Hayasdan and Pahlava

[Olimpian]

Isn't there a way to make these two factions not go into the steppes?It's not historical,and I would really like to see them exapnd south,especialy Pahlava conquering AS lands.I am on my first campaign,but I haven't seen on the forum any pics where they do not go north.
I was thinking maybe using landbridges like in another mod I played(won't name it since the first time I did I was told it is not a good ideea to do that here--so I won't any more).Would be cool to see a Parthian Empire in the east

P.S.I know landbridges aren't "historical" and it would somewhat hamper the nomads reaching the eastern lands...but maybe some other,better,solution exists.

[Hax]

Well, there is a method, but it kinda spoils the game, methinks.

Make Pahlava neutral to the Saka, do the same with Hay - Sauromatae

Then, lower the faction standing of the Hay - AS, and Pahlava - AS.

Then increase the faction standing of the Hay - Sauromatae and Pahlava - Saka.

Dunno for sure, but I think this should work.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

1. Rebels are to the north.
2. The AI *always* goes after neighboring rebel territories first if they are an option.

It's not hard to see where this is going. We have tried lots and lots of things to try and keep the Armenians from going north, including making the mountains not have roads go through them going north, making the province borders different, etc. But nothing works when the Seleukids are to their south. We've also given penalties to buildings that non-nomads run into if they go into nomad lands - to try and penalize them and make their economies suffer if they go to those places. We've sped some nomad construction times up. We've done a lot.

Also, the Parthians *are* nomadic peoples at the start of our game, historically they just settled down more *after* our game starts, and it's hard to make the AI do that - but we are doing better there. If they go north, it shouldn't be some big surprise. But I played 7 turns last night as Lusotannan, and saw the Parthians take Asaak and Hekatompylos both within the first 7 turns. That's pretty damned good actually. If they go north sometimes too, so be it. We really have done about all we can given the limitations of the .exe.

[Olimpian]

I gues making the Caucasus imapssabel is not an option...

[d'Arthez]

Rotating the map might help a bit. But it will confuse the human player.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Rotating the map might help a bit. But it will confuse the human player.

You mean make the map up-side-down since the AI likes to go 'north'?

[d'Arthez]

Yup. That way Taras is "north" for the AI. The steppes would cover the southernmost part of the map. I don't think it makes too much difference for Ptolemaioi and Kart-Hadast. The latter seems preoccupied with conquering the whole of Africa, and the former only has a few rebel settlements around it. I doubt it will affect Saba adversely.

[marodeur]

I don't think the AI is led by a compass but by easy pickings (aka eleutheroi).

[Tellos Athenaios]

Though I actually do think that Hax has hit the nail squarely on the head: the Hayasdan do actually not go that far north until their borders contact thos of the Sauromatae and AFAIK AI towards AI behaviour does seem to follow some basic rules (among them: don't attack an AI neighbour if there are still Slaves left nearby).

[NEver]

Konny's win conditions might help but when I played a campaign I was using hayasdan so...

[Olimpian]

I was thinking,for Pahlava,of something more "exotic":make Baktria's western-most starting province stretch in between Pahlava's northern province and the Caspian Sea,so that Pahlava has no common border with the rebels up north.This way,they should go to war wirh either AS or Baktria,and could stand a chance of winning.The same for Hai maybe.Is this a stupid ideea?

[Sir Edward]

Just that now your trading parthia heading north into the steppes for bactria heading north into the steppes.

[Olimpian]

Baktria also has rebel towns to its south,so it has a choice.Saka will probably keep them busy up north,while going to India will eventualy bring them into conflict with AS

[SaberHRE]

One thing I noticed that Pahlava and Hayasdan don't even make it to the north, they get sucked into either AS or Saka. And I'm playing H campaign.

In 3 games, this has happened , but it's still pretty interesting to watch the Saka become a local super power(with steppes and cities)