Announcement: Europa Barbarorum II 2.3 released!

[neo_deus]

Yes y.ou need to uninstall 2.2, as it says right at the top.

A clean installation of M2TW is not a bad idea, if you can spare the time

Indeed it does! Cheers for the reply, Quintus Sertorius.
I started a new Roman campaign and played about 15 turns. So far, no bugs I have noticed and no crashes.

By the way, most of you must know about this, but I have there's a 2.3 player guide around there that is pretty neat and usefull! It has all the government type chains, aswell as a lot of other information about the mod. Google "Europa Barbarorum player guide 2.3" and it should re-direct you to a download link. I don't know who's the author, but cuddos!

Few remarks about what I have played so far:
- Loving how hard it is to expand North. I took one of my legions near Bononia, defeated the barbarians that were roaming around there and took Bononia. The turn after, a full stack of Gauls appear. I send reinforcements from Roma, but yet another full stack shows up! I had to retreat to Ariminum and Arretium, leaving only a token force to hold Bononia.
One question, though; will the Eleutheroi armies not siege cities?

In the South things are much easier, even though I much appreciated the 3 (at least), Brutii and Samnite armies around Luceria and the lands of Taras and Region. After defeating them and laying siege to Taras, my legion is now besieging Region and is about to deal with the Roman traitors there.
The Epirote guarrison at Taras had pretty much the same number of men as I did when the siege started, theirs being slightly superior. Despite that, there was no attempt to attack me and break the siege, except at the very end when their numbers had dwindled due to siege. Maybe they should be a tad more agressive?

[QuintusSertorius]

Note that the Player's Guide is bundled with the installation - it's in the \mods\ebii\ root directory.

Eleutheroi do sometimes besiege cities, but only on Hard/Very Hard campaign difficulty.

We can't control when/if the AI chooses to sally out.

[daniboy630]

what a wonderful mod

[Kull]

Every other faction is in the red, requiring the player to expand quickly and secure more land in order to survive.

Don't underestimate the power of Raiding. With enough FMs, you can easily generate more income from Raiding than you can from conquest. It may not be a sustainable long term strategy (although no one has ever tried), but it's more than enough to prevent your faction from falling into a deep pit of debt in the early game. Not a strategy for "settled" factions, of course, but they usually have other options.

[Aerys IV le Grand]

Hello !
Congratulations for your amazing mod !
I only have one question : following your instructions for Mac users, is it possible to get the EBII settlements in the game ? I mean, by placing the "settlements" folder on the desktop, that's likely we gonna see the vanilla settlements in siege battles isn't it ?

If yes, do you know a way we could use them without crash ? I tried this one ( http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...u)-and-Mac#mac ) unfortunately I didn't manage to get it work

Thanks for your great work !

[YourMadDoc]

In the South things are much easier, even though I much appreciated the 3 (at least), Brutii and Samnite armies around Luceria and the lands of Taras and Region. After defeating them and laying siege to Taras, my legion is now besieging Region and is about to deal with the Roman traitors there.
The Epirote guarrison at Taras had pretty much the same number of men as I did when the siege started, theirs being slightly superior. Despite that, there was no attempt to attack me and break the siege, except at the very end when their numbers had dwindled due to siege. Maybe they should be a tad more agressive?

You can increase AI aggresion with campaign difficulty, but they still need at least some advantage over besieging army to attack. I tested same siege with same army on hard and very hard and they attacked my army on very hard, but I had to remove two units from my army to lure them out on hard. On very hard they are quite aggressive if that is what you want. But it wont be good for campaign in my opinion, if they leave city without having good advantage they will be slaughtered, giving provinces too fast, too easy and too cheap. It is better to stay on hard as recommended.

[parthian8]

"9. It's highly recommended that you play with windowed, borderless mode - this both improves campaign performance and increases stability too. In the same config file as above, ensure these values:"


Which config above? I've forgotten which file the code to switch to borderless windows, and haven't been able to find it. I don't have, and don't want to have, Java. I've just had a CTD after a battle, the first I've had in absolutely ages, and this is the only installation instruction I didn't follow.

