I am looking for the toughest challange in EB. Which is the faction in the worst possible starting position for settings VH/VH, and no time limit on battles.
Any suggestions?
king hannibal 11:31 28/03/07
I don't know what the hardest faaction is but got a few suggestions
1. only make a historical army and only keep with the provinces that you get at the start and no alliance or treaty with the AI
2. only have 10 unit maxs in any army with no cav ect general this will be with medium or hard diffculty as very hard maybe be to
I'd say Saba, Pontus or Hayasdan because you start off near the big boys. But setting yourself some nasty house rules can make any faction a challenge.
I would advise playing Pontus ( i think i will loose my campagne on VH/H ).
But with few simple house rules:
1) Never EVER load Save Game. Its just cheating.
2) Never EVER fight on river crossing. This is also like cheating, we just cant do anything to change how river crossing battles look like.
...or never play a battle yourself :] ( I could't admit to do such a thing, the AI has been cruched so many times when a human player could beat a Heroïc victory... )
Saba, Pontus, and Hayasdan aren't that hard actually. Saka on the other hand, is pretty much insane. Having 22 farming income out of 3 provinces, and then having to beat the Baktrians who can basically steamroll over anything you have.
Hi Centurion Varricus,
If your looking for a challange may I suggest the Saka! They are impossible to expand with and their starting provinces are quite megre in wealth. They need every atom of strength they can find to beat the Baktrians and take control of the entire east and the steppes. Hope this helps you, cheers!
Originally Posted by Centurion Varricus:
I am looking for the toughest challange in EB. Which is the faction in the worst possible starting position for settings VH/VH, and no time limit on battles.
Any suggestions?
Well I wouldn't play VH battle difficulty cause if you run into an elite unit, like gestatae, it'd basicly be able to solo your entire army.
They all have there challenges, it just depends on what your worst at, if you suck at calvary usage (like me) then the steppe factions will be a pain, if your only good at using phalanxes then the barb factions will be difficult... if your good at managing huge empires then one of the 1 province start factions will send you through hurdles....
I very hard faction to play even in vh\h as i play it is bactria.I think it is not something many people would say but they several disadvantages:
Their cities are very far between them and apart from Kophen every other eleutheroi city is very very hard to conquer and most of all having only inland cities u dont have any sea trade so it is very challenging financiallly.
Your are also neighbour to a very powerful ally who will quickly attack you(at least in my game it does) the seleukids.
Your only advantage:quite cheap regional troops from the start.
Baktria's pretty challenging. It's pretty hard to make money unless you blitz India early on, especially when the Saka and Seleukids start double-teaming you. The biggest problem for me is distance! It takes forever to get your army anywhere because of how far apart everything is. Sogdiane province is bigger than the entire Italian peninsula!
I think the funnest part for me is lots and lots and lots of cheap archers.
(edit) Which I guess is pretty much exactly what he said.
Take the Casse or the Saka and migrate to Phoenicia.
Originally Posted by Sheep:
Baktria's pretty challenging. It's pretty hard to make money unless you blitz India early on, especially when the Saka and Seleukids start double-teaming you. The biggest problem for me is distance! It takes forever to get your army anywhere because of how far apart everything is. Sogdiane province is bigger than the entire Italian peninsula!
I think the funnest part for me is lots and lots and lots of cheap archers.
(edit) Which I guess is pretty much exactly what he said.
the distance is a challenge but not overwhelming. Cash is an issue to beging with If you are patient you can end up earning a reasonable stream of cash. you just need to save up the 14000 or whatever to build mines!
i didnt find the saka too hard to deal with. they backstabbed me and attacked me in my newly conquered province of sulek despite the fact that we were allies. i wiped out that half stack army, and then raced to take their two starting cites which were left relatively unguarded (a couple of generals +archers). it turned out they had taken a third province but that too was relatively unguarded, i slowly marched an army up to take their final province and destroy their faction. this occured whilst they had a large army (nearlly a full stack army) that could have easily taken one of my cities sitting around not doing too much. i was thus able to destroy them without really facing up to their full power - maybe i was lucky. i did find that their generals were incredibly hard though!
I'm playing Pontos on VH/normal, and finding that "adequately" hard. The Seleucids start a war (the EB diplomacy scripting screws you), and they can come at you from multiple directions. You'll have to take about 4 neutral cities before that happens to fund an army that can fight them off. Then you have to take about 8 of their cities in Anatolia before you have any sort of defensible border.
I've taken Antioch and built strategic forts now, I've got them at arm's length and I'm picking some of the battles. I'm wondering whether to go for steady expansion (which will make the border longer) or to just send an army on a self-fuelling "slaughter, destroy buildings, loot, hire mercs" campaign to punish the bastards for never sticking to a deal.
The Errant 14:31 30/03/07
Originally Posted by Morte66:
I'm playing Pontos on VH/normal, and finding that "adequately" hard. The Seleucids start a war (the EB diplomacy scripting screws you), and they can come at you from multiple directions. You'll have to take about 4 neutral cities before that happens to fund an army that can fight them off. Then you have to take about 8 of their cities in Anatolia before you have any sort of defensible border.
I've taken Antioch and built strategic forts now, I've got them at arm's length and I'm picking some of the battles. I'm wondering whether to go for steady expansion (which will make the border longer) or to just send an army on a self-fuelling "slaughter, destroy buildings, loot, hire mercs" campaign to punish the bastards for never sticking to a deal.
Go for the killing spree. If you check the EB maps thread you'll see the provinces where the Seleucids can build type 1 govs. Destroy them all. Once your done the best troops the bastards will be fielding are the various mercs and Katapractoi they can recruit in the east. But never again will you need to face those insanely though Thorakitai Argyraspidai, Silver shield phalangites, Hypaspistai or Pheraspidai.
Not only will you get stinking rich looting their cities but you will cripple their ability to make decent stacks for a very long time.
Pontos - and not allowed to *start* a war against Armenia or Seleucia.
You should get flattened quickly.
Originally Posted by Orb:
Pontos - and not allowed to *start* a war against Armenia or Seleucia.
Don't worry, the Seleucids will start one against you. ;)
After that, Armenia will be the least of your worries.
Originally Posted by :
You should get flattened quickly.
Pin and sling...
1. Pahlava: Start out with a bad economy which sooner or later will cause Mnai profits to go into the Negatives. Have wonderful but expensive Heavy calvary, But crappy infantry. You start surrounded by the Arche to the south, Sakae to the north, and Baktria to the east. It's hard for me because in my House Rules
1.I never use my spies to take the three settlements to the south.
2.I never attack the Arche
3.I always attack Baktria.
I'm going to change them soon.
2. Arche Seleukia: You have a massive empire on the verge of revolting and are surrounded on all sides.
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