My Roman campaign

[Apex]

Hi I play Romans VH/VH.
As you can see I take my time, no steam rolling. I have advanced very slowly and systematicly, focusing on building my economy and defending my borders. I really enjoy this campaign, I've gained many experience for my troops, all by fighting on battle maps. No Autoresolves. Almost all of my cities have governors with management between 8-10 and many positive traits and ancillaries. All cities are on Very high taxes.
It's far away from being called an Empire but I'm on the best way.

This mod really unlocked a lot of options in battle tactics and cities micromanagement the game offers. I enjoyed to keep my armies a bit underpowered to come up with new tactics how to win a Heroic battles.

Last 5 years I've been fighting Greeks, which rule the world now. But they are getting beaten pretty badly. I've just completly pushed them off the mainland Greece and Macedonia. However this doesn't seem to affect them much since they have a huge Empire and keep going east-south.

With Gauls it was pretty fun. After I pushed them off the Italy I stoped at Alps and let them grow and improve. Then came maybe 2 decades of constant attacking but they got badly beaten every time. Now it's been roughly 10 years they stoped attacking. They just gave up. All of their northern cities are on max size, they have several full stacks but they just don't attack anymore. Got scared??

It's been more ridiculous with Carthaginians. Since I pushed them off the Sicilly very early on the game. I took all their islands but they never came back to attack me, never launched a counter attack!? They focus all their energy on Iberia where all their armies are.

Share your Empires and experience.

[Praetorian121]

Nice AAR.

[Mogan]

Holy crap, what's up with the Greeks! Also, is that Illyria occupying Dacia, while Dacia is in Gaul? I've never seen anything like it!

[Apex]

Holy crap, what's up with the Greeks! Also, is that Illyria occupying Dacia, while Dacia is in Gaul? I've never seen anything like it!

Yep, Greeks went completly mental they are insanely rich and can afford a lot of full stacks. In five years of my campaign against Greece homeland I deployed 4 newly recruited legions and most of them are in silver chevron experience by now. I fought 11 Heroic battles. It's been really nice.

Thracians (Dacia) was doing pretty well early on game. They stretched all the way from balkan to Gauls. Bet when Illyrians allied with Greece and destroyed Macedonia they turned onto Thracia and this small poor region is all what left for Tracians.

[Boom S]

Apex, nice campaign. get us some snaps of your battles when you fight the next large one. would like to see those.
cheers.

[Quinn Inuit]

Definitely an unusual game. I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge, and welcome to the boards!

I'm surprised the Greeks did that well, but I'm not displeased with the overall disposition of regions otherwise. Definitely need a trade nerf, though. The next version will be more balanced.

How's the composition of the Greek stacks? Is the AI producing reasonably balanced armies even at this stage of the game?

[Boom S]

you sound like a concerned father whose son isn't doing as well as hoped in college.

[Apex]

Apex, nice campaign. get us some snaps of your battles when you fight the next large one. would like to see those.
cheers.

I'll do some following days.

[JaNuZ99]

woah that is a cool campaign, and on vh/vh no less, pretty cool.

[Apex]

Definitely an unusual game. I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge, and welcome to the boards!

I'm surprised the Greeks did that well, but I'm not displeased with the overall disposition of regions otherwise. Definitely need a trade nerf, though. The next version will be more balanced.

How's the composition of the Greek stacks? Is the AI producing reasonably balanced armies even at this stage of the game?

The Greek armies are almost exclusively HI phlnx, very few missile and almost no cavalry. I've fought battles against 20 phlnx units!! Very nice heroic victories.

The reason why the Greeks are so succesfull is that I moded unit_descr file and deleted light_spears, short_pike from all Greeks units and added swords as secondary weapon. So now they fight as phalanx with longer pikes (but not very long), 3 rows pointing forward. Sorry if you think I am ruining your work to make it more realistic but Greeks using only light_spears suffered penalties when fighting other infantry and were so underpowered that I did't need elite soldiers to beat their Elite hoplites or Athenians or even Spartans. Even when playing VH. I just wanted them to use their swords (as they would have in real) when engaged from flank or rear. As well I increased price and upkeep for my Legionaries since they are hugely overpowered. But they were in real, I know. That's why I keep only 5-6 units of them in each legion.

