Org Mobile Site
Pritanoi M/M. New CAI/Piter AI 1.0. Doubled all movement points (except ships which I increased 125%).
turn 22
turn 41
turn 63
turn 22
turn 41
turn 63
I am not sure why these are so big. The originals are not this big. meh
turn 86
turn 100
turn 120
turn 140
turn 86
turn 100
turn 120
turn 140
Hi, this is my Sweboz campaign first pic is turn 92, which is around the time I realised how the nomadic vs settlement thing works:
Turn 122: Wanted to raid Boii capital for some money as by now I didnt need to know what to do first as there was so much going on right now. Had to find out they had only one province left inside northern roman territory. Started a war with romans and then migrated west of alps after that they became a roman client state.
Turn 144: Aedui have become client of Aruerni, both allied to Casse which are landing close to my shores now after I raided two of their settlements (what a story - with pirates sinking my fleet so I couldnt retreat from Britain, had to sack a second one before I could escape :). So now I have those three agains me but my eastern ally allways comes just in time to help me out. The grey dot south of me is still rebell after they got my faction heir to defect with full stack and an additional full stack inside town - noone is conquering this one the next decades..
So far no Faction eliminated only two beeing submissed into client states. Very nice campaign, lots of things happening:
CAI is from Piete, sorry for small pics, first timer here.. Thx again EB team, lots of work ahead but as you can see I'm enjoying it alot.
Turn 122: Wanted to raid Boii capital for some money as by now I didnt need to know what to do first as there was so much going on right now. Had to find out they had only one province left inside northern roman territory. Started a war with romans and then migrated west of alps after that they became a roman client state.
Turn 144: Aedui have become client of Aruerni, both allied to Casse which are landing close to my shores now after I raided two of their settlements (what a story - with pirates sinking my fleet so I couldnt retreat from Britain, had to sack a second one before I could escape :). So now I have those three agains me but my eastern ally allways comes just in time to help me out. The grey dot south of me is still rebell after they got my faction heir to defect with full stack and an additional full stack inside town - noone is conquering this one the next decades..
So far no Faction eliminated only two beeing submissed into client states. Very nice campaign, lots of things happening:
CAI is from Piete, sorry for small pics, first timer here.. Thx again EB team, lots of work ahead but as you can see I'm enjoying it alot.
Here's a technique the EB2 playtesters used to show faction "progress on the map" over time - a .gif file showing sequential views of the campaign mini-map in the lower left-hand corner. Here's an example from a 100 turn Lusotannan game last December:
A few things you'll need to know/consider:
1) Decide what a good sequence consists of. My snapshots are taken at 10-turn increments, but you could use some other number - it's best if the interval is consistent, however.
2) You will want to see EVERYTHING happening on the map, so first bring up the console (press the ~ key) and type in toggle_fow. This makes all factions visible on the minimap (and everywhere else).
3) The easiest way to grab the screenshot is (while playing in "windowed mode") to use the Windows "Snipping Tool" (Start/All Programs/Accessories/Snipping Tool). Just drag the cursor around the minimap and "save as" to a folder (file type should default to .jpg) And make sure to use a recognizable name (like "KH_turn_10") so you can easily identify the sequence later:
4) After you've played long enough to accumulate quite a few screenshots, it's time to create the .gif file.
5) GIFMaker is by far the easiest way to do that. It's a website, so there's no need to install any software or run a specialized program. After clicking the GIFMaker link, it brings you to this screen:
6) As per the attachment below, click the "Upload Images" button first (circled in red). That will bring up an explorer-like interface. Navigate to the folder containing your screen shots. Click the first one and then - while pressing the Ctrl key - click all the other screenshots you'll need for the .gif. When you are finished selecting files, click the "Open" button (also circled in red):
7) You'll see a visual of the text file names uploading to the website, after which they will all appear as thumbnails (below). In the "Control Panel" at the upper right you can already see the gif action taking place. If any of your screen shots are out of sequence, just drag the thumbnails into the proper sequence. The "Canvas size" settings are fine, but please change the "Animation speed" to "2000" (circled in red), so people have time to recognize what's going on as the factions grow and shrink. Once that is done, click the "Create Now" button (also circled in red). Three new options now appear below the "Create Now" button. Select "Download the GIF image now" (circled in red), click "Save" in the resulting message box, and then (when the explorer-like interface appears) navigate to the folder containing your screen shots and give it an appropriate file name.
8) Your new .gif file can be uploaded to IMGUR (like the one in this post) or posted at some other location of your choice.
Congratulations - you are now a .gif making expert!
A few things you'll need to know/consider:
1) Decide what a good sequence consists of. My snapshots are taken at 10-turn increments, but you could use some other number - it's best if the interval is consistent, however.
2) You will want to see EVERYTHING happening on the map, so first bring up the console (press the ~ key) and type in toggle_fow. This makes all factions visible on the minimap (and everywhere else).
3) The easiest way to grab the screenshot is (while playing in "windowed mode") to use the Windows "Snipping Tool" (Start/All Programs/Accessories/Snipping Tool). Just drag the cursor around the minimap and "save as" to a folder (file type should default to .jpg) And make sure to use a recognizable name (like "KH_turn_10") so you can easily identify the sequence later:
4) After you've played long enough to accumulate quite a few screenshots, it's time to create the .gif file.
5) GIFMaker is by far the easiest way to do that. It's a website, so there's no need to install any software or run a specialized program. After clicking the GIFMaker link, it brings you to this screen:
6) As per the attachment below, click the "Upload Images" button first (circled in red). That will bring up an explorer-like interface. Navigate to the folder containing your screen shots. Click the first one and then - while pressing the Ctrl key - click all the other screenshots you'll need for the .gif. When you are finished selecting files, click the "Open" button (also circled in red):
7) You'll see a visual of the text file names uploading to the website, after which they will all appear as thumbnails (below). In the "Control Panel" at the upper right you can already see the gif action taking place. If any of your screen shots are out of sequence, just drag the thumbnails into the proper sequence. The "Canvas size" settings are fine, but please change the "Animation speed" to "2000" (circled in red), so people have time to recognize what's going on as the factions grow and shrink. Once that is done, click the "Create Now" button (also circled in red). Three new options now appear below the "Create Now" button. Select "Download the GIF image now" (circled in red), click "Save" in the resulting message box, and then (when the explorer-like interface appears) navigate to the folder containing your screen shots and give it an appropriate file name.
8) Your new .gif file can be uploaded to IMGUR (like the one in this post) or posted at some other location of your choice.
Congratulations - you are now a .gif making expert!
Thanks for that Kull, that's pretty cool.
Here's 237 Pic of my Campaign as Pergamum:
Here's 237 Pic of my Campaign as Pergamum:
My won the race after the rebellion 
, what is the reward? 
, what is the reward? Sweboz, VH/H:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
So this is turn 190 of my Pritanoi campaign, v 2 CAI, no submods. After reaching the Casse kingdom reforms I'll halt the game now to test the new Campaign and battle Ai with another faction.
Only faction destroyed so far is Epeiros. Rather strangely Arverni struck the fatal blow by taking Epidamnos out of nowhere...
Rome is in fierce conflict with the Arverni over northern italy, Arevaci joined in a few turns ago. Also there is a constant struggle with Carthage in Sicily with approx. 2 stack each facing each other across the strait of Messena.
Seleucids threw Ptolemaioi out of Asia minor after many years of battle. (Pergamon probably helped, at least some stacks of them were around)
Lugii dominated most of Eastern Europe before beeing attacked and steamrolled by the Boii.
Sweboz campaigned against the Aeduii in northern Gaul. I joined in to hel only to be kicked out by their suerior troops a few turns later. Aedui instead of being grateful declared war on me too! I twice tried to take Condate (modern Brittany) from them, held it twice, was repelled twice by their superior infantry. A aimlassly wandering Lusotanian army out of nothing decleared war on the Sweboz and took the settlement in Northern Gaul.
Btw: Hayasdan owning Ekbatana and KH Olbia are my "fault" I had one useless Fm sent away across the sea ant the steppe to found a mercenary company and kill and plunder where an opportunity arose. He came as far as Ecbatana where he was finally trapped and died heroically.
Only faction destroyed so far is Epeiros. Rather strangely Arverni struck the fatal blow by taking Epidamnos out of nowhere...
Rome is in fierce conflict with the Arverni over northern italy, Arevaci joined in a few turns ago. Also there is a constant struggle with Carthage in Sicily with approx. 2 stack each facing each other across the strait of Messena.
Seleucids threw Ptolemaioi out of Asia minor after many years of battle. (Pergamon probably helped, at least some stacks of them were around)
Lugii dominated most of Eastern Europe before beeing attacked and steamrolled by the Boii.
Sweboz campaigned against the Aeduii in northern Gaul. I joined in to hel only to be kicked out by their suerior troops a few turns later. Aedui instead of being grateful declared war on me too! I twice tried to take Condate (modern Brittany) from them, held it twice, was repelled twice by their superior infantry. A aimlassly wandering Lusotanian army out of nothing decleared war on the Sweboz and took the settlement in Northern Gaul.
Btw: Hayasdan owning Ekbatana and KH Olbia are my "fault" I had one useless Fm sent away across the sea ant the steppe to found a mercenary company and kill and plunder where an opportunity arose. He came as far as Ecbatana where he was finally trapped and died heroically.
It is interesting to see that that the Taksashilans are holding a province in Arabia. How did that happen? Did they march there, or did they do a naval landing?
I'm assuming that Horde in Ferghana is the Saka?
I'm assuming that Horde in Ferghana is the Saka?
I think it was a naval invasion. They took that one long before attacking Baktria.
Yes the Horde are the Saka. They were hard pressed by the Phalava and Baktria struck the fatal blow only to be attacked in the rear by the Taksashilians an loosing their core provinces in only a few turns...
