New to EB and having difficulties

[Siegfriedfr]

Hello,

Just recently started playing EB and tbh, i'm having great difficulties managing my empire.

I couldnt find a centralized documentation about the various features of the game so i tought i'd ask questions here:

Building up family members:
I understand that placing a family member/general in a town with a school and upward teaching facilities will slowly raise it's management capacilities. Placing hthem in core cities with high tax rate is also a plus?
1) Is the progression 100% assured? because i've had one in Rome with a school for 6 turns and he gained nothing.
2) do recruited regional leaders/generals suffer from some penalties for not being from the homeland?

I've also noticed that generals with command starts loose them the longer they stay in a city - is there a fixed rate (like, star every X turn?)?

Overall i had much difficulty holding the towns i conquered, since even tho i didnt lack in military power, i didnt have enough medium/high management governors and they rebel of are constantly in the blue/red.

Campaign script:
Is there a forum post/game document where all the scripts for all the factions are detailed? Or is the script only about reforms and i dont need to bother?

Buildings:
1) Governement buildings: i've observed, i might be wrong, that once build they cannot be changed, am i right?
2) should you build all buildings available in the queue before getting the governor villae?


Thanks for the answers if you have any

[Mediolanicus]

Hello,

Just recently started playing EB and tbh, i'm having great difficulties managing my empire.

I couldnt find a centralized documentation about the various features of the game so i tought i'd ask questions here:

Building up family members:
I understand that placing a family member/general in a town with a school and upward teaching facilities will slowly raise it's management capacilities. Placing hthem in core cities with high tax rate is also a plus?
1) Is the progression 100% assured? because i've had one in Rome with a school for 6 turns and he gained nothing.
2) do recruited regional leaders/generals suffer from some penalties for not being from the homeland?

3)I've also noticed that generals with command starts loose them the longer they stay in a city - is there a fixed rate (like, star every X turn?)?

4)Overall i had much difficulty holding the towns i conquered, since even tho i didnt lack in military power, i didnt have enough medium/high management governors and they rebel of are constantly in the blue/red.

5)Campaign script:
Is there a forum post/game document where all the scripts for all the factions are detailed? Or is the script only about reforms and i dont need to bother?

Buildings:
6) Governement buildings: i've observed, i might be wrong, that once build they cannot be changed, am i right?
7) should you build all buildings available in the queue before getting the governor villae?


Thanks for the answers if you have any

1) No, it only raises chances of good admin traits (an intelligent FM will have even more chance).
2) No, only client rulers have to stay in their city.
3) No.

Some advice: Don't keep governors inside your cities all turns. That way they get more differenciated traits and don't all become supervisors.
Stars are not so important. Traits that boost morale are.

4) Go slowly, build up your towns and don't overstretch your resources.

5) EBBS.txt there's a list at the beginning of the file. This is what makes EB (reforms are a relatively small part of the file).

6) Always destroy governments from other factions. If you want to change your own government, you'll have to destroy it too.

7) Just as in RTW Vanilla, no. If your population is high enough you can upgrade.

[XSamatan]

Hello,

Just recently started playing EB and tbh, i'm having great difficulties managing my empire.

I couldnt find a centralized documentation about the various features of the game so i tought i'd ask questions here:

The EB FAQ is a good start for most questions.

Building up family members:
I understand that placing a family member/general in a town with a school and upward teaching facilities will slowly raise it's management capacilities. Placing hthem in core cities with high tax rate is also a plus?
1) Is the progression 100% assured? because i've had one in Rome with a school for 6 turns and he gained nothing.

They will sure gain traits and ancillaries, but they will gain just those which are similar to their character, meaning a dull FM won't get so easy a trait that requires high intelligence. You may want to look into the Traits and Ancillaries Frequently Asked Questions

2) do recruited regional leaders/generals suffer from some penalties for not being from the homeland?

If you decide to make them a general, then no, there are no penalties. If you made them a governor, then you will get penalties for them if they leave a lvl4 government.

I've also noticed that generals with command starts loose them the longer they stay in a city - is there a fixed rate (like, star every X turn?)?

Command stars aren't that important,you should look for traits that improve the moral on the battlefield. And sure, just sitting in a town will decrease the animosity to get into battle, but there is no simple formula to detect that.

Overall i had much difficulty holding the towns i conquered, since even tho i didnt lack in military power, i didnt have enough medium/high management governors and they rebel of are constantly in the blue/red.

This is intended. Maintaining control in regions just conquered and with cultures fighting against you isn't easy. Either bring up a second force with a good governor, influence helps here at most, depopulate the region or capture it a second time.

Campaign script:
Is there a forum post/game document where all the scripts for all the factions are detailed? Or is the script only about reforms and i dont need to bother?

EB without the campaign script will be just a polished vanilla. It improves the game in many ways. If you want to see it, it is located here: \EB\Data\scripts\show_me

Buildings:
1) Governement buildings: i've observed, i might be wrong, that once build they cannot be changed, am i right?

They are just buildings, so you can easily destroy them. You should destroy all gov-buildings every time you conquer a town. You also can up/downgrade the gov-type to get access to other troops.

2) should you build all buildings available in the queue before getting the governor villae?

That depends on your situation. In far away settlements I would build the next level ASAP to decrease the culture penalty. Furthermore, if the town rebels now, it just goes over to the Eleutheroi and does not provoke a war.

XSamatan

[XSamatan]

Dammit, Mediolanicus, you are way to fast for me!

[Faramir D'Andunie]

understand that placing a family member/general in a town with a school and upward teaching facilities will slowly raise it's management capacilities. Placing hthem in core cities with high tax rate is also a plus?
1) Is the progression 100% assured? because i've had one in Rome with a school for 6 turns and he gained nothing.

