ALEXANDER EB

[Maksimus]

You are searching for solutions of problems that do not exist. In EB you do not need high experinced Agema Phalanx and artillery to win against Lugoae, Gaeroas and the like half naked savages. When I go for Segesta in all my many Roman campaigns my army is composed of inexperinced Camillans, supported by some Greek allies from Taras (Hoplites and Peltasts); and I usually win this battle without serious problems. And that's ok, because my lads are better armoured and armed than this Celtic mob.

But when you insist in playing on VH/VH, everything is seriously messed up, beginning with the overaggressive behaviour of the AI (did you know that they get a hardcoded 10,000 mne bonus every turn on top of everything that the script is granting them?) and ending with barbarian levy spearmen that cut your professional Greeks to pieces.

So, it's quite easy: change the settings back to default (M/M), play some campaigns and after that decide if there is a misbalance in EB or if there is not. As long as you use some houserules to not exploit the AI stupidity (both on the strategical and on the tactical screen), you'll should come up with the sollution that EB itself is well balanced.

----------------------
BTW, you have again nearly no medium infantry in your amry.

These campaign's in North Italy are with Elites just because I was gaining expirience for Asia (and I wanted to take towns in one turn - that is why I used siege ). - But when I reached Asia Minor.. And When ALL CITIES HAD ARMY BARRACK'S - (I don't have a picture of it because I deleted my save - maybe later)..

I was starting to loose because AS were retraining their medium and elite infantry in: Sardis, Galatia, Ipsos, even in Halikarnasoos. Eventually I even had my phalanx elites with level 7 expirience when they crossed to Asia Minor.
But AS had RETRAINED ELITES too! from Sardis and Ipsos.. see?? I wont use Medium for Campaign, meybe for Battle in future

In battle of Sardis (during my siege) I had 8 elite phalanx level 5-7 exp, and Pyrros and stepe archers and siege eq. BUT Seleucid's HAD TWO ARMIES WITH 9 phalanx medium and 7 phalanx elite... So? Now? What? Even on Medium it is to hard to win ?!

I wanted to pull back first but than I wanted to test it - so I won loosing 80% of my army.. .. And two turns away were another full stack's of AS army..

So you are right about the EBBS (please upload ti to me ) and what is more important :: NO.. I belive EB is not balanced well - NOT for Alex engine...

Hope you are not mad at me for forcing this but just try to test with EBBS that gives Army barracks to capitol's and then see..

[Maksimus]

[IMG]https://img454.imageshack.us/img454/184/82804445nv8.jpg
[IMG]https://img458.imageshack.us/img458/30/83246584yg7.jpg
[IMG]https://img458.imageshack.us/img458/4025/35526771sv0.jpg
[IMG]https://img454.imageshack.us/img454/304/57380661lu0.jpg

This is just an example of modded City Mod.. with hidden resources added for testing
in ''descr_regions.txt''
Baktria
Baktra
romans_brutii
Baktrioi
20 155 2
silk, gold, textiles, camels, river, persia, EA, D, n1, n2, n4, y8, city, large, baktriaarmy
5
2

Makedonia
Pella
macedon
Makedones
177 58 145
gold, timber, tradeport, navyport, smallfleet, SW, C, n1, n2, n4, y8, city, large, makedoniaarmy
5
2

and in ''export_descr_buildings.txt''

;Helix 4 build
;This file is generated from a spreadsheet
;Please do not modify by hand barracks and core building


hidden_resources rome sparta italy desert tradeport navyport bigport not_here nomad mixed river gallicport smallfleet variantro variantgr variantba variantno variantca varianteg variantea EA SW NW A B C D E y1 y2 y4 y8 n1 n2 n4 n8 homeland pahlavahome noroads nopavedroads persia city large huge makedoniaarmy baktriaarmy

...
royal_barracks_K1
}
}
royal_barracks_K1 requires factions { romans_brutii, macedon, } and building_present_min_level government gov1 and not hidden_resource not_here and hidden_resource makedoniaarmy or hidden_resource baktriaarmy
{
....

That can control Army/Royal barrack's constructions as an example for any faction by just adding the hidden_resource to the ''descr_regions.txt''... so.. that can be done for any building.. Like dock's.. or Walls or Academies.. or really big temples.. or ... Trade bonuses..

