Preview: Provinces

[Tarkus]

Does your avatar name have anything to do with the classic Emerson Lake and Palmer 20 minute epic, "Tarkus"?

Why yes...yes it does! Good bit of sleuthing there, Iskander. But no such reference to the beast in the epic...although there's that great album cover...
[Edit]...with the manticore! Alas, the great bio-mechanical beast Tarkus is slain by the monster from Persian myth. Indeed, my friend...you beat me at my own game.
Beware the manticore on the rugged plains of Baktria...I shall keep an eye to the horizon.

[delablake]

That's why I love EB so much!
Thanx a lot, folks!!!

[Marcus Gallicus]

That sounds pretty sweet. Huge cities, anyone??!!

In MTW2 every faction (apart from the Aztecs perhaps) has the ability to build huge cities, as opposed to only 'civilised' factions in RTW.
Or did the EBteam intend to give the 'barbarian' factions no huge cities?

[Spartiaths]

In MTW2 every faction (apart from the Aztecs perhaps) has the ability to build huge cities, as opposed to only 'civilised' factions in RTW.
Or did the EBteam intend to give the 'barbarian' factions no huge cities?

I think they must do that ...

[Alsatia]

I think they must do that ...

Agreed.

[caetrati]

It's a awesome preview, but I'm afraid that I'll have to use more frecuently my english dictionary for this game.
To many people as me English is a bit dificult. And even much more people don't known anything of English. It's a pity that all this work can't be enjoyed by many non-english spoken people.
I don't known if this is the right place to ask this, but i think you should recruit translators for the more common languages.

[Krusader]

It's a awesome preview, but I'm afraid that I'll have to use more frecuently my english dictionary for this game.
To many people as me English is a bit dificult. And even much more people don't known anything of English. It's a pity that all this work can't be enjoyed by many non-english spoken people.
I don't known if this is the right place to ask this, but i think you should recruit translators for the more common languages.

If people want to translate the game they can do so. But it is not a priority for us.

[Marcus Ulpius]

Simply amazing. Can't wait to play this game. Damn, after merely looking at EB II preview I want to run EB again and start a new campaign.

Again, great work, guys

[Owen Glyndwr]

Sweet preview guys, I'm really looking forward to this!

Oh and the mountains looked really, really cool (it's a shame it's an error, lol)

[Alsatia]

Even though the mountain heights are an error, I believe they should stay.

[zurab]

Its town of Mtskheta of Caucasian Iberia to the North of Armenia - as we can see it on the map. Just hope Caucasian Iberia will be a faction in EB2. It was really strong rival to Armenia then.


http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/top...ucasian_Iberia


Roman period
This close association with Armenia brought upon the country an invasion (65 BC) by the Roman general Pompey, who was then at war with Mithradates VI of Pontus, and Armenia; but Rome did not establish her power permanently over Iberia. Nineteen years later, the Romans again marched (36 BC) on Iberia forcing King Pharnavaz II to join their campaign against Albania.

While another Georgian kingdom of Colchis was administered as a Roman province, Iberia freely accepted the Roman Imperial protection. A stone inscription discovered at Mtskheta speaks of the first-century ruler Mihdrat I (AD 58-106) as "the friend of the Caesars" and the king "of the Roman-loving Iberians." Emperor Vespasian fortified the ancient Mtskheta site of Arzami for the Iberian kings in 75 AD.

The next two centuries saw a continuation of Roman influence over the area, but by the reign of King Pharsman II (116 – 132) Iberia had regained some of its former power. Relations between the Roman Emperor Hadrian and Pharsman II were strained, though Hadrian is said to have sought to appease Pharsman. However, it was only under Hadrian's successor Antoninus Pius that relations improved to the extent that Pharsman is said to have even visited Rome, where Dio Cassius reports that a statue was erected in his honor and that rights to sacrifice were given. The period brought a major change to the political status of Iberia with Rome recognizing them as an ally, rather than their former status as a subject state, a political situation which remained the same, even during the Empire's hostilities with the Parthians.

[B-Wing]

I'm extremely pleased to see that each and every province is going to be receiving so much character! As a geography major, I greatly appreciate any detail that can be added to the regions of the game. And I have one small suggestion to add.

I haven't played EB extensively enough to have seen every Wonder (or other building unique to certain provinces, however they are referred to), but all of them which I have seen provided bonuses to law, happiness, and/or trade. I was thinking that for EB2 it may even be appropriate to apply negative modifiers to specific provinces via the new Province Buildings.

