0.8x AI Faction Progression

[Hooahguy]

this WAS my empire, 219 BC:

[Ignopotens]

I take it you're Saba?

:p

[Swordmaster]

No, I think Romans. Not sure, though.

[Sakkura]

The reason for the past tense must be that he played as Qarthadastim and got conquered by the Romans. The shame must be almost unbearable

[Hooahguy]

no, i was the romans, but i had to reinstall EB, and accidentally erased my campaign. i had to start over. oh well. off i go to redo my empire!

[LordCurlyton]

Did you use primarily HA stack armies from the start? Or light infantry? I've only played Pahlava in 0.74 but there the ol'Parthian Approach of hiring just mounted troops was very expensive, almost too expensive.

A little of column A, a little of Column B. I find that the more troops you have stationed in cities or by the border, the less likely you are to be attacked by the AI, regardless of the troop quality. Ergo, I used block o' infantry as garrison troops and started with a primarily HA army, since the basic HA is cheaper than blocks of infantry. Buuut, since I stayed at peace with AS for 40 years and acquired many of their eastern provinces in that time, I was able to use pantodopai phalangitai from regional MICs from practically every one of those provinces as my infantry. More men, and a much sturdier line than, say, Nizag Gund. My two favorite armies have been: a) HA heavy one with 6 PF as my infantry, 8 Pahlava Shivatir, 2 Dehbed Asavara (sp?), and 2 each of Noble Cataphracts and Cataphract Archers
b)More "classical" army with 10 PF, 2 Hyrkanian Hillmen, 2 Elamite Archers, 4 Pahlava Shivatir, 1 Dehbed Asavara, 1 Cata Archer. Both work rather well, and since my infantry heavy army is my older army, everyone is at least double-silver by now. Its so much fun watching Agyraspidai get mowed down by elite native pikes. And yes, I know, its not really Parthian to use pikes but hey, if ya got 'em, use 'em, says I.
As it stands I can now afford to field some good all cav armies and one I have running around consists of 10 Pahlava Shivatir, 4 Mada Asabara, 4 Dehbed Asavara, and 2 Parthian Cataphracts.
Also, I only allowed myself to build Faction MIC 3 and below until I conquered Persepolis, Faction MIC 4 until I took Seleukia, and tried to generally stay within that limit for Regionals as well. Basically I sort of went by the barracks descriptions and used up to 3 to represent the pre-Parthian Pahlava, 4 to represent emergent Parthia, and 5 to be full-fledged Parthian empire. The discovery that the Pahlava can also build Nomadic govs was a boon too, otherwise I'd never have gotten access to the lovely Dahae units.

[Ravenic]

Really poor cropping, sorry :(


View from Ambrakia: Where to start? I'm Epirus, and have taken over mainland Greece and Italy after three bloody wars. First, Pella and Demetrias were liberated by the great Pyrrhos, and then peace was obtained with the Makedonian remnant's. Within four years, the Koinon Helleon had reduced Macedon to their island provinces, and held firm control over Thermon, Athenai, Korinthos, and Sparte. The Epirote armies under Pyrrhos, and later his son Helenos advanced up Italy, establishing themselves as far north as Capua and Arpi, though many raids farther north, even to the Po were conducted.

It was at this time that the treacherous Greeks advanced from the South and attacked Demetrias. Ptolemaios, son of Pyrrhos initially led the effort to conscript and counter-attack with a combined Epirote-Illyrian-Makedonian force. The efforts were taken over after two seasons by his young son Pyrrichos, grandson of the great Pyrrhos. It would be another four year's before the armies liberated Athenai, Korinthos, and then Sparte, only to be driven back by a formidible mercenary army led by the Son of Areus (Whose name I forget). It would be an additional four years before the last of the Hellenic League's armies were broken and Thermon taken, and their last political leader slain outside the wall of Korinthos in flight from the victorious Pyrrichos. Rhodos, now alone in the world, announced the dissoloution of the Koinon Helleon, and became its own entity once more (i.e., no more family members so it's rebel now).

In this time, Nikosthenes, the fourth son of Pyrrhos led an army out of Taras, supplemented by troops from Rhegion into Sicily. It would be two years before Hamalcar, and his son Hamalcar II were killed outside Lilibeo at the head of their rather large and pain-in-the-ass Mercenary army, and the Carthaginian's thrown from Sicily. Syrakousai held out for two and a half years under siege from Nikosthenes' brave men, but finally capitulated without bloodshed after the two and a half year siege.

