Spamming Stacks

[Matteo123]

I just re downloaded this mod and started up a game as Rome. It seems that every turn I am getting attacked by a full stack of gauls, without end. Is this part of the money bonus on VH? While enjoyed the first few battles, it is now getting very repetitive. I understand there was constant war in North Italy during this period, but it should take at least a turn for the guals to recover, right? Is there anything I can do to break the guals without blitzing them to take all their cities? Or do I need to switch to H instead?

[lionhard]

Hmm u can revert to an earlier saved game and try to be careful how much space u leave between u and the gauls, try to stay out of their way in turn they will probaly end up fighting with the neighbouring factions, but otherwise u need to take their main recruiting cities

[fallen851]

You could try making peace with them, but on VH that is basically impossible. But what else would you be able to do other than "blitz" (or attack) them and take the cities?

They want to kill you, they have a place where they can recruit people, so until you take that place, they will continue recruiting people to kill you. If you are familiar with the American Civil War, this is pretty much what happened, the North didn't stop recruiting people until they won.

I would tone down the difficulty personally, medium works really well for me. The diplomacy kind of works, and I replicated the AI bonus monetary bonus that they get in VH (10k per turn) with the EB script.

[Macilrille]

That exact thing is the Achilleus heel of EB, just wait till the AS or Ptolies (whoever wins that fight) starts sending 3-5 fullstacks your way every turn.

The omly way to avoid it is to play on M/M (but to some extent it is still there) or keep buffers of Eleutheroi between you and the other factions. On VH/M land border means relentless war that will only end with enemy annihilation. There are many a thread with complaints on this and a few tricks to alleviate the problem.

1) Get peace, and preferably alliance, and give them 200 or so Mnai a turn (according to Ludens, I never tried it- i do not bribe my enemies to leave me alone).
2) Attack and sack border and recruitment towns, execute every inhabitant and burn all buildings, then leave it. But that leaves them so weak eventually that you might as well Blitz.
3) Keep strong garrisions at all entrances along your border. If long stretches of passable land build a Limes of forts with a missile and infantry unit in each as minimum and a full or allmost fullstack within reach within three turns of all of them, as well as at all riverpassings and passes.

[Beckis Robertus Californicus]

3) Keep strong garrisions at all entrances along your border. If long stretches of passable land build a Limes of forts with a missile and infantry unit in each as minimum and a full or allmost fullstack within reach within three turns of all of them, as well as at all riverpassings and passes.[/QUOTE]

Playing AS with the Pahlava pushing in on me every turn is becoming tedious. That is probably the best idea that I have not considered.

I will get right on it.

[Macilrille]

Works for Rome against Sweboz and Getai often. Dunno about others, you probably need a combination of it. And also, you need special tactics and organisation against the HA if they come.

[Dieu Le Fera]

It is usually a 50 - 50 whether AS becomes the Gray Ddeath or Ptolies become the Yellow Fever.

That's about the same with my campaigns. They both seem to have the art of the blitz down pretty good who ever gets the fresh start.

[ARCHIPPOS]

3) Keep strong garrisions at all entrances along your border. If long stretches of passable land build a Limes of forts with a missile and infantry unit in each as minimum and a full or allmost fullstack within reach within three turns of all of them, as well as at all riverpassings and passes.

Frankly i'ld find this a bit obsolete... although it certainly is highly realistic in terms of roleplaying the Romani (it was their actual defense system during their imperial years) i find that even on VH game difficulty the AI NEVER deep-invades your territories (i call this the anti-Hannibal effect). Instead the AI sieges your borderline settlements. Usually focusing on merely 1-2 of them for reasons unknown to me. Most EB players just pinpoint a convenient place/town to exploit this bottleneck effect.
Frankly i don't have any idea on how to counter your never-ending-war problem besides using the forced diplomacy mod and after seriously powing a faction for 15 years or so impose some kind of peace status.That could take away your game pleasure or make you really happy (some consider it cheating others see it as manually-resolving a game engine defficiency).It's not save compatible though (which means you'll have to fire up a new Romani campaign) ...

[Macilrille]

I perhaps neglected to mention that the heavy garrision tactic only works with people you are at peace with, will not force them to peace- and preferably allies. And only for a while, the AI is berserk. But then I find it works.

FD is quite good, but I do not use it.

[Olaf The Great]

Because of what Subo said, I am a Casse-phile.

[Intranetusa]

As Rome, I had no problem fighting the Avernai or Adeui Gauls. Are you wiping out their armies after every battle? If you don't kill them enough to make their army disband, they'll keep coming after you.

As Rome, I'd crush their armies down to the last man, and they won't attack me for 5-6 turns.


