Some Questions From Someone on their 1st Campaign

[part_time_player]

First of all - Hi to everyone on the EB Forum

Secondly - A huge heart felt thank you to all the guys on the modding team for creating such an amazing piece of work. Historical accuracy aside, this is just a great game. The detail, depth and variety is fantastic and I'm really enjoying it.

I've played all the Total War games and expansions and decided to give this a try after deciding I would Put Medieval 2 away for a while until it was patched/fixed a little bit more.

I'm part way through my first campaign as the Casse and just had a few questions which I hoped somone would be kind enough to answer.

The campaign so far:
Disbanded my fleet and took all available troops to take Ratae.
Defeated a Eleutheroi counter-siege (really took me by surprise and was great to see!) and two more roaming stacks. Left surviving troops at a minimum while I spent money on some markets etc. When I could afford it I retrained the army to take on Caern-Brigantae. I then added two units of slingers and proceeded to take the rest of the island, finishing in Southern Ireland. Those troops have now jumped on a boat back to Camulosadae for re-training so they can be ready for striking at rebel settlements in Gaul. I have focused most of my building on growth and economy and am currently making about 10k a turn. All provinces except the Irish ones have governors + 1 Spearmen and I have one General leading my army.

My first question relates to Governments and recruitment. So far I have built type 1 governments everywhere I can and type 2 everywhere else. I only have recruitment buildings in Camulosadae and Ratae so everywhere else can only train Levy Spearmen (or Goidillic Spearmen in Ireland).

What troops will I ultimately be able to build in my type 2 Government provinces? What would have been the advantages/disadvantages of choosing type 3 or 4 Governments instead? What troops would I be able to build if I had selected either of those?

My next question is on Governors. I think the Vices & Virtues system is great and seems very logical. From birth, some of my generals are more suited to Governing and some are more suited to warfare, and I try to play to their strengths. After the first few turns I only needed one general to lead my army as most of the fighting was sieges and chariots aren't that useful, plus even the warrior types boosted my income by applying some management skill to my provinces. This has lead to them having increased management skill and decreased commanding skill.

What should I do with generals who have no-one to fight yet but who I don't want to sit around and get lazy? Would you just leave them outside of a city?

Also, my faction leader, Barae was in Ratae for sometime while I built up my forces and then took part in the capture of Caern-Brigantae and Ynys-Mon which earned him the uncomfortable supervisor trait. I moved him back to Ratae to be Governor where he has sat ever since but every few turns I get the same message from him saying he is unconfortable and "please lord, move me to a settlement so I can be a governor again" (or something to that effect). Is this a bug of some sort or am I doing something wrong?

My last question is on Navies. After disbanding my fleet on the first turn I had nowhere to buld another one until I captured Ivernis which was able to build a Ponta. I would like to know if any of my other provinces will be capable of building a dockyard, I know there was a map showing this but I read it was out of date?

I apologise if I've missed all this info elsewhere on the forum, I did have a look and I hope no-one minds it being such a long post. Any help on these queries would be much appreciated.

[Foot]

Govs are very simple. Type Is can build all factional troops that are avaliable in a province, ie you can build the factional MIC (barracks) up to the highest level. Type Is are best put in every province that you can build one, they will normally give you the most recruitment options. Type IIs are for areas outside your homeland, but that your culture has an affinity with, these allow you to build to Factional MIC lvl4, but also offer slightly more regional troops (if they are avaliable. Type IIIs and Type IVs, generally offer few if any factional troops (they do not allow many levels of the Factional MIC to be built), but offer higher levels of the regional MIC, which offer higher level regional troops (if a province offers them for your faction).

The general policy is to build type Is wherever you can, and type IIs wherever you can as well. Type IIIs and Type IVs are very much similar, though Type IVs offer more recruitment options (generally - particularly in the next release), but type IVs also offer some unfortunate side effect (again, mostly in the next release).

For Generals who you don't want to get lazy, you could try sending them with a small selection of troops on raiding runs, or to pick of rebel units in your provinces.

The problem with Barae seems to be a bug, could you post some more details on it in the bug forum?

Other than Ivernis, the southern province in Ireland can also build a military port.

No worries, hopefully one day we will get a proper manual for the game.

Foot

[Thaatu]

What should I do with generals who have no-one to fight yet but who I don't want to sit around and get lazy? Would you just leave them outside of a city?

