Are allies supposed to suck this bad?

[Asmodius]

I'm playing as Scipii in about 175 BC. Got Marian and everything. Prob is I've been helping brutii and julii with ALL MY STRENGTH since beginning of game!

Julii were like babies against gaul in the beginning so I launched massive campaign, gained them 5 provinces, all of northern italy below alps, and gave them back to julii via diplomats o.O

At this time brutii had maybe 1 province on greek mainland. They didnt stand a chance. I gave them about 5 regions aswell, all of Greece Proper and crete.

Now I did this so they can at least make a stand for a while, but they dont seem to hack it, I have 7-8 legions in the field now, all dedicated to repel the macedonian and gallic hordes whilst I try and see to it that the other families get some foothold! And I wanna go kill carthage.
I have one idea of why they dont expand and keep all their large full stack armies on mainland italy!!
I save alot, cause I get ctd'd quite often and it sucks when you spent the last hour battling the hordes for no use...
Does this affect it alot?
Is there any solution or will I have to babysit them until the game runs out?

[Ecclesiastes]

I have heard this a lot. This is the way the game is meant to be... challenging. I think lowering the difficulty of the game is the only solution.

[armchair caesar]

I am experiencing the same thing. I am playing as the Jullii and the Scippii and Bruttii are not making much progress. Each have managed to establish a foothold in Greece and Siciliy respectively, but that is it in 250 B.C.. They each have three or four stacks operating in their respective contested regions but neither have made any gains in a long time. I have thought about sending a legion or two to these areas as a relief force, but I must admit, given the cost of upkeep of a legion with no reward and the fact that these 'allies' will eventually be my enemies is not much incentive.

I guess I will wait several more turns to see if the situation changes and decide what to do.

[italiano]

strange. Lately I've been playing as the brutii (couple of campaigns for 5.0). Scipii don't need much help, just send them a stack for the first 5-10 turns. The only thing that really stops them on sicily is the greeks, so hold them off for a bit.

The julii are obviously the hardest to help. It's like they are programmed to NOT expand. Sure, they take segesta, but they always leave 2 full stacks in 3 of their starting cities, and half the time have a stack stuck in a fort. They usually just camp their armies near the border. It's also annoying that the senate doesn't help them protect the north east city, I guess it's hardcoded.

This was the thing I liked about diplomats, you could give your allies cities. The problem is, the easier you make it for your allies, the easier you make it for yourself in the short-midterm. The benefit would be a much harder civil war.

Anyway, helping out your allies stops you from blitzing and ruining the game. As the brutii, send a stack to scipii and one to the julii, and you don't have much for anything else. When the scipii are doing well (won't take them long), send the other stack to the julii. They can definately use both, as segesta and the northeast city are often besieged at the same time and won't be protected by the senate.

[lt1956]

Added diplomats back eh? Not good for gameplay in SPQR. Imagine if you only had one Roman faction I could see your complaints then. lol SPQR is an action packed mod, some dont fight battles and use autocalc, SPQR is not for those that play that way, you MUST fight every battle to really play SPQR. its designed with this in mind. Diplomats are flawed and cause the Player to exploit the AI (which the player will) its very hard to resist IF you have the option of making peace because you know the AI is stupid enough to except it. lol

SPQR is also not for everyone, its a hardcore battle mod, and its designed for Rome, and My style of Play, very few play like me so therefore people get mixed results.

Lt

[Asmodius]

Well I'm playing as scipii and I want my bloody epic civil war when the time comes!! Not fighting 2 stacks of hastati since they never moved out of capital city.. as for diplomats, I add them in build some and then reboot taking them away so I can give cities back. I see no other solution.

[Adler]

Doesnt get much easier as a unified Rome, I have lost two full legions on those usless ships trying to take sardinia & Corsica. Those massive Carthage ship fleets are Silver sword/shileded & have 6 bars experience that is with out mentioning that the Roman ships are 25% weaker off the bat? (Really baffeled by that?) I got kicked out of Scicily, & have taken all this time to get it back with massive looses; & have only managed to advance to the Po River & have not crossed the Hadriatic sea either.

I found you cant auto-resolve, all your generals die. Basically any battle I fight I need two full legions to make a dent with out rediculus losses & then have to try & hold it whilst those legions go back to my military cities to get re-stocked. She is certainly a lot harder than before... maybe almost too hard... I too have to do a lot of saving & move spies with my armies to try & avoid thos random full stacks of rebels that toast legions in the woods. I havent decided if I am enjoing myself yet...... but i am still playing....

[lt1956]

Then 6.0 will be something. I'm not going to lie, 6.0 will be HARD. ;-)

The patch, the map, new design, script, and SPQR setup make 6.0 a tough one.

Lt

[jegui]

Then 6.0 will be something. I'm not going to lie, 6.0 will be HARD. ;-)

The patch, the map, new design, script, and SPQR setup make 6.0 a tough one.

Lt

Goooooood! give us hell we need suffering... it's good for the soul

[MasterAdnin]

I'm playing as Scipii in about 175 BC. Got Marian and everything. Prob is I've been helping brutii and julii with ALL MY STRENGTH since beginning of game!

Julii were like babies against gaul in the beginning so I launched massive campaign, gained them 5 provinces, all of northern italy below alps, and gave them back to julii via diplomats o.O

At this time brutii had maybe 1 province on greek mainland. They didnt stand a chance. I gave them about 5 regions aswell, all of Greece Proper and crete.

Now I did this so they can at least make a stand for a while, but they dont seem to hack it, I have 7-8 legions in the field now, all dedicated to repel the macedonian and gallic hordes whilst I try and see to it that the other families get some foothold! And I wanna go kill carthage.
I have one idea of why they dont expand and keep all their large full stack armies on mainland italy!!
I save alot, cause I get ctd'd quite often and it sucks when you spent the last hour battling the hordes for no use...
Does this affect it alot?
Is there any solution or will I have to babysit them until the game runs out?

For the Julii, focus on pushing the Gauls back, past the Alps, then block them with legions, not forts. After that happens, since you have diplomats, give the land to the Julii and watch them grow and soon you will be able to pull out.

For the Brutii, focus on taking the islands and taking coastal cities, so what I would suggest is take all the coastal cities that are on the western side of Greece and give them to the Bruitii, and try to hold off Macedon and Greece by blocking mountain passes with legions.

That should give them a jump start.

Hope that works,
MasterAdnin

[andymate]

If there is 3 teams in spqr 6.0 the ai will push hard. Ive watched julii and brutii push all through europe on hard (1.5 vanilla) while i struggled and are actually loosing ground to the egpytians. Im constantly loosing generals and full armies of early legions. I am building units from every city, every turn and i cant keep up, 1 turn build sucks

[MasterAdnin]

This is SPQR dude, there are 0 build times.

Peace,
MasterAdnin

[andymate]

I know but i cant stand the bridge battles + sieges in spqr they lag my computer to hell in 1.2. It takes me half an hour to an hour to fast forward through a slideshow. Plus atm i am looking at 1.5 patch and testing what is new, whats been improved etc by playing a campaign.

And yeh i know spqr had 0 build time, ive been playing it since the first version came out and i gave up modding my own game.