Toughest Challange

[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?

[king hannibal]

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

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

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!

[Caratacos]

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.

[LorDBulA]

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.

[Pelopidas]

...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... )

[JeffBag]

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.

[Pelopidas]

In my opinion Pontus is the most difficult, in VH.

I never expercienced any problem with the Saka...exactly as for the Parthians, your Horse Archers make wonders, and the charge of two or three of your characters will break anything, I even stormed Pezhetaïroi in a frontal charge with them !

[fallen851]

I suggest you start a new faction, and start in the Sahara province Tuat. You'll never expand very far. Ever.

[NeoSpartan]

Play with the Aedui in VH/VH.
-Ur broke without any income.
-Are at war with the arverni who can train new units.
-Right around 268BC the Romani come after you with Triarii, Principes, and samnites.

Me on VH/M and on H/H by the time I got + income, the war with Rome was already happening.

Plus ur Gauls don't have warcry. And its still a mystery if the Bonus for figthing in the Snow or Trees work. Some say the don't, some say they work all the time....go figure.....

[L.C.Cinna]

I actually wanted to play with Pontus but I'm not sure as their roster is not finished yet. Is it still any good?

[blacksnail]

Casse.

[Dumbass]

Speaking of rosters, the casse roster seems bare. I can only build slingers, lugguo, sword guys, spear guys and chariots at MIC 4, for homeland provinces. I hope that at level 5 there's a batch of good units.

[Swebozbozboz]

Pontus. Just when you get a stable economy the AS attack you and push you into the sea...AS along with the Hay's, and the Greeks, and the Getai....eh.


I wanted to be Pontus, not be in the Pontus.

[Caratacos]

Plus ur Gauls don't have warcry. And its still a mystery if the Bonus for figthing in the Snow or Trees work. Some say the don't, some say they work all the time....go figure.....

they don't work as in they work all of the time for everyone-- thus cancelling themselves out.

[abou]

Right now, for Sauromatae seems to be the most difficult. At least with Casse, once you build your forces and take the isles you have a solid economic and defendable base away from the continental powers.

[Rilder]

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....

[pansoiatr]

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.

[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_Mark]

Take the Casse or the Saka and migrate to Phoenicia.

[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.

[KARTLOS]

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!

[The Errant]

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.

[Orb]

Pontos - and not allowed to *start* a war against Armenia or Seleucia.

You should get flattened quickly.

[Morte66]

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.

You should get flattened quickly.

Pin and sling...

[Wolfman]

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.

[SwebozGaztiz]

Pontos is quite difficult and frustrating but in my opinion all the factions that are near Arche Seleukeia are challenging, sooner or later you will engage in a never ending war with the seleukids. Ive tried the sauka and the problem here is economics not military power coz with the horse archers you can get you can easily crush baktrian, as, or pahlav armies, the only problem is to get stabilized. For me baktria is a challenge, sure you can get the mines and have the patience the problem here is that either as, pahalav or saka don't have the patience to have you around and as soon as they have the chance they will either backstab you or start a war. It took me quite a while to get stablized with baktria, right now im still fighting a never ending war with the seleukids as i already destryed pahlav and the saka are just sitting on their capital(it takes forever to take your armies to their capital and im having some loyalty issues on their former provinces). Also like other guy mentioned the distance it takes too much time to travel anywhere in that region, also it takes quite a bit to get decent troops, baktrias roster is quite interesting but it takes time to get elite units, and once again the seleukids are nearby thats just plain frustrating they keep on sending full stacks, small armies if you get in a war with them it won't stop until you whipe them out haha thats what i am trying to do!!GOOD luck choosing!