Best Campaign

[Barbarian]

First, I did nothing special to make it happen, so, it was a surprise for me to. Just following one of my rules,

Fight in the first lines, not fearing glorious death: ask nothing of your soldiers, that you are not ready to do yourself.

I sent general's unit agains't general's unit. Also because other units would take huge loses against them. Both generals just happened to be on the same flank, so, while their units fought with spears, they fought this little duel.

About how I changed the bodyguard unit: In export_descr_unit file there is an attribute general_unit, which is given to all units, who can be used as guard units. I removed this attribute from current bodyguard's unit, just to make sure they don't appear somewhere, and added it for spartan hoplites.
However, I already said that some other factions got spartan bodyguards as well, I have to check why it happened.
If you do this, any new generals get this unit. But the starting characters still have the cavalry unit. To change their units, if you want, you must assign them in descr_strat file. You could search the modding subforum, there were some 3 topics at least about doing it.

[Paradox]

First, I did nothing special to make it happen, so, it was a surprise for me to. Just following one of my rules,



I sent general's unit agains't general's unit. Also because other units would take huge loses against them. Both generals just happened to be on the same flank, so, while their units fought with spears, they fought this little duel.

About how I changed the bodyguard unit: In export_descr_unit file there is an attribute general_unit, which is given to all units, who can be used as guard units. I removed this attribute from current bodyguard's unit, just to make sure they don't appear somewhere, and added it for spartan hoplites.
However, I already said that some other factions got spartan bodyguards as well, I have to check why it happened.
If you do this, any new generals get this unit. But the starting characters still have the cavalry unit. To change their units, if you want, you must assign them in descr_strat file. You could search the modding subforum, there were some 3 topics at least about doing it.

I'm sure it applies for all Hellenic factions than, since none of the Seleucids, Macedonians, etc. are listed there.

[Hannibalbarc]

You could change it so that carthaginian generals are elephants, cool.

[Paradox]

That doesn't need modding, it's easy to do yourself. The general looks funny sitting behind the elephant rider though.

[Hannibalbarc]

This was quite a while ago, it was only on m/m but still a lot of fun, (because I was still a noob back then ) I had bull warriors everywhere and I wasn't having to much trouble beating the greeks, the egyptians where tough but I managed to take their cities anyway.

[Barbarian]

I have never seen the map beeing so brown

Maybe because I haven't done full campaign with spain

[Quirinus]

Whoa.... playing as Spain, didn't you have problems with squalor in your initial cities?

[mrdun]

micro management is key

[Hannibalbarc]

Whoa.... playing as Spain, didn't you have problems with squalor in your initial cities?

Only with cordoba, in the other cities the population growth was almost nothing so they all only minor cities.

[Quirinus]

The Egyptian cities, Patavium, Mediolanum have insane base farming rates......

[Telys]

My alliance with the romans went sour, as expected. I gained macedon as a protectorate. I've had them as one for several years now. SPQR just recently gave in. They asked for a cease fire after I took rome. I made a counter and demanded they become my protectorate. They countered and said they would for like 7900 denari. So they were my protectorate for about 3-4 turns until the scipii declared war on me again, in which they sided with their roman allies.


My faction leader, who's name is Menelaos, Ironically just had a son named Agamemnon.




Right now I'm closing in on the scipii. I have two armies who have just invaded sicily, and one army that just took lepcis magna. I plan on having the three meet at carthage. I'm still debating on whether or not I'd rather try to have the scipii or the julii as a protectorate. With the julii my northern border is secure and it creates a buffer between me and germania, but that also means I wont be able to control all the coastal cities. The scipii are larger. Which means I wont have to waste resources on the inland african provinces and concentrate on preparing for war against egypt but, I wont be able to take coastal spain and I'll also have to prepare for war against germania and march north, which I really dont feel like doing. I also want to go to war with thrace so I control the black sea and connect chersonesos with the rest of my empire, but if I go to war with thrace I'll lose macedon as a protectorate. So I'm kinda at a cross roads here. Anyone have an opinion on the matter?

