Best Campaign

[Quirinus]

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.

On-topic, lol, your faction leader likes it in the butt. Still much better than my faction heir in one of my Egyptian games though. He has the trait 'Arse'. xD Is it just me, or do the Egyptians get these 'Minion' traits more often?

Doros the Brave doesn't sound too bad...... It sounds better than 'the Avenger', at any rate. :P I only got a 'the Great' epithet once when I was playing the Parthians, and were owning the infantry-heavy factions against overwhelming odds. But then it quickly got replaced by 'the Horseman'. I don't understand the logic of these things. One would think that being called 'the Great' would be the ultimate title.

[Telys]

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.

On-topic, lol, your faction leader likes it in the butt. Still much better than my faction heir in one of my Egyptian games though. He has the trait 'Arse'. xD Is it just me, or do the Egyptians get these 'Minion' traits more often?

Doros the Brave doesn't sound too bad...... It sounds better than 'the Avenger', at any rate. :P I only got a 'the Great' epithet once when I was playing the Parthians, and were owning the infantry-heavy factions against overwhelming odds. But then it quickly got replaced by 'the Horseman'. I don't understand the logic of these things. One would think that being called 'the Great' would be the ultimate title.

I'm not sure exactly what it does, but i do know it makes it so brittania starts only in britannia so it takes a little while for them to expand, and it gives other factions like carthage, the seleucids etc a little extra push so they dont die so quickly. It also adds three settlemnts, one in asia minor for the seleucids, and two for carthage, one next to the city of carthage and the small island above caralis has a city. There are some other little changes that dont effect too much of the game.

The last couple of julii campaigns ive played, every single family member I had that stayed in a settlement for more than a couple years got the minion trait. I got angry so I quit the game. I've had the great title twice. Once in a greek campaign and one in a scipii campaign. In the scipii one I got it right before the general died.

[mrdun]

I have just started a Bosphoran campaign on Roma Surrectum. I'm not sure how I can expand as my economy is rather poor by RS standards and I am surrounded by free people with 1/2 stacks outside each settlement. I am trying to build up my economy so I can compete in troop numbers. I think it wil only take one settlement then I will be rather rich.

[Telys]

I have just started a Bosphoran campaign on Roma Surrectum. I'm not sure how I can expand as my economy is rather poor by RS standards and I am surrounded by free people with 1/2 stacks outside each settlement. I am trying to build up my economy so I can compete in troop numbers. I think it wil only take one settlement then I will be rather rich.

I've never played RS so I can't really give my opinion on the subject. If you post screens shots I might be able to share my ideas on your situation.

[Quirinus]

I'm not sure exactly what it does, but i do know it makes it so brittania starts only in britannia so it takes a little while for them to expand, and it gives other factions like carthage, the seleucids etc a little extra push so they dont die so quickly. It also adds three settlemnts, one in asia minor for the seleucids, and two for carthage, one next to the city of carthage and the small island above caralis has a city. There are some other little changes that dont effect too much of the game.

I see..... I was wondering why a small part of Numidia (the territory) near Africa had a different colour.

By the way, in your screenshot, is Caralis owned by Dacia? I just noticed, but it seemed a little incredible-- I've never seen Dacia with any overseas settlements.

Barbarossa82, could you link me to that mod you're talking about? I can't seem to find it.

I got my faction leader killed on Rhodes in my Macedonian campaign yesterday-- by wooden wall defenses no less! How luckless can you get?

I'm starting an Armenia mission soon. Haven't got the urge to play the Eastern factions for a while, but I was inspired by Barbarossa82's AAR.

[Barbarian]

I have decided to start a new campaign with Greek cities. This one will be unusual. Usually, Parthia gets destroyed early in the game, and I have almost never played against AI Parthia. So, I changed the files to give them 1,5 million denarii (!!! ). I hope this will be enough for them to invade egypt and take over the rest of the world. I have also set some important rules for myself:

1) No, world conquest. I will only take Athens from rebels and Corinth from Macedon. I will probably give away Syracuse to Scipii early in the game, to prevent unending fights around that settlement. Not decided wether I should take Kydonia and Halicarnassus, your comments needed.
After doing it, I will stop expanding and ensure peace with all factions. I will only fight defensive battles, and try to prevent war for as long as possible.
While other factions will be fighting their greedy wars, I will establish prosperity and growth in my settlements. So - I will have a small state with few cities, but it will be a paragon for other factions in Cultural level and set standards for civilized world.
I will only consider taking a new settlement, when all my former settlements will have reached the highest level and when all the possible buildings will have been built. But the settlement must be taken from enemies - no invasions of neutral lands.
2) My intention is also to act a lot via diplomacy to keep the factions of hellenic culture allied, or at least neutral.
3) Military. Minimum or no use of mercenaries or low-tier troops and levies. I will have a small but elite army, form the finest soldiers, hardened warriors in the best armour available.
Spartan hoplites must be trained only in Sparta, nowhere else.
4) Must work on the traits of family members, try to maintain a clear Greek, especially Spartan, bloodline, meaning no adoption. Faction leader, as well as any other family member must be an example for other troops in the battle. Fight in the first lines, not fearing glorious death: ask nothing of your soldiers, that you are not ready to do yourself.

All of this should make a very challenging campaign. I don't mind ending the campaign in the streets of Athens or Sparta, dieing under 1000 Parthian arrows, as I have never lost any campaign yet in any of the total war games..

PS: I just hope that Parthians will send a diplomat to me with a message: "Be afraid. Sparta will burn to the ground! The thousand nations of Parthian empire descend upon you!"

[mrdun]

Only have your daughters marry men with Greek names e.g. -_ _ _ of Athens

I always like a mess around campaign. My current is with Julii, no superfaction.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hullo Quirinus

...could you link me to that mod you're talking about? I can't seem to find it.

You can find the latest version of the Barbarossa's Vanilla Balancing modification (v5) here. The thread in question also contains two other similar modifications by Barbarossa82 for R:TW's expansions - BI and Alexander.

[Barbarian]

A little update. Everything goes as planned. I have taken Athens and Corinth, have a plan to take Kydonia, but I won't attack Halicarnassus. I managed to prevent war with Scipii by giving Syracuse to them and leaving Sicily. I also got one extra army (the garrison of Syracuse) this way, which I used to defeat Macedonian reinforcements. I have decided to stop expanding now, but Macedonians do not accept ceasefire. Thats not a big problem - all their armies march somewhere north, to Dacia, it seems that the war with me doesn't seem important to them. And when romans will arrive, they will forget about me completely. I will just wait till their diplomat comes with the proposal of ceasefire.
Parthians are not doing much with their 1 500 000 denarii, they are too passive and their armies, which are quite huge though, simply wander around. However, they are wandering more and more closely to Seleucid towns
But the real reason I made this post was to show you a rare sight - king of greek cities and king of Macedon meet in battle to fight a heroic duel:





guess who won?

[Quirinus]

Whoa, you modded in Spartans as your general's bodyguards? Nice. Doesn't that mean that you lose your 'rally troops' ability, though?

[Barbarian]

No, but spartans, who are in general's bodyguard unit can't swich of their phalanx formation. But that is not a big problem.
I messed it up a bit, so also Macedonians and Seleucids have spartan bodyguards. However, it is not so bad, because now AI doesn't loose it's generals so soon - pikemen are a defensive unit, while cavalry is offensive.

[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?