AI faction expansion in your campaigns?

[O'ETAIPOS]

O'ETAIPOS i duped HA would work, they are great but Romans use lots of triari and HA cant hurt them much.

The key is "triangle of death". send 1 HA to shoot phalanx from the front. when thet start to chase you send two more HA's to shoot phalanx from the back. Now, where ever they go you have 2 HA's shooting from behind. On huge settings it means sth like 2000 arrows with power 6+ Triari have heavy armour (14) but you should kill enough men to make them waver. Then you stop shooting and charge heavy cav from many directions. Mop up and repeat with another inf unit.

I can win in filed against Romans, the problem is that they economy is so much stronger then mine. I destroy few stacks, no problem they rebuild and keep coming. What worse i was their only enemy and they trow everything they got at me.

If you send cav to kill every small stack (that i saw in your screenshot) you will hurt them much. Then you send them to Italy and you could kill romans during gathering the armies. Also you could hurt theyre economy sitting there.
Big armies that break through attack with inf armies.

And pontos attacking me from the east is not helping. Before my migration i won 97 battles and lost 18.

The question is how many men you lost in the proces - cav army could anihilate enemy with ratio's like 20:1

[LorDBulA]

The key is "triangle of death". send 1 HA to shoot phalanx from the front. when thet start to chase you send two more HA's to shoot phalanx from the back.

Lol 3 HA vs one phalanx unit? I could only field something like 1000 HA.
I doupt that they could tackle 3000 men strong army. Not enough arrows.
Plus romans use quite few Lucos cavalry. Whenever i faced them they mannage to wipe out my HA with no probelm in 1 vs 1 duel.

If you send cav to kill every small stack

I never chase enemy units. I end battle when End Battle button is avaible. More realistic. So when i rout anemy army fast usualy around 40% of enemies can survive.

The question is how many men you lost in the proces

Alot. In ambushes i could get something like 1:5-6 ratio.
In most fearsom battles i had like 1:1.2 kill ratio.
On avarage i would say no more then 1:2.5

[O'ETAIPOS]

Lol 3 HA vs one phalanx unit? I could only field something like 1000 HA.
I doupt that they could tackle 3000 men strong army. Not enough arrows.
Plus romans use quite few Lucos cavalry. Whenever i faced them they mannage to wipe out my HA with no probelm in 1 vs 1 duel.

you need to concentrate firepower on one or two units at a time and not just pepper the whole line if you want to rout some units.
there is not much sense in using more than 3-6 HA per army (unless you fight enemy HA), you just cant command them well on battle field.
You need to take care of your HA's! NEVER should you allow enemy engage them h2h - that's why you took heavy cav with you.
Keep moving - cavalry is there to move!
If you used all the arrows and no enemy seems to have low morale just withdraw - you are not escaping, you are tacticaly redeploying. :)

I never chase enemy units. I end battle when End Battle button is avaible. More realistic. So when i rout anemy army fast usualy around 40% of enemies can survive.

In my system when last unit broke the rest are lying everywhere on battlefield. :)) always fight one enemy unit at a time.

Alot. In ambushes i could get something like 1:5-6 ratio.
In most fearsom battles i had like 1:1.2 kill ratio.
On avarage i would say no more then 1:2.5

My cav has average 1:10, when I fight enemy who is not well armoured and has not more units than me I could finish without losses (rout with arrows only)
I have problem with ambushes - always loosing more men than in normal battle, so I avoid setting them. :)

[Dooz]

What difficulty battle are you guys playing on?

[O'ETAIPOS]

Settings - large, difficulty medium - as this is recomended

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Nice rundown of your campaign Mattholomew. It looks like it will be difficult for you to win there with the Maks and Epeirotes still doing tolerably well, but it should be very difficult for the KH to win. That's why they never really expand a lot in EB - they shouldn't very much (plus they don't have tons of rebel space to expand into). But it is nice to occassionally get a province that rebels to you. This is one of the first campaigns in quite a while that I've not seen the Hayasdan explode past Pontos. They look to be pretty even this time.

Hope you enjoy the rest of it!

[QwertyMIDX]

Settings - large, difficulty medium - as this is recomended

Large VH/M is recomended actually.

[O'ETAIPOS]

Large VH/M is recomended actually.

Wonderland asked only about battle difficulty, I use VH campain diff.

[LorDBulA]

I play VH/H and hudge unit sizes.
I guess that gorilla tactic: attack, shoot them, retreat could work.
But its just to boring and i prefer men fight, face to face, not some seek and hide game.

I have problem with ambushes - always loosing more men than in normal battle, so I avoid setting them. :)

Haha. Ambushes are great. You can even ods by using them. But if you faile to ambush enemy it can end up bloody.

[PSYCHO V]

soon i was called back to my true passion, EB......

Sounds like things are about to get pretty intense there.

[Dooz]

Casse campaign, 182 B.C.



This thread has died off it seems. Post your images folks.

[QwertyMIDX]

Go Eperios, way to take Rome.