Trouble was brewing with the Roman's, foray's into the territory by Helenos and later his son Glaukos had destroyed much of their infrastructure, leading them to field either huge armies of mercenaries, huge armies of slingers, or a bit of both. The Romanoi were recovered however, and Triarii and Princep's were beginning to become commonplace once more. Therefore, a great undertaking was organized to destroy the Roman's. The Italian army under Glaukos, son of Helenos, and The Sicilian Army under Nikosthenes, son of Pyrrhos began the long trek up Italy, fighting and killing many latin's and keltoi alike as they progressed. They halted at Arretium, finally forced back in a titanic battle (which I autocalc'd >_<), with the result of both Epirote and Romanoi military forces on the pennsula being reduced to only a handful of the orginal numbers, both totaling somewhere around one-thousand men. Nikosthenes was also killed in the fighting during the initial flight from Arretium. At the same time, his elder brother, Helenos was also taken by an assassin's blade in his palace at Taras.

Mercenaries were quickly bought up by both sides, and fighting renewed with vigor until Arretium was taken and sacked. What promised to be a long and grueling conflict was alleviated by the arrival of The Royal Army, under the victorious Pyrrichos himself. It contained five-hundred twenty heavily armed Illyrian's, heavy and light cavalry from Makedon and Illyria, fourteen-hundred Pezhetairoi, mercenary Keltoi from Makedon, "Golden Shields" from Samnium, and a full unit of the elite Chaonian Guard from Ambrakia itself!

Together, the combined Royal Army, and the New Italian Army (amalagated from the remnants of the orginal Italian and Sicilian Armies) began anew, and fought for another two years to finally destroy the last vestiges of Roman power, ending with a conflict outside of Massalia. Epiros granted indepence to everything north of The Po river, having no interest in administering 'barbaroi'. Massalia alone remained under Epirote protection, becoming an "allied" territory, and receiving a veteran Pezhetairoi unit, and other well-traveled but retiring units of The Royal Army for protection. Glaukos returned to Taras, restrengthened his army, and now patrols Italy to weed out the rebels. Pyrrichos returned home to Makedon with his Royal Army a hero, with the title "Royal Inheritor" bestowed upon him by the aging Emperor Ptolemaios. A proud title indeed!

While the main action in Italy was happening, the unsung hero's cannot be forgotten! Soterichos, son of Alexandros, who is the second son of Pyrrhos led the Epirote Empire's smallest army, The Illyrian Army. He brought his arms as far north as Pannonia, taking the region's capital Segestica, along with Dalminion, and also adding the northern territories governed by Serdike and Tylis to the empire's dominon's. For this, he is greatly honored, though his exploits are often overshadowed by his two cousins, Pyrrichos and Glaukos, as well as his slain uncle Nikosthenes.

World View: Damn. So much for The Grey Death. More like the Tide of Piss coming from Alexandreia right now. Luckily, i'm allied with The Ptolemies', though i'm debating joining the fray against them. Ptolemaic Egypt is ontop of all the charts in Faction Rankings, while I duke it out with Carthage for second place. Something that i'd like to amend. Right now, there's a general coalition of Pontos, Hayasadan, Pahlava, and Baktria against Seleukeia, though the quadumvirate of nations is beginning to have tensions with their new practical-overlord, Egypt. I feel if I could mobilize Makedon's goverment in exile (which possesses Nikaia and Pergamon) to attack Egypt, and then join the fray, the combined powers of Epiros-Italy-Illyria-Greece-Massalia-and-Makedon, along with Makedon's "government in exile", combined with Pontos, Hayasadan, Pahlava, and Baktria could defeat the Tide of Piss coming from the Nile. But that's only if i'm able to commit to the effort fully. I'm currently allied with The Averni and The Sweboz, and remain on good terms with the Aedui and Carthaginian's. So long as that all holds, I should be relatively secure in my own holdings. The Getai are content to camp outside their capital with a full stack, and not move one inch, along with refusing all offers of friendship. The Sweboz are creeping closer however, and I share a hair'sbreadth of a border with them at Pannonia. It wouldn't surprise me if hostilities did flare up.

All in all, a very interesting and fun campaign so far!

[Lovejoy]

(playing with city mod. iam hay. ofc)

THE CONQUEST OF EAST!