In those two cases up I have tested in the MAK/BAK share system and then tested the City Mod.. we can all see that the development is fair even for Demetrias and Markanda even if they could grow up to just City size

And even do Pella and Baktria should be able to be Huge in size - the example is good for Army issue

This can keep AI strong still, but without elites all across the map .. Besides this is more historic than anything..

what do you think??

[Lgk]

That is in EB already,

No it isn't - not exactly anyway, only some barracks are shared, and sometimes in weird combos like Saba and Lusotana (i guess EB team tried to limit overall number of buildings). But you proposed to share all regional barracks which is very bad thing imo.

Also, long (though not ridiculously long!) building times for hi-level MICs isn't such a bad idea since AI has hard time expanding anyway, and will eventually build them in accordance to his expansion pace, but human player will be of course hindered. It may work that way, and has to be thoroughly tested in any case. Also, maybe it's possible to make MIC building like Port building - ie speed depending on hidden resource. Maybe it's better way.

[Maksimus]

No it isn't - not exactly anyway, only some barracks are shared, and sometimes in weird combos like Saba and Lusotana (i guess EB team tried to limit overall number of buildings). But you proposed to share all regional barracks which is very bad thing imo.

Also, long (though not ridiculously long!) building times for hi-level MICs isn't such a bad idea since AI has hard time expanding anyway, and will eventually build them in accordance to his expansion pace, but human player will be of course hindered. It may work that way, and has to be thoroughly tested in any case. Also, maybe it's possible to make MIC building like Port building - ie speed depending on hidden resource. Maybe it's better way.

In proposed barrack's system to make faction's share the 'use' of barrack's not upgrade option's.. And that was first for Hellenes among Hellenes and barb's among barb's,

They could share use only in Army/Royal level , If the advanced hidden resource system for high-end building's works well, Then the use of rare army/royal barrack's in Hellenis world would not be such a problem
That idea is very dynamic.. .. we can also add :

IF AND hidden_resource conditions for Makedonian use Seleucid's Army barrack's in Antioh IF there is A resource GOV, level

like in SELECID's barrack's
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
recruit "hellenistic cavalry prodromoi" 0 requires factions { romans_brutii, macedon, } and hidden_resource SW and hidden_resource D and hidden_resource n1 and hidden_resource n2 and hidden_resource y4 and hidden_resource n8 and building_present_min_level government gov3
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

By that we are solving the problem of ''adoption'' of enemy region (but remember that those are hellenes/barb's that adopt hellenes/barb's and only in some Cosmopolitan town's).. the transition period in wich you can recruit local population (or even consider it to be ''recruited'' population that comes from the rest of the empire )

[Felix Constantus Alexander]

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]Ok.. ok...ok... I will stop working on it this instance
my god But you must give me proof that you have had a look at Recruitment Viewer - so I know that you are not thinkig that sharing maens what it ment in vanilla?

...No matter.. ok. I am stoping my work on barrack system right now and I am back to vanilla *txt... What now?
What do you propose?? How do we delay human player so that it would be ok??

hold on now...

Maksimus with the AOR, I agree with you 100% on the shared barracks because the buildings should not be upgradeable in most cases anyway right (I don't know where to look in the code to 100% certain though).

also the build times for the barracks are fine, more then 12 turns is what +3 years? The ancients were not primitive, just ancient...

A hidden resource with Ports wouldn't be a bad idea to try for units that need certain imports for equipment, but someone with better knowledge of the script could say more on how it could workout.

Also, could another hidden resource be added to gov't buildings for the aor, if there are still concerns about recruiting (like adding something that a city must be held 10 turns to recruit from there)?

besides the loyalty issue should be thought about in context of the cities, where factions (inside the city) would support different sides, so somebody in the city could be willing to fight for the conquerors, and they get paid for their service, and maybe they could be scripted to cost more?

and if cheap or "mercenary" type units are recruitable then it should be fine anyway, because they are being paid to be fight,

weren't the Italian allies of the Romans asked for troops once Rome ruled over them?

please don't take what I saying as an attack, I'm just trying to help elaborate some good ideas, that others have made

cheers

[Lgk]

Repeat: bad thing about shared "barracks" is not sharing per se, but conqueror's ability to use conquered MICs immediately upon conquest (even damaged buildings are repaired in one turn). Is it so hard to understand? I mean, hi-quality assault army has to be pinned in recently taken region for some time... while things like shared barracks encourage rush - it's to easy to raise cheap garrison of presumably "local" troops, while main army rolls over the rest of enemy territory.

