AI Balancing Mini-Mod

**mlp071** · 07-11-2007, 07:27

Originally Posted by Ice

Well I tried a Saba campaign on VH/M. In short, it sucked. The ai still sent stacks to attack me. Half of them were gallic elite mercs. Give me a break. Others were elite phalanxs. Tiny Saba could never deal with that. I had to cheat to survive. Do you think M/M would be better?

There are no Gallic elite mercs in Asia Minor other then couple of units of "naked fanatics"

You should try H/M just to get little more familiar with faction.

Saba is one of hardest faction to play, due to fact that is bordering with 2 biggest butchers in game, AS and Ptolies.

On M battles you can beat AI with 2/3 of stack or 1/2 against his full stack.Try to use those rocky areas around your starting province to fight them, since that will get their phalanxes out of formation.After you get 2-3 of them gone , you will have quiet time for some turns.And most likely open road to Selukeia

Only places that AS is building elites are Antiochea , Seleukeia.You get those raided , and they are back to basics for a time being.Later on is different story.

Stay away from Dumatha and Persian gulf side thats AS contested teritory.Try to get Axum as soon you can, before Ptolies do, you can get Agemas there (AP Heavy infantry) and i believe elephants. Ptollies will eventually overrun AS and then you gonna have them on your back.

**Ice** · 07-11-2007, 08:04

Originally Posted by mlp071

There are no Gallic elite mercs in Asia Minor other then couple of units of "naked fanatics"

You should try H/M just to get little more familiar with faction.

Saba is one of hardest faction to play, due to fact that is bordering with 2 biggest butchers in game, AS and Ptolies.

On M battles you can beat AI with 2/3 of stack or 1/2 against his full stack.Try to use those rocky areas around your starting province to fight them, since that will get their phalanxes out of formation.After you get 2-3 of them gone , you will have quiet time for some turns.And most likely open road to Selukeia

Only places that AS is building elites are Antiochea , Seleukeia.You get those raided , and they are back to basics for a time being.Later on is different story.

Stay away from Dumatha and Persian gulf side thats AS contested teritory.Try to get Axum as soon you can, before Ptolies do, you can get Agemas there (AP Heavy infantry) and i believe elephants. Ptollies will eventually overrun AS and then you gonna have them on your back.

Trust me, they were elite Guals. I don't if they were mercs or what, but they were there. Those guys were killer.

I decided to play on M/M. The Ai is behaving a bit better. I'm also building mines in the 3 provinces to rack in some money before I expand.

**MarcusAureliusAntoninus** · 07-11-2007, 09:21

The Ptolemai have their own elite Gallic unit. It represents Gauls that were settled in the Nile Delta to work for the Ptolemaioi. Ptolemai can recruit them all over the place and make about 1/3 of their armies out of them when they can afford it.

**The Errant** · 07-11-2007, 15:13

Originally Posted by MarcusAureliusAntoninus

The Ptolemai have their own elite Gallic unit. It represents Gauls that were settled in the Nile Delta to work for the Ptolemaioi. Ptolemai can recruit them all over the place and make about 1/3 of their armies out of them when they can afford it.

The Galatikoi Klaruchoi are also available for recruitment by the Sabaeans with a high enough level of regional MIC (level 4) in most of the Egyptian provinces. You just have to take those provinces from the Ptolies first.

As heavy infantry goes they are some of the best. Better than anything the Sabaeans can train from their native selection of troops.

**mcantu** · 07-12-2007, 18:14

So far it seems using the balancing mod works best at M/M. The AI doesnt seem to be sending wave after wave of stacks at me...

**Redmeth** · 07-12-2007, 19:05

On M the AI does not recruit any mercs AFAIK.
The enemy will still send stacks but the difference is that after some battles you will get a period of calm in which to solidify your new possessions or regroup, whereas in vanilla vs AS there was no room to breathe.

**mcantu** · 07-12-2007, 19:25

I'm seeing the AI recruit a good mix of mainly factional troops with a couple of mercs on M...

**Ice** · 07-12-2007, 21:47

Originally Posted by mcantu

So far it seems using the balancing mod works best at M/M. The AI doesnt seem to be sending wave after wave of stacks at me...

Try H/M and see how that works out. I'm toying around with the two. VH the AI seems like its on speed and conquers everything ultra fast.

**mlp071** · 07-13-2007, 00:24

You have to take into account that not all factions are same to play. I played 2 campaigns on VH with this script (not counting testings) and finished one relatively easy(as Casse) and lost one (Sauromatae).

Second one i lost due to coruption runing about -15000+/turn ,and having war with 4 factions at same time. so with weak faction economy i couldn't do anything.But thats a challenge of playing weaker faction.

I started Pahlava other night and got AS and Baktria on my back really early (stupid AI unit pathfinding

) in 267, by 262 I got Baktria reduced to one province and took 2 from AS , while i killed 3-4 of their stacks with 1/2 stack army that i have(and garrisons). After that till now when i am in 259(9 turns), they are leaving me alone , even though they don't want to sign ceasefire.

They will come again , but by then i will have new provinces settled and economy improved= more units .

This mode is designed to prevent " infinite stacks " but still try to keep game a challenge.

It is logical to have AS or Ptolies harder to beat then Pontus, ex..But they are beatable, just takes alot of effort.Playing smaller (or weaker) factions requires alot more of strategical decision and diplomatic moves( i noticed that if you decide to ally to Ptolies , that will give you really bad rep with AS and vice versa, for example).To bad that you can't see you diplomatic standings and reputation like in M2TW.

Any AI faction can grow up to certain size, and when it becomes too big will start to have rebellions and get weaker. We have that setup in script.As in real life it won't happen over 1-2 turns but rather over 2-4 years.

Playing on VH, H or M is matter of persons choice of campaign challenge level.I am personally excited with your informations that we achieved to make challenging game on 3 different difficulty levels.

And levels shouldn't matter as long you enjoy your game