BI or ALEX worth buying to run EB on?

[fallen851]

Curious as to what people thought. I saw a decent deal for BI or ALEX and was wondering if they would improve my EB experience significantly enough to justify the price. Basically I wouldn't even touch either game as is, only would buy them if they would be good for EB.

[Duguntz]

BI FTW! IMHO at the least! Shield wall, swimming units, night battle... I don't know about alex veeeery much. I tried both, and i prefered much more BI. Oh, and also... NAVAL INVASION ! don't expect to see another Normandy landing, but it does occur that the AI send boats more than just blocade your ports... alex, for what I know, has a more agressiv AI (though as dumb as any other exe.) but this is only what i heard.

T'was my two cents! cheers

[The Celtic Viking]

From my experience, Alex is better, though the difference isn't that great. Generally in my games the naval invasions in BI was really just Carthage sending stack after stack after stack after stack against Tolosa as soon as I took that settlement. They did send full stacks and at first I liked it, but as it became clear that they'd always do that in every campaign, and that they'd never give up, it quickly became an annoyance more than anything else.

What made me choose Alex is the fact that the above doesn't happen, that it loads quicker and that the eleutheroi is more active in it.

Shield wall, swimming units, night battle...

Night battles are in alx.exe too, that I know. I don't care for it too much anyway. Can't say I know about the other two, though.

[Morte66]

I use BI.exe to play regular EB without the night battles and shield walls and so on. I've used those features before and they often seemed to be contrary to the design assumptions of EB, or in some cases (using night battles to split the enemy) pretty close to exploit territory. But I like using the executable it because (a) it crashes less, (b) the AI is better at pulling its troops from a battle when losing, (c) the extra AI naval operations generally make things more interesting (except when playing Rome and trying to ignore Carthage).

I bought Alexander on a previous PC and the DRM won't let me run it on this one, so I haven't used it. I gather Alex.exe merges field armies and retrains depleted units in towns, so you'll meet a lot of full stacks and gold chevron garrisons while it's been going for a while.

[antisocialmunky]

Get Alex.

Also what DRM?

[Unintended BM]

I've noticed that the game runs way smoother on Alex. I play battles on triple speed pretty often, and I wasn't able to do that very well on BI or RTW, it would slow way down, but on Alex it barely slows down, unless it's like two full stacks fighting or something. I haven't noticed it loader any faster, but I bet it does.

As for the AI, Alex and BI both have naval invasions, but I noticed that they happen less often on Alex. With Alex, I've noticed that the AI likes to try and flank you in battle, but they kind of fail a lot of the time. Like, they'll bring a unit of cavalry around and stand a few feet from your guys, and they'll just stand there and never attack. They might've done this on the other exes too, and I just didn't notice, but I think I've noticed it more on Alex.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I don't like the AI retraining its units, because I like to have very slow, boring campaigns where nothing much happens for years on end so I can concentrating on playing 'Sim Ancient City' and building lots of lovely buildings in my cities, which I then admire using the city viewer.

So I went for BI rather than Alex for that reason - I like battles to be few and far between, since I like to fight them all myself and not use autocalc, so too many battles is a bad thing for me.

But my play style is very different than most other people's.

[NikosMaximilian]

I think the overall AI in BI is better than in Alex.

[Madoushi]

I can't get EB to run under BI or Alex.

[lionhard]

Bi is easier to install

[antisocialmunky]

I think the overall AI in BI is better than in Alex.

Unless you see KH dump its whole army in Italy 3 times in a row when playing as Rome. Followed by Epeiros... and Macedonia... by Taras.

[Maeran]

I bought alex purely to use it for EB. Because it doesn't use a disc, I can be happy in the certainty that I'll never have to buy a replacement disc again (I've bought several copies of RTW over the years). It does seem more stable too.

[Atraphoenix]

I use ALEX not only it is best combat.AI but also it is the only game exe that makes my EB working after my intensive modding.

[vartan]

What everyone has said is perfect and fine. The only thing I can say without feeling bad about myself is this: ALX (1.9) is a far more optimized video game engine version than RTW (1.5) or BI (1.6). Anything I say other than that would be wrong, and that's the point I would like to bring up. I feel it is wrong for at least the CA (if not EB) for me to tell you that you should or should not buy such and such a game by CA on which to play this mod.

[Atraphoenix]

What everyone has said is perfect and fine. The only thing I can say without feeling bad about myself is this: ALX (1.9) is a far more optimized video game engine version than RTW (1.5) or BI (1.6). Anything I say other than that would be wrong, and that's the point I would like to bring up. I feel it is wrong for at least the CA (if not EB) for me to tell you that you should or should not buy such and such a game by CA on which to play this mod.

EB team stated they only supported vanilla exe.

[vartan]

EB team stated they only supported vanilla exe.

Correct. That's widely known. And yes, the major disservice would be to CA.

[seienchin]

No. They have new features. like in Alex units retrain, but I dont think its worth it.
Naval Invasion isnt an Exe problem. Look at Rome Vanilla, it had plenty, the problem is EB not Rome.exe.

[vartan]

No. They have new features. like in Alex units retrain, but I dont think its worth it.
Naval Invasion isnt an Exe problem. Look at Rome Vanilla, it had plenty, the problem is EB not Rome.exe.

Atrap, this is what I meant when I said 'if not EB'. As you can clearly see, posts such as these can hurt both the CA as well as EB...

[Atraphoenix]

Atrap, this is what I meant when I said 'if not EB'. As you can clearly see, posts such as these can hurt both the CA as well as EB...

You are right.
I have been modding total war series since Medieval Total War and EB at least for 3 years. So far I had no complaints on it even publishing them.
people should know if they do not like something on a game or mod they can change if possible.
EB is one of the greatest mod I have ever played, yes that is right Cavalry is quite expensive which I do not like but EB has its own balance on it. I never touched,
I found AI too slow modded it. I modded lots of features.
Personally I like Alex AI ambushed me many times and slaughtered nearly whole of my armies that was not possible in other exes.
I know how to mod and play EB with Alex. For me the best game engine EB experience.
but these words are hard to accept..... and unfair....

No. They have new features. like in Alex units retrain, but I dont think its worth it.
Naval Invasion isnt an Exe problem. Look at Rome Vanilla, it had plenty, the problem is EB not Rome.exe.

I respect your opinions but your words are unfair.
If you like naval invasions no matter on what exe.
Open : C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data folder
open descr_sm_factions.txt file
ctrl + f
write : prefers_naval_invasions
change all no's with 'yes' with the faction you want them to perform naval invasions.
that is so simple and ı am sure nobody will have a word for it why you did.
If you do not like something just change that was what I did....

[ChingizLink]

Unless you see KH dump its whole army in Italy 3 times in a row when playing as Rome. Followed by Epeiros... and Macedonia... by Taras.

That's odd--in my campaigns Macedonia was getting mauled by KH and Epeiros, Epeiros was barely present in Italy...one day I snapped and started cheating money to Macedon. Actually, I sen them like 40-50,000, along with a few units (you know, the kind that MACEDON USED!!???. Within 2 turns, things looked more, ahem, ACCURATE. about 3-4 years later, I had to help KH a bit.

I'd say that Alexander is definitely worth getting for EB, along with the actual vanilla game itself. Yes, it's clunky, cheesy, and each faction's units are bland and monochramatic (that really drives me nuts), but the campaign is suprisingly fun. Kinda like an arcade version of an EB/RTW hybrid. The historical battles are REALLY fun. (I must have played Chaeronea 9x)