Massilian Campaign - first thoughts

[TTRouble]

After RS kicked off a Massilian campaign I thought I'd kick of a 20-30+ turn campaign (ALEX, 0 turn. H/H) and see what it was liked. First thoughts:

1. Constantly being attacked by Rome - I made a mistake in the first attempt at the camp and captured one of the of the rebel settlements in Caspian Gaul. I only had 2 full stacks at the new settlement and 1/2 a stack of skirmisher missile troops near Massila and was able to fight off the first few Roman full stacks crushing 3 full stacks but after that the AI just shipped all of its full stacks from southern italy, Sardinia and Corsica and besieged the newly taken settlement.

So started another camp and this time decided not to take any settlements in Caspain Gaul and make sure not to do anything that would break the alliance with Rome until I had enough stacks to defend Massila. The aim being simply to build Massila and have at least 3 full stacks (my usual army setup for fighting against Roman/other infantry based armies). Year 5 into the campaign and Rome AI attacks from across through and south of the Alps simulatenously. I've defeated 8+ stacks of roman legions so far and have had to rotate 2 armies to protect the east and retrain the units - some sever losses to some HI units. The AI is aggressive in trying to take Massalia from the east.

With out HC or Missile cavalry the Massialian units would have simply been defeated on all occassions. Good thing I've had those tactics well practiced by playing the Seleucids! Ideally, I'd say you need a minimum of 4 full stacks for this faction to simply hold onto what you have - 3 in the east against Rome and One for the west to protect against the Averni.

Built a large naval fleet -25 + ships in 5 x 5 groups and have sunk most of the Roman fleet but simply don;t have enough $$$$ to retrain the units.


2. Economy - both occasions as soon as Rome decides to break the alliance it tanks from 20-30k a trun down to 2-3k a turn or less. I've only just now after 15 years got the economy back to producing 4-5 k a turn. The ecoconmies too relaint on trade with Rome and contniues to be so even after getting trade deals with every other faction.

3. Territory - Have expanded to 3 - inc recently defeating both Roman armies in Northern Spain.

4. Alliances and Diplomacy - unlike the Syracuse campaign, every faction thats be asked for an alliance has accepted. For syracuse they all turn you down until well into the campaign when the AI diplomats show up.

5. Generals - As the family is so small, one of the full stacks wasn;t commanded by a family member or governor/general but its so far beaten 4 full roman stacks with the same commander gaining 2 heoic victories but he didn;t get the "man of the hour" event which I thought was a bit strange esp when considering the no of kills and wounded that were recorded.

Also during a night battle I noticed that the General isnt being rendered correctly - helmet, face, and parts of his armour are all missing. Will post a screen shot under the bug reporting section.

6. Traits - so far ok, but all family members apart from the King suffer from bad levels of corruption..thats Greeks for you!

TTrouble

[tone]

Sounds like you haven't got unit shaders turned on if parts of the unit are sometimes missing

[TTRouble]

Hey Tone

I'll take a look when I get back but from memory, all other units are showing up aok, including the generals body guard but its just the general himslef. Prob appeared only during first the night battle but I'll check the settings when I get back home.

TTRouble

[dvk901]

Do an update and the general should be fixed. I had a couple textures switched in DMB.

[TTRouble]

Hi DVK

been without any internet access for the weke now.. feels like I'm in the stone age without it ! I'll run an update once its back on line.

Regards the campaign - Year 20 (i'll be palying another 10 years I think).

Settlements - 4 in total still trying to build the economy up but progessing slowly
Economy - its tanked again after recovering from year 15 to 8-10k a turn. Its currently back to 3k a turn. Population across all 4 settlements is very low, even for the capital. Trying to control corruption in 2 settlements as thats just eating into what little $$ there is although compared to the Seleucids its still very low.
Traits - noticed that some of my generals don;t have the Greek heritage or Greek family trait. On the whole they seem to have reseaonable traits ok and I have one general with the leads from front trait/command talent, etc traits.
Armies - 3 full stacks with a few units garrisoning each settlement,so possibly another 1.5 full stacks. Have stopped blockading Rome's ports as the ship units needed to be retrained due to lots of losses. DVK, just a heads up that from memory the merc building at Massiala dosen't bring any new units to the barracks (just duplicates) although I need to confirm that when I get home.
At War - with the Averni and Rome currently. Deployed a slightly modified staggered phalanx formation against the Romans in 3 battles yesterday and the no of losses were a lot less. The AI seems to just charge at the weaker units in the center leaving the units on the flanks alone allowing me to then attack the rear of the attackers with my cavalry and use the 2 free double stacked units on the far left and the far right to then counter attack. Rome is now rebuilding its stacks and theres now 4 new stacks near Genoa.

