Greetings and first impressions

[teelaurila]

Ave!

I've recently had enough of vanilla, and landed here while looking for mods. The 2 straws that broke the camel's back for me was lack of challenge after the start, and armies filled with 13 first(!!!) cohorts (what is this, kiddy league where everyone comes first?). The limited armies per imperium feature seemed nice at first, but seems to be counterproductive in practically forcing non-sense all elite armies. Of course the AI still fights with quite historical armies of mixed unit quality, so it's a slaughter even at Legendary. Really it should be elite and veteran units that are restricted rather than the number of armies.

I used to play SPQR with Rome 1, and DeI seems very similar not just at heart but in practice, too.

I just started my first DeI game as Rome (VH/N). Took Genua from the start, which turned out to be a mistake as the other Cisalpina tribes armed themselves too strong too fast for me to rush more of the province. Then I managed to wrest Sicily with a sucker punch after Syracuse drove off Carthage. Easy to declare war on Syracuse and befriend Carthage. Now I'm building my infra and fighting the occasional rebellion, while eyeing Illyria and Cisalpina greedily. Very good fun so far!

One odd thing I've noticed is that I've ended up using slingers and javelinmen as the flanking forces that go around the enemy my hastati pinned. Not sure if the power of this strategy is intentional feature of DeI, but doesn't seem too historical? Probably will switch as heavier forces take the field later on.

Remains to be seen how the challenge keeps up, and how will the later game armies be. Liking also the reduced money so far - makes you think where to invest. The fights are way better fun, with morale and concentrating a massed attack on one part the enemy line actually playing a role.

[Butan]

Sup


Aye, managing to place ranged so easily in the back of the AI is not historical, and if possible DeI tries to make it so that its more difficult to do, because its extremely powerful!
Atm if you want more of a challenge, try to impose house rules about it/not exploit it too much/use armies that have more melees (I know its a bit sad to say so ), because the AI often attacks concentrated in the middle, and if you have good defensive units you can outstretch them and hold 2/3 times as many men while you flank around and shoot!

I advise you to try out an experimental pack for more brutal battles made by KAM, which should increase battle challenge: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...les-09-02-2015

Check out the submod section for added goodies if you want a better tailored experience.

[Drowsy]

I like to use a double or triple line, and cycle the tired/fresh units in and out of the fray, together with some light flanking this means u'll win most battles but still take +/- 800-900 (+ another 100 due to friendly fire, archers being on the 3rd line )casualties versus an average AI army, and if u do something silly such as over extend you could end up easily losing a legion.

It might be tempting to form a single line and/or flank with missile units but that would get boring very fast and it really takes the fun out of the occasional genocide.

[GourmetGorilla]

Welcome! I absolutely second Butan's suggestion, as KAM's experimental pack is one of the best additions to this mod currently available, at least in my opinion. He even went so far as to incorporate the spotting-distance modifications that some of the magnificent people on this forum, Butan included, helped to create and test. Said changes to spotting distance, in my experience, have meant that AI units are more likely to flank (particularly early on), and the stat pack itself, among many other things, makes skirmishers more effective from behind the main line where the AI uses them the most.

If you want to give it a try, simply download it and drop it in your data folder. This works with the Launcher Mod Manager, just make sure to enable "out of date" mods since additions from outside the workshop show up that way. Works for submods and fix packs that are posted here on TW Forums as well.

Best of luck out there!