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Wow! SPQR is your protectorate??
How did you take Rome and managed to spqr take capua??
I remember when once beeing the gauls I made the spqr my protactorate .. oh well .. those were good times

[Telys]

Wow! SPQR is your protectorate??
How did you take Rome and managed to spqr take capua??
I remember when once beeing the gauls I made the spqr my protactorate .. oh well .. those were good times

I actually had capua first, but spqr bribed it from me. So in return I sacked/surpressed rome. I'd rather have spqr dead. That way one of the other roman families may possibly became a protectorate. They have a less chance of cancelling it if another roman goes to war with me, and usually the other houses wont declare war for fear of losing an ally, if spqr is dead.

[Barbarian]

I didn't know that it increases the chance for forcing to be a protectorate
I also have rarely seen Thrace expanding so far. Must be a doing of the mod.

At the moment I have been following my plan perfectly. I do not expand anymore, but I do send armies to help others. For example, I saved Seleucids from being destroyed, their last city Damascus was already under siege by Egyptians, when I arrived with reinforcements. Egyptians retreated immediately, and do not dare to attack me or Seleucids now:



This army was gathered from all the troops that I don't need anymore. From now on, I have 800 armoured hoplites in each of my cities as a regular garrison, so I sent all the units that I don't need anymore to watch over other factions. Another stack is on it's way there. I have united all the hellenic factions + factions that are being terorrized by larger forces, like Carthage and Gauls. I want to keep balance on the map, so I do no support or even grant trade rights for factions who have imperial ambitions. Egypt is my greatest enemy, because I hate how they always destroy eastern kingdoms:



Oh, and Parthians.....well, they are just nice people!

I spent around 80 000 denarii to bribe Egyptian armies, making them weaker. This way I got a family member, which you see in the first screenshot. I hope he dies soon, and that he has no sons, because for many generations I have only had spartans in my family tree, I decline any marriage proposals or adoptions.
I have no intention on taking cities from Egypt or any other faction. They are allowed to live in their original cities, but they must not steal settlements from other factions. My army is only there to protect those, who are weak, not to conquer.
Greek cities, although they have small territory and few cities, are in the first place in overall ranking:



The chart is crowded, but you can clearly see the two highest lines- light yellow is the greek one, the dark yellow is the egyptian one.

[mrdun]

That is cool

[Paradox]

The Senate faction are definately one of the best campaigns in the beginning. Right now I'm not at home so, unfortunately, I'm not able to post the screenshots I saved.

(VH/VH)First I began by improving the city of Rome itself and strengthening my army, obviously. I decided, after this, that I should sail over to Sicily and assist the Scipii against Carthage. I smacked around the Carthaginian navy to the point that they stopped making ships (lol) and blockaded the ports of Carthage and Thapsus while besieging Lilybaeum with the two family members I sent in Sicily. The Julii were probably the best Roman faction serving me right now as their army conquered all Carthaginian islands to the west and their army was very very large, they scared Gaul away and, surprisingly, Gaul set its eyes on the Greek Cities.

Meanwhile, the Brutii are sleeping in Greece, doing absolutely nothing while the Scipii have a sizeable army, bigger than mine. They currently own Syracuse and Messana in Sicily so I kind of ruined their Sicilian campaign. A couple of turns later I get a message saying that the Julii have commenced a civil war while I was still in the process of besieging Lilybaeum and blockading the Carthaginian docks. The Julii betrayal was followed by a Scipii and Brutii betrayal. Now all my closest allies were against me.

I assaulted Lilybaeum so I can manage my future plans against the Scipii and won the city. Meanwhile in Capua, I prepared my faction leader to attack the Scipii capital and killed 8 family members in one battle, my faction leader himself killed them in battle! Maybe not all of them, but most of them. The slaughter of the Scipii family proved to be a great loss for them, but they still had an incredibly large army in Sicily now. I beat the army with a few casualties but later lost to a captian with half the size of the one I previously faced.

