Early Impressions

[Lost Eagle]

First of all it is very clear how much time and effort has gone into the making of this mod, it is truly one hell of a make over. Visually is is superb and this is backed up with phenomenal historical research. Hats off.

Now onto the game play. You are very much thrown in at the deep end, and that is even with a good many years of vanilla Rome:tw under my belt. It could even be a little overwhelming and at the same time as thinking "this is awesome", you are also thinking "woah, I miss the simplicity of the vanilla game". I've had this mod downloaded (- the torrent option is amazing by the way) the best part of a week and I still think that I am nowhere near feeling familiar with it, i'm sure that will come in time. Everything from the historical names, to the new units, even to the fact that on the battle map the units are very similar (realistic) colours on both sides throws me off balance. The last point in particular really gives you a flavour of the chaos of ancient warfare, without obvious examples like the Romans being red.

Also, running parallel to these trials is the fact that with every faction I've tried out so far you begin in a bit of a predicament, especially financially. I have begun a Sweboz campaign and even with a half stack standing army which must face similar sized rebel forces you are in debt within a turn, two at most. I have had a little CtD problem but I have been trying to conquer the surrounding towns (villages?) to try to drag myself out of the red that way and moving as quick as I can I find myself sitting on a -70,000 mnai balance with still two more settlements to take before I have a nice 5/6 area under control. So that will be easily 6-10 years before I touch the black again, and can then start developing these poor lands. More like six if I disband the army but the Gauls are within striking distance so that would be risky.

I cannot wait to be fully immersed in this mod, I do like a challenge and I'm bowled over by the quality of this mod. Please don't think this is a moan,more of a rant, but a good rant!

[Wulfburk]

What i usually do with those factions you start on losing money (Casse for example) is use all the money you have in the start to build good but cheap units and try to conquer the most settlements you can with the starting army and the new units. Usually after 2/3 cites you took your economy will be back on its feet and you can do whatever you want.

That works perfectly on Casse but you dont need to worry about other factions so...

[moriluk]

Good to see new people are still picking up this mod.

Some factions you must delete most or all cavalry (and ships) on the first turn, like Sweboz, then take 2 or 3 cities. This puts you in the black. It takes a campaign or two to find the balance of having a large enough army to guard your kingdom, and a large enough kingdom to afford your army.

For CTD's. I don't know how much you have read but here are a few tips:
-Do NOT repair broken governments. Even if they are your own. If one of your cities has riots, check teh gov. If damaged, delete and build new one. AFter taking a city, delete ALL former governments and useless mics.
-After battles, wait about 15 seconds (until the drums start) before exiting.
-If you can, figure out how to use Alex.exe or BI.exe. Runs more stable. Far less crashes in general and slightly better battles (and naval invasions).
-If you have a fatal ctd at one particular turn, go back 2 - 12 turns. Often this works (if you have the patience to replay 12 turn). usually going back a year or less will undo the damage.

Make sure you thoroughly understand governments and mics and their relationship. Use the recruitment viewer to get the best results out of your provinces.

A good starting campaign is Epeiros. Elephants right outside Macedonia, good economy, good variety of troop, and one of the best starting generals.

I highly recommend the following mods as well:
Forced diplomacy
extended unit info mod.
City mod.

[Durnaug]

Good to see new people are still picking up this mod.

Some factions you must delete most or all cavalry (and ships) on the first turn, like Sweboz, then take 2 or 3 cities. This puts you in the black. It takes a campaign or two to find the balance of having a large enough army to guard your kingdom, and a large enough kingdom to afford your army.

For CTD's. I don't know how much you have read but here are a few tips:
-Do NOT repair broken governments. Even if they are your own. If one of your cities has riots, check teh gov. If damaged, delete and build new one. AFter taking a city, delete ALL former governments and useless mics.
-After battles, wait about 15 seconds (until the drums start) before exiting.
-If you can, figure out how to use Alex.exe or BI.exe. Runs more stable. Far less crashes in general and slightly better battles (and naval invasions).
-If you have a fatal ctd at one particular turn, go back 2 - 12 turns. Often this works (if you have the patience to replay 12 turn). usually going back a year or less will undo the damage.

Make sure you thoroughly understand governments and mics and their relationship. Use the recruitment viewer to get the best results out of your provinces.

A good starting campaign is Epeiros. Elephants right outside Macedonia, good economy, good variety of troop, and one of the best starting generals.

I highly recommend the following mods as well:
Forced diplomacy
extended unit info mod.
City mod.

Excellent information. Thanks for posting!

[Jive]

Good to see new people are still picking up this mod.


