Post your EB empires!

[Ferdiad]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My Empire is falling apart because of the rioting and rebellions.

[Arjos]

255 BC lol! Sorry had to post this XD

[Ferdiad]

It's 0 turn with big movement...

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Good lord. Do you fight like 25 battles a turn?

[Fluvius Camillus]

Good lord. Do you fight like 25 battles a turn?

If you blitz you will end up better, an oversized AI monster which grew too big is far worse. I'd rather blitz too than face countless Seleukid fullstacks.

~Fluvius

[QuintusSertorius]

This is precisely why I don't play on VH campaign difficulty. Fighting ten identikit battles every single turn is more like a chore than fun.

[Paltmull]

Makedonian Empire, 213 B.C. (H/M, City Mod a):

The empire is growing. After Carthage attacked me, i quickly sent a small elite force to capture Sicily. Anyway, I've been using a tiny bit of diplomacy cheating; making the Ptolemaioi my protectorate and making ceasefire with Carthage. I've given Kyrene to the Ptolemaioi to use them as a buffer.

[d'Arthez]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My Empire is falling apart because of the rioting and rebellions.

Even without any modifications it might be just doable, if a player is willing to exploit AI stupidity to the max (especially Arcade battles, spies, missile attacks and atrocious defending while sallying). No cheats, (money, move_char or auto_win) have been used.

This is how far I have come. The sole purpose of the game is to see how easy it is to conquer the whole world, allowing the use of every exploit possible to achieve said goal. Not sure if I'll allow moving of capitals to minimise civil disorder problems.

Still need to get Ak-Ink, before the turn is completed. Next turn I will add at least Athens and Chalkis to my empire.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Paltmull]

You did all that in 16 turns?! But... how?! o__o

[Ferdiad]

I personally tried to powergame with all Triarii stacks etc.. and with draining all the mercanies in the region to allow maximum blitzing.

[d'Arthez]

As I wrote in my post, exploiting every bit of AI stupidity.

I tried the all triarii stacks in the past, but it is not so effective, since it takes a long time to build the necessary infrastructure. Accensi (/ Ioasatae) and spy spamming is a lot quicker.

For instance on turn 1 you can easily take Bononia, if you have the "luck" that a spy opens the gates there. Storm the town. Arcade battles (needed for unlimited ammo), and letting your Accensi pelt the troops before mopping the remaining defenders up with whatever you let tag along (Asina from Ariminum, and I think the Hastati and Principes from the army that is stationed in Arretium at game start), will do the rest. Usually only 3 units, often depleted remain at the town square. Needless to say that such Accensi units end up with gold chevrons. If you are lucky, there is no cavalry left, so you can pelt the remaining defenders and run away when they come after you. If there is cavalry remaining, you need to draw them out, and slaughter them with your own heavy infantry or cavalry.

Still quite difficult, since Accensi have a very poor range. Iaosatae are much better. As an added bonus to this strategy, it is a lot cheaper as well, since Accensi cost a whooping 336 Mnai to train, and 84 maintenance / turn.

I took Ambrakia with Asina, one unit of Curepos, and one unit of Accensi. It was defended by 2,500 troops, so I was outnumbered close to 9:1. Just need a lot of patience to deal with the AI controlled happy cannon fodder.

Cheap? Undoubtedly. The way EB should be played? No. But as I said, if powergaming is your thing, you should be able to produce something similar.

[Paltmull]

Ahaaa, unlimited ammo. That explains it.

[QuintusSertorius]

Ahaaa, unlimited ammo. That explains it.

I don't get it, what's the point in playing on arcade mode? That makes for tedious battles of attrition.

[d'Arthez]

Point was to see how bad the AI is. May as well up the ante, and see how quickly one can conquer the entire map (minus Terhazza of course) if one exploits everything to the max. Different game all together. The fun then is not in role playing, but in achieving WC by a certain date.

Note: this is not meant as a criticism of the EB team. I really feel they have done the best job they could do with what they had available to them.

