Version 5.6 Beta

[DimeBagHo]

You can download a testing version of XGM 5.6 here.

Eastern Kingdoms

The most significant change is the conversion of the Carthaginian Rebels into the Eastern Kingdoms. The Eastern Kingdoms represents several significant eastern powers that existed in the game period - including the Kingdom of Numidia, the Axumite Empire, Nabatea, the Kingdom of Bithynia, the Kingdom of Colchis, and the Maurya Empire in India. The faction is unplayable, and recruits only AOR units, so that it's forces should be representative of the people in the various regions that it holds.

Representing these powers with a separate faction, rather than the slave faction, has several advantages - including better representation of trade and diplomacy, more appropriate recruitment in these regions, and fewer problems resulting from loyalist revolts.

Strategic AI

A bunch of other changes have been made to the starting conditions for other AI factions - the AI for Carthage, the Seleucids, and some of the smaller factions should field better units earlier, and be somewhat more aggressive.

With the Alexander exe Scythia and Armenia have been set to not attack each other, so the Armenians will expand south, while the Scythians will stay on the steppes and expand west.

[cherryfunk]

Is this for the Alexander exe only, or can we play with BI.exe?

[DimeBagHo]

This will work with all the exe's.

One small change with the Alex exe is that the Scythians and Armenians have been set to not attack each other. So the Scythians will stay in the steppes (as long as Armenia lasts anyway) and the Armenians will focus on the regions to their south.

[Kara Kolyo]

I started Bactria campaign and it's still fight for survival. Armenia again wasn't lucky enough and now is part of history. The interesting thing is that the indy greeks still hold syracuse and even captured lilibeum. The year now is 254 and TSE got Side, sidon and jerusalem. Every turn parthian or seleucid army besieges Bactra, but for now get crushed... Whole Iberia is now spanish and so on. for some reason the ss with Euthidemos "scarface" and the map are black even though AA is turned off so no pictures.

[Deiphobos]

Since I've just started a new campaign... is there any info about the Eastern Kingdoms to be found on this forum? They could be worth interrupting the campaign.

[Hippias]

Since I've just started a new campaign... is there any info about the Eastern Kingdoms to be found on this forum? They could be worth interrupting the campaign.

probably more than usually "beta" ATM - I am playing 5.6 through alexander - only 4 years in but Eastern Kingdoms don't appear to have done anything yet - just a flatline on the rankings list, although obviously way too early to make any judgements yet.

i believe they are like Indie Greeks, but for the Eastern and Southern half of the map i.e. an unplayable mega faction with much power, but spread so thin over the map that they wont dominate.

Intrested to see what DBH will do about their unit roster, as unlike Indie Greeks they aren't really a shadow of any other faction :hmmm:

[Agisilaos]

i just download the testing version of XGM 5.6
thanks DimeBagHo

[Kara Kolyo]

In my Bactrian campaign the eastern kingdoms took all of southern Egypt and are going north to meet the seleucids. the other part in India is taking rest from the heavy beating that i did to them because parthia and TSE are pressing me.

[Deiphobos]

Thank you for the information, Hippias. I'll stick to my campaign for now. Looking forward to seeing some more info concerning The Eastern Kingdoms in the future.

[Zarax]

With the eastern kingdoms coming in, it would be nice to have some more eastern units, EB has some beautiful rosters in that respect...

[supeerme]

5.6......i will play it, but i need to know, do you need to have the mod installed before you do it or not?

[Paul d]

nope. you do not.

[DimeBagHo]

Check the top post for a link to XGM version 5.6.1. I have also added some more information about the Eastern Kingdoms faction. If you are playing with the the Alex exe you should definitely upgrade to 5.6.1.

[Deiphobos]

Is the historic_events.txt fixed in the 5.6.1 version?

[DimeBagHo]

Yes. The only other change is that diplomats now have cultural influence.

[Deiphobos]

I can't resist. I am downloading now. Thank you DBH.

[Syrian Archer]

Wow great! This version adressed all the concerns I had when I downloaded this mod!

[lankylars]

Question: Does the Steam-downloaded version of Alex work the same as the downloaded version through other online outlets?

[CaesarVincens]

I really like the beta, I just wanted to bring to your attention a slight bug.



These two characters have the same starting co-ordinates in "descr_strat" so I fixed it by moving Eshmunazar, who was in Bostra, but "descr_strat" said, as a comment, was outside.

[Deiphobos]

Well, Bostra is long gone to the Sabateans in my campaign. I never got to see that bug.

Could it be that characters get their "surnames" a bit more rarely than before? One of my characters just became "the Great", but by now I would have had Builders and Bloodies and what not. In this new campaign not a single other surname next to "the Great" has shown up. It's not a big deal, just curiosity on my behalf.