Fun with Baktria

[Drewski]

Never played them before, as the idea of fighting lots of steppe faction armies has always put me off. But started a game a few weeks ago with them, and they are tremendous fun.

They have a pretty full Greek build tree, with proper education, lvl 2 mining, health etc. They start out with just one province (which to me is more fun). You can literally start out in any direction you feel like, taking on the weakly defended AS to N,S and W, or slowly taking rebel states to the East. You aren't in any kind of debt at the start, but have to be careful with Armies as normal. They take quite a bit of "getting going", and you always have to be careful with money (I'm past 200BC have around 20 or so provinces, but aren't making more than 10k or so per turn). This is mainly because you always need lots of troops almost everywhere.

Best of all, is the variety of troops at your disposal. Phalanxes, Axemen, Cataphracts, Armoured Horse Archers, Elephants, Noble Hoplites and the excellent Indian Infantry Guild Warriors, who are basically carbon copies (stats wise) of Elite Thrakian Infantry, to name just a few. The Bodyguards start out as basically Spartans on Horseback, then later they become Full Plate Armour Knights...

If you've been stuck in the "West" for a long time, give this little Gem of the East a try, you won't regret it :)

[Macilrille]

I had the same experience for a while. https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/album.php?albumid=271

[Fluvius Camillus]

Me too, started after the summer holiday and finished in November, it was that fun

Check my albums for the Large results.

~Fluvius

[Drewski]

@Fluvius and Mac:- Checked your albums out: Serious blitzing Fluvius!

I'm not even yet where you were in 210BC Mac, playing quite slowly, with a lot of house rules. Basically stopped at Persepolis for a looong time (built it up to Academy level education, my Southern Capital) , just recently took Gabia and Susa, but the relentless AS keep coming with stack after stack. In the North, just started on the Saka to "reclaim" the Baktrian homeland provinces I didn't bother with earlier on. The huge distances between regions up there is the problem (basically good FM start breaking down into floods of tears, then later claim to be on their deathbeds at age 23 ;))

Pahlava have been loyal (if useless) allies from the start, and I refuse to ever attack allies (house rule). Been at war with the AS from turn 2, and they of course refuse any peace (something like 300 turns of non stop war). And this is on Medium/Medium settings (I have to attack rebels as soon as they spawn-another house rule to counter for medium setting). So yes, diplomacy is almost totally random, and if you don't blitz, the ai is completely capable of recruiting wave after wave, given the proper time on Medium Campaign. I'm of the opinion, that Hard campaign should be really reserved for Rome and Carthage, still roleplaying.

Someone else said, that Hard and Very Hard campaigns, don't really make the game any harder, just more tedious, and I'd like to add that it forces you to blitz (with most factions), thus negating the advantage the ai has, and even turning it to your advantage.

Still a fun campaign to continue :)