Announcement: Europa Barbarorum II 2.35 released!

[Rad]

Yeah, that happens. Epeiros respawned in the north of Asia Minor for me. There were... stranger occurrences in the past.
However, this is the first time I notice the faction re-emergence firing up for a living faction. Because the army spawned in Makedonia, it's great for roleplay.

[Lusitanio]

Folks, the faction re-emergence script just fired up for the Antigonids and a fresh army spawned near Pella. Trouble is, they weren't a dead faction, having already re-emerged in Thessaly some turns ago. Is that intended or what?

Not intended at all. However, the faction re-emergence script has already been changed in the dev build

[Roma_Victrix]

Yeah, that happens. Epeiros respawned in the north of Asia Minor for me. There were... stranger occurrences in the past.
However, this is the first time I notice the faction re-emergence firing up for a living faction. Because the army spawned in Makedonia, it's great for roleplay.

Actually, something similar just happened to me! Koinon Hellenon was recently destroyed by Epeiros before Epeiros lost all their family members and seemingly pwned themselves even though they had like six or seven provinces. LOL. So now not only has Epeiros spawned in a weird way, but Koinon Hellenon just re-spawned took two cities at once from Makedonia! I got two separate spawning messages in the same turn, one for Athens, the other for Corinth (although in reality they rebelled and took Sparta, not Corinth, it seems). This is all really wacky stuff, but it sure is entertaining. Much like today, Greece is such a mess!

In the meantime, as the Roman faction I have taken Illyria Hellenike, the province with Epidamnos, just north of Epeiros proper. I wasn't planning on expanding further east just yet (it's 195 BC), as I am embroiled in two military campaigns in Iberia and Gaul at the moment following my conquest of Carthage. However, I couldn't help but take advantage of the situation and had to snatch at least one territory of Hellenistic Greece, while everyone is being distracted. To make matters even funkier the Seleucids have now moved into not only Thrace but also invaded and took Pella in Makedonia proper. The Makedonian faction is currently relegated to southern Greece, which is rather funny. I guess I'll have to fight the Seleucids soon enough now that I suddenly border them, to repeat the ole Battle of Magnesia against Antiochus III the Great.

[Roma_Victrix]

Is there any way to effectively counter the "embezzler" trait among family members when your empire and state purse gets large enough that you can comfortably expand and build full stack armies? If it is tied to prosperity in general, I guess I could just frivolously waste money to make the state budget shrink and nearly collapse, but that seems self-defeating and reckless to me. Then again the embezzler trait is a real danger to public order and hence the possibility of revolt. You want me to just give all that money away to the plebs instead? Come on guys, I can't help it if I'm just so successful and awesome, like Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

[KetsaKunta]

I'm honestly in awe of the all the changes made from the last version. I'm late to play this release but WOW I'm excited.

[QuintusSertorius]

Actually, something similar just happened to me! Koinon Hellenon was recently destroyed by Epeiros before Epeiros lost all their family members and seemingly pwned themselves even though they had like six or seven provinces. LOL. So now not only has Epeiros spawned in a weird way, but Koinon Hellenon just re-spawned took two cities at once from Makedonia! I got two separate spawning messages in the same turn, one for Athens, the other for Corinth (although in reality they rebelled and took Sparta, not Corinth, it seems). This is all really wacky stuff, but it sure is entertaining. Much like today, Greece is such a mess!

In the meantime, as the Roman faction I have taken Illyria Hellenike, the province with Epidamnos, just north of Epeiros proper. I wasn't planning on expanding further east just yet (it's 195 BC), as I am embroiled in two military campaigns in Iberia and Gaul at the moment following my conquest of Carthage. However, I couldn't help but take advantage of the situation and had to snatch at least one territory of Hellenistic Greece, while everyone is being distracted. To make matters even funkier the Seleucids have now moved into not only Thrace but also invaded and took Pella in Makedonia proper. The Makedonian faction is currently relegated to southern Greece, which is rather funny. I guess I'll have to fight the Seleucids soon enough now that I suddenly border them, to repeat the ole Battle of Magnesia against Antiochus III the Great.

Faction re-emergence is all kinds of broken, but largely un-fixable. I've tried my last resort in the upcoming patch, cutting it down and removing the secondary elements of it, we'll see how that goes.

The only other alternative is to remove it, which we're not prepared to do.

