Post your EB empires!

[QuintusSertorius]

I suspect you like starting new migration campaigns. What are your victory conditions that you have set for yourself in this game? I can't imagine a bosporan kingdom would feasibly want to expand much more than the circumference of the pontic sea. Could be a short game. I guess they could aim to control hellas proper by the end also.

I'm certainly experimenting with them. I've had this one on the go for a while, but on the back burner while I was playing the Kyrenaian one.

Not sure I have much of a goal beyond the circumference of the Pontic Sea. I might try to make the Sauromatae a client state (certainly don't want to be wandering out onto the Steppes). As much as anything, I want to try out my army formation to fight horse archers.

[Blxz]

I'm certainly experimenting with them. I've had this one on the go for a while, but on the back burner while I was playing the Kyrenaian one.

Not sure I have much of a goal beyond the circumference of the Pontic Sea. I might try to make the Sauromatae a client state (certainly don't want to be wandering out onto the Steppes). As much as anything, I want to try out my army formation to fight horse archers.

Would you ever consider playing online? I'd love to test out your army comp vs a swarm of horsearchers =)

[QuintusSertorius]

Would you ever consider playing online? I'd love to test out your army comp vs a swarm of horsearchers =)

Thanks for the offer, but it's not really my thing.

[Blxz]

Thanks for the offer, but it's not really my thing.

Too bad. Still, keep us informed of how your campaign proceeds. I've never bothered with a migration campaign before but I must say they intrigue me.

[QuintusSertorius]

Too bad. Still, keep us informed of how your campaign proceeds. I've never bothered with a migration campaign before but I must say they intrigue me.

I haven't posted another update yet, because visually nothing has happened (it's now about 253BC). Been doing more building of economy-boosting installations and slowly putting my army together as my fiscal power increases.

I'm looking desirously at Trapezous as well as Olbia, but the former is now held by Pontos. Who have three full stacks stomping around the area, and Sinope only has a minimal garrison. For the moment they seem to be ignoring Sinope (perhaps because it recently upgraded to stone walls), but it's only a matter of time, I think. By then I hope to have taken Olbia and thus my army be freed up to sail across the Pontic Sea to defend Paphlagonia and liberate Pontos Parailos.

I need to change the name of my royal family. It's currently "Kyrenaios", a leftover from the other game but "Aiakides" isn't much better.

I'd highly recommend giving a migation campaign a go. Epeiros are the easiest faction to do that with (doesn't materially affect the rest of the game by moving them, huge expansion region and access to a lot of Hellenic troops all over the place). Lots of option too; Massalia, Syrakousai, Kyrene, Pergamon, Bosphoran Kingdom, for just the major ones.

[QuintusSertorius]

250BC and after a battle on the steppes and a big siege, Olbia is mine:



Pictured is the Bosphoran army immediately post-siege. There was basically a full stack in Olbia, though about six units of horse archers were out wandering around the province. Fought them first, then besieged what was left (Sarmatian Noble, a few more horse-archers, a unit of Scythian foot archers, a couple of Pontic spearmen, some Akontistai and about five units of levy hoplites). All in all, I think my new model army survived quite well considering they were under a hail of arrows a lot of the time.

The world in 250BC:

[Blxz]

I always thought the KH would be a better faction to move for those migrations? I don't really care about affecting the game. After all, some rebellions can easily simulate the extent of the KH in greece. I am more concerned with troop choice. Is epiros as flexible in the regions as the KH?

[QuintusSertorius]

I always thought the KH would be a better faction to move for those migrations? I don't really care about affecting the game. After all, some rebellions can easily simulate the extent of the KH in greece. I am more concerned with troop choice. Is epiros as flexible in the regions as the KH?

Rebellions are a pretty weak simulation of anything, really, look how quickly they all get gobbled up if you do nothing to aid them. I add money to the Eleutheroi fairly regularly, and even then they're pretty inconsistent about boosting their garrisons. Not to mention the rarity of somewhere turning rebel of it's own accord (as Side did recently in my game after AS took it off the Ptolemies).

Epeiros is pretty flexible (check out the Recruitment Viewer, they have access to most of the Greek regional and faction troops in many places, less so their own), but a big advantage for me is their cavalry FMs. Means I never need to recruit heavy cavalry, whereas with KH's infantry FMs I would.

[Blxz]

Didn't even think about the FM's. I'll give it a shot sometime. I just feel that its always going to turn into an epiros game after a couple of years. The only way to really avoid that is to avoid their area... I'll try it out and then come back and complain some =)

[Tanit]

On bi.exe, without any mods such as Force Diplomacy, how would one migrate Saba to Kirtan at the start of the game? ( other than the boring old fashioned way of marching there)

[Epimetheus]

One would either have to modify the descr_strat to give it to them from the beginning, or use the move_character cheat to teleport their armies there.

[Fluvius Camillus]

A little update.