For CTD's. I don't know how much you have read but here are a few tips:
-Do NOT repair broken governments. Even if they are your own. If one of your cities has riots, check teh gov. If damaged, delete and build new one. AFter taking a city, delete ALL former governments and useless mics.
-After battles, wait about 15 seconds (until the drums start) before exiting.
-If you can, figure out how to use Alex.exe or BI.exe. Runs more stable. Far less crashes in general and slightly better battles (and naval invasions).
-If you have a fatal ctd at one particular turn, go back 2 - 12 turns. Often this works (if you have the patience to replay 12 turn). usually going back a year or less will undo the damage.

So moriluk, what if you retake a town with your own gov still undamaged (the AI didn't destroy it) and the build menu shows you can build the same (or another) type? A number of towns/cities with Type 3 govs have given the option of building--after pacification--ANOTHER Type 3 or a Type 4, completely disregarding the Type 3 already there . Any suggestions? Thanks.

@Lost Eagle: Welcome aboard! And please allow me to second the notion that BI exe. is preferable to RTW. I had a fatal crash in Summer 175 BCE, playing as Lusotanni. Replaying several times from six or more saved turns didn't help, so I just about quit. After installing Ferromancer's BI exe. yesterday it seems the filthy bugger has been banished; it's now Summer 174 BCE and everything's fine (so far, anyway). The naval invasions are also welcome, adding realism and challenge to the game.

[Entropy Judge]

Welcome to the field!

Also, running parallel to these trials is the fact that with every faction I've tried out so far you begin in a bit of a predicament, especially financially. I have begun a Sweboz campaign and even with a half stack standing army which must face similar sized rebel forces you are in debt within a turn, two at most.

Yep, pretty much every faction has to either quickly expand or disband the majority of its forces at the very beginning. Standing armies are expensive beasts to maintain, and factions like the Sweboz that don't have powerful economies and/or single-region starts have a more difficult time of it than already-settled factions (Rome and Carthage, as examples of 'beginner' factions).

I have been trying to conquer the surrounding towns (villages?) to try to drag myself out of the red that way and moving as quick as I can I find myself sitting on a -70,000 mnai balance with still two more settlements to take before I have a nice 5/6 area under control.

What I generally do (as the Sweboz are probably my favourite faction) is to take Rugolandam and Kimbriolandam (the two regions north of Swebotraustastamnoz) and then - if I still have enough units - the Scandinavian region. None of them have Walls, and with the low Armour values of most units, you can take advantage of the Skudjonez. Combined with regenerating BGs and the fact that you don't need more then 2-3 units at most to keep a region pacified, you can take all four towns fairly quickly, then disband unnecessary units (Cavalry! They are *expensive*) to get back in the black after a fairly short time.

More like six if I disband the army but the Gauls are within striking distance so that would be risky.

The Gauls are at war with each other, and will take a *long* time to chew through the Eleutheroi settlements separating you (if they ever do ... I don't think I've ever seen Aedui or Arverni cities bordering Sweboz cities unless it's due to Sweboz expansion). The Sweboz at the beginning are nearly as safe as the Casse, and the Eleutheroi aren't particularly aggressive - a FM and a unit of Archers or Skirmishers in a Town ought to be enough to keep it from rioting, which is what you really care about.

Also, here's a totally awesome guide by athanaric, who is awesome, which offers some great advice.

[Boriak]

Ah, to be at the beginning of experiencing EB... How I envy you.

The only bad thing about this mod is that it makes it impossible to try others.

[Samariten]

Ah, to be at the beginning of experiencing EB... How I envy you.

The only bad thing about this mod is that it makes it impossible to try others.

I totally agree with you on this one. Though i have tried the other mods but i always get back to EB.

[Durnaug]

"woah, I miss the simplicity of the vanilla game"

You can always try Extended Greek Mod (XGM) if you want a break from EB. XGM deliberately maintains the feel of the vanilla gameplay but has extra units, bigger map [edit: compared to vanilla] and...well the excellent readme explains everything.

http://www.wmwiki.com/hosted/xgm/xgmreadme.html

Back to the intensity of EB, oh my, and your CTD, have you applied the fixes?

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showth...before-posting

[Lost Eagle]

That is what I tried first Wulfburk, I trained some extra spear units and archers in my capital then attacked the surrounding settlements but as I say I was quickly 70,000 mnai in debt - then with the crash I lost the victory of a key battle. So instead of replaying that battle I started again and tried it Entropy and Moriluk's way by disbanding the cavalry (which I realised that I didn't use any way) and took it a little slower. I built roads and two archer units the first turns and slowly expanded East and North (deliberately keeping a buffer between us and the Gauls). I didn't fall more than 4,000 in the red which was easily remedied. A much better way of doing it. I was also pleasantly surprised at the trade bonuses for the first port level, only trading with myself the values rocket up.