What i noticed in most campaigns is that hordes tend to wander around quite aimlessly and slowly declining in size (I guess from battles with AI). But I never saw them successfully resettle. (I remember from vanilla M2TW that the Mongols and Timurids were not that impressive either, not sure if anything can be changed in "horde behaviour")
Yes the Horde are the Saka. They were hard pressed by the Phalava and Baktria struck the fatal blow only to be attacked in the rear by the Taksashilians an loosing their core provinces in only a few turns...
What i noticed in most campaigns is that hordes tend to wander around quite aimlessly and slowly declining in size (I guess from battles with AI). But I never saw them successfully resettle. (I remember from vanilla M2TW that the Mongols and Timurids were not that impressive either, not sure if anything can be changed in "horde behaviour")
Turn 66 of my bosporati campaign
Me - Just finished snatching up rebel coastal cities, basically making the Black Sea my private little pond. The makedonians, sarmatians and pontics have some ports...for now. Meanwhile, two other points of interest:
In Spain - The celts are winning the fight for the iberian peninsula, having ousted the carthiginians (and invaded the Baelearic Isles), and the lusotanians have actually fled to Britain.
In the Alps - Rome is going toe-to-toe against the boii and aeduii. Awesome.
Me - Just finished snatching up rebel coastal cities, basically making the Black Sea my private little pond. The makedonians, sarmatians and pontics have some ports...for now. Meanwhile, two other points of interest:
In Spain - The celts are winning the fight for the iberian peninsula, having ousted the carthiginians (and invaded the Baelearic Isles), and the lusotanians have actually fled to Britain.
In the Alps - Rome is going toe-to-toe against the boii and aeduii. Awesome.
Attached:
ef065969fe7f71dfe3db3a995fdd5c86debba950.jpg
(23.4 KB)
Originally Posted by Antigonos Karchedonios:
What i noticed in most campaigns is that hordes tend to wander around quite aimlessly and slowly declining in size (I guess from battles with AI). But I never saw them successfully resettle. (I remember from vanilla M2TW that the Mongols and Timurids were not that impressive either, not sure if anything can be changed in "horde behaviour")
Massylia and Nabatu (and the germanics) will ruin your day. With Saka however it's probably related to their distance from the horde_target cities. Theyll probably get there eventually though. To be clear, hordes DO work in EB2.What i noticed in most campaigns is that hordes tend to wander around quite aimlessly and slowly declining in size (I guess from battles with AI). But I never saw them successfully resettle. (I remember from vanilla M2TW that the Mongols and Timurids were not that impressive either, not sure if anything can be changed in "horde behaviour")
My observations are mostly based on Phalava and Saka hording. So I get your point! I'll try expelling one of the germanic tribes next time and see what hapens! ;-)
Nice to see that you also focusd on this comparetively "minor" part of gameplay.
Nice to see that you also focusd on this comparetively "minor" part of gameplay.
Here is a Pontus game with Campaign AI upgrade but not EB2.01. I wiped out Hayasdan so this isn't a great image for AI expansion but I was just really shocked when I saw the Arverni in Rome and the Iberians teaming up to wipe Carthage from Iberia. Arverni and Aediuo are at peace. I usually see the Lusotannians at war with Aeurokoi but I think they are at peace, and Epirus and Makedonia are at peace too.
The romans in Noricum already remind me of the Old EB .7 or so before the Boii death stacks were added so I wish the Boii were a bit more aggressive than their two provinces this time.
The romans in Noricum already remind me of the Old EB .7 or so before the Boii death stacks were added so I wish the Boii were a bit more aggressive than their two provinces this time.
Attached:
pontus.PNG
(556.8 KB)
Turn 100 of my bosporati campaign:
All factions still alive, except for Pontos who left their capital guarded only by their heir and one single unit of eastern spearmen. Some spies open the gates for my "god incarnate" Basileus of the Bosporati, and thus the pontic kingdom fell - teaching them the valuable lesson of not meddling into other people's affairs.
At the end of this turn, I took Tylis. Now, only Maeotis stands in my way making the Black Sea my private pond. Taking Maeotis will be the last thing I do before upgrading to EB2.01, thus abandoning this campaign. It has been a fun campaign, although I must say I have barely been active on the steppes, focusing mainly on Asia Minor. For future bosporati campaigns, I will direct my focus towards the north.
Another point of interest, the Iberian peninsula is now completely celt-iberic. I really enjoy having the brown death of EB1 humilitated.
All factions still alive, except for Pontos who left their capital guarded only by their heir and one single unit of eastern spearmen. Some spies open the gates for my "god incarnate" Basileus of the Bosporati, and thus the pontic kingdom fell - teaching them the valuable lesson of not meddling into other people's affairs.
At the end of this turn, I took Tylis. Now, only Maeotis stands in my way making the Black Sea my private pond. Taking Maeotis will be the last thing I do before upgrading to EB2.01, thus abandoning this campaign. It has been a fun campaign, although I must say I have barely been active on the steppes, focusing mainly on Asia Minor. For future bosporati campaigns, I will direct my focus towards the north.
Another point of interest, the Iberian peninsula is now completely celt-iberic. I really enjoy having the brown death of EB1 humilitated.
Turn 100 in my Bosporan campaign, EB 2.01 CAI V3a, New Battle AI. Hard/Medium difficulty:
Just started a war with Hayasdan about their Black Sea provinces, no battles so far. Only war was a 3 turn war against Getai. They were first at olbia, I wanted it, conquered it, ther immediately offered peace and went expanding to the West.
Aedui are very active in Gaul, expanding as far as Noreia. Currently in a war with Rome about northern Italy. Arverni are loosing ground against Arevaci which previously kicked Carthage out of Spain. Arevaci are also at war with Romani, Lusotanna and Rome, but hold their ground very well, even expand into Gaul.
Carthage took all of Africa expect Numidian starting province. Numidia so far completely inacitve. Carthage lost the "First Punic war". Glad to see Romani finally went South!
Taksashila lost their capital after about 20 turns, which paralized them for the following 70 turns. now they're expanding again!
Boii were completely inactive until kicked out of their homeland by Sweboz, currently on the move...
AKH git destroyes when Macedonia conquered Athens and killed all their FM. Until then they held their ground. Epeiros and Macedonia continue to struggle over greece.
Pergamon is a miracle to me. They did nothing for about 90+ turns. Then Hayasdan came out of the East, steamrolled the whole Black sea coast including Nicomedia. Having lost this exansion opportunity they (Pergamon) took Byzantion a few turns later and then turned Berserk on the ptolemaioi holdings in Asia minor. Glad to see they finally did something.
Pontos, Pritanoi, and Numidia are still contesting for the most inactive faction. (Boii as well actually, they can be luck that they have
hording function)
Only thing that bothers me is that AI prefers to ignore me and fights amongst their own. That's ok for me, but a little bit more aggression would be fine...
@GRANTO: If it helps you I can continue to take all 10 turns a picture and make a .gif file as Kull instructed. I finally figured out how to do it. ;-)
Just started a war with Hayasdan about their Black Sea provinces, no battles so far. Only war was a 3 turn war against Getai. They were first at olbia, I wanted it, conquered it, ther immediately offered peace and went expanding to the West.
Aedui are very active in Gaul, expanding as far as Noreia. Currently in a war with Rome about northern Italy. Arverni are loosing ground against Arevaci which previously kicked Carthage out of Spain. Arevaci are also at war with Romani, Lusotanna and Rome, but hold their ground very well, even expand into Gaul.
Carthage took all of Africa expect Numidian starting province. Numidia so far completely inacitve. Carthage lost the "First Punic war". Glad to see Romani finally went South!
Taksashila lost their capital after about 20 turns, which paralized them for the following 70 turns. now they're expanding again!
Boii were completely inactive until kicked out of their homeland by Sweboz, currently on the move...
AKH git destroyes when Macedonia conquered Athens and killed all their FM. Until then they held their ground. Epeiros and Macedonia continue to struggle over greece.
Pergamon is a miracle to me. They did nothing for about 90+ turns. Then Hayasdan came out of the East, steamrolled the whole Black sea coast including Nicomedia. Having lost this exansion opportunity they (Pergamon) took Byzantion a few turns later and then turned Berserk on the ptolemaioi holdings in Asia minor. Glad to see they finally did something.
Pontos, Pritanoi, and Numidia are still contesting for the most inactive faction. (Boii as well actually, they can be luck that they have
hording function)
Only thing that bothers me is that AI prefers to ignore me and fights amongst their own. That's ok for me, but a little bit more aggression would be fine...
@GRANTO: If it helps you I can continue to take all 10 turns a picture and make a .gif file as Kull instructed. I finally figured out how to do it. ;-)
Originally Posted by Antigonos Karchedonios:
Turn 100 in my Bosporan campaign, CAI V3a, New Battle AI. Hard/Medium difficulty:
Just started a war with Hayasdan about their Black Sea provinces, no battles so far. Only war was a 3 turn war against Getai. They were first at olbia, I wanted it, conquered it, ther immediately offered peace and went expanding to the West.
Aedui are very active in Gaul, expanding as far as Noreia. Currently in a war with Rome about northern Italy. Arverni are loosing ground against Arevaci which previously kicked Carthage out of Spain. Arevaci are also at war with Romani, Lusotanna and Rome, but hold their ground very well, even expand into Gaul.
Carthage took all of Africa expect Numidian starting province. Numidia so far completely inacitve. Carthage lost the "First Punic war". Glad to see Romani finally went South!
Taksashila lost their capital after about 20 turns, which paralized them for the following 70 turns. now they're expanding again!
Boii were completely inactive until kicked out of their homeland by Sweboz, currently on the move...
