Re: Poll: scale the difficulty of each campaign
So many say that the hard factions are really challenging - maybe, i play on VH/VH and i have to admit that i have the most difficulties with barbarian factions at the moment i am tryin sweboz for the 5th or 6th time just because i think it's one of the hardest goes i had (no matter what some guys say - disbanding units is a "no go" for me), problem is to get a population which is able to support your troops, and even when you own nearly the complete north your profits are so small that it takes nearly 15-20 years until you will be able to even think about recuiting a new soldier - until then the growing populuation is causing difficulties because you don't have enough troops to secure public order, you simply end up with your FM rushing through every town in the north until you have enough population to consolidate your budget - and it takes ages ( as long as you don't catch the bigger fishes to the south and prayin not to end up fighting roman mercenary armies to soon)
Hayasdan was quite easy just unite your army and crush the AS mainland right from the beginning if you're not too untalented you will have the central empire in quite a few turns - it was surprisingly easy, and btw when you've got the euphrat tigris region you won't suffer from financial problems - ok AS is sending some stacks from antiocha and minor asia - but you have the money so use it invest in some mercenaries, and crush them - maybe you will lose one settlement but hey you've got minimum 5-6 from them so dammit, if your're dividing your forces in two medium sized stacks and are doing well with cavalry tactics combined with some skirmisher/archer assistence you will be able to capture or at least devastate antiocha an it's surroundings.
I tried to go other ways - but when you try to gain control of the caucasus you will be too slow to gain money and being able to defend against AS, heading north? .... ehm those scripted HA stacks will simply shred your army before any of your weapons is in reach - but i gave it a try - autoresolved battles are the only solution but i prefer to play every battle by myself - you can try to kill pontos with a lot of luck as long as his stack is sieging another city but that means that your lands are vulnerable and AS AI knows that .
Same with Pahlava but many times easier due to your HA and FM + those spies - just be quick - hit it fast and hard, you usually win matches in a relation of 1:10 or even more depending how many bodyguards and riders you own - best way for me was to go straight to the provinces with mines and secure persepolis and ekbatana ASAP - problem is usually public security - train spies and assassins to get rid of those from AS they will safe you money because usually it takes either time to build some spearmen or money if you have to garrison with HA (unit is about 350+ per turn)
Pontos i tried twice and i think the availability of versatile troops is the point which is the matchwinner + those chariots (i think they are overpowered but their price is ok) - with them, i think you have quite a few options to start - ran into AS and aim their heartland as with hayasdan - or if you are really superior you can take some of their settlements right away and with a bit luck win minor asia, a third option is quite easy i believe i didn't tried it yet - abandon minor asia and head for mikra skythia, tylis, byzantion they aren't well guarded and with other factions quite easy to get (even with sweboz (a trait said my general wants to sniff southern air so i just ran for the black sea;)) - in a post regarding that somebody wrote that you can invade the crimea region too
sabean campaign was the one i didn't even try - i saw my surroundings, saw my troops, saw my enemies and thought - ok sweboz reloaded, with a far more boring starting position - i thought that i don't want to play a week till i can fight my first battle against a regular faction - i think the position is nice but without enemies it's simply to far off, and i think it will take too many turns until you make money
chartage is the most interesting faction and the most capable one in my opinion no matter in which world you are fighting a battle, you will have the answer to every other type of troops, especially their heavy+light cav, and their ability to support them in masses is fascinating - capture 1 or 2 bigger towns from your enemies and you can keep those infantry frightening wandering gatebreaker from the beginning - you can expand whereever you like - africa, spain,italy, makedonia other factions are simply no match for you as long as you are able to navigate your reinforcements through those piratefleets - but if you succeed you will have plenty of money and can recruit merc units like crazy
Romani - quite easy beginning but u usually have many losses against barbarians - until your units gained some experience - but hey you are the money stuffed romani - who cares about losses when he can simply retrain every turn. i think they are too easy because you don't have real enemies in the beginning but got those well armored troops and the money to buy them right away
BUT if you are playing another european faction the romani are simply a pain in the ass - they are expanding fast, and what is more bitter - thy simply buy stack after stack full of mercenaries - they have uncountable amounts of money which spoils the experience conquering italy really much - you steal nearly every province but in the end you have problems to kill him due to the fact that he is able to simply buy whole armies - it is simply senseless that he can provide some full stacks without having sufficient provinces - if you have a look to other factions, you will see that they don't sucking up every merc unit they can get - at least not in that dimension
Makedons - KH - Eipiros - if you win the first battles and manage to unite the greek homeland you will have an rather easy, in parts boring campaign - only real threat are the romani - AS usually has too many other struggles to concentrate on you, getai are simply no match, sauromate stand no chance, and gaining land overseas is quite easy phalangitai are simply too mighty if played by a human against AI
Sauromatae - just tried it once and i don't really like nomad factions (beside pahlava due to reform) FM +HA running over the world as long as you are able to keep public security in captured towns no resistance will interfere with your plans no matter in which direction you want to expand
Saka Rauka - quit playing atm - seen too many phalangitai in the past weeks ... and shooting them down isn't really fun as long as there is nobody shooting back^^, starting position is a annoying because those HA/HA matches are often really stressful
Getai - nice faction, i like them, nice position but a bit quite for a long time - usually you start to "interact" with others when you already secured quite a bit of land - nice would be a faster expanding sweboz (in every campaign)
Luso-Averni- Aedui - nice troops, nice positions, not so nice merc crazy romans with masses of extraordinarii pedites (or so) (AI simply uses them as army backbone - and they are quite a match for my hemp robe tribals^^)
Ptolemaioi - or eastern Carthago - easy to play clever clever greeks+african units with an easy starting position usually fighting most other clever clever greeks for the most of the time- like in vanilla one really easy go
casse- didn't play them yet, they've got chariots - so they cannot lose^^
barbarian factions are in my opinion usually the hardest ones - they usually suffer many losses and got problems to start gaining money, many eleutheroi surroundings are quite heavy garrisoned - good to stop a fast expanding roman AI but even worse when you are not able to capture the land you need to survive.
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Originally Posted by Intranetusa
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