How viable are small factions in the AI's hands?

[QuintusSertorius]

I note with the increase in number of factions that there are several which start off small - meaning with just one settlement. In the hands of a human player, this can be a challenge, but is by no means fatal. However, the AI in RTW at least, was wildly variable in how long these could survive, especially since the only way you could ensure survival was by expansion.

We have some very packed regions (Anatolia particularly) in EBII where one or two missteps early on could result in a faction being wiped out. I don't like losing factions at all if I can help it, the game gets much less rich when it moves towards consolidation in a small number of super-factions. Even worse if some of those die before the game even gets started.

What's been the experience with playtesting so far? How do the smaller ones, especially those in competitive regions, fare?

[moonburn]

if the caps on the super factions has been implemented properly (like high unreast due to high taxes due to having to suport an army on the field instead of keeping them inside the city gates with 0 upkeep ) then such questions should be solved

also psf will represent sub divided regions inside a bigger region so i assume that even if a faction as only 1 region they still have 3 places to fall back to if things heat up or that anyone trying to destroy the pontus might have to take a psf on a river pass or a mountain pass before arriving at their capital wich means that faction as time to prepare

if more then 1 recruitment slot is allowed then that will make factions tougher

another point would be barrack buildings allowing for recruitment or instant spawn during sieges so a city can conscript parts of it´s populations to a kind of armed militia like athens with alot of classical and haplois combined with the skirmishers and slingers and archers who would be automatically disbanded if the siege was lifted

actually this should work great for it it would forçe players to either storm the city imediatly (with spies ) or wait out a long siege since for every turn under siege a new unit of peasent archers or slingers would keep getting conscripted into the defence of the city until the 20 slots where filled or the city went down to 400 population

not to mention a yearly sally from the defenders even if they lost a place like rome could just keeping putting out 1 unit of leves 1 of rorarii and 1 of hastati every turn during a siege it had the manpower to do so

and ofc once the siege was over if the defenders won the conscripted units would be imediatly disbanded if not casualties of war and the priçe of a fallen city (already presented in military pacification anyway)