Suggestions for v0.8

[MSB]

Xanthippus: I must protest to the way Xanthippus was portrayed inEB 0.74. He didn't arrive in North Africa until at least eighteen years into the first Punic war, and that started ten years after the start of EB. That's 56 turns! Not that the Carthaginians couldn't have hired him sooner, but he certainely wouldn't be in Africa at te start of the game. Now I understand the limitations that CA has put on EB, so if none of suggestions are plausible than the EB team has done the best they can and I approve.
Suggestion #1: Xanthippus starts on a ship with some greek mercenaries (as it was said that he came over with Greek mercenaries hired by Carthage) on his way to North Africa. This one is probably not possible but if it is then it is a good option.
Suggestion #2: Xanthippus starts as a Carthaginian general in Greece with a transport awaiting him.
Suggestion #3: The most historically accurate, though not neccesarily possible. Xanthippus starts as an eleutheroi general in Greece with traits that make him easy to bribe and a Carthaginian diplomat right nearby.

Slightly off topic, Xanthippus turned up in Age of Empires (the first one) if you could find him in the First Punic War, the battle of Tunis (I don't know if that battle really happened as I have never heard of it). He had a reasonably Greek army with lots of Phalaxes, two Catapults and a couple of Cataphracts. Now I know who he really was. Yes!

Anyway back on topic he could turn up like this:
The Script at the games start causes a eleutheroi general and a large army of Greek mercenaries turn up near Karthage between 10 - 18 years after a major war has begun and major defeats and victories have started showing up. Then when he appears the scripts causes a box/advisor to pop up telling you "A General can be Hired". This box will tell you that a General named Xanthippus is willing to be hired by you for lets say 30,000. It could give historical infomation about him his armies and what Carthage used him for. Then it could give two options Yes hire him, No don't hire him. If you don't hire him he goes of the be hired by somebody else on a rebel navy. If you say yes his army joins you. Brilliant solution!

Phoenician colonies. It was mentioned on another thread that it should be possible for Carthaginians to recruit at least their militia citizen phalanx from any city with a Phoenician colony. After some research I discovered that this was, pretty much, true. The Phoenicians would colonize places and then the colonists, still being Carthaginian citizens, would, in times of need, form citizen armies much like those that fought invaders in North africa. Of course there was supposedly a difference between colonial citizens and homeland citizens though I couldn't find anywhere that said what the difference was. I suspect this difference would have had something to do with local influence. The ability to recruit these citizens after building a colony would help in areas where Carthage can't build any troops, like in Latium for example. It's really annoying in the campaign to capture Rome and then be unable to recruit a garrison.

Carthaginian naval reforms: The Carthaginians, at the outset of the Punic war had a large number of ships partially beause they contained very small complements of armed men(marines). Partway through the Punic war the Carthaginians began outfitting their fleet with more marines and more specifically the best pick of their most skilled mercenaries. In game this would be a normal reform with the Punic fleets starting out with fewer men than they have now and then after the reform their ship complement is brought up to what it is now.

I agree with all of the above, but I wish to suggest that the Romans have naval reforms too. The Romans, had almost no sea power at the games start and had no very good idea how to build ships. A reform should occur after Rome has started a war with a naval faction. Also I think ships sinking by storm should occur much more often. During the Punic Wars Rome lost most of it's fleet to a terrable storm and there were several more historical reports of bad weather on the seas. I also think that if you go out onto the West Coast of Iberia or Gaul you should sink, almost guarenteed.

[Tanit]

Slightly off topic, Xanthippus turned up in Age of Empires (the first one) if you could find him in the First Punic War, the battle of Tunis (I don't know if that battle really happened as I have never heard of it). He had a reasonably Greek army with lots of Phalaxes, two Catapults and a couple of Cataphracts. Now I know who he really was. Yes!

That's Great!!!! Let's hear it for great old school games!!!

Anyway back on topic he could turn up like this:
The Script at the games start causes a eleutheroi general and a large army of Greek mercenaries turn up near Karthage between 10 - 18 years after a major war has begun and major defeats and victories have started showing up. Then when he appears the scripts causes a box/advisor to pop up telling you "A General can be Hired". This box will tell you that a General named Xanthippus is willing to be hired by you for lets say 30,000. It could give historical infomation about him his armies and what Carthage used him for. Then it could give two options Yes hire him, No don't hire him. If you don't hire him he goes of the be hired by somebody else on a rebel navy. If you say yes his army joins you. Brilliant solution!

Is that possible? If so it would be awesome.

I agree with all of the above, but I wish to suggest that the Romans have naval reforms too. The Romans, had almost no sea power at the games start and had no very good idea how to build ships. A reform should occur after Rome has started a war with a naval faction. Also I think ships sinking by storm should occur much more often. During the Punic Wars Rome lost most of it's fleet to a terrable storm and there were several more historical reports of bad weather on the seas. I also think that if you go out onto the West Coast of Iberia or Gaul you should sink, almost guarenteed.

I agree, but I think that the EB team once said that storms and their effects couldn't really be modded. I could be mistaken here.

[Discoskull]

Also I think ships sinking by storm should occur much more often. During the Punic Wars Rome lost most of it's fleet to a terrable storm and there were several more historical reports of bad weather on the seas. I also think that if you go out onto the West Coast of Iberia or Gaul you should sink, almost guarenteed.

