Unused Faction Slots

[Artannis Wolfrunner]

Partially true just that Ptoelamy still concern themself with Anatolian affair so their is not fully united.

2.4 Seleucid meanwhile is hyper aggresive, expanding everywhere but still retain awareness that their army should be focused on fighting Ptoleamy in Syria. Perhaps even better now because now Seleucid can actually push Ptoleamy back, used to be Seleucid could lose Antioch to Ptoelamy but seems no longer the case.

It's an odd case, under AI control due to free money cheats the Seleukids can essentially wage full scale war on 5 or 6 fronts all at once, bringing half a dozen stacks or more to bear against every faction it fights. It may be even more egregious than the Grey Death I recall from the EB1 days. With Ptolemy and Seleukia under AI control, a Meroe faction would only help the Seleukid AI become even more oppressive.

However playing the Seleukids is quite different. Resource and manpower management is crucial, and Ptolemy is the strongest opponent due to the many cities and ease of concentrating his forces in Asia Minor or the Levant. A Meroe faction would potentially help divide the attention of the Ptolemy AI.

Most importantly though Ptolemy is easy to play, possibly the easiest faction in EB2. Your position in Egypt is completely unassailable and you start with a base in Asia Minor to take the Seleukids apart from two directions, you can have Antioch by turn 5 if you are quick. If there were a faction south of Egypt to act as a counterbalance, the Ptolemy player's start would be much more precarious and forces would have to be split as it would likely be too dangerous to fully rush Antioch with Meroe building up below you.

Pritanoi has a somewhat similar situation in that their start is extremely easy due to the lack of any enemies. This also makes their start boring, as unique a faction as it is I honestly cannot fathom anyone selecting this faction for a campaign due to its location being completely removed from everything that is happening in the world. But, maybe that's the appeal for some.

[eyelurker]

It's an odd case, under AI control due to free money cheats the Seleukids can essentially wage full scale war on 5 or 6 fronts all at once, bringing half a dozen stacks or more to bear against every faction it fights. It may be even more egregious than the Grey Death I recall from the EB1 days. With Ptolemy and Seleukia under AI control, a Meroe faction would only help the Seleukid AI become even more oppressive.

However playing the Seleukids is quite different. Resource and manpower management is crucial, and Ptolemy is the strongest opponent due to the many cities and ease of concentrating his forces in Asia Minor or the Levant. A Meroe faction would potentially help divide the attention of the Ptolemy AI.

Most importantly though Ptolemy is easy to play, possibly the easiest faction in EB2. Your position in Egypt is completely unassailable and you start with a base in Asia Minor to take the Seleukids apart from two directions, you can have Antioch by turn 5 if you are quick. If there were a faction south of Egypt to act as a counterbalance, the Ptolemy player's start would be much more precarious and forces would have to be split as it would likely be too dangerous to fully rush Antioch with Meroe building up below you.

Pritanoi has a somewhat similar situation in that their start is extremely easy due to the lack of any enemies. This also makes their start boring, as unique a faction as it is I honestly cannot fathom anyone selecting this faction for a campaign due to its location being completely removed from everything that is happening in the world. But, maybe that's the appeal for some.

Technicly easier but as Ptolemy you have a mini death clock. Your starting economy cannot sustain the army that you own but unless you want to give up some of the region you have to use them.

The most important being the army in Alexandreia, because there is a script where you will get attacked by Cyrenaica. I'd say i only feel secured once i conquered the whole Syrian sea and push Seleucid into Babylon. Not to mention your horrible starting ruler and you cannot use your fl to do anything because Egypt will revolt if you leave for even a moment.

Seleucid despite it's many front and raider, just need to take out Ptoleamy Anatolia, not even need to conquer Egypt even if you will be. It's starting economy could actually sustain the massive Seleucid army if barely since the income is alnost zero but that's before the lucrative Iranian mine has been built. If anything the challange of Seleucid is that is burdensome to rule because of how many province and army you need to check right off the gate. Also yes Seleucid have their own Babylon festival to take care off but you could offload that responsibilty to FH and even if you don't Babylon takes much longer to displeased.

But overall i find Seleucid to be easier and most importantly more enjoyable.

[Gurkhal]

I was convinced by the argument that there needs to be some kind of competition on the western island, hence I voted for the Caledonians but I would be equally happy with another Briton faction.

Otherwise I would personally be more interested in the Galatians BUT Anatolia looks kind of crowded as it is already so I went for the "better gameplay balance" option.

[Hirtius]

Personally I’d want Meroe, but I don’t think that’s feasible of the best option. I don’t think most of the factions discussed are. Meroe has almost nowhere to reasonably expand, same with the Galatians, and the Caledonians would only exist as a foil to the Pritanoi. It’d be interesting, but I’m not sure if that’s the best use of the slots.

Gameplay wise I think the Belgai and the Scordisci or an Illyrian faction are the best fit. Both of those regions could do for a little extra chaos.