Playing EB with the RTW Alexander game engine

[Lanier]

Hey guys,

I used to play EB a long time ago. It was a super fun mod that gave me lots of good memories. In fact, I would go as far as to say that my best time with any total war game/mod was when I was playing EB. That said, I also remember having a couple of serious problems. I had serious issues with diplomacy, or the lack thereof. It seemed like every time I bordered another nation, they would eventually end up at war with me. We could be best friends and I could give them lots of gifts of money, but it never made any difference. We always ended up at war. Now I remember reading somewhere that RTW Alexander makes diplomacy a little more reasonable. I don't remember where and I don't know for sure if this is true. That is why I am coming to you all, my fellow EB fans. Can someone who plays EB with RTW Alexander's engine tell me how the diplomacy is? Is it as I described above or can you occasionally stay at peace with adjacent nations?

My only other complaint from when I last played this was the seemingly random CTDs when I entered battles from the campaign map. Maybe 10% of the time, when my computer loaded a battle, my game would crash. Does anyone who plays EB with RTW Alexander's engine get these crashes?

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers these questions! I am looking forward to reinstalling EB and starting up a new game.

[Hummer]

There is a couple minor fixes involving sprites to be found over in the EB Technical Help.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...Technical-Help
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...Before-Posting

As for the diplomacy. You could wait for EB II that is coming out for M2TW...
I imagine the first release to be about 6 months away.

[Lanier]

Trust me, I am eagerly awaiting EB II . Until then though, I'd like to try out EB 1 again. I just need to decide if buying Alexander would enhance my EB1 playing experience by improving diplomacy or stability.

Oh, and thanks for the links.

[Principe Alessandro]

As for now I am playing a Sauromatae campaign with Alex.exe at the start I was at war with Getai but since I hadn't a border with them I made peace, but soon as I conquered Olbia we have now a shared border, I asked an alliance with them giving also 1000 mnai and they accepted. Still allied with them, the only border faction with which I am at war is Saka, Pahlava remains neutral, same for Hayasdan.

Well shortly speaking Alex.exe AI is better and it makes some sense in diplomacy.

[Ownager]

How are the Sauromatae units? Good? Average? And what is their economy like?

[Principe Alessandro]

How are the Sauromatae units? Good? Average? And what is their economy like?

Comparing them with the Saka they have less armored foot archers, their foot spearmen are weaker then the Saka but the Slavic regional foot spearmen are equally good and they have also Scythian axemen with a nice AP weapon to deal with armored troops (recruitable even by Saka if they hold Black Sea regions), they have better riders and noble cavalry with the roxolani but their only pure lancer cavalry is a bit weak (Scytian nobles) compared to the Saka cataphracts and bodyguards. They don't have any reform so of the three nomad factions (Pahlava, Sauromate, Saka Rauka) are the only one that remains as a pure nomadic faction through the game and they don't get factional heavy infantry (you will have to rely on regional troops for this). Of the three nomadic factions Pahlava probably has the best armored cavalry but their foot archers seems a bit weak unless you reach persia and begin to recruit heavy persian archers, their factional foot spears are better.

I'd say that with the Sauromatae against the other nomads you should rely on your riders and noble cavalry to soft the enemy in a archery duel and then charge them with full force, avoid direct contact against lancer cavalry. Their economy is better, they have many regions to conquer around the Black Sea with a lot of trade opportunities, they have also some regions with mines.