Is there any way to effectively counter the "embezzler" trait among family members when your empire and state purse gets large enough that you can comfortably expand and build full stack armies? If it is tied to prosperity in general, I guess I could just frivolously waste money to make the state budget shrink and nearly collapse, but that seems self-defeating and reckless to me. Then again the embezzler trait is a real danger to public order and hence the possibility of revolt. You want me to just give all that money away to the plebs instead? Come on guys, I can't help it if I'm just so successful and awesome, like Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

It's triggered by your treasury total, so no there's no other way to "manage" it other than spending the money, or keeping your FMs out of the cities.

[Rad]

Stop turning our FMs to trash, EB team! They're perfectly capable of doing that themselves.

[QuintusSertorius]

Stop leaving large surpluses of cash lying around where corruptible people can help themselves!

We've found a partial solution to some of the clipping experienced by cavalry with long shields - two custom animations Tux did a while back for javelins and overhand spears with long shields. However, that's not a total fix, we are still using the vanilla ones for underhand spears/lances and swords.

[Jurand of Cracow]

Stop leaving large surpluses of cash lying around where corruptible people can help themselves!

Well, I'm playing Pritanoi on VH/VH, building everything possible, recruiting every worthy unit (from above Toutanakoi - I field them in my army, but they're in surplus), being almost all the time on the offensive (but the winters), and yet I've got much budget surplus (3-5k/turn) amassing the wealth (80k in turn 73) (I admit not recruiting mercenaries though... should I?)
Actually, I think there's too much money around. The feeling with Pergamon on H/H in EBII 2.3 was only more palpable.
In my observation: for Pritanoi a town gives 1,5k and a large town 2-3k; an average Pritanoi unit costs 170 upkeep, that makes two towns or one large town paying for a full-stack.
(On the back of the envelope I may compare it to the SSHIP: a large Polish town gives 2,5k, a full stack costs 10k. Obviously, in the other mods it's different)
A corruption trait should be useful to curb this runaway income, I'm yet to see it.

(well, besides I'm having a great time in battles in the EBII!)

[Rad]

Stop leaving large surpluses of cash lying around where corruptible people can help themselves!

Actually, I am not hoarding cash. In order to save my FMs from themselves (you people, actually), my treasury is always kept below 100k mnai. I do that by spending lots of money on capital investments like big harbours and advanced mining facilities. Too bad I eventually run out of big building projects, so I have to find new ones... by taking more cities.

[QuintusSertorius]

The first trigger is at 50k, so if you're keeping treasuries of 100k it's no wonder it's being tripped regularly.

If you can't sink funds into construction, hiring mercs and raising fleets are good places to put it.

[Sar1n]

Well, I'm playing Pritanoi on VH/VH, building everything possible, recruiting every worthy unit (from above Toutanakoi - I field them in my army, but they're in surplus), being almost all the time on the offensive (but the winters), and yet I've got much budget surplus (3-5k/turn) amassing the wealth (80k in turn 73) (I admit not recruiting mercenaries though... should I?)
Actually, I think there's too much money around. The feeling with Pergamon on H/H in EBII 2.3 was only more palpable.
In my observation: for Pritanoi a town gives 1,5k and a large town 2-3k; an average Pritanoi unit costs 170 upkeep, that makes two towns or one large town paying for a full-stack.
(On the back of the envelope I may compare it to the SSHIP: a large Polish town gives 2,5k, a full stack costs 10k. Obviously, in the other mods it's different)
A corruption trait should be useful to curb this runaway income, I'm yet to see it.

(well, besides I'm having a great time in battles in the EBII!)

Try playing a more...expensive faction. Hellenistic factions where average field army unit costs around 300 in upkeep and you have to station a halfstack of some trashier troops in every city to prevent rebellion can really put a dent in your treasury.

[Rad]

The first trigger is at 50k, so if you're keeping treasuries of 100k it's no wonder it's being tripped regularly.

If you can't sink funds into construction, hiring mercs and raising fleets are good places to put it.

It's kept under 100k at all times. I did not notice anything particularly wrong in the 50-100k zone. I have good, bad and mediocre fms, and that's realistic for me. What's supposed to be happening?

[Jurand of Cracow]

Try playing a more...expensive faction. Hellenistic factions where average field army unit costs around 300 in upkeep and you have to station a halfstack of some trashier troops in every city to prevent rebellion can really put a dent in your treasury.

