What factions have you played campaigns as?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Ok, we need a little input here. What factions have you played serious campaigns as in EB so far?

This is not a list of your favorite factions, and you can vote multiple times if you have played multiple campaigns. We're not talking about a short one where you gave up within a few years, but ones where you got a good one going (even if you later had to stop it because of CTD's or other issues or even boredom, heaven forbid ). Feel free to comment about it if you like, but we'd really like to see what factions are getting tested and to what degree.

So 'fess up! Who have you played as?!

[QwertyMIDX]

Opps, serious...I was just testing something specific, gah!

[Mujalumbo]

I've played serious campaigns as the Aedui, Sweboz, Hayasdan, Sauromatae, Koinon Hellenon, Baktria, and the Ptolemaioi.

I've put the Hayasdan and Sauromatae campaigns on the back-burner for now, since the situation is a little grim and I'm a tad discouraged with my progress. (I wouldn't mind if I had something a little more substantial for my family member's bodyguards.)

With my Sweboz, Baktria, and Ptolemaioi campaigns, I get campaign-ending CTD's when I click the next turn button, no matter what actions I take.

The Aedui and Koinon Hellenon campaigns are still running, in the low 200 B.C.'s.
My Aedui campaign is most active right now, since I'm at war with the Romans (three-gold-chevron Gaesatae, anyone?).

Oddly enough, the KH campaign is relatively boring; I'm at war with Karthadistim <SP>, Makedonia, and the Ptolemaioi, but they're all too far away to send anything for me to fight. Makedonia sends down the odd half-stack of troops every now and then. I've contented myself with recapturing rebel Greek cities (Massalia, the Bosphoran cities, for instance).

I'm really bummed about my Ptolemaioi campaign.

[jebes]

I have an Aedui in 245 BC, just fixed the 14AD bug myself.

[GeneticFlea]

well i played the Arverni so far until maybe 248 B.C. and ive wiped out the Aedui, taken northern iberia and am about to move on the Germans.

Im playing Bactria right now, at 258 bc, the seluicids attacked me for no reason after i took most of the easternmost provinces, so all their alliances broke up and im currently chewing them up for fun, theyve yet to send a real army my way.

in my Roman campaign im about ot 253 bc, All of italy is mine, epierotes were easy to kick out, sicily is also mine, which Carthage also being easy to push off.

in my rome and Arverni campaign, i played M/M, in my Bactria campaign, i played H/M

im still trying to figure out why i should train one unit of 100 indian longbowmen for 343 upkeep, when i could train two units of 80 eranshars for a combined upkeep of 300ish and they both have the same attack and defence numbers, and ernashar have the very useful spear against cav.
I buy the indians when i can anyway because they look cool :)


otherwise im loving my campaigns.

[Spendios]

I'm playing a VH/H Pontos campaign it's 225 BC now and I haven't encounterd a lot of CTD's .
Funniest and more interesting camapign ever even if the difficulty is here...but Pontos definitely need more variety in its units ( and a reskin of my nice scythed toys...)

[Spectral]

I'm still at my baktrian campaign, it's 217 bc and I'm about to storm the nowadays Iraq part of the seleukid empire. I chose VH/H, but won't play again with these settings, I've noticed that there are situations where AI troops last longer than they should and consistantly beat my similar ones. This, taken together with the AI's ability to spawn armies with lots of chevrons, has made for some bloody loses against the seleukids.

im still trying to figure out why i should train one unit of 100 indian longbowmen for 343 upkeep, when i could train two units of 80 eranshars for a combined upkeep of 300ish and they both have the same attack and defence numbers, and ernashar have the very useful spear against cav.
I buy the indians when i can anyway because they look cool :)

-They seem to have better range

-On the battlefield, one unit of 100 is better than one unit of 80, and since you have a limited number of units availalable on the battlefield -20, it can matter.

-They are deadly against infantry with their 2-handed swords and this can be important when defending walls.

-They look cool :

[Conqueror]

Only played Baktria in a campaign so far. I've tried custom battles with some other factions though.

[Divinus Arma]

Casse first until a persistent CTD.

Romani second until a persistent CTD.

KH until persistent CTD.

Aedui until work and life consumed me.


I was not at all enthusiastic about the Aedui campaign at first because I didn't care about the region or style of fighting. I figured I would play a faction I was least interested in since I am a member and am obligated to test everything. After just a few turns, I was hooked because of the incredible difficulty. I was playing on hard/hard (which is normally not that hard for anybody else), but WOW! What a blast.

