Best Campaign

[Quirinus]

Whew, it's good to be back, both to vanilla and the Org after so long. I've started yet another 'migration' campaign with my favourite faction, the Greek Cities, though this time all the way to Brittania. This is where I'm at currently. The year is 235 BC.



To start, I gave my cities in Greece (Sparta, Thermon) to Macedon, and for good measure I bribed Athens and gave it to them too. I gave Pergamum, Rhodes and bribed Kydonia to the Seleucids, and set up camp in Sicily-- I bribed Messana and Croton, and together with Syracuse, began churning ships out furiously. When I was ready I gave Tarentum, Croton and Messana to Carthage. (I needed to keep Syracuse as the final city.)

Right. I forgot to say, I'm using the UniRomeNoS version of VBM, which is why the Romans are only one faction, and I have Tarentum at the start. And to aid in my migration, I used the add_money cheat liberally-- the other factions won't accept cities otherwise.

So the Carthagenians attacked me right after I gave them three cities and 100000 denarii, the ingrates. So when I reached Corduba I attacked it, set it as my capital (so that coming-of-age generals will spawn there instead of faraway Syracuse) and gave Syracuse (plus another wad of cash) away for a peace treaty.

The gist of it is that I reached the fabled isles of Cassiterides by 258 BC, attacked Londinium and Eburacum at the same time, and gave Corduba to the Numidians after I succeeded. As you can imagine I was very much in the red from all that army upkeep, so I used the add_money cheat to give myself a 100000d loan that I was to repay within 40 turns (house rule). I also scaled down my army and navy to one army/fleet each, and started to invest frantically in economy buildings.

It paid off surprisingly fast-- after the capture of Tara and then Bordeshlom on the mainland, I got into the black. I didn't need that huge loan after all, and I repaid 75000d of it about five turns after taking out the loan, and the rest in about twice that time. The British provinces are insane money-makers: even in the beginning, Deva's trade was approaching 1K, to say nothing of Londinium.

I had a military genius in my family and a large, highly-trained army (normal and Spartan hoplites), so the battles were a breeze, but upgrading the godforsaken hovels were another thing. They all had less than 1000 population, so I had to ferry peasants from Londinium every turn to swell their population. Once they were upgraded, though....... every single settlement was turning in a profit almost since the beginning. A benefit of them being all coastal provinces, I guess.

I never went to war with Germania, Germania Inferior was bribed by me. They seem to have had enough, though, I bribed a decent sized stack heading towards Bordeshlom the last turn, and they're spying at my cities already.


Macedon, being freed from having to fight with the Greek Cities and the Romans, have gone berserk, rampaging over the hapless barbarians. At the time of the above screenshot, that final Dacian city and the Scythian Chersonesus are under siege by Macedonian full stacks. The Seleucids haven't done too bad, either-- no doubt having the Colossus of Rhodes from turn 2 helped too. Egypt wasn't actually defeated by them-- the Numidians did it, but then the Seleucids drove them out. Miraculously, war between Macedon and the Seleucids haven't broke out yet, despite sharing a border. The Seleucids will probably win, but I'm still looking forward to witnessing this coming great clash of the Successors.

The Romans have an alliance with Gaul, and their mutual border is quiet-- virtually no troops, even garrisons in cities. There are quite a few Roman full stacks at the toe of the boot though, apparently in a staring contest with a similar amount of Carthagenian full stacks. Same with the Gauls and Carthagenians in Iberia, and the Spanish are doing exactly nothing.


So... yes. I'm thinking of stopping my Gallic conquests-- I don't want to fight the Romans yet. Maybe I'll expand into rich, rich Iberia, but maybe not. Now my main priority is building up to dismantle Germania. I'll probably take their core provinces and coastal Vicus Gothi and then stop there.

I was actually gonna do a limited-perspective AAR with the Spartan hoplite unit, but I got lazy, and abandoned it. It's up to two silver chevrons and down to 64/80 men now--damned forester warbands targeted and took out a whopping ten Spartans in my last battle with them..... I screamed, I did. Surviving a perilous journey by sea and countless battles, only to be fell by arrows? Imma kill every single one of them backwoods bastards.