AKH git destroyes when Macedonia conquered Athens and killed all their FM. Until then they held their ground. Epeiros and Macedonia continue to struggle over greece.
Pergamon is a miracle to me. They did nothing for about 90+ turns. Then Hayasdan came out of the East, steamrolled the whole Black sea coast including Nicomedia. Having lost this exansion opportunity they (Pergamon) took Byzantion a few turns later and then turned Berserk on the ptolemaioi holdings in Asia minor. Glad to see they finally did something.
Pontos, Pritanoi, and Numidia are still contesting for the most inactive faction. (Boii as well actually, they can be luck that they have
hording function)
Only thing that bothers me is that AI prefers to ignore me and fights amongst their own. That's ok for me, but a little bit more aggression would be fine...
@GRANTO: If it helps you I can continue to take all 10 turns a picture and make a .gif file as Kull instructed. I finally figured out how to do it. ;-)
yes please do a gif, i still have some code to add for the AI , what i would now like you to do is be aggressive and go to war with the AI and report how it reacts in strength to your advancement cheers.Turn 100 in my Bosporan campaign, CAI V3a, New Battle AI. Hard/Medium difficulty:
Just started a war with Hayasdan about their Black Sea provinces, no battles so far. Only war was a 3 turn war against Getai. They were first at olbia, I wanted it, conquered it, ther immediately offered peace and went expanding to the West.
Aedui are very active in Gaul, expanding as far as Noreia. Currently in a war with Rome about northern Italy. Arverni are loosing ground against Arevaci which previously kicked Carthage out of Spain. Arevaci are also at war with Romani, Lusotanna and Rome, but hold their ground very well, even expand into Gaul.
Carthage took all of Africa expect Numidian starting province. Numidia so far completely inacitve. Carthage lost the "First Punic war". Glad to see Romani finally went South!
Taksashila lost their capital after about 20 turns, which paralized them for the following 70 turns. now they're expanding again!
Boii were completely inactive until kicked out of their homeland by Sweboz, currently on the move...
AKH git destroyes when Macedonia conquered Athens and killed all their FM. Until then they held their ground. Epeiros and Macedonia continue to struggle over greece.
Pergamon is a miracle to me. They did nothing for about 90+ turns. Then Hayasdan came out of the East, steamrolled the whole Black sea coast including Nicomedia. Having lost this exansion opportunity they (Pergamon) took Byzantion a few turns later and then turned Berserk on the ptolemaioi holdings in Asia minor. Glad to see they finally did something.
Pontos, Pritanoi, and Numidia are still contesting for the most inactive faction. (Boii as well actually, they can be luck that they have
hording function)
Only thing that bothers me is that AI prefers to ignore me and fights amongst their own. That's ok for me, but a little bit more aggression would be fine...
@GRANTO: If it helps you I can continue to take all 10 turns a picture and make a .gif file as Kull instructed. I finally figured out how to do it. ;-)
ok, any particular wishes who to attack? (besides Hayasdan)
Originally Posted by Antigonos Karchedonios:
ok, any particular wishes who to attack? (besides Hayasdan)
getai, macedon or lug...how much do they react and what king of strength do they come at you with?..ignore any peace deals they may offer.ok, any particular wishes who to attack? (besides Hayasdan)
I didn't have muach time but before leaving to holidays for a week i thought I give a short update.
I declared war on the Lugiones and first nothing happend (my army was still in the South so I couldn't be aggressive first) but after several years all of a sudden 3 armies (1 not too small, 2 small) attacked 3 lightly garrisoned settlements of mine. I clould defeat them, but the attack was quite sudden and well coordinated. Once my army came up from the South I went attacking them (but the steppes are huge so you can't really see much progress of mine in the gif) And battled a full stack army of theirs in the steppe.
No further attacks on my border regions were made, but it probably didn' help them that their main troops were in the East against the Sauromata and Getai joined in on the war shortly after me.
About the AI factions: Boii spread terror in Northern Italy, but are now almost done (were defeated by Romani and Aedui several times).
Sweboz attack Aedui, seem to be winning.
Arevaci steamrolled Arverni, they escaped to the Boritish Islands where they hold their last setttlement.
Punic war still going on, Romani made one short expedition to northern Africa, captured Adrumento, but were replled. Fierce fighting in Sardinia!
Pritanoi and Numidia do absolutely nothing...
SSbQ campaign, M/M
EB 2.01
Grantos CAI 3a
Grantos BAI
Bogias Mod (which includes Konnys command star mod from EB 1, trait fixes, etc)
changed Campaign script (lower Kings purse increae/decrease for AI, just to test if this reduces AI stack spam)
An interesting campaign so far, much too quick for my liking but that's rather my than the AIs fault. I just was too annoyed by the huge income drop that came with the outbreak of the four major wars I experienced (see below) to sit back and turtle on.
The overall progression of the AI is rather slow in most cases, with some noteable exceptions (Sweboz, AS, Makedonia). There's a lot of stacks around, though.
My idea of decreasing the amount of money the AI gets (EB 2.01: +1000 mnai Kings purse increase when they lose money, +400 mnai/turn if not, -1000 mnai kings purse if the don't lose money and have more than 20k treasury; I changed that to 100/40/-100 respectively) was not completely pointless as there are less stacks on the map, but the worst stackspammers - AS, Nabataea, Pergamon, Makedonia, Lusotannan, Areuakoi to name a few - are still spamming, just a bit less. Pergamon had not 5 stacks at turn 100 but 4, for example.
There are quite a lot of naval invasions too (Pritanoi hold a belgic province, Sweboz hold northern Britain in return, Makedonia conquered Kyrene and repeatedly tries to re-conquer Arpi, AS grabbed Salamis from the Ptolemies, KH conquered Krete and Karia etc etc), infact I think it could be worth to raise the cost for ships (at least the recruitment costs), several factions have 10+ fleets within 20 turns after campaign start.
Furthermore I suppose the rebels get a bit too much help at the moment. Not against the player but against the AI factions, especially the small ones. Pontos tries to grab Sinope and Ankyra desperatey but fails, same goes for Pergamon (Nikaia), Getai (Sarmiszegethusa), Massylia (Kirtan, unless they are victorious with their first attempt) etc. And everytime it's for the same reason: the rebels expand/retrain their garrisons faster than the smaller factions can assemble armies, until they stop to send the armies out at all (which results in 4 stacks of Pergamon troops circling around Pergamon). And in the end there's always a larger factions around (in most cases AS or Makedonia) that can bring a huge army and grabs the settlement.
I will go more into detail about this campaign later, at the moment I lack time (didn't expect that creating that screenshot file would take -that- long, hehe).
EB 2.01
Grantos CAI 3a
Grantos BAI
Bogias Mod (which includes Konnys command star mod from EB 1, trait fixes, etc)
changed Campaign script (lower Kings purse increae/decrease for AI, just to test if this reduces AI stack spam)
An interesting campaign so far, much too quick for my liking but that's rather my than the AIs fault. I just was too annoyed by the huge income drop that came with the outbreak of the four major wars I experienced (see below) to sit back and turtle on.
The overall progression of the AI is rather slow in most cases, with some noteable exceptions (Sweboz, AS, Makedonia). There's a lot of stacks around, though.
My idea of decreasing the amount of money the AI gets (EB 2.01: +1000 mnai Kings purse increase when they lose money, +400 mnai/turn if not, -1000 mnai kings purse if the don't lose money and have more than 20k treasury; I changed that to 100/40/-100 respectively) was not completely pointless as there are less stacks on the map, but the worst stackspammers - AS, Nabataea, Pergamon, Makedonia, Lusotannan, Areuakoi to name a few - are still spamming, just a bit less. Pergamon had not 5 stacks at turn 100 but 4, for example.
There are quite a lot of naval invasions too (Pritanoi hold a belgic province, Sweboz hold northern Britain in return, Makedonia conquered Kyrene and repeatedly tries to re-conquer Arpi, AS grabbed Salamis from the Ptolemies, KH conquered Krete and Karia etc etc), infact I think it could be worth to raise the cost for ships (at least the recruitment costs), several factions have 10+ fleets within 20 turns after campaign start.
Furthermore I suppose the rebels get a bit too much help at the moment. Not against the player but against the AI factions, especially the small ones. Pontos tries to grab Sinope and Ankyra desperatey but fails, same goes for Pergamon (Nikaia), Getai (Sarmiszegethusa), Massylia (Kirtan, unless they are victorious with their first attempt) etc. And everytime it's for the same reason: the rebels expand/retrain their garrisons faster than the smaller factions can assemble armies, until they stop to send the armies out at all (which results in 4 stacks of Pergamon troops circling around Pergamon). And in the end there's always a larger factions around (in most cases AS or Makedonia) that can bring a huge army and grabs the settlement.
I will go more into detail about this campaign later, at the moment I lack time (didn't expect that creating that screenshot file would take -that- long, hehe).
Attached:
SSbQ_Prog.JPG
(197.5 KB)
As promised above, some comments about the performance of the various factions in my Qart'Hadasht campaign:
Romani
Took Felsina, Segesta and Patavium early on, didn't go for Taras though. Attacked Alalia then and blockaded virtually all my ports in the Thyrrenian Sea and my core cities (Kart Hadast, Atiqa, Adrumeto, Lepki). Very impressive as it was the first time I've seen efficient blockading done by an AI faction in both Rome and Medieval II. Attempting to secure a peace by paying tribute was rejected, so I started taking their provinces, even when they only held Patavium they rejected peace so I destroyed them.
Epeiros
Took Thermon and Rhegion early on, later Dalminion and Segestika, lost their possessions in Greece/Illyria to Makedonia then, snatched Arpi during my campaign against the Romani, have repelled a lot of Makedonian invasions of Arpi since then. Allies of me for 100+ turns.