First ever contact with the Averni - no missile based troops so far, just one cavalry unit, the rest light sword and spearmen. Fairly easy to beat so far.

Right now, I'm not sure whether its possible to fight both Rome and the Averni at the sametime with the limited economy and resources at your disposal. This is different from playing as Syracuse as there I was able to with 3 full stacks take all of Scilly, then capture both Sardina and Corsica before launching a counter invasion of Italy through the South. With Syracuse, its able to generate more income dring the same time span than Massilia. With the Massilian campaign thats simply not possible as your surrounded on all sides and without being able to take out Rome early its going to be an exteremely hard faction to play all the way through.

TTrouble

[dvk901]

The generic 'Greek' heritage traits have been removed...if that's what you're referring to. They were, as far as I was concerned, a kind of 'DUH' trait.

[TTRouble]

The rendering glitch with the general's gone since updating SVN

DVK, wondering should the family members have the "Greek hertiage" trait ?

25 years into the campaign - and its pretty tough going. Rome and the Averni are constantly on the attack.

Now have 2 x 10 star generals fighting Rome and the Averni. Effectively have only 2 full stacks - one a mix of heavy infantry, cav, archers and slingers. The other is a make shift stack - mainly archers, some peltasts, lots of cav and some slingers which has soon far been able to beat 2 full Ploybian legions using similar tactics that I used for the Seleucids missile garrison defending Jerusalem without getting seriously mauled.

I have approx 10+ heavy infantry units that are down to 50-80+ men (all silver chevron) but there's no $$$ to retrain them. Small number of other garrison units.

Economy isn't improving, actually its tanked even further - between -1000k to +3000k a turn.

Happiness other than in Massila is low - 80%. Tax levels are all set to low.

Population - Massila - 20k, all others betwen 2k-9k.

Settlements - now upto 5 having taken Corsica

Battles - approx 100+, no losses on land at least.

I've played as the Boii with Rome right on its doorstep but I think this campaigns definitely harder. Pics and screen shots of economy, battles etc to follow.

[TTRouble]

Ok.. this has to be the toughest faction I've played so far. 40 years into the campaign..and 'm going to play possibly another 5 years and call it a day.

the highest no of Herioc victories in any campaign to dates - just against Rome and the Averni - approx 20. Its just ridiculous as to how many battles have been played by such a small faction and just 3 stacks - 172 win - 2 losses and 2 draws.

I've managed to take some averni settlements in the east but its practically impossible to fight both factions at the sametime.

The economy is just in the negatives - the war against Rome is impossible to fight and win with the limited resources. The Rome AI faction compltely ignores the rebel and free people settlements to the east. I think for this to be really playable, the economy at Massiala needs to be improved otherwise I can;t see how you can beat Rome and keep the Avenri at bay at the minimum.Give Massila level1or2 armoury and improved economy at least from the get go. After destroying 18 + full Roman stacks.. the AI's has just started to build up another 5-6 full to attack the city.

Year 577 AUC - Massiala gets hit by an earthquake and I loose both 10 star generals and their entire armies (all 3 or 2 silver chevron, exclduign eth generals who are 3 bronze) that are guarding the only crossings into the territory from capsian Gaul are wiped out and also the Strategos of Massila and half of the time garrison. Ok, 3 full roman stacks were also taken out but theres no fun knowing that Rome has another 5 full stacks near Genoa and you have no units to defend the city. Thats just not fair.... way too hard.

Screenshots to follow.

TTRouble