Seleucid Campaign/Food Issues

[elder90]

Alright, Ive been playing total war since RTW and never had an issue that wasnt already discussed as such I never needed an account here (or if I made one I dont remember the email or anything)

With that out of the way, I am playing Rome II total war with the DEI overhaul. ABSOLUTELY AWESOME MOD.

However, I am very confused with this food supply line system. Ive googled and googled and all I can find is out dated guides that talk about buildings I cannot find in the game.

I need Strategic Depots but I cant seem to build them. What Chain are they under? All of my toops are starving and I have grain pits where I can but Ive got to get something else going or my empire will collapse. I had the same problem with my Massillian Campaign where I eventually gave up after taking all of Spain, Britain, and France but I just couldnt keep my armies fed. In that campaign, I had a global food surplus of like 150 and still everyone was starving/cities starving


The only Guide I can find which seems to be current is this one:
https://docs.google.com/presentation...c7d436fa9_0_38

It talks about the strategic depots but as I have said, I cant find them/build them. Is there something wrong with my game/install of the mod? Or were those buildings removed and the only option now is grain pits?

Im sorry if this is a dead horse on here but I cannot find much on it.

One more small issue Ive found is that when I start getting larger (like in the massillian campaign) I start getting LITERALLY DOZENS of "Low Regional supplies" Notifications. I mean, DOZENS of them every. single. turn. It can take me a solid 3 minutes to click through them all. I feel this is tied to the food issue, but again, I had a surplus of close to 150 food.

Thank you all again in advance for your help. And thank you to the Devs for doing such an awesome job on this mod

[drillmaster]

Make sure to have a SINGLE army in a region. Not province but region. Note that allied and enemy armies count towards that. A single region can support a single stack for quite some time if its not in the middle of the desert. Also check your food shortage in the province. You can hover over the food icon to see whats going on. I may give you a proper response when i go home.....

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[FlashHeart07]

Have you read the manual that we made?
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...Guides-and-FAQ


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[Dardo21]

In short, forum -> Grain Storage (gives you a supply line for 3 adjacent regions (conditions apply) or agriculture - > granary supply line for 1 region (again conditions apply). Storage gives you 300 regional supply storage, granary 100. Trade ports give you a SL for 2 regions for the big ones, 1 for the smaller trade ports, Large trade ports increase storage by 200, smaller ones by a 100.

[Mepper]

You can see how much food you have in every region (not province). Click on a city, and hover your mouse over the food count number of the province, there you will get an overview of how much food is stored, produced, and used (by armies). If you click on another city in the same province the food count will be the same but you will see that the supplies are different. Make sure you give a region time to recover after you have campaigned extensively in it. If one army consumes more than a region produces, move the army around every now and then.

Also keep in mind that the supplies have nothing to do with the amount of food in a province (although food buildings also create extra supplies). Having negatieve food in a province is no problem whatsoever (I highly recommend specializing every province, so focus for example one province entirely on industry, or create a recruitment province. As long as your global food supply is positive you are fine).

And having a 150 food surplus is useless. You should really produce less food and go for more income.

You can make a supply depot in the yellow chain of any province capitol.

[elder90]

You can see how much food you have in every region (not province). Click on a city, and hover your mouse over the food count number of the province, there you will get an overview of how much food is stored, produced, and used (by armies). If you click on another city in the same province the food count will be the same but you will see that the supplies are different. Make sure you give a region time to recover after you have campaigned extensively in it. If one army consumes more than a region produces, move the army around every now and then.

Also keep in mind that the supplies have nothing to do with the amount of food in a province (although food buildings also create extra supplies). Having negatieve food in a province is no problem whatsoever (I highly recommend specializing every province, so focus for example one province entirely on industry, or create a recruitment province. As long as your global food supply is positive you are fine).

And having a 150 food surplus is useless. You should really produce less food and go for more income.

You can make a supply depot in the yellow chain of any province capitol.

First of all Thank you all for your help!

Secondly, The Food surplus of my Massillian Campaign was in an all out effort, before my empire collapsed to fix the food issue. I dont normally carry that large of a food surplus.

