House Rules

[Dumbass]

Post your house rules that you use when playing EB, to make it funner or more challenging.

[Wardo]

1. Only Family Members can capture settlements. Captains may recapture a lost city though.

That's it.

[Dayve]

No stupid armies like 15 units of gaestae and 5 cavalry, all have to be realistic to what they would have been in those times.

No city assaults unless the enemy sally on the last turn before they starve, as was what happened 9/10 times in those days.

No retinue transfer to make super duper uber generals as soon as they come of age.

No blitzkrieg. (#2 kinda takes care of that though)

'm sure a couple more'l come to me, i haven't played for a while you see so i can't remember all of my own personal rules.

[LorDBulA]

No river crossing battles. Never. Even if you are playing as Gatai and 3 roman armies are marching at your capitol and you have only one army to defend and lots of river crossing all around to use. It just kills the gameplay.
No hill camping.
Always try to use family members, dont go with captains just because its easier.
Dont rush the game.

[MSB]

No river crossing battles.

I follow that rule too. However I do it to prevent the huge amount of lag that occurs during all river crossing battles. I think that that might have something to do with my ancient computer.

• Train a wide variety of units
• Use Family Members for large campaigns. For small campaigns you can use captains. However with captains use auto-calculate.
• Don't give up on a campaign until you are either defeated or you have a complete victory.

[Lovejoy]

• Don't give up on a campaign until you are either defeated or you have a complete victory.

zomg, why? Doesn't that get really boring sometimes? :P

[Zalmoxis]

No retinue transfer to make super duper uber generals as soon as they come of age.

What do you mean by that?

[Dayve]

What do you mean by that?

I mean, no putting a 16 year old noob in the same city/army as a 60 year old veteran and transferring all of his retinues that give +command or +management or +influence, depending on what his intended role is.

Noobsters must acquire their own stuff.

Except for chirugeon/doctors... Every army would have doctors anyway, so this is realistic.

[NeoSpartan]

Oh i didn't know u could transfer retinues......

[Thaatu]

I only play with General camera and I try to roleplay the family members. I also maintain the factions "philosophy" on expansion and so forth.

[Trithemius]

I don't play with conscious house-rules, but I do always try to have a family member leading an army (they just tend to move faster, and my military leaders often end up with Energy-related traits too). I also try not to make "cheap" armies, although I don't think it is unreasonable for my faction to adapt to pressures they did not face historically.

I don't know what people are on about with this "never camp hills/always fight uphill"!

[Mujalumbo]

House rules? Eh, was more partial to techno myself, but whatever. :)

Haw haw.

First* - maintain the balance of power. I try to keep all factions in as long as possible. This is easy with, say, Koinon Hellenon once they get off the ground. This isn't always possible - for instance, if you don't put the Averni out as the Aedui, you'll never get anywhere.

Second - no starting wars. Unless necessary - see above.

Third - no bribing. Unless necessary - see above. Actually, the first rule is pretty much the golden one. Most of these subsequent rules can be broken.

Fourth - no extermination or slavery.

Fifth - diplomats and spies in every settlement. I hate having settlements bribed away, and I hate having to retake captured settlements because some dumb-@$$ left the gates unlocked.

Six - no assassination of family members. It's perfectly alright to assassinate diplomats, spies, other diplomats, and captains (if only to 'train' assassins).

That's it. I'll play differently depending on which faction I am.

* I remember one campaign as the Arche Seleukia, I had 'subdued' the locals... cash was rolling in, I had a good, experienced and versatile army. Then my spies noticed the Romani stomping all over Germania and Gaul! Damn. Can't let my honourable barbarian friends bite the dust. What's an emporer to do? Pile his hardest nuts up in a boat and send 'em over to do some damage! Hardest damn campaign I fought.

[Dumbass]

My rules about extermination:

If a settlement revolts, then I exterminate or enslave the population: Teach them a lesson.
If I lose a settlement to the enemy, but take it back, then no exterminations.
Enemy settlements I capture get exterminated depending on their pop size, but if I develope a hate for a faction, I totally destroy their settlements, take down all the buildings and take away all the population by creating the basic units until they have no pop left.

[O'ETAIPOS]

Playing as Makedonia:
1.
-heir have to be king's son
-if king do not have mature son king's brother should be heir
It's because in Makedonia royality was sacred and coming down a royal line.

2.Some units like hypaspistai, pheraspidai, hetairoi can only be led by king and his sons or heir(if he is not king's son)
Those units were royal guard and were usually close the king.

3.Makedonian national units(Taxeis Phal, Pedzetairoi, Hypaspistai, Pheraspidai, Hetairoi) should not be used as permanent garnison in non homeland cities(but they can stand in towns if king/heir is with them) - I use mercenaries/locals instead.

4. I try to keep sizable fleet - fleet was show of power for hellenistic monarch and the bigger - the bigger prestige.

5.I try to match governor's ethnicity with city's nationality if it is Allied City (gov IV)

[Wardo]

Only 8 ancilliaries? Can you really make a super-General with that, considering EB's ancilliaries?

[Mujalumbo]

"Super" is relative. If you mean to other mods and/or vanilla, then probably not.

But you can get ancillaries that give bonus construction points and command stars during seiges, army morale bonuses (which are more helpful than you think), "herbalist" types that help recover casualties, a few give you a command star for attacking or defending, general's hitpoints or experience...

And that's on top of the traits you might acquire that give combat.

Morale bonuses are important if you need your army to slog it out - they'll stick around longer taking and meting out punishment. This is helpful especially if you're outnumbered and/or facing higher quality troops.

The general who has the right ancillaries and traits combination might be a better general than one with a pile of command stars.

[MSB]

Resurrection of this thread by the magic of Santa

So, now in 0.8 I...

• Use basic phalanx troops (such as Henellic Native Phalanx) in large cities. However these troops must not be used where they were trained. They must be used elsewhere - in a community where they have nothing to rebel for as they have no families there.
• The fields are for the elites, that is the only place where you may find any. Armies are structured of ten Henellic Heavy Phalanxes, five Henellic Veteran Phalanxes, three Henellic Elite Spearmen Units and two units of Thracian Medium Cavalry.
• The Henellic heavy Phalanxes must return to where they were trained at least once every two years. If they cannot do this then they get offered a farm (using grant of land) in a new province.