Areuakoi
Took Arsé, Iltirta, Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
The EB 2 Casse, so to speak, in many campaigns they just don't expand. It seems to be dependent on taking Tole or not. If the Areuakoi are taking that town, the Lusos are just sitting back and mourn their fate. 4 Stacks linger around Oxtraca. Only expanded after I gifted them Iliberri. Allies since ~turn 10.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, as soon as they held Massalia they tried to conquer Alalia and Ebusus. Rejected every peace offer until I gifted them Lugdunon. Repelling Aedui attacks since then.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi and Pritanoi, peace with Sweboz, lost Nemetokema (spelling?) to a surprise Pritanoi attack.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a belgic province in the end, though, watched Sweboz take Dunopalator (that stack landed there about 10 years before it attacked the city, all the time a larger Pritanoi stack stood directly at the gates of the city, doing nothing).
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Made Lugiones a horde. Peace with Sauromatae, allies to Qart'Hadasht. Struggling with the last Boii province.
Boii
Expanded a bit, very slow, though, lost their possessions to the Sweboz then. Nothing more to say.
Lugiones
Started nicely (among the first to expand), lost the war against Sweboz, as a horde they travelled all the way from Klepidava to Uiennos (!) to resettle there. Were destroyed after attacking Massalia (me).
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions
Makedonia
Beast. First they took out KH in Greece, then simultanously attacked the greek isles, Kyrene, Illyria and Getia. After destroying KH and uniting Greece and Illyria they took the ptolemaic possessions in Mikra Asia and started invading Arpi - which is the first target they haven't kept (although they held the city for a few turns).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
Bosporan Greeks
Nothing much to say. Held Olbia for some time, lost it to Getai, then Makedonia. Still hold Kotais. Constantly attacked by Sauromatae.
Sauromatae
The usual expansion, one notable exception though - they held Trapezous for 3 turns, then the city rebelled and AS said "thanks".
Hayasdan
Yet another lazy faction didn't move at all until very recently, have virtually no armies since they took Mazaka (which rebelled from AS).
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 4 stacks around Pergamon and peacefully waited for the AS to come and destroy them. Which the AS did eventually.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again, eventually destroyed by AS.
Ptolemaioi
Nothing worth to mention, they only took Axum, but lost Salamis early on, struggling to stay alive since then, invaded by Nabataea (which held Diospolis-Megale, Alexandreia and Memphis at some point).
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Took Dedan at least, at war with Saba for ages. Invaded Ptolemaioi lands eventually.
Sab'Yn
Slow expansion eastwards, several attempts to take Axum (which they finally conquered from Ptolemaioi then). Attacked Nabataeans (Diospolis-Megale was no naval invasion, they went by land to there). Peace with AS.
Arche Seleukeia
Monster. About 30+ fullstacks (garrison not taken into account!), wiped out several factions. Steadily expanding, now they start amassing troops at the Hellespont and at the eastern borders.
Baktria
War with Saka since turn one. Bitter fights for Chach and Oyrta. lost both (and Marakanda ) to rebellions which was used by the other factions to step in. Now partially regaining strength, but attacked by AS. I expect them to fall soon.
Taksashila
Lazy buggers.
Noone bothered them but they still haven't even taken all of India.
Pahlava
Took Antiocheia-Margiane and Syrinx quickly. Lost Syrinx to rebellion and then to AS, their armies stand no chance against smaller AS stacks so it is rather surprising they are still there.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now almost destroyed (Chach is sieged constantly).
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, they snatched Tuat before me though, forcing me to quickly race for the remainder of the north african coast. They took their three desert provinces and then built up 5 full stacks which were sitting in the desert between Tuat and Garama.
Attacked me with a half stack at Kirtan in turn 201, got destroyed then since they rejected all peace offers (regardless how generous).
Feedback about the 3a Campaign AI and the campaign in general:
(1) AI is reliable if you have an alliance, but once you are at war with a faction you sinply cannot convince them to accept a ceasefire regardless how bad you beat them.
(2) It's odd that you can't establish good relations with any faction. Not sure if this is a Qart'Hadasht thing but the relations to the Sweboz, Epeiros, Ptolemaioi and Lusotannan always went down to "poor" or "very poor" over time, despite paying 1000 mnai/turn as tribute and having established trade routes with them. I was forced to spend large sums of money on them regularly (every 10-20 or so turns) to prevent the relations falling to such low levels.
(3) What's rather nice, though, is the fact that the allies of my enemies (for example Makedonia and Pergamon during the war with Rome) start to view you as a serious problem (relations: terrible) and that the enemies of your allies (Makedonia and AS as I'm allied with Ptolemaioi an Epeiros) have the same mindset. Nice touch!
(4) There are not many AI - AI alliances around, the vanilla M2TW "blobs" I haven't seen yet. Usually the AI factions pick a few alliances (Rome had Pergamon and Makedonia only, for example). There is a rather annoying pattern of most factions coming to offer alliances to the player faction, but only in a package with trade rights (which you can't give without possible trade routes). And they usually don't accept an alliance without trade rights, not even when you offer 20k or more money in addition.
(5) Many of the small factions still struggle to expand their "empires" while maintaining super-size armies due to the way the current money script works. I'm still trying to get a script working that replaces that flat "increase their kings purse to eventually astronomical values" by some faction-size-dependent money script but haven't made real success yet.
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
(7) The corruption level (or better: the player economy in general) is quite challenging, but not impossible. I played campaigns as "poor" barbarian factions, too, and these are hard (Aruernoi is really hard!) but if you spend some thoughts on what to build and where, you will experience the benefits. I love that even my current Qart'Hadasht campaign doesn't allow me to just build fullstacks all over the place. I have 3 at the moment: one in northern Iberia, one in Italy and one in Africa, not even super-heavy ones, just the regionally available units and only one unit of elephants. Add in two fleets (1 Penteres, 2 Trieres each) and I'm down to about 12k per turn (which I need to build up a treasury for the gifts to the four allies and for the war times when the economy drops down seriously).
Romani
Took Felsina, Segesta and Patavium early on, didn't go for Taras though. Attacked Alalia then and blockaded virtually all my ports in the Thyrrenian Sea and my core cities (Kart Hadast, Atiqa, Adrumeto, Lepki). Very impressive as it was the first time I've seen efficient blockading done by an AI faction in both Rome and Medieval II. Attempting to secure a peace by paying tribute was rejected, so I started taking their provinces, even when they only held Patavium they rejected peace so I destroyed them.
Epeiros
Took Thermon and Rhegion early on, later Dalminion and Segestika, lost their possessions in Greece/Illyria to Makedonia then, snatched Arpi during my campaign against the Romani, have repelled a lot of Makedonian invasions of Arpi since then. Allies of me for 100+ turns.
Areuakoi
Took Arsé, Iltirta, Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
The EB 2 Casse, so to speak, in many campaigns they just don't expand. It seems to be dependent on taking Tole or not. If the Areuakoi are taking that town, the Lusos are just sitting back and mourn their fate. 4 Stacks linger around Oxtraca. Only expanded after I gifted them Iliberri. Allies since ~turn 10.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, as soon as they held Massalia they tried to conquer Alalia and Ebusus. Rejected every peace offer until I gifted them Lugdunon. Repelling Aedui attacks since then.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi and Pritanoi, peace with Sweboz, lost Nemetokema (spelling?) to a surprise Pritanoi attack.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a belgic province in the end, though, watched Sweboz take Dunopalator (that stack landed there about 10 years before it attacked the city, all the time a larger Pritanoi stack stood directly at the gates of the city, doing nothing).
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Made Lugiones a horde. Peace with Sauromatae, allies to Qart'Hadasht. Struggling with the last Boii province.
Boii
Expanded a bit, very slow, though, lost their possessions to the Sweboz then. Nothing more to say.
Lugiones
Started nicely (among the first to expand), lost the war against Sweboz, as a horde they travelled all the way from Klepidava to Uiennos (!) to resettle there. Were destroyed after attacking Massalia (me).
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions
Makedonia
Beast. First they took out KH in Greece, then simultanously attacked the greek isles, Kyrene, Illyria and Getia. After destroying KH and uniting Greece and Illyria they took the ptolemaic possessions in Mikra Asia and started invading Arpi - which is the first target they haven't kept (although they held the city for a few turns).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
Bosporan Greeks
Nothing much to say. Held Olbia for some time, lost it to Getai, then Makedonia. Still hold Kotais. Constantly attacked by Sauromatae.
Sauromatae
The usual expansion, one notable exception though - they held Trapezous for 3 turns, then the city rebelled and AS said "thanks".
Hayasdan
Yet another lazy faction didn't move at all until very recently, have virtually no armies since they took Mazaka (which rebelled from AS).
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 4 stacks around Pergamon and peacefully waited for the AS to come and destroy them. Which the AS did eventually.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again, eventually destroyed by AS.
Ptolemaioi
Nothing worth to mention, they only took Axum, but lost Salamis early on, struggling to stay alive since then, invaded by Nabataea (which held Diospolis-Megale, Alexandreia and Memphis at some point).
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Took Dedan at least, at war with Saba for ages. Invaded Ptolemaioi lands eventually.
Sab'Yn
Slow expansion eastwards, several attempts to take Axum (which they finally conquered from Ptolemaioi then). Attacked Nabataeans (Diospolis-Megale was no naval invasion, they went by land to there). Peace with AS.
Arche Seleukeia
Monster. About 30+ fullstacks (garrison not taken into account!), wiped out several factions. Steadily expanding, now they start amassing troops at the Hellespont and at the eastern borders.
Baktria
War with Saka since turn one. Bitter fights for Chach and Oyrta. lost both (and Marakanda ) to rebellions which was used by the other factions to step in. Now partially regaining strength, but attacked by AS. I expect them to fall soon.
Taksashila
Lazy buggers.
