Oh my dear...

[Kraxis]

I was having a bit of fun as the Burgundians... Seeing in my ERE campaign that they were doing really well and had some nice units I tohugh of trying them out. Needed a little modding of course. But that was done easily enough.

So my campaign was going nicely along but when I checked up on the Hordes unleashed I was in for a rude shock. The ERE was basically out for the count within 20 years and the WRE was having trouble containing the Goths, Vandals and Sarmatians.

This is how it looks now. Just after 400.


The ERE managed to get Constantinople back from the Sarmatians by vitue of rebellion, and the same can be said of all her possesions other than Crete and Cyprus. I doubt she will ever become a force to be considered again, and she only lives because of the rebellions the Sassanids suffer (religion no doubt).

The WRE can't do much, and the Berbers have captured Carthage easily, even expanded to Sardinia and Corsica (which strangely includes the Balearic Islands).

Personally I have caused a lot of mayhem myself. I sent the Lombards packing early on. They have since sent the Huns on a roll again (twice as the Ostrogoths kicked the Lombards out). The Goths regained Dacia from the Huns, only for it to splinter off and then rebel back to the Goths now sitting in Mediolanum. So the Ostrogoths were on a rampage too for a while, but now they seem to have retaken the old Gothic homelands.
The Huns managed to capture Dacia, Iazyges and Aquintum. Now they are a Horde again... And laying siege to Constantinople.

The Sarmatians are running from the Huns, and have lost several provinces to them, but they are now in competition with the Goths to capture Italy (I don't know who sacked Rome though).
The Vandals left a line of destruction to the west before they settled down in Amorica, they are now very quiet (bordering boring, I might take a detour to kick them off again).

I killed the Saxons after they captured my capital and exterminated it killing my faction leader (GRRRR). Then I turned on the Franks which I had been at war with (but luckily I got a ceasefire from them to deal with the Saxons). They had been on the verge of getting strong... Now they are laying hard into the remaining WRE provinces in France, and I'm picking up the scraps after them, making sure I stay friendly with the WRE (trade trade trade).
Lastly I killed the Alemanni... Hey they were in the way of me getting my required provinces.

But this is total mayhem. The Dark Ages have begun early this time and I'm not the only one to blame.

[Dutch_guy]

sounds like a fun campaign, interresting map, especially the Sassanids...

They always seem to lose to the ERE ... goood to see they sometimes fight back.

The WRE can't do much, and the Berbers have captured Carthage easily, even expanded to Sardinia and Corsica (which strangely includes the Balearic Islands).

Hmmm I had a really strange thing in my Franks campaign...

I turned of fog of war ot see what was going on in the world , and I looked to the east , where the ERE were beating the Sassanids big time.
But anyway , I also noticed a large Berber stack near Kotais ....Thats right in Armenia !

Now what were they doing over there ?! I mean , picture them walking from morocco to armenia , thorugh WRE ,ERE and Sassanid lands...

Imagine how surprised I was when I sw them there...sneaky Berbers...

Maybe I'll get hold of some screenies that I made , adn post them here, so the .org can see the wannabee expansion of the Berbers ;)

[TB666]

haha that is awesome.
And it seems like the Ostrogoths are bigger then the goths too.
Very surprising.
In my saxon game I noticed that both the vandals and huns didn't attack the goths and went straight south instead.
It is fun that the game has become alot more random now.

[Kraxis]

If you have good eyes you might notice a star in the isolated WRE province to the north... Campus Quadi I think. Well there we find the Lombards after they were driven from Campus Iazyges (like everyone else before them, I think five factions have held that one). Suddenly they broke off the siege and looked threateningly at my nearest city. Luckily the approach was wooded and I simply pulled my big garrison (planning on going on the offensive there) south a bit to block them.
I felt a normal field battle would favour me with 6 Lombard Berserkers (amongst others) against all their infantry. But luckily they didn't feel like dealing with me (possibly still scared from my sack of their last city).

So now they are back to dealing with Campus Quadi on and off... But of course that garrison is large so they might actually just have failed assaults for all I know.

The Goths look weak, but hey are not. The Ostrogoths look strong but are rather weak (after all their horde units have been settled). So I suspect that the Ostrogoths will be on the move again soon.

Man that corner of the world is simply in flames. Good I'm not a peasant down there.

[Craterus]

Nice campaign, exactly the random sorta history-changing stuff I like to see..