[Dooz]

That's not Rome, it's the city just to the North. I sacked Rome myself a while ago, along with the cities on the way. I gave them that city and they've built quite an Italian peninsula presence. They've funelled in a lot of troops to the east coast and in from the North.

[jebes]

Hmm, I have been following this thread and I am a little concerned about the faction expansion in Rome. It seems that there are very few times where Rome expands the way it did in history. It seems they even have a hard time kicking Epieros off the heel. I wonder what causes this and if there is a way to fix it. Or, perhaps it is good as is because Rome is already one of the easier factions.

[Dooz]

Well as far as my campaign is concerned, their weak state is wholly my "fault". They were expanding quite nicely... a bit too much. They had all of Italy and a lot more land to the north, east and west. When they attacked me though, all that changed. I split up Italy by re-introducing Epirus and they did the rest. I also took their northern and western holdings in Gaul.

Yep... they were doing quite well before all this.

[O'ETAIPOS]

Hmm, I have been following this thread and I am a little concerned about the faction expansion in Rome. It seems that there are very few times where Rome expands the way it did in history. It seems they even have a hard time kicking Epieros off the heel. I wonder what causes this and if there is a way to fix it. Or, perhaps it is good as is because Rome is already one of the easier factions.

In my Mak campain rome hadn't tried to attack epeiros for years - when epeirotes had only Taras (guess why :)) then epeirotes captured rhegion and got Syracusai (rebelion?) rome attacked about 20 years from the gamestart. During that 20 years they had theire main army sitting on epeirotes border - so no other expanding.

[jebes]

Mostly, It seems odd when comparing the historical vs EB expansion of Rome to the Historical vs EB expansion of Karthadast and Ptolemaioi. I like the fact that every EB game is different. I am not complaining about that at all. What I don't think is portrayed very well is the momentum of each faction coming into 272 BC. I think EB does a good job of getting a snap shot of 272, but it is impossible to show motion in a snapshot. All the nations at this time were in motion and have to make a completely new path each time, instead of continuing what they were doing in 273.

Anyway, I won't care if nobody else does, but it does seem a little odd.

[LorDBulA]

I for one will not complain on Rome expansion.
Playing as Gatai i had my as* kicked big time by Romans.
They declared war on me about 245-240 BC.
By 220BC i was seeking refuge in Halikarnassos and Sidone (? city north of Halikarnassos) after loosing all my homeland territories.
My kingdom was thorn apart by Romans and Pontos.
But true cause of my demise where Romans, Pontos was just a helper.
By 220BC Rome was greatest power in known world.

[mattholomew]

I for one will not complain on Rome expansion.
Playing as Gatai i had my as* kicked big time by Romans.
They declared war on me about 245-240 BC.
By 220BC i was seeking refuge in Halikarnassos and Sidone (? city north of Halikarnassos) after loosing all my homeland territories.
My kingdom was thorn apart by Romans and Pontos.
But true cause of my demise where Romans, Pontos was just a helper.
By 220BC Rome was greatest power in known world.

that's true, but historically the romans never expanded into the upper balkans, eventually they did get dacia i suppose but that was very difficult and occured only after they ruled the majority of the mediteranean coastline. I think that the overwhelming power of messana and syracuse plays into this, as it keeps carthage and rome from ever coming into contact with each other. The romans can expand well, i've seen them explode in north-westward expansion, i'd just like to see that redirected in a more historical direction. Then again, i'm sure that the EB members will get to that so there is no reason for me to nag.

by the way, isn't it fun to lose campaigns? I always thought RTW would be fun to lose in, making last stands and all, maybe even rebuilding an empire from scratch more than once per campaign. Long wars in EB are the best.

[LorDBulA]

Yea it would be good to direct Romans to conquere Sycily first. But i dont think there is a way to do it.

by the way, isn't it fun to lose campaigns?

Yea it was my best game ever. I think i never had so much fun playing computer game.
But practically i wasnt defeated. When i knew i cant win i send 3 generals to Asia minor. One manage to get there and with mercenaries help he proclaimed himself tyrant of Halicarnassos. Then i captured Sidone. So when i lost my dacian holdings few years later (with all others faction members) i still had 2 cities in Asia Minor.
Those greek cities where very wealthy. I was making a bit more then half of what i used to in my best times. The future was full of danger but also full of opportunities. If i didnt encounter possibly fatal CTD and didnt have to move to other mod testings i still might pull it off.

[Zero1]

Well, in my current campaign as the Aedui VH/M reccomended settings, I've finally managed to unite all of ancient Gaul and have two experienced and well armed full stack armies, I am in alliance with Carthage, both of us are on Rome's borders which are largely contained to the Italian peninsular, and I'm about to move in.

I can say, its really satisfying to take a nation suffering in decline and in the middle of a civil war, on the brink of collapse, and turn it into a major super power.

I love you EB!

