1.0x AI Faction Progression Thread

[Ower]

Awesome Ower! Though three things:

* Eliminate the remaining romans (will shorten turn-time)
* Take Noricum!
* Take vindobona!

Well the romans will have to wait, Khardastim remobilized sooner then I expected, they brought a huge mercanery army to Rhegio And my besiging Army got severli reduced. But Arpi did fall, the romas are paing nice for now. althogh they hvae 2 full stacs standing there. I was able to remobilize, have a fort at the border between rome an Campania. with an Army preparing to take out the Romans. And I took Rhegio at les, have sally a siege from the Khardies, so I can advance against Messana

Those 2 rebel cities have each 2 full stacks - one general led, standing there, so for now its no do, for me.
As for the Sweboz they just lost their Capital Denemark and Scandinavia, I am planing to force a ceasefire with them in exchange for that one city on the island near the shores of germany (cant remember the name).
I am keepeng the germans there, as a buffer agains Epirus (Or Should I say Balkania), they took almous the whole Getic kingdom, save for Olbia and the provic next to it (but there is a full stack on the way) KH and Ptolies are batteling it out quit hard (Pella and especialy Byzantion is switching hands almoust each turn , as does the 2 east arabic provinces and 2 most south provinces in Egypt.
Pahlava lost 2 step provinces to the Sauromate via rebelion(gava - Mazsakata and Alanna, but warded of the Bactrians even taking Alexandria-Eschate
The Hai have some problems with rebelions in the north as well, and the ptolies every once in a while lose some city to the Seleucid, KH or Rebels and then take it back.

Things Are getting messy dam it.
As for the diplomacy: I am Alied to both KH and Epirus (Which are allied to one another)and Pahlava( ) and ofcourse to the Casse as well - who at last unified Britani.
and in war with Kahardastim and the Sweboz(not for long)
The Getail all almout finished, I actually am a bit scared to see what Epirus will do.
Pahlava Is right now in war with Baktria and the Sauromatea and Are alied With me and Margiane(former Seleucid) Which is defending its Independence from stack after stack of Bactrians valiantly .
The Ptolemais are Alied to Sweboz and Kahardastim (they obiviously dont like me)

Got a question After I get the Sweboz out of Rugoz, they should be renamed to some proper tribal name? like I seen some people do that thing (and I did it with Rome and the Seleucid after they lost their home) but I dont have much knowlage of the tribal names from this era in the Area, so could some one give me a sugestion, the same fo the Getai.

[Hax]

Hmmm, everything looks pretty normal in that pic. Except those idiot Armenians that screw up the good look <.<

[fahrenheit]

My most recent Epeiros campaign.
Greece is so easy.

[General Appo]

Holy crap, that&#180;s a big Empire. Pyrrhos would be proud of you. Now just take Africa and India and you&#180;ll have taken all the world, at least all areas of it that matters.

[LordCurlyton]

What year is that? Even if you blitz it still must take a while to take all that.

[fahrenheit]

What year is that? Even if you blitz it still must take a while to take all that.

180 BC.

[Olimpian]

My first EB campaign...finished!!!
The first pic is of my late-game economy before I bribed two Boii uber-fullstacks to use against the 3 remaining (fight fire with fire) and take the last city I needed to obtain VC.Next : some phalanx warfare

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

I hate you both.

*justajoke*

[Zenith Darksea]

You spent 4 MILLION Mnai on bribing two armies?!? I knew the EB economy was difficult, but really...

[Olimpian]

You spent 4 MILLION Mnai on bribing two armies?!? I knew the EB economy was difficult, but really...

It was actually more than 6 million,I was left with 200k.But I raised a few taxes and after 2 turns I was up to 2 million.Heck of an economy,ey?

[Reverend Joe]

My most recent Epeiros campaign.
Greece is so easy.

...Teal death? That's a new one on me.

Well, I guess you can do anything with a little skill and patience.

[Olaf The Great]

It was actually more than 6 million,I was left with 200k.But I raised a few taxes and after 2 turns I was up to 2 million.Heck of an economy,ey?

I think Olimpian is a pretty cool guy, eh bribes people AND DOESN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING.

[Spooky32]

Alex.exe

Romani VH/M - 219BC

[d'Arthez]

That is one weird Makedonian faction there.

[Hax]

Hmm, I've seen them take the Amber route.

