Replay Packs from 1.2 and tips on how to Win

[Garbad]

Similar to how I did in 1.1, here are some replay packs to help people test or explore the game in mid/late game. All games are played on H/N with normal unit size. More will be added as I complete them.

TIPS ON WINNING:

1. Train a regular barracks immediately (if you don't spawn with one). Even if it means knocking down a building, you need a basic barracks within a few turns. Then upgrade all town centers and use any remaining slots for food.
2. Begin training to get level 3 town centers immediately (unless you need to train for a basic barracks first). It is ESSENTIAL to upgrade your town centers asap to have enough income to sustain a full stack.
3. Once you have a l3 town center and a barracks, you should have income of around 2500 and decent defense. You are now ready to train your super army. With ~125 average upkeep per unit, you need to be selective. I usually run 4 very cheap missile units, 8 defensive infantry (spears with 8+ armor), 4 offensive infantry (2h weapons, fear, axes, gladius, etc), and 3x cav (javcav used as melee is very cost effective on killing missile units). This depends on faction.
4. Pick a weak nearby neighbor. By now they probably have at least 1-2 full stacks of higher quality units than you can afford plus the garrison, so you need to be crafty. You can either surprise attack them once their armies move away from the town, declare war and fortify inside their territory (to draw them into attacking your fort), or have another army go into patrol mode while your main army hides in ambush mode near them. One way or the other, you need to bait the AI into manageable packs and slaughter them. I can easily win 3:2 but any more than that becomes iffy on hard mode, as your melee will rout so quickly its hard to have tactics.
5. Expect much faster routs than before. You need tighter, more powerful infantry to withstand mass attacks. You can also focus fire out units with ~4 missile troops much easier, or run them down with cav and instabreak them. You need to shatter weak units quickly and then focus multiple of your units onto their elites (especially their general, who can often stomp 3-4x his weight).
6. As you expand, try to take entire regions and avoid the superpowers. Build trade routes, keep making lots of T3 town centers, and develop your economy first before you try and go past a l2 unupgraded barracks. Manage your population by having at least one region with lots of temples and such to farm warrior population, and just understand you won't be able to use many noble type units at all unless you carefully farm your human livestock.

FACTIONS

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8qttfq67i...jkdwR_lBa?dl=0
Link to Folder with lots of choices

Antigonidai (greek):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d9kpi12v2w...idai.save?dl=0

Macedon is famous for elite pikes, companion cavalry, and a flexible blend of missile mercenary troops. They are also one of the few civilized factions to get faster horses, making them a great choice for traditional alexandrian tactics.

Atropatkan (persian):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ktve3c8vht...tkan.save?dl=0

Atro have the familiar elite persian cav (including skirmishers, lancers, and medium) along with spear/bow units and a few basic hoplites. Its a good heavy mix that fights well both against east and west. Very versatile.

Baktria (greek):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/be8mihhtpa...tria.save?dl=0

One of the most interesting greek factions, they feature a large variety of cavalry including horse archers, war elephants, and a standardized greek core with some local flavor. Difficult starting place and isolated, but a very strong army.

Carthage (punic):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tfqxszkwk8...stim.save?dl=0

Advanced army with lots of traditional greek/spanish/latin troop types and elephants. Very difficult starting location, but great power and an interesting long term campaign. Note: Ultra army size.

Crimea Bosphorus (greek):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/axtg7sst7m...oran.save?dl=0

Another powerful greek frontier state, featuring horse archers and thracian/scythian blend troops. Lots of excellent ranged units, cavalry, and one of the best noble spear units in the game. Excellent economy, great for a beginning player to learn the midgame.

Hysadan (eastern/persian):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1zbmwoxf9...sdan.save?dl=0

I consider Hysadan to be the most well rounded of the eastern factions. They have some reasonably decent infantry combined with superb cataphracts, horse archers, and foot archers. A very different playstyle than most factions.

