[Migrated Faction] The Kyrenaian League

[QuintusSertorius]

A provisional title, because I'm sure someone will have a better name for this little experiment in migration. In both my Pergamon and Massalia games, I've ended up taking Kyrene and holding the ring against both the Ptolemies and Karthadastim - and it's a lot of fun.

Now it is a harder starting position than even Massalia was in terms of recruitment; there's none of the top tier factional stuff to be had there. Even the mercenary pool isn't so great. But the distances involved means you don't have full stacks of elites headed your way every other turn, which means I may have some time to build up a base.

I'm thinking of the islands as targets - Krete, Kypros, Rhodos and Euboia. Possibly Sicily as well. While the first group are a bit meta-game-y (AI doesn't usually try to re-take them), it will at least make my little league viable.

I plan to take Krete, then leave the rest until the factions who own them give me a reason to attack in retaliation. I may set up the Sabaens as a "desert faction" to give me some relief from my two great enemies.

Talking of which, what might you call a Hellenic League centred in Kyrenaia? Is there a more interesting name than the Kyrenaian League?

Any thoughts generally?

[Megas Methuselah]

Magas of Cyrene.

You should consider bribing the polis' starting eleutheroi general (Magas), and killing off all your other family members for him to start a dynasty. Use the "give_trait" console to give him the PtolemaicMakedon trait, and if he has a son, change the kid's randomly-generated surname to something more fitting for the region.

Kyrene, at EB's start date, was an independent kingdom, so maybe you can build a sucessor kingdom out of it to rival that of the Ptolemaioi and Seleukids.

[QuintusSertorius]

Magas of Cyrene.

You should consider bribing the polis' starting eleutheroi general (Magas), and killing off all your other family members for him to start a dynasty. Use the "give_trait" console to give him the PtolemaicMakedon trait, and if he has a son, change the kid's randomly-generated surname to something more fitting for the region.

Kyrene, at EB's start date, was an independent kingdom, so maybe you can build a sucessor kingdom out of it to rival that of the Ptolemaioi and Seleukids.

I didn't know that, excellent. Gives me a good reason to centre a game there as well. Sounds like a neat solution to get rid of all those Epirotes with their traits too.

How do I change the randomly-generated surname?

Any idea how much it will cost to bribe the city?

EDIT: I don't seem to have the option to bribe the city, and the stack nearby under Philon refuses to accept a bribe.

Looks like I'd have better luck altering my starting FMs with the console.

[Hax]

change the kid's randomly-generated surname to something more fitting for the region.

Sure, enjoy your hardcode.

[Megas Methuselah]

I didn't know that, excellent. Gives me a good reason to centre a game there as well. Sounds like a neat solution to get rid of all those Epirotes with their traits too.

How do I change the randomly-generated surname?

Any idea how much it will cost to bribe the city?

EDIT: I don't seem to have the option to bribe the city, and the stack nearby under Philon refuses to accept a bribe.

Looks like I'd have better luck altering my starting FMs with the console.

Aw, hell, that sucks. Use the console to add_money 40000 many, many, many times until you have several million mnai, I guess. Then once you got the city, add_money -40000 until you're back at where you were at.

Sure, enjoy your hardcode.

If he gets Magas, then he marries, then has a son, the kid will be given a randomly-generated surname out of the list of surnames of the player's faction. Let's pretend that Quintus is playing as Epeiros, and the boy was born as Kleon Aiakides. You simply save+exit the game, go to descr_names.txt, then look up "Aiakides." Simply change that name to whatever name you want that is already in the list, including the names of other factions, then resume the game.

To make the job easier for you, I already went into the list and found the following name under the surnames of the koinon: Kyrenaios. Going back to the Kleon Aiakides & Epeiros example, you would simply go under the list of surnames of Epeiros, find Aiakides, and replace it with Kyrenaios. Of course, since the starting Epeirote family goes by that surname, they would all be changed to Kyrenaios, lol.

Trust me, though, I've done this plenty of times in my Massalian campaign. I gotta get back to playing it sometime.

[QuintusSertorius]

Is a change of surname saved game compatible?

[Ludens]

Kyrene, at EB's start date, was an independent kingdom, so maybe you can build a sucessor kingdom out of it to rival that of the Ptolemaioi and Seleukids.

As I understood it, Kyrene was not an independent kingdom but a breakaway province of the Ptolemaic Empire housing a rival claimant to the throne. In other words: there wouldn't be a Kyrenean Empire, Magas would simply take over the Ptolemean one. However, I doubt his Seleucid "allies" would have allowed him to keep it.

[Paltmull]

This does seem like a lot of fun. Might try it myself. What kind of army compositions would be appropriate for Kyrene?

[QuintusSertorius]

This does seem like a lot of fun. Might try it myself. What kind of army compositions would be appropriate for Kyrene?