For some reason I don't trust the Qarthadast... No worries, I anticipated this so a new fullstack is just leaving Antiocheia!



Aristos (see the army in the pic has now landed and taken Sparte! He will continue to crush the Makedonian-Epeirote Alliance. Epeirote is trying to take Roma, while the Romani themselves are preoccupied with taking Numantia and Arctaunon.

~Fluvius

[Tanit]

Just started a Pontos game, the Neo-Persian empire. I blitzed As early on out of Anatolia, took Mytilene from Makedon before making peace with them, accidentily started a war with the Ptolemaioi over Halikarnassos and kicked them out of Anatolia, now I am their ally. Still allied with Hayasdan, Baktria and Pahlava, they all sided with me when I declared war on AS. As won't take a peace offer because they border me, but I'm not at war with anyone else so now I'm just building up my economy, planning on taking Pergamon next and lavishing the province in an effort to use ancient Troy as a symbol of my defiance to Greek masters. The first image is the aftermath of my last battle against the Ptolemaioi, they sallied, where my faction heir besieged Tarsos with only three Hoplitai Haploi, two half-strength Pantodapoi Phalangitai, one unit of mercenary Galatian shortswordsmen and 1/5 strength unit of Cappadocian cavalry to supplement his bodyguard. The enemy had one sphendonetai, 2 klerouchoi phalangitai, 1 hippakontistai and a whole load of akontistai and pantodapoi. All full strength. The second picture is my empire so far.

[Fluvius Camillus]

That the Qarthadast preview is done doesn't mean the EB team has time to relax!!!

Looks like a good start Tanit, I see good old Ariobarzanes is doing fine! Did you play with them before? You didn't feel like taking Salamis before the peace talks? And what about Rhodos? If you are still at war with the KH (because of Sinope), would you try to take it from them? And finally, did the Bosphoron allies already cry for help? Or don't you feel like going that way?

The funny thing is I tried the exact opposite of what usally happens with Pontos. I sided with the Seleukids when the allies broke away. That way the AS remained my ally and Hayasdan became neutral towards me. I used one army to take Side (I left Tarsos for the Seleukids). The other starting army went towards the Hayasdan. They took Ani-Kamah first and then attacked Armavir head on, with the final troops I could take Mtskheta and eliminate the Hai. I had almost no units left.

But these new provinces gave me the economic recovery I needed. I slowly came in positive numbers and finally squeezed out an army to take Kotais and Trapezous. Later I also took Sinope and by the time the Arche Seleukeia betrayed me I was ready to meet them.

While I was lucky that the AS didnt attack me right away, this was a fun way to play it and can work too.

~Fluvius

[Tanit]

I've played it both ways on VH/VH before, building up and keeping the Seleucid alliance, and taking them out early as I did this time. Right now I'm only playing on M/M for a nice relaxing game. I have not attacked Sinope yet, and thus have not gone to war with them yet. Bosporus hasn't said a word to me yet. And I didn't have a fleet to take Salamis with. Currently the Koinon are doing really well since I kicked Macedon out of Anatolia and Epeiros took Pella. The Koinon have taken Korinth and as such haven't built any additional armies on Rhodos, meaning I have some time to prepare to attack that island if I want. I'm also experimenting with doing a bit of roleplaying. I have restored Sardis and Ipsos as the 'independant' kingdoms of Lydia and Phrygia while Kappadocia is royal territory and Halikarnassos and Mytilene are philhellenic satrapies. Side is becoming a Persian satrapy and Tarsos is going to be part of my royal territory.

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

Here's the Carthage that I built after a few weeks of labor. I spread myself out all over the place toward the beginning, but I eventually connected most of my territories by the end. I still haven't reached the victory conditions for some reason..it says I still need to raid Kirtan and a couple other north african cities, but I've already captured them, so..

I went to war with Ptolemaioi fairly early on. After capturing Egypt, Lusotannen and Romani attacked me immediately, and over the next 50+ years we slowly fought it out.

Macedon became the rival superpower to me and the strongest AI faction in the game. They eventually got worn down attacking the Sweboz and my troops at the Bosporan Kingdom, and are pretty weak now.

One thing I noticed when playing this campaign - I realized why the Romani always start off strong and then get stuck later on. In my game, they were steamrolling at the beginning but then ran into the impossibly strong rebel armies and generals around Eburonem. They ended up spending the next 20+ years pouring all their stacks into Erzurum and getting destroyed, and they ended up falling apart.

[Tanit]

You still have to take Sidon. and possibly those two Epeirote Italian territories. The raiding just means you have to have owned the territory once by the time you finish the rest of the victory conditions. Don't worry, it will count later.

[IPoseTheQuestionYouReturnTheAnswer]

Oh, you're right..I forgot all about Sidon, way over there. Well..time for a sea voyage!

[Fluvius Camillus]

You still have to take Sidon. and possibly those two Epeirote Italian territories. The raiding just means you have to have owned the territory once by the time you finish the rest of the victory conditions. Don't worry, it will count later.

