Questions.

[vartan]

I have the Alex executable but I could never quite figure out how to shortcut to it so that EB works and only utilizes the engine ( I don't want to mod, only use the engine ).

[penguinking]

1) The AI will hire a lot more mercenaries, especially some of the richer factions like AS and Carthage.

2) I am almost positive this just didn't get put into the game. I usually play as barbarian factions, and I have never had a unit charge without orders.

[seienchin]

I have the Alex executable but I could never quite figure out how to shortcut to it so that EB works and only utilizes the engine ( I don't want to mod, only use the engine ).

You can download that in the Minimod section. The guy, who made the Alexander mod also offers a normal download to just use the Alex.exe.

Actually the Ki also hires Mercenaries at M/M. Esspecialy if you have a bigger army and wait for the Ki to atack, than it just buys all the mercenaries of.

[Raygereio]

I have the Alex executable but I could never quite figure out how to shortcut to it so that EB works and only utilizes the engine ( I don't want to mod, only use the engine ).

Use this shortcut:
RomeTW-ALX.exe" -mod:eb -show_err -nm -noalexander
Then grab the chat_filter.san file from Alexander/data and put it in EB/data.

That should enable you to start EB on alexander. Nightbattles have to be enables in the trait files and descr_strat.txt.

As for the OP's questions:
I noticed in Rome.exe, BI.exe and Alex.exe that the AI will by as much mercenaries as possible, limited only by money and the actual number of mercenaries available. (hard & very hard give the AI more money to buy mercs with).
I think the amount the AI buys is also affected by the ammount of factions the AI is at war with and how much units the AI can produce. For instance, I noticed entire armies of mercs with the Arche Seleukia (who is at war with pretty much everyone in my campaign), while the Iberians have very little (in my campaign they are at war with just 1 faction).

Edit; which is pretty much what Decius already said. I need to read more carefully.

I never saw an impetious unit charge without orders. I did read about people claiming to have seen it, so maybe it´s just really rare.

As for your intromovie problem; I had that problem once (while vanilla RomeTW, using XP; I think it had something to do with either windows media player or a videocodec), try using the -nm command in your EB shotcut that will disable all movies.

[Macilrille]

Since EB is so long in loading I often click it then go do something else, shower, play a bit with my ferret, wash up, cook, whatever, my intro movie runs to the end, no crash. I use Vista...

Edited to add, and just now it did it...

[miotas]

Letting my intro play right through also causes a crash on my computer and i use xp. It hasn't really been an issue so i never asked about it.

[Silence Hunter]

1) I am currently playing with Alex.exe on Hard/Medium. AI hires quite a lot of mercenaries when it's in dire need of fighting men and has an FM. For example I got attacked by 3 Ptolemaioi armies in one territory and after I defeated 2, AI "made" an additional army composed solely of mercenaries. The similar thing happened when AI was fighting for it's survival and all of their regular armies were crushed. The services of highly trained assassin become very useful then (my sole assassin killed 10+ enemy FMs. No FMs roaming around=no merc armies).

2) Never saw that in EB, no matter what engine.

3) just use the -nm at the end of shortcut target line. This will disable the movie from playing at all.

[Tollheit]

I play VH on BI.exe, and IMHO there are still enough mercenaries around. Sure, it happens sometimes that the AI factions hire ALL of them, but seldomly. I actually prefer it this way, since too many mercenaries to choose from just don't feel right to me.

[jhhowell]

Tollheit, you're lucky. I've gotten so sick of fighting the mercenary pool instead of the enemy factions that I'm trying to disable mercenaries entirely... In the past I've sometimes hired an entire region's merc pool myself and disbanded them, but that's a tedious and temporary solution.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Hmmm, this is not too promising. I like my Galatian Wild Men. And my Balearic Slingers. And the Cretan Archers, along with Thrakian Peltasts, as well Mercenary Phalangites. I do not want to let go of them

Is there anyone here who does not experience this swarm of mercenaries? Do the AI factions expand faster in VH? Are they stronger in general? That is why I want to switch to VH, but if there is not a significant difference in that, then I will not, since I like my mercenaries, even if I do not hire them :P I just like the way they look, and the fact they are so readily available.