Thanks for the guide link too Entropy. What I am still having difficulty with though is the government buildings. He says to build a level I wherever possible. He also says to build a level II in expansion regions (which I take to be outside of Germania (e.g. the Baltic) rather than any expansion), but what if I build a level one because it is possible, can I then build a level II or is it one or the other? Also I'm still struggling to decipher the differences between them and how to decide which to use over another.

I'm also really tempted to let my creative juices flow with some short stories based on my campaign, like a cross between something for The Writer's Study and an AAR.

PS. The second crash fix in your post moriluk is the one I'm 'using' so far to good effect. I realised when it happened I just clicked continue straight after the battle ended so no I wait on the victory (hopefully) screen a short while before continuing. I saw it by searching for post battle crashed in the technical section but thanks for suggesting it too!

[Entropy Judge]

What I am still having difficulty with though is the government buildings. He says to build a level I wherever possible. He also says to build a level II in expansion regions (which I take to be outside of Germania (e.g. the Baltic) rather than any expansion), but what if I build a level one because it is possible, can I then build a level II or is it one or the other? Also I'm still struggling to decipher the differences between them and how to decide which to use over another.

You can only have one Government building at a time, but you can build one, build any buildings you want that require that government, then tear it down and build a new one. For example, the Type III government is useful because it grants one extra XP to units trained there, but it doesn't allow for some of the buildings that a Type I or II government does. So what you can do is build a Type II, build up the buildings you need, then tear down the Type II and build a Type III and keep that one.

Generally speaking, the more expensive govts are better (so if you can build a Type II, you probably should). Personally, I like to find a region with useful units I can train (generally not Germanic regions, though), then make it a Type III government with a Temple to Deiwoz, because brand new units with 4 XP appeal to me.

As for the differences ... (apart from buildings available, which is basically "Type I and II give more buildings than Type III and IV; the higher the Govt the more Factional Barracks you can build and vice versa") (and assuming I'm reading the EDB correctly):

I: +1 Bonus to Trade, Cheaper Construction costs (?), and a Loyalty (Happiness, IIRC) bonus

II: +1 Happiness Bonus, +1 Law Bonus, -1 Trade Penalty (??? I always thought it was a +1 bonus, but the EDB says "trade_base_income_bonus bonus -1")

III: +1% Tax Bonus, +1 XP Bonus, +1 Happiness Bonus

IV: +2% Tax Bonus, +1 XP Bonus, -1 Law Penalty

So a Type III is going to be more useful than a Type IV, because it's not saddled with a Law Penalty (which will increase Corruption *and* lower Happiness), and a Type II is usually going to be more useful than a Type III (happier and more Law - and if it's actually a Trade Bonus and not a Penalty, it's going to be getting more money as well). Type I is pretty great, with no disadvantages, and shouldn't be torn down unless it's not a Homeland region for you. Morale Bonuses, unfortunately, don't actually work and can be ignored.

[Thuycidides]

Sometimes your FMs are better governors with some government types but not others. Don't forget to pay attention to that.

[Perdiccas]

Re: govt types.

I read a guide before about roleplaying (i think it was one of the roman guides).... I liked the idea they had of building a type IV first in newly conquered territories, then as the years go by, you would upgrade to a type III... then a few more years and upgrade again.

sometimes, depending on where the new territory was, you might keep it at a type IV.

it's kind of fun that way and makes it seem a bit more realistic.

sometimes you immediately build a type II or type I if it's in your traditional homeland.. like Hellas for Makedonia and Italia for the Romans.

[HUtH]

I like to establish type IV in some "barbaric" and distant lands, though I could III, but mercenary generals are so cool, it adds depth to the game, and let your FMs focus on battling Although I haven't played yet with a nation that has general on foot, I speculate that I'd use mercenary general with heavy cavalry guard for battles

[Stath's]

Yeah mercenary generals are superb units. Those celtic lesser kings, shouting "Vollorix", were great!!! Although a bit sickly, sometimes...

[Lost Eagle]

Clear as mud!

[Thuycidides]

I've played with the RTW.exe and the BI.exe, and I have always suffered the occasional ctd. Their frequency is definitely connected to the number of objects visible on the campaign map. For example, early in a campaign ctds are very rare. After you conquer territory, they happen much more frequently. I have learned to just restart the application before a large battle; it saves a lot of time and prevents frustration.

[Jive]

I've played with the RTW.exe and the BI.exe, and I have always suffered the occasional ctd. Their frequency is definitely connected to the number of objects visible on the campaign map. For example, early in a campaign ctds are very rare. After you conquer territory, they happen much more frequently. I have learned to just restart the application before a large battle; it saves a lot of time and prevents frustration.

Sorry to sound dumb Thuycidides, but what do you mean by "restart the application"? Thanks.

[Entropy Judge]

Save the game, quit and exit, then restart EB.