They're another Hellenistic power, though unless you start conquering Ptolemaic territory you'll be limited to basic Hellenic/Hellenistic troops and mercs. Don't think there are any regionals in Kyrene.

[Paltmull]

They're another Hellenistic power, though unless you start conquering Ptolemaic territory you'll be limited to basic Hellenic/Hellenistic troops and mercs. Don't think there are any regionals in Kyrene.

I meant whether they would be hoplite-based or phalanx-based and so on.

[moonburn]

regular diadochi kingdom and probably less prone to recruit/accept machimoi (native egiptians) into the army so anyone wanting to play as kyrenaia trying to regain the power in egypt would have to rely mostly on mercs (kretans thraikioi and all sort of hellenic units they could find to augment their armies except native egiptians) also their acess to hetarioi would be less then most so playing a kyrenaia faction game should be extra hard and the victory conditions would be the same as all the diadochi (get to mesoptamia and conquer to emulate alexander)

[QuintusSertorius]

I meant whether they would be hoplite-based or phalanx-based and so on.

I'd say a mix of the two - they don't have the manpower to go all-out phalanx, but they'd probably feature some. As it is, you're limited to levy phalangites in Kyrene.

[Megas Methuselah]

Is a change of surname saved game compatible?

Yep.

As I understood it, Kyrene was not an independent kingdom but a breakaway province of the Ptolemaic Empire housing a rival claimant to the throne. In other words: there wouldn't be a Kyrenean Empire, Magas would simply take over the Ptolemean one. However, I doubt his Seleucid "allies" would have allowed him to keep it.

Eh.

[QuintusSertorius]

236BC, and this is turning out to be a lot of fun, especially playing some of the distant regions as independent kingdoms (ie no support from Kyrene):



Garama has an all-African garrison led by a Libian general, and has fought off three invasions by the Karthadastim so far. Long as they don't send any of their elite pikemen, I should be alright. If I've got more money later, I might hire another general and a merc army to go plundering the Karthadastim desert provinces/free Mauretania.

Recently landed an army to "liberate" Syrakousai from the Karthadastim; I might unite Sicily or I may take Lilibeo and Messana and gift to the Romans. Either way I'm hoping for some good battles across the island before that happens. As it is, the First Punic War in my game lasted about 10 years and the Romans gave up after being driven off the island. Very disappointing.

I think I'll take the Bosphorous as a third independent region, more viable than attempting to make it a faction in its own right.

The world is thus:



It's the Yellow Death in this game, the Seleukids are slowly crumbling without a great deal of fight. I wonder if proximity to the human player is a factor in that? In my Pergamon game, it was the Sliver Death, with the Ptlolemies flaking out quickly.

Yes, I've been tinkering all over the place and adding loads of money to the Eleutheroi (not sure if it does much; I also add units to their garrisons to prevent them being steamrollered). The "desert rebellion" in the Ptolemies hinterland is all my doing (deep raid, gift to another faction), seems to have galvanised the Sabaen into motion elsewhere.

Amazingly, KH and Makedon are at peace. Can't seem to get KH to expand in Asia Minor, either. They're no longer allies with the Seleukids, but won't take Sardis. Even though it would link up their holdings. I'd love for them to attack the Ptolemies, they have no real resistance in Asia Minor. No doubt I'll have to launch a naval invasion later on to sort that out.

[Blxz]

Very pretty map. So totally unlike any game I've ever seen. Why is your Parthia kicking arse (not the city) so much? I have never seen them get further than Zadrakata and Hektomopolyus (sp?). Like your idea of using the Saba as a generic desert people.

[QuintusSertorius]

Very pretty map. So totally unlike any game I've ever seen. Why is your Parthia kicking arse (not the city) so much? I have never seen them get further than Zadrakata and Hektomopolyus (sp?). Like your idea of using the Saba as a generic desert people.

I must admit I do meddle a lot with the world map, swathes of all one colour covering large regions is boring to me. I do that via adding money and sometimes troops with the console, and more occasionally Force Diplomacy to stop everyone haring northwards. I also add huge amounts of money to the Eleutheroi, no idea whether it has any effect, though.

As to Parthia, I've been giving them money via the console at various intervals, seems to have tipped the balance in their favour against the Seleukids. The Silver Death have had a bit of a fight-back recently, I think they re-took Susa, but they really are being squeezed hard by the Ptolemies and Parthia in two directions. I've recently grabbed the Bosphorous, also planning to take Sinope - when I do that I think I'll kick the Ptolemies out of Asia Minor and restore the Seleukids to Tarsos.

I thought Saba as desert people was a good way of both reducing the power of the Ptolemies, and adding some actual resistance to them without it being me. I've got Augila as a private fief, but I don't really want to be snapping up their desert provinces as well.