EDIT: I almost forgot, my current hegemon:

Meet Cleon the Conquerer, hegemon to the Cassiteridic League, vanquisher of Britons and Gauls, and obsessive-compulsive hand-soap fanatic.

[anelious phyros]

I don't have any screen shots but a long time ago I had ordinary vanilla and I decided to play as Greek Cities. I took over all of greece and Dacia then the whole seleucid empire and part of egypt? I also gained a couple regions on italy. But then I uprgaded to EB then Roma Surrectum, and now XGM. But it was still pretty sweet.

[Quintus.JC]

Welcome back Quirinus .
Interesting stuff you got there, I'd never seen a faction migrantion with the Greeks. Their infantry moves too slow plus their starting position is somewhat excellent. Anyway it'll be interesting to see what happens next.

[Darkvicer98]

Nice campaign,Quirinus. I haven't seen anyone do the same thing as you by immigrating to the British Isles.

[WarMachine187]

This is was my first carthaginian campain.It was so much fun.

[WarMachine187]

[Quintus.JC]

Very nice empire WarMachine, seems that your campaign is coming to an end. I've noticed that your treasury is way above 50K, although that doesn't matter too much.

[Drunk-Monk]

Nice, I have never seen the AI be that reasonable or did they back stab you the next turn?

[Quirinus]

I think it was because of the tribute, 8000d for ten turns is a lot of money.

Interesting stuff you got there, I'd never seen a faction migrantion with the Greeks. Their infantry moves too slow plus their starting position is somewhat excellent.

Yea, I love their starting position too-- Greece + Colossus = lots and lots of cash. But I wanted to see if I could carve a Greek empire out of the barbarian lands. It wasn't as difficult as my last Greek migration game to Massilia, where I was attacked on all sides by the Gauls, Germans, Spanish, Romans and Carthagenians. Travelling to the British Isles took a lot longer, but North Sea trade is -well, not as good as Greece proper, but not too shabby either. Every single settlement is making money, most of them in the thousands, each turn, and I've been fighting mostly Gaul (though it looks like Germania are joining the party soon).

[WarMachine187]

Thnx for the comments.they betrayed me the next turn,but that gave me an excuse to conquer them.Funny thing is the general i used to conquer italy was named Hannibal!

[Quintus.JC]

..... each turn, and I've been fighting mostly Gaul (though it looks like Germania are joining the party soon).

It's nice to see most of the faction are doing well, wouldn't be much fun if there are only a few domanent factions on the map.... which direction are heading next?

....Funny thing is the general i used to conquer italy was named Hannibal!

I once conquered Rome with Vercingetorix.... The guy had 9 commander stars before he was even 28 (I did help him with the retinues and all), but anyway RTW seems to have it's ironies.

[Quirinus]

Got a little further with my Cassiteridic Greek game, it is now 210 BC:


My little kingdom has now expanded into something more resembling an empire. The map is being carved up between the Greek factions: Greek Cities, Macedon and the Seleucids.

I was actually going to go west to take the German lands, but then Macedon destroyed Dacia and had sent an army into German territory. I hurriedly bribed that army and changed my plans-- I didn't want a border with Macedon just yet. A few turns after this the Macedonians made the Germans their protectorate, and most of the German armies are further east, so that border is secure for the time being.

I had intended on doing the same with the Gallic remnant-- by 225 BC Gaul still had a pretty large presence in Iberia, as you can see here:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The world, circa 225 BC.

....but the rest of their settlements had minimal garrisons and their only roaming armies were pathetic little two- or three-unit deals which were easily bribed. I was still at war with them, but I hadn't intended to expand any further in the east. They were the perfect buffer state against the Romans and the Macedonians, neither of whom I wanted to fight yet.

But then Patavium went rebel (the 7% pop. growth was just too much, I guess) and the Romans moved to take it. I had to assassinate the general and bribe his army away. The Gauls eventually retook Patavium, but that was too close, so I bribed Mediolanum, Segesta and eventually Arretium, and built up a presence there. If we were going to have a border anyway, I'd prefer the border to be further east.

