why are most factions poor?

[Principe]

Public Enemy Number 1. So true. I once had the British in RTW march all the way through Gaul to Italy use to attack Patavium.

[sleep_well]

Starting treasury is more a balancing issue I think, I mean can we know for sure how much money or wealth each faction had at that time?

[The Stranger]

you just need a few thing to remember when u play EB,

you basically have 2 options as every faction at the start of the game

1) you disband all your navies, most of your armies and if neccesary even destroy some buildings. then you turtle while building the neccesary barracks, and buildings that provide extra income (trade or farming) and also extra health (sewers are good to start with). Also appease big bad bullies if theyre near by gifting them map info or money. then in a few years once you have survived you will go to conquer.

or

2) you combine your troops into 1 or 2 punching forces that will take as many cities as fast as you can. dont care if you go into debt. you always use the sell into slavery option (extermination in vanilla) once you sack a city to get as much money as you can. and then leave as little garrison as possible behind while moving on to take the next city. You do this untill you have a positive income and are unable to safely take another city. most nations have an optimal blitzing path that allows you to take many cities within a few turns with minimal losses. provided ofcourse you use your spies and generals right.

For example, rome can take 4 cities within 2 years. Konion Hellenon can take crete, corinthos, thessalia and the small island next to athens within 2 years. pontus can take 2 cities in 2-3 turns etc etc.


remember that archers, slingers and javelin troops are your friends in these early engagements when taking cities. phalanx units are nice too. but if you want to absolutely murder the ai, make use of horse archers whenever you can.


its too bad that the tw BAI sux because otherwise EB wouldve been the perfect game. its still better than RTW2 tho...

[athanaric]

2) you combine your troops into 1 or 2 punching forces that will take as many cities as fast as you can. dont care if you go into debt. you always use the sell into slavery option (extermination in vanilla) once you sack a city to get as much money as you can. and then leave as little garrison as possible behind while moving on to take the next city. You do this untill you have a positive income and are unable to safely take another city. most nations have an optimal blitzing path that allows you to take many cities within a few turns with minimal losses. provided ofcourse you use your spies and generals right.

I would actually recommend not sacking any cities at the start, unless you're planning to abandon them afterwards. For most factions, it's better to just occupy the settlement, raze the pre-built government building (and barracks if they don't work for your faction), and try to develop the economy ASAP. Mabe build a tier 1 MIC for the most basic units. This is (somewhat ironically) particularly valid for Barbarian factions. Also, Pontos generals get a really bad trait for sacking places with the "homeland" resource.

remember that archers, slingers and javelin troops are your friends in these early engagements when taking cities. phalanx units are nice too. but if you want to absolutely murder the ai, make use of horse archers whenever you can.

Definitely true; when storming enemy settlements, try to cause as many missile casualties as you possibly can, right at the start, by drawing out the enemy and shooting them to bits. 20% missile kills should be doable with some patience and good micro. When attacking settlements with tier 1 palisades, you can place javelin-equipped units directly in front of the walls. They will be able to cause horrendous casualties. This is important because assaults are a messy business and street fights are bugged, and you need as many men as possible to survive said battles.

[The Stranger]

ye pontus has to be careful what you sack.

i prefer to sack for 2 reasons, first you need the instant cash to buy mercs to replace fallen soldiers and to get into a positive cashflow to build some new buildings. and 2nd sacking cities makes them easier to rule early, you usually just need to leave 1 unit behind to occupy them without too much trouble. if you dont, then you will have to leave much more behind and this will slow down your initial blitz.

razing barracks and gov buildings is standard fare ofcourse. should always do it, whatever you do.

[Ca Putt]

the first few settlements you conquer generally tend to be homeland provinces tho and not only pontids get them nasty traits from sacking them. It surely varies from faction to faction and on how many Mercs you plan to hire but as a general rule of thumb I'd advise against choosing option 3 for homeland provinces, they normally are not that hard to keep order in (earlygame) and sewers or the like normally lift the approval high enough to raise taxes, well or you just keep taxes low to get some population grouth.

razing barracks and gov buildings is standard fare ofcourse. should always do it, whatever you do.

!this should be a pop up ingametip! It really is very usefull for getting a few coins in hand and slightly reducing the unrest

[The Stranger]

ive never really had any trouble with it. and its also not always true, for example as greeks i never got bad traits for sacking crete, which is a homeland province nonetheless.

ur both right that it does curb your early population growth, but this can easily be remedied by picking option 2 after a few conquests.