[PseRamesses]

After kicking out the Epirotes from W.Greece/ Balkans my spies returned some 10 years to Italy and to my amusement they had not only survived but taken the whole island of Scicily, S.Italy and was hammering the gates of Rome itself. I do love this game!

[Tricon]

I have no pics, but in my last two campaigns (one araound 150 bc, one 200 bc) pontos is doing extremely well.

[Zero1]

Here's mine, I'm playing as the Aedui and it is 246bc, I conquered Rome a few years ago and have finally managed to more or less pacify *read largely annhialate* the population on the Italian peninsular, and I'm about to move on Iberia...this campaign has been SO much fun!

[mattholomew]

this is my kh campaign in 225 bc, i had an awful lot of hard fighting since my last post. Epirus was far too strong and i've let them live for too long. now they come at me with full stacks of their strongest phalanxes but luckily i've managed to nearly drive them out of greece. Meanwhile, Makedonia exists only because i have given them provinces in order to serve as buffer zones in the hope that they might aid me against pontos and the seleukids. Unfortunately, both of their armies in anatolia were destroyed retaking mytilene from a rebellion. Pahlava is no longer allied with the seleukids, and is at war with armenia and baktria. Seleukid provinces between the persian gulf and hyrcanian sea have been rebelling lately as well, leaving the east to fend for itself. Sweboz and getai are competing for control of the baltic and upper balkans, and although there had been bloodshed, now they only compete to take rebelling border territories. Meanwhile the gauls aren't doing anything at all and the Casse are working their way into the mainland. The ptolemies made a comeback and are now invading Syria, while the Seleukids are pretty much on the retreat. As for the Epirus, Carthage, and the Romani it seems pretty much over expansion wise. The Sicilian Rebels are just too powerful, same with the getai, sweboz, and I know i wont let epirus take ground from me, so unless epirus decides to blitz the Romani, or vice-versa, i think it's over for them. Sicily is just too powerful. Pontos is doing well, i want to invade and take sinope back but they've got three stacks in byzantion. Maybe i could put ships in between europe and asia to block them, but that would be a bit of an exploit. If I could just take the rest of epirus, i'd be able to bring both of my armies to invade asia. I think i'm just about done, though, with the new patch coming out and i'm too lazy now to fight large battles personally. Either way, it's a very fun campaign.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

I've enjoyed those posts mattholomew! The patched OB is going to still be awfully difficult, it's sure not easier than the unpatched OB. It's definitely even more realistic, but it's got plenty of other nice touches to make it more fun and interesting too.

[Dooz]

My goodness. Will there hopefully be less rebels spawning all the time, unnecessarily? I'd welcome difficulty in other forms, but if more rebels are one of them... that's not cool. Otherwise, I canNOT wait for this patch.

To keep things on topic, here's my campaign.

Casse:

172 B.C.


142 B.C.


Once again, the best and most fun campaign of my natural life. Here's a thread with some info on my current armies and a bit about the situation.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...9&postcount=19

Basically, two of those identical main armies as shown, and the most recent one was put together for a far away expedition to wipe out a Gallic stronghold in Turkey. The situation turns chaotic now as Rome has declared war on me and suffered two huge defeats in a single turn at the hands of Calpornos the Thinker (formerly Calpornos the Wrathful), faction heir and extraordinary man. Carthage has invaded the south of Italy, taking one of Epirus' two remaining holdings on the peninsula. Now only one city remains under Epirote control in Italy, Carthage has creeped in to the south, Rome has just three cities and Casse are holding firm to the North.

Epirus was doing a good job of funneling in troops from the mainland onto the peninsula to keep their positions, but a recent invasion by the Carthaginian navy has changed all that, wiping out most if not all of the Epirote fleets. Now, they have huge armies waiting on the coast with no way to get across the channel, and only a battered force (albeit not small) left to defend their final city against the encroaching Carthaginians. Carthage did their part in supplying enough troops from Africa down to Sicily to make the invasion and holding off the counter-attack successful. Now both their armies in the area are not at a level to continue fighting at the moment. All the blood in Italy is shed by the Casse and Romans.

With no plans of moving further south into the peninsula, the rubble of the Roman cities I conquer, exterminate and destroy will have to be bestowed upon an ally, possibly Carthage, as "gifts". The situation is indeed heating up and I can't wait to see how it all unfolds. There's much more going on in other parts of the world as well, but that's for another time.

[Ambiorix]

Is it just me or do the Eastern factions tend to expand... oddly. Baktria and Pahlav always seem to kind of swirl in and out of the north and the east.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Yeah, they do. They seem to like to grab whatever provinces open up when Seleukids lose them. Baktria often does take india, but those cities are so huge that it takes some big armies to do it. My most recent foray into Taxilia was soundly beaten back by their troops.

[mattholomew]

I've noticed something, when people blitz early in the game there tend to be large powerful nations in other parts of the world, far earlier than any nation becomes powerful in a campaign where the player goes slow to take things over. Maybe this is already a known bug in the total war engine, i didn't take any time to check.