Again, I smacked around the Julii navy as I did to Carthage and formed an alliance with Gaul, who are currently one of the most powerful factions in the west. I arranged a ceasefire with the Julii and they obviously accepted because of the Gallic threat to the north, I did this to target the Brutii, my plan was to kick them out of the penninsula until they're stuck in Apollonia, alone.

I'm still not done yet, and I'll post the screens as soon as I can.

Btw, does anyone know if the Senate are able to obtain any Legionary cohorts or even Auxilia for that matter?

[Quirinus]

This is my on-going Julii game. I've played as them a couple of times in the past, but it had been a very long time since I played one-- well over a year, in fact. I'm playing on M/M.

I was motivated to start playing as the Julii this time by, ironically, the barbarian cutscene-- I thought it would be cool to turn all those stinking Gauls (or at least their sons) into good Romans. So I set myself some ground rules and aims this time-- I will leave the Gallic cities alone and not exploit them-- I will make them Roman. I will also not regard any ceasefire or treaties with the filthy barbarians with respect. There can only be WAR! I will also not leave the barbarian lands for, say, Carthage or Greece before I have completed their subjugation.

At the start of the game, I took Segesta with Quintus Julius. It fell pretty easily. Then I took my faction leader (Flavius) and most of my troops to Patavium and besiged it. A Gallic general attacked me from the back, but I beat it back, and Patavium fell the next turn. As this city has insane base population growth, I plan to use this as a troop training city.

I took a couple of turns to train levies, and then took Flavius Julius out to attack Mediolanum. The faction heir of Gaul (I think) was in there. That same Gallic general attacked me again, I beat him back again, though I couldn't catch him. Mediolanum fell the next turn, so now I had two more core cities under my control. I set it to be my capital as soon as it outgrew its ugly barbarian town design.

The Gallic diplomat sued for peace the next turn, so I accepted, and then promptly took Quintus out of Segesta (he got the 'Minion' trait and I wanted to discourage that), newly reinforced with a few brand-new hastati, and attacked that pesky Gallic general. This time I destroyed his army, but without any equites, the bastard ran away again.

The diplomat, surprisingly, sued for peace again, but I was approaching a small Gallic army besieging Massila, so I didn't want peace. So I asked for Narbo Martius, and, guess what, they agreed! I was stunned, but as the old saying goes, don't look a gift horse in the mouth...... xD I immediately set out to transform Narbo Martius into a Roman town.

I was being so rich from not hiring mercs and from the Senate's bounty that I could afford to bribe Massila. I garrisoned it with some of Quintus' army. Quintus himself and most of his army started heading up north to rebel Ludugnum, but the Gauls, in their idiocy, attacked Narbo Martius with a small army. Where's the logic in that? The whole point of a ceasefire was to buy time to rebuild, and, with Narbo Martius in my hands, I was content to give them that time. Anyways, Quintus headed west and spanked the offending army (skirmisher warbands.... ).

After that I garrisoned Quintus in Narbo Martius and sent his promising son Amulius to Ludugnum. The Gallic diplomat- you guessed it- asked for peace. I told him where to go-- you want peace, hand over Lemonum. So I got Lemonum. With the unexpected 'acquisition' of another province, Gaul was now looking pretty carved up-- things were just cruisin'. And then I ran into a snag.

When I arrived at Ludugnum, a German army was one turn ahead of me, and had already besieged. Crap. I wasn't too keen on fighting the Germans, at least not this early in the game. While I was dallying and thinking about whether to attack the Germans -Ludugnum was pretty important- they attacked me.

