As you all know RTW campaigns can be a little hard to begin with.
I am interested in thre long term AI build and army sustainability

Does anybody know if when you conquer your immediate neighbors the AI becomes stale and dormant or does the pressure and challenge continue throughout. The AI being balanced enough to build an empire and good armies to go with it

I suspect the 'EB background-script' is designed to give the AI-factions bonuses from time to time. I also recall a poll being post here, whether EB should give the AI bonuses or not, and most people voted yes.

Actually, most people voted "within reason"... :wink:

nut giving the AI a small cash boost from time to time makes it a bit harder, therefore a bit more enjoyable. With the money the AI gets from a small cash boost the AI will be able to keep up a bit or pressure on you.

We don't create units for the AI, but we have taken measures that we hope will prevent it from completely running out of money all the time and completely de-populating cities. So far, they do not appear to be working properly, but that's why we're beta testing.

excellent, well its certainly making it interesting thus far

Khelvan, haven't had too much time to dive too deeply into the campaign, but one thing puzzles me... if the player starts off with a requirement to disband half his units to survive, why give them to him in the first place? Just wondering what the reasoning behind that is.

I believe this is to used as a all-out conquering force from the get-go, where you're in debt a few turns before you conquer the settlements. That's what I did with Germania anyway.

It balances the AI too. You as the human player would have it a whole lot easier if you had to fight greatly reduced forces at the start.

That's the thing David, I was looking forward to EB finally breaking the vicious steam-roller cycle. i.e. I wanted to sit back and play it from a historical perspective and really immerse myself in the historical goings on around me. Even the Romans didn't just start on a rampage across the known world, they looked out for their interests which, sometimes, led to conquest. To do that, you have to disband almost half your units or start steam-rollering neighbouring factions. Heck, EB is the first mod of RTW where I actually respect the rebels' right to exist since they now have all that associated history. Yes, EB is challenging, damn challenging, but not quite in the way I had hoped. Then again, I haven't been playing long so maybe it's just the Carthiginians that suffer from this?

To be honest I think the Carthies are one faction that is severely underdeveloped. They don't have as many traits, fully developed unique buildings, they were the last to get accurate family members, they still have gaps in building descriptions, etc. We need more help on them for sure. Numerous other factions are much more immersive, imho. Definitely try a Celtic one, or the KH or some other successor one. Ptolemies are a little lacking too though, but they've got some really good things. Romans have had tons of time put into them too. Sweboz are really good but for building descriptions and some more traits maybe.

I wanted to sit back and play it from a historical perspective and really immerse myself in the historical goings on around me.

Click to expand...

In a way you are. We do try to portray a historicaly accurate military situation, aka realistic setup of military forces at the beginning of the campaign. Take Carthage for instance, historically they were presented with some what of the same situation. Do they go bankrupt, disband forces buld up econimically, or do they go out and conquer places like Iberia, to gain that extra income. Which is historically what they did.

Although the setups are still WIP.

Kushan

Interesting... So, you're saying it's just my bad luck I chose Carthage? Which faction would you suggest then for a more 'sedate' game?

Well, certainly I'm biased. :laughing:

But we just haven't had people pouring trait after trait and description after description into Carthage like we have for KH, Romani, Aedui/Averni/Casse, even Pahlava, Baktria, Epeiros, and Makedonians. They've got some good stuff for sure, but not in the amount that is done for some other factions. We'd love for very interested persons to help us out more too if they have the resources in books, time, and skill.

Teleklos Archelaou said:

We'd love for very interested persons to help us out more too if they have the resources in books, time, and skill.

Click to expand...

0 out of 3 for me so I guess I'll just shut up and play.

Pritzl said:

That's the thing David, I was looking forward to EB finally breaking the vicious steam-roller cycle. i.e. I wanted to sit back and play it from a historical perspective and really immerse myself in the historical goings on around me.

Click to expand...