262BC:


258BC:


251BC:


247BC:


243BC:


Fun camp! Almost no AI expansion tough. I kinda rushed the selues, otherwise they get very nasty and I desided to conquer east since I didnt what to bother with the Ptolemaios and Pontos at the same time. My long time ally the Ptolemaios just attacked. Now its time to:

CONQUER THE WEST!

OPS: Anyone know where I find Nakhararakan Aspet (Armenian Noble Cataphracts) and at which barrack lvl? I dont seem to be able to build them at my capital. Whats the name of the highest lvl barrack?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

(sorry )

Nice to see some Sarmatian movement, and it looks like Getai surprised one province. What in the world were you doing at Maketa?

[Sakkura]

LOL

[Karo]

Cool empire Lovejoy

And about the problem with the Nakharar Aspet I had the same problem search a little bit in the forums and you'll find a way to change something in your files but don't know precisly

Edit: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=85941

Read this thread and evreything will be ok

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

OPS: Anyone know where I find Nakhararakan Aspet (Armenian Noble Cataphracts) and at which barrack lvl? I dont seem to be able to build them at my capital. Whats the name of the highest lvl barrack?

Their recruitment is a bit messed up. The only places you can recruit them, you don't get L5 MICs.
If you know how to mod, just a little, you can fix it yourself. I posted the fix for the official recruitment here:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...6&postcount=27

EDIT: Note to self, don't open thread and wander off for a couple hours. Answer will already be posted.

[Lovejoy]

TA: LOL?! When I was pushing east the last settlement I took was Pura. The plan was to go all the way to india (but my army was too weak at this point), so I send a ship to pic them up. On the way home I desided to land my force at Maketa and snatch it before the Ptolemaios. :3

MarcusAureliusAntoninus and Karo: Thanks alot! For a second I believed citymod screwed it up.

[Hooahguy]

my new campaign as the romani:


the year is 258 BC. i doing a much slower campaign than before. i made one rule for myself, which makes all the difference with regards to speed: im limiting myself to only 5 units of mercs per army, and no more, unless its an emergency. i altered the polybian and marian reform triggers, so i just got the polybian reforms. i am currently fielding 2 legions: one under my faction leader, Scipio (the one who starts in Capua). the other is a backup one, shadowing my main one, to resupply Scipio's army after each large battle. i also have a bunch of stacks of roarii to do garrison duty for my provinces. but now im going to go invade north africa, and im raising 3 new legions to do it. i have purposely did dot upgrade Arpi, designating it to be my Camillian unit retraining center. so i am designating the 3 lower italic provinces, taras, Rhegion, and Capua, to raise one legion, Roma, Arretium and Ariminum to raise another, and Segesta, Bononia and patavium to raise the third. once they are finished, i will invade africa.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Here's a couple of campaigns I played a while ago:
Makedonia:
262:
252:
242:
232:
222:
212:
I ended up going to war with Rome and kicking them out of Pannonia. I ended up using the Autosave and Quicksave for another campaign and then came back to this one to notice the last normal save was 15 years back. So it died.

Hayasdan:
262:
Conquered the Caucus region and built up economy.
252:
The inevitable war. All Armenian people under Hai rule.
242:
Invasion of Media and Cappadocia.
232:
Pontic betrayers destroyed. All of Asia but Ionian Greeks conquered.
222:
Hai king leads attacks to liberate the Persian from the Greeks. Arabia taken to prevent destruction of the Sabeans.
212:
Median-like Empire established. King dies, war stops. Baktria is destroyed through no effort of mine. That is the first time I've seen Baktria do so poorly without me personally killing them.
202:
Little change to my empire. Noticing Makedon falling apart, I cheated to give them 4000 more people in Pella. The result is the crushing of the Epirites and an empire.
192:
Parthia betrays me and pays for it. Babylon and Syria invaded. Four towns attacked simultaneously. Ptolemai betrays me. Saba sides with me. Ptolemai betrays Saba.
182:
An empire to rival Cyrus' is born. Germans and Carthage (both my allies) are doing quite well.
I conquered all of the Nile and got bored of this campaign. Every town I conquered had no regionals (everything had the same 3 Greek levies) and I was getting tired of the small amount of variety in the factional unit list.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Cool, MAA.

