New Campaign...already gone to crap!

[Team Sleep]

Hello friends,

Wow...I know this was a significantly more challenging mod than vanilla but, geeze! Who could prepare for the event that has happend to me in my campaign. And even if there is no preparation, how do you salvage the situation...so here it is:

I'm Saba...minding my own bee's wax in a little corner of Arabia. I took one settlement south east of my start point, and then began to build a few economy buildings in both regions. When I was comfortable w/ my income...I created another fresh army to march northward. All the while this is going on...I'm marching my 1 diplomat all around the map heading north first to Egypt, then northeast into Selucid and then hooking around past the black sea heading wesward all the while getting trade rights and map info. Finally, I begin to march my new army northward to my next target. En route...and with my diplomat all the way in southern Gaul now, I end my turn around 259bc and on the next turn...BHAM!,...I get a nasty message. It says that the Ptolemy and my nation are at war. I knew this was going to happen anyway but why now?

I began to look around my settlements right away. No agression. My ports...no agression. My army...no agression...what gives? Well LOOK-AH-DEE-DO!, One of Ptolemy's settlements (Petra), seems to have suffered from a rebellion and is now under...my control?...wha??...how? Well, I don't know how...but maybe thats where you can explain to me what happend. Furthermore it happend 1 turn away before I was going to purchase a new economy building. Now I've got a new region...in the middle of Ptolemy, a half stack of soldiers garrisoned in the city, Ptolemy is at war with me, and my empire probably consists of about a total of maybe 25 unit cards? Wow, and now 3 settlements with one on the way.

Well of course now Selucid wants to ally me. My diplomat is in GAUL...I'm not going to be able to call a ceasfire w/ Ptolemy anytime soon...So I took Selucid up on their offer. I figure I'd help them out too and give them Petra because I can't manage it at this point...the new army put me back into negative funds in 2 turns! Ever since I've made a new diplomat in egypt/selucid lands trying to get a ceasfire w/ egypt and give them back the province...or just trying to gift the province to anyone who will take it...what a surprise....nobody wants it! What the hell?!

Anybody have any suggestions as to how I should/could get outta this mess? I don't care cause eventually I'll fight Ptolemy...but surely not yet. Only on my terms. I wouldn't be able to even fend off a rebel attack.

& BTW...I know it's supposed to be challenging, but come on...is there really any need to price some structures and units so high? And the upkeep on those units....How's someone supposed to forge an empire or even just meet victory conditions as a tribe like Saba?!

Anyways someone please hit me back w/ some tips and info...hell, leave some amusing comments if you would like too. And...2 other questions...why did Petra turn over to my control after Ptolemy's expulsion? And on some MIC's they say something like "Rebel Level 1" what does this mean?

Thank you.

[Boriak]

Playing Saba as your first campaign in EB may not be a good idea. Carthage and Rome are the easiest for a newbie to learn the ropes.

[-iceblade^]

Playing Saba as your first campaign in EB may not be a good idea. Carthage and Rome are the easiest for a newbie to learn the ropes.

this.

coming from vanilla, i got my backside handed to me the first time i played EB,, ever (i was Romani) until i figured things out. maybe wait till you understand the new mechanics of the game, especially the economy..

[Centrius]

What Boriak says makes sense. Saba surely isn't the easiest faction to play with. But once you get the hang of it it ain't all that hard to be honest.

When you play as the Saba there's usually 2 cities that rebel to you. Palmyra and the one you mentioned. What I usually do when this happens is give them to either the Seleucids or Ptolemies. Since those Slave unit things have an incredibly high upkeep. 350 a turn IIRC. So just disband those, give the cities to a faction you think deserves it, and go back to capturing the 4 (or 5?) settlements down south. After you've build mines in your capital and the one above your capital, profit usually comes flying in. That's when it's time to start (or at least try) attacking the Ptolemies. That's my tactic when playing the Saba at least.

Hope it works out for you.