Actually, you'll find it remarkably difficult to steamroller (or at least continue to steamroller). The start position of many smaller factions leaves you a choice either to turtle and disband or to immediately expand into a couple of other provinces. Once you've taken those, though, from my experience you're running out of troops or money or, most likely, both. Playing as the Romani I found my expansion must slower (and sometimes reversed) than in vanilla, and capturing a new settlement often requires stopping and consolidating (putting roads and governments etc. in place) rather than rolling on, otherwise the settlements you capture are hard to control and of limited worth.

A lot apparently find the Casse pretty immersive. The tough decisions; the myriad of early risks; the inability to 'steamroller' without going bankrupt and potentially getting wiped out. But, as said, setups are quite WIP. Things will work better in future builds.

though initially frustrating, playing as the Poeni will repay you in the long run since you will find yourself bankrupted, with no army and figthing Epiros and or Rome ... I enjoyed the pressure tough I still find it too easy to survive and became the victorius

If you're finding the AI to be too difficult, then just reload the game and ignore the background script for a few turns and take out the enemy (sans bonus=easier). Afterwards, turn the script on.


I'm at 193 BC. The game got insanely hard at 210 when the Sweboz came down on me with never ending armies.

The games faction expansion is great. Hellnon, Ptolemoaioi, Getai, Hayastan, Sweboz, Averni, and **** just about every one is still fighting, save 2 protectorate faction. The ones I mentioned above are doing the best and have expansion of Ptolemoaioi took over all of N.Africa. Hellnon have conquered almost all of modern day turkey area (the place to the left of mainland greece)

My only complaints- Carthage is weak and never attacks and the Casse don't leave their island for nobody or nothing!

*the place to the right of mainland greece.

I type so incredibly fast that spelling errors and stuff of that nature pop up once an awhile. I can type like 5000 wpm.

Impressive. Perhaps in future you'll use the 'edit' feature rather than double posting?

My complaints about AI don't really concern other factions, but they do concern the Eleutheroi. I played as Armenia and was destroyed by the Colchian Eleutheroi! I have never lost a campaign before now. Both my faction heirs were wiped out in one battle and then my faction leader died shortly afterwards. I know that the rebels and ronin are meant to be difficult and challenging, but I think that they're just excessive. My large Armenian kingdom couldn't actually afford an army, but these minor principalities wander about with full stacks of horse archers! And then they come and attack me in Armenia itself! There's no way that I can beat them. The only feasible strategy that I found as Armenia was to invade the Seleukid Empire from the very beginning (because their armies were nowhere near as large as the Eleutheroi armies) which is frankly ridiculous - it was practically the only way to ensure that I wasn't wiped out within the first couple of years of the game.

SomeJedi said:

My only complaints- Carthage is weak and never attacks and the Casse don't leave their island for nobody or nothing!

Click to expand...

I nerfed the AI assistance somewhat which allowed me to play a slower-paced game. Carthage is the richest faction by a huge margin and second largest behind the Selukids. Most significantly, the world has split off into two camps: Ptolemies, Romans, Selukids and Macedonians on one and Carthage, Arvernii, Epirus, Greeks & Getia on the other. The showdown is approaching fast, only camp 1 doesn't know that the Romans (me) will sit this one out.

I hope to let them have at each other and develop their war-waging abilities to the point where I'll have to fend the victors off tooth and nail.

By the way, the Hayasdan will get a better general's unit soon. That's one reason it is so hard to play as them. They have more units on the way too, and they'll probably get a road upgrade down the r.... well, eventually.

Most amusing.

I'm doing something similiar, Pritzl.

Currently I control all of Italy. I've made major garrisons on my boarders to portect my land. I'm waiting for 14 AD, so that I can use a reformed army to take over the world. I've noticed that during my 'absense' from the game, the nations are really battling it out. Funny how Carthage got nerfed in my campaign and Ptolemaioi is taking over. They even got Arche Selekia as a protectorate. Hellenon is taking over all of macedon now and encrouching on the Getai, who are also powerful. I think by the time I step in, it will be me verse one or two powerful factions.

Impressive. Perhaps in future you'll use the 'edit' feature rather than double posting?

Click to expand...

