General impressions

[alin]

the AI is really passive just want attack

We're working on that, we'll provide soon a sub-mod for testing.

[excubitor]

on-effective cavalry,wich destroy totally Macedonian historical way of making battles

MAYBE give some sources indicating that after alexanders the Greats time,macedonian armies used cavalry as a winning force?

because from what i have read the numbers of heavy cavalry {there are no sources directly indicating that they were called etairoi anymore) were much smaller than phillips/alexanders day and they were used only to cover the phalanx flank,which by the way was the winning weapon.

so before coming here crying about "non historical" units and playing the arm chair historian,read some more.

[AntigonGonat]

MAYBE give some sources indicating that after alexanders the Greats time,macedonian armies used cavalry as a winning force?

because from what i have read the numbers of heavy cavalry {there are no sources directly indicating that they were called etairoi anymore) were much smaller than phillips/alexanders day and they were used only to cover the phalanx flank,which by the way was the winning weapon.

so before coming here crying about "non historical" units and playing the arm chair historian,read some more.

Im reading history quite well... maybe don't have records from antigonus time ,because open ground battle in that time was rare, he use more on mercenaries(Macedonia was very damaged country by menpower and economy after diadochi war and celtic invasion),and he often was in siege of greek cities where cavalry is not effective,also on fleet battles against Ptolemies.But after recover of Macedonia,you have battle of Sellasia,where Philopoemen future stateg of Achaia achieve victory with mixed cavalry .Also battle of Kalinik in Thessaly ,Perseus the last king won battle with his cavalry against the Romans,and let say that in first battle of Pydna,Macedonians lose battle because of cavalry have escaped from battle,leaving to die all petalstai and phalanx .The name of cavalry in the time of Perseus changed possible because ,aristokrats ,people who represented Hetaroi unit, didn't accept Perseus for king,because he was a bastard from woman of Argos,they preferred Demetrius as a king,and Perseus in his reign must create alternative unit of "sacred band" of cavalry,created by fanatics,non-Macedonians,mainly Thracians and loyal middle clas of Perseus.
On open groud battle Macedonians always use heavy cavalry,on internet you have a plenty of sources.
Plus im not crying,i just telling my notices,and i think everybody will agree with me that heavy cavalry should be more effective from behind.

[Butan]

I think cavalry shock is okay, just need to repeatedly charge and not expect to break elite/fresh/intact units (even with the most brutal and efficient rear cavalry charge) in one go.

[Rora Lion]

Apart from the usual HUGE EB scope, historical detail and research ...

I almost couldn't believe to my eyes when enemy cavalry cherged my infantry's back, disengaged and then charged again! The battle AI is superb!

[Nightsh4de]

After close to to 150 turns with Sweboz, I´m getting a better overall impression of the game:

1) The work done on settlements for siegework is just amazing well done. Shame I get severe slowdowns in thousands a side battle (rig is fine, but ive read about core limitations and such due to the age of the game)

2) Charges are unimpressive. Especially cavarly - Charged a unit of Germanic nobles (i think they had 22 att due to exp) into a germanic club unit (no armor, small shields) and got about 10 kills. Not amazing at all. Cavarly should be more dangerous,
especially as some factions seem to rely on it a lot.

3) Javelineers cannot hit anything. They seem to lob their missiles waaay over the heads of 200+ units. They should be much more accurate, relying on the target´s armor and shield to survive, or if you´re Smart, just use skirmishers more and absorb enemy javelins so your precious elite infantry doesnt get a bloody nose during a charge.

4) diplomats keep talking to my cities but doing nothing. Perhaps they´re trying to bribe? If so, maybe after a couple of tries they should move on plz.

5) Loving the music

6) Campaign AI is fine. It is a Little unagressive but it seems to be smarter at taking advantaqe of another faction´s weak momento. For example, as Sweboz, the Aedui thought they were smart attacking me when I was off fighting the Lugiones. After losing a city, taking it back and eliminating a retreating stack, the Arverni (Aureka-something in EB2) entered the war and took over most Auedui settlements in 2 turns, including Bibracte, the capital. Seeing the danger, I made peace with the Aedui and gave them money to fight back and keep my western flank secure. Unfortunately they were smashed so I allied with the Arverni and they in turn made a vassal of the Aedui. Sincé alliances seem to hold pretty well, this is a good balance since I basically acknowledged the Arverni spehere of influence, and they mine, forcing me to turn to the Boii (who were being conquered by the Romans!).

So do I think the AI is slow? yes, but deliberate and quite smart. I hated the all out war all the time of most TW titles and mods, just didnt seem realistic and diplomatically shallow. A Slow, well thought out development the first 100 turns, leads to an exciting middle game, or at least I´m really enjoying it so far!

[AntigonGonat]

I find in Halikarnass unique building of Parsa(Persepolis),and now I notice some of province description didn't exist,can I fix somehow this?

[William the Silent]

I played Sweboz about 25 turns.
I love all the tribal influence on your regional development. Still didn't figure out how to influence culture and what the best governmental choices are and what their effect is. Spending a lot of time in the building/unit browers.