So, Essentially, I can build up, say Mesopotamia (In my Seleucid Campaign) to supply the food for the rest of my empire? As in, Build a Depot there, with tons of food production (High fertility) and Grain pits in my other regions which would theoretically accept the supplies from Mesopotamia? (I still only have the starting provinces in that campaign)

Something else I was wondering about was in the "lists" section under "Provinces" I could have several cities importing food which would be fine as long as Mesopotamia is producing enough supplies for all of the surrounding regions? And if they are Importing food I just have to watch how many supplies are in the grain pit while I have an army stationed there? I have a feeling the guys in asia minor are about to have a field day in Antioch.

With this mod, Would you mind giving me an example of how you would build out the starting Seleucid settlements? I think I am to used to vanilla.

[Mepper]

So, Essentially, I can build up, say Mesopotamia (In my Seleucid Campaign) to supply the food for the rest of my empire? As in, Build a Depot there, with tons of food production (High fertility) and Grain pits in my other regions which would theoretically accept the supplies from Mesopotamia? (I still only have the starting provinces in that campaign)

Something else I was wondering about was in the "lists" section under "Provinces" I could have several cities importing food which would be fine as long as Mesopotamia is producing enough supplies for all of the surrounding regions? And if they are Importing food I just have to watch how many supplies are in the grain pit while I have an army stationed there? I have a feeling the guys in asia minor are about to have a field day in Antioch.

With this mod, Would you mind giving me an example of how you would build out the starting Seleucid settlements? I think I am to used to vanilla.

First of all, yes, you could theoretically supply your entire empire from Mesopotamia, but it doesn't work the way you seem to think it does. If you build Mesopotamia to produce a ton of food, you are fine as long as your global food supply is possitive. Building a supply depot in that province will be useless however. Supply depots only supply food for your armies in foreign provinces. If your troops are in your territory, they will always be supplied by the local region (the only exception is that iirc garrisoned troops don't use supplies at all). The important thing to remember is that you do not need to produce any food whatsoever in a province to produce supplies. It also doesn't matter where the food is produced, as long as you have a global food supply.

Supply depots are used for supplying your troops in foreign territory. You would ideally build them in a province capitol on your border, in a region that has plenty supplies. Your troops will then, whilst in foreign territory, use the supplies of the region the depot is in.

For your armies in your own region, always check the regional supplies (again, hover your mouse over the food number of a province, the supplies you see will be different for every region you click on). You don't need a grain pit to supply your troops there, but food production buildings will increase supplies. It might be a good idea to build some food buildings in your border province if you want to permanently have troops around. (Grain pits would most likely be best for that since they also give your increased reinforcement, so your armies will be faster up to full strength again after taking some losses. And grain pits also give supplies to the adjecent foreign regions.)

For building up your provinces, it is all about specialization. Generally you will want most of your provinces to produce as much food as possible, and specialize the rest the rest of them. You will want:
-One (or two, depending on your size) provinces to recruit troops. Build all the different baracks there (one of each), a military academy, and in every town a temple that gives increased xp to units recruited (this will also help to generate 1st and 2nd class citizens to populate your armies). Building the yellow building in a small town that gives increased 1st and 2nd pops is also usefull.
-Industry provinces. Simply build as much black buildings as you can, plus everything that generates extra income from industry. And a gladiator building in the capitol to try to still have your plebs be happy. And don't forget to use a general as governer (level the skills under Capable Bureaucrat)!
-Trade provinces. A very good province for this would be Africa. Build trade ports in every town, and build the yellow trade building in minor cities, and the wine trader in your capitol. Just try to get as much income from commerce as you can, and as many buildings that give bonuses to income from commerce. In food, industry and trade provinces you will almost always want the trade capitol (as lvl 3 or 4 of your province capitol).
-Defensive border provinces. If you have warlike neighbours but don't want, or can't conquer them, specialize a province to supply your armies (build foor buildings), regenerate your troops faster (build a medicus, blue building in the capitol that gives replenishment, and grain pits). Also try to get as big of a garrison as your can in every border province (build the military capitol building, and build barracks in minor towns).

If you can come up with something other to specialize in, go ahead of course. A good tip is to always check what the bonnuses are of your specific regions. Left below on your screen, if you select a prince, you see next to for example the season icon, green icons with little temples on them, if you hover your mouse of these, you can see what pros and cons your province has. If you got a lot of bonuses to tax and industry, make it an industry province, if your region is garbage, produce food, etc.
For good examples on how to build a good starting position for your empire, check this thread: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-on-how-to-Win

[Chevalier1982]

Mepper, thanks a lot for your detailed answer!

