First of all, thank you so much for making this awesome mod, EB team! Even if itīs 'just' a beta, itīs already a very fine piece of work and I really enjoyed every hour of my three campaigns so far (and, in my opionion, it has far less bugs than the EB I .80 release )
I started with a Pergamon campaign (100 turns), then Kimmeros Bosperos (180 turns) and finally returned to my true EB love, Baktria (after reading King Athurīs thread).
I initially wanted to wait until Baktria got some more factional units to get the most out of it, but I simply couldnīt resist and started right away.
Now Iīm 280 turns in, and itīs been a pretty awesome experience so far. Hereīs the world map:
CAI v2, H/M
Sweboz are one province from winning the game, by the way
I own 21 provinces, Baktra alone is making 10k per turn, profit per turn with 3 medium quality full stacks and a lot of garrison units (especially for the far-away indian provinces) is ~15k. I guess I could field 5 good stacks without going into the red which is a pretty good balance for mid-game imo.
Now some observations/suggestions:
- I donīt know if itīs possible, but steppe factions - and factions who are likely to own huge provinces - should get a small unit movement boost (maybe
with a generalīs trait?). Right now it takes two turns to get from one end of the Baktra province to the other and thatīs on a highway.
To get from Baktra to one of the southern indian provinces, it takes over one and a half years on paved roads.
- Baktra should get access to elephants once the highest level of government is reached and one or more indian cities are under control.
I think it was that way in EB I, could be wrong, though.
- Baktria canīt convert camps to cities, is this a bug or done on purpose?
- Baktroi Hippeis could do with a small defence boost (+2 armour maybe), at least until Kataphraktoi Hellenikoi are in. Right now Baktria has nothing to
counter Parthian Cataphracts.
- Iīm not sure if I like the Democratic (Infantry) /Oligarchic (cavalry) unit division. I simply hate to lose unit variety. Maybe it would be better if both offer
the same units but with different caps/replenishment rates. Oligarchic could give access to reasonable number small elite units (both infantry and
cavalry) while providing only a very limited number of low/medium quality units. Democratic would be vice versa.
- faction progression overall is a bit too fast, in my opinion, eleutheroi should offer more resistance. Europe was rebel-free since turn 170, if I remember
correctly, especially sweboz are advancing at a murderous rate in all my three campaigns so far. Same goes for Makedonia, which simply blitzed through
Arche Seleukia once they controlled Greece. I think thatīs due to the fact that they (or any other faction that controls Greece) arenīt checked by an
eastward expansion of Rome which is usually already at war with Quart Hadasht and has the Sweboz ante portas. The Getai seem also to be very
reluctant to attack Greece, even if thereīs not one full stack there to protect it and theyīre not a war with anyone else.
Any other things/bugs Iīve found are already reported or discussed ad nauseam (combat balance, bad general traits, Phalangitai behaviour, Baktria independence script etc).
Best Regards,
MS