Of these four, I have yet to play a faction I have not really really enjoyed.

[Reenk Roink]

Only Epeiros so far, though I haven't had much time to play lately .

[Kralizec]

I've also only played Epeiros so far, this month I'm pretty tied up with college and work. 259 so far, and no persistent CTD or other crippling bugs yet.

[Reenk Roink]

Yeah, my Epeiros campaign has been very stable as well, no CTD's, though I did start over 4 times due to things like bad economic management, and forgeting to turn on the background script .

[soibean]

Roman - hell yea
Macedonian... I have no money whatsoever? even with new provinces conquered
Greek City States - fun but hard to beat macedonia
Pontos - alot of fun, difficult, hard to expand but worthwhile for a long campaign

Alot of fun all around, the money is tight for the most part

[paullus]

Its funny that I read these postings about money being hard and think to myself "huh..doesn't seem that tight to me" and then I think back to my current campaign and remember that I have only one field army of about a half-stack. One of these days I'll have saved up enough and then I'll blow it all and go way into debt running a massive expansion campaign--after all, that's the proper, historical way to do it!

I've played Casse and KH, both have been really enjoyable. I played Aedui as well, but some poor economic decisions and a failed ambush early on led to my destruction at the hands of the Arverni and a stack of Gaesetae rebels (sad).

[Justiciar]

I'm still rampaging through Europe as Sweboz atm; in a sort of "Amber Wars" scenario with Getai (on and off fighting for the last 25 or so turns). My Roman campaign is a bit easy compared to the others; I've reduced the Kart-Hadastim to an insignificant Balearic-Iberian kingdom and have pushed the Makedonians into Asia. My Casse campaign is possibly the hardest. I've so far only managed to take southern Britain and the western Belgae area. Fun stuff. Baktria was strangely easy. Kart-Hadastim was hard but rewarding. Hayasdan was insane but fun (I was reduced from a Caucasian superpower to a small Crimean kingdom before I finally gave up on it), and the Yuezhi were practically impossible (I've tried to play as them on about three occasions and have only once been able to expand successfully out of the Tarim basin). Loving it.

[GMT]

-They seem to have better range

-On the battlefield, one unit of 100 is better than one unit of 80, and since you have a limited number of units availalable on the battlefield -20, it can matter.

-They are deadly against infantry with their 2-handed swords and this can be important when defending walls.

-They look cool :

I don't think they have a better range than the eranshars because my indian longbowmen usually take hits way before they can fire back at them. Unless the AI gets some kind of range bonus on VH?

Their stats also seem better than those of the other foot archers you're able to recruit as Baktria (forgot their names) so I think that needs some fixes.

The indian's two-handed sword r0xers though!

[Rodion Romanovich]

Romani and Bartix/Baktria, but I'm very tempted to start playing the Arverni, Arche Seleukeia and Kart hadastim, can decide which one though... If you include Sabeans instead of Yuezhi later, I'll postpone the Seleucids until when they're included. That leaves Arverni and Kart hadastim. I'll probably try my luck at Arverni first for the sake of variety because it's been a long time since I crushed them in my Romani campaign and I'm still fighting karthies as the romans. I expect the Arverni campaign to really rock, with the difficult starting position and everything. Then Kart hadastim with their interesting multiple fronts.

[SirPoot]

Pahlav. Got a bit bored when this army of mine below:



ran over everything in its path. =P



Ownage!

[Justiciar]

Beardy steam roller. I like it.

[Moros]

I almost played all of them.
I didn't play Seleucids, ptolemaioi, yu&#233;zh&#237;, Iberia and getai...yet.

[Dayve]

I started a VH/M Aediu campaign today and i must say it's VERY difficult... The Averni are clearly cheating as they have half stacks running around all over the place and only about 5 or 6 cities to their name... And they've just laid siege to my capital city which i'm unsure as to whether i can actually defend it or not... I've taken 2 rebel cities bringing my overall city ownage to 5... Disbanded all my cavalry on the first turn as it was rather expensive and built a road in my capital and now on the 4th or 5th turn i think i am over 6000 minai in debt with possibly 15 units dispersed all over my tiny kingdom and i've no hope of retraining or recruiting more for at least another 5 or 6 turns, so for the second time EVER i'm actually in doubt as to whether i can win this campaign or not...