[elder90]

Alright, I didn't want to make a new thread as it is related to the same campaign.

My buddy and I are in this multiplayer campaign. We just rolled turn 130 and are going to war against Rome. He is playing as the Ptolemaic dynasty, me as seleukid. How should we structure our armies to deal with the MASSIVE Roman Empire? They have 6 fullstacks in north africa (where my buddy will invade) and untold numbers in greece (which is where I will strike). My normal army comp is as follows

6 phalanx
2 heavy sword
2 thuros spears
4 archers
2 companion cav
1 Syrian war elephant
1 chariot unit
Gen
1 supply unit

I found my army to be more of a general purpose traditional (to a degree) Greek army. It was hell fighting against the parthians with it though as their archers and missile cav was tough to match. But everyone else I've fought went pretty well with few casualties

My buddy's army's vary a lot but it's mostly cav and archers with a few light sword units and a 4 or less phalanx units.

Any tips would be appreciated

[Frosthammer]

Alright, I didn't want to make a new thread as it is related to the same campaign.

Any tips would be appreciated

You can use naval superiority - catch transport ships, burn coastal cities, land your troops near rome and take it to prevent "war in Italy" script.

[FlashHeart07]

You can use naval superiority - catch transport ships, burn coastal cities, land your troops near rome and take it to prevent "war in Italy" script.

Yawn... that sound like a boring and gamey strategy. Why would anyone want to find ways to beat scripts ment to increase the fighting capabilities of Rome.
You could just as well open up the dB files and add player restricted shark units with freaking laser beams attached to their heads.

[FlashHeart07]

Alright, I didn't want to make a new thread as it is related to the same campaign.

My buddy and I are in this multiplayer campaign. We just rolled turn 130 and are going to war against Rome. He is playing as the Ptolemaic dynasty, me as seleukid. How should we structure our armies to deal with the MASSIVE Roman Empire? They have 6 fullstacks in north africa (where my buddy will invade) and untold numbers in greece (which is where I will strike). My normal army comp is as follows

6 phalanx
2 heavy sword
2 thuros spears
4 archers
2 companion cav
1 Syrian war elephant
1 chariot unit
Gen
1 supply unit

I found my army to be more of a general purpose traditional (to a degree) Greek army. It was hell fighting against the parthians with it though as their archers and missile cav was tough to match. But everyone else I've fought went pretty well with few casualties

My buddy's army's vary a lot but it's mostly cav and archers with a few light sword units and a 4 or less phalanx units.

Any tips would be appreciated

If you and your buddy like to immerse yourself in the game and feel like that ancient general commanding battle hardend troops, you could scout the Roman armies to see their troop composition and adjust to this within your troop limitations. If the bulk of their army consist of heavy slow moving infantry you could try and counter this with fast moving peltast to hit them in the flank while you keep them locked by highly defensive units. Use hard hitting AOR units for attacks in the flanks. Try to setup an ambush where you can easily pepper them with javelins.

I cannot tell you the exact and perfect army composition, but I can suggest that you look at strengths and weaknesses of the enemy army and adapt your own army to counter this.

[Dardo21]

Yawn... that sound like a boring and gamey strategy. Why would anyone want to find ways to beat scripts ment to increase the fighting capabilities of Rome.
You could just as well open up the dB files and add player restricted shark units with freaking laser beams attached to their heads.

Do you have a modding guide on how to do that ?

[elder90]

If you and your buddy like to immerse yourself in the game and feel like that ancient general commanding battle hardend troops, you could scout the Roman armies to see their troop composition and adjust to this within your troop limitations. If the bulk of their army consist of heavy slow moving infantry you could try and counter this with fast moving peltast to hit them in the flank while you keep them locked by highly defensive units. Use hard hitting AOR units for attacks in the flanks. Try to setup an ambush where you can easily pepper them with javelins.

I cannot tell you the exact and perfect army composition, but I can suggest that you look at strengths and weaknesses of the enemy army and adapt your own army to counter this.

