Grrr.....Over extended

**beatoangelico** · 01-24-2008, 14:54

that yellow death scares me

**Pezlu** · 01-24-2008, 15:21

If I think you haveto destroy the ptolemies to win the campaign...

My empire is still smaller then yours (I'm also playing with romani) so I don't have all those problems, but the ptolemies are not that different, and I'm quite afraid of them myself. But I still have Pontos (my faithful ally so far) as a buffer.

**Poulp'** · 01-24-2008, 16:19

When you can afford the resources, take the islands, Crete and Cyprus.
From there, you'll be able to raid the Near East, especially Syria. Bands of mercenaries roaming into Ptolemaic heartland is a nice idea.

Be a true Roman and raze Carthage. Exterminate every settlement you conquer to pacify Western Europe ASAP. Of course, if you're having population problems, enslavement is better.

In North Africa, you'll need 3 stacks; 1 to defend Lepci and the other 2 to go west (once Carthage is dealt with)

**Jaywalker-Jack** · 01-24-2008, 21:34

Wow, Ive never seen Egypt get so big. And judging by those purple islands the Parthians overran the Seleucids before that?? What campaign difficulty do you use? I always use normal, and Ive never seen the AI do anything like that kind of expanding.

Egypt and Seleucia always seem to get stuck in a permanent stalemate, and Parthia just wait for Baktria to kill them. I'll add that Ive NEVER ONCE seen the Sarmatians take a province. How normal is this?

**Gaivs** · 01-25-2008, 03:15

Originally Posted by Johnny5

Wow, Ive never seen Egypt get so big. And judging by those purple islands the Parthians overran the Seleucids before that?? What campaign difficulty do you use? I always use normal, and Ive never seen the AI do anything like that kind of expanding.

Egypt and Seleucia always seem to get stuck in a permanent stalemate, and Parthia just wait for Baktria to kill them. I'll add that Ive NEVER ONCE seen the Sarmatians take a province. How normal is this?

Thats very normal. The Sarmatians never take a province, and the Casse never leave the British isles. IMO Casse is a useless faction.

**bigmilt16** · 01-26-2008, 06:50

I gotta agree, Yellow death is in full effect. What is your difficulty?

I'm about to start a new Romani campaign, and I think I'm going on M/M because I got tired of the relentless expansion and mindless negotiation skills by the AI.

**Hellenic_Hoplite** · 01-26-2008, 09:16

On Vanilla My difficulty is generally VH/VH although on EB it's M/M I also make it harder on my self by autoresolving most of my battles (yes I know I'm lazy

)

I've been playing my campaign more of my campaign today and I'll post more pics and updates tomorrow night if anyone wants them.

**Severian Huizi** · 01-26-2008, 10:56

And I thought I was pushing it just fighting the Aedui and Carthaginians at the same time. The thought of having to throw Polybians at overpaid, overarmored Hellenic phalanxes on top of it is horrifying.

**Pezlu** · 01-26-2008, 17:05

Originally Posted by Severian Huizi

The thought of having to throw Polybians at overpaid, overarmored Hellenic phalanxes on top of it is horrifying.

Polybians? Just send Neitos there

(joke aside, they are extremely effective; you can even charge phalanxes from the front without too much risk in you want :P Not much historical though, I would guess :P)

**pezhetairoi** · 01-26-2008, 17:08

Polybians can actually cut it, though, as long as they are principes/triarii. And that is if you have lonchophoroi/brihentin doing the outflanking.

**Jaywalker-Jack** · 01-29-2008, 03:17

Originally Posted by Gaivs

Thats very normal. The Sarmatians never take a province, and the Casse never leave the British isles. IMO Casse is a useless faction.

Putting an army in a ship, moving the ship, and taking out the army is a little too complicated for the AI. Still though, you can trade away to your heart's content with the Casse and never have to worry about them invading.
The Saramatians though... at the moment in a Carthaginian campaign Ive gone well out of my way to give them a few provinces, just to try and resussitate them. Hasnt worked yet.

**marodeur** · 01-29-2008, 11:37

Originally Posted by Gaivs

Thats very normal. The Sarmatians never take a province, and the Casse never leave the British isles. IMO Casse is a useless faction.

About steppe-nations

In my campaigns, the Samatians often take some of the steppe-provinces controlled by the Eleutheroi in the beginning, sometimes they even take Sapmi or Egrisi, leaving the steppes by doing this. But: they are always one of the first factions to be destroyed. I think, steppe factions are at a severe disadvantage in RTW and also EB because they have to defend cities with units not suited to this task. With the horde-option it would be more realistic and they would be able to fight in a more steppe-like way: don't defend a fixed position, stay on the move. If controlled by the ai, steppe troops should also retreat after having used up their missiles (after taking down some isolated, weakened units), and such a raid should count as a victory for them, if they kill lots of enemys and retreat without severe losses. Thanks to the TW-engine the use up their arrows - and after that, try to ride down even complete phalanxes. This change in tactics should also be represented in auto-battles. I guess that by this it would be prevented, that hordes of indian spearmen (Baktria) or hellenic phalangites (Seleukids) conquer the steppes - taking down the horse archers - incredible! Sarmatia, Parthia, Saka would be much more dangerous and nearly invincible on their hometurf by infantry-armies.

And about Casse
For Casse, I have to admit that they are very passive. But I have (in most of my campaigns) given one or two provinces in Gaul to them. Most of the time, the casse beginns producing troops in gaul and gets an active participant in the continental wars (even though they don't start to transport troops from britain to europe - there are simply too many pirates up there). This makes the gallic civil war more interesting (and makes it more realistic, with more tribes fighting each other).

**Jaywalker-Jack** · 01-29-2008, 18:05

In reality significant settlements didnt exist on the steppes in this period. If there were a way for a province to exist without a settlement in it...
A big departure from how the game normally works, but it would be realistic. Settled civilizations, as in reality, would be hard pressed to hold on to territory there because there would be no "power node" to conquer.
A "nomad type province" would be owned by whatever faction had the most forces in it. Nomadic factions would have a huge advantage in controlling these provinces because of how quickly an all cavalry army can move, and their style of warfare. If as a settled civilization you wanted to conquer the steppe you would have to build forts to control borders, keeping the nomads out.

Of course, the game engine probably dosnt allow for any of this.