Your house rules for EB

[Mooks]

Whats your favorite house rules for playing EB? Just some general ones that make the game harder, but are realistic and accomplishable.

[SwissBarbar]

1. Not to accept every MotH and Promising General - dude, only Sharp/Charismatic/Vigourous ones, or if it fits in some other way into your roleplay.

2. With non-celtic or -germanic factions: no fullstacks

3. With barbarian factions: at the beginning not too much tactical moving, just go forward and slaughter them or get slaughered (of course you try to ambush and stuff)

4. don't just conquer everything for no reason but wanting to rule the world. Think of good reasons why to attack them, defeat them and then bring peace to your land. Dispand parts of your army (they want to go home) and just keep 1 regular defense army back, and wait until you get attacked or RP some other reason after a couple of seasons, to attack another city. Recruit new armies etc.... Mainly: Don't go ahead and roll every region, one by one, down.

5. RP civil wars

[Mooks]

1. Not to accept every MotH and Promising General - dude, only Sharp/Charismatic/Vigourous ones, or if it fits in some other way into your roleplay.

2. With non-celtic or -germanic factions: no fullstacks

3. With barbarian factions: at the beginning not too much tactical moving, just go forward and slaughter them or get slaughered (of course you try to ambush and stuff)

4. don't just conquer everything for no reason but wanting to rule the world. Think of good reasons why to attack them, defeat them and then bring peace to your land. Dispand parts of your army (they want to go home) and just keep 1 regular defense army back, and wait until you get attacked or RP some other reason after a couple of seasons, to attack another city. Recruit new armies etc.... Mainly: Don't go ahead and roll every region, one by one, down.

5. RP civil wars

1) already do that, and only ones below the age of 30

3) I have yet to play a barbarian faction besides pahlava and saba

4) I try to send my veteran troops home. Doesnt always work out so well (Hard not to use silver chevron troops). It does feel good roleplaying that though, sending veterans who have served above and beyond what they were required back to their family and lands.

What are you general excuses for invading lands?

[SwissBarbar]

Follow my AAR I'll update it tonight, and I'm coming up with such an excuse to invade lands

[Mediolanicus]

I think my main rules would be

1 Every army must be in a city, in a fort or laying seige during winter (or summer in arid regions) when possible.
2 Take it slow, don't blitz the map and don't blitz your enemies in war. Only attack when you have a reason (AI always attacks you so there's no shortage of reasons).
3 Use balanced armies. Don't spam slingers, archers, elites, heavy cav,...
Between 8-14 units per army. Full stacks are only allowed in emergencies and the additional units must be levies or cheap mercenaries.
For example: my 2 newest armies in my Romani campaign.
My consular army: General, 1 Velites, 4 Hastati, 2 Principes, 1 Trairii, 1 Pedites Extraordinarii, 1 Equites Extraordinarii.
My Illyrian/Greek army to fight Macedonian fullstacks: General, 2 greek levy archers, 2 Akontistai, 3 Illyrian Thureophoroi, 3 classical hoplites, 2 Illirian Light Cav.
4 Disband your armies in peace time, except for a small defensive force.
5 Use levies as garrison troops.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

For me, these House Rules apply only once the economy is in the black and making a tiny profit each turn. (Priority Number One in every EB campaign is to get the treasury out of debt.)

Rules are:

1. Building up economy (construction) always takes priority over building up the army except when your territory is being invaded.
2. Buy as few troops as possible. Only when you really need reinforcements.
3. Buy troops based on value for money, or to follow historical army composition for your faction. Don't build the best and most expensive troops unless absolutely necessary, or unless the treasury is overflowing and you can afford it easily.
4. Keep taxes as low as possible (especially for small towns). Once making a large profit, lower taxes. Growing town populations always takes priority over higher profits. Towns should always be growing.
5. Manage with as small an army as possible. Let the enemy outnumber you by 1.5 to 1 when planning a battle. If the enemy force has 9 units, attack them with 6 units or less. If your troops are much better than theirs, assume they will be a pushover and let them outnumber you by at least 2 to 1. Only if your troops are much worse than theirs can you have equal numbers as the AI force.
6. If your treasury is overflowing with many thousands of mnai, but you don't have excess population, hire mercenaries whenever possible instead of recruiting troops from your towns. (If you have loads of mnai, why not spend it? And why let your own people die in battle if you can afford mercenaries to do the dying for them?)
7. Don't attack another faction without good reason. Have a clearly defined, and limited aim in mind if you do - not total extermination.
8. Attack Elutheroi as often as you like - these guys are always your enemies. They should be the primary target for most factions at the start of the game.
9. Don't expand beyond your faction's objectives, until all those objectives have been taken first.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Honestly i follow about three or so house rules when play ANY TW campaign:

1. Keep as many troops alive on the battlefield as possible, DONT be wasteful with them.
2. ALWAYS have construction queues going. DONT EVER not be building or recruiting anything if u can help it, cuz otherwise i RP it as an economic collapse.
3. ALWAYS seek revenge for FM murders/killings, even if it destroys your faction, do it. And believe me i have lost several good campaigns due to this one.
4. Always have at LEAST a lvl1 barracks in all of your settlements in case of emergencies.

Now for EB specific ones:

1. Expand to your factions "historical" area b4 blitzing everything. EX, Germans stop at the Rhine, and take everything on the eastern bank b4 even CONSIDERING crossing it.
2. Always rush to natural barriers; mountains, rivers, ect...; in order to get safety for your faction, both RP wise and strategically.
3. When i go to war to the death i MEAN it, the opposing faction MUST die!!!

[satalexton]

the opposing faction MUST die!!!

WAAAAAGHH!!!!!!!

