General impressions

[al Rashid]

The first thing I do is turn the damn music off. 30 seconds is enough.

Yeah i'd rather listen to Rome 1 music tbh

The mod shows promise; I really like the unit models and historical accuracy.. it just needs a lot more polish in the realm of actual gameplay in my opinion.

[Wulfburk]

-The year counter - it was there ,then disappeared!!

Got to \Medieval 2 Total War\mods\EBII and open EBII.cfg

Change show_hud_date=false
to show_hud_date=true

Save and exit.

[isagani]

I just made a test. VH/VH with Macedon. For 20 turns I just clicked "end turn" to see what happens.

And nothing actually did. The Greeks destroyed my navy at sea, and my generals standing in the field in Peloponessos with tiny levy units. It was the scope of their offensive. Yes, they tried to lay siege on Korinthos but always broke it before capturing the city. I could sit there and wait while my kingdom was saved from any serious threat one time after another without my interference. As for Pyrrhos and the Epirotes - they left Makedon on turn 1 without trying any siege. Took Thermon and did nothing for the rest of the test.

I see this as major issue now. The AI either has too little cash or is just not active enough to do anything. It can't even wait until the end of siege.

Great mod btw and thanks much for it ! But I have to agree with the quote above.

[Kull]

I just made a test. VH/VH with Macedon. For 20 turns I just clicked "end turn" to see what happens.

You won't have to search hard to find a post where I say "one of my biggest concerns is the campaign map AI". It took a very long time to get the mod up to the level where one could play a campaign, so we couldn't test this as thoroughly as we'd like. I have no doubt that much more can be done here. In fact, I IMPLORE people with good AI skills to come up with submods. Excellent chance that one of those could become the primary EB2 AI.

Not directed at you, but the issue of battle length and unit stats is NOT in the same category. The intent was to get ancient battles closer to reality (i.e. infantry-centric), and not to follow the EB1 path. That said, there is NO DOUBT that some individual stats will need to be tweaked. That is part and parcel of this whole process. But those who expect quick battles are not going to get them (although it's humorous how many people in this very thread are complaining that units rout too easily!). For those who just hate it, get to work right now on your own revised unit stat sub-mod. Much better use of your time.

[QuintusSertorius]

I must join my peers and say that the CAI is completely inactive, it just never starts doing anything.
It is a major issue that isnt affected by difficulty.


Turn +50/100, half of the AI factions will have conquered one or two rebel factions and brokered a few trade rights, but thats it.
They do not wage war with their enemies, be them AI or the human player.

I'm seeing that as feature, not bug, personally. I like a much slower pace of game, and this is welcome.

I'm about 20 turns in and the Numidians have grabbed two provinces already, the Baktrians and Taksashilians have an extra one, but everyone else is pretty quiet.

[Theo]

I must join my peers and say that the CAI is completely inactive, it just never starts doing anything.
It is a major issue that isnt affected by difficulty.


Turn +50/100, half of the AI factions will have conquered one or two rebel factions and brokered a few trade rights, but thats it.
They do not wage war with their enemies, be them AI or the human player.

Interesting. I'm playing on VH/VH (turn 132, roman campaign), and the Lugiones have taken the Sweboz capitol and are at war with the Sauromatae. The Seleucids forced the Ptolomies out of Asia Minor. The Common Greeks captured Sinope (but lost Sparta to Macedon, who has lost Pella to Epeiros multiple times), while Armenia now has all of the Caucasus regions and the Pontic capitol (Pontos is now holding out in Byzantium). The Pahlava were kicked out of their homelands by the Seleucids and Saka, and are now a horde. Carthage was beaten out of Iberia (Spain), which is now a battleground between the Lusotannan and the Arevaci. Oh and Carthage is about to capture the last Numidian province. Near the start of the campaign (about turn 28) both the Common Greeks and Carthage declared war on me. And then around turn 50 the Arveni took over Cisalpine Gaul and invaded Italy (they had been at war with the Aedui for most of the game).

Very Hard campaign difficulty seem to be working well for me.

[al Rashid]

How does that music have anything to do with romans?....That's modern stereotypical hollywood music.

You're not playing the game to listen to traditional folk music; you're doing it to fight battles. If the music is of high quality and fits the theme of the battle while being enjoyable to listen to, then why would it matter if it was 'stereotypical hollywood music'?

[Kull]

I'm seeing that as feature, not bug, personally. I like a much slower pace of game, and this is welcome.

I'm about 20 turns in and the Numidians have grabbed two provinces already, the Baktrians and Taksashilians have an extra one, but everyone else is pretty quiet.

I would encourage people to NOT extrapolate the results of any one campaign to the game as a whole. Our playtests weren't as extensive as one would like, but they ALWAYS produced mini-maps showing widely divergent AI faction behavior. Parthia barely moves at all in one 50 turn campaign. In another they are the beast of the world (more provinces than the Seleukids). Personally I always wanted to see Aedui/Arverni build up quickly, but they rarely did. Until I played as Aedui on VH/M - within 25 turns I had 4 provinces. AI Arverni had FIVE! So it does change from campaign to campaign, and depends too on which faction you play as.

[Kull]

You're not playing the game to listen to traditional folk music; you're doing it to fight battles. If the music is of high quality and fits the theme of the battle while being enjoyable to listen to, then why would it matter if it was 'stereotypical hollywood music'?

This is one area where the team did what we thought best, but encourage players to choose music they are comfortable with. Hopefully it's ours - but if it's something else - and it makes YOU happy and you enjoy the mod that little bit more, have at it!

[Wulfburk]

You're not playing the game to listen to traditional folk music; you're doing it to fight battles. If the music is of high quality and fits the theme of the battle while being enjoyable to listen to, then why would it matter if it was 'stereotypical hollywood music'?

