Recommendations for a very challenging campaign?

[StellarW]

I FINALLY managed to finish the first EB campaign i started playing Pontus( VH/VH 172 BC ) and while it took me decades to take the final 15 cities in Eastern Europe ( after going east and south to finish off the rather massive Baktrian and filthy rich Ptolemaioi empires) from the occupying Sweboz and invading stream of Quarthadastim stacks i learnt quite a bit and will need a greater challenge next time round.

With that being said then i would like to hear your thoughts on which faction to play next or just your victory date's and difficultly levels so that i may have a standard to aim for. If anyone has already compiled the finished dates/difficultly levels of various players somewhere i would appreciate a link as i didn't find such a thread while checking the last ten pages of history.

So feel free to use this thread to make your grand achievements known hopefully inspiring me to take greater risks in my attempts to emulate it. :)

I will be playing version 1.0 ( Yes, it's a great mod and i will get 1,1 a bit later) again but i wont mind if some insist on bragging about their achievements in 1.1 :)

Thanks in advance.

Stellar

[Jaywalker-Jack]

If youve finished Pontos on VH/VH, its hard to say how you could make things more challenging...

....Except maybe, aim for total domination of the entire map? PLAYING AS SABA. If you can do that, you will probably reach some higher state of consciousness.

[QuintusSertorius]

As far as I'm concerned, the only meaningful way to increase the challenge is to houserule your play.

[Irishmafia2020]

Saba is hard early on as you only have a few possible homeland provinces, and you must face two powerful factions right off. To top that off, their units are fairly weak (but nimble) and they cannot stand up well against the real armies of heavy infantry and Cav that they will face. On the other hand, if you secure your borders reasonably well, you have an isolated cluster of 4 cities that will support you throughout your campaign.
Saka is reputed to be very difficult. The Gauls are reputed to be difficult to play as well, since they are in a civil war from the beginning. KH is reputed to be difficult, but I believe that that faction's challenges are overstated myself, since if you micromanage your first ten years you will likely unify Greece and become pretty wealthy early in your campaign. Finally, the AS is a possible challenge for you. They have to fight a six front war against weaker, but imperialistic powers (plus the ptolies). Of course they have a great economy, the best units in the game, and a fantastic starting position, but with a few house rules you might find yourself in desperate straits after only a few years.

[king hannibal]

I know one you should may get stuck on brition on VH VH with a historical army

I'm doing it at the min

although I've not really been againest any factions yet and I am trying to get all the reble city I can with in reason without making myself vauble before I could start expanding out side brition I had to wiat till 242 BC or something close and so the guals now have naked fanatics and there other elite swordsmen which is going to be fun to be againest

why be brition most units have low moral, most of there army is levys if you play historical your men are weaker than most other factions, you don't have any good horsemen so you've got to use chiorts which are good V moral but nothing else really there no phlananx so all units can attack you and I think when rome comes up into gual you will be dead

[Moros]

try to survive till 14 AD without ever expanding outside your starting provinces.

[Hax]

Playing as? Casse? :P

[StellarW]

I would appreciate a few more suggestions and dates of various completed campaigns! In faction setup it was claimed that Pontus would be hard and since i presumed that a single province would be hardest i went with that. From personal experience on VH i know that without phalangites, as line infantry, casualties can mount rather quickly but since i don't really want to get in wars of very basic attrition i'm not sure i want to go that way either.

Which faction, outside the horse archers types, and britons, ( i do far too well with foot archers and consider horse archers too easy to exploit against the AI :) ) does not have any phalanx type units and would that alone create enough of a challenge?

I know i could simply employ house rules to limit myself but before i do that i would much rather just look for a naturally challenging faction.

I appreciate all the advice so far but i am not sure what was meant with sticking the home province or how much fun that type of challenge would yield given the fact that i would have to stare at the same piece of real estate for 1200 turns. :)

Thanks!

Stellar

EDIT/PS: The only two factions with a 'nigh-impossible' ratings are Pontus and Hayasdan. Any chance i could get into contact with whichever member/members of the EB design team decided on those ratings?

Thanks again...

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Why not try KH on VH/VH?

If you're fantastic with horse archers, see how you are with only crap skirmisher cavalry and lots of infantry.

Oh, and for an extra challenge - don't disband your navy at the start - fight with it, and maintain it instead of letting it be sunk.

[chenkai11]

try to survive till 14 AD without ever expanding outside your starting provinces.

Wow, that's one hell way to play EB.

[Poulp']

play with the camera centered on your commander, at ground level.
and never use pause in battle.

[bovi]

Leave general command of the army up to the AI and only command a cavalry wing or your own general. Certain to carry a challenge.

[Banzai!]

Play as Sweboz. Crap units (no heavy cav at all! No heavily armored infantry even. No missile units beyond basic levies) until you get reforms 387 turns in. You start off with one province and crippling debt and the neighbouring towns ("villages") have no population to build extra units. Get hammered by Gauls (superior infantry & cav). Rome (superior infantry & cav), Getai (superior infantry & cav) and Sarmatians (you get one crap basic archer type that is outranged by all Sarmatian horse archers....).