I feel that one has to come up with a list of house rules, to make play more enjoyable. I tried many, but none had results to my liking. You need dozens of in battle rules as well, since the battle AI in is not the best. To the point that you really wonder how much fun it is to actually engage in these battles as well.

I am seriously tempted to only run auto-calc campaigns. The few I have done have been much more fun than regular campaigns. They certainly take care of any chance of blitzing. That way the AI retains a slight edge, due to free command stars, and its sheer stupidity in battle is not a constant source of annoyance. You may have some surprising wins and losses. A bit more historical in a sense, since the outcome of military engagements sometimes yielded surprising results as well.

As much as I admire your playing style QS (as evidenced in this thread), you have to lose intentionally to get into the positions where you are. I feel that if one has to do badly intentionally to experience difficulties and serious problems, it takes the fun out of whatever challenge one sets.

[vollorix]

But using autocalc with even, or favourable, odds would normaly get you a crushing defeat on "vh" campaign difficulty - so no need to loose on purpose here ;)

[QuintusSertorius]

But using autocalc with even, or favourable, odds would normaly get you a crushing defeat on "vh" campaign difficulty - so no need to loose on purpose here ;)

Well, yeah. It also removes the temptation to turn a battle that was supposed to be a defeat into a close victory.

[Shadowwalker]

EB 1.2 SPQR campaign
difficulty setting: easy/medium
unit size: normal
used submods:
- EB for BI (with unit abilities, although I hardly use them...)
- force diplomacy
- EOM
- unit info cardmod
- RSII strat/battlemap environment
- NO citymod (because it makes cities far away from the faction's capitals much easier to hold)

houserules:
- roughly accurate legions
- legions outside roman territory only with a general that is/was consul
- max. 4 legions (means 2 fullstacks) in Camillan times
- max. 16 legions (8 fullstacks) in Polybian times
- max. 30 legions (15 fullstacks) after Marian reforms
- no use of FD for unrealistic own benefit (getting a ceasefire with a single-province-faction is realistic, getting one with an enemy faction at the peak of its power is not)

Warning: Huge image...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm in 153BC actually and in the meantime the Aedui managed to grab Skandza, Makedonia took Mazaka and Tarsos.

I didn't help any faction so far, nevertheless there are only 2 factions out of game by now (Arverni got subdued by Aedui, the Epirotes had not that much time to regret their betrayal of the alliance they had with Rome...).
The easy campaign difficulty seems not to hinder the factions (except for the Sweboz), the normal unit size makes for a lot of AI flanking maneuvers...
And I experienced something I never had before:
I'm bordering the Getai for almost 100 years now and never was betrayed by them. (Kallatis I simply bought....).

[Biowulf]

One thing I've noticed throughout all my campaigns is that the Getai never attack anyone. Not me, not their neighbors, only the Eleutheroi. They're the only faction that does it, too.

[vollorix]

Getai normaly fight the Sauromatae in the most of my campaigns. But with all those Rebel towns around they got enough work to do before they meet another faction, and if it is a Greek faction they mostly loose in autocalc quite badly.

[Paltmull]

One thing I've noticed throughout all my campaigns is that the Getai never attack anyone. Not me, not their neighbors, only the Eleutheroi. They're the only faction that does it, too.

Getai actually attacked me (Makedonia), but that was after bordering me for about 70 years. This was the result:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Makedonia, circa 200 BC (H/M, City Mod a):

They were unfortunate enough to attack just before my king returned from his campaign against the Arabs and Ethiopians. In addition to bringing home his veterans, he also brought...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Elephants!


(I did some textfile editing to make African elephants recruitable for Macedon in the same regions from where the Ptolemaioi can recruit them)

[Megas Methuselah]

This is precisely why I don't play on VH campaign difficulty. Fighting ten identikit battles every single turn is more like a chore than fun.

Whenever Quintus posts something, I always find myself agreeing with him.

Anyways, my game:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Arche Massaliotai, 175 BC. It's ruled by a branch of the Ptolemaic family I bribed over from the Yellow Death a few generations ago. The royal family itself is Macedonian, and all the other FM's are Hellenes, aside from a couple Arverni's. I'm actually at 165 BC right now, so this pic is kinda old, but I still have the same lands except that most of Gaul is hellenized now.