Noone bothered them but they still haven't even taken all of India.
Pahlava
Took Antiocheia-Margiane and Syrinx quickly. Lost Syrinx to rebellion and then to AS, their armies stand no chance against smaller AS stacks so it is rather surprising they are still there.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now almost destroyed (Chach is sieged constantly).
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, they snatched Tuat before me though, forcing me to quickly race for the remainder of the north african coast. They took their three desert provinces and then built up 5 full stacks which were sitting in the desert between Tuat and Garama.
Attacked me with a half stack at Kirtan in turn 201, got destroyed then since they rejected all peace offers (regardless how generous).
Feedback about the 3a Campaign AI and the campaign in general:
(1) AI is reliable if you have an alliance, but once you are at war with a faction you sinply cannot convince them to accept a ceasefire regardless how bad you beat them.
(2) It's odd that you can't establish good relations with any faction. Not sure if this is a Qart'Hadasht thing but the relations to the Sweboz, Epeiros, Ptolemaioi and Lusotannan always went down to "poor" or "very poor" over time, despite paying 1000 mnai/turn as tribute and having established trade routes with them. I was forced to spend large sums of money on them regularly (every 10-20 or so turns) to prevent the relations falling to such low levels.
(3) What's rather nice, though, is the fact that the allies of my enemies (for example Makedonia and Pergamon during the war with Rome) start to view you as a serious problem (relations: terrible) and that the enemies of your allies (Makedonia and AS as I'm allied with Ptolemaioi an Epeiros) have the same mindset. Nice touch!
(4) There are not many AI - AI alliances around, the vanilla M2TW "blobs" I haven't seen yet. Usually the AI factions pick a few alliances (Rome had Pergamon and Makedonia only, for example). There is a rather annoying pattern of most factions coming to offer alliances to the player faction, but only in a package with trade rights (which you can't give without possible trade routes). And they usually don't accept an alliance without trade rights, not even when you offer 20k or more money in addition.
(5) Many of the small factions still struggle to expand their "empires" while maintaining super-size armies due to the way the current money script works. I'm still trying to get a script working that replaces that flat "increase their kings purse to eventually astronomical values" by some faction-size-dependent money script but haven't made real success yet.
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
(7) The corruption level (or better: the player economy in general) is quite challenging, but not impossible. I played campaigns as "poor" barbarian factions, too, and these are hard (Aruernoi is really hard!) but if you spend some thoughts on what to build and where, you will experience the benefits. I love that even my current Qart'Hadasht campaign doesn't allow me to just build fullstacks all over the place. I have 3 at the moment: one in northern Iberia, one in Italy and one in Africa, not even super-heavy ones, just the regionally available units and only one unit of elephants. Add in two fleets (1 Penteres, 2 Trieres each) and I'm down to about 12k per turn (which I need to build up a treasury for the gifts to the four allies and for the war times when the economy drops down seriously).
I love how Baktria and Saka switched places :P
Originally Posted by Shadowwalker:
As promised above, some comments about the performance of the various factions in my Qart'Hadasht campaign:
Romani
Took Felsina, Segesta and Patavium early on, didn't go for Taras though. Attacked Alalia then and blockaded virtually all my ports in the Thyrrenian Sea and my core cities (Kart Hadast, Atiqa, Adrumeto, Lepki). Very impressive as it was the first time I've seen efficient blockading done by an AI faction in both Rome and Medieval II. Attempting to secure a peace by paying tribute was rejected, so I started taking their provinces, even when they only held Patavium they rejected peace so I destroyed them.
Epeiros
Took Thermon and Rhegion early on, later Dalminion and Segestika, lost their possessions in Greece/Illyria to Makedonia then, snatched Arpi during my campaign against the Romani, have repelled a lot of Makedonian invasions of Arpi since then. Allies of me for 100+ turns.
Areuakoi
Took Arsé, Iltirta, Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
The EB 2 Casse, so to speak, in many campaigns they just don't expand. It seems to be dependent on taking Tole or not. If the Areuakoi are taking that town, the Lusos are just sitting back and mourn their fate. 4 Stacks linger around Oxtraca. Only expanded after I gifted them Iliberri. Allies since ~turn 10.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, as soon as they held Massalia they tried to conquer Alalia and Ebusus. Rejected every peace offer until I gifted them Lugdunon. Repelling Aedui attacks since then.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi and Pritanoi, peace with Sweboz, lost Nemetokema (spelling?) to a surprise Pritanoi attack.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a belgic province in the end, though, watched Sweboz take Dunopalator (that stack landed there about 10 years before it attacked the city, all the time a larger Pritanoi stack stood directly at the gates of the city, doing nothing).
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Made Lugiones a horde. Peace with Sauromatae, allies to Qart'Hadasht. Struggling with the last Boii province.
Boii
Expanded a bit, very slow, though, lost their possessions to the Sweboz then. Nothing more to say.
Lugiones
Started nicely (among the first to expand), lost the war against Sweboz, as a horde they travelled all the way from Klepidava to Uiennos (!) to resettle there. Were destroyed after attacking Massalia (me).
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions
Makedonia
Beast. First they took out KH in Greece, then simultanously attacked the greek isles, Kyrene, Illyria and Getia. After destroying KH and uniting Greece and Illyria they took the ptolemaic possessions in Mikra Asia and started invading Arpi - which is the first target they haven't kept (although they held the city for a few turns).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
Bosporan Greeks
Nothing much to say. Held Olbia for some time, lost it to Getai, then Makedonia. Still hold Kotais. Constantly attacked by Sauromatae.
Sauromatae
The usual expansion, one notable exception though - they held Trapezous for 3 turns, then the city rebelled and AS said "thanks".
Hayasdan
Yet another lazy faction didn't move at all until very recently, have virtually no armies since they took Mazaka (which rebelled from AS).
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 4 stacks around Pergamon and peacefully waited for the AS to come and destroy them. Which the AS did eventually.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again, eventually destroyed by AS.
Ptolemaioi
Nothing worth to mention, they only took Axum, but lost Salamis early on, struggling to stay alive since then, invaded by Nabataea (which held Diospolis-Megale, Alexandreia and Memphis at some point).
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Took Dedan at least, at war with Saba for ages. Invaded Ptolemaioi lands eventually.
Sab'Yn
Slow expansion eastwards, several attempts to take Axum (which they finally conquered from Ptolemaioi then). Attacked Nabataeans (Diospolis-Megale was no naval invasion, they went by land to there). Peace with AS.
Arche Seleukeia
Monster. About 30+ fullstacks (garrison not taken into account!), wiped out several factions. Steadily expanding, now they start amassing troops at the Hellespont and at the eastern borders.
Baktria
War with Saka since turn one. Bitter fights for Chach and Oyrta. lost both (and Marakanda ) to rebellions which was used by the other factions to step in. Now partially regaining strength, but attacked by AS. I expect them to fall soon.
Taksashila
Lazy buggers.
Noone bothered them but they still haven't even taken all of India.
Pahlava
Took Antiocheia-Margiane and Syrinx quickly. Lost Syrinx to rebellion and then to AS, their armies stand no chance against smaller AS stacks so it is rather surprising they are still there.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now almost destroyed (Chach is sieged constantly).
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, they snatched Tuat before me though, forcing me to quickly race for the remainder of the north african coast. They took their three desert provinces and then built up 5 full stacks which were sitting in the desert between Tuat and Garama.
Attacked me with a half stack at Kirtan in turn 201, got destroyed then since they rejected all peace offers (regardless how generous).
Feedback about the 3a Campaign AI and the campaign in general:
(1) AI is reliable if you have an alliance, but once you are at war with a faction you sinply cannot convince them to accept a ceasefire regardless how bad you beat them.
(2) It's odd that you can't establish good relations with any faction. Not sure if this is a Qart'Hadasht thing but the relations to the Sweboz, Epeiros, Ptolemaioi and Lusotannan always went down to "poor" or "very poor" over time, despite paying 1000 mnai/turn as tribute and having established trade routes with them. I was forced to spend large sums of money on them regularly (every 10-20 or so turns) to prevent the relations falling to such low levels.
(3) What's rather nice, though, is the fact that the allies of my enemies (for example Makedonia and Pergamon during the war with Rome) start to view you as a serious problem (relations: terrible) and that the enemies of your allies (Makedonia and AS as I'm allied with Ptolemaioi an Epeiros) have the same mindset. Nice touch!
(4) There are not many AI - AI alliances around, the vanilla M2TW "blobs" I haven't seen yet. Usually the AI factions pick a few alliances (Rome had Pergamon and Makedonia only, for example). There is a rather annoying pattern of most factions coming to offer alliances to the player faction, but only in a package with trade rights (which you can't give without possible trade routes). And they usually don't accept an alliance without trade rights, not even when you offer 20k or more money in addition.
(5) Many of the small factions still struggle to expand their "empires" while maintaining super-size armies due to the way the current money script works. I'm still trying to get a script working that replaces that flat "increase their kings purse to eventually astronomical values" by some faction-size-dependent money script but haven't made real success yet.
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
(7) The corruption level (or better: the player economy in general) is quite challenging, but not impossible. I played campaigns as "poor" barbarian factions, too, and these are hard (Aruernoi is really hard!) but if you spend some thoughts on what to build and where, you will experience the benefits. I love that even my current Qart'Hadasht campaign doesn't allow me to just build fullstacks all over the place. I have 3 at the moment: one in northern Iberia, one in Italy and one in Africa, not even super-heavy ones, just the regionally available units and only one unit of elephants. Add in two fleets (1 Penteres, 2 Trieres each) and I'm down to about 12k per turn (which I need to build up a treasury for the gifts to the four allies and for the war times when the economy drops down seriously).
