AI faction expansion in your campaigns?

[QwertyMIDX]

We have a script in progress that should make blitzing a more dangerous strategy.

[Ambiorix]

In one of my campaigns (I'll try to find which one and get a screeny) Pahlav was allied with Baktria and I guess either allied with Sauromatae or the just didn't attack them. They had a snaking empire that touched SE India, through their starting two territories, up to the Northern steppe, and west into Germannia, with their empire never more than one or two provinces wide.

[Trithemius]

From my campaign as the Romans, I should note that I foolishly did not heed the reccommended settings and so this is M/M. :(



Some of the troop movements I observed suggest:
- The Baktrians are going pretty well, and seem to be trying to decide whether to go finish off the Yuezhi or not.
- The Hayasadan seem to be creeping around the top of the Black Sea, they don't seem to have gone the biff with the Sauromatae yet.
- The Sauromatae seem to be doing their thing and taking steppes with reasonable facility; they seem to be going west now though.
- The Getai are going great guns and are stomping all over the place with big stacks. Thankfully they have not given me any trouble yet.
- The Aedui have Iberian and Averni (!) protectorates and seem to be making some kind of super Celtic confederation (again?). I wish they'd fight each other a bit so I can gobble up some Averni lands.
- The Carthaginians seem to be napping - they have some large stacks wandering the Sahara looking for the source of the Nile or something (I assume).

[Dooz]

God, I hate protectorates. I wish there was a way to just turn them off, for both AI and player use. And Jeez, Baktria is and odd military machine.

[King Thengel]

My first (and current) campaign as Getia at 256 b.c. ...I'm kind of scared of the Sarmatians, they've been expanding like crazy all of a sudden..

[Trithemius]

Ten years, and about forty turns, on from my last map and this is what things look like:



Baktrians - seem to still be moving on the Yeuzhi, although the next turn they signed a ceasefire and alliance with them (I noticed that the Averni and Aedui did this - but was it was really a protectorate, maybe this needs another message?)

Makedonians - have a whole lot of pretty black-bannered stacks wandering around near Pella, but aren't doing a whole lot. I wish they'd go the biff with the Getai and save me a lot of handwringing every time I see a Getai stack cruising around near my Alpine provinces. I think they are moving in on Byzantium finally though...

Ptolemies - are still slugging it out ineffectually in the desert with the Seleukids. They don't seem to be doing a lot of successful conquering, but it seems like slightly larger P. stacks are kicking sand in the faces of their smaller Sel. cousins.

Carthaginians - finally consolidating Africa, although a lot of their guys are still holidaying in sunny Sahara.

Sweboz - my noble Germanic allies are finally moving on the Aedui - who have been at war with me for some time. We'll see how it goes though.

Aedui - these miserable curs backstabbed me and managed to buy all my Alpine provinces before I could get my assassin cadres into action! Our "war" consists of their little fleet occassionally blockading my ports and them sending the odd diplomat who is generall caught nosing around Aventicos before his gruesome murder. Obviously they are getting lazy behind their Averni Shield

Averni - these fellows are insufficiently warlike I think, they send a big stack to look around the Alps, but then pull back. Their spies bother Mediolanum and Patavium sometimes, but I have governers in these towns as I am trying to grow them fast so its not a big deal.

Koinon Hellenon - didn't like me kicking the Epeirotes, of felt protective of the Oracle at Delphi because they sent a big (780+) stack to fight my diminished consular force (480+) under Cotta (who crossed the sea to fight Epeiros because he developed Restless Warmonger ;)). The miserable devils have another one on the way, and I am low on cavalry so it could be a bit grim.

Sauromatae - have reached the sea, and seem to be exploring their wide, flat, land.

Everyone else - didn't seem to do much since it went by to fast (or maybe I was taking a drink when it did?), not a lot of action anyway.