I agree with more ships lost to storms, that would be realistic, but the Celts had the naval power in their part of the world, with ships built to better handle the differences in seafaring found in a vast ocean (bigger waves, winds, etc.), rather than a relatively small and sheltered ocean like the Mediteranian(sp). In fact, Caesar's naval victories against the Atlantic Celts were, most likely, mostly - if not entirely - due to the help and knowhow of his Gaelic allies.

Probably isn't possible, but, if anything like this were actually implimented, perhaps Mediteranian ships would sink more often in the North Seas, or Celtic/Germanic ships have a combat bonus in the North Seas, and vise-versa...again, probably not possible, but it would be cool nonetheless...

At least give the Celts better ships in general. Those ponto flotilla or whatever aren't all that impressive (I sent god knows how many stacks of those things against two units of pirate ships, and had one crushing defeat after another), and for some reason in my Casse campaign I can't train anything better, not even sea warriors...I wait for 0.8 with a smile on my face


"They have flat bottoms," wrote Caesar of the Gallic ships, "which enables them to sail in shallow coastal water. Their high bows and sterns protect them from heavy seas and violent storms, as do their strong hulls made entirely from oak. The cross-timbers -- beams a foot wide -- are secured with iron nails as thick as a man's thumb. Their anchors are secured with chains not ropes, while their sails are made of raw hide or thin leather, so as to stand up to the violent Atlantic winds."



edit: Even still, maybe Romans controlling Celtic ports could build Celtic ships, like Caesar was able to do with the help of his Gaelic allies...

[Homo Sapiens]

I don't know if this has been said already, or if it's even possible, but what if your family members could go into mourning? Perhaps if a general were to die, others could recieve a trait such as:

In Mourning
This man has become wracked with grief over the recent loss of a dear friend. He locks himself in his room for hours at a time, hardly eats, drinks, or sleeps, and spend a good deal of time at the temple in meditation and prayer.
-2 Command, -2 Management, -2 Influence, -50% Movement

This trait would only last a few turns, and those that were unselfish, pessimistic or loyal would be most likely to be affected. It could increase the likelyhood of the affected general gaining religious traits, or go the other way and increase of the likelyhood of engaging in illicit activities.

[MSB]

I don't know if this has been said already, or if it's even possible, but what if your family members could go into mourning? Perhaps if a general were to die, others could recieve a trait such as:

In Mourning
This man has become wracked with grief over the recent loss of a dear friend. He locks himself in his room for hours at a time, hardly eats, drinks, or sleeps, and spend a good deal of time at the temple in meditation and prayer.
-2 Command, -2 Management, -2 Influence, -50% Movement

This trait would only last a few turns, and those that were unselfish, pessimistic or loyal would be most likely to be affected. It could increase the likelyhood of the affected general gaining religious traits, or go the other way and increase of the likelyhood of engaging in illicit activities.

Good Idea, but it should not happen unless the general had spent a long time with the General that had died. So perhaps it could only happen if the dead general had stayed with the general in question for a long time of at least 3 turns in the same army or town or if it was the general's son/father/grandfather e.c.t.

And Homo Sapiens trait has inspired me to make up two others:
Adores his wife (only achieved if unselfish):
This man loves his wife and tries to spend as much of his time with her as possible, he even takes her out on campaign with him. Game Effects: Increase Chance of Having Children, Decreases the chance of getting female ancillaries (e.g Concubine, Mistress e.c.t.) and decreases his chances in taking part in illict activities.

And if the general has that trait and his wife dies then he has a 90% chance of getting this trait:
Mourning his wife:
The man once loved his wife, but now he can love her no more. She has passed away to the afterlife never to return. He cannot stand the pain of her loss and spends all of his time when he should be working at the temple praying for her soul. -1 Command, -4 Management, -1 Influence, -25% Movement.
This trait could be like the "in mourning" one above. It could have the same effects except that it increases his chances of him getting female ancillaries such as mistress, concubine e.c.t.

[MSB]

A few more suggestions:

• Could troops die of the heat in deserts. This could have a sort of plague effect on the army in question as troops desert and die.
• Give troops the ability to desert
• Troops are more likley to desert if they are under the command of a mean or selfish general or one that has lots of morale reducing traits.
• Romans armies could "mutainy" and then be decimated (killing 10% of the army). Generals that decimate get a trait that says what they have done and offers penelties and bonus'.
• Could ambushes happen almost anywhere in the faction that is doing the ambusing's homeland
• Generals that have spent a long time in a town get a command bonus when they fight there as they know the place well.

This would add even more realism to the brilliant mod.

[Simmons]

A few more suggestions:

• Could troops die of the heat in deserts. This could have a sort of plague effect on the army in question as troops desert and die.
• Give troops the ability to desert
• Troops are more likley to desert if they are under the command of a mean or selfish general or one that has lots of morale reducing traits.
• Romans armies could "mutainy" and then be decimated (killing 10% of the army). Generals that decimate get a trait that says what they have done and offers penelties and bonus'.
• Could ambushes happen almost anywhere in the faction that is doing the ambusing's homeland
• Generals that have spent a long time in a town get a command bonus when they fight there as they know the place well.

This would add even more realism to the brilliant mod.

The last one sounds possible the rest sorry but you would have to make changes to the game engine.

[Foot]

The last one sounds possible the rest sorry but you would have to make changes to the game engine.

We already have the last one, anyway. If you leave a general in a settlement for long enough he becomes attuned to it and gets various bonuses, one of which is a +1 when defending that settlement (he loses it once he moves however).

Foot