Rome

[smoesville]

I searched for this but couldn't find anything, basically in every EB campaign (except the the ones where i am Rome) the Romans get beaten into the ground. I've tried many times to bolster them by giving them large sums of money (by cheating, i'm usually fairly strapped for cash) in the hope it will lead to aggressive expansion. It never seems to help, or at least the effect is fleeting and the repercussions always seem to be worse.

My question is really how to improve their Ai performance against the other Ai. I'd rather not mess with the unit stats or it be unbalanced when i eventually meet them (my usual factions are the Casse and Baktria so they're a fair distance from Italia).

Any suggestions? Perhaps increased infrastructure might help? Or can i increase the Roman units rating in Autoresolve (but none of the other factions)? I know the EB team doesn't like prescribing the outcome of events after the start date but i would like them to do well and form a good sized republic/empire (depending on when they do it).

[The Kybrothilian]

It might have something to do with how the AI in your computer works. For me, Romans being steamrolled is fairly unusual. Also, which engine are you using? There could be a difference how the Rome faction plays out with AI when using vanilla, BI or Alx.

[smoesville]

ALX, i found it the most stable.

PS
Usually it's not an instant steamroll, but they can never seem to win or even hold against the Carthies.

[Entropy Judge]

Against the Carthaginians in particular, there are two stumbling blocks I've noticed:
1) How long it takes them to take out the Tarantines. In my recent Sweboz game, the Epirotes were still around in Italy well into the 230s, and had taken Capua and Arpi at various times. Needless to say, the Romans have not done much expanding.

2) For some reason, the Roman AI does not place a high value on Rhegion, and this frequently leads to Carthage taking Messana and Rhegion, hindering Roman expansion (do AI-Rome's Polybian reforms still have the city requirement?) to the south until that mess gets cleared up.

(Using Vanilla)

[smoesville]

There's also another problem i've seen; the Romans push North and take large swathes of territory but then at the same time they start to fall back Northwards from Sicily because all their troops are fighting in Gaul. This usually has two outcomes, one; they get evicted from Italy and for a time hold out in Gaul until the lack of available troops spells their doom or two; they recall troops from Gaul to face the Carthies which weakens both fronts and leads to them being crushed between both the Gauls and the Carthies. I think perhaps they always send troops South but in some cases they broke the Gauls so they are able to survive there.

[RedGuard]

maybe if the alps were impassable Rome would expand southward more often and in force?

[Antiokhos Euergetes]

maybe if the alps were impassable Rome would expand southward more often and in force?

I like that idea, how could it be done?

[IGdood]

Could it also be because when Marian reforms hit the previous MIC buildings are 100% damaged and so the AI spends huge amounts of money trying to fix them?

[Entropy Judge]

Rome, if it starts having problems, has problems long before the Marian Reforms are triggerable, and often-times before the Polybian reforms occur.

RE: Impassable Alps: You'd have to change the map (which I'm certain could be done), and it would either A) Not do too much, since Rome doesn't usually go through the Alps anyway, but west for Massalia (or east, but that's less common) or B) Cripple Rome entirely because the AI can't use fleets.

[smoesville]

Yeah, blocking the alps won't help i don't think, it would also be quite restrictive and unrealistic to the player imo. I'll try to pump money into them from the start and see what happens, it might have more of an effect since normally the start is difficult and i don't really pay much attention to the rest of the world and by that stage Rome is usually in trouble.

[Entropy Judge]

It might be easier to simply spawn a capable army in Sicily (say, teleport a decent General, or just a Captain, and build a solid stack for him). Once they hold both Rhegion and Messana they usually seem to pull through against the Carthaginians.

[smoesville]

I would prefer to find a more long term solution tbh but nothing really jumps out at me.

[demagogos nicator]

I believe that solution of this problem lies here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=538297

[soldati]

I've been playing a campaign as the Romans for a while now (170bc), I tend to auto-resolve a lot of battles to save time (exams) and I've noticed a huge bias towards phalanx units.

Just yesterday I was raiding the Ptolemaic coast. I attacked Alexandria, garrisoned by 2 units of elite phalanx (name escapes me now), with a full Polybian stack of quality units. I auto-resolved and my army was completely annihilated.
I had the same problem fighting Makedonia and Carthaginian armies, I could put 2-3 full, quality stacks against 1 phalanx-heavy army (often not even a full stack) and still lose on a regular basis despite the overwhelming odds.
I've also witnessed the auto-resolve becoming more favourable towards me when I hired some medium phalanx mercenaries.

Against the Aedui, Averni and Sweboz everything was normal. This seems consistent with the AI progress/post your empire threads I've seen, as it seems that if the Roman AI does manage to expand, it is always towards these regions.

[HUtH]

use 'auto_win attacker' or 'defender' in console at battle preparation screen when autoresolving(and you know you would win in battle), it gives quite resonable outcome.

[smoesville]

I think he mentions it because it could be the cause of the Romans often lack lustre performance on the strat map.

[HUtH]

ah, yeah... good point then. But autoresolving is hardcoded, isn't it? So there is no hope

[JaM]

ah, yeah... good point then. But autoresolving is hardcoded, isn't it? So there is no hope

But AI vs AI its always autoresolved... so Roman AI has no chance against Greek AI...

[smoesville]

I know the weighting of unit types can be changed in M2TW(not really how) but i'm not sure about RTW. So our only hope is really EB II.

[Metaluis90]

I read somewhere that the autoresolve could be somewhat "decieved" by adding extra secondary health in those units you wish they do better in autoresolve (legionaries, heavy/shock/elite cavalry, archers...)

the thing is that I can't recall where I read it :/