Thanks shadow walker , yes theres still work to be done but were on the right tracks.As promised above, some comments about the performance of the various factions in my Qart'Hadasht campaign:
Romani
Took Felsina, Segesta and Patavium early on, didn't go for Taras though. Attacked Alalia then and blockaded virtually all my ports in the Thyrrenian Sea and my core cities (Kart Hadast, Atiqa, Adrumeto, Lepki). Very impressive as it was the first time I've seen efficient blockading done by an AI faction in both Rome and Medieval II. Attempting to secure a peace by paying tribute was rejected, so I started taking their provinces, even when they only held Patavium they rejected peace so I destroyed them.
Epeiros
Took Thermon and Rhegion early on, later Dalminion and Segestika, lost their possessions in Greece/Illyria to Makedonia then, snatched Arpi during my campaign against the Romani, have repelled a lot of Makedonian invasions of Arpi since then. Allies of me for 100+ turns.
Areuakoi
Took Arsé, Iltirta, Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
The EB 2 Casse, so to speak, in many campaigns they just don't expand. It seems to be dependent on taking Tole or not. If the Areuakoi are taking that town, the Lusos are just sitting back and mourn their fate. 4 Stacks linger around Oxtraca. Only expanded after I gifted them Iliberri. Allies since ~turn 10.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, as soon as they held Massalia they tried to conquer Alalia and Ebusus. Rejected every peace offer until I gifted them Lugdunon. Repelling Aedui attacks since then.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi and Pritanoi, peace with Sweboz, lost Nemetokema (spelling?) to a surprise Pritanoi attack.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a belgic province in the end, though, watched Sweboz take Dunopalator (that stack landed there about 10 years before it attacked the city, all the time a larger Pritanoi stack stood directly at the gates of the city, doing nothing).
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Made Lugiones a horde. Peace with Sauromatae, allies to Qart'Hadasht. Struggling with the last Boii province.
Boii
Expanded a bit, very slow, though, lost their possessions to the Sweboz then. Nothing more to say.
Lugiones
Started nicely (among the first to expand), lost the war against Sweboz, as a horde they travelled all the way from Klepidava to Uiennos (!) to resettle there. Were destroyed after attacking Massalia (me).
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions
Makedonia
Beast. First they took out KH in Greece, then simultanously attacked the greek isles, Kyrene, Illyria and Getia. After destroying KH and uniting Greece and Illyria they took the ptolemaic possessions in Mikra Asia and started invading Arpi - which is the first target they haven't kept (although they held the city for a few turns).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
Bosporan Greeks
Nothing much to say. Held Olbia for some time, lost it to Getai, then Makedonia. Still hold Kotais. Constantly attacked by Sauromatae.
Sauromatae
The usual expansion, one notable exception though - they held Trapezous for 3 turns, then the city rebelled and AS said "thanks".
Hayasdan
Yet another lazy faction didn't move at all until very recently, have virtually no armies since they took Mazaka (which rebelled from AS).
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 4 stacks around Pergamon and peacefully waited for the AS to come and destroy them. Which the AS did eventually.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again, eventually destroyed by AS.
Ptolemaioi
Nothing worth to mention, they only took Axum, but lost Salamis early on, struggling to stay alive since then, invaded by Nabataea (which held Diospolis-Megale, Alexandreia and Memphis at some point).
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Took Dedan at least, at war with Saba for ages. Invaded Ptolemaioi lands eventually.
Sab'Yn
Slow expansion eastwards, several attempts to take Axum (which they finally conquered from Ptolemaioi then). Attacked Nabataeans (Diospolis-Megale was no naval invasion, they went by land to there). Peace with AS.
Arche Seleukeia
Monster. About 30+ fullstacks (garrison not taken into account!), wiped out several factions. Steadily expanding, now they start amassing troops at the Hellespont and at the eastern borders.
Baktria
War with Saka since turn one. Bitter fights for Chach and Oyrta. lost both (and Marakanda ) to rebellions which was used by the other factions to step in. Now partially regaining strength, but attacked by AS. I expect them to fall soon.
Taksashila
Lazy buggers.
Noone bothered them but they still haven't even taken all of India.
Pahlava
Took Antiocheia-Margiane and Syrinx quickly. Lost Syrinx to rebellion and then to AS, their armies stand no chance against smaller AS stacks so it is rather surprising they are still there.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now almost destroyed (Chach is sieged constantly).
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, they snatched Tuat before me though, forcing me to quickly race for the remainder of the north african coast. They took their three desert provinces and then built up 5 full stacks which were sitting in the desert between Tuat and Garama.
Attacked me with a half stack at Kirtan in turn 201, got destroyed then since they rejected all peace offers (regardless how generous).
Feedback about the 3a Campaign AI and the campaign in general:
(1) AI is reliable if you have an alliance, but once you are at war with a faction you sinply cannot convince them to accept a ceasefire regardless how bad you beat them.
(2) It's odd that you can't establish good relations with any faction. Not sure if this is a Qart'Hadasht thing but the relations to the Sweboz, Epeiros, Ptolemaioi and Lusotannan always went down to "poor" or "very poor" over time, despite paying 1000 mnai/turn as tribute and having established trade routes with them. I was forced to spend large sums of money on them regularly (every 10-20 or so turns) to prevent the relations falling to such low levels.
(3) What's rather nice, though, is the fact that the allies of my enemies (for example Makedonia and Pergamon during the war with Rome) start to view you as a serious problem (relations: terrible) and that the enemies of your allies (Makedonia and AS as I'm allied with Ptolemaioi an Epeiros) have the same mindset. Nice touch!
(4) There are not many AI - AI alliances around, the vanilla M2TW "blobs" I haven't seen yet. Usually the AI factions pick a few alliances (Rome had Pergamon and Makedonia only, for example). There is a rather annoying pattern of most factions coming to offer alliances to the player faction, but only in a package with trade rights (which you can't give without possible trade routes). And they usually don't accept an alliance without trade rights, not even when you offer 20k or more money in addition.
(5) Many of the small factions still struggle to expand their "empires" while maintaining super-size armies due to the way the current money script works. I'm still trying to get a script working that replaces that flat "increase their kings purse to eventually astronomical values" by some faction-size-dependent money script but haven't made real success yet.
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
(7) The corruption level (or better: the player economy in general) is quite challenging, but not impossible. I played campaigns as "poor" barbarian factions, too, and these are hard (Aruernoi is really hard!) but if you spend some thoughts on what to build and where, you will experience the benefits. I love that even my current Qart'Hadasht campaign doesn't allow me to just build fullstacks all over the place. I have 3 at the moment: one in northern Iberia, one in Italy and one in Africa, not even super-heavy ones, just the regionally available units and only one unit of elephants. Add in two fleets (1 Penteres, 2 Trieres each) and I'm down to about 12k per turn (which I need to build up a treasury for the gifts to the four allies and for the war times when the economy drops down seriously).
(Numidia, v3 campaign AI, M/M)
It has been quite a while since i threw off the Carthaginian yoke off their own mainland to claim it as their own, all accomplished by my magnificent starting faction leader. After Carthage provoked yet another war so they don't have to pay tribute he had decided to go for the last conquest of his life, overseas, to Sardinia, but he died during the siege, not to see that his troops managed to take the city by themselves. I have been trying to not be too speedy for conquests, for i wanted to see what the reform for Numidia is like, however, since i managed to conquer most of nearby cities in just one faction leader's lifetime it probably was not succesfull.
After i've had tons of money from tribute i thought that perhaps i need to start spending it and i started looking up to Rome, they seemed really powerful and strong from what my spies discovered and i wanted not to have any trouble with them unlike Carthage. But no matter what, they did not want to ally me. However like 20 or 30 turns later i have discovered out one of the northern settlements have been taken by Arverni, which only made me a bit suspicious. A few turns later, i walked around with him and it seemed like Arverni gained even more ground so i decided to check out Italy again, and what i saw was quite different from what you would normally see in most Total War games or first EB:
That's right! The Roman Republic is pretty much drawing it's last breath, and i did not even take any part in that. Now they only have 3 cities with only Capua having any semblance of an army left. I guess since this happened, i might as well help them finish them off. That's pretty much the only notable thing about my playthrough.
And this is how much time it took them to fall from grace:
Another interesting thing is that Makedonia snatched Kyrene when it rebelled from Ptolemaioi. It had a fullstack with a phalangite unit spilling outside town and i have seen both factions field big armies in the area attempting to take it over, but ultimately, while Ptolemaioi were too busy loitering around to siege for most part the Makedons seem to have simply took it in one fell swoop after some point. I have them as my allies too which is making me happy as it means that city could become a staging point to launch a combined assault on Ptolemaioi, whose empire i need to destroy in order to "win".
It has been quite a while since i threw off the Carthaginian yoke off their own mainland to claim it as their own, all accomplished by my magnificent starting faction leader. After Carthage provoked yet another war so they don't have to pay tribute he had decided to go for the last conquest of his life, overseas, to Sardinia, but he died during the siege, not to see that his troops managed to take the city by themselves. I have been trying to not be too speedy for conquests, for i wanted to see what the reform for Numidia is like, however, since i managed to conquer most of nearby cities in just one faction leader's lifetime it probably was not succesfull.
After i've had tons of money from tribute i thought that perhaps i need to start spending it and i started looking up to Rome, they seemed really powerful and strong from what my spies discovered and i wanted not to have any trouble with them unlike Carthage. But no matter what, they did not want to ally me. However like 20 or 30 turns later i have discovered out one of the northern settlements have been taken by Arverni, which only made me a bit suspicious. A few turns later, i walked around with him and it seemed like Arverni gained even more ground so i decided to check out Italy again, and what i saw was quite different from what you would normally see in most Total War games or first EB:
That's right! The Roman Republic is pretty much drawing it's last breath, and i did not even take any part in that. Now they only have 3 cities with only Capua having any semblance of an army left. I guess since this happened, i might as well help them finish them off. That's pretty much the only notable thing about my playthrough.