[Karo]

Very cool Hay empire you have there

[americancaesar]

The World in 216 B.C.E

I am playing the Casse and have spent most of the years between 272 and uniting Britain (completed in the 230s with the conquest of Hibernia) and build a profitable economy. I had a diplomat on the continent, but he eventually died. Thus went I sent new diplomats in the 20s traded some map, I realized some weird was going. I soon discovered the great power the Germans had become. Heres the situation:

Gaul - The civil war (beginning in the 50s) resulted in a decisive Arverni victory, the Aedui only keeping their swiss and italian provinces. However, the Romans intervened, declaring war on both. While they agreed to ceasefire with the Aedui, they steadily took southern and central Gaul for the Arverni until the blessed and honorable Casse intervened, declaring war on Rome in 218 (just by coincidence the date of the start of the 2nd punic war).

Rome - Rome is in horrible shape, the worst I've ever seen. Things began well, as they conquered southern Italy, but after that the Senate ordered the legions north to fight the Germans and Celts. This also served to keep the Rome-Cathage alliance going until quite recently. On the downside, because of Rome's northern focus, her military has had no reform, which i believe in part accounts for her defeats.

Sweboz - It appears the Germans started a little early on the drive to conquer the East. Somehow Sweboz rapidly became the second greatest power in game and the virtual arbiter of Europe. In the 50s I saw a diplo message that said Epeiros had become a protectorate of the Sweboz. At that time Epeiros had not taken Macedonia and Thessaly yet, but I still could not believe. Years later, a diplomat of mine wandered into the Po valley only to find it was owned by the Germans as was central italy including Rome. Interestingly when i looked in these cities, there were Roman unit and, worse yet, Roman generals there. It appears that the Sweboz reacted Romes expansion not only by invading, but also by bribing corrupt or disloyal general and unlead units. They continue the war with Rome but also allied with the Aedui to fight the Arverni.

The Casse intervention in Gaul will setup a strong continent base to deal with this dangerous nation, hopefully.

other notes
Carthage has fought three wars with Lusitania and made it a protectorate twice. They only recently broke the treaty with Rome to take south italy

The Selucids have rebuilt Alexs empire... may the gods save me if they cross into Europe.

Bactria was made a Palavi protectorate after a short war

This game is being played on vh/h setting

[Warmaster Horus]

That's one neat campaign you've got there, americancaesar.

[Swordmaster]

The world in 200 BC:



AI-balancing minimod & First cohort mod.

That plot of land in northern Gaul I conquered from the Sweboz to save the Gallic factions from utter destruction. Now that they have Carnutes I might as well go out and fight them, though. Note that Epeiros was doing fairly well, dominating everything from Makedonia to the Baltic, but when they lost their homelands to me their realm completely collapsed (hence the Aedui, Sweboz, and KH territories in eastern Europe). Also note the Saba in Babylonia.

*EDIT* Update:

190 BC:


180BC:


170BC:

[The Errant]

The world in 200 BC:



AI-balancing minimod & First cohort mod.

That plot of land in northern Gaul I conquered from the Sweboz to save the Gallic factions from utter destruction. Now that they have Carnutes I might as well go out and fight them, though. Note that Epeiros was doing fairly well, dominating everything from Makedonia to the Baltic, but when they lost their homelands to me their realm completely collapsed (hence the Aedui, Sweboz, and KH territories in eastern Europe). Also note the Saba in Babylonia.

I love the Sabaean expansion. They aren't usually that agressive though. Are they allied to the Ptolies?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Awesome map and explanation americancaesar.

[Casaladow]

This is was my first campaign on eb 0.8x. I did played this one with normal difficult more understand better the mod before start a new one on high difficult settings. So was a quite short, but very fun and with great immersion.

Faction: Sweboz.

Early on, I did a small strategy to help my expansion, first I build economy and a gold reserve until on the right time, where I summon a army, conquer a province and then, disband the army leaving only the most experienced units and repeated the process. The fact that I was left quite alone by the other faction made that possible.

I know that constant recruitment might not be a good idea, but since I removed the weight of the army upkeep of my income this help to build cash until I got a strong economy(building farms and mines) to field a permanent army.

It's only near the end of the campaign that I start to face other factions, mainly Epiros (which had became a major power), I got a few great and difficult battles with them that started when they conquered a province that I was planning to conquer.

Fight against them proved quite hard, my armies had almost no cavalry, but I still manage to not only destroy one of their large armies, but plundered one province (I send a army there to just take it, raze all building and slave the population, I did that more to weak their economy and also because I know that province could not be kept since there was other epirote armies near) but also conquer other two.

Here is the faction progress and some curious facts:


249 BC

- Edit: Galatia went to Arverni.
- Greeks also have a city where once was Pontos.


