A question about the expansions

[rootje]

Hello

I'd like to ask iff there is any point to installing barbarion invasion and alexander to add into the experience of EB.

I've read here and there that the alex.exe should make the ai smarter and better,which is exactly what i'm looking for (i'm aiming to start a vh/h rome campaign soon to reach the thin line between ultimate challenge and suicide and any extra ai boosts would be nice).

Any info on this?

Also, iff the alex.exe does help, could anyone give me a link/roundup on how to make EB function with it?

Thanks in advance!

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Alex and BI both provide better AI, don't play Hard battles, it's stupid, not challenging.

[Watchman]

And VH campmap AI is rabid and annoying.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

And VH campmap AI is rabid and annoying.

Oh, I don't know, 100 odd years of peace with the Getai, with a solid full contact border, as Makedonia. If you are going to play Alex/BI though you might as well go H/M, it should be enough of a challenge, especially as starting Romani units are sub-par.

[rootje]

Hmm, thanks for the tips so far.

I'm currently playing VH campaign with the Hellenics and it seemed abit too easy at the start, but lateron I am now in a conflict with the makedonians and selekuids around Ankyra etc while Makadonia and the epirottes attack me near athens and the citys i managed to take above there. So the campaign map started easy as long as I defended athens well[had to do that every year or so], but starts to get alot harder now and a nice challenge for vh/m.


Iff I switch over to adding BI and Alex,which i will in a few days when i get them back on a dvd from a m8, would it really be neccesary to switch over to H/m?


By reading your info i've chosen to let go of the ''hard battle'' so far, installed phalanx mod aswell and it made makedions and epirtores way tougher eventho it boosted my own troops aswell. Was mainly worried about the fact that i've played Rome total war for ages with rome back in the days so i should be able to manage the main tactics, which add to the fact that Rome tends to have the superior troops and would make ''medium battles'' too easy and make that +4 a nice challenge.

But then again, iff EB already balances it all out mainly and due to the ai on the campaign map they're normally fightin 2on1, it should still prove a great challenge in Medium I reckon :).

Any more input?

[Novellus]

Hmm, thanks for the tips so far.
Any more input?

Careful when you change the difficulty of the battles. It took me until a month ago after playing EB for about a year to figure out how large the bonuses were for the AI armies. I saw Spartiartes Hoplitai LOSE to Hoplitai Haploi on a few occasions, or take tremendous casualties. And even after surrounding and engulfing the flanks of the Phalangatai Deuteroi, I noticed that my ELITE units suffered fairly high casualties. The vanilla version benefitted a lot from the way the difficulty system is set up, but in EB, the team intended it to be balanced on a default level of medium.

Good luck with your campaign!

[Aemilius Paulus]

If you need help with installation or issues, got to Lz3, who's the main alex.exe support guy or visit this thread. Personally, I would agree that alex.exe is better than BI.

[Ludens]

But then again, iff EB already balances it all out mainly and due to the ai on the campaign map they're normally fightin 2on1, it should still prove a great challenge in Medium I reckon :).

You are free to choose your own difficulty level, and if you are an experienced player hard may provide that extra challenge, but don't complain about battle balance if you are playing on anything but medium. Because of low attack values and slower combat, the difficulty bonuses hit harder than in vanilla.

[rootje]

After 5 ctds [3 after battles, 1 on the turn of the opponents, 1 during battle] in a single day I've grown quite sick of my beloved Hellenic empire so I'm ready to make the switch to the Romani...

Just to go over it one more time

Step 1 would be installing Barbarion invasion,then following the instructions to make that one run with EB

Step 2 would be installing Alex and making that one work with EB

Step 3 would be taking over the world and fighting for the Roman Glory


Is step 1 optional or essential? I can't remember wether alexander was a follow-up or an expansion that did not need BI...