Then I bribed Capua too, and Capua revolted back to the Romans, which left me at war with them. That hurt, because Capua cost some 200000d to bribe. I just only recaptured Capua by 210 BC. I exterminated the ingrates with relish.

In the meantime, my longtime allies the Numidians backstabbed me in Iberia shortly after I took Numantia. That's okay, I guess I had been expecting it, but I don't really want to expand into Africa-- the public order'll be hell.

Right now my first priority is to pacify Italy. Next I'll probably build up in preparation for war against Macedon and to retake Greece proper. How to deal with the Seleucids once the Macedonians are gone, though, I have no idea. The Macedonians and the Seleucids have miraculously been at peace for so long, despite sharing borders. I might elect to turtle in and wait for war to break out between the two...... maybe.

[UltraWar]

This is my second time starting a thread of the same title. They both seemed to work decently. What was your thread titled, cause the only reason I made this was to see how other people play the game. If I had seen a thread similiar to this I would have just posted in that one rather than make another one.

Sorry for the late response: Rise & Expansion of your empire

[WarMachine187]

Got a little further with my Cassiteridic Greek game, it is now 210 BC:


My little kingdom has now expanded into something more resembling an empire. The map is being carved up between the Greek factions: Greek Cities, Macedon and the Seleucids.

I was actually going to go west to take the German lands, but then Macedon destroyed Dacia and had sent an army into German territory. I hurriedly bribed that army and changed my plans-- I didn't want a border with Macedon just yet. A few turns after this the Macedonians made the Germans their protectorate, and most of the German armies are further east, so that border is secure for the time being.

I had intended on doing the same with the Gallic remnant-- by 225 BC Gaul still had a pretty large presence in Iberia, as you can see here:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The world, circa 225 BC.

....but the rest of their settlements had minimal garrisons and their only roaming armies were pathetic little two- or three-unit deals which were easily bribed. I was still at war with them, but I hadn't intended to expand any further in the east. They were the perfect buffer state against the Romans and the Macedonians, neither of whom I wanted to fight yet.

But then Patavium went rebel (the 7% pop. growth was just too much, I guess) and the Romans moved to take it. I had to assassinate the general and bribe his army away. The Gauls eventually retook Patavium, but that was too close, so I bribed Mediolanum, Segesta and eventually Arretium, and built up a presence there. If we were going to have a border anyway, I'd prefer the border to be further east.

Then I bribed Capua too, and Capua revolted back to the Romans, which left me at war with them. That hurt, because Capua cost some 200000d to bribe. I just only recaptured Capua by 210 BC. I exterminated the ingrates with relish.

In the meantime, my longtime allies the Numidians backstabbed me in Iberia shortly after I took Numantia. That's okay, I guess I had been expecting it, but I don't really want to expand into Africa-- the public order'll be hell.

Right now my first priority is to pacify Italy. Next I'll probably build up in preparation for war against Macedon and to retake Greece proper. How to deal with the Seleucids once the Macedonians are gone, though, I have no idea. The Macedonians and the Seleucids have miraculously been at peace for so long, despite sharing borders. I might elect to turtle in and wait for war to break out between the two...... maybe.

thats a really nice empire you got there.Whats interesting is that the greek factions technically rule the world kinda like the diadochi.

[Quirinus]

Yeah, I had a field day imagining the kind of Europe that might have emerged under Greek influence rather than Roman. As usual, though, I was too lazy to make anything of that. Amyways, here's my progress, it is now 192 BC:

Macedon turned out to be a paper tiger. All their main stacks were up north in Scythia and Pripet, so I loaded my veterans from the subjugation of Iberia to backstab them in Sparta. They were churning out phalanx pikemen, but the tiny distances of Greece and lots and lots of veteran spies to open the gates allowed me to storm through the Peloponese and up to Attica by the time the year was over. It was immensely gratifying to be able to train Spartan hoplites again.

In the meantime, I had taken Dacia and further east to the Euxine, seperating Macedon proper from their Scythian territories-- and their big stacks. I used a combination of bribery and violence-- I mostly bribed their stacks whenever I could, and those militia hoplites and peltasts were useful in garrisonning my new cities and freeing up my armoured hoplites (veterans of my Italian campaign) to kick Macedonian ass. Which they did, to those stacks I couldn't bribe. Those armoured hoplites really are excellent troops..... they're almost cheating. Bastarnae mercs helped a great deal too-- those barbarians are lethal little buggers (lol alliteration).