I predict the Aediu will be difficult even if i get out of debt and am able to defend against the Averni because i can only build mud roads and few of my cities will be port-able so i won't have a large income for a long long time meaning no steam roller effect... And i have all the random rebel popups to look forward to yet as well! And the Averni Gaestae! If anybody is looking for a challenging campaign i suggest trying the Aediu... Try to play a little realistically though and don't use full stacks of archers like in the above pictures, also just to be fair don't retrain units since the AI never does... Just merge them and recruit new ones...

[jebes]

The Aedui have Gaesatae as well, but you may have waited too long. You needed those Cavalry because you must force the enemy to rout as often as possible due to the lack of infantry with any staying power. (until you get to Mala Gaeros and Gaesatae) You have to win the war against the Arverni with your starting troops and THEN rebuild and get out of debt. Then it is a matter of mopping up the rebels and controlling all of Gaul. Good luck from there.

P.S. I allied with Rome and left the three northern Italian provinces alone as a buffer. They never won the war with Epiros and haven't bothered me much. Are they bothering you?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Just wanted to say thanks. You have all done a great job posting what factions you've played campaigns as so far. I just wish I could be updated after your initial vote so we could keep it running. Still it provides us with some good information. Thanks again and keep posting for those of you who haven't done so yet! Even members can put theirs up there for sure too.

[Dayve]

I'll keep you posted with my Aediu campaign with pictures in AI expansion thread, Teleklos.

Rome aren't bothering me but it's only 268BC... I've gotten out of debt and built roads and am currently building level 1 governments everywhere... I don't have any decent infantry but neither do the Averni and i've just started to build a level 3 barracks in my capital city and i just defeated 3 half stack Averni armies in the same turn so it definately isn't too late for me yet... Although every city i own is exposed as i took every available unit from them to form an army up and go on the offensive against the Aediu...

[Southern Hunter]

Koinon Hellenon - Great fun campaign. Wiped Macedon and took Crete early, and always had plenty of money based on a maritime trade model.

(Oh yes, spent the whole game buildng up Sparta to the point that I thought I could buy Spartiates, and then found out they don't exist :P)

Makedon - Wiped out Greece and Epeiros, Expanded until my troops ran out, and went completely and utterly broke. Was at negative cash after 1 turn, and only went positive after I took out all of Greece and several other nearby cities. Companions seem a bit too uber, but fun to have on my side.

Hunter

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Sparta is sorta a lost cause down there. Their land trade is locked in with Korinth and that's about it. I just try to build up their MIC and farms and keep ports there for a little cash. But this is what we would like for Sparta anyway I think. If we could have unlimited building complexes and truely functioning negative bonuses, I'd love to have a type1 govt for them that could be a little closer to a real spartan govt system.

[tk-421]

I played as Koinon Hellenon. It was a lot of fun and very difficult. For a few years it looked like I was going to loose but then after a few lucky victories I crippled Macedon. After Macedon had been defeated I quit and started playing as Rome. Its a lot easier but still fun.

[Stormy]

I like every single faction but I've been enjoying my game the most with the Koinon Hellenon (Sparta, Athens & Rhodes). With this faction, I become one of the richest in the world. I build a meduim size military, just incase those Makedonians ever dare cross onto my side of the border for trouble, I also patrol my territory of sea to stop those who dare block my ports of receiving any goods. I build up my 3 starting provinces and cross trade between them, I trade with neighbors too, I also improve my infrastructure. I take control of Krete and also I build that province's infrastructure and trade. ;)

[Mr Jones]

dudes iberia is the best but it is coming last... wtf?

[LordElrond]

I have played Karthadistim, Sweboz, and now Epeiros. I have to say that leading Pyrrhos and his armies has been the most fun/challenging. Playing on VH/M, these EB campaigns are the most fun I've had playing this game. I have to say that the Mak generals are the bane of my existance. Although, one ugly yet humorous battle left me shaking my head. I was being attacked by the Maks and I found myself limited on cavalry. I had to send my elephants to try and stop their general from flanking me while my own general was involved with another skirmish. Anyways, two elephants died and the rest went amok/routed. Their general was hell-bent on killing them off, and followed them. Well the elephants started trampling the general's guard to death, and when the elephants started dying, they crushed even more of the Mak generals guard. Anyway, the general himself got caught under about the second that fell and was crushed. In the end only one bodyguard unit survived after the elephants were finished off.