AI faction expansion in your campaigns?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Not much has been said about this. We change builds so often internally up to the open beta, that very few long campaigns were run. I know I would (and I think most all members) love to see some screenshots of how the AI controlled factions expanded over the years in your campaigns. If you've run some for 20+ years, how about posting some shots and your thoughts?

AI expansion seems to be a lot more slow in the open beta with some changes made recently in regards to rebel family members, troop strength, and city development. So let us know how it's gone and what you think about it! Thanks!

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Here are some examples from older campaigns (on older wacky builds) from the internal boards. Basically just to show different ways you could post these things:

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[Dayve]

There's my campaign after 12 years (only got that far up to now), i'll post more as i progress.

(I am ze Romans by the way)

[khelvan]

Woo! Sweet, sweet Zeus, I finally got the Sarmatians to expand!

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Woo! Sweet, sweet Zeus, I finally got the Sarmatians to expand!

Just as amazing that the Yuezhi took Chighu too, but it is nice to see the Sarmatians do that. Maks are looking good. Also it seems as though the Seleukids keep getting provinces either bribed away by Ptolemies or are giving them up in a deal. Greek_fire had a nice expansion in another thread too.

[Spendios]

My Pontos campaign in 258 BC :

[khelvan]

Oooh, that's a nice one too.

[Inepticus]

How does one turn off the fog of war to see ?

[khelvan]

In the console (usually ` to get there) type "toggle_fow" and do the same to turn it off.

[Narakir]

I'm playing Casse. I'll post more soon as I advance.

Ps : I've noticed that casse gouvernement 2 and 4 share the same name and descriptions.

[Big_John]

249bc, i'm karthadastim
(sorry, no sauromataen expansion)

[The_Mark]

I'd say that the Sauromatae were bogged in a war against Hayasdan and Pahlava. But.. Look at Baktrians go! They're set for the rest of the game, I'd be damned if anyone can challenge them in the East, that'll only happen if Sels can turn all of their attention there, but Baktria would still survive in India.

@ Narakir's:
If Epeiros and The Koinon are allied, they'll trash the Maks good, a brush over Thermon could turn them against one another though. Epeiros will still come up as a winner there, they're already advancing North and taking territory there. Luckily for them Getia has been quite silent. I'd bet that Epeiros will challenge Rome herself after a few decades.

[Cybvep]

256 BC. I'm playing as Aedui. Currently, there is only ONE war - Arche Seleukeia vs Ptolemaioi (they are fighting with each other from the start almost constantly...).

[Thorn Is]

Here I've been playing as Pontos with the fog of war turned off so i could pay attention to what is going on everywhere around the map, which is taking forever to watch all the moves

This is after 10 years....
The Aedui and the Arvernos have been in constant war. Arvernos seems to be winning, though they havent really taken any land from their Gaulic counterparts and now the Romans have several armies in southern Gaul and are expanding very aggressively. The Casse are on their way to ruling Britain very soon. Epeiros and Hellenon have allied together and have given the Macedonians a thrashing. Getai is coming along nicely. Sauromatae, rather then taking the northern rebel cities has just attacked the expanding Hayasdan, wonder what will happen from that... I'm allied with Hayasdan and has even tried to help them take a rebel city which borders both our borders. We were defeated though. My economy is now stable, but I'm low on troops and will take some time to gain enough money to expand some more

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Nice guys. Keep 'em up. Especially when you get further into a campaign.

[Chester]

How to I view my .tga file?

[Big_John]

hi chester, what i did was to press "print screen" on my keyboard to capture the display to the clipboard, while in rtw. then i press "ctrl+esc" to get out of rtw and opened an image viewing program. i use irfanview, but any image viewer should work. i pasted the clipboard data into irfanview and cropped it and resized it, viola.

http://www.irfanview.com/


edit: in other words, i don't bother with the tgas at all, though any image viewer should be able to open a tga file.

[Epistolary Richard]

Here I've been playing as Pontos with the fog of war turned off so i could pay attention to what is going on everywhere around the map, which is taking forever to watch all the moves

On the campaign selection screen try unchecking the Follow AI Characters box

[Greek_fire19]

You can use imageshack.us

Here's a map of 246 B.C.

I was the Casse, and I had absolutely no interaction with other factions whatsoever, I doubt they even knew I existed.

One interesting thing you'll note is that somehow from the other side of the world the Aedui took over Galacia. Is that just a random fluke or have Eb made it more likely for celts in various places to join forces?

https://img326.imageshack.us/my.php?image=map6iw.jpg

EDIT: I'v played a few campaigns to about this stage now, and from what I'v seen this is pretty typical. Noone becomes the absolute supreme power and basicaly noone is totally destroyed. In fact it seems as if the A.I is perhaps actually more cautious in EB, in partiuclar in it's dealings with other A.I factions.