Battles are very balanced. Really good. I just miss the ability to highlight the enemy. Enemy units are hard to find sometimes in the melee.

There's some nobel cavalry that's as expensive as missile cavalry. That doesn't make sense but I'll take the benefits.

Watchtowers look like camps. And I have upgrades for ships with cannons . That will all be fixed one day.

I'm happy I can play this great Mod.

[Yaevin]

Hey mates, I will share my impressions from Europa Barbarorum so far, if I can. I will split my "review" into few parts.

Battle Map & Mechanincs: I will start with graphics. Units on the battlefield are astonishing and when I first saw the vegetation I was amazed. The battle map graphics is incredible. The game runs smoothly on my laptop on High settings. I am really impressed what EB team accomplished on the field of graphics. In terms of gameplay there are some issues that concerns me. First of all are skirmirshers. They are in my opinion very weak. I was firing my three units of toxotai on akontistai and could do none maybe little damage. Also their accuracy isn't best because I can see tons of arrows in front or behind the units I am firing on. Skirmirshers needs balancing for sure. Also that new javelin throw animation. I don't know but I had a few issues with it. First of all approaching a few meters forward isn't always benefitial like when I had my line formed with Hoplitai and Peltastai Logades (don't know the infantry units name it was Pergamon campaign) and turned auto fire on. When enemy approached half my infantry threw javelins and took few steps forward which caused my battle line to broke. Also when I have skirmirshers behind my line, firing on enemy they can easily get caught by enemy infantry. It also caused weird problem. My army broke through gates into the settlement where enemy had his infantry on the walls, I entered through gate. When I came into the settlement his infantry was going down from walls and I caught them near the gate. I outflanked the whole engagement between my and his infantry and tried to shoot from the side his infantry. I didn't do any damage because I don't know why but half of the javelins ended up above his infantry on nearby wall. I don't know if animation causes this or not. Also cavalry charges are little bit weird. I charged from fair distance unit of hoplitai with Xystophoroi and killed only 10 - 15 men when playing on max unit size. And last but not least the phalanx. I don't really know how it should be but when enemy charged in a city my phalanx from the front in tight spacing in seconds their infantry got through pikes into the pike formation which caused the whole formation to break.

Campaign map : The campaign map is... Perfect. The new factions, little settlements, AI behavior everything looks great. Diplomacy is field where I was suprised. It works, I can have long lasting alliances now I can make friend easier and make sure they won't betray me. When faction gets destroyed they are likely to accept peace, diplomacy is real improvement. There is minor issue I noticed with UI, that I can barely see my funds. When I am in dept I can't recognize the numbers but it can be easily fixed I hope. There are some things I don't quite understand and would appreciate help with. Like when advisor is telling me that colonists are ready to dispatch I don't really know what should I do. Also conquered provinces. Should I estabilish allied goverment or millitarry conquest, democratic or oligarchic policy. I am dumb but I can't tell how this in EB II works. I this game needs some sort of a "guide" where game mechanics will be explained.

Overall : I know that I mentioned mostly the bad aspects but believe me those are IMHO issues that need solving. The game is amazing as we expected don't think I am not liking the game, I really am but these things that I mentioned are nothing compared to my feelings towards the EB 2 and team. I spent years playing EB and when this little baby showed up I was extasy. It's the best experience I can get when I want to play a total war game/mod. But I can feel from the game that it's far from finished product and that makes me a little bit sad because the team is mentioning that they aren't sure they can finish this because of lack of manpower. I will make sacrifice to Zeus and Athena for their favour and pray everyday so EB team can finish this mod and make the dreams come true. Why you ask ? Because it's real masterpiece.

[smitty]

Been watching the progress of this mod for a long time. It looks fantastic, congratulations to the team on finally finishing this most epic of undertakings.

[Kull]

Campaign map : The campaign map is... Perfect. The new factions, little settlements, AI behavior everything looks great. Diplomacy is field where I was suprised. It works, I can have long lasting alliances now I can make friend easier and make sure they won't betray me. When faction gets destroyed they are likely to accept peace, diplomacy is real improvement. There is minor issue I noticed with UI, that I can barely see my funds. When I am in dept I can't recognize the numbers but it can be easily fixed I hope. There are some things I don't quite understand and would appreciate help with. Like when advisor is telling me that colonists are ready to dispatch I don't really know what should I do. Also conquered provinces. Should I estabilish allied goverment or millitarry conquest, democratic or oligarchic policy. I am dumb but I can't tell how this in EB II works. I this game needs some sort of a "guide" where game mechanics will be explained.

You need colonies to change a settlement over to your "religion" (culture), and the advisor is just telling you that some can be built (you'll have to look through your cities to see which ones - it's a "building"). As for how it all works? The answer is, it depends on what faction you are playing". The rules can and do change from one to the other.

A good first step is to use the Building Browser. Look at all the government types potentially available to you (not just those you can build right now). In particular, review the "strategy" sections. Those are your guides, and should answer many of your questions. Good luck!

