now the game is SERIOUSLY unplayable (apparently not true)

[sftonix]

a note regarding the nicest ui cardz i have seen before, but the mod at the 7th release is more unplayable and difficult than the 6th. it's too simple playing the sassanids or the huns ( expecially this faction that you have strongly pumped up of armies up to the absurd... ), while playing WRE or worse ERE, now very weaker than in ib6, it's impossible ( the sassanids are too strong in the beginning, richier in heavy armies and full of onagers and already at the first turn they conquer too easily Amida and Edessa ). above all i don't understand why ERE cannot more recruit heavy cavalry as clibinari or cataphractari.... boh....

you have solved the high level of rioting in Africa and Gallia ( that in ib6 was the main problem ) but the game, on the whole is now truly impossible to play

i comprehend historical exigencies but you had to make the background a little more "friendly", not worsen it. after all this is just a game.....

[billt568]

Rome is supposed to be tough, abandon your outer provinces. Fighting horse archer armies is also supposed to be tough, draw them into sieges or fight with fords.

[Allied_Threat]

I thought the Western Roman Empire was supposed to be like that. Seriously, I just find myself gradually switching from Roman to barbarian troops to counteract horse archers in the long run.

[CIaagent11]

Thats probably why most vanilla TW games are so laughable easy.

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

and someone else was complaining that the ERE are too powerful?
anyway, I am no fan of impossible, tedious mods either. but I think it would be just as bad if WRE (for example) suddenly becomes a world power again (esp if ur not playing them).

[Pompeius Magnus]

I will be crazy when I read a thread like that.

The troops of the ERE are very powerful. When I play this faction I think I have enough (esp. in the east) full stacks to push the sassanids.

And when the WRE ist too weak than because it's historicall.

So don't worry Ramon. Everything is fine. I played with the version 7.02 (my special version/ hope you remember) to the year 480. It was a very historicall and very exciting campaign.

[pansoiatr]

I downloaded IBFD yesterday and i saw the starting position of every faction.It seens to me that it is only correct that west romans would be difficult to play since historically they were conquered in only a few years after the starting date of the game.And about the east romans it is also historically accurate that they were very hard pressed by the sassanids this period since their border towns were so vulnurable to raids and the romans could not aproach the heartlands of the sassanid empire

[Ahlerich]

i play allemanni on vh and i enjoy having a hard stand against the huns in the beginning of my campaign. thats all i can say. i didnt try the roman factions yet. but if its too hard for someone there is always the option to set the difficulty of battles to medium or below

[Boudicca]

I think the game ist very seriously playable. Better than that: I am delighted playing it. Invasio Barbarorum has recreated the feeling of the era. Winning on the hardest levels of gameplay now truly is "very hard" and not a vanilla cackewalk anymore. And by doing all that, one gains the feeling he's part of the era.

[Pompeius Magnus]

I think the game ist very seriously playable. Better than that: I am delighted playing it. Invasio Barbarorum has recreated the feeling of the era. Winning on the hardest levels of gameplay now truly is "very hard" and not a vanilla cackewalk anymore. And by doing all that, one gains the feeling he's part of the era.

I agree 100%!!!

[Echbart]

After playing some factions more seriously, only Lakhmids faction is totaly very very very hard! Sasanids and ERE are attacking you all the time evn if i made alliance with one of them. And both have much more powerfull infantry that i need twice big army to defet them.

[DaVinci]

I think the game ist very seriously playable. Better than that: I am delighted playing it. Invasio Barbarorum has recreated the feeling of the era. Winning on the hardest levels of gameplay now truly is "very hard" and not a vanilla cackewalk anymore. And by doing all that, one gains the feeling he's part of the era.

Seconded by me, Boudicca
I recently discovered IBFD anew*, and i'm very amazed of the progress of the that project. Have a hard time to recreate the West-Gothic Empire in Iberia, finally, at about 460 AD, i was able to take Toledo from the Vandals, the then valid capital (lol ... always try to play historical).

*Played at last as Attilla was still active.

But i must admit, on VH/VH the game is nearly a bit too hard (depends certainly on the chosen faction), for my taste also a bit too unrealistic hard on highest difficulty in some cases, as the AI is spamming units after units. But all in all, fantastic mod, which needs still balancing work in my view.

[DaVinci]

and someone else was complaining that the ERE are too powerful?
anyway, I am no fan of impossible, tedious mods either. but I think it would be just as bad if WRE (for example) suddenly becomes a world power again (esp if ur not playing them).

Correct, i see this exactly in the same wise ... and in my experience now, they are still a major power, also as AI, and ie. either all the Barbarians need more combat skills or the West-Romans would need some bad skills or should be still more expensive or both

As the Visigoths, i first sacked many of the middle/south-italian cities (besides Rome), then i went to south-france, cause in a former campaign, the WRE-AI was able to maintain very long their might, now in that campaign, the WRE got a renaissance at about 450-460 ... their infantry-units are still too good in my perspective as Barbarian

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

... their infantry-units are still too good in my perspective as Barbarian

I am hoping to add in Swabian's changes for the next patch (will make the barbarians stronger)

But all in all, fantastic mod, which needs still balancing work in my view.

definitely, the team never rests,just takes a little breather between versions

I think the game ist very seriously playable. Better than that: I am delighted playing it. Invasio Barbarorum has recreated the feeling of the era. Winning on the hardest levels of gameplay now truly is "very hard" and not a vanilla cackewalk anymore. And by doing all that, one gains the feeling he's part of the era.

as always, your servant, Lady Boudicca thanks for the thumbs up,

[DaVinci]

I am hoping to add in Swabian's changes for the next patch (will make the barbarians stronger)

...that's good to hear, and will add to my taste for a historical play.

