Unusual Superpowers

[TinCow]

I'm playing my first RTW imperial campaign since BI came out and I've been surprised by the rapid expansion of both Spain and Britain. I've seen Britain expand before, but never like this and I've never seen Spain do anything even remotely successful before. They're even giving the Julii a pounding at the moment.



Might as well turn this into a general thread, so feel free to share your own unusual superpower experiences.

[Viking]

I haven`t seen Spain that expansive, but Britain usually expands quite alot thanks to the autocalc chariot bonuses. I have seen them all the way to Dacia. I might dig up a screenshot.

[Garvanko]

Wow! Never seen the Spanish go past Osca. Ever. They've taken Tingi a couple of times in my various campaigns, but generally they are very insular. Its a shame though, as they have a excellent and easily accesible selection of units and temples.

The hardest faction to stop once they attain super power status must be Pontus though.

[Darius]

Yea that whole thing with Iberia is nuts, but not too crazy. Seeing as how Britain probably attacked the Gauls a lot and the Julii not even resembling a kind neighbor the Gallic armies probably just got wiped out in a couple of decisive battles and the remaining forces were just spread too thin to cause much resistance. Then with what was left of the Gallic army being nowhere near them, the Iberians couldn't help but move in and take over a bit.

[Craterus]

Which faction are you playing as? Pontus look to be doing pretty well too.

[TinCow]

I am playing as Scipii. I've had my hands full with the Egyptians and was getting so much trade from Spain that I ignored about 3-4 requests by the Senate to blockade them. They recently declared war on me on their own though, so it seems their time as a power has come to an end. At one point they defeated several large Julii stacks and besieged Mediolanum with two full stacks of their own. It looked like they were going to take the city, then they suddenly lifted the siege and marched all their forces to northern Gaul to attack a tiny rebel stack. Spain hasn't done much since then and Julii has recovered enough that they are no longer vulnerable. Silly AI.

Britain has lost several territories in the east and the Brutii are spanking them good. It looks like they're in trouble as well, despite how much territory they still have left. The Senate currently wants me to go after Pontus, but I've still got a large Egyptian stack in my territory and I need to rebuild a couple armies and move some generals to the area before I feel comfortable taking them on.

[Craterus]

Horde effect with Dacia there...

[_Aetius_]

I'm more impressed with the progress of the Pontus than the Britons or Spanish, there a fine balance between the barbarians if one is ganged up on, usually the Gauls. Then the stronger neighbouring barbarian faction will supplant it.

The Pontus however have to overcome local rivals the Armenians, plus the major powers of Seleucia and lesser Parthia, not to mention Egypt which it can often come into contact with.

The Brutii seem to have made strange advances northwards, I wouldnt be surpised if the Britons punched through that thin line of territories the Brutii have upto the Baltic which are hard enough to hold at the best of times anyway. Very interesting map indeed

[TB666]

Man poor Scythia, they are boxed in.

[Garvanko]

TinCow, Im also playing the Scipii at the moment, and our maps are similar though I haven't expanded past Alexandria, Memphis and Thebes in the East (Egypt is barely surviving, and they have an Alliance with Pontus), while Ive taken most of the rich Greek and Macedon cities in the Med.

In Spain, Ive just taken Osca and Corduba, so money is pouring in from the west as well. Im building up my forces on the Italien peninsular while fighting on two fronts.

Major powers in my game are the Julii, Thrace and Pontus.



Its 180BC, and Civil war looks a decade away.

PS: Sorry about the size of the pic. :)

[scorillo]

btw...who can tell me how to mod by eliminating Britannia and Egypt chariot bonuses? I want to make them weaker...is hardcoded or is possible ?

[antisocialmunky]

Just mod them a regular general.

[Oaty]

Pontu usually becomes quite pewerful on my campaigns. Also unit size may have an effect on how well they do.

[Monarch]

Its 180BC, and Civil war looks a decade away.

Woh. I'm, in my very first vanilla RTW campaign and I'm in Civil War and it's only 230bc. Which shocked me at how early but it was my first so I didnt think too much of it.

Also in my game Pontus is already eliminated and had no more than two teretories.

[scotchedpommes]

In every campaign I have played but one, Pontus has become the dominant
power in the East. The emergence of Spain as a superpower is something I had
to come to terms with whilst also facing a Roman invasion as the Germans.
In my first two campaigns the Britons also expanded far beyond what I had
imagined possible - deep into Thracian and Greek regions. It seemed for me that
the unusual and unexpected was the norm.

[AntiochusIII]

In every campaign I have played but one, Pontus has become the dominant
power in the East. The emergence of Spain as a superpower is something I had
to come to terms with whilst also facing a Roman invasion as the Germans.
In my first two campaigns the Britons also expanded far beyond what I had
imagined possible - deep into Thracian and Greek regions. It seemed for me that
the unusual and unexpected was the norm.

Pontus and Egypt were naturally dominant as they took the Lion's share of the original Seleucid territories. Most of the games, lest you interfere, go that way until Pontus face Egypt.

