Campaign Questions

[Sardaukar One]

Last time I played this mod, it was the v334 version.

I got a little addicted to Rio's BI mod. Any of you decide to try a BI mod, thats a hell of a mod.

Anyway, I cut my teeth on PE and EXRM and i'm back!

I installed the mod a few days ago and I have been perusing through the factions and I have some questions. Strategy questions mainly.

1) Macedon - From what I can tell, I think its great that they are nerfed some. Arguably more historically accurate too being hemmed back in Greece.
Anyway, what strategy do people adopt here? Go after rebel held Macedon or go after the Greeks?
For my money, I would go after the Greeks. Take the Peloponnese and then head north.
It seems to me you are too strung out if you go after Macedon first. The Greeks will surely attack before you can consolidate.

2) Epirus - Don't like the land bridge between Italy and Appollonia. To make the Romans attack Greece is the reason its there?
As Epirus, I think you have to go after Italy and Rome first. Given time, Rome are not easy to bring down.
So its better to fight them early on.
With the seeming chaos in Macedon, the Greeks and Macedonians will surely be occupied for a while giving you some more time to build up.

3) Parthia - What Seleucid city do people go after first? Epiphaneia, Alexandria or Hecatompylos/Alexandria in Aria?
I'm reluctant to go after Alexandria in Aria because that might get me into a war with Bactria.
As Bactria, it was a spot of contention with Parthia. I wanted Parthia to fight with the Seleucids, instead they fought with me.
In my experience, Bactria like to go after this city.
And the meager military you start with are too far away from your starting cities in case the Seleucids attack.
So that leaves Epiphaneia and Alexandria. I would probably go for Epiphaneia first. Better city, and you have a shot at intercepting incoming Seleucid armies. Alexandria is a weaker starting and its a little closer to your starting cities.

Opinions anyone?

I remember there was talk of having the Seleucids having a civil war! Is that in the game?

Thanks for any info!
In the meantime, I think I'm going to start an Epirote campaign. I'm hardcore Seleucid, but I think Epirus is more of a challenge. And Macedon's starting position looks fun.

[Antonov]

1. Can't say about Macedon, but with Rome I usually leave the northern rebel towns and go for Corfinum and Paestum first, to prevent the Epirotes from getting them. I kick the Epirotes out of Italy and leave them with only Appolonia. From then on, I leave the rest to the Illyrians usually, since I'm trying to expand historically and don't want to take provinces which the Republic didn't have at the time. So, using the same logic, you should probably put some stress on the Greeks even before taking the rebel provinces around you.

The AI's logic has been ascertained and it's pretty stupid really: first it goes for the nearest rebel town with the least garrison, then it cycles through that again (having new borders after taking the first rebel town) and goes for the new nearest rebel town and so forth and so forth until it runs out of rebel towns around its borders. Then it goes by the same logic for the nearest town owned by another faction and with the least powerful garrison.

2. The land bridge is there because the AI is pretty dumb. Without it, Epirus loses its Italian provinces too early (because it can't figure out a way to reinforce them, duh!) and it also serves to direct Roman expansion more historically.

3. I've played Parthia only once. I'd suggest going for the two towns almost simultaneously. If Alexandria is more out-of-the-way this means the AIs will go after it later. And Epiphaneia is quite central, meaning you'll be attacked sooner if you take this town. In short -- taking Epiphaneia might turn out to be more costly and slow down the development of your provinces if you have to spend more money training troops to defend the town. Anyway, this isn't a logic that's in the spirit of the times, if you want to roleplay your Parthia, you shouldn't consider like this

IMO, the whole ExRM campaign is illustrating the Landmass Theory of McInder's: whoever controls the central landmass of Asia Minor and the Iranian Plateau, has access to large population and lots of money. In the game, where the "human factor" for AI factions is irrelevant (betrayals, internal state decay) the only way to stop such a faction is by attacking it from two sides simultaneously and by some slightly game-exploiting tactics being applied by the human player.

Cheers!

[despot_of_rhodes]

It depends on wich campaign difficulty you´re playing. On medium the Greeks wouldn´t backstab you too quickly, but on VH you are a primary AI target, so don´t expect anything then a treacherous attack
Also, if you like to play historicaly, your goal woud be to reunite Macedonia before you go and conquer the world like Alexander did.

In my Epirote campaigns i´ve managed to destroy the Romans within the first starting year, using my eles to break through the wooden walls of Capua and night attack ability of Pyrrhus to devide the roman forces and fight them one by one. I was in quite big debt, but sacking roman cities made it more than up and i could conquer the greek penninsular within following 10 or 15 years with ease. That was quite a fun, but actually to easy, besides the fact, that i felt like cheating a bit
Oh, and the landbridge wasn´t a good idea, so Quinn was about to remove it, but got lost then, somewhere in real life buiseness, i guess
But some of others did allready corrected it, along with several other things like mercenary pool and replenishement etc. ( you should search for those threads ).

