1.x AI Faction Progression Thread

[The_Brittunculi]

It looks like the KH has taken almost all of Anatolia, crushing Pontos, and is now overrunning Hayasdan. I also saw a few of its armies heading east towards AS lands. This will be interesting.

[Ignopotens]

I take it you're Casse?

[The_Brittunculi]

Yes, currently blitzing through Germania and Gaul.

[Maion Maroneios]

Send the Epirotes to Cyrene, and let them be a buffer between you and the ptolies.

Yeah, that's better IMO. Sending them over to India will not do much good with all the penalties they're gonna get.

Maion

[Tyrfingr]

It looks like the KH has taken almost all of Anatolia, crushing Pontos, and is now overrunning Hayasdan. I also saw a few of its armies heading east towards AS lands. This will be interesting.

That got to be the most impressive KH expansion I ever seen, and I'm quite surprised to see that the romans have taken cities in Greece.

[Ignopotens]

232 BC
I am Getai



-Makedonia was eliminated in the first ten years by the other Greeks.
-The Arverni were killed off buy the Audei some time ago, prolly like 15-20 years ago.
-KH controlled the southern half of Anatolia almost to Antioch until I took it all from them. KH has 2 cities in Iberia and one in the Bosporous.
-Pontus was wiped out by me and the Seleukids, they only had 3 territories.
-Rome is allied to Audei, and let Epeiros survive in southern Italy. They even lost Capua to Epeiros, but wouldn't attack them, instead they would just throw army after army at mine that is sitting on the bridge outside Patavium. Only after I force-diplomacied peace with Rome have they moved against the Epirotes.
-Seleukids are holding onto the far east pretty well, and they took Palestine and even Alexandria! from the Ptolemies.
-Saba has 2 full stacks near the Sinai but won't move, also 1 over by the Persian Gulf that's been there a while.
-Carthage has Lusotan as a Protectorate, but pretty inactive otherwise, at war with Ptolemies.
-far east has been pretty stable for a while

[Blue Death]

That's a nice Getai empire you carved for yourself there

Good Saba expansion as well, and is that the Qarthadastim controlling Ammonion with Ptolemy cotrolling everything around it?

But wait, the climax... the Seleukids took Alexandreia?? This is Madness!

[General Appo]

Meh, hardly unseen.

[Ignopotens]

That's a nice Getai empire you carved for yourself there

Good Saba expansion as well, and is that the Qarthadastim controlling Ammonion with Ptolemy cotrolling everything around it?

Why thank you, kind sir.


Yeah Carthage and Ptolemies have been fighting the sand war, the Ptolemies must have recaptured everything but Ammonion

[Onehandstan]

My Casse campaign:

[SwissBarbar]

232 BC
I am Getai

very nice

[Tartaros]

my current Seleucid game 229bc

i reduced my empire to 8 towns and conquered step by step back. first target was micra asia and syria. after i secured my holdings i go eastward to india and west to the mediteran island. my last conquer was egypt after kyrene rebeled to me. but i lost it two times back to karthadast (very big battle at the moment!!).

i am in war with:

Karthadast - losing iberia to lusotanna, but just conquered Syracousai (war since 245bc)
Ptolemaioi - slowly and painfull dying (war since 272bc)
Sabaean - Attacked Petra (war since 239bc)
Baktria - Take over my abandoned territory´s (in war since 245bc)
Pahlava - Constantly attacking Susa, Gabai and Ekbatana (war since 272bc)
Pontos - first i want that they conquere the rest of micra asia - but they send there stacks against me... (war since 255bc)

neutral:
Saka Rauka - under Baktrian protection
Haiyasdan - slowly pressing north against Sauromatae
Sauromatae - pressed westwards, but a little bit lazy
Koine Hellenon - peace since 242bc after taking rhodos and crete, they managed to hold against the macs and got some oulaying territory´s
Epeiros - finally killed macs off and sending fullstacks north against the alps. Segesta just rebeled a turn befor
Getai - under Epeirotai protection
Roma - fight down all boii territory´s, but struggling against aedui, epeiros, sweboz and Karthadast
Sweboz - slowly pressing south against the alps
Averni - under roman protection
Aedui - first under roman protection, but now they rebeled and fight against them
Casse - as usuall

Alliance:
Lusotannan - my only truth friends (far away...) after Karthadast declared war they managed to drive them out of spain

Gone:
Macedonia - grinded by Epeiros

At the moment i want to take taksashila and probably kophen. i want to wait till the march of time brings new eastern bodygards. After this i strike back!

update 228bc

[Maion Maroneios]

prolly like 15-20 years ago

Wow, never seen that one before!

Maion

[Ignopotens]

that one of the Gauls killed off the other, or "prolly" instead of "probably"

[Siruso]

Okay heres my lame attempt to post a picture through imageshack.




Heres me and my friend's game with Romani. We've been switching off every 5 years (email the save file) and its been pretty fun. If you guys havent tried it it's a good way to stay in touch at college and for the first time ever I havent got bored as Romani yet!