Not in Ludugnesis, but in Noricum, where the Senate had already commanded me to take a few turns back. I did, with a guy called Spurius Cipius. The Germans besieged it now with close to a full stack and a 3- or 4-star general. Outnumbered and outclassed (half of Spurius' troops were levies), he couldn't do anything but wait.

Fortunately, learning of the plight of his son-in-law, faction leader Flavius came to his rescue with his army in Mediolanum (the starting one you get, with veteran hastati and triarii) and arrived in Noricum just in time-- the attacking army was building rams already.

Just as I was getting ready to get the attacker, the Germans lifted the siege. I attacked them anyway, and beat them, though not decisively. I chased them across the bridge into their own territory, and went from the defensive to the offensive. Spurius Cipius, grateful at having been relieved, led a relief force behind Flavius' main army.

Mogontiancum was a large town, meaning I'll be able to train hastati from there instead of constant shuttling and retraining from Patavium, a pleasant novelty in barbarian lands. Taking it would mean gaining a significant base for further expeditions against the treacherous and uncivilised Germans.

In the meantime, Ludugnum fell to the Germans, and then promptly fell to Amulius. ~:D Good ol' Quintus, garrisoned in Lemonum, was getting restless, so he took his reinforced army and besieged Alesia, capital of the tottering Gallic Confederation. It fell after a heated battle, and Quintus was awarded the 'Victor' epithet. He wasted no time in retraining, and after signing a treaty of alliance with the Britons, he invaded Germania Superior (Trier) from the west to draw off some of the German stacks from his father's drive to Mogontiancum, to no avail.

When this was happening the Dacians appeared out of nowhere into Noricum and besieged the leaderless town, forcing Spurius Cipius to march hastily back. The army was easily defeated and the general punished for his treachery, but now Flavius was alone in Tribus Chatti, surrounded by hostile German stacks.

Nevertheless, Flavius led his army to besiege Mogontiancum, which had a minimal garrison, but the inept spy inside failed to open the gates, so he was attacked by a half-stack of Germans under a five-star general. But Flavius was a great general too, with six stars, so he put them to flight, as well as massacring the garrison that came forth to reinforce the main force. But the massacre wasn't complete. In the confusion, 19 axemen were allowed to escape, so the city did not fall. Immediately after that Flavius was attacked again by a full stack, by another similar general.

Flavius' army was badly depleted from the previous battle, and, despite assistance from a few units of mercenary axemen (thank Jupiter for the MercenaryX pack), Flavius recognised that his army would be destroyed if he still gave battle, so he withdrew with his army mostly intact, vowing to return. And so Mogontiancum remained in German hands.



I'll continue with the treachery of the Dacians tomorrow.

[mrdun]

I say keep it coming.

[Paradox]

It's a bit unusual to expand eastward in a Julii campaign, but your descriptions of the campaign seem nice.

[Barbarian]

That's true, and that is also what makes it interetsting even for me (I have played with Julii more than with any other faction )

Ok, I won't give a huge update of my campaign with Greek cities this time, I will only show the world map - some regions are quite interesting.




Actually, most of the factions, who are usually destroyed early (carthage, parthia, thrace, pontus), now rule the world. The revenge has come!

[Paradox]

WOW, how the hell did Parthia become that large? Could this mean that they actually have a chance to eliminate Egypt this early without any human player interference?

[Barbarian]

Well, actually there was an iterference - I sent a lot of money to them, as I have much more than I need. Those three cities in Europe I gave to the parthians as a gift. That helped them a lot.
But, although parthians have enormous armies, they are quite passive. Pontus is much more aggressive. They attack anyone in their way. Their fleets are blocking the ports of Brutii and Scipii. They got Armenia as their protectorate. It seems that the Egypt is doomed, because few minutes ago Pontus took Alexandria. I never thought that AI faction is capable of taking Alexandria or Memphis from Egypt
Thrace is also much more powerful than it looks on the map. They have maybe full stack armies, they are attacking germans, and Scythia is their protectorate. Not mentioning that they were the ones, who defeated mighty Macedonians.

