Making EB More Rewarding

[Saldunz]

So I had recently finished campaigns as the Arverni, Casse and Swêboz on the recommended VH/M on AlexEB. Those last two I considered particularly dificult factions to play as. Especially that last one as I had to fight a war on four fronts (Epeiroi, Getai, Romaioi and Galloi). Not to mention, I wasn't particularly swimming in gold.

However, as close as the conflicts always were, as pitched as the battles were, I suffered no defeats, and I achieved the victory screen before I hit 220, 210 and 200 for the Arverni, Casse and Swêboz respectively. As intense as these campaigns were (almost every battle as the Swêboz resulted in a heroic victory), they weren't that difficult. So I'm trying to make life just a tiny bit harder on myself. To improve these experiences, I want to increase the difficulty to VH/H and to use the Win Conditions submod to make that AI give that extra push for areas important to them.

That's what I'm doing to make the game a bit harder on myself. I was wondering what other people have done to make success just a little bit more rewarding.

[Blxz]

Have tried giving massive money boosts to AI factions via script. Hasn't had any effect as far as I can tell. Baktria got killed by AS within 100 turns when it had something like 30 million sitting in the bank. Shitty AI.

EDIT: Actually I came up with a great option recently. I edit the buildings so that the core settlement building of enemy factions only to give them max (seems to be 125%) law bonuses. This removes all corruption so they get much more money and will make AS form as massive empire because they seem to be the ones who suffer most from corruption and rebelling settlements. In my current Roman game they have everything east of byzantium I have everything west of rome and the Epirotes are the last free people left alive between these massive empires. Its a true world war.

[Saldunz]

Well, money wasn't an issue for the AI in my Swêboz campaign. The hard part was that for every stack I destroyed, another one took its place in no more than 3 turns. While that did create a tense atmosphere where I had to relieve besieged cities often, the strategies for each defeating them never changed. Essentially, the campaign was a long string of near-similar battles of epic proportions. The main problem being the similarity of all those battles.

I just tried playing a bit as Macedon on VH/H and I don't know if this would've also been the case as VH/M, but I found it very rewarding to be forced to defend Pella early on with subpar troops. I wasn't able to count on the AI's stupidity to win the battle! I set up two phalanxes (phalangite) in a V-shape at the only breach to slaughter the enemy. The unamoured Galatians warriors streamed in first and were decimitaed - I only lost 3 men. Then the cavalry came in. Same deal. But then the armoured enemy phalanx entered and it was a tough struggle... but the Hard setting gave them a bonus, and as such, my phalanx was no match. Luckily, I had engaged their general outside of the city walls with some reserve troops and forced him to rout. This left me with two weak reserve units (peltasts and slingers) and my general's cavalry - the enemy had three phalanx units marching slowly on my town square. With the enemy general out of the map now and little other way to defend my square with my own phalanxes out of commission, I engaged the exhausted enemy phalanx in the streets with my returning reserve units (the slingers fled instantly), and charged my general into the engagement as well. To my shock, the enemy's morale broke instantly, and 300 phalangitai were slaughtered in the rout that ensued.

That was rewarding.

I'm not sure if this is a fluke, but it seems that on Hard battle difficulty, morale is far more central to winning battles than statistical superiority. Something that I can definitely appreciate.

[lionhard]

Play V/H V/H for starters

[gja102]

Actually, I'm of the opinion that you should keep the battle difficulty on medium, as otherwise the AI combat bonuses mess up the unit balance.
However, if you give the AI campaign bonuses instead, you just end up facing wave after wave of full unit stacks, like some kind of greco-roman space invaders game, that's certainly hard but isn't always very rewarding.

The solution, as I see it, is to limit your own 'human advantage' in various ways. One good way would be to have the automated governors manage all your construction and recruitment. That way you won't be able to cherry-pick your favourite units from the roster, and will be forced to fight with whatever you're given (which is a bit more realistic, really). You won't be able to rely on the same tactic over and over again.

Another good rule would be 'no blitzing' - you have to disband your starting army to the point where its upkeep matches your income. No defecit spending allowed.
Other ways of increasing battle difficulty are switching off the minimap, not using the pause button, and not stashing your army in the corner of the battlefield.

I know lots of players have their own RPG-style house rules. Anyone want to share theirs? Adopting some of these would make the campaign more challenging.

[Atraphoenix]

I role play defeats, mostly kings gives the army a stupid general who dies in battles and the country suffers etc.
You are not obliged to win each battle, I prefer scenery, actions, loyalty, rivalries, internal conflicts etc.
for example senate abandoned Caesar, he did not have reinforcements from Italy.

there is no fun in just, war, war, war, conquer and raze cities.
you may produce lots of scripts (do not mix with EBBS script ) For example faction leader is killed in action and new king revenges his father's death.
a courageous general set sails to unknown lands to save the nation from extinction. and so on...

[Mediteran]

i roleplay, for me its the most important thing :)

[Atraphoenix]

i roleplay, for me its the most important thing :)

what is funny thing is I mostly role play with blitzing

[Cute Wolf]

True for Nomad faction, blitz or die, or add_money

[NeoSpartan]

Play V/H V/H for starters

well said!