Does anyone think it would be worthwhile for me to just do a campaign with auto-calc. It's only half the fun (if that), but it might be reasonably entertaining..

[Taliferno]

Has anyone actually seen the Celts expand yet from their two starting provinces? (Its a cake walk when you control them really).

[Craterus]

In a Vandal game with a mate, we are up to about 375, and they have just moved towards Eburacum..

They are quite slow...

[TinCow]

In my campaign, the Goths have been in horde for almost the whole game. They get kicked out of wherever they settle pretty quickly. The Ostrogoths on the otherhand have six provinces and are the major power in the steppes. The only thing keeping them in check is the Slavs, who just made the former Ostrogoth capital their new homeland.

[Craterus]

What's the trigger for the Slavs to appear?

[Kraxis]

What's the trigger for the Slavs to appear?

A date...

[Craterus]

Oh, I thought they were a "splinter faction". It says in the manual that they may, or may not, appear in a certain campaign.

So, what do you think of my all-auto-calc campaign? Has anyone tried it, and did they get bored?

[RabidGibbon]

Barbarian Invasion seems almost random. No wait its completly random. This is a good thing I feel. In my Vandal campaign the Ostrogoths are in Southern France, The Sarmatians in Iberia. The Huns all died in northern Italy, The Franks dominate northern europe. My Vandals hold all of Italy and I imagine the WRE is finished. The Goths and Burgundi(sp) hold the steppes.

The Sassanids have taken asia minor by storm but the ERE stll holds pretty much all of the balkans and all of north africa. I doubt if any two "orgers" BI campaigns have played out the same. The Lombardi horde has gone awol and the saxon are extinct.

Its completely mad.

[CountMRVHS]

In my last Saxon H/H campaign (which I lost), the Celts started expanding quite successfully. I took Londinium and Eburacum, triggering the Romano-British, who took London from me at the same time a full Celtic stack took Eburacum from me. After I was gone I still had a spy on the island, and so I could see the Romano-Brits had been significantly weakened by our fighting, but still felt confident enough to head north and take on the Celts. Well, it wasn't pretty for the Romano-Brits. In a few turns they were destroyed, the Celts had London, and were actually sending several full stacks across the Channel to fight the WRE in France!

Sadly, it was all very inconclusive, and I was wiped out shortly thereafter. But I kept watching the Celts besiege WRE-held Samarobriva, then break the siege, then besiege, then break the siege..... turn after turn after turn. Very frustrating and I hope that's not too common...

CountMRVHS

[TinCow]

Here's a shot from mine.



Notice the Ostrogoth strength, this is just after they lost their capital to the Slavs and Constantinople to the ERE. Curiously, the Alemanni grabbed a TON of my territories when I contracted at the beginning of the game. They have lost their original homelands since, but have moved east and established a strong empire there. The horde in Gaul is the Goths who have re-horded three times and who have been taking turns with the Vandals (currently settled) annoying me. Finally, notice where the Huns settled.

[Kraxis]

Who are you? WRE?

And have the Huns crossed to Asia Minor??? I guess they are in for a beating from the Sassanids, but then THE HORDE RETURNS!!! That should be a rude awakening for the Sassanids.

[TinCow]

Yes, I am WRE. The Huns are now about to lose their last territory and return to horde status, as are the Slavs.

[Viking]

Haha, great thread! Much more fun to be in the Colosseum now than when RTW was released.

Thouhgt I`d throw in my Sassanid campaign just to point out the randomness in BI campaigns:

I doubt she will ever become a force to be considered again, and she only lives because of the rebellions the Sassanids suffer (religion no doubt).

Let`s hope they fix the AIs ability to demolish other cultures temples and build their own ones in a patch, it kinda makes it vulnerable for religions.

[Kraxis]

Haha, great thread! Much more fun to be in the Colosseum now than when RTW was released.

Thouhgt I`d throw in my Sassanid campaign just to point out the randomness in BI campaigns:

Yeah... Expansive Celts!

[ChaosLord]

Lots of interesting campaigns in BI it seems, I love reading about them. Especially the Huns in Turkey and settling the Italian pennisula, thats great.


The Sassinids seem to be a pretty consistant power. Too bad their aren't other civs down there for them to fight, the ERE can never beat both them and the hordes back it seems. Anyway, heres a shot from my VH(C)/H(B) Sarmatian game. Its been quite interesting so far. I lasted until 398 AD in Vicus Sarmatae fighting off the hordes and then later the Burgundii and Lombardii. Finally with nothing to show for my defense of my homeland and yet another Lombardii stack on the way I turned into a horde.