I don't know ancient history enough to suggest many applications of this, but it is my understanding that certain provinces were generally more rebellious than others. Judea/Palestine comes to mind, but I'm sure there are other examples. As an example, I could imagine Jerusalem having a permanent +5 Unrest modifier applied to its Province Building. I'm not sure what the mechanical differences between Happiness, Law, and Unrest are, but it may be appropriate for some provinces to have permanent modifiers to these.

There may already be other ways of designating provincial rebelliousness without using buildings, but I don't know enough about modding the game to know. Just a thought.

[Foot]

Judea was actually quite a peaceful province until someone came along and decided to restrict their religious and self-autonomous freedoms. Then they got angry. However, one of the reasons for these buildings is to give character to each province, including unique units and bonuses to all variety of things.

Foot

[jirisys]

Just wondering... will each province building be affected by a bonus of the province... say trade or morale or experience... i think it would give a great uniqueness to each province (in the meta-physical i mean)

~Jirisys (Morale bonus!)

[Hannibal Khan the Great]

But remember, morale bonuses had quite a few issues in EB1.....

[Belisarius II]

Got my hopes up seeing this thread...

I think what you're suggesting, jirisys, would need a script for every last province on the map. Seems like a lot of time to put in to a small feature.

[Harain]

Can you sticky this thread please?

[Horatius Flaccus]

It is. In the "All the Previews In One Thread..." sticky.

[artavazd]

one minor correction for Armenia. It states in the description, that the great irrigation canals were built by the Assyrian queen Samiramis. That is incorrect they were built during the Ararat Kingdom by natives.

[Mediolanicus]

one minor correction for Armenia. It states in the description, that the great irrigation canals were built by the Assyrian queen Samiramis. That is incorrect they were built during the Ararat Kingdom by natives.

*whispering* pssst, It's the EB team you're talking to... Either give sources why you think it should be changed or ask for their sources why they wrote that... Just don't go around saying "that's incorrect".


BTW, I like your avatar.

[Foot]

one minor correction for Armenia. It states in the description, that the great irrigation canals were built by the Assyrian queen Samiramis. That is incorrect they were built during the Ararat Kingdom by natives.

No it doesn't. It says, in the voice of a contemporary of the EB time period, that the canals "are said to have been built by an Assyrian Queen, Semiramis". During our timeframe it was a common understanding that the canals had been built during the reign of Samiramis. In Armenia in that time Samiramis had taken a rather large role in the mythology of that region (it was claimed that she was the lover of Ara in that local myth).

However, this is not explained in the History section of the description, and so I shall edit it to make it clear that we do know the actual origin of these irrigation canals.

Foot

[artavazd]

No it doesn't. It says, in the voice of a contemporary of the EB time period, that the canals "are said to have been built by an Assyrian Queen, Semiramis". During our timeframe it was a common understanding that the canals had been built during the reign of Samiramis. In Armenia in that time Samiramis had taken a rather large role in the mythology of that region (it was claimed that she was the lover of Ara in that local myth).

However, this is not explained in the History section of the description, and so I shall edit it to make it clear that we do know the actual origin of these irrigation canals.

Foot

I like that particular story. Actualy she was rejected by Ara(moral of the story to stay true to family), which caused her to go crazy and invade Armenia. Ara was killed in the battle, and she had her magical dogs lick his dead corps trying to bring him back to life. (crazy chick) :)

[Darius]

So how often is the history of the provinces written from the perspective of the native people's during the period the game is set in and how often do you also include contemporary versions of history? The first is a really nice touch, as I can definitely see that helping the more serious players get more immersed in their game world, but I can't help but see the the second as almost required if not highly desired given the EB teams steadfast belief in presenting things only as facts would support them.

As far as having your dog lick someones wounds, I know that in present day we now know that a dogs mouth is in fact several times cleaner (and by cleaner I mean less infected with bacteria and other harmful microbes) and having a dog lick your cut would actually go to some extents to help clean it out. Obviously if you have access to hydrogen peroxide or any other form of anti-bacterial agents they would clearly be the preferred choice, but if you're broke as hell you do what you gotta do. What I'd like to know is if having a dog lick your wounds might have been a sort of folk remedy or is it just something that came about after people realized that just because the dog may lick it's genitals and eat it's own feces, it still has a cleaner mouth than a human that brushes and flosses. You know now that I actually write that down that makes me kind of pissed, that is so not fair.