Post your EB empires!

[Ferdiad]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My Empire is falling apart because of the rioting and rebellions.

[Arjos]

255 BC lol! Sorry had to post this XD

[Ferdiad]

It's 0 turn with big movement...

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Good lord. Do you fight like 25 battles a turn?

[Fluvius Camillus]

Good lord. Do you fight like 25 battles a turn?

If you blitz you will end up better, an oversized AI monster which grew too big is far worse. I'd rather blitz too than face countless Seleukid fullstacks.

~Fluvius

[QuintusSertorius]

This is precisely why I don't play on VH campaign difficulty. Fighting ten identikit battles every single turn is more like a chore than fun.

[Megas Methuselah]

This is precisely why I don't play on VH campaign difficulty. Fighting ten identikit battles every single turn is more like a chore than fun.

Whenever Quintus posts something, I always find myself agreeing with him.

Anyways, my game:

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Arche Massaliotai, 175 BC. It's ruled by a branch of the Ptolemaic family I bribed over from the Yellow Death a few generations ago. The royal family itself is Macedonian, and all the other FM's are Hellenes, aside from a couple Arverni's. I'm actually at 165 BC right now, so this pic is kinda old, but I still have the same lands except that most of Gaul is hellenized now.

[d'Arthez]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My Empire is falling apart because of the rioting and rebellions.

Even without any modifications it might be just doable, if a player is willing to exploit AI stupidity to the max (especially Arcade battles, spies, missile attacks and atrocious defending while sallying). No cheats, (money, move_char or auto_win) have been used.

This is how far I have come. The sole purpose of the game is to see how easy it is to conquer the whole world, allowing the use of every exploit possible to achieve said goal. Not sure if I'll allow moving of capitals to minimise civil disorder problems.

Still need to get Ak-Ink, before the turn is completed. Next turn I will add at least Athens and Chalkis to my empire.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Paltmull]

You did all that in 16 turns?! But... how?! o__o

[Ferdiad]

I personally tried to powergame with all Triarii stacks etc.. and with draining all the mercanies in the region to allow maximum blitzing.

[d'Arthez]

As I wrote in my post, exploiting every bit of AI stupidity.

I tried the all triarii stacks in the past, but it is not so effective, since it takes a long time to build the necessary infrastructure. Accensi (/ Ioasatae) and spy spamming is a lot quicker.

For instance on turn 1 you can easily take Bononia, if you have the "luck" that a spy opens the gates there. Storm the town. Arcade battles (needed for unlimited ammo), and letting your Accensi pelt the troops before mopping the remaining defenders up with whatever you let tag along (Asina from Ariminum, and I think the Hastati and Principes from the army that is stationed in Arretium at game start), will do the rest. Usually only 3 units, often depleted remain at the town square. Needless to say that such Accensi units end up with gold chevrons. If you are lucky, there is no cavalry left, so you can pelt the remaining defenders and run away when they come after you. If there is cavalry remaining, you need to draw them out, and slaughter them with your own heavy infantry or cavalry.

Still quite difficult, since Accensi have a very poor range. Iaosatae are much better. As an added bonus to this strategy, it is a lot cheaper as well, since Accensi cost a whooping 336 Mnai to train, and 84 maintenance / turn.

I took Ambrakia with Asina, one unit of Curepos, and one unit of Accensi. It was defended by 2,500 troops, so I was outnumbered close to 9:1. Just need a lot of patience to deal with the AI controlled happy cannon fodder.

Cheap? Undoubtedly. The way EB should be played? No. But as I said, if powergaming is your thing, you should be able to produce something similar.

[Paltmull]

Ahaaa, unlimited ammo. That explains it.

[QuintusSertorius]

Ahaaa, unlimited ammo. That explains it.

I don't get it, what's the point in playing on arcade mode? That makes for tedious battles of attrition.

[d'Arthez]

Point was to see how bad the AI is. May as well up the ante, and see how quickly one can conquer the entire map (minus Terhazza of course) if one exploits everything to the max. Different game all together. The fun then is not in role playing, but in achieving WC by a certain date.

Note: this is not meant as a criticism of the EB team. I really feel they have done the best job they could do with what they had available to them.

I feel that one has to come up with a list of house rules, to make play more enjoyable. I tried many, but none had results to my liking. You need dozens of in battle rules as well, since the battle AI in is not the best. To the point that you really wonder how much fun it is to actually engage in these battles as well.

I am seriously tempted to only run auto-calc campaigns. The few I have done have been much more fun than regular campaigns. They certainly take care of any chance of blitzing. That way the AI retains a slight edge, due to free command stars, and its sheer stupidity in battle is not a constant source of annoyance. You may have some surprising wins and losses. A bit more historical in a sense, since the outcome of military engagements sometimes yielded surprising results as well.

As much as I admire your playing style QS (as evidenced in this thread), you have to lose intentionally to get into the positions where you are. I feel that if one has to do badly intentionally to experience difficulties and serious problems, it takes the fun out of whatever challenge one sets.