It seems that with my little interference I have dramatically changed the looks of the map. "The butterfly effect"

[Punicus]

Currently playing as Parthia. It is I believe 257 BC and I'm in a war with the Egyptians, Pontus, and Armenia. My allies are the Seleucids (who only have Antioch left), Numidia, and Carthage.

My main concern was the war with Egypt. I have managed to take Sidon and Jerusalem from them and am looking to invade Damascus and get Hatra back which I should be able to do because they do not have any stacks nearby (I decimated them all)

However problems arose when Pontus broke the peace with me which I was somewhat ready for, but not fully. Those scythed chariots are really a pain in the butt. It's a three-way fight for Armenia's former capital, I'm not quite sure how to spell the name.

I'm close to being able to make cataphracts and elephants in a couple of cities including my capital (which I probably should change considering it's so far off to the side).

I'll get some pics up later on.

[Quirinus]

That's true, and that is also what makes it interetsting even for me (I have played with Julii more than with any other faction )

Ok, I won't give a huge update of my campaign with Greek cities this time, I will only show the world map - some regions are quite interesting.




Actually, most of the factions, who are usually destroyed early (carthage, parthia, thrace, pontus), now rule the world. The revenge has come!

Ooh. That's something. I've never seen Pontus rule the Levant before. I've seen Pontus dominate Asia Minor plenty of times, but the other Eastern factions usually keep them there.

About the Parthian territories in Illyria, though, wouldn't that be a liability and a drain on Parthia's resources instead? The Germans, the Julli, the Brutii, and even the Thracians will be gunning for those territories. Those territories are landlocked and have lousy population growth, making them unprofitable to hold on to. So why?

Cool game though, I'd be interested in seeing who comes out tops in the Eastern wars. What will you do, by the way, if Pontus starts dominating the entire East? Have they tried to attack Pergamum?


About my Julii game, meh, don't feel like going into detail anymore, the gist of it is, when my faction leader was marching north again after a few years, he died, so I withdrew my troops again. I finally took both Trier and Mogontiacum from the Germans with good ol' Quintus.

The Dacians.... well. I took Lovosice, and when I realised how puny the population was, I had a logistical nightmare on my hands-- maintaining the defense of Noricum was bad enough, but Lovosice is years away from Patavium, so I razed everything and abandoned it. When it rioted and returned to the Dacians, guess what? They got freakin' double gold chevron peansants. PEASANTS! With gold shields and silver swords! And then they also had a couple of single gold chevroned mercenary axemen. With this ridiculous army, the Dacians beat my hastati armies again and again. I lost Noricum briefly before retaking it again, but the Roman military collosus is not to be trifled with, as Hannibal learned. I brought the full military potential of Northern Italy to bear, and within ten years or so I was back on the offensive. Soon I was at the gates of Porrolissum. When I entered the capital, I exterminated the traitors. And that's another rule I set for myself-- if I am attacked without provocation, I will exterminate the faction's capital city.

In the west, too, treachery was the rule of the day-- just as I was prepared to finish off the Gauls, the Britons, who signed an alliance with me, and the Spanish attacked me. I was outnumbered by the Britons, but, with Quintus the Brave, I beat stack after stack of the disgusting woads. In about five years or so, I was at the gates of Samarobiva, where the last remaining Briton army on the mainland attacked me. I was badly outnumbered, and there were two chariot generals, but the bravery of Quintus (and his full ten stars) inspired the troops to victory, and only one hastati troop routed. Samarobiva fell soon afterwards, and I saw a famous battle indicator where I was standing. I got revenge of a sort, too, when I saw that Samarobiva had just a little more than 6000 people, which meant that it was to become Roman as soon as I built the Governor's Palace (or whatever it was).

