Autobattles

[ReluctantSamurai]

The links do not seem to work

I've been giving this topic some thought, but first some "set-in-stone" givens:

1) A player will always take much higher losses using auto-resolve than fighting the battles manually.

2) On VH campaign map settings, starting stacks (except the players) will often contain several or more elite units for a particular faction making auto-resolve even more difficult at the beginning

3) On VH battlemap settings, the AI gets a hefty +7 bonus to morale (which essentially means any enemy unit will fight to the death rather than flee) and a +7 to attack (which means peasants will have the same base attack value as Heavy Cataphracts )

4) On VH campaign map settings, the AI is almost insanely aggressive (even rebel stacks will attack your cities)

5) On VH campaign map settings, every other faction on the map gets an economic bonus (not sure of the exact amount), while the player not only starts with far less denarii than normal (a 5k starting treasury is trimmed to 2k), but suffers a 10% penalty on all income (farm/tax/trade)

Given these parameters, I find this statement more than a bit curious:

Recently I did some games using 100% autobattles with some difficult factions like Pontus or Parthia on vh/vh.

Any Roman faction, probably any Greek faction, and perhaps Carthage, could thrive using auto-resolve on the battlefield because all of them have a robust starting economy, or at least the possibility of creating one rather quickly (and playing every battle on auto-resolve is an expensive way to play), and decent enough units to survive auto-resolve.

But Parthia? I'm highly skeptical, which is why I asked for screenies. I've played every faction that RTW has to offer many multiple times (mostly at the VH/H setting) and IMHO, Parthia's economy is the most difficult to get up and running of any faction, including the barbarians. Starting provinces are extremely poor, there's no port provinces for quite some ways, and on the VH setting, Parthia will be at war with Armenia, Scythia, and Seleucia all within the first 5 years (or less).

On VH campaign setting, you start with 2k denarii, and army upkeep (including the diplomat, spy, family members, and solitary bireme) is going to run nearly 3k/turn. You have 17 cavalry units (4 generals, 2 Cataphracts, and 11 Horse Archers), 4 Slingers, and 1 Peasant unit. Only the family members and the two heavy Cats would auto-resolve with any chance for success. The Horse Archers get slaughtered, as do your slingers and peasant. Seeing as your primary enemy (Seleucia) has boat-loads of Militia Hoplites (and the family member parked in Seleucia is the six-star faction leader), AR with Seleucia is looking like suicide.

If you build a road in Media province (400 denarii), and put a wooden palisade around Arsakia (another 400 denarii, IIRC), and recruit 3 Eastern Infantry, all in the first turn, you've just spent 1790 of your starting 2000 denarii, and army upkeep went up 450 denarii/turn for the EI. Expansion better happen quickly or the budget won't be able to keep up. Phraaspa is no help as it's dirt poor, doesn't even have a basic wooden palisade, no road, and will quickly get you into a war with Armenia (which, even if you mange to eliminate them, gains you two provinces just as poor as the three you started with, and extends your borders invitingly for Pontus and Seleucia.

Does anyone else agree with my dismal take on auto-resolving battles at the start of a Parthian campaign? The only way to survive, IMHO, lies in fighting battles on the field using horse archer tactics. In fact, the only way I've ever taken Seleucia was to siege it, wait for an outside relief force to attack me, and win the battle in the open, where the HA's do what they do, and the Cataphracts are used for killing enemy generals.

IMO, it's near impossible to do (for Parthia, and probably every barbarian faction) on VH setting. Only detailed screenies, particularly the faction financial screen (taken every 2 turns), will convince me otherwise

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At the picture below you see my typical army in the beginning. A little experienced Eastern infantry and some mercs.

Also, by some reason I already have armored general. And since this faction heir has so many stars he started to have gold experience

In vanilla RTW v1.5, Parthia doesn't have any Eastern Infantry to start (according to the descr_strat directory) and no starting family member has any weapon/armor upgrades, and mercs would bust the Parthian economy rather quickly. So what version of RTW are you referring to?

Again, it is important to avoid unfavorable battles and try to capture easy cities.

The only "easy" city to capture as Parthia is Phraaspa, which helps little as it's population is only 800 or so. Parthia needs the city of Seleucia, and auto-resolve ends your campaign rather quickly on the banks of the Tigris River, IMO

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And about Germans...It is completely useless to fight against Britons...They suffer so much against chariots...So, I build an army and marched towards East

I've played Germania more than any other barbarian faction, and you simply don't have a choice but to fight Britannia. Their starting stack in Belgica province makes a beeline for the nearest Germania town virtually every time, as do the Gauls. In fact, in just about every one of my Germania campaigns, Gaul and Britannia form an alliance (normally they are at each others throats) and you must get a minimal sized navy going to stop Britannia reinforcements from Londinium landing in Belgica. Germania can fight either one, but not both...you just don't have enough money to keep up.

Marching east is simply not an option, IMHO