[Dayve]

Honestly i follow about three or so house rules when play ANY TW campaign:

1. Keep as many troops alive on the battlefield as possible, DONT be wasteful with them.
2. ALWAYS have construction queues going. DONT EVER not be building or recruiting anything if u can help it, cuz otherwise i RP it as an economic collapse.
3. ALWAYS seek revenge for FM murders/killings, even if it destroys your faction, do it. And believe me i have lost several good campaigns due to this one.
4. Always have at LEAST a lvl1 barracks in all of your settlements in case of emergencies.

Now for EB specific ones:

1. Expand to your factions "historical" area b4 blitzing everything. EX, Germans stop at the Rhine, and take everything on the eastern bank b4 even CONSIDERING crossing it.
2. Always rush to natural barriers; mountains, rivers, ect...; in order to get safety for your faction, both RP wise and strategically.
3. When i go to war to the death i MEAN it, the opposing faction MUST die!!!

The point of houserules is generally to make the game harder for yourself... the first 4 of your houserules would make it way too easy.

I like to build slowly. A trader up until 6000 population, then a market. Large market at 12,000, and that's where it stops except for exceptionally wealthy provinces. So, for example, Athens, which makes an immense amount of money from trade, would be allowed to have the final tier of trade buildings, whereas Sparte, which does absolutely abysmally shit trade, would stop at market and basic port.

[Maion Maroneios]

the opposing faction MUST die!!!

If it's the Romaioi, then yes ram them to near-death, beat them to the mud, smash their skulls with a fire extinguisher, burn them alive, skin their bodies and sell it for toilet paper, snap their bones and throw them to the dogs, make an omelet out of their smashed (with a hammer) genitalia and last - but not least - pee and poo on their reduced-to-dust-after-burned remnants.

I got a bit carried away there, didn't I?

Maion

[gamegeek2]

Well, leave the women be...I'm sure they'll be fine, free of those wretches they called husbands...

[Mooks]

If it's the Romaioi, then yes ram them to near-death, beat them to the mud, smash their skulls with a fire extinguisher, burn them alive, skin their bodies and sell it for toilet paper, snap their bones and throw them to the dogs, make an omelet out of their smashed (with a hammer) genitalia and last - but not least - pee and poo on their reduced-to-dust-after-burned remnants.

I got a bit carried away there, didn't I?

Maion

Of course not. Using all the body parts for a constructive reason, like a native american, sorta.


Im about to start a romani or pontic campaign (I despise phanalaxs.). Thanks for all the house rules.

[Subotan]

Always have the eldest son of the eldest son become heir, and the line to transmit along the family name, unless the guy is a supreme douche,

[kekailoa]

Always have the eldest son of the eldest son become heir, and the line to transmit along the family name, unless the guy is a supreme douche,

Hahaha...

Douche.

On-topic, I always try to simulate raiding parties, such as sending small cavalry squads into enemy territory to ambush and devastate. Preferably your douche-like family members with some merc cavalry.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

If it's the Romaioi, then yes ram them to near-death, beat them to the mud, smash their skulls with a fire extinguisher, burn them alive, skin their bodies and sell it for toilet paper, snap their bones and throw them to the dogs, make an omelet out of their smashed (with a hammer) genitalia and last - but not least - pee and poo on their reduced-to-dust-after-burned remnants.

I got a bit carried away there, didn't I?

Maion

@ Maion: Did i ever tell u that u r my hero?

@Dayve: Well normally yes that is true but in many of my games I find these actually make stuff harder. But this is due to my play style more than any reality. I mostly play as the "doomed" factions, i.e. the ones that did not make it historically. Scotland, Byzantium, Gaul, Aedui, Averni, KH, WRE, and the Aztec are my favs in this category. As for all time favs mine are the Sweboz, KH, WRE, and Aztecs

[Cyclops]

I have a few general ones:

No more than 4 foot missle units (archers or slingers) per stack.

Huge/VH-H/General cam on, no pausing (unless its urgent eg phone rings or need to pee).

Disband non-professional or non-elite units between missions.

No mercenaries unless I have a city with that unit's culture. eg no gallic mercs for Pontos until they have Ankara, no greeks for Lussotannan until they have a hellenic city (with a type IV gov).

Armies based around leaders. "Royal armies" for FL and heir with elites (and maybe some elite allies). provincial armies for lesser generals. allied armies for allied generals eg in my Lusso campaign, the type IV gov in Massilia is nominally Greek, so he's a greek merc general with only hellenic troops.

Pillage in a culturally appropriate manner: eg celts will burn the temple of Jupiter in Rome but respect Stonehenge, Romans will drain the lakes in Gaul but respect the Parthenon.

For my "less civilised" campaigns (ie barbaroi) I add a few:

No more than 4 units of one type per stack (variegated hordes): this forces me to manage a mix of unit types and diversify to build bigger stacks.

no long sieges: either you seige assault after one turn or you walk away ("the tribes got bored").

can't expel civilised populations (not compatible with the babrabarian home population).

I try to RP a growing state with babaroi (otherwise the faction would collapse with every FL death) so eventually certain elites become regular army and don't have to disband: for Lussotannan its Scorto's and Balearic slingers. I have tied with the idea of tying state run granaries with the ability to support a standing army, but its not a hard and fast rule, just a flavour I've added.

I tried to RP a "revolt against Rome" where I sent a general into Latium, and allowed him to recruit italic units once I controlled 2 italian cities but it turned out a bit of a fizzer as the Rome garrison sortied to support a single unit attck on my besiegers, and got routed.....so Rome fell without even a decent street fight.

[Tristuskhan]

no pausing (unless its urgent eg phone rings or need to pee).

To make the battles harder I also use this rule too, but I have one more: no double or triple game speed. Never. It simulates impatience.