I can´t really help you with the eastern hellenic factions, i´ve only played Pontus and Armenia so far, but i hate fighting HA and cataphracts ( they simply won´t die, especially their generals )
But again: the behaiviour of the AI depends on the campaign difficulty. You want a moderate agressive AI then choose rather "hard", or play on "medium" to be able to deal with AI via diplomacy, but then they will be way to0 passive and the generic would never pose a threat to your settlements...
To make a seleucid civil war possible one would need a rebell faction, wich would occupy a faction slot. Well, i would like to have all the major factions to have kind of rebell oppositions, but then one would have to make f.e. Bactrians a rebell seleucid faction, or Parthians a hording faction, wich emerges at a apropriate time etc.

[Sardaukar One]

Thanks for the replies.

I always play on VH/VH.

From what you said about the AI on VH, I think the following makes the most sense.
As Epirus i'm going to go straight after Rome.
Then Sicily.

As Macedon, I gotta take the Peloponnese. I just can't get caught all strung out in the early game.
Doesn't make sense to me.
Besides, it won't take me but a game year or two to take the Peloponnese.
Then north to Macedon.

As Parthia, I think you might be right about trying to take Ephiphaneia and Alexandria at the same time.
I'm fine with the Seleucids coming at Media, where the bulk of my military will be, if it means they leave me alone elsewhere. As if the Seleucids won't come after you anyway?


I just saw a landbridge across the Aegean sea.
I have to say that needs to go.
The landbridge at the Hellespont not good enough anymore huh?

[despot_of_rhodes]

Oh, btw: If you attack Athen you probably will experience a small surprise, when a scripted full stack will attack you from the city, no matter how many units are in there. This was kind of protection for the Greeks from beeing overrolled by Macs in times those used to start with all their native territories and become so called Black Death in earlier ExRM and, actually, RTR PE versions. Luckyly, those aren´t really experienced units, otherwise it would be really hard to break them

[ricka83]

Hi,

quick question, does anyone know how i can add the 'seven wonders' back on to the campaign map? im not really interested in there bonuses but they do look cool no the map, cheers

[Sardaukar One]

I meant to ask about that too.
I'm not that bothered by the bonus too, but its definetly cool to have the wonders in the game.

[Antonov]

You need to uncomment them in descr_strat.txt Start from line 51. I'm not sure if the coordinates are correct now that we have this enlarged map. Try and see what happens. If the game CTDs start uncommenting them one by one and adjust the coords if needed.

[ricka83]

You need to uncomment them in descr_strat.txt Start from line 51. I'm not sure if the coordinates are correct now that we have this enlarged map. Try and see what happens. If the game CTDs start uncommenting them one by one and adjust the coords if needed.

sorry,

uncomment? when i open the desc_strat file, all i see when i go down to the wonders section is a list of co-ordinates. any ideas? sorry to be a pain in the arse

[Antonov]

This is what I have in mine:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; >>>> start of landmarks section <<<<

;landmark pyramids_and_sphinx 181, 24
;landmark pharos 178, 33
;landmark colossus 161, 56
;landmark temple 157, 65
;landmark statue 135, 49
;landmark gardens 237, 58
;landmark mausoleum 160, 62

The long list of semicolons is at line 50. The file is ExRM\Data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion\descr_strat.txt

I'm not sure if just uncommenting them will give you back the effects of capturing the landmarks. I just can't find info on wether they are hardcoded or there are some scripts associated with them. But my guess is that they are hardcoded. Best to just check.

[ricka83]

This is what I have in mine:

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; >>>> start of landmarks section <<<<

;landmark pyramids_and_sphinx 181, 24
;landmark pharos 178, 33
;landmark colossus 161, 56
;landmark temple 157, 65
;landmark statue 135, 49
;landmark gardens 237, 58
;landmark mausoleum 160, 62

The long list of semicolons is at line 50. The file is ExRM\Data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion\descr_strat.txt

ok, so i have to delete the long line of semicolons and see what happens?

thanks again

[Antonov]

Nah You have to delete the semicolon in front of all landmarks. The long list of semicolons is just there so it's easier to see the list of landmarks.

Delete each semicolon that's before each of the wonders.

[ricka83]

Nah You have to delete the semicolon in front of all landmarks. The long list of semicolons is just there so it's easier to see the list of landmarks.

Delete each semicolon that's before each of the wonders.

just tried it, no probs all wonders showing, cut scene's when conquered work fine too

cheers dude

rep given

[Antonov]

The first time I'm glad that CA have hardcoded something in their games Thanks to you as well!

[Arkaeyn]

I'm not sure I've seen anyone say they've played Macedon successfully in the 3.4.1 EXRM. I tried a few times and gave up.

[despot_of_rhodes]

You mean when a human plays them? Hm, well i did. I think i took Thessalonika or Pela first, and then marched with my faction leader straight on Athene. After defeating the scripted full stack i moved towards Sparta and won a heroic battle against 2 greek armies - game over for Greeks on the penninsula Invaded Creta, then Rhodes and left them Syracuse, where the Greeks are mostly doing well, by taking Aggrigento.
But due to the landbridge one allways has to deal with Romans after taking over Greece ( the pesky Epirotes spread their forces and attack their former allies.. ) wich i find a bit annoying. First, because it´s too easy to rush AI, not matter how well it does ( i only fight battles i choose - smth. AI can´t compete with ) and second, because taking out Romans so early in the game robes from the whole western mediterran region kind of charme...

[Caligula Caesar]

I gave them a strong money script, and they now rise sometimes