I backstabbed my allies the ERE who held Salona/Sirmium/Thessalonica/Constanstinople/Athens at that time. I sacked Salona Sirmium/Constanstinople and then conquered Athens/Thessalonica, making Thessalonica my capitol. I've since expanded taking back up all the rebel cities I sacked as well as Aquincum and Ephesus. I'm waging war against an WRE who against all odds managed to survive and the Sassinid powerhouse in the middle east.

The rest of the world has been busy killing each other. The Lombardii have a nice 3 city empire while the Burgundii are fighting with Roxolani for king of the north. The Roxolani have also made both the Huns and the Goths their protectorates. The Franks were the top dog in the west for awhile, until the Slavs arrive and tore up their nice little empire(which also allowed the WRE to recover I believe).

Funnily enough the Slavs took Aquitaine from the Vandals and set them into horde-mode again, making even more trouble for the Franks. The date in the game is 433 AD, which doesn't give me much time to conquer what I need to conquer. I'm going to send my faction leader against the WRE to wreck havoc as the guy is like a 8-9 star general under the right battle conditions and is a night fighter to boot. The only problem is hes got like 20 conflicting traits and is crazy, but i'll take what I can get at the moment.

And lastly, heres the current map from my game.

[Monk]

I'm still early on in my ERE attempt, but this thread makes me look forward to seeing who turns out to be a super power and my main rival (if i even survive that long). It won't be the Sassanids as every 10 turns i send an army through their territory and exterminate the first city i find, followed by a destruction of all the buildings. (hatra has gotten this treatment twice)

I've got my northern border locked up and have allied with the huns. The vandals have sent skirmishing forces against my border looking for weak spots but so far have found none .

[PseRamesses]

But anyway , I also noticed a large Berber stack near Kotais ....Thats right in Armenia !

In one of my WRE games I had a small berber army walked up through Iberia, France, through the Poo valley and into the Balkans where they got hammered by the Vandals. This have happened also in an ERE campaign where they came marching through Africa and Arabia emerging at the gates of Ctesiphon. It seems, in both cases, that they was trying to help me out against my enemies since we was allies. Only explanation I have. We didn´t have an agreement regarding military access though. Based on this and now your observations it seems to be a "strange" behaviour. Maybee someone should look into this?!

[Kraxis]

In one of my WRE games I had a small berber army walked up through Iberia, France, through the Poo valley and into the Balkans where they got hammered by the Vandals. This have happened also in an ERE campaign where they came marching through Africa and Arabia emerging at the gates of Ctesiphon. It seems, in both cases, that they was trying to help me out against my enemies since we was allies. Only explanation I have. We didn´t have an agreement regarding military access though. Based on this and now your observations it seems to be a "strange" behaviour. Maybee someone should look into this?!

The Poo valley? I guessthe barbarians turned up early huh?

Anyway you might be onto something. The Berbers apparently tend to do odd stuff.

[PseRamesses]

Anyway you might be onto something. The Berbers apparently tend to do odd stuff.

I belive it too. They always seems to wonder off somewhere rather than trying to kick out WRE and take Carthage and Lepcis Magna which is the primary target for any player, right?! Instead they seem to be like the Aussies, going on very long "walkabouts". In my two examples, above, it seemed thay where trying to help me out against my enemies but since we didn´t have a mutual military access agreement this seems even more odd.

[Dutch_guy]

Since were talking about hte weird Berber movement , I think this picture is going to be interresting , as I said earlier in this thread, the Berbers were all the way in Armenia...

Now they're in Europe !

here is a screenie:



Also Notice the red dots on the cmap. map, that's their supposed route

[dismal]

Ach, I have a really cool mini-map, but don't know how to post it.

Can anyone post a quick guide?

[Viking]

I assume you have taken the screenshot, so what you do is visiting ImageShack or any other file hosting website. From there you use the link you get and put it between IMG tags like this:

[IMG]insert url here[/IMG]

[Magussen]

They look unhappy in the cold, notice the inverted smilie banner.

[Kraxis]

They look unhappy in the cold, notice the inverted smilie banner.

Yes, if you are an alien... I mean three eyes is one too many for me.

[TinCow]

I think I have discovered why the Berbers left Africa. Too much damn rain.

[Dragon20]

Lol, that is a good one.
I think the berbers want to take corduba. But don't have any ships to take them there, so they take a nice long walk trough the whole of europe.