Bosporan campaign .. no1

[TTRouble]

Kick started the Bosporan campaign last night - aim is to test up to 30-40 years.

First thoughts - this is going to be one fun faction to play with - very similar to the Seleucids but you get the horse archers and cataphracts from the get go.

So far only played 3 years and already have taken 3 settlements, so currently 5 in total.

Economy so far is good, with happiness levels across 4 of the settlements in the 160%+. The capital is at just 120% - high levels of squalor but I'm working on it.

Other factions - Right now I'm wondering whether to take out Sycthia or go for the Samaritans and I'm leaning towards the Samaritans as they will be unstoppable later on. Luckily this faction has the units to be able to give them a good run for their money. Rebel factions mainly all horse archers and missiles.

Only thing out of place is the map just before the start of the campaign - could we replace that with a pic of some of the units ?

Definitely better then playing Massila, which I'm going to carry on testing for another 10 years up to 40 years.

[tone]

Does it need to be harder do you think, bearing in mind that if we balance it for a medium difficulty campaign, then hard will be very challenging, which is good.

[Ybbon]

I think this will be harder as you go further, it's pretty easy to take out the first two settlements near you (which is the 3rd you took TTrouble?) and you can build up a nice set or armies but then you have some awkward choices.
Go North against the rebels and Sarmatia but the distances are huge so you'll probably spend a lot of time chasing down and I bet for very little economic gain. South-West against Scythia but you'll end up bumped against Macedonia, Dacia and Boii at least which is going to be fun. South-East down the Caucasus towards Pontus/Armenia which is probably going to be hard too.

The unit balance is a good mix though with decent infantry and good cavalry from light, through HA, lancers and heavy so you should have the capacity, it's the starting position that makes it interesting.

[TTRouble]

DVK,

Can;t say just yet whether it needs to be harder as I've only just started and battle wise made contact with the Rebels. I can easily see the same army types that I used for the Seleucid's is going to be the way to go - so a fast HA/heavy cavalry based army to fight Parthia/Samaritan/Sycthia etc and a more balanced heavy Inf/Missile/heavy cav to take on everyone else. Definietly a good mix of unit types.

The fifth settlement was Campuslazy goes - so north of the capital and on the border with the Samaritans. The rebels had a full stack of HA, Scythian archers, heavy cav, skirmishers and a mix of slav spearmen and thracian swords.

I'd like not to have to blitz the other factions - so I'm leaning towards letting them build up and just take out the rebel factions before taking them on. The Scythian's already have a full stack on the border and I have a full stack waiting for them. Preparing for the Samaritan's also with a single full stack for now but I'm weary of going on the offensive.

With Massila, you don;t have any of those options as Rome just constantly attacks within the 5 years with full, 3/4 and 1/2 stacks non stop and you never get a chance to build up the economy and retrain units that have taken a mauling. A good faction to get a 10 star general really quick but by 30-35 years its pretty tiresome having to constantly fight off Rome.