[QuintusSertorius]

That looks like an awesome game, Megas Methuselah, are you playing it as migrated Epeiros?

Pahlava have gone mad!

[Megas Methuselah]

That looks like an awesome game, Megas Methuselah, are you playing it as migrated Epeiros?

Pahlava have gone mad!

Yep, I'm playing as Epeiros. I modified my game files quite a bit, in terms of recruitment, unit skins, faction names/colours, etc. Whenever a faction looks like it's about to die, I gift it a city in some empty spot of the map and re-name+re-colour them in the data files. This helps ease the wasting of an entire faction slot and keeps any single faction from becoming a major superpower. It's also very good for roleplaying purposes.

Thus, we have the "Maurisioi" in the extreme Northwestern part of Africa, the "Goidilic" in Ireland, the "Helevetii" in the Alps (I need to change their colour, they're hard to distinguish from the Sweboz), the "Bastarnoz" in Hungary-ish, the "Syrakousioi" in Siciliy and southern Italy, Pontus in Sardinia until I find someplace better to put them, the "Indohellenikoi" in India and the "Punohellenikoi" in Northwestern Africa. The Punohellenikoi are my favourite. They used to be the Seleukids, and I gave them Carthage after I wiped out the Carthaginians (I hated them). Anyways, if you look at the recruitment viewer, you'll notice the Seleukids have really interesting recruitment possibilities in former-Carthage. They have armies of Klerouchoi (Hellenic immigrants?) and Pandotapoi (native Carthaginians?) Phalanxes supported by Numidian levies and cavalry. Very exotic. And, ironically, their faction leader's surname is "Phoenike." Made me laugh.

[WinsingtonIII]

One thing I've noticed throughout all my campaigns is that the Getai never attack anyone. Not me, not their neighbors, only the Eleutheroi. They're the only faction that does it, too.

They do seem to be strangely pacifist, I'm not sure why... Maybe they never get enough of an economy going to go out warmongering (although the economy scripts should prevent that).

[Rahl]

I very often see armies of them standing on the same spots in most campaigns. I think the pathfinding there is buggy or something and that's why they often stop expanding after capturing some settlements on the balkan.

[Harkilaz]

Hello, this is my first post here. I am playing the campaign and battle difficulty at VH (wanted a challenge, never played harder than normal before this)

Sadly, lots of the details are lost in the mist of time. I started this game well over a year ago, stopped playing after a few months, and only recently returned to it, so much of the early conquests of my Sweboz faction is hazy, but I do know the first Faction leader, Swartagaizaz, died in battle in 272, to be replaced by Heruwulfaz.

Under the leadership of Heruwulfaz, the Sweoboz conquered the tribes as far north as Gawjam-Skadzawarjoz, west as far as Bagacos, east as far as Ascaucalis and Gawjam-Silengoz, and south as far as Arctaunon. It was during these conquests, the future faction leader and general, Harkilaz, entered history.


Harkilaz married Leudhabadjo (282-212 BC) the daughter of a Sweboz family member called Athawulfaz, who died in battle in 256 BC.


In 249 BC, after the death of Heruwulfaz, and around the age of 40, Harkilaz took charge of Sweboz military affairs, while the faction leader, Hadaz, remained at home to govern the new Empire.

The Romans, once allies of the Sweboz, had declared war a year or two earlier, and had been massing armies ready for the invasion of Sweboz territories. Harkilaz was ready for them with a hastily built army of mostly levy spearman and mercenaries.

In 242 he ambushed a large Roman army south-east of Arctaunon, utterly annihilating it. He repeated these ambush tactics throughout the 240s and 230s, destroying dozens of large Roman armies. Rome had conquered territory up to Sweboz lands, and with still more armies massing, Harkilaz took the offensive and entered the newly acquired Roman land.From the 220s onwards down to 209, he destroyed many Roman armies, again, superior in numbers and quality to his troops, and had taken the three cities of Vindelicoppidos, Veldideno and Aventicos, and pushed them back onto the Italian side of the Alps. He also became faction leader, after the death of Hadaz in 220. From 242 to 212 BC, he acquired no less than seven famous battles against the Romans, along with the title, 'Breaker of Rome' and many more which didn't get the crossed swords but were still impressive victories none-the-less.

