Ptolemaic observations

[anubis88]

Hi,
i'm currently playing with the ptolys, with BI.
So the wierd things began when the Macedonians started to launch repeated invasion to cyrenacia (i failed my Epirotic an KH allies miserably, i thought that macedon would be destroyed like in all my other campaigns, but they managed to recover after losing pella and corinth and have left only rhodes for the KH and
a little Croatian enclave for the Epirotes)

Ok, so the macedonians usually send army's if they manage to land to Cyrencia, so my questions are as follows:

1) The army's that come to shore don't have a general, but the next turn there is a general leading that army, even though there is no way for him getting there. I really dunno, perhaps this is scripted or sth?

2) What's with the Macedonians and Cyrencia? why do they keep attacking only Cyrene for no apparent reason? They accept ceasfire on a whim since we don't have any provinces in common, but they keep attacking it. I guess it beats defending against Carthage, but still, it's wierd. They send a full stack at me for the first time when they only had 3 cities left . I guess they wanted me to keep out of Greece so they can make a comeback

3) Can KH create ships on rhodes? I mean, IIRC they can but they are sitting there with 2 full stacks and no ships, it's like they've given up on opposing macedon, which is becoming really annoying since i've left the Seluko-macedonian alliance become a huge threat, and i find it difficult to counter them.

It's more fun this way though

So any insights would be appreaciated

[Strategos Alexandros]

KH can build ships at Rhodos, because they've taken Halikarnossos along with all of the Maks' original territory but Mytilene in my Karthadastim game. The Maks have Serdike with a full stack next to it in Europe and Mytilene, Pergamon and one other city in Asia Minor.

[Jolt]

KH can build ships at Rhodos, because they've taken Halikarnossos along with all of the Maks' original territory but Mytilene in my Karthadastim game. The Maks have Serdike with a full stack next to it in Europe and Mytilene, Pergamon and one other city in Asia Minor.

In my game, the Maks have taken the entire Greece and Epirus, as well as expanding deep into Europe. They also have done fairly well in Anatolia, having already destroyed Pontos and pushed Arche Seleukeia out of Mikra Asia. Curiously though, I play as the Maks. >_>

[Strategos Alexandros]

In my game, the Maks have taken the entire Greece and Epirus, as well as expanding deep into Europe. They also have done fairly well in Anatolia, having already destroyed Pontos and pushed Arche Seleukeia out of Mikra Asia. Curiously though, I play as the Maks. >_>

[Maion Maroneios]

In my game, the Maks have taken the entire Greece and Epirus, as well as expanding deep into Europe. They also have done fairly well in Anatolia, having already destroyed Pontos and pushed Arche Seleukeia out of Mikra Asia. Curiously though, I play as the Maks. >_>

lol

[Conqueror]

KH limited to Rhodos might not have enough money to build ships. Check their economic status in faction rankings screen. You could try to help them by sending lots of spies and some assassins to Hellas, try to cause revolts in Athenai and Sparte (they will likely go back to KH if they successfully rebel). Mind you, with those cities being in the same culture group as Makedonia and probably close to their capital, it'll be difficult to get civil unrest there high enough.

[anubis88]

KH limited to Rhodos might not have enough money to build ships. Check their economic status in faction rankings screen. You could try to help them by sending lots of spies and some assassins to Hellas, try to cause revolts in Athenai and Sparte (they will likely go back to KH if they successfully rebel). Mind you, with those cities being in the same culture group as Makedonia and probably close to their capital, it'll be difficult to get civil unrest there high enough.

Yeah i was thinking something along that way... I really need to help them, becouse Macedon has really become a monster that started conquering europe, and the Seleucid's are giving me extreme headaches in the Levant.

I really need an ally! (i tried with pontus and the getai but they are 2 weak to match the 2 superpowers)

[overweightninja]

1) Sorry I don't know

2) I think its a case of dodgy RTW AI and the BI.exe. Since I've been using BI I have encountered behaviour like this many times, notably KH constantly attacking Taras as the Romani, AS constantly attacking Rhodos as the KH, the Romani constantly attacking Korinthos as the Maks, among a few others. As far as practical advice goes, crush the faction that's doing it to you?
Sorry not sure what more you can do outside of the game itself.
I usually just use it as an excuse for training my armies and some of my junior (or bored) family members.

3) IIRC Rhodos is usually the largest military port for the KH (and I remember upgrading the port there to the maximum size in one of my own campaigns), but as others have said if they can't afford the ships that counts for nothing. It's a bit gamey but have you considered conquering then donating them a province or two somewhere quiet on the mainland via the diplomacy screen as a starter?


Cheers

[Tellos Athenaios]

1) He likely got adopted. Is hardcoded, and often occurs with AI factions with very few settlements but with some armies and without sufficient family members to lead all of them.

(RTW has some sort of formula to determine how many family members each faction should have, based on number of territories AFAICT. The more adoption possibilities the faction has the quicker this 'equilibrum' can be achieved, and the AI doesn't appear to reject adoption candidates at all, no matter how retarded they may be.)

2) The naval activity of BI is not in any way particularly improved over that of plain RTW. Improved here means something different than "higher frequency": it means that the transporting of troops and launching of assaults makes sense in each particular instance (well in most of them) and that it occurs frequently enough to be reckoned with. If you take your time to monitor this with the standard RTW 1.5. exe you will see the naval activity in EB1 is actually pretty good & sophisticated.

But it is only when the factions still have a navy to speak of - something most of them can't afford. Still the Carthies and Ptolies appear to be a good example of how it can be done... So you will only see it in the first few years, before the various naval battles have diminished the AI navies.

What BI did, AFAIK, was to simply increase the AI taste for naval invasions up to a point where it got a bit thick. It's a known issue that factions will no matter the reality of the situation try and keep trying till they die to take one particular goal across the sea; and then continue to go on a land-war as if the navy wasn't such a good idea after all...

3) Any faction can. AFAIK it is not really limitted by faction but by hidden resource where ships can be built. But it takes considerable time and money to do so; regardless where you want to build them.