[Caesar Augustus]

Nice campaign

I'm a bit concerned by your epic treasury though, but I believe we're going to have a similar economic system to FOE (in that some buildings will have both positive and negative economic effects), which should help with this sort of thing.

Are you playing the latest version (3.5.3)? I'd assume so, but thought it worth checking.

Quinn - for the record, the Greeks are doing very well in my campaign, but are throwing skirmishers and thureophoroi at me with a couple of units (literally 2/3 per full stack) of hoplites. Is there a way we can get the AI to have just a few more per army? I know that for economic reasons hoplite use was diminishing during our time period, but surely they still formed the core of a Greek city state's army?

[Quinn Inuit]

The Greek armies are almost exclusively HI phlnx, very few missile and almost no cavalry. I've fought battles against 20 phlnx units!! Very nice heroic victories.

That's reasonable, given the AI personality. What's the normal/elite hoplite balance, though?

The reason why the Greeks are so succesfull is that I moded unit_descr file and deleted light_spears, short_pike from all Greeks units and added swords as secondary weapon. So now they fight as phalanx with longer pikes (but not very long), 3 rows pointing forward. Sorry if you think I am ruining your work to make it more realistic but Greeks using only light_spears suffered penalties when fighting other infantry and were so underpowered that I did't need elite soldiers to beat their Elite hoplites or Athenians or even Spartans. Even when playing VH. I just wanted them to use their swords (as they would have in real) when engaged from flank or rear. As well I increased price and upkeep for my Legionaries since they are hugely overpowered. But they were in real, I know. That's why I keep only 5-6 units of them in each legion.

That's odd. A hoplite phalanx as-is should be able to take almost any non-Mac-phalanx unit in the game on head-on.

They'll only use swords properly if you give them the phalanx ability--shield wall is bugged in that regard. And we haven't given them phalanx for a reason that, TBH, I forget. That was one of the earliest major changes we made...might have been Candelarius, even. I guess there's a lot of demand for it...

Quinn - for the record, the Greeks are doing very well in my campaign, but are throwing skirmishers and thureophoroi at me with a couple of units (literally 2/3 per full stack) of hoplites. Is there a way we can get the AI to have just a few more per army? I know that for economic reasons hoplite use was diminishing during our time period, but surely they still formed the core of a Greek city state's army?

I think so. If the Greeks are doing well but not using hoplites, then either we've got hoplites overpriced or they've conquered a bunch of new regions and can recruit thureophoroi there, but not hoplites yet.

[Apex]

[QUOTE=Caesar Augustus;7748304]Nice campaign

I'm a bit concerned by your epic treasury though, but I believe we're going to have a similar economic system to FOE (in that some buildings will have both positive and negative economic effects), which should help with this sort of thing.

Well, my treasury is doing so well because I have superb governors in almost all cities. And teyt are on Very high taxes as well. Each family member spends his teenage in Rome where they gather traits and ancillaries. I carefully exchange ancillaries between family members based on their traits to make each member specialist for a particular city. In Syracuse for example I have a governor with +60% Trade (but on VH it's only half, I noticed) and 10 management. He adds 3000+ each turn. In one city with mines in Illyria I have a guy with +55% mininig + 8-10 management. And so on..

Are you playing the latest version (3.5.3)? I'd assume so, but thought it worth checking.
I'll check the version out.

[Apex]

[QUOTE=Quinn Inuit;7748561]That's reasonable, given the AI personality. What's the normal/elite hoplite balance, though?

Before I invaded Greece (Macedon) homeland the majority of their army were regular hoplites + some Athenians, Corinthinians and other better units. But since I conquered Athen and Sparta I face mostly Levy hopl. and eastern units like Persian phalangites, sparabara that can be recruited almost anywhere.. although there can be still found some regular hoplites. However on south-east in Egypt they have some stacks full of experienced Greek elite units. But it takes long time before I meet those.

[Apex]

That's odd. A hoplite phalanx as-is should be able to take almost any non-Mac-phalanx unit in the game on head-on.

They'll only use swords properly if you give them the phalanx ability--shield wall is bugged in that regard. And we haven't given them phalanx for a reason that, TBH, I forget. That was one of the earliest major changes we made...might have been Candelarius, even. I guess there's a lot of demand for it...

