House rules

[artaxerxes]

1) Treat 'not-endangered' borders as endangered borders (more or less what Aaldaemon said as his number 4) -> fx I'm well aware that nobody is EVER gonna invade my Indian satrapies from the east, cos' the map ends there. But I still fortify, since they ARE a border

2) Use Auto_Win Defender for battles that you KNOW you can win. That is because Saba besiege my Bostra and Homna EVERY fourth turn. And my computer is REALLY slow. So instead of waiting 15 minutes for the battle to load, then wait 10 minutes for the Saba to suicide on my Phalanx (yes I use that tactic, but why not, fighting Saba infantry is boring) and then wait 5 minutes for the campaign map to load again - and having to do that every half hour (which can REALLY ruin your day), I use the cheat to win the game - even though I'm certain of victory, the normal autocalc of course value their (completely irrelevant, since we're talking gate fighting) numbers and command stars, and therefor I need this cheat to get rid of them. I do however ONLY use autowin for that kind of battles as well as for ones that I have played but which were deleted by CTD's

3) Avoid all other kinds of cheat, even FD - not because FD isn't a good tool, but because I don't have the discipline to use it. Before I know of it, I've used it to double my empire, and then the game makes no sense anymore. Anyway, as I'm usually Seleukid, I blitz everybody till Asia's divided between me, Saba, Saka and Sauromatae. Saba I hold at bay as noted before, Saka usually attack my northern frontier, but never with numbers that actually threaten the local garrison (in most redudant cases I'll use auto_win here again). Sauromatae are for some reason NEVER at war with me, and therefore my Caucasus frontier doesn't even have to be guarded (but see 1) - i do it anyway). Besides these easily-held frontiers, I garrison Cyrene and Byzantion heavily AND LIVE IN PEACE :)
Since Saka and Saba are never strong enough to harm me and Sauromatae are at peace, I have the resources of one third of the map and only need to hold 2 settlements. Obviously I'm then capable of garrisoning them strongly enough to withstand most attacks and therefore, at this point, IT DOESN'T MATTER who's at war with me ;)

4) use toggle_fow to see what's going on far away (fx how are they doin' in Northern Europe - something which won't give me any advantage anyway, since I'm not fighting there.) Using togglefow I DON'T check position of enemy armies among my neighbours, but only how the territories are dispersed on the minimap. I usually jump to the Indian Ocean before using togglefow, so I'm certain not to see anything concerning army status of my neighbours.

5) I do betray allies, cos' I know they'll betray me, and I don't see where the historical accuracy is in never betraying anybody. But ones who've helped me (who side with me in conflicts and attack my enemies), I try my best to be faithful to. But after several Seleukid games, I no longer have any nice feelings concerning my relationship to any of their starting allies, Makedonia excluded

6) If Iu se FD, I NEVER use it to weaken an AI. Even if one faction is winning more than is historically accurate, I find it a kind of cheating to limit their expansion - its like cheating to remove a strong competitor. Their lands are spear-won, who am I to tell them to give them up? If I use FD, it should ONLY be to salvage dying factions into remote corners of the world, where they can live on. But unfortunately, I'm currently aiming at sooner or later interfering in Greece (in my current campaign, Getai are more aggressive than I've ever seen them before, and amazingly, KH, Epeiros and Makedonia have reached some sort of stalemate, with LOTS of fighting going on, but NO results being achieved - I find these wars fascinating and far more interesting than a peaceful Greece under my control would be, but as I want to fulfill my VC, I hope Rome can wipe them out and then I can avenge them). I would like to salvage the Hellenic factions (whom I admire very much) into other areas, but there are really NOWHERE to put them, that isn't either my VC's or completely unhistorical. I'll prolly put Makedonia as the Bosporans, but I can't put anyone in Italy, cos' I want a strong Rome to function as the main rival of my empire. So there's really nowhere to put KH or Epeiros...