1.0x AI Faction Progression Thread

[Sir Edward]

1.0 Baktria H/M

Thanks for your posts. Well I'll try to explain the situation as it went down in my game.

Saka: I fought a small war with them over their homeland and Kangha and utterly destroyed them by 265. Not much to say about their AI expansion.

Pahlava: Between 260 and 250 I fought the first Parthian war against them and took their homelands. Decided to sign a peace treaty after this war just to see how they would do. They did well against their sarmatian cousins cutting out quite a confederation, but seem to have stopped around 225. Fought the second Parthian War in 207-199 with HA and Cataphract army relying heavily on merc for garrisons and restore numbers after battles to gain VC, put up as good fight as could be expected. No real surprises here.

Seleukids: Started off expanded slowly in Asia Minor. Appeared to be on the loosing end of war with Ptolemaioi. However, taking advantage of Carthage invasion from the western front and a couple Saba supported rebellion
was able to take all the lands of the Nile by about 215. However their african holdings were not very secure and suffered from insurrections by Ptolomaioi loyalists and Saba supported troops in the South. After Ptolomaioi were eliminated as a threat they turned their attention on Saba. They kept peace treaties with Carthage, Pontos, and Makedonia for the entire length of the game. Around 250 started to assault me. I limited my movement into their lands not wanting to rush them. Quite fun and capable enemy. (Note why does Seluekids have a couple better phalanx units then Bactria? Shouldn't they have access to the same troops?) Eventually set up a line of defense you see in the 210 picture and from there fought a purely defensive war.

Sarmatians: Started out well for a steppe faction, taking a few lands through rebellions and capturing some others. Unfortunately the remnant of Parthia turned its attention on their cousins lands and took most of their western holdings. This crippling was followed by a gutting by Hai. Around 210 allied with the remnant of the Hai in order to holdout against the Pontos threat.

Hai: Armenia started out alright, but a little before 230 started a war with Pontos that they some how lost. It may be due to Seleukids taking the side of Pontos in the conflict, although I never saw them actively supporting through attacks. The Hai escaped over the caucus mountains and essentially became another Steppe Confederation and never recovered to their former glory.

Pontos: Extremely slow start, took sinope and then sat for three decades building up armies. Took all of Hai holdings south of the Steppes, and then started sending armies north to take lands along the black sea. Never could maintain complete control over Galatia and it constantly reverted to Aedui. I didn't want to share a border with them and effect their expansion, part of the reason I drew the border where it was. All in all kind of interesting to see the interaction of Hai and Pontos AI go down

Saba: Through conquest and rebellions made a nice empire. Initially allied to Seluekids, it was unable to hold on to northern lands against phalanx armies and only got them back occasionally through rebellion. Came into power in Africa through 2 territories rebelling around 205. Made a serious push east in the last decade.

Ptolomaioi: What looked like pretty standard expanion by the AI took a really weird turn. After doing well for two decades they came into contact with Carthage on Western front and Rebellish lands turning to support by the Saba. With lost of lands the faction imploded. Saba held on to their lands in Arabia. Carthage took all western territories, and occasionally raided towns along the Nile. Seluekids took control of Syria and then moved into Egypt proper and took all lands by the nile and east of it. By around 220 was reduced to a rump state holding court in Cyprus and a few loyalist lands scattered in egypt threat would occasionally rebel in their favor but would always be quickly suppressed by local rulers. I was actually amazed at the complete collapse of this faction and the seeming cooperation displayed by her opponents.

Carthage: Secured the north african coast first and then made some head way into spain and moved east towards egypt. Got a foot hold in the oasis west of the nile and was after that the thorn in Ptolomaioi side. Worked out some kind of deal with seluekids in braking up egypt and maintained the peace. After taking some land along the Iberia coast lost them all to native factions and gave up any ambition to get them back. Took all of Sicily and started a minor war with Rome that lasted 3 decades but only result was the taking of Rhegion, that then revolted there by creating an independent city state in the south of Italy. This buffer allowed for a peace treaty to be brokered between Carthage and Rome. I was happy to see how successful this faction was in taking out Ptolomaioi, but wish that they could have went after Rome a little better.

Casse: Took all of Britain, nothing to see here move along.

Sweboz: Started off rapidly but got bogged down and pretty much stop conquering territories after two decades. Personally I like to see this germany better then the one in the last build that always unites all of baltic and east europe.