I had estimated about ten to fifteen years to subdue Macedon, but it took something like five to six, and I was slowed down for a year and a half or so at Pella because I didn't want to assault a plague-ridden settlement. By now I could afford bribing one or two stacks every turn because of my income. North Sea trade had been enough to support my early expansion, but lordy, Mediterranean trade is insane. I had a belt of maritime cities with Temples of Hermes from Osca to Massilia to Rome to Tarentum, and every turn almost every settlement was raking in cash in the thousands, even after army maintainace was deducted.

I had decided against expanding in Africa-- I had a good defensive position at Tingi, with both Tingi and Corduba with Temples of Nike and Tingi being so far from any other settlement. The Numidians attacked me a few times, but they were destroyed easily.

The Seleucids just attacked me, which annoyed me so much that I stopped playing. The Seleucids had had a border with Macedon for ages, but do they attack each other? Nooooo. They had a long-lasting alliance, but no sooner had I taken Byzantium than a Seleucid army crossed the Hellespont to attack me. I had intended to finish my campaign objectives, but..... oh well. It had been a most fascinating game while it lasted.

An interesting note about this campaign is that I never went to war with the Germans, yet I had acquired four of their nine territories through bribery and effectively relegated them to a third-rate power. If I ever pick up the game again I'm going to see if I can grease their palms a bit in exchange for a gift of earth and water.

[Quirinus]

Hurrah for necro-posting! I didn't want to start a new thread, so....

After taking a long break from RTW after my pathetically total failure in modding additional temples for Parthia, I loaded in my RTW CD and installed the game again. I felt like playing another vanilla game where I could subjugate and civilize the unwashed barbarians (I don't know, this is like a fetish of mine). I had played the Julii, Brutii and Greek Cities for far too long, and the Scipii colours look pretty cool, so I chose the Scipii.

One of my house rules, though, was to build only temples of Saturn everywhere at first-- building temples to Vulcan in military settlements the last time I played the Scipii bogged down the game because I keep wanting my troops to get the best weapon upgrades, which resulted in a lot of tedious and inefficient shuttling around.


The year is 193 BC.

I started by abandoning my original settlements and relocating to Massalia, allowing Messana to rebel and giving Capua to the Senate. Another thing I did to keep things fresh was to trigger the Marian Reforms from the start-- I cheated to get Capua to Huge City, and then gave it to the Senate by 268 BC.

I captured Alalia (Sardinia?) and Palma from the Carthaginians as soon as I could, which kept my revenue up. The Gauls attacked me almost from the start, in Lugdinensis, which I repelled with mostly my starting Hastati units.

Because of the Marian Reforms, I could not retrain these Hastati, but instead had only access to Auxilia, which are, I've found, vastly inferior to Hastati-- and the average warband. In the first fifty years or so years of the game, I relied very heavily on mercs, especially the Barbarian Mercenaries. I actually had to use tactics to win instead of just minimizing damage as is usually the case, since I had about the same quality of troops as the Gauls. The warcry ability + bridge-defending has time and again been the difference between victory and defeat. The post-Marian generals' bodyguards have also acquitted themselves honourably. If they are used carefully (i.e. not charging them headlong into a wall of spears), they are nigh unstoppable once they get silver chevrons.

So in general I conquered Gaul from the outside, chipping away at the little settlements by conquest, diplomacy or bribery, leaving Alesia to the last. Iberia fell pretty quickly as one thing led to another. The Germans I never went to war with, it was easy enough to obtain their settlements:

1) assasinate the governor, if any
2) bribe the settlement
3) swoop in with some mercs of mine that just happened to be around
4) swarm the new settlement with peasants
5) ???
6) PROFIT!!

At the end of this routine I get a new Roman town. Rinse and repeat. I like to think of this as German tribes allying with Rome and signing up the luxuries and prosperity of the Romans. After all, better this than utter ruin like the Britons (more about this below).