And this is how much time it took them to fall from grace:
Another interesting thing is that Makedonia snatched Kyrene when it rebelled from Ptolemaioi. It had a fullstack with a phalangite unit spilling outside town and i have seen both factions field big armies in the area attempting to take it over, but ultimately, while Ptolemaioi were too busy loitering around to siege for most part the Makedons seem to have simply took it in one fell swoop after some point. I have them as my allies too which is making me happy as it means that city could become a staging point to launch a combined assault on Ptolemaioi, whose empire i need to destroy in order to "win".
Originally Posted by Shadowwalker:
(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
Costs are OK. Replenishment Rates? Yes, that we'll look at.(6) I'll repeat myself: ships should perhaps be made a lot more expensive (recruitment cost, not necessarily upkeep) and less available (by decreasing the replenishment rates). At the moment the factions with even just a single port are building way too many ships.
150 turns Aedui campaign H/M, (EB 2.01, CAI 3a, BAI, Trait hotfix):
I exanded slowly, taking the rebels around me first. After about 40-50 years I started a war with the Arverni over dominance in Gaul. I won and made them my protectorate (used Forced Diplomacy). Afterwards I helped my allies the Boii in their war against the Sweboz (had to reconquer their starting provinces for them). Now started the invasion of Northern italy, heading for Rome :-)
Takashila died around turn 20 (again), Kart Hadasht around turn 138, everybody else still alive.
Pergamon was surprisingly active in Asia minor from the beginning, was really nice to see them attacking the Ptolemaioi.
Pritanoi tried several times to invade modern Brittany. As it was owned by my protectorate i expelled them quickly enough, but in the last few turns they managed to capture it as my armies are distracted at the moment. Their province in modern Netherlands was gifted by me to secure my border against the Sweboz.
Numidia took out Carthage, never seen this beofre with CAI version 3.
KH won the war in greece, never seen that before either.
Everything else pretty much the usual...
I exanded slowly, taking the rebels around me first. After about 40-50 years I started a war with the Arverni over dominance in Gaul. I won and made them my protectorate (used Forced Diplomacy). Afterwards I helped my allies the Boii in their war against the Sweboz (had to reconquer their starting provinces for them). Now started the invasion of Northern italy, heading for Rome :-)
Takashila died around turn 20 (again), Kart Hadasht around turn 138, everybody else still alive.
Pergamon was surprisingly active in Asia minor from the beginning, was really nice to see them attacking the Ptolemaioi.
Pritanoi tried several times to invade modern Brittany. As it was owned by my protectorate i expelled them quickly enough, but in the last few turns they managed to capture it as my armies are distracted at the moment. Their province in modern Netherlands was gifted by me to secure my border against the Sweboz.
Numidia took out Carthage, never seen this beofre with CAI version 3.
KH won the war in greece, never seen that before either.
Everything else pretty much the usual...
SSbQ campaign, M/M
EB 2.01
Grantos CAI 3a
Grantos BAI
Bogias Mod (which includes Konnys command star mod from EB 1, trait fixes, etc)
Quintus Sertorius' latest hotfix for cavalry, thureophoroi-style units and javelineers
I'm still fiddling around with several things to try and improve the campaign behaviour/reduce the stack spam. This time I reduced the bonus to AI governors (set all three levels in the trait file to the values of "AI governor" level 1, except the taxes. In particular I thereby lowered the the unrest, loyalty etc bonuses, forcing the AI to have bigger garrisons. I also set all kings purses of the AI factions down to zero and cut the eleutheroi kings purse down to 20000 to prevent (most) rebels province fielding 2 fullstacks after 100 turns. (This does not stop a player but the AI only from my experience).
I also reduced the money script to raise the kings purse by 300 (instead of 1000) mnai for any AI faction that loses money (and to reduce it by 400 mnai once the faction is not losing money and beyond 20k mnai).
This seems to have 3 effects at least:
- The AI fields a lot less stacks, especially the big powers like Makedonia, Seleukids and Romani are not fielding dozens of stacks anymore.
- The AI expansion takes a bit longer to really start and some of the smaller factions seem to have a somewhat better chance (KH, Pahlava especially).
- There are more rebellions in outlying provinces, slowing down potential monster factions.
Romani
Took Cisalpine Gaul (except Mediolanum) relatively fast, conquered (in reminiscence to EB 1.2) southwestern Gaul then. Took Taras after a while too, didn't make any attempts on Rhegion though. Declared war on me soon after I took that settlement. For 10 years or so there was a rather bloody war for both Rhegion and Alalia, since around turn 140 there have been several short wars between them and me, which were always started by an attack on Alalia. As soon as I repelled that siege and sunk the transport ship, they sued for a ceasefire again, but never agreed to any trade rights anymore, not even when I offered a couple thousand mnai as well.
Epeiros
Usual EB II expansion: Thermon, Dalminion, Segestica. Several failed attempts at Rhegion. Losing to Makedonia (as usual).
Areuakoi
Almost the same expansion as always (except Tolé and the southwestern Gaul provinces). Took Arsé, Iltirtaand Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
Nothing. Literally. Allies since ~turn 10. And the only fights they picked where when one of their usually two stacks near Qxtraca rebelled.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, wars with Rome and Aedui. Fought a bitter war over Massilia, it changed hands at least 6 times. Slowly losing to the Aedui now.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi, peace with Sweboz. Basically the same expansion as the last time.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a couple provinces since turn 140.
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Doing a lot worse than last time.
Boii
Took one province, failed at taking any other settlement then, despite several attempts (in all directions).
Lugiones
Doing a lot better than last time, keeping the Sweboz at bay, fighting for Scurgum with them since decades.
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions. So - same procedure as last time.
Makedonia
Beast. Again. I could quote the comment from last time, except the fact that they didn't manage to take Krete from the Massylians (which I helped to defend by teleporting several armies from Thugga to Knossos during the game).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
The only difference was that they managed to take Demetrias early on (between turn 20 and 30 iirc) and even sieged Pella at one point, but their units are simply no match for Makedonia.
Bosporan Greeks
Some expansion both west and south (they didn't travel by sea to Sinope and Trapezous though, they wandered eastwards around the sea, despite Kutatisi being rebel still, they didn't attack it).
Sauromatae
The usual expansion. War with the Bosphorans, suprisingly enough at peace with the Lugiones though.
Hayasdan
Lazy buggers. Around them the Seleukid provinces rebelled one after another, but they resisted the urge to leave their mountain fortress. I'm sure that Karkathiokerta was taken by accident. ;-)
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 2 stacks around Pergamon, not moving. Destroyed by whatever (no actual faction involved there) reason.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again. Switched to Kutatisi then and took it. Lost Ankyra to rebellion (now Aruernoi), Sinope and Trapezous to the Bosphorans.
Ptolemaioi
Doing better than last time. They may not have taken a lot of provinces (though they managed to conquer Pergamon after it was rebel and they also kept Salamis despite several Seleukid sieges) but they have set up a nice border defence and also have not fallen to the Nabataeans.
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Tadmur eventually rebelled to them when the Seleukids took it. Only one attempt to take Diopolis-Megale, failed. Quiet since then.
Sab'Yn
Rather nice. Axum rebelled to them when the Ptolies took it, but the Sabyn had been sieging the town several times before so it was no completely by accident. They slowly crawled eastward, too, even taking Pura (first time I saw this in EB II).
Arche Seleukeia
Worst progress in all EB II campaigns so far, still rather nicely until Pahlave decided to settle in the eastern provinces. Holding on to their core provinces, though. A lot less stacks than usual (still 10 or so aside the garrisons) which is nice to see.
Baktria
Lost both Marakanda and Oskobara to rebellion but took advantage of the vanishment of Taksashila then. On their way to unite India under their banner.
Taksashila
Destroyed before turn 20. I'm not sure if it was a Maurya army or one of the rebel stacks India fields anyway at game start. They had a lot less units than usual.
Pahlava
They took advantage of rebellions in the east - Antiocheia-Margiane, Marakanda etc. Exploded around turn 100. By far the best expansion I ever saw of them in EB II.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now slowly gaining power - fighting the Pahlava.
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, took the two desert provinces too and thereby completely surrounded them. Made the mistake to ally with them and then tried to get them out of Thugga. Plan was to make them switch their capital, so I conquered Krete and Kyrene and gifted it to them. They switched the capitol to Kyrene but would not sell Thugga even for 100k. When the Ptolemies attacked them in Kyrene I had to pick sides (was allied with both) and picked the Ptolies. Of course the Massylians soon after attacked me, trying to take Kart-Hadast. At turn 200 I am just sieging both Thugga and Kyrene.
What I still don't get is the reasons for gaining or losing reputation. I never did anything else than occupy settlements. I only broke one alliance (when I was forced to decide between two allies), I never declared war on anyone. I always released (in a very few, maybe 3 or 4, cases ransomed) prisoners. I never used assassins or sent spies in enemy settlements.
But nevertheless I - without doing anything but to occupy Thugga at turn 203 - had my reputation drop from "reliable" to "very untrustworthy" in one single turn.
And I have no idea why.
EB 2.01
Grantos CAI 3a
Grantos BAI
Bogias Mod (which includes Konnys command star mod from EB 1, trait fixes, etc)
Quintus Sertorius' latest hotfix for cavalry, thureophoroi-style units and javelineers
I'm still fiddling around with several things to try and improve the campaign behaviour/reduce the stack spam. This time I reduced the bonus to AI governors (set all three levels in the trait file to the values of "AI governor" level 1, except the taxes. In particular I thereby lowered the the unrest, loyalty etc bonuses, forcing the AI to have bigger garrisons. I also set all kings purses of the AI factions down to zero and cut the eleutheroi kings purse down to 20000 to prevent (most) rebels province fielding 2 fullstacks after 100 turns. (This does not stop a player but the AI only from my experience).