So we took africa blah blah blah...the main reason im posting this is because of the Parthians. Look at that monster! I'm really hoping to have some rome vs parthia action towards the end.


Also, the Hayasdan were getting pretty big but it looks like the parthians have put a stop to that.

siruso

Oh and i forgot to mention that I had absolutely no hand in parthia's rise. No money, no force dip, no nothing. Has anyone seen Parthian expansion like this before?

[Ignopotens]

I've never seen that, but you also have one of the best AI Getai and Saba expansions I've ever seen

[LordCurlyton]

Pahlava, 257 BC. H/M.
First notes: Mmmmmm, me lurves the Early Pahlava Bodyguard. My last Pahlava campaign was pre-1.0 so this is enjoyable. While I was mildly worried about the debt I decided that I'd take a page from the Saka gameplay guide and I blitzed the AS hard. While I personally still managed to get 8k in debt, by that point I started having positive income that got me out of debt in 2 years. Less really, since I took and sacked Susa and Ekbatana in that time. There were some tense moments, such as when the AS launched its first real counterattack towards Nisa, Assak, and Hekatomplyos simultaneously. They managed to take both Nisa and Hekatompylos but I crushed the FM-led armies in turn and took back what was mine. Susa has come under Seleukid attack a couple times and has switched hands a few times as I had my dominating FM-army crushing the Baktrians. Now I'm moving it towards Mesopotamia and I'm leaving Marakanda and Alexandreia-Eschate as buffer so that the Saka have someone to fight that isn't named me.
For people other than me:
Here's hoping the Saka go to war with the Sauromatae, keeping them off my back.
The Sauromatae have had decent starting expansion, but losing Pantikopaion to revolt has to hurt them.
The Hai look to be sticking true to form, slowly working on the nearby Eleutheroi and then probably heading up into the steppe.
Even with my evisceration of the AS hinterlands they are still holding strong, even making gains in Mikra Asia.
Ptolemaioi took Crete. Sweet. Other than that it looks pretty standard for them.
KH got gang banged and are left with Rhodos and Pantikopaion. Maks have secured Hellas and are now looking to explode. Epeiros has a strong position but I don't know if they can hold it.
Getai/Sweboz/Arveni/Aedui/Luso/Casse are all pretty standard.
Romani disappoint me, not even securing S. Italy yet. At least they are sporadically fighting Carthage.
Carthage, meanwhile, seems to be expanding mostly standard but they have lost Alalia to the Romani.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Romani 246BC
One of my house rules: Autoresolve all battles(I hate those small fights against brigands since I always loose too many men there!).



Some more interesting factions:
Qarthadastim - Made peace with them after 'Second Punic War' where I took those 3 cities in N-Africa. Left them there because they had no real armies there to oppose mine. They do however have a massive army near Gader.
Ptolemaioi - They took Antiocheia and those rebel provinces east of Hierosolyma. They lost Kyrenaia to the Seleukids however(rebellion or peace treaty?).
Seleucids - Although they lost Antiocheia they seem pretty strong in east. They play 'hide-and-seek' with Pahlava. I think Asaak and Hekatompylos are changing ownership every year. Pahlavan armies are going from one route around the mountains south of Asaak while the Seleucids are using the other one! Really confusing. Also, they have about 10 of those Thorakitai Agema(or something like that) and other elites(Argyraspides etc) near Seleukeia!
Epeiros - Once hold almost entire Balkan! But then Makedonia and Getai got rid of them and they are reduced to only 2 settlements in their homeland now.
Makedonia - They lost Pella and the city south of it to Epeiros and Corinth to KH but somehow managed to get back on track and reconquered their cities from Epeiros(They were not that lucky with Corinth though). Also they have managed to start a nice campaign in Mikra Asia. They have 2 full stacks there and with pretty good units in it.

About my campaign, I just wanted to know how well I can play just in the strat map. It is M/M but looks like a lot harder! For example I had my elite Double Legion with one of my best generals that time attacking Syrakousai but they were defeated easily! I lost half my army there. So I thought I take two Double Legions against them. Well, it didn't go the way I planned and they also were defeated. So, when I besieged the town, again(with two Double Legions, again), I managed to take it. It took 5 years to conquer Syrakousai(I needed to retrain my troops) while I managed to cripple the Qarthadastei in N-Africa with only 2 years!!
Anyway, it's a nice campaign and I can't wait 'til the Polybian Reforms come!

[desert]

Really? You autoresolve ALL battles?

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Really? You autoresolve ALL battles?

Yes. I autoresolve all battles. Those battles against brigands are annoying because I could win without losing any men or just couple of them. But in autoresolve I lose some 30-40 and that's just annoying when I have used my main legion against them!
This is also the reason why it took so many years to conquer Syrakousiai.

[PriestLizard]

This is my current campaign:
EB 1.1. with Alexander executable. (I really recommend it, its going so smooth - awesome!) I'm not sure if the ALX exe influences the campaign progression..!?



Not much happened yet... some notes though:
* Saka is expanding rather strong
* AS seems stronger than usual too while Pahlava seems weaker
* Makedonia is doing well vs Epeiros.

