A few thoughts on the expansion capabilities of the northern european factions

[Kongeslask]

Naturally.

Foot

It would be interesting to hear more details of what you have in mind. In reference to the OP, will it be possible to change your Pritanoi, Sweboz or whatnot into a kind of polity that could plausibly expand into a far-reaching empire?

On a more historical note, is such political changes at all plausible for the time period? Could the tribal factions have turned into more permanent states with greater military and technological sophistication in the time period, assuming good leadership and an otherwise favourable situation?

[Macilrille]

On a more historical note, is such political changes at all plausible for the time period? Could the tribal factions have turned into more permanent states with greater military and technological sophistication in the time period, assuming good leadership and an otherwise favourable situation?

No.

However, the game is an abstraction and despite no central organisation, the germans (represented by the Sweboz) was a people/culture and did threaten the Gauls and Romans, eventually overrunning the WRI. Still without being one centralised state. The first Germanic Empire if you wish to speak of such would probably have been what the Franks built on and with the ruins of the WRI in Gaul.

EBII cannot mirror RL exactly, so we have to make do with an abstraction within the limitations of the engine and indeed current computers ;-)

[Foot]

It would be interesting to hear more details of what you have in mind.

It certainly would, but you'll have to wait. Previews are the proper place to preview things.

Foot

[Macilrille]

If I may elaborate on Foot's brief post. The reasons that we do not share everything with the community in general are:

1. We want to present a finished product for you, you do not buy a car or house one part at at time either if you know what I mean. It would spoil the joy of the end product and it would loose its appeal.
2. If we shared everything with the community in general, everything would be discussed by the community in general, it would muddy things and take time, for; as you know, opinions are like ars... well you know- everybody has one. So again, we will present you a finished product that you can like or dislike. However, if you wish to contribute there is a thread in the stickies where you can apply for the Team to help us out.

I am sorry, but we cannot and will not reveal more. I hope you understand and is not too upset by that policy.

[oudysseos]

It would be interesting to hear more details of what you have in mind. In reference to the OP, will it be possible to change your Pritanoi, Sweboz or whatnot into a kind of polity that could plausibly expand into a far-reaching empire?

On a more historical note, is such political changes at all plausible for the time period? Could the tribal factions have turned into more permanent states with greater military and technological sophistication in the time period, assuming good leadership and an otherwise favourable situation?

This is a serious question: the tribal factions that were referenced in fact did not turn into Imperial-ready states within the time period of EB and indeed for much longer afterwards. I'm not in favour of historical determinism, yet it seems clear that the kind of centralised, literate, urban society that is most likely to produce a world conqueror is not something that be plausibly posited for many of our "barbarian" factions.

So, what to do? We want to make these factions as historically accurate as possible, which, it seems, may include making them pretty much incapable of replicating the Roman Empire. But then, what to do with them? What constitutes victory for the Pritanoi, when in real life, 300 years after the start of the game, no native British tribe had succeeded in unifying the Isles or indeed even a significant portion of them?


We do have plans for all of this, of course, but the fundamental issue will always remain. The Roman, Macedonians, Carthaginians, and Parthians can believably make a stab at a large empire: for the other factions this is harder to envisage.