Worst decisions you've made

[Lansa]

I'd like to think we've all made a few strategic blunders on the campaign map (or maybe I'm just incredibly bad ) and thought it would be fun to post all of our various moments here.
Both of mine occurred on the same AS file.
I had crushed the Ptolemies, and was planning on turtling for a good few years when all of a sudden the Saby'ns arrive around Bostra and proceed to troll the hell out of my Thorakitai/Phalangites with their Arabian light infantry and slingers. This went on for several turns, before I snapped and sent a punitive force of 3 stacks of elite troops (Hetairoi, Agryraspides, TAB and the like) to destroy them permanently. What happened next was my entire campaigning force got stuck in the desert chasing after 1/6 stacks for 2 decades. During this time, my allies Makedonia, who had been reduced to Mytilene and Chalkis,somehow began to steamroll the KH and took over all of Greece before conquering my sparsely defended Mikra Asian holdings. I couldn't afford any more armies, and could only sit and watch as all of my settlements up to Tarsos were taken.
Earlier in the same campaign, having invested thousands in large garrisons for all my border towns and getting annoyed at their lack of action, I declared war on my allies Hayasdan, Baktria and Pontos so they could be of some use. A few turns later they're all surrounded by full stacks, and I become embroiled in several lengthy wars that ties down most of my reserves.
So, who else has made stupid mistakes like this? Please say I'm not the only one

[fireblade]

Mine would have been conquering the last 2 lightly defended arverni towns (they were located between me and the lusotannans) when I was playing as the romans, only to find that a bunch of full lusotannan stacks were waiting for that very moment on the other side of the pyrenees, and they immediately launched an invasion in force...

[postm00v]

Does uninstalling EB count as a bad decision ?

[Ferdiad]

My worst decision was to give Elephants five more HP.

[Legatus Legionarii]

My worst decision was to give Elephants five more HP.

LOL!!!

[War lord]

Invading Africa as Lusotannan, the goal was to seize those rich eastern cities and get access to some archers that didn't suck (the one thing my armies lack.) I grabbed my goal cities and then ran into any players worst nightmare. An elite stack lead by a high command General, the highlight of which was 6 Elite African Pikemen. Needless to say, I lost all my holdings in Africa as well as my king who was both young and on his way to being a great general. So now I'm going into Gaul which is weak, rich and divided.

[xXEsotericXx]

Worst decision, and wich i will never make again, Invade Carthage as first target, it will backfire, and u will leak money like a sponge..........................


(Romani campaign)

[Wulfburk]

Trusting that the romans will not attack your settlements in aquitania as Casse and leaving it unguarded...

[fri]

Is to always get too pumped up when im leading my royal army on a mad campaign. Plundering, killing and destroying the world.
Three turns later, the campaign is ruined because im too rich and KEWL

[smoesville]

Choosing AS over Ptolomies when they declared war, only thing is the gypos were bigger than the seleukids ever were so i didn't want them to get bigger.

[Durnaug]

Uninstalling RTW!

[Bob Doad]

o i have a million (all on one Romani save)
1. Attacking Messena not knowing it would automatically put me in a war with Carthage
2. Invading Carthage with 1 stack of Camillian Soldiers all thrown together (eventually conquered all of Carthage...I spent my whole treasury on mercenaries)
3. Attacking Arveni and Aeudi and not expecting an attack from Lustonnan and Sweboz ( defeated them too with mercenaries, a polybian army, and a local army)
4. Taking Greece without enough troops to fight off Arche Seleukia ( Used mercenaries and local troops to fend them off before bringing in my polybian army)
5. Not saving and the whole thing getting to a point where it just crashed and had to start a new campaign

I know really stupid but in the end i used my knowledge of terrain and my strongpoints to put them in bad situations for ex i used the two bridges that led to Byzantium to protect all of Greece

in my new campaign i made more mistakes

1. Attacked luvavoeta with only one stack of camillian troops
2. Leaving Syracuse and Messena undefended (when Carthage had two full stacks)

[Jive]

As Baktria, beginning the campaign by taking Chach. Didn't want to break my "alliance" with AS. Naturally, this PO'd Sauka, and Pahlava, later Ptolemoids (Pahlava's ally) attacked me soon after. So I wound up fighting a three-front war just to preserve my useless alliance with AS. Brilliant, eh?

[Thuycidides]

As Baktria, beginning the campaign by taking Chach. Didn't want to break my "alliance" with AS. Naturally, this PO'd Sauka, and Pahlava, later Ptolemoids (Pahlava's ally) attacked me soon after. So I wound up fighting a three-front war just to preserve my useless alliance with AS. Brilliant, eh?

Ha! I did the same thing, and AS stabbed me in the back for it, too.

Some factions are not to be trusted, namely (in my experience):
AS
Ptolemeoi
Romani
Karthadast
should always be regarded as primary threats, even if you have established TR, alliances, etc.

Is there a script or a file somewhere that determines how likely a faction is to back-stab? By contrast, the Getai are highly reliable allies.

[Bob Doad]

Ha! I did the same thing, and AS stabbed me in the back for it, too.

Some factions are not to be trusted, namely (in my experience):
AS
Ptolemeoi
Romani
Karthadast
should always be regarded as primary threats, even if you have established TR, alliances, etc.

Is there a script or a file somewhere that determines how likely a faction is to back-stab? By contrast, the Getai are highly reliable allies.

im calling you dont have Lusotannan

[Thuycidides]

im calling you dont have Lusotannan

Are they also reliable? I've had alliances with them before and I do not recall any backstabbing. Perhaps the noble barbaroi are better allies than the Greeks, Latins, and Phoenecians.

[Dahoota]

Is there a script or a file somewhere that determines how likely a faction is to back-stab?

I'm pretty sure its almost impossible for RTW. M2TW mods have some awesome modded AI's - Lusted and Savage's AI are very good for it.

The laughable diplomacy which is hard coded into the RTW engine is the only thing that lets it down for me.

That being said, the RTW AI is quite predictable - it will always betray you if it has the forces and shares a land border with you. Keeping powerful armies in the cities that share borders with other factions is one way to help deter backstabbing.

[Jive]

Ha! I did the same thing, and AS stabbed me in the back for it, too.

Some factions are not to be trusted, namely (in my experience):
AS
Ptolemeoi
Romani
Karthadast
should always be regarded as primary threats, even if you have established TR, alliances, etc.

Is there a script or a file somewhere that determines how likely a faction is to back-stab? By contrast, the Getai are highly reliable allies.

Thanks Thucydides, I'll keep that in mind.

[smoesville]

I really think it's all to do with the balance of power, seleukia have been a stalwart ally ever since they lost most of the empire, bearing in mind i'm baktria, not the seleukids favorite people in my experience. Strangely the Saka are very reliable, they only attacked after i declared war on them and now we're allies again though they were a faction that didn't make peace until i was driven from their frontiers (by pahlava) and had no borders with them whereas AS made peace and betrayed me loads of times.

[ArxOnceAgain]

I agree the Getai are highly reliable, but perhaps this is a condition of their relative strength and geography, rather than a condition of the Getai themselves. -> you rarely share borders with the Getai early in-game, and when you eventually do, as a Hellenic player, you're usually stronger than them and they have plenty of room to expand north, so they've no reason to attack you. They even rarely reach the Adriatic before Epirus, so they're not particularly in the way of Romani advance into Greece (since SPQR and Epirus rarely like each other). In most of my games, Getai survive long against both me and the AI because nobody wants their land and nobody wants to stop them expanding into Poland, so they stay allied with most