Epeiros - a special mention! Epeiros is gone now, thanks to Cotta, but their elephants sure were a scare! I like to think I am now in the mindset of the Camillan Romans regarding elephants (wishing for flaming pigs and silly pointy carts :P).

[vizigothe]

262 BC


Not much going on so far, I am Casse btw.

[Cheexsta]

Since this pic, Rome has taken a couple more settlements and have made the Averni a protectorate. The Ptolemies are coming very close to taking Carthage out (they have around 4 full stacks in the area, give or take), and Iberia has also taken the whole peninsula while Baktria has firmed her grip in the East, scattering the remaining Parthians. The Seleukids declared war on me and are about to lose a few more of their Asia Minor provinces, and the Getai have nearly taken the whole Balkans and have become my ally (with a little help from 200,000 mnai).

This is definately an interesting situation. Go east and face the monstrous Ptolemies or head west and take on Rome, one of the richest factions aside from myself. The recent war with the Sels (even though they were my loyal allies for 52 years!) has made me want to go east, though...

[GMT]

Since this pic, Rome has taken a couple more settlements and have made the Averni a protectorate. The Ptolemies are coming very close to taking Carthage out (they have around 4 full stacks in the area, give or take), and Iberia has also taken the whole peninsula while Baktria has firmed her grip in the East, scattering the remaining Parthians. The Seleukids declared war on me and are about to lose a few more of their Asia Minor provinces, and the Getai have nearly taken the whole Balkans and have become my ally (with a little help from 200,000 mnai).

This is definately an interesting situation. Go east and face the monstrous Ptolemies or head west and take on Rome, one of the richest factions aside from myself. The recent war with the Sels (even though they were my loyal allies for 52 years!) has made me want to go east, though...

1090618 mnai?? how the hell did you get that much dough??

You've got to be using some kind of money cheat..

[Trithemius]

1090618 mnai?? how the hell did you get that much dough??

You've got to be using some kind of money cheat..

Look at all those trade routes! It's not inconceivable a person could get that much if they tried a bit and had a reasonable fiscal policy. I've got about 250k as the Romans, and my game is a couple of decades earlier and I have not been pushing trade hard in my development programs.

[QwertyMIDX]

Mines are the really money maker, I will have to cut income from them a bit...

[Dooz]

Mines are the really money maker, I will have to cut income from them a bit...

Nooooo, they're amazing! Playing as the Getai, I'm making enough bank to keep two very nice field armies active, maybe even another one now that I'm about to take Chresynospos(sp?) and have Nikomedia... talk about cash cow. (and I know that's the point, but hell, it's fun) I'd hate to see them go : ( As far as the huge amount of money in that posted image, it is possible protectorates or maybe cheats are involved, not just mines. But I suppose if it is solely from that... it might have to be toned down a bit, but yeah...

[Cheexsta]

1090618 mnai?? how the hell did you get that much dough??

You've got to be using some kind of money cheat..

Nope, no cheats. Just top-level mines and trading ports

Yes, I think mining income will have to be tweaked. Pella alone is making ~15,000 every turn just from mining income alone, while Byzantion and Athens are each making ~5,000 or so. I'm currently earning a good 49,000 per turn, and that's with 4 full stacks in the field (two of which are mostly levies, but still...).

I've been concentrating on trade for the past 50 years and regularly give 200,000+ to the Romans to keep them going

Good fun.

[QwertyMIDX]

It won't all go away, mines will still be a huge source of income, just not quite so much.

[Simmons]

Nope, no cheats. Just top-level mines and trading ports

Yes, I think mining income will have to be tweaked. Pella alone is making ~15,000 every turn just from mining income alone, while Byzantion and Athens are each making ~5,000 or so. I'm currently earning a good 49,000 per turn, and that's with 4 full stacks in the field (two of which are mostly levies, but still...).

I've been concentrating on trade for the past 50 years and regularly give 200,000+ to the Romans to keep them going

Good fun.