I think even close cultues MICs should be made different only for that reason.

-----

P.S. MIC-sharing is acceptable if made like one-way street - that is, beneficial to the victim and useless for agressor. Imagine we have some sort of hidden resource "saba_supporters", roughly corresponding to regions with substantial arabic/semitic population. Then come the evil Ptolemies and conquer one such region. Now, they can't use any MICs that happen to be here - they have to build their own. And after some time, they do (btw any existing MICs probably will be sold, at least if human controls these Ptolies). Meanwhile, noble Sabaeans march their mighty armies in and liberate the city from macegyptian yoke! And guess what - now they can use ptolemean MIC built here, because it's much easier for Sabaens to gain support here.

[Maksimus]

Repeat: bad thing about shared "barracks" is not sharing per se, but conqueror's ability to use conquered MICs immediately upon conquest (even damaged buildings are repaired in one turn). Is it so hard to understand? I mean, hi-quality assault army has to be pinned in recently taken region for some time... while things like shared barracks encourage rush - it's to easy to raise cheap garrison of presumably "local" troops, while main army rolls over the rest of enemy territory.

I think even close cultues MICs should be made different only for that reason.

-----

P.S. MIC-sharing is acceptable if made like one-way street - that is, beneficial to the victim and useless for agressor. Imagine we have some sort of hidden resource "saba_supporters", roughly corresponding to regions with substantial arabic/semitic population. Then come the evil Ptolemies and conquer one such region. Now, they can't use any MICs that happen to be here - they have to build their own. And after some time, they do (btw any existing MICs probably will be sold, at least if human controls these Ptolies). Meanwhile, noble Sabaeans march their mighty armies in and liberate the city from macegyptian yoke! And guess what - now they can use ptolemean MIC built here, because it's much easier for Sabaens to gain support here.

I had na idea of enabling faction's to be able to use anyone's barrack's in neighbor region's (exept AS and Aegypt) that could be done by adding the hidden_resource's neighbor region's (so that Armenia can benefit of it in region's arround their capital)

And Felix Constantus Alexander your ideas are nice - we must see what to do... it's just that you need to give more concrete example

[Lgk]

Anyway, i don't even see if these changes exclusively mean Alexander... :) Let us stick now to minor (but essential) edits like revising rebel garrison strenths and rebel generals ages. Eg some settlements meant for initial expansion like Gava-Saka after a couple of turns always end up having monster garrisons.

[Maksimus]

Anyway, i don't even see if these changes exclusively mean Alexander... :) Let us stick now to minor (but essential) edits like revising rebel garrison strenths and rebel generals ages. Eg some settlements meant for initial expansion like Gava-Saka after a couple of turns always end up having monster garrisons.

The mod we make can be used for any EB *exe based game.. What is more important for Alex is that we can add more unit's due to the high-end limit's in descr_models_battle.txt so EB team can mybe even give us data to implement some unit's they just can't 'push' in because of the RTW engine...

[konny]

Let us stick now to minor (but essential) edits like revising rebel garrison strenths and rebel generals ages. Eg some settlements meant for initial expansion like Gava-Saka after a couple of turns always end up having monster garrisons.

You can delete the recruitement entries for the provinces you don't want a specific faction/the rebels to train/retrain anything.

The rebel generals prevent the garrison from leaving the town. You can use that for a couple of things: once the garrison leaves the town it usually moves to the next border. That often provokes an attack by an AI faction, followed very often by an invasion of the province. That one is in most of the times successfull because the AI had sent an army that was able to defeat the moving major part of the garrison and has therefore no problems to deal with the remaining defenders.


You can make the generals in rebel towns that you want the AI to take quite early very old and those that they should take late very young. You can also, taking into account the ALX.exe, give the immortal trait to those you don't want the AI to conquer without serious problems.

[Maksimus]

You can delete the recruitement entries for the provinces you don't want a specific faction/the rebels to train/retrain anything.

The rebel generals prevent the garrison from leaving the town. You can use that for a couple of things: once the garrison leaves the town it usually moves to the next border. That often provokes an attack by an AI faction, followed very often by an invasion of the province. That one is in most of the times successfull because the AI had sent an army that was able to defeat the moving major part of the garrison and has therefore no problems to deal with the remaining defenders.