I played on with that particular campaign for about another 5 years, but nothing much happened so I didnt bother taking another screenshot. I took over Ireland and the bactrians took those 2 rebel provinces near the caspian sea. The Macedonians expanded into asia minor a bit after a few seleucid provinces rebeled and I think carthage lost another iberian province

[Greek_fire19]

One little thing: Has anyone had a game yet where the seleucid empire was totally crushed? It just dont seem to happen very much, in fact more often than not they actualy expand.

[Thorn Is]

On the campaign selection screen try unchecking the Follow AI Characters box

Ive been playing like that so I could keep track of all the factions. I've noticed that even though some factions might not expand they are usually always trying to expand, but either losing to the rebels or to other factions...

GreekFire

what looks interesting in your map is going to be the battle for Gaul, with the Romans having a presence in the south and the Sweboz looking pretty tough...
Although with my game the Seleukos are still dominant in the region the Macedonians have taken another hit - losing another city just after I took that picture.... If they don't rally they might be the first to be destroyed.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

One little thing: Has anyone had a game yet where the seleucid empire was totally crushed? It just dont seem to happen very much, in fact more often than not they actualy expand.

They expand into Arabia often just because the AI likes to go after rebel provinces when it can. And they will often get cut off from provinces they might grab in the northeast. But I usually see them lose provinces to rebellion and other factions step in then. I've seen them cut apart in many places, but never totally destroyed (but then I've never played a really long campaign either).

[Chaotica]

My Macedonian campaign in 248 BC:



Unfortunately, I get a CTD after this turn. :(

[Teleklos Archelaou]

My Macedonian campaign in 248 BC:



Unfortunately, I get a CTD after this turn. :(

Holy crap! I wonder what got in the Yuezhi drinking water?

[khelvan]

One interesting thing you'll note is that somehow from the other side of the world the Aedui took over Galacia. Is that just a random fluke or have Eb made it more likely for celts in various places to join forces?

When provinces rebel, they have to "rebel to" someone, we can't just make them rebel to the slave faction (believe me we wish we could). So instead we have them rebel to people they have the closest affiliation with. So the Aedui in the case of the Galatians.

[GoreBag]

After 15 years in, everyone seems to be doing well for themselves, with the exception of those ninnie horse people.

Things actually started to pick up after I took the screenshot; Makedon, my ally, decided to besiege Naissus. Reinforcements arrived before any rams were brought to the walls and their army was utterly crushed. In fury, I quickly assembled what more troops I had and marched on Sardika, where my spy was ready and waiting to keep the gates open. Sardika's garrison consisted only of a Makedonian family member, so the battle was really just an excuse to have live targets for practice.

After slaughtering the populace, my general produced a trait that gave him troubled dreams. All of my generals are wimps! Help!

[Divinus Arma]

The year is 262. I will post a map soon.

I am playing as Rome. The Aedui have not been doing well against the Arverni, but manage to hold on. The Aedui hold Galatia in my campaign as well.





edit: Nevermind.

[Thorn Is]

After slaughtering the populace, my general produced a trait that gave him troubled dreams. All of my generals are wimps! Help!

having that trouble too. Thanks to some horrific battles I massacred a few cities in revenge. So I dont know if my generals are wimps or I'm just a bastard

Ok after 20 years
But I keep getting kicked out after Seleukos turn so I dont think continuing will be possible anymore

Ok Major wars....
the Aedui have secured the north, with their enemy Arvernos in the south... though the Romans have a staggering 3 cities under siege in Gaul - 2 rebels 1 Arvernos. Don't think they would have taken them all, but give them some time and they would be a powerhouse in Gaul.
The Romans and Epeiros have been in constant war. The Epeiros have even marched on Rome. At the time this was taken the Romans had Taras undersiege and Eperios had only one army left in Italia.
Iberia and Karthadastim have fought to a stalemate.
the Getai have become a true powerhouse...
The Macedonians were almost finished at one time, but rallied and have taken some cities on the coast of Asia Minor. In otherwords - it was almost as if they were forced into migrating eastwards. They have since been trying to fight their way back on to mainland Greece.
the Seleukids and Ptolemaios are in constant warfare with no real result, just a lot of battles and a lot of dead.
I have (pontos) became a trading powerhouse. Making around a 1000 gold per turn. Have no enemies, just a lot of friends, though that would probably change with time.
well cause of my problems with getting kicked out of my game its probably the end of that campaign. Must say it was a lot of fun, and very interesting constantly watching the other factions an how they react to eachother and how they expand.

[The_Mark]

A shame that the Sauromatae haven't expanded properly, especially in Thorn's campaign...

[Thorn Is]

They fought a lot in the first 10 years against the Hayasdan and the rebel factions to the west and the north, but never had a huge army.

[Thorn Is]

It would be interesting though to see if someone could make it 40/ 50 years in without too many CTD's to see if they will expand once they have some time to build up a good enough army - or if oppertunity knocks
though they were doing well in Greek Fire's and Dayve's campaigns