ICENI (british):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5g4fhe30v3...ceni.save?dl=0

Probably the most interesting "celtic" barbarian faction, the british have an excellent starting location and a wide variety of high quality infantry and cav. While lacking in useful missile troops, you don't really need them. Notably excellent are their 2h Greatsword troops and their medium cavalry.

Mamlakatin (Arabic)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uncmabdped...Saba.save?dl=0

Mamla is a desert faction, focused around ranged attacks and speed. Despite good attack power/dmg/missile troops, they lack staying power (little armor, low defense stats). However, they have well rounded greek thereous style troops, swift cavalry, interesting offensive infantry, and the peerless Hygar Hygar. Hygar Hygar feature an excellent bow combined with powerful attack and high armor. They lack shields and so should be used in the second line, but few troops have the tactical flexibility of these champs.

Massalia (greek):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ycquemswy0...alia.save?dl=0

Greeks blended with light celt cav and a few other infantry types. Difficult starting location, but has a lot of interesting potential.

Pergamon (greek):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s0ealb7fh1...amon.save?dl=0

Pergamon has a roster practically identical to the shared greek core, but upgraded to be slightly better. If you love pure greeks, this may well be the strongest faction in the game.

ROMA VICTOR (latin):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h9cjsmpdul...CTOR.save?dl=0

The unstoppable wroth of Mars features the peerless legions and a large blend of auxilia of every imaginable type on top of a world crushing empire. This save has conquered greece and begun to expand into europe, but not yet gaul. It has imperial legions and multiple production centers.

Selucid (greek)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7vm7f1vd56...ucid.save?dl=0

Perhaps the finest infantry and cataphracts in the game, plus elephants! Poor missile troops, however.

Thrace:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v7kl1hlmofc1n6k/Thrace.save?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4x8b1zwxrcanoll/Basileion%20Odryson.save?dl=0

Fast, effective skirmishers and the famous romphanorae 2h shock troops combined with fairly weak overall units. While not the best faction out there, watching elite rhompers rip through your enemies like a lawnmower just doesn't get old.

[FlashHeart07]

Move this to the strategy guide forum where he belongs


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[Garbad]

New Unit coming in 1.3 Egypt -- the Cataphract.

http://i.imgur.com/cmodZDH.jpg

[Dresden]

Thanks for doing write ups, you always do a great job! And for the saves. I will move this to the strategy forum and as it becomes more developed I can sticky it.

[Ostrogoth]

Thanks for the guide. I am planning to begin campaign as Caledonians on H/N difficulty. But the campaign will be harder in my opinion. Diplomatic penalty against British factions will be harsh.

[Mepper]

Thanks for starting this thread, its always great to exchange tips and help each other learn to get better. I don't have much time to play games, so I don't have much experience yet with 1.2, but from my experience I would recommend:

-Use the liberate option. Especially when conquering lands in a province which you for whatever reason don't want to conquer entirely, unless it already has your culture. This way the enemy can't take the province back (your enemy won't be at war with the new faction), you don't have to worry about keeping the province and can use your army elsewhere, you get military support as soon as the AI thinks his army is ready (don't forget to set a war target!), you get money from trade, and don't have to worry about getting revolts because you have the wrong culture.
-When deciding what to build in which provinces, always check the region specific effects (hover over the green region icon when you have selected a region, left below). If your region has a large negative for taxes, use it for food or military, if it has a bonus to industry, build industry buildings. By picking the right provinces for the right specialization you can gain a lot without any negatives. (If you didn't do it yet, specialize provinces! And for relatively new players, not every province needs positive food, only your global food needs to be positive. Don't worry about getting hugely negative food in some provinces.)
-Don't be afraid to betray your friends. The negative for this will go away relatively soon. If you have a non-agression pact with your neighbour, and he loses his stack fighting some other AI, don't hesitate for a moment.

I hope more, and especially more experienced players will share their knowledge here, even things you regard as basic. It took me quite some time to get some of these things, and they make your games go so much better. And still I'm just playing on H/N. So I kinda wonder what are the things I'm still missing. Looking forward to more replies

[Garbad]

Baktria added.