You can make the generals in rebel towns that you want the AI to take quite early very old and those that they should take late very young. You can also, taking into account the ALX.exe, give the immortal trait to those you don't want the AI to conquer without serious problems.

I am not for use of 'immortal' trait's or change's to one's age that are not supported by historic note's - unless EB team made up some of those rebel general's. We can add more of them if that could be one solution (or add figures that are not mentioned at all ).

[konny]

I am not for use of 'immortal' trait's or change's to one's age that are not supported by historic note's - unless EB team made up some of those rebel general's.

Yes, the immortal trait would be ahistoric (as long as we don't have the Count de Saint Germain in). And no, no one would ever say that the EB had made up rebell generals - as long as no one would ask for the proof for the garrisons commanders in all steppe and jungle settlements, or how it comes that Thermon is defended by a body that is allready cold for some 80 years.

[Spoofa]

the immortal trait would be good for garrison commanders of the rebel faction for gameplay purposes.

[Maksimus]

I have updated the main post!

[Maksimus]

Yes, the immortal trait would be ahistoric (as long as we don't have the Count de Saint Germain in). And no, no one would ever say that the EB had made up rebell generals - as long as no one would ask for the proof for the garrisons commanders in all steppe and jungle settlements, or how it comes that Thermon is defended by a body that is allready cold for some 80 years.

Then ok, we can add as many as we want

[Maksimus]

I have updated the main post - Konny, Lgk - read it please

People.. Speek your mind!

[Lgk]

Huh, i meant some rebel generals to die faster, so AI can expand earlier. Well, maybe immortal generals in border regions is a good idea. Or those near a player faction (checked in campaign script).

Btw, does anybody know if traits like "fears/loathes somefaction" make any difference in autocalc, esp AI vs AI?

[Maksimus]

I think they do! Lgk - Did you add + 0.2 hit point's to HArchers in your unit.txt file? How does it work for C_Game?

[Lgk]

I hadn't tested my EB campaigns for too long, initial stages only. And EB is damn slow on my comp, so i can't tell yet.

But in XGM it worked well.

[Maksimus]

Saw those featurs on the main post - any ideas? Also, there are some solution's I saw on the main XGM post that are calling for options ''supress'' population's not exterminate it.. see this post

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=90798

What do you think?

[Perturabo]

May not be the exact place to post this however it is relevant.
Playing EB 1.0 on Alex.. have noticed that the Ptolies are considerably stronger than in BI. I was thinking of changes such as money scripts and so on, however had another thought:

At present when the Ptolies expand into Seleucia, when they capture a town immediate training (and retraining) of troops is possible as they both use the same faction MIC's. If this were not the case expansion may be more realistic.. i.e. even if Ptolies/Selucids have a massive financial advantage over their enemies, they still need to slow down and produce barracks prior to recruiting, and for a while the troops will be very low in quality.
If pushed back into their own lands they will have immediate access to top quality troops and so easier defence.
Now a way to do this might be if the Ptolemaic Empire (sp) uses the same MIC as the Baktrians, and Selucia uses the same MIC as the Karthies...
I realise this may not be quite as realistic as the EB team planned (and there are likely to be other problems with it that I am not aware of), however it should greatly slow down the Ptolie/Selucid instant domination which, quite frankly, is game ruining at present.

I usually end up playing 'Global Policeman' rather than enjoying myself the way it is at present, and trying to prevent faction extermination. The game just doesn't seem right with 3-4 super factions squabbling over the planet, and as a result usually I end up starting another game by 220BC or so, if not earlier as it gets too frustrating.

Please discuss

[Maksimus]

Please - follow thi thread for mod talk's https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=96135
Because we might get closed

This thred is only for announcement's that have no mod's in

I will answer there!

[Maksimus]

For Perturabo!

May not be the exact place to post this however it is relevant.
Playing EB 1.0 on Alex.. have noticed that the Ptolies are considerably stronger than in BI. I was thinking of changes such as money scripts and so on, however had another thought:

At present when the Ptolies expand into Seleucia, when they capture a town immediate training (and retraining) of troops is possible as they both use the same faction MIC's. If this were not the case expansion may be more realistic.. i.e. even if Ptolies/Selucids have a massive financial advantage over their enemies, they still need to slow down and produce barracks prior to recruiting, and for a while the troops will be very low in quality.
If pushed back into their own lands they will have immediate access to top quality troops and so easier defence.
Now a way to do this might be if the Ptolemaic Empire (sp) uses the same MIC as the Baktrians, and Selucia uses the same MIC as the Karthies...
I realise this may not be quite as realistic as the EB team planned (and there are likely to be other problems with it that I am not aware of), however it should greatly slow down the Ptolie/Selucid instant domination which, quite frankly, is game ruining at present.