Also, could someone tell me how to take the banners off? I've decided to fight on "general view", as you always lose more troops that way, and the banners are helping me to cheat (an incentive I rarely decline.)

Macedonia off to a horrid start. It's difficult to see how AI Macedonia is going to survive. We'll see.

Well done to all on getting it out. Great work.

[Iaius Statius Laurentius]

Q: deciding which faction to go with first, Romani, KH, or Parthians. Which of those rosters is most
Complete? I'm guessing KH but am unsure.

Relatedly, I recall talk earlier about Italian AoR units. I'd love to have some diverse regional allied Italian armies as the Romani. Are those in the game now? I've noticed a few new Italian units but I'm guessing if there are more they might be at the Polybian stage?

[Kull]

"9. It's highly recommended that you play with windowed, borderless mode - this both improves campaign performance and increases stability too. In the same config file as above, ensure these values:"


Which config above? I've forgotten which file the code to switch to borderless windows, and haven't been able to find it. I don't have, and don't want to have, Java. I've just had a CTD after a battle, the first I've had in absolutely ages, and this is the only installation instruction I didn't follow.

Also, could someone tell me how to take the banners off? I've decided to fight on "general view", as you always lose more troops that way, and the banners are helping me to cheat (an incentive I rarely decline.)

Macedonia off to a horrid start. It's difficult to see how AI Macedonia is going to survive. We'll see.

Well done to all on getting it out. Great work.

The answer to both questions can be found in the mods\ebii\ebii.cfg file (edit this with any standard text editor, although we always recommend notepad++). We've even added comment text which tells you how to make the changes that enable windowed mode AND banners off/on (among several other popular options). Much easier to understand than the v2.2 version.

[QuintusSertorius]

"9. It's highly recommended that you play with windowed, borderless mode - this both improves campaign performance and increases stability too. In the same config file as above, ensure these values:"


Which config above? I've forgotten which file the code to switch to borderless windows, and haven't been able to find it. I don't have, and don't want to have, Java. I've just had a CTD after a battle, the first I've had in absolutely ages, and this is the only installation instruction I didn't follow.

Also, could someone tell me how to take the banners off? I've decided to fight on "general view", as you always lose more troops that way, and the banners are helping me to cheat (an incentive I rarely decline.)

Macedonia off to a horrid start. It's difficult to see how AI Macedonia is going to survive. We'll see.

Well done to all on getting it out. Great work.

One of the simplest ways to avoid most post-battle CTDs is to wait 10-15 seconds after the summary scroll appears, before clicking to return to the campaign. That gives the game time to move the battle engine out of memory. It's an old RTW trick that also works with M2TW.

\mods\ebii\EBII.cfg is the config file you need, you don't need the Java-based tool if you're prepared to edit it manually. Most of the entries are labelled to tell you what they do, and what the value they're currently set at does. That includes the ones for banners and those horrible green arrows that appear underneath the units.

However, you may also need to check the medieval2.preferences.cfg in the root directory for M2TW to make sure it doesn't have conflicting values.

Q: deciding which faction to go with first, Romani, KH, or Parthians. Which of those rosters is most
Complete? I'm guessing KH but am unsure.

Relatedly, I recall talk earlier about Italian AoR units. I'd love to have some diverse regional allied Italian armies as the Romani. Are those in the game now? I've noticed a few new Italian units but I'm guessing if there are more they might be at the Polybian stage?

Rome's core roster is largely complete, but there are still many Italic AoR units to come. There is more to see (and their recruitment has been updated since 2.2b to be more varied as well) and there are new Ligurian, Histro-Venetic, Oscan and Umbro-Picenian units to add variety. Many of those units disappear with the Polybian reform, as the Italian allies standardise on the Roman model.

The Hellenistic roster is basically done, but KH may miss out on some of the planned regional units in some places which are less fleshed out. That said, Illyria, Thrace, Anatolia and the central portions of the map are well-filled.