He owns the Epeirote territories, because Epeiros is his protectorate.

Nice empire btw, it seems that the Romani finally succeeded in taking Eburonem.

~Fluvius

[QuintusSertorius]

Didn't even think about the FM's. I'll give it a shot sometime. I just feel that its always going to turn into an epiros game after a couple of years. The only way to really avoid that is to avoid their area... I'll try it out and then come back and complain some =)

It's not an explicit house rule as such, but I tend to avoid their homelands anyway. Haven't gone anywhere near them in four different migrated campaigns. To be honest I've never played Epeiros "straight" either. Being clear about your own sphere of influence helps, I think.

[Unintended BM]

233 BC, sorry for the huge image.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Guess who I am.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Sweboz

[Celtic_Punk]

Orro, I bribed him from the Adeui, he fought and destroyed countless armies of romans and aduei with himself and 400 leuce epos. (only 100 of which survived the sacking of rome) He pushed into italy, sacking 3 different cities on the road to Rome... the money made from said sacking and slaves built many new homes and services and schools for the people Gaul. The Averni nobles awarded Orro's new found courage and loyalty to the tribe with by voting him the selected superior. He is now King!


The adeui have allied with the stinking romans, so have the sweboz, and so have the iberians. Our only "ally" is Carthage, through neutrality. Epiros swaps between being a client state and rebelling against their roman masters. Whats happening in the east i really havent been paying much attention.

I've been holding back from expanding outside of Gaul. Want to keep things in the realm of historical possiblitity... probably have broken that line already :P

[Unintended BM]

Yes. I'm not sure how you could tell so fast.

Anyways, it's a really really slow game I've got going there. Basically, I'm waiting until I build up a good amount before I go and conquer. I also wait until I get a really good governor before I conquer another city. Normally I blitz the gauls and maybe the Romans in my Sweboz games, but this way is fun too.

Also, German Pikemen are fun. Never really used them before.

[Fluvius Camillus]

Yes. I'm not sure how you could tell so fast.

Anyways, it's a really really slow game I've got going there. Basically, I'm waiting until I build up a good amount before I go and conquer. I also wait until I get a really good governor before I conquer another city. Normally I blitz the gauls and maybe the Romans in my Sweboz games, but this way is fun too.

Also, German Pikemen are fun. Never really used them before.

It was quite easy, you took the rebel city east of Rugoz, the city on the Amber route. Ascaucalis perhaps?

There is nothing weird going on with the city but the AI seems to avoid that city like the plague. It would be one of my first moves too when I should play Sweboz. I have NEVER seen any AI faction take that town.

~Fluvius

[Unintended BM]

Oh. There are some rich regions around there, I don't know why everyone always says to avoid the Sweboz homeland when in other campaigns, a good portion of them have mines and are coastal.

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Yeah, Sweboz AI NEVER takes that region even if only 1 unit guards it. Made for a pretty easy guess.

[QuintusSertorius]

236BC in my Bosphoran game:



Yes, in 12 years since the last one, I've taken one settlement. I was provoked, the Sauromatae attacked Olbia, so in retaliation I raided one of their other settlements and took Tanais off them. My army is in that fort next to the capital, ready to move if they should start things up again. Given the full stack garrison I can see in the nearest settlement, I don't think it's far off.

I'm also planning to take Trapezous, though Pontos are pretty weak right now so I've been staying my hand. What I'd like to do is recruit a new army and have a go at the Seleukids (taking Mazaka and giving it to Pontos, for example), but I'm not quite sure how I'd afford the upkeep.

The world is thus:



I just did some FD to roll back the Romans (who'd gone off into Gaul again) and take the Karthadastim desert provinces off them. It seems adding a lot of money to the Eleutheroi at regular intervals is having some effect on their durability, which is good.

[moonburn]

Oh. There are some rich regions around there, I don't know why everyone always says to avoid the Sweboz homeland when in other campaigns, a good portion of them have mines and are coastal.

you clearly are at home fighting batles in forests with the hellenic (carthie) phalanxs or the romans formations where your missiles are almost useless since you can´t see the enemies (ambush mode) where you get surprised and you´re units are just 1 or 2 moral points away from being routed completly by barbarians using clubs and smashing your elite armoured like if they where pansies wearing pink

invading germany is fighting forest batles against the experts of forest batles for lands who can´t and won´t pay up the garrisons you´ll have to keep much more the armies and resources you´ll have to deploy to get them (best chance at germany ? take over the coast cities and be happy with it )

[Unintended BM]

AI Sweboz is overrated. I took them out with ease on one of my Roman games, and on an Aedui game. I've never tried it with a Hellenic faction, but common sense against the AI goes a long way, so I don't think it'd be that difficult. Plus, I have the giant tree fix where there aren't oversized trees anymore, so it makes it a bit easier.