I usually end up playing 'Global Policeman' rather than enjoying myself the way it is at present, and trying to prevent faction extermination. The game just doesn't seem right with 3-4 super factions squabbling over the planet, and as a result usually I end up starting another game by 220BC or so, if not earlier as it gets too frustrating.

Please discuss

I understand what you mean

The share system EB team created has alot of weak spot's, - the AS - Aegypt barrack's share is just one of them, but one of the most important (especially on Alex.exe). At the other side - It is clear that Makedonia does not share with Epeiros (and there are proof's they did) just because some EB member's think that one faction might win in Greace to quick - that is the same case in Global picture it's just that no one wanted to look that far (basicly Aegypt always wins) - especially with Alex.exe!

So, If you are to come to Asia Minor as Roman or Celt - in some time when Aegypt already has Antioh or Sardis and Royal - Army barrack's in EVERY TOWN (wich is another - to EB system), then, you willl never win or you would have to cheat! And we don't want that

So, first you can alter your EBBS like Konny did or like Lgk made one clear example in this thread, and second, you might waith for our mod that will be done for EB 1.1

The changes to EBBS script are in progress, however, the Alexander EB team will need to test more untill one clear solution's would come.

And further more - The AI expansion is not all about the EBBS script, there are City Mod option's for High End Barrack's or Palaces so the AI does not have the money and the Huge-Mega-City-Empire as early as 160bc.. If you read the thread you will learn more.)

So, I understand you - but you will need to either alter the EBBS manually or use some already made - just for the first aide

[Maksimus]

the immortal trait would be good for garrison commanders of the rebel faction for gameplay purposes.

Yes ... , even better, If there are really serious prob's with rebel region's loosing easy after Rebel Character dies maybe all of rebel Character's should have immortal trait... If not, ... then a trigger in EBBS could add more Rebel FMember's in the game??

Konny? Lgk? Can this be done - can we trigger new Rebel FMember's in rebel region's after 20 year's or so??

That way we make some interesting battles for player's that take it slow

[Perturabo]

Thanks Maksimus, I wasn't aware the new thread existed.
I like the way LGK et al are thinking.

In my opinion there is no problem with the way the game goes for a Human Player, but the AI really needs a major revamp to prevent insane expansion. Historically Alexander the Great/the Romans were highly unusual in the speed they expanded at, generally it was not unusual for two cities to fight each other for hundreds of years with no concrete outcome (refer Greek Cities in particular).

I would also like to reiterate the idea of rebel city based generals being immortal, or replaced upon death. Otherwise the stack ups and wanders on death of said family member leaving the city open to easy conquest. This is particularly a problem in the east with the Indian cities being easy picking for AS or Baktria at that time.

I am also no great fan of having all factions being able to recruit all troops everywhere with time. Hats off to the EB team for doing a great and realistic job on where troop types are located in the world. Main problems imho, in no particular order:

1/Shoddy AI that backstabs Allies with no provocation or reason (coded to attack human players whenever possible or if said player has not been at war for a certain amount of time). I realise modders have little ability to control it however we can only dream

2/ AI ability to recruit Elite troops instantly upon conquest of new territories i.e. Ptoly/Selucia in particular, leading to unstoppable superpowers.

3/ Crashes. I seem to get more crashes under Alex than RTW or BI, generally after a heroic battle. Needless to say that is frustrating after a 2 hour fight.

Those are the glaring weaknesses that I can see immediately, compared with the vanilla game shows just what a brilliant job the whole EB team have done. They certainly can be proud of this game

Please don't see any of this as being criticism.. if I didn't like the ideas or this game I wouldn't take the effort to post (I am at best a lazy git)

[konny]

May not be the exact place to post this however it is relevant.
Playing EB 1.0 on Alex.. have noticed that the Ptolies are considerably stronger than in BI. I was thinking of changes such as money scripts

The Ptolemaioi are always stronger than AS. The reason is that both start with a very weak army, but Egypt is faster in developing her (fewer) towns and bring forces to the front. AS might need decades, when controlled by the AI, to get a strong field army into Syria.