[LordCurlyton]

Post VC KH, 182 BC. Total Domination awaits.
I've gotten a trait I've never seen before: Heir Desired. Pity it came on a general and not a FM (an Italic one at that!). The lands of Mesopotamia and Persia are now on their third Helleneic overlords, namely me. I finished what I started with Carthage and the Saba have so far held on to it. I raped the Egyptian homelands, thus crippling the Ptolemaic dynasty. They spar with the Saba now, every now and then sending troops my way. The Final War of Hellenic Unification has begun between me and Big Blue. I have several stacks en route to Baktrian heartland provinces as we speak. I intend to cripple them permanently in one fell swoop before consolidating and sweeping up through the steppes.
The Sweboz have gotten another set of gold chevroned FMs, and the result, as you can see, has been predictable. While the front hasn't changed in a few years, the Arveni will likely be unable to launch a counter-offensive until the uber-FMs die off. Thankfully I managed to induce a revolt in a Sweboz conquest and now the Aedui are also at war with the Sweboz, though they remain rather innefectual to date. At least they divert some attention. Personally I'm semi-rooting for the Sweboz since having them control Celtic territories greatly reduces the quality of armies that can be mustered from there.
The Lusos are going nowhere slowly and the Sauromatae are chum. The Casse, if they ever decided to build some boats, could make Gaul a very interesting place *sidenote: how would I go about giving them some decent Celtic ship stacks and hoping for the best? Since this is BI.exe I know they will invade given the opportunity*.
The Hai could probably own all of the remaining Sauro territories if they wanted since they are wise enough to not attack me and not ballsy enough to strike at Baktria who is their Protector. As it is they are sitting with some 5 or so fullstacks doing whatever it is mountain men do to pass the time (the goats must be fearful).
I have made the decision that sending back my cool, experienced stacks with units from Tarentine Italy and Syracusan Sicily is rather unwieldy and I will replace losses with more local Hellenic and native troops. This also allows me to better counter the archer heavy armies I've been facing of the Baktrians, as I've had some battles which have nicely mauled my stacks, though they took far worse punishment. My Bosphoran stacks are so far the ones almost best suited to deal with a Baktrian army; I just need a little more cavalry support in them. But I have a ton more respect for the Bosphoran Heavy Archers. Easily a battle line worthy unit that has a great bow to boot. I've used them as phalanx flankers after they run out of arrows and they perform exceptionally well in that role.
Anyways, still kicking, still having fun. Enjoy!

[Sir Edward]

1.0 Baktria H/M

[General Appo]

You are Baktria!? I was certain you were the Luso&#180;s, the Blue Death can go crazy like that, but the Luso&#180;s? Never seen that when the player wasn&#180;t the Luso&#180;s. Oh, and Pontos and Epeiros are doing a lot bettern then usual as well. Strange campaign it looks like.

[Moosemanmoo]

Whats with those funny little Spaniards?

[Tyrfingr]

I'm actually impressed to see the AS kick the Ptolies into the sea, usually it's the other way around in my campaigns.

[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.

[Ower]

As for the bumped dow Sweboz. It is due to the Fulstack scripted generals in the area of the nortern alps and middle Europe. These armies that stay near cities with good garnisons and generals literaly stop the Germans east expansion for quit a time. Am suprised that the Romans took those settelments so early.

Something similar is the case for the Lusotanns. Even if they can take Nunmatia(sp?), they face a wandering OMG fulstack that roams the vicinity, that is created when Celtiberia is attacked, that smashes their expansion almoust to 0 until it is beaten.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Well ..
I have seen many strange thing but a ptolemaic army in sicily is something new
especially in so early in the game
think that there is some weird ptolemaic world conquering cospiracy out there

[Chaotix]

Wow... that is weird... good to see the AI using naval invasions, though
By the way, I think changing the names causes problems with reforms... but if you really want to change them, the Latin name for Taras is Tarentum. (and Rhegion is Rhegium, but Blasium is probably from C. Blasio, right?)

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Wow... that is weird... good to see the AI using naval invasions, though
By the way, I think changing the names causes problems with reforms... but if you really want to change them, the Latin name for Taras is Tarentum. (and Rhegion is Rhegium, but Blasium is probably from C. Blasio, right?)

I think that the egyptian navy sailed to the wrong place cause the army never moved from that place and about 3 turns later egyptian ship came and the sailed away .. to kyrene ...

And yes .. named Rhegion after C.C. Blasio who took the town(and all others so far)...
Now.. I was not aware of that changing the towns name could affect the reforms though

EDIT: 200th post!!

[Hax]

Yes, the reforms will get screwed up when you change the settlement's names.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Yes, the reforms will get screwed up when you change the settlement's names.

Oh well .. Blasio have to find another way to be remembered then

If I change them back now it doesn't mess up with the reforms .. right??

[Hax]

I'm not sure, I think it'll be okay.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Blasium!! That's priceless.

Also, renaming totally messes up the city for the AI, so you better don't lose it.

[d'Arthez]

Or you could simply make a backup of the script, and change every instance of 'Rhegion' into 'Blasium', in the script used by the game.

Once the campaign is over, put back the original script.