As usual, the Dacians were doing quite well, even annexing Pella at one point, until the Julii decided to get off their ass and actually take Patavium. After that they just collapsed inwards as the Julii exploded across Dacia. At some point the Greeks, who had wrested Apollonia from the Brutii a while back, joined in the gangbang as well. Now, though, the Greek Cities are being gangbanged in their turn by the Julii in the north and the Brutii in the south. I have been helping the Greeks some by supplying them with cash and men (by disbanding peasants in their lands) but I don't think they'll last long.

Nothing terribly special about the progression of this campaign, I think, other than my reavings into Brittania and Egypt. I tried out a new strategy in the campaign (well, new for me), inspired by the quote: "The Romans make desolation and call it peace" or something like that. The idea is to attack a faction with elite troops, exterminate their cities, destroy all their buildings, and generally cause havoc and destruction in the wake. I then leave the area depopulated and poor, with an experienced general at the head of hardened veteran legions.

Brittania prompted the wrath of Rome, or at least the Scipii, by attacking Samarobriva (bribed from the dying Gauls).... I responded by building a full stack of early legionaries from scratch at Lugdunum, Massalia and Mediolanum and then shipping it across the Channel from Samarobriva. There was fierce resistance around Londinum with about three full stacks and plenty of chariots, but post-Marian legionaries are..... well, post-Marian legionaries. When the Romans landed on Brittania, the Britons were a powerful people with a strong military and thriving economy. Within five years they had been wiped off the face of the earth, along with most of their buildings and smallfolk. (To make their defeat more total, before I left I kept recruiting peasants from the settlements until there were only 400 left.)

For the Egyptians, they didn't actually do anything... just that they were Egyptians. ;) After consolidating my grip on Gaul and Iberia, I was pretty much secure, with my eastern frontier covered mostly by the weak Germans and the Julii. I was drowning in cash from Mediterranean trade, so I decided to play God-- and Egypt was the obvious choice: they were populous and usually dominating the East in each game. I took a long time in assembling two stacks of early cohorts, one more of mercs, three large enough fleets and all the agents, but eventually I set sail for Egyptian lands. Egypt proper fell without much of a fight, it was around the Levant that I got the stiffest resistance: stacks in and around Sidon and Antioch. But of course Roman legionaries swept them all aside like so much flotsam. I had actually wanted to just blaze a trail of destruction into Egyptian land and retreat leaving them weakened, but when I saw how easy it was I just went one step further and wiped them out.

My popularity with the masses peaked about here, with me getting the "chance for power" message, but I didn't seize it at the time because I didn't have any legions in my main regions. Abandoning the ex-Egyptian settlements has cost me the affection of the people, though unfortunately the Senate's impression of me did not improve: it had dropped to one shield when I eliminated the Egyptians.

This 'removal' of Egyptian power has created an interesting power vacumn.. Pontus looks set to move in. Hopefully they will manage to consolidate their new lands before the Brutii or Julii come a-knockin'.

On the way back to Gaul the expedition landed in Punic Africa because the Carthaginians kept trying to extort me-- kinda like a fly making demands to a wolf, if I may say so. <3 So I gave them a taste of the steel they had been promising me. The Carthaginians put up more resistance than the Egyptians, with elephants in every other stack, but I subjugated them in the end, with some losses. I had also hoped that this Carthaginian adventure might make me more popular with the masses, as I now had stacks ready and waiting in Cisalpine Gaul. As of now it has remained constant at six shields.... I'm hoping the final destruction of the Carthaginians might earn me that coveted seventh shield.

[Centurion1]

Im gonna have to say that my favorite campaign of all time is the one i'm playing right now. I'm playing as the brutti and i made two major changes. first i removed the super faction setting of the Romans (meaning they have the potential to civil war at any time. Second, i altered the diplomacy, the carthaginians, Macedon, and the Seleucids are naturally inclined to like each other. I guess i did it because those factions always get run over early in the game. To add a little to that i let the Greeks and Thracians be best friends. I also made the eggies a little more hated, and monetarily pumped up the parthians and selkies. I am playing this game by historical lines, with the conquering of italy from traitors and false kings first. I have now taken all of italy (greatest battles i have ever fought, so much fun ) I will move my forces against the carthies.
First punic War- i finished off the sicilies.
5 turns (approximately)
Second Punic War- I took over caralis and palma.