239 BC

- Lusotannan start to expand and to expel Karthadastim out of Iberia.
- Galatia now had became a rebel province.

231 BC

- Now Lusotanna hold major part of Iberia.
- Sab'Yn expanded taking some Seleukeia provinces, while one province
appear to have rebeled.
- This year was just after the battles against Epiros that I mentioned before.

p.s: please, pardon my poor english.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Surprised Baktria got pwnd. THat one province was Galatia and it went to Arverni by rebellion, not Ptolemaioi. Pontos got eaten up too it seems. The Roman expansion isn't ideal but it isn't too bad either. Nice Lusotannan expansion. Epeiros sure has done well, and not in Italy. Very nice for them - some folks say they always get destroyed, or cause too much problems in Italy.

[Ignopotens]

Interesting strategy, I'm not sure if it would work if you were bordering another faciton from the start, though

[Casaladow]

Surprised Baktria got pwnd. THat one province was Galatia and it went to Arverni by rebellion, not Ptolemaioi. Pontos got eaten up too it seems. The Roman expansion isn't ideal but it isn't too bad either. Nice Lusotannan expansion. Epeiros sure has done well, and not in Italy. Very nice for them - some folks say they always get destroyed, or cause too much problems in Italy.

Ops I haven't noticed that, I just looked the color on the map and appeared to be Ptolemaioi. And yes, I almost forget about Pontos, if I remember correctly they where defeated early on.

Epiros focus his attention on Makedonia and Koinon Helenon leaving the romans alone.

Interesting strategy, I'm not sure if it would work if you were bordering another faciton from the start, though

Yes, it might only work for factions without neighbors so maybe Casse (I plan some time play with them to try) and Sweboz.

[Swordmaster]

I love the Sabaean expansion. They aren't usually that agressive though. Are they allied to the Ptolies?

Nope, they've beaten the Ptolies out of Seleukeia but have already lost it again by now.

[Conqueror]

Seleukid campaign, 199BC:


Some good fortunes for me on the Caucasus: I've finally driven the Sauromatae hordes back beyond the mountains and eliminated the Hayasdan faction. I'm now building the great "Pontic Wall" to block the border between my empire and the steppe. In the east it's business as usual; Pahlavas lay siege every turn and are repulsed every turn, in a never-ending cyckle. In the west I've gone to offensive against the KH and sacked some of their cities, gifting them to the Getai in hopes that it'd spark a war between the two factions (they're allies for the time being).

But let's have a look at the AI outside my borders. The Romani have gone berserk and are rampaging through central Europe. They are at war with Sweboz, Getai, Aedui, Lusotana and Karthadastim - and it looks like they're doing well on all fronts except southern Italy! The Sweboz have been the ones getting the most attention, their once-great empire now being torn to shreds by the legions. The Lusotana-Karthadastim alliance has been able to keep the Romani out of Iberia so far. Casse are predictably passive after securing the islands. Sauromatae aren't showing any signs of weakening despite the massive losses they suffered against me; they are attacking the Sweboz with vigour.

[Hooahguy]

my campaign: 232 BC:


as the romani, i am faced with many enemies. luckily, the strongest are my allies (the AS). the sweboz, who used to be my allies but betrayed me, are a superpower and just sent 3 stacks against me, and i fought really hard to defeat them. the lusotannan just declared war on my and thankfully i have a cease-fire with both of the gallic nations. Epiros is getting stronger, and to slow them down i took 2 of their cities, breaking the cease-fire i had with them. the Maks are severely crippled, and the KH arent doing so well either. im currently fielding 2 legions under my faction leader and my faction heir, both very able commanders. i plan to strike a cripling blow to the sweboz, get a peace treaty w/ them, then turn my attention to spain, greece, and gaul. hopefully i will have the Augustan reforms by then (i altered the reform triggers- already have the marian).

[Thaatu]

My Aedui campaign in 222 BCE



I'm kind of proud of this AI progression. The only faction eliminated at this point have been the Arverni, and even that happened because their last FM died of old age. Seleucids are fighting back as they have regained Babylonia and Media from the respective invaders. The KH lost Athens to Macedonia only a few years back and are trying frantically to get it back. At the moment, I'm raiding Roman territory and fending off Germanic raiders in Belgia, while fighting some minor inner struggles with other celts (eleutheroi). My trusting alliance with Epirus has held on for a few decades.

With v.0.81a, H/M, BI, mercenary mod, money script, and some of my own accidental modifications.