Is it a shame to give up a campaign? [DeI 1.0]

**Alu10** · January 03, 2015, 11:17 AM

Hey there?! I just lost an army against seleucid (as saba) and now i feel like i lose that war. To explain that situation. All went well in my Sabaen Campaign until the day I DECIDED to go to war with seleuikidai over ptolemai which was my real target. Its turn 150+ and i am surrounded by ptolemai and seleucid, not at war. Then war began and, knowing that Seleucid had Pontus and Roxolani as allies and sardes, persia, drangiana as client states i started my assault on mesopotamia and syria. Ptolemai was the easier target though they had rome as allies, i decided to not go to war with them because.... they gave me 1000 talents for free which i didnt get from seleucid. Stupid reason, but knowing that seleucid are tyrants and ptolemai never did anything against me i had the duty to fight seleucid.

What happened? Holding the provinces Mesopotamia and syria wasnt that easy, everyone sent their armies and seleucid had 5 armies with white shield phalanx as core of the army and royal peltasts. My armies consist of a core of sabaen nobles (7 per army) some spearmen with peltasts as secondary and arabian shortsword infantry as charging power. Depending on the duties of the armies they field also 2 african elephants, brought from my newest province aethiopia or 2 ballistas. Also some lesser horsemen. 1on1 i win but i was stuck in mesopotamia because i got rebellions over and over. This war lasted like 5 years and now i am about to give up due to the fact that i have the second wave of armies incoming from pontus and persia. before i can reach them it would take years and years, im not even finished with destroying seleucid. To destroy them I need to take over parthian province because they have a tail that reaches their.

So is it a shame? Its like back in the rome 1 days, which is fun, normally in vanilla i would face levy armies of seleucid punch right through their provinces but here i am having a challenge. The only battle i lost with an army was against 2 stacks of seleucid white shield pikes, normal pikes and alot of royal peltasts with syrian elephants. I had no chance, i had no real cav to destroy their units from behind and my units had no chance against royal peltasts. I might take that save that dresden posted from a crash report.

I sadly have no screenshots, pretty boring to read without some nice bling bling..

**Ritterlichvon86** · January 03, 2015, 11:42 AM

Great to hear that you're enjoying the challenge. Many people have vanished from the face of the earth due to such fatal decisions, like the one you made of attacking an Empire of many states.

I have never tried it, but you can take a look and try to become their client state/satrapy. Then you'll be at war with those people they are at war with, with promises of loot and plunder. Maybe even some territories, in less hostile regions of the world.

**TheOrangeProject** · January 03, 2015, 02:02 PM

Generally there is no shame to it. It all depends on your personal taste, starting with "are you having fun?".

I have given up on tons of campaigns. Often for the reason that things went horrible wrong in the early. In my latest try with odryssian kingdom things will probably soon to be over, maybe I will play it to the bitter end. Still there is a difference between going wrong and some questionable diplomatic AI decisions. There is not much of a point in playing if 3/4 factions declaring war on you in the first 4 rounds. My time is precious and don't like it to waste on those "we all hate the human player"-thing.

( I have never seen cimmera declaring war on odryssian kingdom, but only when I play them, so yeah.)

**Alu10** · January 03, 2015, 02:11 PM

One interesting thing, an evidence that the campaign is so dynamic, even in the same campaign: I took a save from before the war with seleukidai, 10 years before i think. Now what happened is baktria took over half the east with parthava as ally. It looks like they are going to win there. That save game i gave up on was the opposite, seleucid took down the eastern factions easily. I might want to hop in later when they are about to be destroyed and take over syria and mesopotamia. The main reason for me to rewind that campaign was to make it different, to go to war with ptolemai now and not seleukidai. Interesting..

**Ritterlichvon86** · January 03, 2015, 03:21 PM

Größschen us'm Rheinland!!

Every campaign develops differently. Even if it is the same one started again and again.

**TheOrangeProject** · January 03, 2015, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by Ritterlichvon86

Größschen us'm Rheinland!!

Every campaign develops differently. Even if it is the same one started again and again.

On the one hand yes, on the other hand no.