As Greeks, I'm currently fighting AS. Their armies are meh...overrated. I haven't seen full stacks of decent infantry from em either...just mostly levies that I crush without effort.

[ARCHIPPOS]

As Greeks, I'm currently fighting AS. Their armies are meh...overrated. I haven't seen full stacks of decent infantry from em either...just mostly levies that I crush without effort.

how long are you into fighting them ??? Playing at VH campaign difficulty AS usually starts off with low-tier halfstacks but after 5-10 years it shells you with elites and every mercenary they can get
their hands on... and they don't come in halfstacks anymore either (it's amazing how much whooping argyraspides can take)

[Dubius Cato]

Since the endless stack invasion problem is unnerving, I had a look at this in my Hai campaign on hard over 20 years or so. The AS was the enemy, it was at peace or allied with the Ptolemies most of the time. It includes heavy use of auto_win and FD. Many findings were already observed above.

1. It seems the AI only attacks provinces that border their provinces. I have 4 settlements closely together in the Caucasus and the AS only ever attacked those settlements it has a border with, even though their stacks run rampant through my lands and very close to "deeper" settlements. They never even entered the deeper provinces but always skirt around them, even though the cities are only a winter season's march away. The deeper settlements had minimal garrisons.

2. The strength of defending armies dissuades the AI from attacking. My first impression is that it is true combat strength, not numbers or the number of units. They won't attack comparable or stronger armies. If multiple AI stacks exceed the limit, they do attack, ergo the decision is not made on a per stack basis.

3. Defenders do not need to be in the settlement proper to have the defensive effect, hovering somewhere in the province is sufficient. Whether they need to be in a certain maximum radius around the settlement or just anywhere I can't say yet.

4. Forts maybe increase the defensive effect. Again they don't need to be located in mountain passes or approaches, just somewhere in the province.

5. Such dissuaded AI stacks do not necessarily move away, but sometimes stop and stay right where they were when you moved your stack into the province, maybe because they have nothing else to do. I had an AS stack parked right next to a settlement for years without them attacking me. Once you move your dissuasion forces away, or once they are able to bring more troops, they drop any pretenses or ceasefires and attack immediately of course following their true Total War nature.

6. The dissuaders do not need to be in a single stack.


What this means is that it could be possible to "cover" (or at least significantly hamper the assault of) multiple provinces with one strong army, by stationing it on the borders in between. When AI stacks start wandering, move the army into the province in question. Or have medium sized stacks in all border provinces and move another medium sized into the relevant ones.

This is of course already done by many, but I want to stress that these troops do not engage but only threaten, in order to prevent the time wasting stream of stacks. It is possible that the AI will only use the time to build up and move in with even larger stacks later, but this is in the interest of most players anyway (fewer small battles, more decisive battles.)


So what else do we need to find out?

- Reproduce the above findings more repeatably

- Check whether it is sufficient to have dissuasion forces just anywhere in the province, even if it is a huge one

- Find out more about the "decision process" of whether to start moving into a player province while at peace:

Which stacks start moving into your province at all?
Do they cross multiple provinces to get to you?
Or are they somehow "anchored" to a specific AI settlement? Maybe the settlement they were last in? Or the one they were created in?
Will they move into a player province if the player has forces in the AI province or will they rather attack those first? (I have already seen something different though)
Are there differences in movement decision between peace time and war?

[My guess is that they only cross their own provinces when at war with a faction. The normal peacetime roaming attacks of opportunity (those which start the wars) are launched out of AI provinces next to player provinces when said provs are undermanned.]

[Matteo123]

Do things get better on hard instead of very hard? I have read some posts that suggest the benefit is less for the AI on hard so the stack problem is decreased.

I recently started a new Rome campaignto find out but if the problem is the same on hard I gues I will kick it down to medium.

Is there a good post on what to expect on each difficulty anywhere with the actual bonuses/behaviors laid out?

[Ludens]

Is there a good post on what to expect on each difficulty anywhere with the actual bonuses/behaviors laid out?

Not to my knowledge.

At VH, the AI receives 10.000 mnai per turn in addition to the EB-scripted bonuses that occur at all difficulty levels. Many people say that at VH it is also more rabid in its hatred of the player, but I've never noticed this. I know that, in M2:TW, relations between the A.I. and the human player automatically deteriorate over time unless positive interactions occur. This deterioration is quicker at higher difficulty levels. Since I always pay my neighbours a small but regular tribute, this probably prevents the deterioration in my campaigns, assuming the system is the same in R:TW. At VH, the rebels are also more likely to attack, but this occurs very rarely anyway. IIRC the A.I. will not recruit mercenaries at lower difficulty levels.