Dacia: Extremely slow start. Some how 40 years into the game was able to get act together and started expanding. Was able to in short time build a nice empire and was even making inroads into conquering the Crimmean Penn. Their timely expansion contained Epeiros growth. The way that this faction remained isolated for so long and then BAM! they just grow impressed me, wish that Casse expansion was more like this.

Makedonia: They really looked as if a victory could be eked out it greece. For the first two decades they stopped Epeiros growth completely and were pushing the greeks south. But the two vs. one eventually broke them and they lost the war. The remnants of the Makedonia army consolidated their forces on the island of lesbos. From there these lesbian makedonians moved north and after three decades had created a new empire centered around thrace and were back at war with Epeiros. It was interesting for me to see makedonia on the up and up, get knocked down, and then come back swinging.

Koinon Hellenos: Took a beating by the Macedonians and were surviving just barely. Around 250 the tables had turned and they were beginning to take back some possessions and ended up taking Makedonia. The short peace caused by the ousting of Makedonia was broken by the Epeiros. As before they were on the loosing end of the war, eventually reduced to only Rhodes. From here the league was completely reduced to Rhodes and the very occasional insurrection of Asia Minor City states.

Epeiros: Another extremely slowly expanding state that ended up cutting out a nice empire. Although they fought a good war they didn't making any gains against the makedonians for more then two decades. However once this did happen they snowballed both makedonia and after them Koinon Hellenos making them rulers of Greece. After unification they started loosing ground to Macedonia in the east. Was actually able to take a town from rome. I liked the way Epeiros evolved overall in this game going from a no show to a power house,

Rome: Rome was interesting in that for the first four decades it seem to be doing the normal gig of solidifying Italian holdings forget about sicily and move north taking control of alps and nearby territories. However after all this it was unable to make any real progress in Gaul, Germany, or Illyria. After 50+ years it finally was taking a few settlements in Gaul. But with the destruction of Arverni there was a shared border with Lusotannan in 210 the shared border caused an aggression by the Iberians. They quickly lost Massilia, and Cis Alpine Gaul. Now many of their Northern Possessions are besieged. They still have several functioning legions in the area so its up in the air who will win this one. Due to the distraction of the current war they lost provinces to both Carthage end Epeiros making their situation even more difficult. I was happy to see a campaign where Rome got neutered without having to assist the AI at all.

Arverni: Lost the gaulic civil war. After 235 pretty much exsisted only as a client kingdom to either their Aedui cousins, the Lusotannan or Roma. Spent most of its time besieged it survived until it was overrun by the Iberians. This was pretty standard as far as AI goes at least for me.

Aedui: I guess these would be considered the victors of the Gaulic civil war because they out lasted the Arverni. This wasn’t due to conquest on their part more that they weren’t the first target of Rome and Lussotannan. They were able to conquer free tribes to the north around the Low Countries, and were able to survive somewhat intact a push by Rome 220s and 210s. In a weaken state they were no match for the Lussotannan and their western lands fell with out much resistance. They were able to bribe a roman general and have since turned him into a mediocre governor. They have a loyal tribe in Pannonia that has held onto the land for a generation but without a FM it is unlikely it will accomplish much of anything. They also get Galatia to rebel to them occasionally but have much more problems holding onto it for any note worthy length of time.

Lusotannan: So Wow, got to say I never expected this to happen. In the first decade they had a really nice start but then seem to turtle for a few years. After 40 years of coexisting with Carthage they finally gave them the boot. It was un in the air who would win but, with carthage focusing more and more resources into Egypt the Lusotanan persevered. At this point owning all of Iberia they moved across the Pyrenees and into Gaul moving up the Atlantic coast. They laid siege to Arverni several time each one ending with the Arverni becoming protectorate. Finally, in 210 they defeated Arverni creating a border with Rome. They continued their conquest across Gaul and at this point seiged Massilia. The siege was completed pretty quickly and with that success they continued their war in the Alps. Due to the vast stretches of new land in gaul they moved their capitol to Celtiberia to be closer to the front. I’ve just got to say it was amazing to see these guys going at it, I can only hope they actually do some lasting harm to rome would be quite an interesting turn of events.


Overall, got to say this was really fun campaign to see completed. The variety of units the Seluekids threw at me kept it from getting boring and by hampering myself from conquering to quickly I really got to see some interesting AI movements. Also if you should play bactria don't do as I did and forget to conquer India till the very end you miss out on some cool traits and playing around with some really nice units. Kind of want to start off as Lusotannan to see if I can't do half as well as my computer did with them.