AI faction expansion in your campaigns?

[Dayve]

218BC, me is the Romani as always

Big scary Germanians just started throwing huge amounts of men into my eastern most province.. Panonia Illyricum or something like that... Where Sagestica is... It sucks, i still have only the earliest of Roman troops and although with good tactics they can be great, they stopped being an effective attacking force long ago and for the last 35-40 years i haven't expanded beyond what my last great leader conquered before his death...

My armies are ok in defence as i say but... I lose large amounts of them every battle and am constantly having to send them home for retraining and bring new ones in from home which isn't really a problem considering i'm making about 40k a turn and have over 100k to play with everytime i finish building stuff... Anyway enough about them... The Ptolemies... I'm shocked... I did plan on conquering the city of Carthage a few years after i get the first reforms but if the Ptolemies get there first i will be staying friends with them... I've given Carthage huge sums of money over the past 5 years to fight them but they never seem to do anything... I've also given the Seleukids large amounts of money to fight them but they also did nothing and now are even allied to them!

Makedonia doing well expanding east a little... They're very very rich. Casse have taken all of Britain! Now if they could just use the fleet they have to expand into Europe...

Iberia is pwning... Rampaging through Gaul already taken like 5 cities there... Good campaigns... Looking forward to 209BC for the reforms then i can go on the offensive once more!

They do happen in 209 right?

[Cheexsta]

Sweet. Don't worry too much about the Ptolemies, though, they won't be able to take out Carthage that easily. In my last Makedonian game the ex-Carthaginian provinces kept revolting whenever the Ptolemies took them. The Ptolemies will have Carthage under their thumb for the most part, but they won't really be able to do much else.

I'm actually very tempted to start a Roman campaign, now...

[Geoffrey S]

That's good news, considering Armenia and Hayasdan are one and the same .

Oops. Meant Armenia and Parthia.

[Dooz]

Oh man, that campaign is looking sweet as hell. Interesting developments, even in the east. Not a crazy jungle like in mine. I've been holding off on the definitive campaign until later versions, if not the full release of the mod. Till then, I've played an extensive Casse campaign, well over 150 years and now playing a nice Getai campaign. Probably do another faction or two, hellenic maybe and carthage, before taking a crack at Rome. Can't wait for more developments!

[Dayve]

214BC... Not long after my last post but some interesting things happening... Makedonia expanding east a lot more and north too all the way up into eastern Germanic lands.. Egypt has laid siege to ALL of Carthage's remaining cities and the best thing of all... The Casse have landed an army with a general on mainland Europe and are laying siege to a city along the coast! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Dooz]

That's so awesome. Makedonia running wild! I can't believe the Casse have conquered the island and are actually breaking out. They're still only with their original province in my campaign. The Ptolemies? Fuhgetaboutit.

Getai 203 B.C.


This has been going pretty good. The war between the Romans and Sweboz still raging on, wonderful stuff. I have an extensive network of spies all over the damn place so I see just about everything that goes on. Great battles, back and forth. The Sweboz really owe it all to their incredible leader, Swahaut or somesuch. The recent Roman reforms have given them an edge though, and Swahaut is getting older, just turned 50. I gave the Seleukids all their Turkish holdings back, albeit completely destroyed. Trying to give their allies, the Armenians, a reason to attack undefended cities.

[QwertyMIDX]

I love how there's no telling how a game will go when you start a campagin. I think I've seen a report of every faction doing at least pretty well.

[Dooz]

I love how there's no telling how a game will go when you start a campagin. I think I've seen a report of every faction doing at least pretty well.

One thing you can count on; there will be Persians where there ought not be Persians.

[paullus]

Anyone seen the Arverni win the civil war? That's the one faction I havent seen do all that well (ie, expand much), perhaps they have somewhere in these eight pages, but if so, I don't recall it.

[Dayve]

My last one of the night. Just got the reforums as the Romani... Looking forward to using my new troops tomorrow. The Ptolemies are worrying... They have some seriously scary armies... I have a spy in Africa and i've looked at one of their full stacks... It had over 10 units of these pikemen in a chainmail suit with a relatively small shield - i forget their name but it says they are somewhat elite and their defense stat is scary... They had 5 units of galatian swordsmen who were wearing chainmail too and had a big shield... I forget their name also but again their stats were scary... Every unit they had in the army had 2 silver chevrons or more and some even had gold... No wonder the Carthies only have 2 cities left.

The Germans are just annoying me now... They will not leave my eastern provinces alone at all... They send a few armies, get defeated, accept a ceasefire and then come back 4 turns later with more men for me to kill... I've raided their cities that border me, exterminated and destroyed then left them, they re-take and come back for more... They just won't stop... They've actually taken Sagestica from me which was worrying at first as they had another huge army nearby and all mine were retraining in Arretium and Ariminum...

