Quote Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix View Post
That's an interesting assessment and you're almost certainly right about the first 20 turns of the game. While the Lugiones and Saka usually get crushed in the half a dozen full campaigns I have played for EBII, the Sweboz always build up their strength, expand like a snowball rolling down a hill and gradually develop a northeastern European empire by about turn 500 or so. In my Koinon Hellenon, Epeiros, Makedonia, Pergamon, and Roman campaigns, without fail the Sweboz were always the main enemy in Europe once I conquered the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Western European regions. The Pritanoi would always have some holdings in continental Europe after uniting the British Isles, but I've managed to conquer the Pritanoi in each of my campaigns going into the 1st century BC. On the other hand, fighting the Sweboz is basically like whack-a-mole, because they can expand into the Baltic and Pontic Steppe regions far outside my empire and maintain a stiff resistance in northern and eastern Germania, where recruitment options become limited for Greeks and to some extent the Romans.

A combination of the AI money bonus and the Sweboz Tribal Migrations are probably to blame. There seems to be a vicious cycle where the AI's inability to handle the economy gets them into debt, forcing the script to give them a boost, which they then proceed to blow on expensive tribal buildings and quickly replenished soldiers, forcing the script to give them a boost. If you construct 10 Sweboz Tribes, that should amount to 90+ recruitable units that also replenish in short order. On the other hand, a Sweboz player would have to earn all that money and keep a sustainable model.


Though I agree with Adun that their weak cavalry is a fatal flaw. In my most recent Boioi playthrough, I've only needed modest strength of cavalry and infantry to mass-route up to *four* stacks of Sweboz warriors. Through simple hammer and anvil-ing, I've gotten enough slaves to jumpstart an urban revolution and many of my FMs were proclaimed Epas. My battles as the Sweboz were also more difficult on account of this, up until I conquered the Baltic. It's at the point where making war with the Sweboz is cheesier than stamping them out.