It is important to check the personal traits before sending a character to train. You will see on a character a Sharp/Charismatic/Vigorous (or Dull/Uncharismatic/Languarous you can see all kinds of combinations on these 3 on a character). A sharp character is more likely to advance from education than a dull one. Also schooling can offer some good ancillaries

2) do recruited regional leaders/generals suffer from some penalties for not being from the homeland?

Recruited generals will suffer penalties if they have been established as client rulers in a Type4 goverment, can't remember anything else. Though even then I think the only penalty is loosing the Client ruler trait.

I've also noticed that generals with command starts loose them the longer they stay in a city - is there a fixed rate (like, star every X turn?)?

That would really depend from what traits or ancillaries command stars are gained. No fixed rate is there but a character can for example gain some negative traits if he spends too much time in a city without action, especially if he comes with a vigorous trait.

Stars are not the most important stat for a general though, traits that give morale bonuses are way more important.

Overall i had much difficulty holding the towns i conquered, since even tho i didnt lack in military power, i didnt have enough medium/high management governors and they rebel of are constantly in the blue/red.

Cities which have different culture from your faction get a lot unrest, without counting possible spies that the AI uses. You need a character with high influence to keep the peace. If you lack some or the city is too large build a Type4 goverment and establish a client ruler.

Is there a forum post/game document where all the scripts for all the factions are detailed? Or is the script only about reforms and i dont need to bother?

If you are refering to the script the advisor asks you to activate each time you load/start a game, well... without activating it you miss a lot from the EB campaign.

1) Governement buildings: i've observed, i might be wrong, that once build they cannot be changed, am i right?

If you refer to goverment types, you can demolish the building and build a new one. A lot of times you will be establishing a type4 goverment and once the region is pacified (and you don't get access to any high level regionals) turn it to 2 or even 1.

If you refer to villae, palaces and the like then yes these cannot be destroyed once built. From the regular Rome TW game the size of the city depends on the existing building of such type.

Also that should be build as soon as possible it affected culture disorder penalties, and if delayed too long it might cause squalor problems.

edit

Damn people are fast.

[Mediolanicus]

It is important to check the personal traits before sending a character to train. You will see on a character a Sharp/Charismatic/Vigorous (or Dull/Uncharismatic/Languarous you can see all kinds of combinations on these 3 on a character). A sharp character is more likely to advance from education than a dull one. Also schooling can offer some good ancillaries

IIRC, internally there are three stadia of each of those characteristics.

So for example you can have a guy with Sharp +2, Uncharismatic -1, Languorous -3
And that guy will probably get less good traits than a guy with Dull -2, Charismatic +1, Vigorous +3.



Doesn't matter who's fastest, guys. We all elaborate on each other, so our answers together are worth more than each on its own.

[Siegfriedfr]

Just like mediolanicus said, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Thanks for the answers, they'll be helpful!

Still have 3 questions:
1) how do you raise influence?
2) how do you raise management (this one i think it requires staying in a green city with very high tax rate)?
3) Also you said to go slowly, but lets take the campaign i started as the roman:

The Aedui crushed the arverni and owns all of the Gauls, Belgae and northern iberia; in my war with them i took massilia and the 3 cities cricling the alps; if i didnt do this they would probably be tickling northern italy right now; the AI seem to have less difficulties expanding fast than the player, is it subject to the same rules ?

[Mediolanicus]

Just like mediolanicus said, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Thanks for the answers, they'll be helpful!

Still have 3 questions:
1) how do you raise influence?
2) how do you raise management (this one i think it requires staying in a green city with very high tax rate)?
3) Also you said to go slowly, but lets take the campaign i started as the roman:

The Aedui crushed the arverni and owns all of the Gauls, Belgae and northern iberia; in my war with them i took massilia and the 3 cities cricling the alps; if i didnt do this they would probably be tickling northern italy right now; the AI seem to have less difficulties expanding fast than the player, is it subject to the same rules ?

1 & 2) offices as the Romans give enourmous boni to influence and management
Governing large cities helps for both too. Fighting battles helps for influence.

My experience is that role playing your FM's gives the best result. few turns in a city (during winter always in a city, in a fort or in a seige), few turns outside the city (in their summer villa or gone hunting, patrolling etc...)

This way I get FM's with 5-10 influence and management easily with all factions and certainly with the Romans. Most of my FM's have a great political carreer in the res publica too.

Of course you will always have your hopeless cases.


3) the AI gets the boni (money, population replentishing), you get the brains.
You probably play on VH campaign. Yeah, that needs fast action. And you'll constantly be in Total War.
If that's your playing style, enjoy.

If you like to take things slower, like myself. Play on H, or even M. Make sure you give the AI time to develop itself and you'll have a great experience, but you have time yourself, not everyone will attack you at the same time, you don't have to use exploits, you can field balanced armies (using levies and light troops, a medium unit core and elites as, well... elites...).
But that's a personal choice.

[Faramir D'Andunie]

You probably play on VH campaign. Yeah, that needs fast action. And you'll constantly be in Total War.
If that's your playing style, enjoy.

That is mostly true but there is something to keep in mind. AI factions will agree to peace if you do not share common borders. How does that information help me you will ask?

Well it adds the option to try and create buffer states between you and greater enemies that you want not to be stuck in war with forever. For example in my latest Arche Seleukeia campaign I turned over Ioudaia to the Saba and formed an alliance with them. Sure Ptolemaioi keep invading them and at times overun them but an intervention of your armies and a nice use of spies for a few revolts makes sure I am able to have some breaks of peace for 10 years or so. Though perhaps I should have used Baktria, Saba get a lot of unrest cause of the governor's building beeing eastern greek culture.