The Casse failed to take the city in my last screenshot but they're back for more... Sieging an Aediu city with 2 full stack armies... I'm proud of them. I've been giving the Seleucids money and demanding they attack the Ptolemies but i think they're just using the money i give them to go on vacation sitting on a nice warm beach somewhere laughing at the stupid Romans who think they're actually going to use the money to launch an attack on the most powerful faction in the game...

[Dooz]

Have you been helping the Casse at all or is everything that's happened been of their own design? Also, you could give your Sweboz border town you raid to the Getai or some other faction as a buffer zone. Ought to be pretty effective for a while. Maybe an ally of theirs so they don't come back for more, and if they do, they'll have other things to worry about. And the Ptolies shouldn't be much of a problem 'cause they most likely won't be crossing the sea to raid you or anything... although I guess you never, what with the Casse doing what their doing. I can't believe their back with two more stacks.

[O'ETAIPOS]

Makedonian campain

Year 268BC


Year 257BC winter


Year 248BC winter


Cartaginians and Ptolemaioi are alies for looong time, Ptolemaioi and Seleukids are in war from the beginning, but only effect is Sel capturing one city north of Anticheia.
Sarmatians are under atack from Hayasdan and Phalava, were left with one province, but another rebeled back to them.
Romani have peace with everybody and and for years they were doing nothing.

[Dayve]

Everything the Casse is doing is without financial aid from me. I've given money to the Greeks, (who are all but dead) the Aediu, the Carthies, the Seleukids and the Baktrians. The Casse have several armies actually just standing around on Britain... Hopefully they will bring them across soon to join the fight. I'll get a screenshot for ya.



I just noticed something interesting - Massalia has rebelled to the Greeks and they have a full stack there... I wondered why small Greek armies had been wandering into northern Italy. I'll let you know how that one works out. I might give them some money to see if i can get them to expand more into Gaul perhaps... What a difference in history that would be.

[Dooz]

Wow, Parthia has a large, coherent empire in O's campaign. Interesting how long that'll last until they start sprouting up all over the place. And I'm loving that Casse expansion. I guess I have a soft spot, I played my first EB campaign for over a 150 years as the Casse *tear*. Two general lead armies on the mainland, wow. I wonder what kind of troops their wielding.

Getai 200 B.C.


War has broken out with mighty Rome. All alliances have shifted, madness, madness! An unsteady alliance has been forged with Sweboz, having had a common enemy in Rome. They have however ceased hostilities for the time being. The Seleukids are also an ally of mine as I practically handed over almost all of Turkey to them. They're at war with Ptolemaoi, few battles here and there. A bit of hard luck. A superb prospect of mine, one Zalmoxis, was assasinated at the ripe age of 23 by a Roman, who was then made short work of by an assasin of mine. It was a tough loss though... very tough. He was to be the next great general. However, I do have at least two others who are leading the campaign against the Romans, one of which is already making strides towards greatness.

[Dayve]

Two general lead armies on the mainland, wow. I wonder what kind of troops their wielding.

Not the best lineup ever unfortunately but at least they've got them on the mainland now and if they can do it once, they can do it again... I decided not to give them money and gave it to the Greeks in Massalia instead to see if i can get them to do something.

As for your Getai campaign - Looks great. Rarely ever see any Getai campaign screenshots around here.

-Those crazy purple pyjama people of the east... They always end up with a city inside other factions empires... I might ally myself with them and give them Alalia just for something to do...

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Wow! That Makedonian expansion in Dayve's campaign is something I've never seen here before. They and the Epeirotes have managed to coexist, while they subdued the other greeks in Hellas (except the Epeirotes took Delphi), and then all of Ionian Greece, both sides of the Bosphoros, then greek cities at Kallatis, Olbia, and the Crimea. And all the factions look to still be alive in 209 too, with the Greeks making their only real stand at Massilia. A wonderful campaign there Dayve - great screenshots!

[Dayve]

201BC. After my faction leader and also best general (3 stars) was assasinated by dirty German assassins, (left me annoyed for a while i can tell you) i sent my 2 best other generals with a legion each into the Germanian land just north of Sagestica and put an end to this skirmishing/raiding BS by exterminating all 3 of the cities there and gifting them to the Greeks, who still haven't built a unit in them for 4 years despite having almost 200k Minai in gifts from me... Oh well at least it stopped the Germans annoying me.

The Iberians are pushing right up the west coast of Gaul and they have some pretty big armies about the place. Casse have gone back to Britannia without taking any Gallic cities, unfortunately... Ptolemies keep taking Carthy cities but they eventually just rebel back to the Cartheginians... Macedon hasn't expanded much but isn't showing signs of giving way to that empire of hers anytime soon.

Lastly i have declared war on the Epirotes and taken Epidamnos... The next city of theirs i capture will put me border to border with Macedon, who are allied with the Epirotes.. That should be interesting.