That is as far as i am mow. After this i will attack the gauls in the north, emulating Caesars camapign, then i will look east.

Alot of fun i recommend disabling the superfaction setting, leads to great pre-marian civil war.

[Custodis Hellenius]

These are of my recent Greek game, on which I applied the question; if I made it extra easy, how fast could I win the game? So, on an E/E game with liberal use of add_money, I set about with my diplomats.

So far, only 13 of my provinces have been taken by military force, leaving 39 "Bribees". I have a massive amount of diplomats now, including around 20 on the Italian peninsula itself. I started out by giving Syacrause to the Scipii, attacking Corinth and allying myself with all of the Romans. This worked for about 30 years; when I reached the 20 province mark, my "allies" decided to declare war. As seen above, all other factions are now at war with me, except Spain, Carthage, Gaul and Numidia, which i find surprising as these are all supposedly enemies of Rome and Diplomacy.

In the second picture, there's my pre-siege battle for Arretium, that acheived a "Famous" mark. Still don't kow why. I find it somewhat ironic that both participants were "Julius".

Armenia has just taken Campus Sarmatae. I'm not surprised, not after I took their capital. It and Vicus Veneadae (I can't spell these things...) were just empty during Scythia's rule. What's up Scythia?

Anyway. I'm gonna remove the Britons and try and close in on Dacia. Rome will fall, but I think after I eliminate those Brutii armies and settlements, and after I take Capua.

[Samofrome]

Oh.... I see. What does the 'vbm mod' do? I see that it changes some city names too..... I don't recall Pella being the city in Macedonia.

In Alexander times, it was the captial of Macedonia.

[Lord Reid of Britannica]

This is my britannian campaign, not my largest empire but most stable and powerful. You can see my faction leader in his twilight years there, the Conqueror!

Even though egypt look strong they have almost no army and pontus looks like they'll be the controllers of the middle east soon. The Julii have a strong army coming out of Mediolanium looking dangerous.

I've nearly crushed Germany thanks to a conquest using mainly mercernaries Belenus carried out against them. Thrace are surprisingly strong. Dacia are a turn away from being crushed by the Scythians. Armenia and Parthia are sitting strong as is Greece. Gaul's prescence in Spain is soon to be gone.

My only ally is Gaul (surprisingly) who are weak. The Romans and Germany are my only enemies. Selucia is surprisingly still alive. My economy is strong and raking in thousands each turn, leaving me with the ability to hire massive Mercenary armies and bribe away small Roman stacks.

Will update later into the game.

[Quirinus]

Haha, an all-merc army, that's awesome! I don't think I ever did that before, the closest was recruiting a few units of merc cavalry to act as a governor escort. Are you going to annex the remaining two Gallic settlements soon or just head into Italy right away?

[Lord Reid of Britannica]

I'm currently just finishing off Germany, as they're being a persistent pain in my backside. Gaul are actually my allies and I'd like to keep it that way, using them for trade, so i won't get rid of them yet. The Julii are persistently attacking me in Massila so i'm looking to crush them in Mediolanium. Then into italy, take out spain and crush the Gauls.

[pevergreen]

Scipii still vainly trying to start the civil war. Julii have nothing, Brutii have a bit north of me, nothing major. Egypt is going to be a massive pain, they are hitting me with 2 full stacks a turn, I can see the trail of them. Nothing else is a threat.

Playing 1.5 vanilla with an expanded map.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Lord Reid of Britannica]

Where'd you get the expanded map? Is it better to play with than the standard one?

[pevergreen]

Its a lot of fun. The game starts off pretty much as normal, minor changes in location. So many rebel territories it isnt funny.

I opted to install just the map, not new units. I'll grab a link when I get home.

[Centurion1]

eh the best part about rtw is all the mods. ive played the extended map its a good download.

