Wanted: a strong AS (and SPQR)

[Andy1984]

When my Romani campaign is over, I'd like to play a campaign in which especially the Seleucids (and to a lesser extent the Romani) are capable to maintain/build up an empire worthy their names. I noticed all my neighbours (playing on VH), will attack me anyway. Therefore: I probably shouldn't take a faction bordering the Romani or the AS, since I'll end up eating their armies who should attack other foes. The question remains: what faction should I take in order to have the biggest chance to have a strong AS and SPQR?

Alternativly: is there a way to strengthen them any other way? I'm thinking towards giving them money, or attacking/weakening dangerous opponents to them...

I'd be very pleased if you could tell me what exactly made the SPQR or the AS in your campaigns so strong (apart from pure luck of course).

Many thanks in advance,

Andy

[DaciaJC]

You can certainly give them money. For AS, it's add_money romans_julii, 40000; for Romani, add_money seleucid, 40000, 40000 being the maximum amount of money you can conjure up in a single command, although the command may be repeated throughout a turn.

I suppose you could also use Force Diplomacy to take a settlement from one faction and then give it to the AS/Romani.

I suppose Casse is the best option if you don't want to interfere with any other factions, barring Eleutheroi.

[Jebivjetar]

You can change the amount of money help for each faction in the script also; in that case you don't need to type console commands every single turn.

[Vasiliyi]

In a lot of my campaigns I use the process_cq cheat for the AS. Of course its time consuming but they do seem to have a better infrastructure if you do it for a few years. Of course, give them money so they can actually build things.

[Skullheadhq]

Just play m/m on BI.exe, then the Romaioi scum will get EATEN by AI Epeiros and Kart-Hadast.

[A Very Super Market]

Usually, playing as one of the minor successors will get the Gray Death up and running. Most likely because they don't need to worry about your faction, while the AI will go crazy and spam levies at them. Of course, this leaves you with a need for somewhere to expand. All but Pontos have difficult areas to conquer (India for Baktria, the Steppes for Hayasdan and Pahlava) that don't really involve a land war with the AS. Pontos could theoretically move their toops up the Black Sea and into Crimea, however, but would likely get into an even costlier war with the Sauro.

[DaciaJC]

In a lot of my campaigns I use the process_cq cheat for the AS. Of course its time consuming but they do seem to have a better infrastructure if you do it for a few years. Of course, give them money so they can actually build things.

Can you, or anybody, explain to me exactly what this process_cq cheat is? I have heard of it, but a forum search turns up nothing very helpful.

[bobbin]

Type in process_cq "name of a city" and whatever is in that city's building queue will be completed instantly.

[DaciaJC]

Thank you!

[Andy1984]

Thanks for the replies. While I didn't yet decide which faction to pick, it will probably be one of the minor hellenic factions (Bactria, Makedonia, Epeiros or perhaps even a Saba that focusses on the Ptolemeans). Besides picking one of these, I guess I should try to adapt the script to give Rome more money.

[K-Dogs]

I've never found it too hard letting Rome get strong, mainly because of their huge early game income, and the fact that, in my experience, the various in-game 'Punic Wars' are shortlived for a fair amount of time, letting Rome expand north.

The main problem with the AI AS is money, if you look at the Financial graphs their mnai drops fairly reliably in the early game, and this can allow other successors to start eating into their empire, so id've thought add_money donations should help in that respect.

Don't be too keen on adapting the script too much though; if the endless streams of levies weren't enough before, facing endless streams of elites should be... uhhh... fun

[EagerBeaver]

This problem troubled me also .. as for AS, they tend to do just fine in my campaigns, so I decided only to tweak Romans a bit. I gave all their starting generals 6++ command stars, since this way, they get better autocalc results and thus expand more quickly and aggressively. If you already started your campaign, you can use give_trait "name" traitname traitlevel console command.
If you're not familiar with console commands read further

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

here are roman starting generals' names exactly the way you need to put them in:
Lvcivs Romanvs
Cnaevs Romanvs
CnaevsA Romanvs
Manivs Romanvs
Caivs Romanvs
and here some useful traits and their maximum levels:
GoodTactician 5
GoodLeader 5
GoodSiegeAttacker 3
So, let's say you wonna give character Lucius Cornelius Scipio 5 command stars using GoodTactician
you need to type
give_trait "Lvcivs Romanvs" GoodTactician 5
note: especially the GoodSiegeAttacker 3 trait worked like a charm for me.

In case you would like to use this in all new games, you can edit descr_strat.txt in Rome - Total War\EB\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\ folder.
Hope this helps.

[Grade_A_Beef]

For me AS has always been the dominant power in every playthrough.....EVERY....ONE.

The Ptolemaioi are always too busy with Carthage to take chunks out of AS, so they get wasted just as I get strong as KH, Epeiros, Getai, and other Balkan/Celtic powers (not to mention Pahlava). Then they bleedin' spam elites all over the place. Surprisingly I notice that Pahlava and sometimes Baktria still take chunks out of AS even with AS dominance

That and the romans in my game are almost always mediocre. They take Sicily but only once have I ever seen them expand past the Alps....also, they've never taken Carthage.

My game's weird like that....but very entertaining (and frustrating )

[bobbin]

In all my games the SPQR will expand into gaul beating the Aedui and Arverni up quite bad then either Epieros, Qarthadast or most commonly Lusotanna will smash them and the romans will be left with territories in eastern or northern gaul.

With the AS it really depends on what happens early on, they usually become very strong if they lose Anatolia of a large part of thier eastern holdings. If that doesnt happen their forces are too streched to keep control and they're eaten up by the Pahlava and Ptolemaioi.

I'm really enjoing EB since 1.1 as the steppe factions are way more powerful, anyone remember the old days when Pahlava would be ground to dust almost everytime by the AS.

nowadays you'll see this
romani 210bc

this has to be one of my favorite campaigns as it follows history quite well, Pontos was booted out of Anatolia and formed a Crimean kingdom, Baktria was forced out of Baktra by the saka and have retreated to india and the Pahlava have formed a nearly perfect Parthian empire sans seleukeia. Sadly a recurring bug kill it a few month ago

[Andy1984]

I was wondering whether using BI.exe might make a difference. Since BI portrays more naval invasions, Epeiros might be capable to send more forces towards Southern-Italy, while SPQR might have an easier time conquering Illyria or the Mediterranean islands. Any ideas whether BI strenghtens or weakens the Romani (or the Arche)?

[bobbin]

I'd say it weaken the SPQR as the carthies and epieros can ship troops to italy, the romani rarely go fo illyria as they get distracted by Iuvoatea and waste troops trying to kill those eleutheroi superstack.

[Cute Wolf]

A rather weird thing guys... but even when I didn't live near AS at the start, the first contacts with them are fullstack army full of Pantodapoi.... Wait some decades, and face tons of Argyraspidai

[Skullheadhq]

A rather weird thing guys... but even when I didn't live near AS at the start, the first contacts with them are fullstack army full of Pantodapoi.... Wait some decades, and face tons of Argyraspidai

That's what I had as Pahlava, once I took Babylon and Seleukeia they let me eat superstack after superstack.