In battle, when the lines are locked, try taking a family member and his chariots for a ride behind the enemy, throwing javelins at their back. The added morale damage caused by chariots should make the enemy rout pretty easily. The only time when you should use chariots in melee is when chasing routing units.

Also, my faction leader, Barae was in Ratae for sometime while I built up my forces and then took part in the capture of Caern-Brigantae and Ynys-Mon which earned him the uncomfortable supervisor trait. I moved him back to Ratae to be Governor where he has sat ever since but every few turns I get the same message from him saying he is unconfortable and "please lord, move me to a settlement so I can be a governor again" (or something to that effect). Is this a bug of some sort or am I doing something wrong?

He's saying he wants a bigger city to rule over. The trait itself is pretty harmless, so ignoring it won't do much damage.

I apologise if I've missed all this info elsewhere on the forum, I did have a look and I hope no-one minds it being such a long post. Any help on these queries would be much appreciated.

I love it how people nowadays are afraid of the EB teams answer and always apologise in advance.

Edit: Oh, and what do I do with surplus family members? I give them a small taskforce, with which to screen a bigger army. That taskforce always moves next to the army so if either is attacked, the other will come to aid. Then, if the reinforcing army is the smaller force, I put it on AI control. That way the FM will gain command traits much faster than in manual control. I don't know why, but autoresolve and AI control gives out more traits to the leader.

[part_time_player]

Thanks for those responses guys, just a couple more points..

I didn't realise there was a factional AND regional MIC, is "Foreign Levy" the first level regional MIC? In which case as I understand it, type 2, 3 & 4 governments will be able to develop this building further than a type 1 can?

I will make some notes on the Barae message and post in bugs thread when I can.

For Navies - Ivernis IS the Southern Irish province, did you mean Ictis (Cornwall)?

Plus a couple of points on the building browser I didn't think of first time;

The building browser confuses me as it doesn't seem to show all the buildings which can be built, for example in my capital I have a Trading Port and have the option to upgrade it to a Trading Harbour but in the browser it just shows the port with no further upgrades?

Also in the browser, Government buildings shows Provisional Military Gov only and finally, what is the "Placeholder for String 19" at the bottom?

Finally, for anyone interested, I am playing on H/M the year is 251 BC, the Gauls (both) Swebs, & Lusatannans have all expanded by 3 or 4 territories and are just marginally behind me in overall ranking, the Romans have consolidated Italy and 3 or 4 territories to the North and in the East everyone's busy kicking the cr*p out of each other but not really getting anywhere. Looking forward to some full stack showdowns in mainland Europe.

[Foot]

Yes, foreign levy is the first level of the regional MIC, and Type IIs, IIIs and IVs can all develop this building progessively further.

Yes I did mean Ictis.

The building browser doesn't work and never will. We use "not" commands a lot in the code for the buildings, which screws up the building browser.

Foot

[part_time_player]

Thanks Foot, really much appreciated

[Ludens]

My first question relates to Governments and recruitment. So far I have built type 1 governments everywhere I can and type 2 everywhere else. I only have recruitment buildings in Camulosadae and Ratae so everywhere else can only train Levy Spearmen (or Goidillic Spearmen in Ireland).

What troops will I ultimately be able to build in my type 2 Government provinces? What would have been the advantages/disadvantages of choosing type 3 or 4 Governments instead? What troops would I be able to build if I had selected either of those?

Here you can find some great maps detailing Celtic recruitment options. Not all Celtic units will be available at once, however. More information on Celtic recruitment can be found in the Unit Card thread.

After the first few turns I only needed one general to lead my army as most of the fighting was sieges and chariots aren't that useful, plus even the warrior types boosted my income by applying some management skill to my provinces. This has lead to them having increased management skill and decreased commanding skill.

What should I do with generals who have no-one to fight yet but who I don't want to sit around and get lazy? Would you just leave them outside of a city?

Personally, one of my first priorities in a campaign is to either build or conquer an academy building. There I can educate young or unoccupied faction members. Even if they don't learn anything, they'll still pick up some useful ancillaries. Also, you shouldn't worry too much about command stars. They don't have that much influence, and at least part of the loss is due to the "attuned governor" trait, which will dissappear when the governor leaves his town.

My last question is on Navies. After disbanding my fleet on the first turn I had nowhere to buld another one until I captured Ivernis which was able to build a Ponta. I would like to know if any of my other provinces will be capable of building a dockyard, I know there was a map showing this but I read it was out of date?

The map can be found here. Yes, it's out of date, but it is still mostly accurate.