My Early Thoughts For The EB Beta.

[DocHolliday2006]

First off, I'm coming from a background playing the total realism mod since its introduction, so I have a bit of experience with "realistic" mods for RTW. Some elements of this mod I find to be superior, while others I find a bit lacking.

Pros:

1) I like the idea of heavy reliance on basic citizen hoplites for the Greek alliance. For small cities, this especially makes a lot of sense. However, as I will go on to discuss, I'm not sure that not giving major cities more advanced hoplites to begin with is a good idea.

2) The models I have seen so far are all excellent. The Macedonian Companion cavalry is especially striking. Small cosmetic changes like the icon for ships changing to an entire fleet and the siege camps/blockades are also great.

3) The new diplomatic decisions are fantastic. The option to choose between a quick and easy dictatorship or a more drawn out but vital fully integrated government adds new depth to the game.

4) The descriptions for factions and units are all top notch, and they really show the research that's gone into the mod. The historically based advisers are also interesting.

5) The choice to separate buildings that allow for sea commerce and offensive naval units is a good one.

6) Load screen pictures are great.

Cons:

1) I'm not sure that it really makes sense to be able to build certain types of troops in all provinces. Building Iberian units in North Africa just doesn't make much sense. In a real life scenario, those units would have been raised (or hired in the case of mercenaries) in Iberia, and only then sent to their final destinations. I don't have an issue with allowing certain "generic" stile units being built in any integrated province however. The Romans had a history of integrating provinces, and especially towards the later empire, drafting provincial troops into their standardized armies. Even when the Romans were hiring German cavalry though, they could never train German cavalry in Italy.

2)Why can you walk from Asia Minor to Europe? It really doesn't make any sense and kind of works against the great naval system that you've built. I'm guessing there are other land connections, which I would be equally opposed to.

3) I'm not sure why the Britons are playable. They make more sense as a rebel faction. The Britons really didn't appear on the world stage until the Romans invaded, and before then they were largely absorbed in internal matter and conflicts, only trading a bit with Gaul, Germany, and the Carthaginians, and I think perhaps a few times sending troops to aid an ally in Gaul.

4) The economics may be a bit off, but I haven't played enough to say for sure. As Epirus for instance, I had my starting provinces the city above the capital, and Pella, each fully taxed and with one garrison unit, except for Pella which had my main army with 8 units. I had trade rights with the Romans, Dacians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Pontus(ians?), Armenians, and Egyptians. Despite this, I was losing money every turn. I simply could not turn my finances around. We know from history that Epirus was able to field a much larger army. Again, I'm not sure on this one yet, as I haven't spent enough time with it.

5) For some reason, my cavalry seems to randomly keep breaking off pursuit of broken enemy units. Even after I give them the order again, they sometimes will simply stop the pursuit after killing a few of the enemy.

6) Load time, both at start up and between turns, is much longer than vanilla and RTW. In game lag is not a problem however.

Suggestion:

1) Syracuse would make a fantastic faction to play as in the mod. Syracuse had a long history in the ancient world, defying Athens, Carthage, and even Rome before finally falling. They sailed all the way to Africa to confront Carthage on their own soil, and if you're familiar with the history, they had quite a changing web of alliances going. Being on the island of Sicily would give them a unique play experience, despite being basically Greek in unit and building types. I think you've reached the max number of factions, but you might consider the exclusion of the Britons which really didn't take a huge part history, as I explained above.

In conclusion, I'm really enjoying the mod. I love what you've done with it so far, and I hope you'll take some of my comments into consideration when making future changes.

Thanks, and good luck.