I recently made nearly every Roman infantry unit more expensive (especially upkeep mainly +100) also some cavalry, and some of them got a less good combat skill ... what will not negate their superior combat status very much.

Also, it doesn't help if Barb units have in particular a much higher unit number while having very bad combat skills ... if those cheap and bad units shall remain with those combat values, they should at least have 3x unit numbers of the Romans, let's say base is 80 soldiers for Romans then those cheap Barbs must have 240 soldiers (rather peasants) or at least 160, and not only 120. And those not armoured poor peasant-Barbs should have eventually here and there more points dev skill, as they were at least pretty strong by nature. However, i as human i might be able to overcome the Romans, but the barbarian AI ...?

I see forward to the further development

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

@DaVinci
will see about adding in some of your ideas, I also think the suggestion of making the foederati as having fairly low recruitment but high upkeep to be very sound...
I have an image of foederati units relatively easy to build, but relatively more expensive to keep than equivalent Roman units...
this might also 'trick' the AI into building the relatively cheap units, thereby 'crippling' it a bit (would also be historical for the timeframe)

[DaVinci]

@DaVinci
will see about adding in some of your ideas, I also think the suggestion of making the foederati as having fairly low recruitment but high upkeep to be very sound...
I have an image of foederati units relatively easy to build, but relatively more expensive to keep than equivalent Roman units...
this might also 'trick' the AI into building the relatively cheap units, thereby 'crippling' it a bit (would also be historical for the timeframe)

...the foederati perhaps 0 and max 1 turn training while the real legionary-type units should have at least 2-3-4 turns (depending on their combat skills and historical reasons). And shouldn't have these foederati a lower will to fight for the Romans at this time? Maybe reflect this also with refined morale ... in my view the build should be designed to let collapsing the WRE, but there is the problem, that you have the most units for WRE and ERE together, so eventually you can give this direction a push via more unrest-codes etc. especially in Italy ... ie. adjusting the percentage of rebel-spawns per regions.

Well, to play the WRE should be the hell on earth


---
Btw., in my recent Visigoth campaign, the WRE is the major power in the west and middle european regions, except i hold the complete iberian peninsula plus Tolosa and Aquatania, still. Also WRE is expanding into the whole Gallic area (smashing the Franks) and north up to Scandinavia (note, i don't play with any scripts enabled ... but i already thought, there is a money-boost scripted for them ).

[Deus ret.]

... but i already thought, there is a money-boost scripted for them ).

If you play on VH, yes.

No, seriously: In both campaigns that I have played for more than 15 turns the WRE wasn't exactly collapsing utterly, but neither did it evolve into a major power. Both times they quickly lost Northern Italy to Visigoths and other Barbarians and were kicked out of Spain (by the Vandals) and the Balcans (mostly at the hand of the Huns). All they held after ~60 turns was a chunk of north Africa, middle & southern Italy plus the occasional surviving settlement here and there. Neither did they show much ambition to retake their lost lands...

From that I imagine that playing as them would be hell on earth!

[icydawgfish]

god, i think it's to hard and if you make the barbarians tougher, i might have 2 move down a couple difficulty levels.

[xerxes]

Hi,

I played EB 0.81 for some time, but when I saw that a new Invasio barbarorum was out I instellad, and after playing some days I must say that
I'm agree with you sftonix playing with sassanian faction is too easy and playing with Estern roman empire against sassanians is impossible I think that sassanians units need to be rebalanced.
In my last game I fought 4 times the samme saved battle in the mountains near antioch with the best troups availabla to ERE comitentes, clibanarii, armoured archers, sagitarii, cataphractii... My troops positioned on high grounds, the 4 times ùy troops were defeated by the standart sassanian army with extra-heavy cavalry (sorry I don't remember exact names) onagers, heavy spearmen, royal archers, deylamite infantry....
the reasons are that Sassanian units are to cheap to recruit and upkeeps are to low, AI sassanian will recruit full stacks of elite units, impossible with the ordinary you have, the units are also too strong onthe last battle I fought I was surprised to see only one unit of asvaran be able to festroy 2 units of comitentes, and two more units of roman catafractii.
I don't understand why cavalry units of sassanian army are large twice as their roman counterparts, I know that the backbone of sassanian army was heavy cavalry and horse archers and they could field large number of them but by this way the sassanian armies are always more numerous than your own and unbeatable.
Playing as ERE I fought some battles against other factions as ostrogoth and huns i won major part of them with losses, contrary to vanilla game when you were able able to destroy an entire army losing only few men.
But battles against sassanians results in losses more than 50%, and after that you must battle with two or more armies of full elite units.