About my campaign:



I'd like to get some hints from you what to do. I really tried to keep peace between me and AS, including tribute of 100mnai for 16 turns total... but 267BC they still declared war. This time I blitzed Kophen because if I do a small pox start I always have the situation of one city vs. a huge empire and I cant do anything but turtle arround.

India is way too strong so I cant expand there. Maybe I'll be able to advance to the south... I won a lot of battles against AS there but I dont know whats coming next from them.

Oh and anyone else out there playing with ALX.exe? What are your experiences?

Cu Priesty

[Foot]

Its not suprising they declared war on you in 216. 16 turns of tribute would have finished in 268 (16 turns = 4 years) and after that they would have come a knocking.

Foot

[Zenith Darksea]

No, he said that they declared war in 267BC, not 216.

[Ignopotens]

Well he doesn't say when he started the tribute, but 16 turns is still only 4 years so it's possible the tribute time-period was already over if he started it in 272 or 271, although we can't say for sure if that's what happened.

Foot probably just had a typo when he said 216.

[Lovejoy]

PriestLizard: You should probably attack AS. Attack is the best defence. If you go south you will have along, hard to protect border against the AS. The cities directly west is kind of rich too I think. And some of them have mines.

[LordCurlyton]

Pahlava, 236 BC, H/M, BI-exe. Update from my last post.
I got the Late Bodyguards literally the turn right before a major confrontation with the AS where I had planned to shoot-n-crush with the early FMs. Instead I found I had no arrows but nigh-invincible FMs. It turned out to be what I needed as I won a hard-fought battle against roughly 10 times as many men by plowing forward and killing their goes-down-remarkably-easy FM. I never thought I'd see the day a pike line was broken by a frontal attack but that is precisely what I did. marched my FMs in, and over, the phalanxes, at which point they switched off pikes and the domination began. I lost far more to the thousands of heavy arches and peltasts but once I got the FM it was a bunch of rout-n-kill.
Its actually almost 227 BC and the only changes are that I have taken the Indian provinces and the AS took Sulek. Plus they wiped out Pontos and own all of Mikra Asia minus the one Ptolemaic holding.
Speaking of Mellow Yellow they have refused to take advantage of the AS trying to fight me. In fact they signed a peace with them but the the AS resurgence in Mikra Asia it is now a state of constant skirmishing between them (ie War dec, Diplo peace, lather, rinse, repeat). I expect them to get thoroughly owned when the diplomat keeping them alive dies. Every time I check the AS is continually re-sieging at least 3 cities with superior forces. I'm trying to wait until the AS conquers Egypt to continue my war against them, especially as they have not launched a single attack against me in almost ten years.
Pontus is dead by Silver hands. The Hai are going nowhere slowly it seems. Not even able to muster an expedition into the steppe. Saba seem stuck. Getai are slowly gaining ground on the Samartians. Maks/Epeiros are locked in a stalemate. KH is reduced to Pantikopaion (after this pic). Maks took Crete from Ptolies then signed peace. Saka sitting around acknowledging the fact that they can't fight me. Carthage biding its time. Luso being Luso. Same with the Casse. The Arveni better hope the Rome/Aedui war drags on and lets them rebound. Rome had all of Italy then Taras revolted back to Epeiros. They've basically left it alone. Sweboz will probably ruin someone's day soon.
One question though: since it seems that the only proper gov't I can make is Reformed Parthian, why does Pahlava still have Homeland/Subjugation/Outlying markers?

[Tristuskhan]

Saka sitting around acknowledging the fact that they can't fight me.

Probably they are busy trying to take Alexandria-Eschate. Leaving that province to the Seleucids was a good way to keep Saka at bay in my former Pahlava campaign.

hey, 500 posts

[LordCurlyton]

I thought as much but usually in my previous (admittedly pre-1.0) Pahlava campaigns if someone took Gava-Mazakata they usually wheel down the next instant towards my lands. Though I don't doubt the AS remnants up there are helping to keep the Saka occupied.

[Ravenfeeder]

Continuing from #467 and #499 above
Kart Hadast H/M 220bc BI.exe



Cometh the hour, cometh the Saka.

Saka now in war with Phalava, who are also fighting the Saba. This has weakened the Saba so that the Ptolemaioi have taken Petra and Palmyra. This has given the Ptolemaioi an advantage over Makedon. The only thing slowing up the Ptolemaioi is their occasional forays against Libya - two years bring their armies up, two battles and two more years taking their reserve armies back to Syria. Mind you, Makedon also weaken themselves by forays over the Adriatic - they build lots of fleets which get sunk by the Punic Quinquiremes.

[The Persian Cataphract]

Absolutely fantastic Pahlavân expansions, lads. Brilliant stuff, now it is firmly established that they will soar through Mesopotamia, and explore the confines of the Greater Iran. But most importantly, that they do focus on two fronts first, the north-east and the Medean area.

Perhaps one flaw is that the expansion occurs a little bit too early, but compared to the problems with Bactrian and Ptolemaïc expansion policies, it's still a huge step towards improvement for a faction which used to be notoriously weak AI-wise.

Keep the rolling, guys