I guess the only reason I don't have such a surplus in my current Seleukid campaign I have a lot of under developed rebellious eastern provinces to dump a whole lot of cash into

[Dooz]

Ah, well... at least I have this campaign to go wild in : )

[QwertyMIDX]

Indeed, enjoy it while you can.

[pezhetairoi]

Ya. Mines have become such dominant sources of income that I'm going out of my way to send expeditionary forces overseas to secure provinces with mines, with the result that I have been sucked into a three-way fight with Qarthadast and Iberia over Pallantia, Baikor and Gades, while I have been forced into a major commitment (2 field armies!) in Greece, near wiping out Makedon and getting entangled in a life-and-death struggle with their ally the Getai that has culminated in me locking up their two fullstacks in Ak-Ink and Kallatis under siege. Mines shoudln't be doing this to me...

[QwertyMIDX]

Well they kind of should...what do you think people were fighting about in Iberia in the first place?

[Trithemius]

Well they kind of should...what do you think people were fighting about in Iberia in the first place?

The wild music makes them all crazy!

[Cheexsta]

Here's another pic of the same game, 10 years later. Rome and Iberia have erupted in war, and there's absolute chaos all over Europe. I've finally declared war on the Armenians after they attacked the Seleucids, who had become my ally again. Perfect excuse to take the trade-rich Black Sea The Sand Wars are also still raging on, with the Ptolemies having a fairly strong upper-hand but keep losing lots of provinces to revolts.



Has to be one of the most interesting RTW games I've seen in a long time...

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Very neat. Gotta love that Baktrian empire. And the Hayasdan do look like a good place to attack next (since I think you were at war with seleukids already - poaching off their provinces where possible). The rest of Anatolia will help you make a lot more money (like you need it ).

[Trithemius]

Okay, not the exhaustive documentation I had originally (before I discovered my screens were bad) but it might be interesting/useful all the same (I also realised that I am only thirty years in, not forty - I guess I am slow :P).

I'm the SPQR and the game is VH/M. Click the thumbnails for bigger images if you are inclined to do so.



At this point in time I had just begun, after ten years of war against the Epeirotes and Eleutheroi in southern Italy, to tackle the north. The AI factions, for the most part, seem to be a bit sleepy. The Averni seem to be going okay though.



Now the map shows the results of some of my antics in Gaul. My princeps, Blasio, obtained Vanquisher of the Gauls after a big battle and some enslavement in the taking of Mediolanum and decided that he wanted a triumph (or another one, since historically he'd already had one, according to his biography?). He lead a consular army through Massilia - which we permanently colonised - and then on through Gergovia, Viennos, Vesontio, and Bagacos, enslaving and burning everything down for plunder. I managed to buy peace and an alliance with the Aedui by giving them former Averni lands (although the Averni got Viennos back) and got an alliance with the Sweboz after I gave them Bagacos. I hoped, at this point, that the Sweboz and Aedui would tussle and that I could use the time to take Tolosa and wipe out the Averni - alas it was not to be...

The Seleukids seem to be making a bit of a comeback in the east, and the Yuezhi are taking territory too (which is not something I had seen much of earlier). The Hellenes, Epeirotes, and Makedonians are in a three-way war with fullstack armies wiping each other out left, right, and centre - I have a diplomat stationed in Demetrias who is monitoring Athens and Pella as well and its complete madness! The Aedui have a real bother in taking Eleutheroi towns in Gaul, and seem get rebuffed a lot - and even the Getai are having trouble marching to the Alps.



As of this map, my adventures in Gaul are over. I have fortified and colonised Viennos - and it and Massilia are my depots for future expansion. I have an army moving back across the Alpine settlements, and garrisons of roarii and gallic auxiliaries (sotaroas from Massilia) ready to move in and man the walls. The Aedui, rather than using their newly granted lands to improve their armies and finish off the unification of Gaul, decided to improve their armies and attack me in Viennos (Blasio went back to try for Imperator again - but apparently the triggers were excessively stringent - poor old Blasio, the disappointment was the end of him :(). The Sweboz are now my marcher lords in Gaul and they haven't garrisoned the territories because I burned all the barracks and the Aedui hold Vesontio; I really hope the Sweboz and the Aedui fight a bit, but the Sweboz are getting a bit large under my patronage... Greece is also a bit more peaceful now, since I kicked out the Hellenes and the Epeirotes and Makedonians made a peace deal. The Makedonians and I allied to expel the Hellenes, but I am waiting for the backstab - or rather the frontstab - from them now.