I've tried. I've played the Hellenistic faction that seemed to be the weakest: one-settlement Pergamon. Unfortunately, the problem there was my troops were too powerful in battles - I had no problems, having 10-20% losses. When I pointed at it, I was adviced on this forum to play a weaker faction. So I've played Pritanoi.
Ok, there're Lugiones, Numidia and Pontos that may be even weaker. I have small hope they're more of a challenge, though.

[Sar1n]

I've tried. I've played the Hellenistic faction that seemed to be the weakest: one-settlement Pergamon. Unfortunately, the problem there was my troops were too powerful in battles - I had no problems, having 10-20% losses. When I pointed at it, I was adviced on this forum to play a weaker faction. So I've played Pritanoi.
Ok, there're Lugiones, Numidia and Pontos that may be even weaker. I have small hope they're more of a challenge, though.

Pontos definitely isn't. It has opportunities for early expansion, and once they get out of the initial financial problems and secure most of Asia Minor, they can build I think most powerful full stacks in the game. Luigiones might be a challenge, they combine weaker roster (I think) with limited trade potential...

[QuintusSertorius]

Lugiones and Numidia are hard factions, Pontos isn't. Early Nabatu can be tricky, too.

[Jurand of Cracow]

Lugiones and Numidia are hard factions, Pontos isn't. Early Nabatu can be tricky, too.

Pontos definitely isn't. It has opportunities for early expansion, and once they get out of the initial financial problems and secure most of Asia Minor, they can build I think most powerful full stacks in the game. Luigiones might be a challenge, they combine weaker roster (I think) with limited trade potential...

Luigiones - in my experience money isn't a problem at all in the EBII (after the initial few turns). What limits your expansion is the availability of troops good enough to make any damage to the enemy. This is also related to the size of the settlements: once you have them big enough to build higher levels of your government then you get the access that solves your problems. So yes, the weak roster of Luigiones should constitute a challenge, at least initially.
Pontos - I hoped Hayasdan and Seleukids would give a kind of response to the expansion, hmm. The problem I foresee is that the player is decisive in the initial stages of the game, so before Hayasdan will make an order around it with the Eleutheroi, the player will already be after it.
Nabatu - yeah, this might be an option. The challenge to take over the Ptolemaioi. I'd be also interested in Saba but after Pritanoi experience I suspect they're swimming in cash.
Numidia - I'm somehow not keen on the simple politics: just fight against Kart Hadast...

BTW, what's with that CAI for very high difficulty?

I've got a question: is this alternating CAI only for the Hard campaign, or it also features the Very Hard?

The manual says:

"Hard. Recommended difficulty. The AI recruits mercenaries and dislikes the human faction. The diplomacy script may even it out as the factions cycle between warlike and peaceful.
Very HardThe AI recruit mercenaries and hate the human faction. Diplomacy is crippled."

[Ivir Baggins]

I'd be also interested in Saba but after Pritanoi experience I suspect they're swimming in cash.
Numidia - I'm somehow not keen on the simple politics: just fight against Kart Hadast...

Saba suffer from the problem of probably the worst cavalry in the game (at least within their immediate area), so expanding out from there on Hard or above can be tricky due to having to rely on mercenaries initially.

Numidia is simple politics, and if you're lucky with the diplomatic timings you can avoid any serious war with Carthage as a result of taking Likash. From then on you'll be good for money cos your units are cheap af.

[QuintusSertorius]

Numidia have a roster with no meaningful infantry until the Thureos Reform, and even then their real line doesn't develop until after they've settled. Nabatu have weak infantry until their reforms.

As mentioned, Saba have no cavalry until they've expanded. All you get in southern Arabia are camelry and the odd mercenary Ethiopians.

Anatolia is going to be a much less hospitable place with the patch, there'll be Pisidians and Galatians to deal with for the human player there.

[Lusitanio]

Anatolia is going to be a much less hospitable place with the patch, there'll be Pisidians and Galatians to deal with for the human player there.

By the way, any plans to revise the berber raids at Carthage? They are always the same number of troops and it becomes a boring event. One could pay the berber tribes some type of friendship tribute that works like the galatian one, with a bigger invasion some time after and then smaller ones with eventually a bigger one following. It could stop if the player holds all the regions in Africa.