course, since I need their lands to achieve the true Celtic empire, their future looks grim...

P.S. this campaign really persuaded me that slingers need to be majorly nerfed. They're the cheapest troop type available yet they're completely overpowered once they get a little experience (and with Type IV gov, Field of Games and Fortress Temple of Teutatis, they start at 3 experience). Some of my battles against the Lusos were like High Wood on the Somme, they advanced on my position, lost over their half their army to slingers on the way, then my line tossed some javelins and the survivors broke and ran. No melee at all, which is just not realistic for large armies in this time frame, as far as I know, especially in the West. These aren't elite Persian or Cretan archers, or Rhodian or Balearic slingers, just run of the mill iosatae and sphendonetai.

[HopliteLegion]

KH campaign, approx 250bc

War with Makedonia isn't going in their favor. They've hit a stone wall against Epieros, and I've run them out of Greece. They're also broke, thanks to a combination of their large inactive army and a three year long blockade against their ports. Just started a new campaign to take their island settlements.

Epieros has been waging a go-nowhere war against the Romani in southern Italy, and haven't even made a move against Thermon.

The Romani seem content to stop at the Alps for now, which doesn't make sense as Carthage is locked in a stalemate with Ptolemy. Money isn't an issue for the Romans either...they are ridiculously rich.

Seleukids made a move against Halikarnassos, causing that settlement to rebel an join me. They haven't made a second attempt due to eastern powers picking away at them.

The Sauromatae have a nice chunk of the steppes conquered and are starting to encroach on Baktria.

The Sweboz are holed up in their forests, seemingly ignorant to Arverni expansion along the Rhine.

The Aedui are still reeling from a few failed attempts to dislodge their Gallic rivals. There's now a temporary peace in Gaul.

The Iberians have been seizing eleutheroi settlements around them, paying little mind to the Carthaginians.

Ptolemy has been more less toying with Carthage while expanding east from Palestine.

Casse is still trying to bring Britain under control.

The Getai have expanded north and have forged a nice little kingdom from the rebel settlements.

Pontus controls most of Asia Minor and are trying to move into Thracia.

Hayasdan has expanded very little thus far, though they and their neighbors are keeping the Seleukids busy.