I also reduced the money script to raise the kings purse by 300 (instead of 1000) mnai for any AI faction that loses money (and to reduce it by 400 mnai once the faction is not losing money and beyond 20k mnai).
This seems to have 3 effects at least:
- The AI fields a lot less stacks, especially the big powers like Makedonia, Seleukids and Romani are not fielding dozens of stacks anymore.
- The AI expansion takes a bit longer to really start and some of the smaller factions seem to have a somewhat better chance (KH, Pahlava especially).
- There are more rebellions in outlying provinces, slowing down potential monster factions.
Romani
Took Cisalpine Gaul (except Mediolanum) relatively fast, conquered (in reminiscence to EB 1.2) southwestern Gaul then. Took Taras after a while too, didn't make any attempts on Rhegion though. Declared war on me soon after I took that settlement. For 10 years or so there was a rather bloody war for both Rhegion and Alalia, since around turn 140 there have been several short wars between them and me, which were always started by an attack on Alalia. As soon as I repelled that siege and sunk the transport ship, they sued for a ceasefire again, but never agreed to any trade rights anymore, not even when I offered a couple thousand mnai as well.
Epeiros
Usual EB II expansion: Thermon, Dalminion, Segestica. Several failed attempts at Rhegion. Losing to Makedonia (as usual).
Areuakoi
Almost the same expansion as always (except Tolé and the southwestern Gaul provinces). Took Arsé, Iltirtaand Emporion, Iliberri and Tolosa within 140 turns, attacked me at Mastia, rejected every peace offer (even when it came with the offer to pay a tribute of 3000 mnai while they were holding only Tolosa and Iliberri anymore). Destroyed.
Lusotannan
Nothing. Literally. Allies since ~turn 10. And the only fights they picked where when one of their usually two stacks near Qxtraca rebelled.
Aruernoi
Took some provinces, wars with Rome and Aedui. Fought a bitter war over Massilia, it changed hands at least 6 times. Slowly losing to the Aedui now.
Aedui
Took a while to start off, have expanded nicely since then, at war with Aruernoi, peace with Sweboz. Basically the same expansion as the last time.
Pritanoi
The usual slow start, took a couple provinces since turn 140.
Sweboz
The usual slow start, the usual attack at Lugiones and Boii after a while. Doing a lot worse than last time.
Boii
Took one province, failed at taking any other settlement then, despite several attempts (in all directions).
Lugiones
Doing a lot better than last time, keeping the Sweboz at bay, fighting for Scurgum with them since decades.
Getai
Poor hill dwellers didn't manage to take Sarmiszegethusa or Histria early on (tried every other turn). Badly beaten by Makedonia, now defending their remaining possessions. So - same procedure as last time.
Makedonia
Beast. Again. I could quote the comment from last time, except the fact that they didn't manage to take Krete from the Massylians (which I helped to defend by teleporting several armies from Thugga to Knossos during the game).
Koinon Hellenon
As usual in EB 2.x so far, the KH lost the battle for Greece, managed to take Krete and Halikarnassos though, was chased down by Makedonia and destroyed by them.
The only difference was that they managed to take Demetrias early on (between turn 20 and 30 iirc) and even sieged Pella at one point, but their units are simply no match for Makedonia.
Bosporan Greeks
Some expansion both west and south (they didn't travel by sea to Sinope and Trapezous though, they wandered eastwards around the sea, despite Kutatisi being rebel still, they didn't attack it).
Sauromatae
The usual expansion. War with the Bosphorans, suprisingly enough at peace with the Lugiones though.
Hayasdan
Lazy buggers. Around them the Seleukid provinces rebelled one after another, but they resisted the urge to leave their mountain fortress. I'm sure that Karkathiokerta was taken by accident. ;-)
Pergamon
Nothing at all. Not even an attempt to conquer another province. Had 2 stacks around Pergamon, not moving. Destroyed by whatever (no actual faction involved there) reason.
Pontos
Struggled heavily with Sinope and Ankyra, took them (and Nikaia) after a while, though, got repelled by the Ani-Kamah garrison over and over again. Switched to Kutatisi then and took it. Lost Ankyra to rebellion (now Aruernoi), Sinope and Trapezous to the Bosphorans.
Ptolemaioi
Doing better than last time. They may not have taken a lot of provinces (though they managed to conquer Pergamon after it was rebel and they also kept Salamis despite several Seleukid sieges) but they have set up a nice border defence and also have not fallen to the Nabataeans.
Nabataea
No attempts to conquer Bostra or Tadmur. Tadmur eventually rebelled to them when the Seleukids took it. Only one attempt to take Diopolis-Megale, failed. Quiet since then.
Sab'Yn
Rather nice. Axum rebelled to them when the Ptolies took it, but the Sabyn had been sieging the town several times before so it was no completely by accident. They slowly crawled eastward, too, even taking Pura (first time I saw this in EB II).
Arche Seleukeia
Worst progress in all EB II campaigns so far, still rather nicely until Pahlave decided to settle in the eastern provinces. Holding on to their core provinces, though. A lot less stacks than usual (still 10 or so aside the garrisons) which is nice to see.
Baktria
Lost both Marakanda and Oskobara to rebellion but took advantage of the vanishment of Taksashila then. On their way to unite India under their banner.
Taksashila
Destroyed before turn 20. I'm not sure if it was a Maurya army or one of the rebel stacks India fields anyway at game start. They had a lot less units than usual.
Pahlava
They took advantage of rebellions in the east - Antiocheia-Margiane, Marakanda etc. Exploded around turn 100. By far the best expansion I ever saw of them in EB II.
Saka
Got halted by Baktria and Pahlava early on, now slowly gaining power - fighting the Pahlava.
Massylia
I was quick enough to take Kirtan before them, took the two desert provinces too and thereby completely surrounded them. Made the mistake to ally with them and then tried to get them out of Thugga. Plan was to make them switch their capital, so I conquered Krete and Kyrene and gifted it to them. They switched the capitol to Kyrene but would not sell Thugga even for 100k. When the Ptolemies attacked them in Kyrene I had to pick sides (was allied with both) and picked the Ptolies. Of course the Massylians soon after attacked me, trying to take Kart-Hadast. At turn 200 I am just sieging both Thugga and Kyrene.
What I still don't get is the reasons for gaining or losing reputation. I never did anything else than occupy settlements. I only broke one alliance (when I was forced to decide between two allies), I never declared war on anyone. I always released (in a very few, maybe 3 or 4, cases ransomed) prisoners. I never used assassins or sent spies in enemy settlements.
But nevertheless I - without doing anything but to occupy Thugga at turn 203 - had my reputation drop from "reliable" to "very untrustworthy" in one single turn.
And I have no idea why.
Attached:
SSbQ_Prog_II.JPG
(171.8 KB)
Turn 200 M/M Hayasdan Campaign
Interesting things
Aedui; (Dark green Gauls) Died about 10 turns ago, Rolled over by the Sweboz
Sweboz; Steamrolling, Most of Europe Under their control, everything north of the Alps is basically theirs (with about 4 isolated Lugi/Boii territories)
Rome; Got southern parts eaten up by Carthage & Epirus, North taken by light green gauls, Rome taken by.... The New Celt/Iberian faction?!?!?! Has 1 territory (which is under siege by 2 full stacks)
Makedonia; Won greece
KH; Took the two islands, and also the province next the Bos start.
Bos; Has about 4 territories
Saur; North of the Caucus and west until Sweboz is theirs
Getai; Actually in a pretty good spot, control their section of the black sea and Byzantion, but will probably be steamrolled by Sweboz/Makedonia
Abu; Took most of arabia and part of Upper Egypt (Southern) however the Ptolies took 1/2 provinces in west Arabia (EDIT; Sorry, looks like that Provence rebelled actually)
Pergamon; Died around turn ~80, their family died so no one took over their province until around turn 120
I Allied myself with the Saur and SA as soon as I could, and got trade rights with everyone else. Baktria/Pahlava/Saka in the usual giant power struggle. SA and Ptolies are at a stalemate but the Ptolies own a good chunk of Asia Minor thanks to Pergamon dying. The New Suez Canal faction has done nothing.
Interesting things
Aedui; (Dark green Gauls) Died about 10 turns ago, Rolled over by the Sweboz
Sweboz; Steamrolling, Most of Europe Under their control, everything north of the Alps is basically theirs (with about 4 isolated Lugi/Boii territories)
Rome; Got southern parts eaten up by Carthage & Epirus, North taken by light green gauls, Rome taken by.... The New Celt/Iberian faction?!?!?! Has 1 territory (which is under siege by 2 full stacks)
Makedonia; Won greece
KH; Took the two islands, and also the province next the Bos start.
Bos; Has about 4 territories
Saur; North of the Caucus and west until Sweboz is theirs
Getai; Actually in a pretty good spot, control their section of the black sea and Byzantion, but will probably be steamrolled by Sweboz/Makedonia
Abu; Took most of arabia and part of Upper Egypt (Southern) however the Ptolies took 1/2 provinces in west Arabia (EDIT; Sorry, looks like that Provence rebelled actually)
Pergamon; Died around turn ~80, their family died so no one took over their province until around turn 120
I Allied myself with the Saur and SA as soon as I could, and got trade rights with everyone else. Baktria/Pahlava/Saka in the usual giant power struggle. SA and Ptolies are at a stalemate but the Ptolies own a good chunk of Asia Minor thanks to Pergamon dying. The New Suez Canal faction has done nothing.
EB 2.2b H/M Huge
Saba, turn 500
Saba, turn 500
Single Sign On provided by vBSSO