Nevertheless, any changes to AS must be carefully tested because everything you do to strengthen them against Ptolemaioi might, and will, be used by the AI to go against the fragile starting position of Pontos and Armenia.

[konny]

[FONT="Palatino Linotype"]Yes ... , even better, If there are really serious prob's with rebel region's loosing easy after Rebel Character dies maybe all of rebel Character's should have immortal trait...

No, not all. There are regions where the AI should expand to and take them easy and early. For example Pontos, Getai and Armenia should not face any difficulties in taking the towns around. The same is for Sicily, what is often neglecetd by the AI Romans and Poeni. So, as soon as the AI decides to get it, we should make sure it will succeed.

Konny? Lgk? Can this be done - can we trigger new Rebel FMember's in rebel region's after 20 year's or so??

Sure. You can trigger new FM everywhere and everytime you wish. The recent "Central European Defense Script" of the EB has shown us that it is also to possible to check if the old FM is alive and spawn the new one afterwards. I was thinking of a new "Unrest Script" that replaces the old random mini rebell armies with triggered real armies. But that would be tons of lines of scripting in a script that is allready very hughe; the same would be for the spawning rebell FM.

I think making some of them immortal would be cheaper and faster sollution.

[konny]

The features:

b Victory conditions can state a "survivor" which requires that a specific unique character survive in order for that faction to remain in the game; however, We are not sure if that can be used for anyone other than the initial 'Alexander' character. Needs more testing.

We can use that for short campaigns, if that feature works in Alexander (I am certain it does), for characters like Pyrrhos to survive. In any other campaign we can't because of the time span of EB.

c) Mercenaries can be designated as ''faction-specified'' in the campaign merc pool file. In ALX.exe, you can specify regional mercenaries to be recruitable only by certain factions.

That is very good and can be used for numerous changes.

d) ''Descr_Model_Battle.txt'' model's entries are increaseded from RTW/BI's 250 max (to at least 330+)

Any skinners, modelers? If you please.

e) AI can be instructed in the ''Descr_Start'' file not to attack certain factions (unless at war already). There is ''ai_do_not_attack_faction'' in ''descr_strat'', which prohibits the AI to attack certain factions, except when they're at war!

That one is most interessting. We can for example forbid AS to attack Pontos, Armenia and Baktria and focus on Ptolemaioi. We can also forbid Makedonia and Epeiros to attack the slaves and so concentrate on the Greek theatre. We can then change their diplomatic stance to the slaves by script later when they have achieved their targets down there.

j) The next big thing is, of course, the unique general models. You can have battle and strat model and portraits that cannot be used by any other general in the game.

Unfortuantly we can only use this for the starting characters. There is no way to mod characters that might appear later in the game, like a Caesar or a Hannibal.



------------------------------------------

I think the ALX.exe allows for a couple of fine "provincial campaigns" on the EB map, starting at some different points in history and focusing on specific characters and factions.

[Lysandros]

I can start campaigns and everything seems to be working, nevertheless I get the following error report when I quit the game. Does somebody know what's wrong? It can't be the map.rwm, I have already deleted it.



EDIT: I think I've found it... it must have been a wrong entry in the descr_win_conditions.

[Perturabo]

The Ptolemaioi are always stronger than AS. The reason is that both start with a very weak army, but Egypt is faster in developing her (fewer) towns and bring forces to the front. AS might need decades, when controlled by the AI, to get a strong field army into Syria.

Nevertheless, any changes to AS must be carefully tested because everything you do to strengthen them against Ptolemaioi might, and will, be used by the AI to go against the fragile starting position of Pontos and Armenia.

Exactly, I really don't think the problem is so much money as advantagous procession through Ptolemai land by the Selucids and vica versa, due to MICs being shared. I will post any further observations along this line in the 'mod' section though, as requested above.

Edit: Its only in Alex that the Ptolies seem to have an advantage, in every (there may have been one exception) game of RTW/BI I have played with EB the Selucids walk over them, very quickly. Last game (and it was in Alex) the Selucids had driven the Ptolies back to Alexandria and then the Karthies decided to invade, getting as far as Thebes.. fortunately for the Ptolies I am a good ally and pushed both forces back into their homelands with 1 general.. it was a bit.... hectic