The Spanish had a large garrison at Osca, so I mounted an amphibious invasion with Amulius, son of Quintus, straight at Carthago Nova, bypassing Osca completely. I know I took them by surprise, because there was only a family member inside. Still, by the time I reached the city, he had two Iberian infantries at his command-- the bloody Iberian landscape is hell. It fell anyway. The Spanish at Osca sent out half their army to retake Carthago Nova, which Amulius comprehensively defeated. Osca fell to an army from Narbo Martius after that.

Quintus was preparing for an invasion of Brittania proper when he died of old age. His son Augustus, who had come of age in Samarobiva, completed the preparations, and, after the final defeat of the large and experienced pirate fleet around the isles (that took a long while), Augustus besieged and stormed Londinum, and took great pleasure in putting the traitors to the sword. Sic semper proditor!

The rest of Iberia fell without much fuss. With two veteran armies commanded by good generals, the Spanish never had a chance. The Thracians had only Campus Getae left, and, when my spy at Byzantium spotted a large Brutii army heading north, I took my veteran army out of Porrolissum and established 'protective custody' over the Thracian remnant, blocking further Brutii expansion to the north. Now the only way for them to go was Asia Minor, where a powerful Greek presence in Pergamum (due to years of Julii financial support-- I had been giving them my excess cash to prevent exceeding 50000d) and the rest of Asia Minor under Pontus promised to make life very hard for them.

The Germans, in the meantime, having refused a ceasefire during my struggle with Brittania, was driven out of their ancestral lands as a result, with only a remnant presence in Domus-something. The Senate ordered me to obtain a surrender from the pathetic Dacians. I decided to take it literally, so Tertius Coriolanus, the stepson of Quintus the Brave who inherited his war against the Germans, marched his veteran Army of Germania into Pripet, where the Dacian remnant resided, and wiped them out. Apparently, the Scythians (my longtime allies) had been trying to do so for a long time, as there were many Scythian armies around in Pripet.

With the barbarians largely subdued --only the Scythians remained, and they had been staunch allies of the Julii ever since the time of Flavius-- I turned my attention to the inevitable-- the civil war. I set Patavium to churn out principes every turn, though I could have built triarii too. This was because principes have the same upkeep as hastati, and less than triarii.

In the meantime, the youngest son of Quintus, Cnaeus Julius, came of age, displaying great military acumen, so I stocked him up with military retinue and some troops, including his grandfather's single troop of veteran triarii, and sent him out to Carthage.

After about five years or so, when I felt confident enough, I took my army of principally principes from Arretium and Ariminum and besieged Rome with the help of Archimedes (+2 Command when assaulting walls, +1 Command when defending walls, +100 Build Points). The Senate, weakened by years of assassination and sabotage, fell the next turn. In the meantime, another army of principes attacked the Brutii from Patavium.

The Scythians, in the meantime, were getting peckish, and attacked me in newly-conquered Pripet as soon as I initiated the civil war. Tertius, of course, defeated them. The veteran Army of Dacia at Campus Getae quickly besieged Campus Scythii, and stormed it the next turn, exterminating the traitors. I also found to my delight that the Scythians' sacred grove gave +3 experience to troops. This, combined with the Scythians' excellent troop-training facilities, gave Campus Scythii an importance as a central troop-producing city, along with Londinum and Patavium.

Whoa. So I gave a very long, albiet rambling, description after all. Oh well. Anyways, here's how it is in my Julii game now. Rome is securely in my grasp. The Scipii are sending full stacks at me every turn, and I defeating them every turn. I'll be strong enough to take the fight to Capua soon. The Brutii are more problematic-- they own the whole of Greece, and they have at least as many troops as I have, only mine is all over the place and theirs is not. I expect to reap the fruits of assidiously developing the cities of Gaul, though. They might win some short-term victories, even take some territories in Dacia, but I'll bring the military manpower from all over Gaul, Spain and Germania to bear upon them.