Securing the Alps, Harkilaz built a series of forts to prevent Rome from ever pushing beyond the mountains, and negotiated a peace with the Romans that was to last for over a decade. But in 208 BC, the Audei attacked Harkilaz' army in the Alps. Harkilaz earned another famous victory and completely routed two large Audei armies, then took the offensive, marched into enemy lands and beat the Audei in several large engagements (with another further Famous victory) before storming and taking Vesontio, Bibcrate, Viennos, Gergovia, Avaricum and Bratosporios, earning him the name of Breaker of Celts. During the war with the celts, Rome took advantage and declared war in 194 BC. Harkilaz, now in a position to be attacked by both the Romans and celts, with Rome as close as Massalia, Harkilaz chose to assault the city, beating off a small army that defended the bridge before he captured Massalia. After this, he turned back two large Roman armies, crossed the bridge from Massilia, met up with one of his captains bringing freshly raised forces from the Alps, and smashed the celtic army on it's way to Gergovia. During this time however, many assassination attempts by both Romans and the celts had been made on his life, all of which have failed. He seems to be a very hard man to kill.


This is his position now, guarding the bridge to Massilia, the celts building their forces to the west, the Romans to the east. Neither wants peace, and things are looking grim for the 93 year old general and the Sweboz empire in general. There isn't another promising commander, the best being a one-star commander who just won his first battle but who is seditious. Every other family member has pretty much grown up soft, and those that weren't, have died in battle before having a son. How much will we lose when Harkilaz finally bites the dust.

Here's some pictures of his profile (traits etc), later I'll get some up of the Empire. (He's rubbish at management though, but then he has never remained in a town for a single turn since I released him into the wild!)

Harkilaz:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Unfortunately, Massilia ejected the small garrison I placed in there (great work Harky, not slaughtering the citizens and giving them a chance to rebel) and it's back in Roman hands now. Another assination attempt has now made him paranoid (-1 command) and he's also now a complete drunk (-1 command at 94.) Still, he managed to smash a large Roman army that was coming towards Massilia - the tenth famous battle of his career, killing a further two Roman senators.

However, what I feared as happened now in the east. The Greeks, now protectorate of Epirous, have pushed deep towards my eastern lands, and a large army is laying siege to a rebel town. What choice they make next might very well determine the future of the Sweboz, and my only two armies are facing off against the celts and the Romans to the west and south...

I'll post some of the Empire up soon, but I thought I show you the leading man who's kept Sweboz alive.

Thanks for your time! :)

[Arthur, king of the Britons]

Wow... I've never seen a family member that old... Good job with that empire and welcome to the org. :)

~Arthur

[Harkilaz]

Hey thanks! He's still alive at 99. I hope he makes it to the big 100. I do wonder how he manages to keep going, seeing as in every battle he still gets involved. I imagine they carry him about in a chair or something where he can organize what's going on. I doubt he could wear armour and move at that age. When I finish my work, I'll do an update to my campaign. It's getting very dangerous. The celts are building up their forces, and the Romans have swept around the Alps and traveled through Greek territory to get to me. I was hoping the Greeks wouldn't take to kindly to the Roman advance, but looks like they've let them through. Harkilaz has picked another bad trait, he's now become unusual, but on the plus side he just routed a large Roman army led by their faction leader and consul, who was killed in the action (and was also 64 years old!). I think Hark might be losing it in his old age. First he became a paranoid drunkard, and now he drowns spiders. Hehe. I've had a couple of others in my Sweboz Empire who have lived into their eighties, but this is a record for me! :)

[Paltmull]

Are you possibly playing on alex.exe?

[Harkilaz]

I don't know what that is? Is it the Alexander expansion? I haven't bought any expansion for Rome TW, EB is doing a wonderful job on its own.