The Carthaginians are ripe for a bit of a kicking too. I think I can hop an army over the Carthage and sack it and surrounding settlements good and proper then get the hell out before their big stacks arrive which might be good for long-term strategic positioning in the region. I have fought a few limited wars with the Carthaginians, but I've always been able to buy back their trade after taking my objectives. The Pontics seem to have stalled in their advance, and the Baktrians, Yuezhi, Pahlava, and Sauromatae are all running out of independent settlements to grab so perhaps there should be some wars in that part of the world soon.

[Dooz]

Getai, 210 B.C.



Damn Persians, always scattered all over the place. Now in the middle of Africa? Yikes.

[Angadil]

Interesting that Sauromatae expansion.... They seem to have taken 5, maybe 6 provinces (hard to tell if they own Bosporion Tyrrannesis). Hmm... I used to think the Sarmatians had a hard time to grow, but looking at this thread it would seem they manage some conquests reasonably often. Is that a correct impression?

Also, some input on the Sauromatae from the player's POV would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone played Sarmatian campaigns? We are concerned about them and they will be tweaked in oncoming releases. For example, the price of their cavalry units is likely to drop meaningfully. Are there other things you think we should worry about?

[Dooz]

If Bosporion Tyrrannesis is that piece of land to the east in between the Seleukids, Yuezhi, Pahlava and Baktria, then yes, that belongs to Sarmatia... those little devils. They've only recently started to expand this way as they were a protectorate of Hayasdan for a good while. However, that's all over with now, they're at war. The Sweboz also had a huge surge in conquest, having lain dormant for decades. Now they're in a see-saw war with the mighty Romans, gaining a lot of victories under they're powerful leader. And at this point I've kicked the Seleukids out of Turkey, launching raids from the strategic islands of Rhodos and Salamis. However, I'll probably give those back in the peace discussions as I have no interest of keeping them. They have been reduced to rubble after all .

208 B.C.

[Angadil]

If Bosporion Tyrrannesis is that piece of land to the east in between the Seleukids, Yuezhi, Pahlava and Baktria, then yes, that belongs to Sarmatia... those little devils. They've only recently started to expand this way as they were a protectorate of Hayasdan for a good while. However, that's all over with now, they're at war.

Nah, that is Dahyu Haomavarga. BT is the province that straddles the strait communicating the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, between Maeotis, Skythia and Taurike Chersonesos. And, on a closer look, no, the Sarmatians don't seem to own it after all.

Thanks for the input!

[Zenith Darksea]

Just what in the hell is Pahlava doing in the middle of North Africa?!?

[Geoffrey S]

Finally had time to do some gaming the last two days, and had some prolonged EB experience. Must say it's excellent! Playing as Baktria I've conquered Kophen and Gava-Haomavarga in some hard-fought battles where I was outnumbered, particularly up north. After some years of vicious fighting against brigades and migrating Indians those darned Seleucids broke their alliance and attacked Baktra. Armenia and Hayasdan stayed loyal and I convinced the Ptolemaioi to join the fight; after that a huge battle outside Baktra that I really enjoyed.

It's great thus far, next week I'll finally start on some of the description work I promised to do.

Edit: one minor bug I noticed, Pantodopoi shields look strange from behind. All transparent and stuff.

[Dooz]

Armenia and Hayasdan stayed loyal and I convinced the Ptolemaioi to join the fight; after that a huge battle outside Baktra that I really enjoyed.

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