RS 2.6 - Post Your New Empire

[Ferdiad]

It ruins the feel for me when i see the campaign map and they are so many useless ships. It feels unrealistic.

I did not know that having many ships increases the chance of naval invasions and i am not so sure about that

It does help alot.

[Post Hoc]

The fort strategy

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Winning a seige battle (even with a general with zero loyalty)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Petite Wolf]

I've never been a fan of those "Block everything off with forts" strategies. They've always seemed to me like kicking someone who's already down. The player has enough advantages over the AI as it is - such as a brain - and can quite easily beat twice their number with the right army - especially with the Romans. But nevertheless, that fight with the Greek Cities seems like it would have been quite fun ^_^.

[Ferdiad]

I don't mind using forts on borders or whatever but that's pretty gamey right there.

[Post Hoc]

I've never been a fan of those "Block everything off with forts" strategies. They've always seemed to me like kicking someone who's already down. The player has enough advantages over the AI as it is - such as a brain - and can quite easily beat twice their number with the right army - especially with the Romans. But nevertheless, that fight with the Greek Cities seems like it would have been quite fun ^_^.

I know i have an advantage over the AI. So, I decided to use this advantage by strategically building forts. This does not always work. This screen shot is an example of it. All three Carthaginian armies had siege weapons and elephants, so the forts were in effect, totally useless.

[Petite Wolf]

True. And no I don't mind building forts either, Ferdiad. The problem for me comes when they're used in excess. I'll generally use them to hold a certain point I want to hold, but even then I tend to prefer field battles to fort battles and won't actually ever block off every route to a place unless it is something like a mountain pass or river crossing - although river battles are boring and easy as all hell and I try and avoid them. I guess it's just preference really.

I suppose you're right that in that scenario they're useless as the enemy have siege equipment, but to me it still feels unnecessary. Meh, it's the AI though, so it isn't like it is a huge deal or anything. At the end of the day you can play however you want. Although to me, facing three Carthaginian armies seems like it would be quite a fun thing to do.

[chaney]

Its actually fairly accurate, almost like the limes of the later period of the Roman Empire, so fair dues.

Alls fair in love and war

[Ferdiad]

Its actually fairly accurate, almost like the limes of the later period of the Roman Empire, so fair dues.

Alls fair in love and war

Fairness and the AI have nothing do with each other.

[ColtonCM]

Ok, I think I've been registered long enough to post links now (since I can now edit my posts).

Here is my Seleucid Empire (description of how the game went below, I decided to end it at this point since I reached the 100 province victory condition):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://imgur.com/3kKY20w

And here is one of Carthage's last provinces, the other being located in Iberia. I figured those armies won't be a threat since they can't afford a navy now and I can blockade their port all day long.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://imgur.com/GxU3Djp

In the beginning I struggled fighting the Ptolemies, Armenians, and Parthians. Anatolia was overwhelmed with its own struggles, Pontus and Pergamon never really fought each other, mostly Pontus versus Armenia. Pergamom interestingly went west towards Greece but got stalemated against the northern barbarians and Macedon.

Macedon got crushed early by combined Spartan/Roman/Pergamon forces. Sparta formed an extensive empire that controlled all of the Balkans and even cut Italy off from its Gallic territories at one point. This made the Romans angry and the two fought a bitter war in Illyria for a long time.

The Sarmatians asked for an alliance when they united the steppes to which I agreed in order to solidify my northern frontiers and focus on the west. After subduing the Parthians, I was able to easily crush Armenia while fighting a war of attrition with the Ptolemies. The Anatolian factions gobbled up the Ptolemaic holds around the Aegean, leaving only Egypt in their hands. After Armenia was dealt with, I crushed several serious revolts in my territories and then moved on Egypt, invading Alexandria by sea and fighting another war of attrition to strangle their economy. I fought several land battles to get rid of their best units, and by the end, they couldn't afford much more than basic spearmen.

Anatolia was my next goal, seeing as how Pontus and Pergamon were now warring with each other. I crushed Pontus but Pergamon asked for an alliance. I declined, and within about 15 turns I was able to simultaneously invade all eight of Pergamon's settlements and wipe them from the map. This firmly established me in the Balkans, where I spent a crazy amount of turns building law buildings all over my empire (while I built economic ones in my heartland regions). It came to a certain point where I had so much money I was able to do to Sparta what I did to Pergamon - invade almost everything simultaneously. Things didn't go according to plan and I only invaded all of Peloponnese, which was the heart of the Spartan economy. Rome asked for an alliance at this point, to which I said yes, and we gobbled up the rest of their territories.