[tungri_centurio]

after 50turns i can tell this.

playing m/m romani

i did expand to the alps and sicily.without fighting even one field battle.the AI army's hide in the city's when you come near them with a big army
and that makes me think about rome2the AI is so passive that it's boring.(maybe it's because medium settings)
if i check the diplomacy tab nobody is at war with someone.only me with carthage and epiros, makadonia with epiros,
epiros with athens but thats about it.they don't even have any ally's.

the mod is very stable without any craches so far,the campaign map looks realy good with all the resources and small towns.
the city's look nice and the sieges are good. enough time to flank,pathfinding is messed up in small city's though.

but hey im not complaining,it's a beta release..
keep up the good work

[Wulfburk]

Though really the CAI has been inconsistent (in some campaigns passive, in others not, as reported,) if you are playing in Medium, the chance of the CAI NOT being passive is like 0.

In my own campaign the CAI has been great and i just got to 50 turns AND im playing Hard Campaign, Medium Battles. Arche Seleukeia is destroying Ptolemaioi, Makedon captured Sparta, Rhodes and took that Rebel city from Epirote near Attika. They sieged Athenai, so they were just about to defeat the first faction in the campaign, but i intervened with my army.. (gonna post an AAR about it cause its been awesome ). Aedui and Arveni have captured like 8 rebels cities together. There is a war between Pahlava and Baktria, Bosphorus has like 4 cities. A war between Saba and Nabata too...

[Sar1n]

Though really the CAI has been inconsistent (in some campaigns passive, in others not, as reported,) if you are playing in Medium, the chance of the CAI NOT being passive is like 0.

In my own campaign the CAI has been great and i just got to 50 turns AND im playing Hard Campaign, Medium Battles. Arche Seleukeia is destroying Ptolemaioi, Makedon captured Sparta, Rhodes and took that Rebel city from Epirote near Attika. They sieged Athenai, so they were just about to defeat the first faction in the campaign, but i intervened with my army.. (gonna post an AAR about it cause its been awesome ). Aedui and Arveni have captured like 8 rebels cities together. There is a war between Pahlava and Baktria, Bosphorus has like 4 cities. A war between Saba and Nabata too...

What exactly do campaign and battle difficulties affect? I'm not fan of AI cheathing, but...it's way too stupid.

[bob01]

but hey im not complaining,it's a beta release..

You're completely right about that. The reason for putting out a beta is to see what happens and make adjustments. I hope the team - who obviously labored hard for a long time - understands that these are reported observations, not criticisms. For myself, I am going to dump my current campaign and try one on a harder level to see the difference.

[Nightsh4de]

Update on the Sweboz: the transition from early to late units is not preceded with a notification talking about a reform etc it pretty much just happened and had me really confused at why my levies were no longer free upkeep lol. Also, although some camps have transitioned to proper cities, my main ones (ie capital) are at above 9000 families but do not settle, which is annoying because there is nothing more to build and armies take ages to move around in disconnected regions!!

Oh and the HUD being on minimal settings upon every game start is annoying (I´ve tried disabling it in options on start menú but on launch it just goes back to minimal!)

Hmmm what else? Oh yeah the lugiones are roaming around in a huge (7.5 stacks) horde, besieging a city for a turn and then moving on which is odd because they could easily capture a new homeland. I hope they dont migrate every single time I take their last city otherwise I´ll be chasing them all the way to India (victory condition)

[Sar1n]

Ranged units are almsot totally useless. Sad, but true. Today, I had a couple situtations that showed it in full.

First, messing with KH, siege of Corinth. We all know how AI is stupid in sieges...in this instance, I placed one unit of Cretan archers and one unit of Sphendotai on walls next to gate after capturing them, while AI had an unit of Hoplitai in street leading from it, with its back against me (no idea why...it's just AI). My ranged units had full ammo, so I let them empty it into the unit's back. Two, supposedly some of best, ranged units shooting into back of enemy unit...causing mere 77 casualties out of 161 enemy troops. That's simply too little. This was pretty much ideal situation for them.

Second, in Epirote campaign...I had my Peltastai Makedones, again an elite unit, fire its javelins in enemy unit's back before charging. Again, the target were Hoplitai, fixed by my phalangitai. Result of volley, 3 casualties. Javelins are simply useless.

All these were on medium battle difficulty. I know someone will say here that ranged units were in ancient times mostly for disrupting and disheartening the enemy, but that doesn't really work on M2TW engine...so what's the use for them?

[Ferdiad]

I've quit my Baktria campaign as it was too easy. The saka rely on ranged units that are so crap that it was fairly easy to roll over them.

[daelin4]

There's so many things I take issue with in regards to this mod.


And yet, it's miles better than Rome2

[riskymonk]

I have some negative feedback on the battles.

Javelins are not a viable option as they're slow to fire, take far to long to reposition themselves and their charge is broken. I've had units that throw javs before the charge just break formation and are fighting loosely with men scattered all over the engagements fighting many units.

The marching and running and reactions in general is a bit too slow. I don't know if it's a bug or a design decision but it gets really painful after a while.

Still it's a fantastic mod, with lots to explore and I appreciate the work put into it. It's also great to not pay to become a beta tester unlike rome 2.