On the Scythian front, I don't expect to make any progress any time soon-- the Italian and Greek fronts take precedence, so I'm playing a defensive game there-- they attack, I destroy their armies. Once the civil war is over, though, I expect I'll make the Army of Dacia stick to the cities on the Bosphoran coast. The pesky little settlements on the fringe of existence I'll probably leave to good ol' Tertius to do. On the African front, I expect I shall have to fight the Egyptians before long-- they hold East Africa all the way to Lepcis Magna. But for the short term, I shall concentrate on wiping the floor with the Carthagenians, and the Numidians if they are fool enough to break their alliance with me.

[Barbarian]

That sounds like an interesting campaign. I think I have never been at war with all barbaric factions at once, I usually ally myself with at least two of them and fight the rest. Your territory should be pretty large by now, as you have reached scythians.

Oh, and few answers:

About the Parthian territories in Illyria, though, wouldn't that be a liability and a drain on Parthia's resources instead? The Germans, the Julli, the Brutii, and even the Thracians will be gunning for those territories. Those territories are landlocked and have lousy population growth, making them unprofitable to hold on to. So why?

I actually bribed those settlements from Julii, who were becoming too powerfull and were disrupting the balance (I am the protector of the weak and the enemy of the strong). So, it is better that those settlements are owned by parthia than by Julli. Besides, Parthians have a strong alliance with Pontus, so they are not attacking them, but only building new armies and walking with them around their settlements. That is even more draining on their economy. Thus I gav them someone to attack to. They have already taken one more settlement from Germans. Julii doesn't care about those settlements, as they have a huge war with britons, Germans are too weakened to take them, and Thrace hasn't noticed them too. Moreover, when I gave these towns to Parthians, they got some of their best units there.

What will you do, by the way, if Pontus starts dominating the entire East? Have they tried to attack Pergamum?

Oh, they are attacking Pergamum time after time with 2 full stack armies, but that city has epic stone walls and really good garrison. I can't imagine an army, which would be capable of taking it.
But that is yet nothing, because most of the pontic armies are being sent against Egypt. That is a bit odd, because pergamum is much closer. It seems that they won't stop until Egypt is destroyed. If after that they start to concentrate on Pergamum, that will be frightening.

Btw, here are a screenshot with two pontic armies attacking Greeks on open field near Pergamum. I found this formation to be very useful against pontic armies:



There is no point where chariots or cavalry can charge it, and the casualties from missile weapons are minimum.

I think I will now take some cities from Julii and give them to poor Gauls, who have only one city left. Working on balance between factions! (do not look at the east, that's where my balance program heavily failed )

[Quirinus]

That sounds like an interesting campaign. I think I have never been at war with all barbaric factions at once, I usually ally myself with at least two of them and fight the rest. Your territory should be pretty large by now, as you have reached scythians.

Yeah. I was actually quite surprised when, upon the fall of Porrolissum, I sat back and realized that I have made quite an empire for myself. I had expected the conquest of Gaul to last much longer, but as it turned out, I got two settlements out of ceasefires, so.....

Oh, the Britons did approach me with an alliance quite early in the game. The timing with which they betrayed me could not have been poorer. I had had Alesia in my hands for a few turns, and had trained up a few units to supplement my veteran core army. By then, the tide of the war in Germania had just turned in my favour. Had they attacked me when I was only at Lemonum, for example, I would have been overwhelmed. As it was, they sat on their asses while I subjugated their Gallic cousins, and paid for it. The Spanish, well, I guess I just assumed that they would be more disposed to be my friends, seeing as how I was at war with Gaul and Carthage, their principal enemies.