At this point, I had established an empire slightly greater than Alexander's, and went through with his ambitions to go further west. I took Carthage in a rather bloody war. The whole game they never managed to get past North Africa and a single zone in Iberia, but their cities were highly developed and I fought several armies that were gold weapons/armor, and very experienced. This was by far the hardest war to fight in the whole game (except for maybe the start where my empire was crumbling and I was being invaded from all directions).

Right at the end of the game, the Sarmatians broke our like 50 year alliance and started attacking Thrace and my more northern European territories, but I resolved not to worry about it. I was expecting this and had 5+ generals and several full stacks in the Caspian sea region that I was going to use to sweep their most developed zones as well as some Black Sea forces that I was going to use to invade northward. Rome's alliance broke when Sarmatia declared war, but they didn't invade. They merely broke the alliance so as not to go to war with Sarmatia (as Rome was having trouble with the now dwindling Cimbrians.

The Iberian tribe was the most successful barbarian nation (in terms of stability, not expansion). They conquered most of Iberia early in the game and held fast against Gauls, Carthaginians, and Romans alike. Nothing really happened in Britain lol.

[ColtonCM]

Darn, I didn't post the message board image. I'll do that now to make it easier (but I urge you to read my game, it was quite interesting). I don't know why it's not letting me edit now.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Last of the Carthaginians:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Grimbold]

My yet modest Cimbrii campaign.

Hard/Hard and 4 turns per year.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

At war with basically everyone around me, which includes the Belgae, Avernii and Boii confederation. A pain in the arse this whole lot have been.

Finally managed to throw the Belgae out of northern Gaul and about to deliver the final blow. Not interested in holding onto their Britannic holdings, since i'll need this army back on the mainland to deal with the Avernii.

Down south an army of volcan axemen is dealing with these annoying opportunistic bastards.

Interesting situation in Greece. Macedon was being eaten up by 4 different factions (Rome, Dacia, Pergamon and Sparta), but instead of putting them out of their misery, the AI is just chilling around. Rome, though, moved south and attacked sparta.

As soon as im done with the other barbarian tribes, i'll probably moved east into Dacia.

[Ferdiad]

Kill Rome and I'll be happy.

[TheRomanRuler]

No, let Rome grow and wait until there is only you and Rome remaining on map... Should be epic fight

[Ferdiad]

He hates Rome so I doubt that lol.

[Grimbold]

No, let Rome grow and wait until there is only you and Rome remaining on map... Should be epic fight

They had grown enough since i was facing imperial legions.

Alas, the campaign was ruined by an unavoidable CTD.

Playing the Belgae now.

[Pinkie Pie]

This is my first campaign in this mod and I chose Pergamon, I m using the BI exe, campaign and battle difficulty are both set to hard and I have 0 turn recruitment on.

Firstly, I know there is a difference between an Empire and Kingdom but I am unsure as to which group certain factions belong to so if I make a mistake in that regard then I apologize. I also apologize for any spelling mistakes I may make, I tend to type quite fast and every now and then I do hit a wrong key without noticing.

From the very start money seemed to be an enourmous issue, not so much as keeping out of debt but rather trying to spend it. Perhaps it is because I am so used to Extended Cultures where with the same territory even a single elite army can bankrupt you. Nonetheless it as been an extremely entertaining experience and I hope to have as much fun trying out the many other factions available.

I first started by quickly expanding into the nearby rebel cities while forging alliances with Armenia, Parthia and the Ptolemies for insurance should war erupt between me and the Seleucids. With all the rebel cities in Anatolia (or Asia Minor if you prefer) I sat back and waited for a Cassus Beli to expand into one of my many neighbours, my eyes being upon the Greek cities to the north, Pontus and the Ptolemaic cities on the southern coast.