Remember, Saba is a pretty difficult faction to play with. Archer-Spearmen is the way to go. Train no other units imo. =)



- Cent

[torongill]

I'm out of time to look for it, but find and use the force diplomacy script. Mind you, IIRC you need to load the game every time you want to use that script. But it's a way of cheating, so I don't have it right now.

[Centrius]

But it's a way of cheating, so I don't have it right now.

I find the FD mod more of an AI helper than cheating tbh. Unless you use it for your own benefit ofcourse. Making everyone your protectorate for example.

[Team Sleep]

I know the ropes pretty well. That's why I planned every step as far as building up my regions. FD....*sigh* is that what the game has come down to? Really? I've played as Casse before I patched to 1.2 So I had to ditch that campaign which is well enough considering the Romans just burst on the scene in that campaign. I tried to gift the city to ANY faction...nobody wants it. I figure that these diplomacy debacles are according to the stupid AI hard coding in the original game. There really isnt anything to do except for a submod huh? I will attempt not to use it for evil...I guess.

[Xerrop]

And...2 other questions...why did Petra turn over to my control after Ptolemy's expulsion? And on some MIC's they say something like "Rebel Level 1" what does this mean?

That´s supposed to happen and is not a bad idea in my opinion. When several cities revolt they turn to a familiar faction (means one with the same culture). It´s way better than turning only in passive rebell towns. Petra and Palmyra are arabian settlements. It´s natural that, when unhappy with their current faction, they turn to an arabian faction - Saba.

Have you ever played an Arverni campaign? There the problem is even greater. I have noticed after a while, that I have a province in Turkey - Galatia!
Too bad that there are only Aedui and Arverni as celtic factions, hope there will be more in EBII (in order to have nearer homefaction)

The other thing (Rebel Level x) I don´t know, maybe someone of the EB-team can help us on that? Have read this description with levels ranging from 1 to 5 - and I´m also interested to know, what that means.

PS. It would have been a good idea to recruit a second diplomat - one (or more) can travel the world, but there should always(!) stay one in your homelands for urgent diplomatic negotiations.

[Team Sleep]

Yeah, I hear the need for at least 2 diplomats to start. I messed that up but recovered from it by making 1 right away and keeping him stationed between Selucia and Egypt. And YES! I have seen that faction in passing with my diplomat...what the heck in all places does that faction have any reason to be there? That's wild. But I hear the revolt thing in terms of culture. Obviously this does make Saba even remotely possible to win with. But what I want to know is....why in the world does the faction that got expelled pick a fight with me? It's not my fault you messed up. At least only let there be war between me and another culture when they actually attack me, or vise-versa. Too bad I will have to resort to using that stupid FD submod just to make the idiocy in the game manageable. I despise codes so much but....I guess there are worse codes that could be used for evil.

Thanks for the help kids.

[Xerrop]

Too bad I will have to resort to using that stupid FD submod just to make the idiocy in the game manageable.

Don´t know if you have to use the FD mod. Maybe the Ptolemy´s accept a ceasefire when you give Petra back, or have they denied it?

[Knonfoda]

Too bad I will have to resort to using that stupid FD submod just to make the idiocy in the game manageable. I despise codes so much but....I guess there are worse codes that could be used for evil.

Calling a mod stupid when it was designed to make the game not only more enjoyable but also fairer on the player is not only belittling the team's work behind the mod, but also shows a basic ignorance on your part, seeing as the mod works for your advantage, and is not a form of cheating. If the game is stupidly hardcoded and someone fixes this, I hardly see this as a stupid endeavour.

Don´t know if you have to use the FD mod. Maybe the Ptolemy´s accept a ceasefire when you give Petra back, or have they denied it?

My experience is that they will always say no unless you also offer them a ridiculous ammount of money, which isn't worth it.

[Dan Rares]

That happened to me I was playing with Getai and conquest Sarmesegethuza and Naissos
I had a good economy and I make it to Kallatis when I went to war with Espeiros because Serdike started a rebellion in the city and joined me


And I happened about 2 times around the same data imply that it's safe to be.


Dan Rares