Re: 1.x AI Faction Progression Thread
Olaf is gonna hate me.....
I must say, finally playing a "barbarian" faction has been quite refreshing. No micromanaging your army like a HA faction or spamming pikes and auto-calcing the world into submission like a Hellenic one.
Plus the AI expansion has got to be the best I have ever seen with few, if any, exceptions.
Let's start in the east. At first it seemed that the AS was going to steamroll the whole area, taking Nisa in 265 BC and shoving the Ptolies back, even going so far as to take Alexandreia and Paraitonion by 240 BC. That was roughly the height of their power, as they had all the Eleutheroi defeated in Asia Minor and had pushed into India adn Egypt. Then...well who knows but they have been steadily losing ground ever since. My guess is they gained one enemy too many when the KH, Pontus, and the Maks all declared war on the AS. Baktria soon followed suit by besieging AS territory in India. Even then, the beginning wasn't exactly smooth for the coalition as the AS repulsed the KH and Mak attacks and laid siege to both Amaseia and Baktra. Thankfully both sieges were repulsed and the Ptoles began to mount the comeback, retaking Alexandreia a few years before the first screenshot and as you can see, they are in the process of rebounding up the coast. The biggest surprise is the relation of the steppe factions to the civilized neighbors. Baktria and Saka have actually been at peace for almost 40 years since Pahlava got Marakanda and Saka got Alexandreia-Eschate, with the Saka expanding into Sauro territory and Baktria beginning to flex its muscles in India and Arochasia. Pahlava has held steady and is slowly but surely beginning to take AS settlements now that they seem to be collapsing.
Moving to the center of the map, the big surprise is the demise of the Antigonids. They had the KH down to Sparte and Kydonia when the increasing Epeirote and Getic influence drew their attention and the KH have exploited that to the tune of uniting Hellas and Makedonia and attacking Epeiros. But it wasn't the KH who pulled the final blow. That, you see, goes to the Getai, who took Ambrakia from the Maks, also splitting the Epeirotes in half as well. This is possible because amazingly, the Sauro are at peace with the Getai so the AI is not continually trying to take Skythia. Also, the Hai are not trying to expand into the steppe b/c they are allied with the Saka.
In my neck of the woods I found a fun dynamic to set up. After the initial Arveni/Aedui war I managed to get a peace with the Aedui and then, when I was able to afford a new army in 260 BC I marched on Roma. I took Segesta (Segesitcia? the Ligurian province), Arretium, Roma, and Capua, giving Segesta, Arretium, and Roma to the Aedui and Capua to the Epeirotes, leaving the Romans with Arminium and Arpi. In 256 BC I built a small fleet in Capua's facilities, gave away the respective provinces, and my victorious warband did much celebrating. Over the next 30 years Rome kicked out the Epeirotes but began the eternal Punic War after Carthage unified Sicily. The Aedui, after losing Rome, held on nicely against the Romans, developing a nice back and forth where they would occasionally take Arminium, besiege Roma, then the Romans would come back and retake what was lost, sometimes taking Arretium back but inevitably losing it again. Southern Italy became rather lawless as it continually switched between Punic and Italian hands, with the occasional KH siege of Taras. However Carthage, by virtue of really desiring Arretium, has upended the balance and seems to be in danger of taking the whole peninsula, not to mention wiping out my green fellow celts. This will lead to obvious retaliation by me as I really would have liked it all to last another 10 years or so to ensure I could secure the Iberian peninsula. Thankfully I've reduced the Luso to raids as their two largest armies were crushed in mega-battles and they have lost enough FMs that they are not sending merc streams after me, though the fact that they haven't been able to keep Carthage off the peninsula might have something to do with that too.
All in all, a very enjoyable campaign to date.
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Originally Posted by LordCurlyton
in the EB PBeM
- Horseman of the 
<-- My "From Basileion to Arche - A Makedonian AAR" Memorial Balloon. 
--> - 
...... either the last beer was one too many, or Baktria really took the shape of Mickey Mouse 
. Maks, KH, Ptolies go back and forth, with Ptolies with the advantage so far.
)
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