Romans and Crete

[-Praetor-]

Hi!

I wanted to ask something.

I`m playing with BI shortcut, and well, the naval invasions work pretty well.

For example, playing as romans, the gauls (don`t remember, but I guess they were arvernii) even invaded Corsica and snatched it off the Carthagineans... only to lose it a couple of years later to me... and playing as Romans, after I conquered Lilibeo, I saw a huge force of carthaginean stacks arriving into Sicily to reconquer what they consider rightfully theirs. It was so serious, that I had to abandon my invasion into Corsica and Sardinia, and my offensive operations in Cisalpine gaul... 4 and a half full stacks are no trivial matter.

Oh well, the thing is, I`m playing with Koinon Hellenon, and the romans have become very fond of my little cretan island... dunno if they like the weather, if they want to spend holidays on that island, but they invade it pretty regularly.

I now just sink their transports using my Penterai fleets.

It`s strange, since they don`t got a spy in crete, thus they shouldn`t view it as a first priority target. Yet still, they attack it even before conquering Magna Graeca and Sicily.

I`m curious:

A) Why does the Roman AI player like Crete so much???
B) Why doesn`t the Roman AI player do the same with Sicily???

Cheers!!

[Boyar Son]

well experiance from vanilla RTW 1.5 it seems the AI uses navies to drop off armies on a contested battlefield to hold what is theirs. If they lose it they will counter attack by trying to take it back( the AI in 1.5 also uses alot more mercenaries too but you guys already know that). To stop them you must attack them from an unexpected direction, destroy their navy, or ally with somebody close to them who is or might go to war with them,taking ports will also help.

Rome could want crete maybe... because they see that its an easy target or its just in the name of conquering. No strategic reasons really in my opinion.

Rome probably wouldnt do the same with sicily because their in a tangled alliance and the ally of their ally might just happen to own a provence there. Or if they wage war there, they might be bogged down with trying to capture 3 whole cities (coorect me if im wrong on the number) while compared to your one city island. they probably see you as the easier target. Also the Roman must have made a deal with somebody to pay them to attack you, it explains why they have enough money for fleets and troops.

Hope this helps for everyone

[BigTex]

Other then what COSSACK responded with. The romans even with vanilla had some kind of facination with the island of crete. In 1.6 they would almost always have a small landing party pretty quickly go for crete.

It's a good island really it's in central mediteranean. With it you can get to greece, assia minor, egpyt, or even rhodes and cyprus.

Still weird about their fascination with it though.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Another thing is that the Romans in Vanilla AI, aren't exactly the same ones in EB. To explain myself: in Vanilla the Romans are the Senate + Julii + Brutii + Scipii; but with EB the Vanilla Seleukids form the Romani faction.

Now the question is: what have the Vanilla Seleukids (used as the Romani in EB) in common with the Vanilla Romans that makes them go for Crete since 1.6? Their possesion of Latium perhaps?

(I don't have BI, and I don't see the Romani make such 'crazy for Crete' movements. So, I gather it's a 1.6 'feature'. )

[Lovejoy]

You are playing on VH right? I think that might be the problem. On VH the AI is very aggresive against the player. He is prob just attacking the closet of yours cites(besides crete i very rich). I've never seen Rome attack Crete, when I play KH the Ptolom(omg sp??) is after it. And I play on VH BI.exe.

[MiniMe]

Or maybe Romans just grew tired of all these merc_cretan_archers that are used against them so they are trying to annihilate the source of the problem