What is the state of the ERE in the game?

[cookiemonster]

I have read several histories and they have given me alot of knowledge about the Roman army etc but i was wondering what is the state of the roman empire ingame?
like what is the extent of the threats in the game? because i know that tensions were high with the Sassanid empire during the reign of Justinian and the threat of tribes etc on the various frontiers, how would all these threats be represented ingame? like do the ERE start at war with most of their neighbours and with no money like in the SAI mod? or is the ERE going to relatively stable with large armies to allow the player to begin to expand right away?
thanks in advance for the replies

[Pompeius Magnus]

Hello cookiemonster,

thank you for the question and for the interest in our project.
AoD2 becomes an historical simulation. Gameplay is important - and of course we take care for the balancing. But the interaction of politics, economical influences and the military is important as well. Most of those complicated issues (actually it is a complicated time) will be represented by a special building-managment.

Anyway, you will be surprised how far developed and advanced your Roman Empire in 527AD is. The reign of Anastasios and Justin I left an empire behind which was actually very rich - although culturally very different with many unsolved problems.
Therefore you will have a filled treasury at the beginning of the campaign.
However, your units (upkeep as well as recruiting costs) are very expensive. But this will not ruin your state - so don't worry - you must not disband any military units.
This would be a very poor start to the beginning of the campaign.
Don't forget that money was not the problem for Justinian at the beginning of his reign.
And out of this in mind, the re-conquest of the West was in my opinion no error.

Various influences of the following 30 years brought the economy to succumb. The population shrank. Large unbelievable sums to pay Symmachoi and to appease foreign groups soon exceeded the capacity of the empire. That was namely the expedition to Africa, Italy, Spain, several earthquakes and the plagues.
Some of the above is certainly incorporated into AoD2.

The pressure on the borders in AoD2 is high - but it's not impossible to handle that situation. Now it's up to you to build a bulwark against all external influences - you can try your best to conquer the sasanian empire and let the western states go its own way ... or you try your luck with the famous restoration (restauratio) of the West - which of course bears the risk of an over-stretched front concerning your army.

[Constantius]

Hello cookiemonster,

(restauratio) of the West - which of course bears the risk of an over-stretched front concerning your army.

Just to add, yes this could stretch your forces a great deal, perhaps not having any field forces to resist an incursion, for example 558 a large force Kutrigers crossed the Danube and met no resistance at all as it passed as far a the Hebrus river, but we do not hear of cities falling so garrisons need to remain in place on frontiers or risk being overwhelmed, historically garrisons often refused to be recruited, for example in 594 the general Peter could not gather forces as the garrison of Asemus refused to go!

[Sigma]

Whenever this game is released I'm going to focus simply on taking Italy, Sicily, and the western Balkans connecting to Italy. That will be it for Justinian's reign probably. I'm not going to attempt to take all of North Africa or Spain and focus troops elsewhere. I'll probably focus the rest of Justinian's reign on re-Romanizing Italy, building it up economically while in the east keeping the Sassanians at bay and maybe attempt to make a minor territorial gain or two there.

If the Islamic Caliphate invasion is scripted in and is as powerful as it was historically then I don't know what I will do. I'm prepared to abandon Egypt and salvage/burn those cities (destroy all the buildings for money) as I leave and pull all of my eastern armies into Palestine and attempt to defend those areas and hope the Caliphate armies eventually start focusing on the Sassanians and the rest of North Africa instead of me.

[Constantius]

Sounds like a sound strategy, but you'll have to wait for AoDIII Heraklius mod for the Caliphate. But don't worry it will be a short time frame fro release of II to III as much would of already of been done, research, buildings maps etc

[Pompeius Magnus]

I'm prepared to abandon Egypt and salvage/burn those cities (destroy all the buildings for money) .

your poor people.
If you come back some 20 or 30 years later I'm sure they still love you

[Constantius]

Egypt is the source of your grain and wealth

[Sigma]

Egypt is the source of your grain and wealth

Which is why I'm going to take Italy, it would be made into my back-up source of wealth and support; like a emergency generator for when the power goes out haha. Also the fact AoD II won't have an Arab invasion (unless you secretly slip it in on a later patch for a late game challenge *hint, nudge *) ruins my plans, since in AoD III I'll be stuck suffering from Justinian's mistakes and that is what I have the hardest time with in TW games, managing moderate to large empires that are stretched out and about to get a serious beating. I WILL lose unless I go the very gamey route and disband a bunch of my army stacks, demolish all buildings in most cities and pull back, and thus let the other cities rebel and downsize the empire to allow me to turtle and build up a tight group of well producing cites, then start a slow and steady expansion.

It's why I don't play West Rome in the Invasio Barbarborum mods, Arche Selukia in EB, or Poland in IS III. Downsizing empires makes me sad, that and I like personally rp'ing my games and thus I can't find a proper justification for downsizing and how it would fit into my mental RP since I'd imagine a Byzantine Emperor would be carried out by an angry mob and thrown into the sea if he tried something like just giving up large swaths of the Empire.

[Joar]

And out of this in mind, the re-conquest of the West was in my opinion no error.

I'm not entirely sure that the Vandals and Italians would agree with you on that...

[cookiemonster]

thanks guys, all these answers have just made me want to play AOD2 even more
i think for my first game as the ERE, i going to go East and remake an Empire even greater than Alexanders the Greats then i think i am going to go the historical western route to reclaim the Roman Empire,
i really do think this mod deserves alot more attention than it gets, its shaping up to be a well made mod, i think the fact that it set during the Dark ages means that people dont tend to know much about the era, and thus less interest. but still please keep going i cant wait to play it

[Constantius]

We will keep going, don't worry, as I said before we love this era so making this mod further increases our understanding of the period. Its also why we write our Historiae threads

[Pompeius Magnus]

I'm not entirely sure that the Vandals and Italians would agree with you on that...

What are a few vandals in comparison to the glory of Rome.

[Diocle]

I'm not entirely sure that the Vandals and Italians would agree with you on that...

Joar......your wonderful Viking mind took the point or hit the target!!!!

[jermagon]

Playing the ERE in AOD2 will be very challenging you rule an empire surrounded by Barbarians,although the empire has forsaken her pagan heritage the empire never forgot her old borders, liberating the west from the barbarian invaders was every emperor wish, the Roman empire was rich and prosperous when Emperor Justinian came to the throne, he had enough funds to launch great campaigns to recapture Italy and North Africa, Dalmatia.

when you play with the ERE you have to keep the balance between invading new territories in western Europe and defending you Eastern provinces against Empire, the Persian empire will be your worst nightmare you don't deal with them wisely, they have formidable armies very organized their empire is one of the oldest empires in the world.

if you well defend your eastern Province against the Persians, you can attack the west with more confidence since your back is secured.
also use diplomacy wisely don't deal with Germanic Tribes as they are unwashed pagan barbarians, divide and conqueror was a famous Roman strategy try to neutralize them and make many of them your allies .

watch your borders by building early lines of defense, try to build stone walls and garrison them with mix of limitanei and regular troops to exhaust the invaders and halt the enemy advance till you regular army arrives to the battle field and engage the enemy, AOD2 introduces new stone forts