You are very right as the vast majority of romes armies in north africa are extremely heavy infantry. Typical Roman armies really. I'm just not sure how my armies that are currently up and running will do against the romans. I fell they will do alright. I think I will sub out the elephants for another shock cavalry unit as most of those units have a bonus against elephants. I really wish I was better at skirmishing so I could use pelstas better. Last time I used them against the quidri I just got them massacred.

To be honest, this is the first non Roman campaign I've played where Rome has gotten this large. They currently own most of gaul, almost all of Greece, all of africa (other than egypt) And most of Spain. They really are a daunting task even for the might of both of out empires

I am certainly not about trying to find ways around a more difficult fight. And definitely not about to avoid scripted aspects of the game

Thank you very much for the input!

[elder90]

Alright, The newest update to DEI added the Banditry Feature and a few other small changes that are Effecting my campaign.

I am still struggling to build out my cities correctly and my growth is not doing well. I was unable to access the Saves above to view how cities are best built in this Mod. Is there any way someone that has made it past turn 100 in a Seleukid Campaign could take a few screenshots and post it up here? Hopefully of Antioch and the surrounding settlements

Essentially I have conquered everthing from Syria, half of Asia Minor, The entire Sinai Peninsula, all but whats left of my Satraps(Which Rebelled a few turns ago due to the update) and all of Bactria. The Sinai Will not grow. I have tons of Growth buildings and tax exempted most regions and yet they show Black in the tactical view(Same as most of Bactria.) These regions are also struggling with Banditry bad. Around the 55 mark in each settlement. All of my settlements have a minimum of 30-40 Banditry with some up at the 55-65 Mark. I have built Phrourions in several settlements and I am building more but it doesn’t seem to help enough. Do I really need one of these in each settlement or do they have any effect on nearby settlements? I have come to the conclusion that Provinces that are primarily agriculture must have a Phrourion or another building that drastically reduces banditry.


Recently one of the factions in Asia Minor Besieged Antioch for 2 turns before I wiped the floor with them. This was a half stack that just slipped through my front line in Asia Minor. They did not enter the city and the Garrison was undamaged in the fight to break the siege. For the last 5 years in the game the population has not come back. IE, I had roughly 10,000 1^st Class Citizens before the siege, now I have 245 5 years after the siege(Same principle with all other classes.) Antioch was my main recruitment settlement for all of Syria and Asia minor so I am struggling with replenishing my forces from battle. As a side note to this issue, I am seriously struggling to get 3^rd class citizenship to grow across my empire. I have no idea what I am doing wrong here.

I am also struggling to produce food evidently. I have dozens of farms and yet I only have a surplus of 12 and most of my best money making regions have been exempted from tax because of this shortage (having this many farms is contributing to banditry but I have no other option.) Even with this massive empire I still only make 2500 a turn (Because of exempted regions). This is limiting me from expanding my empire any further even though I have ground infront of me that is undefended I am hesitant to take it because I know I cannot convert them. Between the War with Rome and my recently rebelled satraps (Which makes no sense because they loved me the entire game, I went to countless wars for them and defended them from Parthia yet they rebelled simply because of the update) I am starting to lose the economic war. The best part is when I took out Parthia after Parthia declared war on my Satraps, I had 7 Full Stacks in the area and for a moment I thought “Maybe I should just kill my satraps now? My entire military force is in the area.” I didn’t do it because they loved me and now I am reaping what I sowed.


I greatly appreciate you guys help up to this point. If you need more information to diagnose my empires Illness i will provide such information.

[Dardo21]

Did you start a new game after the new update? And also, did you upgrade far into the social techs, they increase growth and increase sanitation and -banditry. Your senators and generals also have - banditry and sanitation skills I believe.

[elder90]

I did not start a new game as this is a multiplayer campaign with my friend. Also, I read somewhere that this update was save compatible.

I believe I have researched several of those techs, I may be missing a couple

[Dardo21]

Yeah it's compatible, but I also seem to be remember reading that not all of the effects are correctly applied to an existing save.

[Dresden]

Banditry will hit save games pretty hard because they don't have any way to prepare for it being added. Also if you have loaded up on trade/economy buildings it will be even worse.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

I did not start a new game as this is a multiplayer campaign with my friend. Also, I read somewhere that this update was save compatible.

I believe I have researched several of those techs, I may be missing a couple

Even if it's compatible, it's always advisable to start fresh when a big update hits.