For example: When I play Odrysian K., Tylis does basically nothing real against macedon. When I play Getae they facestomp Macedon completly. Do I like that? Hm nope. Makes things unpredictable and diplomatic stuff roulette and is frustrating, especially with hard factions like the Getae. On the other hand it is nice to see some different things, but those things seem to be mainly based on what factions the player plays, because the AI acts differently in areas in which the player is active / also acting differently towards the player than the other AI factions. That is ok to a certain degree. But I am tired about the face aggro thing in Total War Games. Not as bad as in Shogun 2, but still annoying.

**Butan** · January 03, 2015, 05:10 PM

Seems like you still punched through a lot of obstacles just to get where you're at, nothing to be ashamed of! Sometimes sheer weight put you down and nothing you can do... Still a bit sad that you lost only one battle, I hope that one day we will find a fix to AI battle balance without being able to touch the BAI.

**BlueSan** · January 03, 2015, 05:17 PM

sorry wrong thread

**Ivan_Moscavich** · January 04, 2015, 03:48 AM

Not a bit of shame in it.

I've only finished one Rome Campaign because it gets tot he point where I'm not having fun, or I don't like the manner in which I defeated someone. So I start over, and try to get to that point again and make it more enjoyable.

I'm always looking through sub mods and such as well to see if anything could further tweak the mod to give me more enjoyment.

The point is to have fun, and if you're at a point in a campaign that is for whatever reason not fun. Just start a new.

**Linke** · January 04, 2015, 04:01 AM

Not really the same but yesterday I spent Probably two hours relativt a battle thrice not to loose my faction leader.

**Aram Kurdo** · January 04, 2015, 05:04 AM

also parthia will be eaten by Baktria as i randomly played Seleukid. the vanilla one wasnt. dont know maybe DeI is against eastern factions and loves Roman/Hellenic faction!!!!

**SilverCohort** · January 04, 2015, 07:01 AM

Try this http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ds-in-one-Pack

**GatoVolador** · January 04, 2015, 07:02 AM

The miscalculation was clearly on your part, for attacking the seleukidai without a propper powerbase. The ptolemaioi being allied to rome means nothing, rome is on the other side of the sea, whilst the allies and satrapies of the seleucids are nearby...

Try retreating from the two provinces, scroched earth strategy. Destroy everything und go back into the desert. Start some guerilla tactic, ambush them between the sands. Use agents to stop armies, so you can destroy them one by one. Use night fights. Try to be always on the 20 food surplus (or above) to have the maximum replenishment. Eventually the´ll run out of people to throw at you. Take one settlement and repeat.

I love the east. The east has given me the most rewarding campaigns, it feels good to overcome such odds, but yes, sometimes you have to fight through sheer endless stacks, and it gets kind of grindy. Keep the savegame and go back to it in a few days with fresh ideas and renewd motivation

Keep you head up!

**Alu10** · January 04, 2015, 07:24 AM

Originally Posted by GatoVolador

The miscalculation was clearly on your part, for attacking the seleukidai without a propper powerbase. The ptolemaioi being allied to rome means nothing, rome is on the other side of the sea, whilst the allies and satrapies of the seleucids are nearby...

Try retreating from the two provinces, scroched earth strategy. Destroy everything und go back into the desert. Start some guerilla tactic, ambush them between the sands. Use agents to stop armies, so you can destroy them one by one. Use night fights. Try to be always on the 20 food surplus (or above) to have the maximum replenishment. Eventually the´ll run out of people to throw at you. Take one settlement and repeat.

I love the east. The east has given me the most rewarding campaigns, it feels good to overcome such odds, but yes, sometimes you have to fight through sheer endless stacks, and it gets kind of grindy. Keep the savegame and go back to it in a few days with fresh ideas and renewd motivation

Keep you head up!

The Problem was my roleplaying, and waiting til the seleucids have nothing would not help much, i would need to conquer whole east to destroy them which i did already several times in my other campaign so it is rather boring. I rewound that campaign to a point before war with seleucid and now started with my real target, ptolemai. Rome conquered half of africa, though i dont know if they are busy with enemies or not, they just reached marian reforms, with my lousy units they are able to finish me for sure.