Hmmm,I guess it doesn't make you very happy but I really just wanted them to use those bloody swords. If I hadn't changed those light_spers they would have used swords immediatly when engaged. In that case it wouldn't be any phlnx fight at all. That's why I prolonged those pikes. As a result I probalby created a super faction?!Hmm?

[JaNuZ99]

you forgot the [/QUOTE] used to close the quotes Apex

[leemyster]

Very nice VH/VH all the way!

Even better is that it seems like your playing by some house rules e.g. having legions, not making your army too over powering etc. Respect.

Also, on VH/VH did you find that factions will just start a war with you with no reason e.g. egypt attacks rome even when rome has no presence east of italy

[Quinn Inuit]

Before I invaded Greece (Macedon) homeland the majority of their army were regular hoplites + some Athenians, Corinthinians and other better units. But since I conquered Athen and Sparta I face mostly Levy hopl. and eastern units like Persian phalangites, sparabara that can be recruited almost anywhere.. although there can be still found some regular hoplites. However on south-east in Egypt they have some stacks full of experienced Greek elite units. But it takes long time before I meet those.

O.K., that sounds decent, at least.

Hmmm,I guess it doesn't make you very happy but I really just wanted them to use those bloody swords. If I hadn't changed those light_spers they would have used swords immediatly when engaged. In that case it wouldn't be any phlnx fight at all. That's why I prolonged those pikes. As a result I probalby created a super faction?!Hmm?

Hey, play however you like. If you took away light spear and gave them spear instead, they'll be a little wonky in combat--spear is bugged.

Oh, of course! The secondary hp they have are balanced for non-phalanx units. If you gave them all phalanx, it's like giving them all two extra HP (by my calculations) in all auto-resolved fights. That's why they're stomping everyone. You have to remove two secondary hp from each unit to balance that out.

[Apex]

O.K., that sounds decent, at least.

Hey, play however you like. If you took away light spear and gave them spear instead, they'll be a little wonky in combat--spear is bugged.

Oh, of course! The secondary hp they have are balanced for non-phalanx units. If you gave them all phalanx, it's like giving them all two extra HP (by my calculations) in all auto-resolved fights. That's why they're stomping everyone. You have to remove two secondary hp from each unit to balance that out.

I took away light spear but I didn't add spear. There is nothing in attributes now, just NO. This gave them longer phlnx like spears or pikes (cca 3 m). They are not wonky at all. They are very well organized solid mass of pikemen. Probably not historicaly accurate but they can use their swords properly.

Regarding the HP's. I got to check it out. I hope it's not like thaaat

[Apex]

Very nice VH/VH all the way!

Even better is that it seems like your playing by some house rules e.g. having legions, not making your army too over powering etc. Respect.

Also, on VH/VH did you find that factions will just start a war with you with no reason e.g. egypt attacks rome even when rome has no presence east of italy

Exactly - rules. There are some indeed I keep in order to make the game even more enjoyable and challanging.
As you noticed all of my legions are roughly of the same composition.
I am not using too many legionaries since they are really powerfull.
I use my missiles only to wipe out AI's missile or in case I am heavily outnumbered for incediary fire.
I don't keep much cavalry as you can see. I use it only to fight AI's cavalry and to chase off missiles from my HI.
I prefer to outmaneveur and eventually outflank opponent with my infantry. In this way battles take more time and I enjoy them more. Again, only in case I am heavily outnumbered and all of my infantry (even light ones) are engaged or some of my units is getting badly beaten I use cav to charge enemy to the rear to "unlock" at least one of my infantry units.
And most importantly I dont'n hunt down routing troops. For some might sound strange but I want them to fight again and kill them when fighting not when routing.
Another very important thing is - my Generals. When I choose a family member to became a general it's based on his traits. Than I add important ancillaries. Every single general MUST have :
- a legion bearer +1 moral (most important have also Field army and Consular army)
- Priest of Mars +1 moral
- Chirurgeon +15 recovery rate (probably the most important)
and another ancillaries giving them mainly moral bonuses, extra hitpoints and command-but this is not that important since it's me who is in charge of command all the time.
All in all, my generals have + moral bonuses anywhere between 5 to 9. Really necessary for long battles.

VH difficulty - yeaah, all AIs just hate me. Haha