My suggested settings are:

VH/H with Fatige OFF

this way the game is fun and challenging, and you can also roleplay.
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[Rilder]

True for Nomad faction, blitz or die, or add_money

Not true. I successfully managed to get started in a Sauromatae campaign without blitzing.

[Apázlinemjó]

Try a Saba campaign and forget blitzing.

[Rilder]

I could do it most likely, blitzing is against my nature when playing.

[Jolt]

The hard part was that for every stack I destroyed, another one took its place in no more than 3 turns. While that did create a tense atmosphere where I had to relieve besieged cities often, the strategies for each defeating them never changed. Essentially, the campaign was a long string of near-similar battles of epic proportions. The main problem being the similarity of all those battles.

I had this happening but it was in a RTR game. I was the Iberians and I was fighting the Macedonians in epic gigantic multiple battles in Germania. Curious how two factions from different sides of the Mediterranean coast clash in the frozen forests of North Europe. It was my most satisfying game ever.

[teh1337tim]

semi historical expansions and some house rules (only armies of certain composition and location and orders)

Then i did some helping of the factions
every turn i checked Seleukid, baktria, macedonia and epirus for unrest and i cheat myself money and buy the settlement of AI, cheat some more money and build some defense and happiness buildings then gift them back and taking off any money that i didnt gain. Doing this way, I happened to groom seleukid, ptolemaio, baktria, macedonia into empires that was stable and soon produced many good armies and fought huge armies.

Whats also special about my current campaign, Carthage, seleukid, ptolemaio, and macedonia has ARMIES that are well balanced (little levees for experianced armies with somewhat experianced regular and elites mixed in)

Currently fighting a war of attrituion (as romani) in northern italy. Even my roleplayed legions are having trouble at defending against endless stacks of troops attacking italy (north and south) , massalia, and iberia (1 allied legion defending).

its 243 BC and now, most of not all the factions are built up due to my micromanaging...
I'll post a few screenshots later but, what I did was generally build up the nations to the east and let them grow and control expansion and defense (move armies away from cities)...

also very wierd...... the AI is creating NAVIES (ptolemaio and carthage) and moving ARMIES with them... very wierd. (VH-M on RTW.exe)

[Blxz]

well said!

My suggested settings are:

VH/H with Fatige OFF

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Is it possible to just turn fatigue off or just put infinite missiles on without doing both? I don't like the fact that 'arcade mode' just makes everything off including most of the controls such as skirmish and fire at will, etc.

Can I edit something in the files or is there a button hidden somwhere that I have missed?

[Atraphoenix]

I role play to revive Achaemenids and unification of whole Persia, so I role play with early blitzing that means I use Arsaces in the story line like that;
-he rebels AS,
-He conquers Persia,
-He conquers Mesopotamia,
-before he manages to to revive Achaemenids, he is killed in action, after his loss the kingdom is in a disarray, many cities revolts, feudal lords destroys the unity and abandon the royal court,
- then a young prince comes of age,
- he rebuilds the unity punishes the the traitors and chains them oars (death ships lol )
- he challenges other successor states that claims they are the true claimant to Achaemenids,
- he destroys or make Hayasdan and Pontos his vassal,
- he attacks to Ptolemies, he exiles them to Crene or Nubia,
- then the most funny part; he attacks mainland with more than 300,000 men then I will either make the script a happy end for him or another 300 glory for Greeks..

so to role play with ups and downs is more enjoyable for me. just upper and upper is not so realist or fun.
and I am look forward to wait for Yuezhis but I do not know to make their invasion more aggressive, anyone knows how to make them more aggressive or under which conditions they attack like mad?
because I want to role play to lose my two kings will die on that invasion.

[Celtic_Punk]

get darth's formations mod. that makes battles more interesting because you have to fight a foe that attacks in unison instead of an angry mob.
also get force diplomacy. ALSO set a few house rules for yourself, like army composition and whatnot. try to follow your factions rubric for armies. Lose a couple battles if your general is a total goof.

[fleaza]

i usually play my campaigns by only getting a certain line of names. in my latest roman campaign i have 5 family members. all of them scipionic...in 230 bc. whenever 1 person dies the i lose 20% of my family members.

ive killed all my other family members by putting them all on a ship and drowning them. a better way of doing this is to get all your useless FMs to park near the burning oil droppers. the burning oil kills them instantly and there isnt a large decrease in moral either

[The Celtic Viking]

Is it possible to just turn fatigue off or just put infinite missiles on without doing both? I don't like the fact that 'arcade mode' just makes everything off including most of the controls such as skirmish and fire at will, etc.

Can I edit something in the files or is there a button hidden somwhere that I have missed?

Yeah, you can edit in your preference.txt file. You should find it Where-You-Installed-EB\EB\preferences. Open it with notepad, and the lines you should be looking for are these:

FATIGUE:TRUE

LIMITED_AMMO:TRUE

Change "TRUE" to "FALSE" on the one you wish to turn off.