I actually bribed those settlements from Julii, who were becoming too powerfull and were disrupting the balance (I am the protector of the weak and the enemy of the strong). So, it is better that those settlements are owned by parthia than by Julli. Besides, Parthians have a strong alliance with Pontus, so they are not attacking them, but only building new armies and walking with them around their settlements. That is even more draining on their economy. Thus I gav them someone to attack to. They have already taken one more settlement from Germans. Julii doesn't care about those settlements, as they have a huge war with britons, Germans are too weakened to take them, and Thrace hasn't noticed them too. Moreover, when I gave these towns to Parthians, they got some of their best units there.

I see..... do you think there is any chance of the Parthians turning into a global superpower anytime soon? If they defeat Scythia, they just might......

By the way, it'll be interesting to see if Pontus remains loyal to Parthia when Egypt is gone. Pontus does not have a good track record of being faithful.

Oh, they are attacking Pergamum time after time with 2 full stack armies, but that city has epic stone walls and really good garrison. I can't imagine an army, which would be capable of taking it.
But that is yet nothing, because most of the pontic armies are being sent against Egypt. That is a bit odd, because pergamum is much closer. It seems that they won't stop until Egypt is destroyed. If after that they start to concentrate on Pergamum, that will be frightening.

Ahaha..... well, if that happens, would you consider taking someplace like Nicomedia or Halicarnassus? It was originally Greek, after all.

I think I will now take some cities from Julii and give them to poor Gauls, who have only one city left. Working on balance between factions! (do not look at the east, that's where my balance program heavily failed )

Take Patavium or soemthing. The base growth rates there should be sufficient to turn it back into a Gallic bastion, provided that they can hold it against the initial wave of Julii attacks. Maybe some Greek gold might help? ;)

[Barbarian]

I can't figure out how anyone could get Roman factions as a protectorates. I besieged 2 of the 4 Brutii cities, to encrease the pressure and give a serious note to my words, and then offered this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

They rejected. Can anyone give some tips of how to make this work?

Oh, and after unending battles, with thousands of Pontic soldiers fallen, their great "god king" sends a messenger to me with a strange proposal:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I don't really get it: "There might be enough gold in your coffers to turn aside our armies. You must consider the value of your lives and freedom"'
That is not even a proposal for ceasefire

Is that a threatenning or begging for mercy? I saw it is a threat to Greek freedom, so I rejected this and assassinated the diplomat

[Ibn-Khaldun]

My best campaign was my Julii campaign about a year ago .. sorry but I do not have any screenies from that game .. but because it was my first campaign where I conquered the whole world

After that I almost never had the patience for that .. so .. that was mu best campaign ever

[mrdun]

They rejected. Can anyone give some tips of how to make this work?

One tactic what I know of is to besiege evry city with a larger force then its Garrison/ place one outside. Then block all ports. At this point though it is easier to just kill them off lthough your campaign is not like that is it?

[Telys]

I can't figure out how anyone could get Roman factions as a protectorates. I besieged 2 of the 4 Brutii cities, to encrease the pressure and give a serious note to my words, and then offered this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

They rejected. Can anyone give some tips of how to make this work?

Romans are one of the hardest factions to gain as a protectorate. Most of the time they wont accept until the senate is dead. If they arent dead the faction that is your protectorate wil just cancel the deal later cause their roman allies will most definetely declare war on you. So, it would be pointless to gain a roman as a protectorate if the senate is still alive, now with them dead and the other houses still alive I'm not sure how they would react if another house declares war on you. I've had the julii as a protectorate once and the scipii were still alive. In that situation the scipii never attacked me again but I ended that game a little while ago so I cant tell you exactly what would happen if they did. On a side note any faction, no matter how many territories they have or how large their armies are, will become your protectorate for 1 million denari. I learned that a while ago cause I was to lazy to invade africa, which was owned by carthage, in one campaign and had a lot of money and offered that which they accepted. I also have offered the same deal to the seleucids and egypt who also accepted immediately.

Edit: I forgot to mention. In some campaigns a faction will give up fairly easy, but in others the same faction will fight to the bitter end. So dont be discouraged if a faction never accepts your offers. Not everyone is willing to give up.