People may remember that I used to do this with EB1 a lot - take Epeiros (who are the most disposable faction, IMO) and turn them into someone else. I used them as Pergamon and the Bosporans in particular, though obviously neither of those is necessary in EBII. I also used them to play as Massalia and Kyrene, which was a lot of fun. You get a different native mix to add to your Hellenistic units, along with different tensions and dynamics in your new home.
After some playtesting elsewhere, I've resolved upon one version of this in particular: Epeiros as Syrakousai. There are a number of reasons for this.
First and foremost, it's something you're never going to see in the official mod. We have no intention of ever making Syrakousai a faction; lack of real expansionist ambitions and a pretty awful starting location for the AI (sandwiched between Rome and Carthage with little room) are enough.
Secondly, it's a place the starting Epirote FMs already have a connection to, having spent some of their childhood there when Pyrrhos was briefly king of Syrakousai.
Thirdly, it's a major, well-developed settlement that is already suitable as a starting base for a one-province faction. It's also Greek already, though because of Autonomia/Stasis it's actually tricky to hold even for a Hellenistic faction.
Without further ado, here are the files:
EDIT: Epeiros-as-Syrakousai v8.zip
All you need to do is patch over a clean 2.2b, or existing 2.2r installation. Obviously this isn't going to be savegame compatible with anything you might have been playing before.
Enjoy!
Bookmarks