Britain always dominate thanks to the bonus given to chariots (a very big WTF) that dominated the autocalc battles. Try hiring an all chariot army and send them on suicide missions. They cleansed the many planes of hell with ease on Normal difficulty autocalculated battles. This also helps Egypt, and, later, Pontus. Though the Seleucids also have it they rarely ever got to use it before being annihilated.

And the Romans have tendency to rule much of the world, at least until their civil war starts.

Other factions, though, are much more random, and an Iberian superpower is interesting. A Roman faction's containment is also interesting, though not that rare.

What I really think is absolutely unusual (save for a human player's intervention) is a superpower Carthage or Seleucids. The funny thing is, they were the real superpowers historically.

[scotchedpommes]

I understand such historically misplaced chariots have a lot to answer for when
it comes to determining those factions with superpower status, but with regard
to Pontus and Egypt; in all but one of the campaigns Pontus completely
eradicated Egypt. This I considered unusual given how much I had read about
people having severe problems with Egypt.

With regard to Iberia, must say it came as a shock to me - Spain attacked in
what I considered was a move completely out of the blue, and also one which
for them was strategically risky. Had just been beating back a sizeable Roman
force when they wiped out the remaining Gallic presence and directly attacked
my major armies, causing heavy losses in the first Pyrrhic victories I had
experienced in the game. It also struck me as strange that they never came into
conflict with the Romans, despite the absence of any alliance between them.

Would like to see Carthage succeed too, but haven't seen them expand at all in
Spain, only Numidia - and this without any visible pressure applied by the
Romans excepting sporadic blockades.

[Horatius]

Tin Cow I'm surprised you are such a bad roman, I always obey the Senate, no matter how high the cost is to me, I even have my faction leader commit suicide the first few times they demand it before civil war

Carthage never succeeds. It's impossible for the computer to win as Carthage, Carthage starts out pressed too thin, with it's frontier cities militarily and economically weak. Numidia is too powerful to be swept aside with the forces Carthage starts with, and the more men Carthage get the more men Numidia gets, The Spanish in my campaigns tend to always want Corduba, and the Carthaginian forces there, and the town militia it trains are too weak to offer too much defence, and the Scipii beat them down very hard in Sicily.

[Monarch]

Tin Cow I'm surprised you are such a bad roman, I always obey the Senate, no matter how high the cost is to me, I even have my faction leader commit suicide the first few times they demand it before civil war

Lol, last Julii campaign I did a grand total of one mission, taking Segesta which I would have done anyway

Though perhaps that is why I had such an early civil war.

[TinCow]

My trade was so heavily dependant upon Spain that I would've been in an extremely bad situation if I had declared war when the Senate first asked me to. Not to mention that the only army I had in the region was ridiculously obsolete. They threatened to investigate my finances; good thing my faction had the Censor position.

[_Aetius_]

I've lost so many thousands of denarii because the Senate investigated my finances after all the pointless conquests I made on their order, the 1 time I refused to comply was when it meant attacking my major ally (Macedon) for the sake of Sparta which was so totally ravaged that it was useless.

The logic behind the senates decisions is bewildering at times, never takes into account the financial problems attacking your major trading partner will cause.

[Conqueror]

The Senate doesn't want you to be rich, they want you to be a good little Roman who selflessly works hard to conquer world for the glory of the Sen... er, Rome

[Monarch]

As my first (I am now playing my second) campaign was with the Julii I never really saw how great the likes of Dacia, Gaul and Germania could get as I destroyed them lol. So now I'm playing with the Greeks and not interested in that area (apart from possibly Dacia later in the game) its interesting to see how large their empires can be.

[JLEACH]

Pontus always beats the selucids to a pulp in my campaigns. That thing with spain is very strange though. I've never seen them have anything even close to an empire. I did see Armenia make a huge empire though. They went up into the steppes and then into germania and gaul. I was play the egyptians and was going along africa and up into spain. I didnt save that screenshot unfortunatly though.

BTW has anyone ever been playing as the Romans and had A faction other than yours be outcast by the senate. just wondering if this was even possible.

[Mamba]

Once, Numidia took over the entire Eastern part of the map and all of the Iberian peninsula. By the end of the game, I controlled Europe and Numidia controlled Russia, the Middle East, North Africa (excluding Carthage and Thapsus) and Iberia.

I was just glad that it was only them I had to fight and not the Egyptians.

[Patricius]

Referring back to the start of the thread: Britannia usually does well. Its units are good and chariots are favoured in auto-calc. Spain tends to keep within Iberia, but expanding beyond it is not rare. Seleucids are a rare superpower. If they survive it tends to be in one or two cities with a vast stack of units. Yet once or twice I have seen them do well.

I think it is now possible for other Roman factions to be outlawed, well that is something some have claimed.

[JLEACH]

Thanks for the incite!...curious that is...I want to see how it would work!

[Lanemerkel1]

Thanks for the incite!...curious that is...I want to see how it would work!

it's insight

[JLEACH]

Keep correcting me and I'll INCITE a riot

sorry for the mix-up