No, because in the future I'll probably notice the errors the next day, like this time, and will no longer have the edit feature at my disposal. Yar

I feel the slave faction is too strong. I played a few campaigns and havng a strong slave faction was a big help to me. It kept the other AI factions bottled up in their regions and retarded their expansion. While I (the human player ) was smart enough to avoid unnecessary conflicts with the slaves, the other computer factions could not control themselves and were constantly wasting their armies attacking these impossibly growing stacks of slaves.

I played both Pontus and Rome. My Pontus campaigns were tougher only because it took me longer to save money. Otherwise, I was the fastest growing faction on the board and I never feared attack or invasion even from macedon. I personally saw how macedon lost 2 full stacks from lesbos by attacking pergamon. Afterward, I swooped in and took the weak rebel province. After playing my Roman campaigns, I decided to take action and mod the game because it was such a cake walk. The AI factions took forever to conquer a single province from the slaves. While, I swept through and took them like candy. Way too easy---at least for me. I will try Sweboz, many people say that they are the toughest to play because of their lack of $---I'll see.

P.S. I also think that Pontus needs their General unit upgraded. I saw many threads on this topic and I agree. Having played pontus a couple of times---their family members do tend to go "kaput" pretty easily.

--Thanks for the mod.

Take care

Interesting SomeJedi. Here's my differences:

Macedon (a stead-fast ally after some extensive help against Epirus) has pushed the Greeks completely off the pelopenese taking both Athens and Sparta. I believe the latter are restricted to only Rhodes atm. Their battle against Epirus continues though; perhaps because I have avoided crossing the Adriatic and getting mired in the Balkans. Anyway, the Epirotes are down to two settlements, Thermon and Epidamnos and only 1 stack spread all over the region. However, their faction leader is a 3-gold chevron dude with at least a quarter of the stack similarly experienced. I've had spies watching the action and it's quite amazing to see a full Macedonian stack get clobbered by this quarter stack.

Meanwhile, Getia expanded gobbled up the remainder of the Balkans all the way to my Eastern border at Illyria (Segestica) but for a while did nothing against either nation. 250BC though, they signed up on Epirus' side and the latter negotiated a ceasefire for tribute with me. So the deck is stacked against Macedon now and I think I'll soon have my excuse for "meddling" over there.

I've robbed Carthage of 3 settlements (Lilibeo, and the ones on Sardinia and Corsica) and am now wrestling with them for supremacy in the Mediteranean. Unfortunately, (or perhaps not) the loss of their fleets only seems to have increased the money available to them. They must be at a million+ minai atm compared with ~100000 for the next closest faction. (Selukia I think) Again, I'm waiting for a real excuse before crossing over into Africa.

To the North, the Aedui/Arvernii are slugging it out and though I have tried to ally with one or the other so I can butt in, I haven't succeeded. Then again, my alliance with both Iberia and Egypt was not sought, their diplomats came to me with the offer! That was among the most refreshing diplomatic developments I've had in R:TW ever. Iberia could possibly give me a really good reason to stick my nose in Gaul if they ever turn away from fighting Carthage. Only thing is, I'm hoping they pick a fight with the Aedui who are still camped at Mediolanium but haven't given me an excuse to invade and I really want that territory to consolidate my borders.

SomeJedi said:

If you're finding the AI to be too difficult, then just reload the game and ignore the background script for a few turns and take out the enemy (sans bonus=easier). Afterwards, turn the script on.


I'm at 193 BC. The game got insanely hard at 210 when the Sweboz came down on me with never ending armies.

The games faction expansion is great. Hellnon, Ptolemoaioi, Getai, Hayastan, Sweboz, Averni, and **** just about every one is still fighting, save 2 protectorate faction. The ones I mentioned above are doing the best and have expansion of Ptolemoaioi took over all of N.Africa. Hellnon have conquered almost all of modern day turkey area (the place to the left of mainland greece)

My only complaints- Carthage is weak and never attacks and the Casse don't leave their island for nobody or nothing!

Click to expand...

interesting, in my games, and I play as Carthage, the HK are never expanding but only loosing and getting reduced to Rhodos... Epeiros is killed and Macedon is the power of hellas...ptolemais is a friend and rome is too weak to fight even my libians pikeman, I had no need to use stronger phalanxes... yours seem to bem a great game