Its about immersion, and IMO EB's music tops any other on that area in this time frame.

[mr mojo risin]

Its about immersion, and IMO EB's music tops any other on that area in this time frame.

+1

[imareaver]

Mod's amazing! But yeah, the CAI is flawed. In the screenshot (H/H--maybe this wouldn't happen on VH?), you can see huge Carthaginian armies sitting in PSF's next to an undefended Carthage and an undefended Ippone. They've been there for ten turns and have literally done nothing. That passivity is a big problem.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

On the other hand, I love the minimap--powerful Makedonia and Arveni, Saka is Baktria's vassal, and the Bospori have been doing some cool expansion around the Black Sea coastline and even took Sinope.

[Sar1n]

Got to \Medieval 2 Total War\mods\EBII and open EBII.cfg

Change show_hud_date=false
to show_hud_date=true

Save and exit.

...I don't even have that line there....

[Kull]

...I don't even have that line there....

Just insert the text he's talking about anywhere under the "misc" category.

[naq]

- hoplites keep attacking with their shields (like 1 out of 10 attacks is with spear) - no idea if thats historically accurate or not

because overarm spears suck so shield bashing ftw.

[s1n]

For those who just hate it, get to work right now on your own revised unit stat sub-mod. Much better use of your time.

-I'm not a modder. I just play the game.
-I just played a battle vs. Epirotes again. I had 135 Hastati surrounding 2 Hoplites, and it took my 135 hastati over 6 minutes to kill them taking a fair amount of casualties.
-I am playing on Hard campaign difficulty, medium battle difficulty.

I am starting to think something is wrong with my install or something, because I don't see how people can find this entertaining whatsoever. I am literally surrounding less than 10 troops with hundreds of men and it is taking over 5 mins to kill them. It is not a matter of tactics because I'm reinforcing with fresh units, flanking from sides and front, and completely surrounding the enemy. I'm also rotating cavalry charges with horses with fresh legs. They just don't die.

[naq]

Honestly I find the pace of the campaign extremely slow. Just booted up EB 1 there and the difference is like night and day.

AI's lack of aggressiveness together with few recruitment slot, recruitment replenishing rate, hard economy and low movement range I found myself never click "end turn" button as frequently ever before.

In battle, the troops often stand still and let some of the soldiers fight and the rest wait or even stand facing the other direction. When they did fight at once they create huge blobs that look nothing like a proper ancient battle should do.

Still a great mod, though compare to Roma Surrectum 2 and De Bello Mundi, it did not give any extraordinary impression.

[Kull]

For those who just hate it, get to work right now on your own revised unit stat sub-mod. Much better use of your time.

-I'm not a modder. I just play the game.
-I just played a battle vs. Epirotes again. I had 135 Hastati surrounding 2 Hoplites, and it took my 135 hastati over 6 minutes to kill them taking a fair amount of casualties.
-I am playing on Hard campaign difficulty, medium battle difficulty.

I am starting to think something is wrong with my install or something, because I don't see how people can find this entertaining whatsoever. I am literally surrounding less than 10 troops with hundreds of men and it is taking over 5 mins to kill them. It is not a matter of tactics because I'm reinforcing with fresh units, flanking from sides and front, and completely surrounding the enemy. I'm also rotating cavalry charges with horses with fresh legs. They just don't die.

Context is helpful. Where is this taking place?

[Funeh]

I am playing on VH/H and I dont think the battles are super slow.. Yeah its much slower then any TW game I played before but I think this is kinda realistic... If you flank good and charge hard with units with high charge stats then you can route the entire line easily...
Also if you are fighting hoplites vs hoplites dont expect quick casauilties, hoplites didnt fight to kill most men so fast, but to route the enemy and push them to force retreat... I love that each battle of play is very important and you must think your tactics very well... The goal is not to kill them all, but to route them at once, as in reality.

Also I dont see much problems with missile units... I use them on the lightest troops that you cannot catch with your infantry, and im pretty hapy with their role.

I cannot say anything about campaign AI because I didnt play enough turns yet.

But I must say I was very surprised with the battle AI, they are very clever.

I recommend doing something about the single units fighting or charging, when there is only first line charging... In TATW they really made it right and every unit charge was correct and epic. Maybe you can ask them for help?

ANYWAY EPIC MOD THANK DEVS VERY MUCH. I KNOW I WILL BE DANGEROUSLY ADICTED TO THIS.

[s1n]

Context is helpful. Where is this taking place?

The first time this happened was Turn 2 fighting against Taras with my starting Roman army. The beginning of the battle was fine, although in this new version its pretty hard to get solid javelin volleys. I broke through the gate with minimal casualties using my triarii in guard mode not letting their remaining infantry and cavalry into the area past directly behind the front walls. The triarii held no problem and I was able to reform my 2 units of hastati directly behind them in column formation, and my principe to the right of triarii. When their General bodyguard charged, I took the initial charge with my triarii I split the hastati maniples to either side facing inwards, and backed up my triarii to the gate. Their general kept pushing forward towards my triarii who reformed and held a line. I came in from either side with Hastati and moved my principe behind them. When the principe reformed I charged. Completely surrounded the general. Something like 12 minutes later the 27 or so generals cavalry (completely surrounded by over 200 units) had dwindled to 3 and it took another 4 minutes for those 3 to go down.

Used basically the same strategy vs the hoplites I mentioned earlier and it was pretty much the same result, just a little shorter.

This has happened in battles vs the eleuthoroi as well, not just epirotes.

I'm definitely liking the potential of this mod, as I loved EB1, but if this is working as intended if I play every battle on my first campaign I'll be 74 years old by the time I'm done it.