Updated with macedon, pergamon, haysadan, thrace, and crimea.

Added Rome. Taking requests.

[general maximus decimus]

Going to try Rome, i never get to the marian reforms.


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[Imperiatrix]

Could you do the Seleucids? I love their roster and want to try it out, but their early game is a pain

[Garbad]

Could you do the Seleucids? I love their roster and want to try it out, but their early game is a pain

Selucids added. They have two legions poised for attack, a large war chest, and a reasonably stable empire. Time to rebuild Alex's legacy, boys!

[SR_GemC]

Do AIs suffer the same population issue as player?

I am play as German and at war with Boii. I managed to defeat 2 full stack armies. If I decide to take their main city, I would lose a lot of men and receive a city with nearly no fight men to recruit more units. But it is difficult to skip the main city and attack other cities because they still have 1 full stack (with higher tier units)

[Garbad]

I had that same problem with that region. It may be set to have really low growth or something.

[SR_GemC]

How do you deal with neutral/allied armies which stay in your province? They used all of my foods, making my armies and theirs starve and suffer from attrition.

[Garbad]

Added the Mamla arabic faction. If you haven't tried them, give them a look. Excellent medium cavalry, tons of missile and shock troops, and the godlike hygar hygar make for a good offensive punch.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Ηey Garbad.

I was away for some time and now I'd like to play-test Carthage on Hard AI-Normal battles, but with the addition of Hardcore mod after I'll have a stable setup.

Do you have any good advice for Carthage ??? I'm not asking for a save cause I play my games with ultra unit size and I know you play yours with normal (Ι'm not sure if there is a valid way to change Unit sizes to a savegame) if you know anything about it please inform me and if it's possible then could you provide me a save with a basic Carthaginian setup, if it's not too much hassle ???
Not very advanced though, just a secured Sicily and ownership over the African provinces and the early Iberian colonies. I'd really appreciate it.

Cheers

[Garbad]

Carthage is tough because you virtually have to abandon a front. I usually let sicily go and try to stabilize africa and iberia. This usually means one good army stomping the tiny spanish factions one by one as everywhere else just tries not to riot every turn.

I also got a new PC and I'll try it on ultra and see how laggy it is.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Carthage is tough because you virtually have to abandon a front. I usually let sicily go and try to stabilize africa and iberia. This usually means one good army stomping the tiny spanish factions one by one as everywhere else just tries not to riot every turn.

Yeah you're totally right...I gave it a try before 2 days and it was very hard If not impossible to preserve all the fronts from the start. I tried until turn 30 when I secured all Sicily and then most of Africa revolted Romans with smaller factions attacked me and Spain got rebellious too...that was my end cause I ended up with zero money and one army to defend everything. So I guess you'll have to let go Sicily or Spain (I think Spain is quite vital) and indeed try to stabilize, unite and develop all Africa.

I also got a new PC and I'll try it on ultra and see how laggy it is.

That's very nice buddy. I hope you could make it with Ultra Units if it's not too much trouble...
I'm also interested in a Getae or Scordisci campaign. They are pretty weak in the beginning and I found it difficult to make a stable start with them. If you are in the mood sometime to try them I could use an early but stable save.

What other factions are you planning to try ???

I really appreciate what you're doing for us here.

Cheers mate.

[DerPrian]

What about sweboz? I got the feeling, they are similar to thrace, but more worse.

[Garbad]

What about sweboz? I got the feeling, they are similar to thrace, but more worse.

I've never been a fan of the germans. They don't have as much troop variety or depth as celts, plus I have serious problems with population in POR. But I'll give it a shot after carthago.

I'm also interested in a Getae or Scordisci campaign. They are pretty weak in the beginning and I found it difficult to make a stable start with them. If you are in the mood sometime to try them I could use an early but stable save.

What other factions are you planning to try ???

Getae is for sure. I will eventually do every distinct or interesting faction plus any requests.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Getae is for sure. I will eventually do every distinct or interesting faction plus any requests.

Much obliged !!!