Pahlava are missing both core units and swathes of steppe regionals. They don't even have the full Dahan roster yet, which is their core. However, as you settle and take over Iran/Syria, you'll get access to the more complete Eastern roster and may not notice the lesser of steppe variety.

[Colos1987]

"9. It's highly recommended that you play with windowed, borderless mode - this both improves campaign performance and increases stability too. In the same config file as above, ensure these values:"


Which config above? I've forgotten which file the code to switch to borderless windows, and haven't been able to find it. I don't have, and don't want to have, Java. I've just had a CTD after a battle, the first I've had in absolutely ages, and this is the only installation instruction I didn't follow.

Also, could someone tell me how to take the banners off? I've decided to fight on "general view", as you always lose more troops that way, and the banners are helping me to cheat (an incentive I rarely decline.)

Macedonia off to a horrid start. It's difficult to see how AI Macedonia is going to survive. We'll see.

Well done to all on getting it out. Great work.

You will find that Hellas is a special hellhole in 2.3 - a faction that is destroyed may come back and dominate the region, destroying everyone else... only so that one of the now destroyed factions would come back and then they will dominate for a while... for a while

[QuintusSertorius]

You will find that Hellas is a special hellhole in 2.3 - a faction that is destroyed may come back and dominate the region, destroying everyone else... only so that one of the now destroyed factions would come back and then they will dominate for a while... for a while

Yep, Colos1987 ran a 300+ turn playtest and was observing the goings-on in Greece. Let's just say it was...dynamic.

[Kull]

Q: deciding which faction to go with first, Romani, KH, or Parthians. Which of those rosters is most
Complete? I'm guessing KH but am unsure.

Relatedly, I recall talk earlier about Italian AoR units. I'd love to have some diverse regional allied Italian armies as the Romani. Are those in the game now? I've noticed a few new Italian units but I'm guessing if there are more they might be at the Polybian stage?

From a roster perspective, KH is more complete. Plus it puts you right in the middle of the new Greek "mosh pit". Trust me, campaigns here are a COMPLETELY different animal in v2.3. On the other hand, Parthia has the new voice mod, portraits, all-new eastern ancillaries, plugs you right into the new Pastoral Settlement system, and has some interesting new traits and other features. Much more complete than in the past. Meanwhile Rome is mature but has a lot of interesting fixes and improvements (see the changelog for details)and has great game play (as always).

Whichever choice you make, it won't be the wrong one!

[Raiuga]

Hello, don't know if I should post this here but maybe you should create a separate thread where we can point out some minor errors or tweaks for this version. From the fan praises to the installation tips, some small tweaks my be lost in here.

Anyways, I started a Qart-hadasht campaign and after some turns I noticed my FM "Hanno" (HannoB ofcarthago, lets call them Hanno the old) got the Anti-Barcid trait and the biography for Hanno the Great. I always thought that the reincarnation of that historical character was the younger "Hanno" (HannoA ofcarthago). I started another campaign to test this and then, instead of "Hanno the old" getting these traits, they were assign to the second Hanno in the family tree (Hanno ofcarthago) after he was born (4 turns).

Family tree

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

; Region: Elimya
; --------------------
character HannoB ofcarthago, named character, male, age 32, x 129, y 133
traits NaturalIntelligence 4 , NaturalCharisma 4 , NaturalEnergy 5 , Selflessness 2 , Temperament 3 , LoyaltyLevel 6 , QarthadastimKarthadastei 1 , TurnsAlive 3 , CommandExperience 3 , GoodTactician 1 , GoodAdministrator 1 , Disciplinarian 1 , GoodAttacker 1 , Father 1 , AncillariesAvailable 2 , Carthage_Citizenship 1 , Carthage_Status 2 , Wealthy 3 , Rb_mhnt 2
ancillaries siege_engineer, greek_turncoat