It did not take long before the Greeks gave me a reason to remove their presence from the area when they decided to blockade a few of my ports, I responded by sending my armies to depopulate Nicomedia and Sinope, at this point I also decided to take advantage of my new fleet and also launched invasions ofthe Crimea quickly sacking Chersonessos, Skuthike_Neapolis, Pantikapaion and Phanagoria. At this point I started thinking of ending the war between us, I had no interest in expanding into Europe at this time, but put a halt to that when I realised that I had forgotten about Rhodes. An uneventfull journey around the coast on some ships and two battles later and the island had fallen into my hands.

Once again I went back to building my economy and watching the many ai factions that I bordered battle each other in endless wars. The east at this point was set up into two sides: THe Anatolian City States (me), The Ptolemaic Kingdom, The Kingdom of Armenia and the Parthian Empire on one side and the Seleucid Empire and Kingdom of Pontus on the other. While we had more allies we also suffered from being individually weaker than the enemy, I myself was content to sit on the sidelines and watch, the Ptolemaic Kingdom was in a stalemate with the Seleucid Empire near Jerusalem, the Parthians were expanding into their eastern territories but also ended up in a stalemate near Media, Pontus meanwhile was taking advantage of Armenia declaring war upon the Seleucids and started pushing them further east.

With the Polemies and Parthians held up and the Armenians losing ground on two fronts I recognized that the war was taking a turn for the worse, if the Seleucids could secure even one border they would have the military capacity to start gaining momentum on one of their other borders. I decided to send one army south to camp outside Alexandria while keeping a careful eye upon the Seleucid-Ptolemy border, if my ally started losing ground I could quickly jump in and help push the Seleucids back to the original border, while using the Pontic invasion of Armenia as a Cassus Beli to extend my control over more of Anatolia.

The start of the campaign to secure my north-eastern border began with a terrible omen, the Pontic capital of Amasia fell after a short siege but to my shock held a deadly surprise, a plague. WIth my main army under attack from a dangerous plague and my reserve army in Egypt I had to press on hoping I could finish off the Ponticans before my army suffered too many losses. Fortunately the entire Pontic army was too busy attacking Armenia to stop my assault and their cities fell one by one with little resistance. A quick trade with the Kingdom of Armenia saw them regain their lost territory and me gain Kotais and the eastern shores of the Black Sea. My army however would be out of the fight for more than a decade as the plague continued to run rampant through their ranks.

THe Armenians were now free to take the fight to the Seleucids with all they had and once more I took advantage of this new front by attacking the Eastern Mediterranean shoreline with the help of my Egyptian allies. The Selkeucid cities easily fell to our combined might and once more I offered up many of the citis I conquered to my ally in return for ones more favourable to my borders, namely Halikarnassos, Patara and Side. At this point the Seleucids looked to be a broken power, losing ground on all sides with their military buckling, I therefore decided to negotiate a peace settlement with them where I kept Antioch and Tarsos while they got to rid themselves of their strongest, and now largest, enemy.

My luck however was not to last, the Ptolemaic Kingdom clearly fealt they had gained enough land and followed me in negotiating peace with the Silver Death. This left only Armenia and Parhtia fighting them and once more they managed to stop my asllies in their tracks and gain some ground. At this point I decided that I had had enough of fighting for my allies and began looking west towards Byzantion and the western shores of the Black Sea. With the Sarmatians slowly destroying the Scythians I realised this would be my only chance to nab the remaining coastal regions in that area. I launched a new offensive taking the rebel settlement of Byzantion and defeating the remaining Scythians before handing their inalnd regions over to the Sarmatian tribes in return for an alliance and a secure northern border.

And that brings us up to now:

Currently I am once more watching the war over the Mesopotamia, Armenia, Parthia and the Seleucids are at a standstill but the latter are beginning to suffer for their constant wars with their most eastern settlements rebelling.

The Ptolemies have broken their alliance with me and I have begun to look upon the once solid alliance (Parthia/Armenia/Egypt/Pergamon) as a weight slowing me from expanding into new areas. In an effort to part myself from my so called friends I have begun looking for strong allies to the west.

[Ferdiad]

How fares Rome and the Barbarians? Whoever wins that front would probably be your ally.

[Pinkie Pie]

The west is quite difficult to predict at the moment, Carthage, Iberia, Gaul and Rome are fighting each other but seem matched in power.

[Ferdiad]

The romans any way near reforms?

[Pinkie Pie]

I do not believe so,I have not noticed any changes in my military structure.

Screenshots.