Challenging for Battle

[paullus]

I've heard people complain a good bit about how increasing the number of cities leads to city assaults and nothing else, or relief force battles (which often cause ctd's). I've recently taken to marching my army into enemy territory, and if there's a nice spot for a battle near the city, like a bit of farmland, I plunk down right there. Within a turn or two so far, I've been attacked by either all or most of the garrison army from the city, and/or a field army from elsewhere.

Challenging for battle also means you have an opportunity to fight an "honorable" battle by not looking for advantageous terrain, while also sparing you the trouble of getting screwed on bad terrain near a city. Anyone else tried this? Anyone know if I've just gotten lucky so far having the AI team up to drive me out?

[QwertyMIDX]

I do that pretty regularly as well, it seems to work well and it feels more accurate sometimes. It's like you're offering your enemy a set piece battle.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Keep in mind that in EB we have rebel generals confined to their cities - so that they won't leave their city empty and geaux out into the countryside with their army instead. There are roaming rebels too for sure, but it's harder to get them to 'come out and play' in EB than in vanilla at least.

[paullus]

That is certainly true. It only really works well against factions. Do the bands of Aphistomenoi even care that you are in a rebel province? They only seem to get aggressive if you trip over them or attack a town, kinda like snakes, or hornets, or other such critters.

And yeah, I like the set piece feel to it, too. The new logistics traits system can make it a little less comfortable, unless you have a few smart and well-trained generals (which I do!).

[khelvan]

Aphistomenoi are "brigands" to the RTW system (we just renamed them to be something more descriptive), so they really don't care much at all about what you're doing. They just like to cause trouble.

[Reverend Joe]

so that they won't leave their city empty and geaux out into the countryside with their army instead.

Did... did you just spell "go"... "geaux"?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Sorry. I was tryin' to get Paullus riled up actually. His Blue Devils lost to the Bayou Bengals last night in a big hoops game.

[Malrubius]

Did... did you just spell "go"... "geaux"?

He's too close to Louisiana

[paullus]

Yeah, I noticed, and I appreciated it. But honestly, I grew up in the South hating Duke basketball like every other decent human being, so I had conflicted emotions seeing them go down. Give it a year or two and I'll probably be gung ho, but its hard to make the hate-love switch in one year. Felt a little bad for JJ though...

And if you have it in your heart to root for LSU, I'll just hearken back to this past fall and my true allegiances, with a little "Go Dawwwwgs!"

And yeah, I knew aphistomenoi, but to be honest, I just now learned that the brigands were totally separate from the rebel city forces...I kinda thought that, since they were all in the rebel faction, they would fight together, and so then I was a little confused when on occasion they clearly didn't.

[Angadil]

And if you have it in your heart to root for LSU, I'll just hearken back to this past fall and my true allegiances, with a little "Go Dawwwwgs!"

Dawgs? As in UGA Bulldogs?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

That would be my guess, by my alma mater are some southern 'dawgs' too, so there's no tellin'!

[paullus]

Mississippi State, eh? I don't know of any others...

And yeah, I was talking about Georgia. Born and bred (or as they say in Bama "born in-bred").

NOTE: that last bit was mostly just for Malrubius.

[Angadil]

Mississippi State, eh? I don't know of any others...

And yeah, I was talking about Georgia. Born and bred (or as they say in Bama "born in-bred").

NOTE: that last bit was mostly just for Malrubius.

Aaah. I kinda consider UGA my alma mater. Not that I ever managed to really, understand the accent, but oh well... So, yeah, Go Dawgs!

[Reverend Joe]

He's too close to Louisiana

Ah, Louisiana- the Chooglin' state!

[nikolai1962]

I've heard people complain a good bit about how increasing the number of cities leads to city assaults and nothing else, or relief force battles (which often cause ctd's). I've recently taken to marching my army into enemy territory, and if there's a nice spot for a battle near the city, like a bit of farmland, I plunk down right there. Within a turn or two so far, I've been attacked by either all or most of the garrison army from the city, and/or a field army from elsewhere.

Challenging for battle also means you have an opportunity to fight an "honorable" battle by not looking for advantageous terrain, while also sparing you the trouble of getting screwed on bad terrain near a city. Anyone else tried this? Anyone know if I've just gotten lucky so far having the AI team up to drive me out?

Good idea this. better than sieging them to provoke a battle as you can choose a spot so you're not getting attacked from two directions which is a pain.

[pezhetairoi]

I don't even have to tempt the rebels to attack me. I just walked into Helvetis with two fullstacks and was swarmed by 3 fullstacks of mori gaesum, mala gaeroas, epos and brihentin the moment I cleared the border. Before I knew what hit me I was reeling back across the border with 50% decimated armies. Victorious, of course, having destroyed all three, but wow.