character_record Bodinemelqart ofcarthago, male, age 87, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Eshmunkhilletz ofcarthago, male, age 72, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record HannibaalA ofcarthago, male, age 71, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Zita, female, age 86, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Muttunbaal, female, age 70, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Amotsar, female, age 69, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Abdosir, female, age 50, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Elissa, female, age 30, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Nambaal, female, age 48, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Paalashtart, female, age 28, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Arishat, female, age 27, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Panesimlot, female, age 20, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Rabat, female, age 16, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Batreshep, female, age 16, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Safanbaal, female, age 16, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Gisqo ofcarthago, male, age 10, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hamilqart Barca, male, age 1, alive, never_a_leader
character_record HannoA ofcarthago, male, age 2, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hannibaal ofcarthago, male, age 1, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hasdrubaal ofcarthago, male, age 11, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Sakarbaal ofcarthago, male, age 1, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Carthalo ofcarthago, male, age 14, alive, never_a_leader
character_record GisqoB ofcarthago, male, age 13, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hanno ofcarthago, male, age 15, alive, never_a_leader

relative Bodinemelqart ofcarthago, Zita, Eshmunkhilletz ofcarthago, HannibaalA ofcarthago, Shafat ofcarthago, GisqoA ofcarthago, end
relative Eshmunkhilletz ofcarthago, Muttunbaal, Adonibaal ofcarthago, Milkherem ofcarthago, HannoB ofcarthago, Hamelqart ofcarthago, end
relative HannibaalA ofcarthago, Amotsar, Maharbaal ofcarthago, end
relative Shafat ofcarthago, Elissa, Haderbaal ofcarthago, Bomilkar ofcarthago, Carthalo ofcarthago, GisqoB ofcarthago, end
relative Adonibaal ofcarthago, Abdosir, Bodashtart ofcarthago, Himilqat ofcarthago, end
relative HannoB ofcarthago, Paalashtart, Hanno ofcarthago, Gisqo ofcarthago, Hamilqart Barca, end
relative Hamelqart ofcarthago, Panesimlot, HannoA ofcarthago, Hannibaal ofcarthago, end
relative Maharbaal ofcarthago, Arishat, Hasdrubaal ofcarthago, end
relative Haderbaal ofcarthago, Rabat, end
relative Bomilkar ofcarthago, Batreshep, end
relative GisqoA ofcarthago, Nambaal, HannibaalB ofcarthago, end
relative HannibaalB ofcarthago, Safanbaal, Sakarbaal ofcarthago, end

I was looking at the campaign_script and for the little I can get from it, the trigger was indeed for "Hanno ofcarthago", but how did I get those traits on "HannoB ofcarthago"?

Script

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

; Hamilcar
monitor_event CharacterComesOfAge FactionType f_carthage
and I_CharacterExists Hamilqart ofcarthago
console_command give_trait "Hamilqart ofcarthago" Barcid 1
console_command give_trait "Hamilqart ofcarthago" HamilcarBarcaBiography 1
terminate_monitor
end_monitor

; Hanno
monitor_event CharacterComesOfAge FactionType f_carthage
and I_CharacterExists Hanno ofcarthago
console_command give_trait "Hanno ofcarthago" AntiBarcid 1
console_command give_trait "Hanno ofcarthago" HannoBiography 1
terminate_monitor
end_monitor

Also, in the triggers the Hamilcar barcid traits and bio is pointing for the character "Hamilqart ofcarthago", but in the descr_strat you have the character "Hamilqart Barca". Did this work in your tests?

[Wulfburk]

yep, playing in greece now is even more awesome. Im playing as Epeiros, and, even though i managed to destroy antigonus gonatas army and capture demetrias, pyrrhus died and im in turn 35 with -15000 gold and only half a stack worth of troops to fight a full koinon hellenon army tht keeps replenishing.. Am surprised but im probably gonna lose the campaign lol.

