How good is EB?!

[Mordred]

Best mod so far. They eye the modders had for detail is stunning. Now the trait system makes sense. You cannot execute complete cities anymore without having negative effect on some of your generals. You need to pay far more attention to it, which give the game a much deeper 'feel'.
A good governer gets you more money, which is hard to come by anyhow.

Strategic level is very good, much harder opponents as said by others. I started as Seleucids, and boy was I in trouble. Lost large part of my empire.
Ai is more aggresive as well as rebel armies. It picks better armies.

The amount of different units combined with the new recruiting system makes the armies very diverse, it will take a while before that gets boring, if at all.

Units graphics look beautiful. Battle AI is very good. Finally no AI who charges with missile units but uses them properly.

I was kind of bored with the game, but it feels like a complete new game now.

9.8 out of 10!

[Birka Viking]

I can only agree..This mod is avesome..Play as romans and they kick as...*lol*

[bean_22]

Just played EB for the first time today. Wow, is the only word for it, and this is just the open beta. Been experimenting around, tried some custom battles with the greeks and macedonians and the romans and some barbarains. I really like the way the battles are balanced. Cavalry in particular. Companions for example feel exactly like they should, you have to be careful but man can they slaughter. Having all the human troops (at least from what I've seen) have one hit point makes the game much more balanced, ranged units do as they should and it makes the animations a little more realistic (eg you won't see the same unit get up 2 or 3 times after getting stabbed). The AI over vanilla 1.2 seems improved, maybe not as good as 1.5 but a challenge nonetheless. The New animations are terrific. I tried some casse two handed swordsmen (forget name) against some barbarian spearmen (forget name) and you could actually see the two handed swordsmen parrying blows and the first few lines seem to mingle which i felt was realistic for barbarian units and something I never noticed in vanilla (except with cav).

Started a compaign on vh/vh with makedonia. Btw, is there a recommended difficulty level (eg one its been more thoroughly tested on?) About ten turns in.

I only disbanded some of my army keeping large portions of it including cavalry. Naturally, I went into debt. However on the battlefield my army has been extremely succesful. The greeks just can't seem to counter the hammar and anvil tactics which lead to them mass routing. I took athens and sparta in several pitched battles, and finally had thought I had pushed the hellenes from the peninsula. I made peace with Epirus to guard my flanks. My army was much larger than any single army the greeks threw against me...leading my general to get the "likes easy battles" trait. Haha I laughed when i saw that. Very cool. I like how in winter marching is very difficult. However it only seems to be for the general you can still march your troops without the general a fair distance. Battles are a perfect length, not too long and the morale seems appropriate, although in one battle when I killed the enemy general there entire army routed which consisted of three phalanx units not yet engaged and 4 peltasts who were skirmishing with my troops. That seemed a little bizarre. Although my six groups of cavalry were all in flanking positions, and i have seen peltasts and other skirmishers break by just moving my hetaroi to there flanks especially if they have taken casualties.

Another question...are barbarian factions affected by the winter as much in terms of marching distance?

Now after seizing Sparta, and crushing the greeks, I thought yay I was finally in the positives...time to chill for awhile paying of my debt (almost 60000). Just getting ready to disband some troops when the Greeks landed a 3/4 stack with cavalry, 8 phalanx units, a good general (faction heir) and theuropoai (sp?). This won't be easy. I was very impressed with the fact they landed such a well organized and elite army to counter me taking two of their best cities.

Anyhow overall extremely impressed. I am gonna get back to playing it.

[Big_John]

hey bean_22, let us know how the greek counter attack goes.

[bean_22]

Hey Big John, I attacked them as they landed before they had a chance to beseige at settlement.

One of the best battles I've had in Rome total war. Outnumbered almost 2:1 with mostly militia hopilites and hetaroi and the really bad skirmishers the makedonians get. I know the hetaroi would be the key. 5 groups of them including my general (faction leader). I knew they were my only chance. I quickly elimanted their light cavalry with my hetarois. There phalanx line advanced and met mine. (note they kept realitively good formation-better AI?). I pounded there more numerous (and better) infantry with my hetarois in the charge and retreat fasion. I broke some of there units but were never able to achieve a mass rout. Meanwhile hetaroi casaulities mounted (they were being bombarded by peltasts too). Finally my weakened left flank collapsed (one unit had taken heavy casualties in pervious battles broke) leading quickly to a mass route with my phalanx line. I sacrificed two skirmisher units and continued to pound them with my cavalry. 2 hetarois broke and my general nearly died killing the enemy general who stayed back the entire battle (it was a last ditch effort by me win. Two skirmisher units were annihilated holding the enemy from killing my routed phalanx line but some of hopilites were able to escape plus 2 damaged hetaroi groups and my general. Overall not a bad battle killed 75% more enemies than lost despite routing and more importantly there 4 or 5 star faction heir.

They seiged my garrison at sparta but the remnants of my army and the garrison sallied and defeated there army with not too bad casualites

[Kull]

The first time you load this baby up, it really is a "whoa" moment. I was playing the Casse on VH/VH and was shocked at the state of our finances. Realizing that only more cities could save the day, I dropped my diplomat onto the continent, disbanded the fleet (@ 1/3 of the military expenses), and marched an army north to siege the Rebel city of Ratae. As per usual RTW strategy, I brought along a slightly larger group of units than were being sieged, and settled down to attrit them and force a final battle. Bad plan. Two turns into the siege, a large rebel army attacked - and with the forces from Ratae the odds were about 3-1 against. I was shocked into disbelief....for the first time in all my RTW experience, my army was forced to retreat from a siege without even a thought of giving battle! Which is when things got worse.

Because those evil buggers followed after us! They couldn't reach our army on the the same turn, and with winter taking effect on the next turn I couldn't get back to our capital city. No problem. Although a bit unsettling, the obvious strategy was to retreat further to the west and set up an ambush in the woods on the HIGHLY unlikely chance that a Rebel army....mind you, a REBEL ARMY.....will pursue. Which they did. Worse yet, my ambush was discovered.

So there we were, 5 Casse infantry, and two chariots facing a force twice our size. But I had a plan. The infantry were arranged at one end of the map, forcing the Rebels to march all the way across to reach them. The chariots would then circle around, looking to draw off the inevitable pursuers in small groups, allowing me to whittle them down enough to make the final battle a little more even. Except the AI refused to bite. They ignored the chariots and marched the entire rebel army in a disciplined formation (!!!) right towards my overmatched infantry. Eventually I resorted to hit and run chariot tactics at the rear of the Rebels, to little avail. First off they wouldn't pursue in small groups. Secondly they hurled MASSES of javelins and just wasted my guys away. After three charges my faction leader was dead and his son - the only survivor from two chariot units - routed off the map. Whereupon the Eleutheroi turned their entire attention to the infantry and ground them to dust.

Easily my most humbling experience ever in RTW.