[Cheexsta]

Ok, maybe I was wrong about the Ptolemies. They seem to be owning Carthage pretty well, aside from a few revolts from the looks of it.

Very interesting

[Dooz]

Getai 198 B.C.


Well, took care of Rome pretty nicely. A few outnumbered, heroic victories, good experience for troops and generals and now, the war is over. I gave their bordering cities to the Sweboz to end hostilities. Rome is currently at war with Iberia only and I am enjoying some peacetime. However, I have a bad feeling about those crazy germans... Ptolemies are almost completely gone from the Arabian peninsula, Seleukids making progress there.

[Dayve]

Them crazy Germans will stab you in the back any chance they get just like they did me. We were allies up until they took a town which bordered my Sagestica, then the armies started to march... One even marched into northern Italy! Disgraceful! They were actually quite difficult to beat at first... I lost a huge battle and then they went on to take Sagestica for me, but my faction leader marched right in and took it back. He got assasinated though... I'd advise you to keep a spy and an assassin with every army to be sure they don't assasinate anybody good... I was well cheesed off when they did my faction leader.

Anyway good luck with your campaign... I will be invading Getai land soon myself i foresee, they keep marching armies into my land and then leaving... It's only a matter of time before they lay siege to my richest city, Dalminion, which is making over 10,000 minai a turn.

[Jarardo]

226 BC Makedon campaign. I expanded in too many directions at once. I was spread too thin, then my allies, the romans, decided to pick a fight with me too. I could maintain my borders, but turns sometimes took me an hour, as I had to play out multiple battles every turn. It ended up being a chore, so I just threw in the towel.

I gave my parthian allies a lot of money, hoping they could distract the factions around them, and also kept good relations with Carthage, but despite the Carthaginians huge economical power, they failed to maintain war with any of their neighbors. So I ended up fighting everyone at once. I wish I could have finished it, I developed some good generals, and had a lot of fun, but it just got too tedious.

[Dayve]

No kidding... All that by 226BC? Look at my last campaign screenshot in this thread - It's now 196BC and that's all i have... I've been lucky... The Aediu have stayed allied to me the whole game... I even own all of northern Italy except for Mediolanium and they still haven't even sent 1 soldier onto my land... The Ptolemies to the south are busy with Carthage and Seleucids so they haven't bothered me... I'm just slowly conquering the Greek peninsula at the moment.

The way you expanded is pretty impressive though, i can imagine how much it must've sucked to have to fight all those battles every turn...

[Jarardo]

Well there wasn't so many battles every turn until the last five years or so. The Hayasdan had all that territory north of getai, and were harrassing me there, so I just invaded those provinces. I also moved out of pontus, taking that territory from the ptolemies and the seleuks.

I was thinking earlier that I could just abandon some of those provinces and try to finish it, all I have to do is take the Itallian provences, that will be a lot of fights though.

The Hayasdan definetly did pretty well as far as AI goes in this campaign though, and I didn't aid them at all.

[QwertyMIDX]

It's cool that Rome went into Iberia instead of central gaul in your game too.

[Geoffrey S]

Those Armenians seem to be going bonkers in a few too many games, methinks.

[Jarardo]

I just downloaded your save from the interesting saves thread Dayve. The ptolemies invasion of carthage is pretty awesome, I've never seen the AI be that successfull in an invasion.

I like your organization too, the forts with large armies are cool.

QwertyMIDX: It's cool that Rome went into Iberia instead of central gaul in your game too.

Yeah I wish they would have pushed a little harder, I was pressuring them to attack the Iberians, I was pressuring the Carthaginians too. Neither one really got a lot accomplished.

It really is cool how diverse things can end up with different games.

[Dayve]

I wouldn't abandon it altogether... Abandon those worthless landlocked northern ones and pull back to choke points which you can defend in the mountains of northern Greece and rivers etc... Then continue to expand east, Alexander style...

[Oleo]

Roman Campaign, Medium/Medium v0.7.3a,

251BC


227BC, I sort of expanded much faster than I wanted to.


Also I dont play long stints, so there might be some less expansion due to load/save bug (f.i. Aedui have besieged Viennos of the Arverni many times with far superior army without taking it)

[Jarardo]

The Yuezi and the Baktrians seem to be doing better in your campaign than most I've seen. Heres one with just the AI playing.




Thats 233BC, I just left it running all night, woke up and had a message that the Romani had won. So there was zero save/loading going on here, the only faction with protectorates was the Romani, and they had...Iberia, and one of the gaulic factions I think as protectorates. Lots of alliances still though. I like that the makedons are doing fairly well too.

[King Thengel]

My new campaign as the Epirotes, VH/M, 0.74, 269bc. The world seems mostly calm right now, except for the Romans, angry at the loss of their capitol .