At least now pyrrhus heir has allied to antigonus heir in korinthos in order to halt an aggressive athenai and sparta...

oh and the lack of a ship as epeiros really damaged me at the start, had to bring the diplomat in carthage all the way back to greece through land, and coudnt evacuate any of the troops in taras, which i would have done in turn 1 if i had a ship, and would have been great since rome took it in turn 2.

Difficulty makes the campaign better though!

[QuintusSertorius]

Hello, don't know if I should post this here but maybe you should create a separate thread where we can point out some minor errors or tweaks for this version. From the fan praises to the installation tips, some small tweaks my be lost in here.

Anyways, I started a Qart-hadasht campaign and after some turns I noticed my FM "Hanno" (HannoB ofcarthago, lets call them Hanno the old) got the Anti-Barcid trait and the biography for Hanno the Great. I always thought that the reincarnation of that historical character was the younger "Hanno" (HannoA ofcarthago). I started another campaign to test this and then, instead of "Hanno the old" getting these traits, they were assign to the second Hanno in the family tree (Hanno ofcarthago) after he was born (4 turns).

Family tree

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

; Region: Elimya
; --------------------
character HannoB ofcarthago, named character, male, age 32, x 129, y 133
traits NaturalIntelligence 4 , NaturalCharisma 4 , NaturalEnergy 5 , Selflessness 2 , Temperament 3 , LoyaltyLevel 6 , QarthadastimKarthadastei 1 , TurnsAlive 3 , CommandExperience 3 , GoodTactician 1 , GoodAdministrator 1 , Disciplinarian 1 , GoodAttacker 1 , Father 1 , AncillariesAvailable 2 , Carthage_Citizenship 1 , Carthage_Status 2 , Wealthy 3 , Rb_mhnt 2
ancillaries siege_engineer, greek_turncoat

character_record Bodinemelqart ofcarthago, male, age 87, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Eshmunkhilletz ofcarthago, male, age 72, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record HannibaalA ofcarthago, male, age 71, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Zita, female, age 86, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Muttunbaal, female, age 70, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Amotsar, female, age 69, dead 1, never_a_leader
character_record Abdosir, female, age 50, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Elissa, female, age 30, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Nambaal, female, age 48, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Paalashtart, female, age 28, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Arishat, female, age 27, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Panesimlot, female, age 20, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Rabat, female, age 16, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Batreshep, female, age 16, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Safanbaal, female, age 16, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Gisqo ofcarthago, male, age 10, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hamilqart Barca, male, age 1, alive, never_a_leader
character_record HannoA ofcarthago, male, age 2, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hannibaal ofcarthago, male, age 1, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hasdrubaal ofcarthago, male, age 11, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Sakarbaal ofcarthago, male, age 1, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Carthalo ofcarthago, male, age 14, alive, never_a_leader
character_record GisqoB ofcarthago, male, age 13, alive, never_a_leader
character_record Hanno ofcarthago, male, age 15, alive, never_a_leader

relative Bodinemelqart ofcarthago, Zita, Eshmunkhilletz ofcarthago, HannibaalA ofcarthago, Shafat ofcarthago, GisqoA ofcarthago, end
relative Eshmunkhilletz ofcarthago, Muttunbaal, Adonibaal ofcarthago, Milkherem ofcarthago, HannoB ofcarthago, Hamelqart ofcarthago, end
relative HannibaalA ofcarthago, Amotsar, Maharbaal ofcarthago, end
relative Shafat ofcarthago, Elissa, Haderbaal ofcarthago, Bomilkar ofcarthago, Carthalo ofcarthago, GisqoB ofcarthago, end
relative Adonibaal ofcarthago, Abdosir, Bodashtart ofcarthago, Himilqat ofcarthago, end
relative HannoB ofcarthago, Paalashtart, Hanno ofcarthago, Gisqo ofcarthago, Hamilqart Barca, end
relative Hamelqart ofcarthago, Panesimlot, HannoA ofcarthago, Hannibaal ofcarthago, end
relative Maharbaal ofcarthago, Arishat, Hasdrubaal ofcarthago, end
relative Haderbaal ofcarthago, Rabat, end
relative Bomilkar ofcarthago, Batreshep, end
relative GisqoA ofcarthago, Nambaal, HannibaalB ofcarthago, end
relative HannibaalB ofcarthago, Safanbaal, Sakarbaal ofcarthago, end

I was looking at the campaign_script and for the little I can get from it, the trigger was indeed for "Hanno ofcarthago", but how did I get those traits on "HannoB ofcarthago"?

