Europa Barbarorum II FAQ

[Mithridates VI Eupator]

One of the reasons for the Eleutheroi's inability to train new units is the fact that as the single largest faction in the game, their huge amount of units quickly causes them to go bankrupt. You can experiment in EB1 by setting the money script to give them copious amounts of money each turn, and they will sometimes start to recruit units. This is not recemmended, though, as it will severly unbalance the game.

[QuintusSertorius]

One of the reasons for the Eleutheroi's inability to train new units is the fact that as the single largest faction in the game, their huge amount of units quickly causes them to go bankrupt. You can experiment in EB1 by setting the money script to give them copious amounts of money each turn, and they will sometimes start to recruit units. This is not recemmended, though, as it will severly unbalance the game.

In many my last games, I regularly gave the Eleutheroi 100,000 or more mnai a turn via the console (and often picked certain settlements to add extra units to their garrisons), and it didn't "severely unbalance the game". It slowed down the advance of the other AI factions, but still not enough for my tastes. There certainly wasn't an advance of the rebel settlements, since they only seem to defend what they have, not try to expand.

[d'Arthez]

Let's wildly assume that the average settlement is defended by 8 units, and that the average upkeep per unit is 500. Which is probably on the conservative side, especially since cavalry units are quite expensive in upkeep. No Eleutheroi city in EB comes even close in terms of making 4000 Mnai / turn. The only way they could do that is second tier mines, in a minerally rich province. As far as I know, no settlement starts with those mines.

Add in all the rebel stacks, scripted defenders, pirates, etc., and it is obvious that the Eleutheroi are crippled in debt from the get-go. In order for them to develop, you would need to give them copious amounts of money, to the tune of 100 000 Mnai for every 20 settlements they own. At the start of the game that would be more than 600 000 Mnai / turn. I think someone actually experimented with giving them about 3000 Mnai / turn for every settlement they owned. That massively reduced expansion in Eleutheroi lands. Doing so would only require some minor changes to the script.

Back on topic:
I am not too worried about this particular issue in EB2. I am sure the first version won't have it solved - it is a matter of testing and tweaking. A blunt method such as "add_money" may work in general, but that may conflict with historical reality, and AI practice.

For EB, there were the AI faction progress threads, which also helped in identifying issues that lead / have led to unwanted AI behavior, such as the formation of Grey Death / Yellow Fever, factions expanding to unwanted areas (Hayasdan to the steppes, Pahlava up north, rather than to the south; Sweboz saying hello to the Romans in 250 BC). It is all in finding the right balance, and that requires serious testing.