[Lord Reid of Britannica]

I've started a Migration campaign like Quirinius, although this one with my favourite faction Macedon. Its a rather small one, simply over to southern Italy, although it hit a snag. Not a bad one though. I emptied all my greek settlements and took Croton and Tarentum and wiped out the Brutiians. I tried giving away my settlements to Thrace, who didnt accept. The settlements just sat there for turns on end, completely empty, with no one attacking, making me 1000d per turn. So i eventually just started training units. So now i have greece AND southern italy, and a 100,000d war chest.

[Quirinus]

I've started a Migration campaign like Quirinius, although this one with my favourite faction Macedon. Its a rather small one, simply over to southern Italy, although it hit a snag. Not a bad one though. I emptied all my greek settlements and took Croton and Tarentum and wiped out the Brutiians. I tried giving away my settlements to Thrace, who didnt accept. The settlements just sat there for turns on end, completely empty, with no one attacking, making me 1000d per turn. So i eventually just started training units. So now i have greece AND southern italy, and a 100,000d war chest.

That's awesome! Plus you don't have to worry about the Romans now.

Scipii still vainly trying to start the civil war. Julii have nothing, Brutii have a bit north of me, nothing major. Egypt is going to be a massive pain, they are hitting me with 2 full stacks a turn, I can see the trail of them. Nothing else is a threat.

Playing 1.5 vanilla with an expanded map.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Julii could grow into a powerful enemy though, if they eat through the barbarians like they usually do. Also interesting to see that the Seleucids still lose despite having all those extra settlements.

BTW, is this the Mundus Magnus map? I think I tried installing it a while back, didn't work. Is it a provincial campaign or does it overwrite vanilla files?


I just finished a rebel campaign on BI:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The trick to playing the rebel faction, I've learned, is to be extremely opportunistic - if you see a settlement defended by only one or two units, don't squander the opportunity. The advantage of the rebel faction is that you don't need to worry about public order, and that you're pretty much impervious to hordes as long as you move your armies out of the way in time (though that is a huge if, I've lost some good armies because the Huns or whoever appeared out of the FOW without warning). Plus from time to time you get some reinforcements in the random places, so a deep strike is possible - at turn 10 my main bastions were Ravenna (N. Italy), Tarraco (Iberia), Campus Chatti (Germania) and Tarsus (Cilicia). The reinforcements are mostly rubbish, but I was able to combine some of the armies and siege lightly defended settlements.

The very worst thing about it though is that if you lose a battle or even simply withdraw to fight another day, you will lose your units, so extreme caution is needed. Even big armies will just melt away - one loss is all it takes. I learned that the hard way when I lost my veteran levy army against the Franks ( ), the next few turns saw me scrambling desperately for troops. One other significant disadvantage is that you only get low-tier units - about the best units I could recruit were the sword and axe heerbans from the Frankish settlements. In the Roman lands I could only recruit up to Foederati infantry and Sarmatian auxilia, which are decent, but against comitanses and other heavy infantry they die in droves. The steppe regions are the worst - only runaway slave spearmen and herdsmen - not even horse archers! I did get steppe archers from time to time, which helped immensely against the Sassanids, Lombardi and Roxolani. Also later on I got Vicus Sarmatae, which churned out double silver chevron slave spearmen, which was awesome.

The economy is a mess - at the start you get about 56K, but it is steadily depleted by turn 10. I made liberal use of the add_money cheat for the campaign.

I mostly expanded in the West - in the East expanding against the Sassanids were dangerous (clinibarii immortals! ) to expand against and I was leery of expanding against the ERE for fear of the Sassanids overrunning them (and probably poor little me in the process) too fast. I let the hordes and Roman rebels do most of the heavy lifting - I limited my efforts to defence and taking lightly-defended settlements. The campaign became more difficult as time went on because the factions were all deploying their more advanced units, so I ended up paganising all my cities just to get the exp bonus. I would have continued playing after the victory, but tbh I would have gotten my arse handed to me, what with all the clinibarii and heavy infantry marching about.

[Lord Reid of Britannica]

You can play as rebels? I would really like to know how. Is it just the same as unlocking the other factions? I thought it CTD if you play as rebels.

[Quirinus]

I'm not sure about vanilla BI, as I am using professorspatula's BI Extra Hordes and Unlocked Factions mini-mod.