Script

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

; Hamilcar
monitor_event CharacterComesOfAge FactionType f_carthage
and I_CharacterExists Hamilqart ofcarthago
console_command give_trait "Hamilqart ofcarthago" Barcid 1
console_command give_trait "Hamilqart ofcarthago" HamilcarBarcaBiography 1
terminate_monitor
end_monitor

; Hanno
monitor_event CharacterComesOfAge FactionType f_carthage
and I_CharacterExists Hanno ofcarthago
console_command give_trait "Hanno ofcarthago" AntiBarcid 1
console_command give_trait "Hanno ofcarthago" HannoBiography 1
terminate_monitor
end_monitor

Also, in the triggers the Hamilcar barcid traits and bio is pointing for the character "Hamilqart ofcarthago", but in the descr_strat you have the character "Hamilqart Barca". Did this work in your tests?

Those are typos, in both instances they should be pointing at the infant FMs who come of age later. Now corrected in the dev build.

yep, playing in greece now is even more awesome. Im playing as Epeiros, and, even though i managed to destroy antigonus gonatas army and capture demetrias, pyrrhus died and im in turn 35 with -15000 gold and only half a stack worth of troops to fight a full koinon hellenon army tht keeps replenishing.. Am surprised but im probably gonna lose the campaign lol.

At least now pyrrhus heir has allied to antigonus heir in korinthos in order to halt an aggressive athenai and sparta...

oh and the lack of a ship as epeiros really damaged me at the start, had to bring the diplomat in carthage all the way back to greece through land, and coudnt evacuate any of the troops in taras, which i would have done in turn 1 if i had a ship, and would have been great since rome took it in turn 2.

Difficulty makes the campaign better though!

Epeiros is a genuinely hard faction now. How do you like your northern neighbours?

The best way to think of the lack of a navy is that Pyrrhos has gambled all on capturing southern Greece, and mobilised all his oarsmen as skirmishers. His fleet is sitting on a beach somewhere with no crews to man them.

[parthian8]

I would say it was "dynamic" if Gonatas has at least a fighting chance of surviving the personal head-to-head that's been set up with Pyrrhus. As he did historically.
If not, its not dynamic. Its a carve-up.

Does anyone know where to change the code for borderless windows.

[QuintusSertorius]

I would say it was "dynamic" if Gonatas has at least a fighting chance of surviving the personal head-to-head that's been set up with Pyrrhus. As he did historically.
If not, its not dynamic. Its a carve-up.

Does anyone know where to change the code for borderless windows.

AI-Makedonia tends to take Pella and park him there for good. So unless AI-Epeiros comes for him he's quite safe. It's southern Greece that is dynamic and changing. But out of there can come big changes to the whole.

In the EBII.cfg as pointed out above, under [video]. It's all labelled in there.

[parthian8]

So, there's no chance of Gonatas being on the offensive in the south, helping drive Pyrrhus to his fate in Argos?
He sits in Pella and hopes Pyrrhus doesn't come for him?
Just as I imagined. How surprising.

[rhavviepoodle]

As Malkuta Nabatu:

I'm on turn 70 right now, and I'm still fairly small (only 5 provinces). Baktria is at war with Saka Rauka and Arche Seleukia. After I end turn, it cycles through to Baktria, and then the game crashes. So far I really dig the pastoral provinces, so I'm rather disappointed in this right now. Hopefully there's a way I can make this campaign work, because Malkuta Nabatu are one of my favorite factions and I haven't even gotten their first reform yet. Here's the error message that's been popping up.