What's with the very agressive eleutheroi ?

[maurel]

Started a campaign lately as Rome. and i am under assault "non-stop" from the north by the eleutheroi, over 4 to 5 stacks one after the other invading me. barely holding the military costs and i am not even on very hard and if i wasn't good at micro in the battle map i would never be able to defend myself from that overkill, i can barely have half a stack north and half a stack south to deal with the greeks.
I can't even bring my general to Roma for the elections. (talking of. i really wish for a submod that removed the need to go to roma for elections).


should the game wait at least a year or something before that much pain ?

[Gabriel Oi Taurisia]

On H and VH rebels don't just sit there and watch, and actually go after you, so I guess you are playing hard difficulty. Beside this, I find Romani's position not that simple (on hard difficulty). Having to deal with Ligurians, Insubres and Venetoi isn't easy (and wasn't easy historically, either).

Anyway I actually like rebels being active, it makes them feel like real minor factions (as it's intended to be).

If you struggle to get rid of those barbarian armies in northern Italy, I suggest you to take up an army led by a Night Fighter general, and strike them in the dead of night, one by one. Those army, taken isolated, aren't much of a threat.

[maurel]

thing is. i got very surprised by 5 stacks invading me by the north. it looked like a scripted situation where they formed a confederation and invaded me. made me wonder if that happened historically.

[QuintusSertorius]

It's not scripted at all, the Rebel AI hates the human player. Those stacks are already there, as most other provinces with larger settlements have a starting stack.

[mingyong2424]

Just to ask does my advice help you on the campaign side? If so I will like to tidy up the content it as I feel it's rather unpolished. And do you need help
on the battle mechanics as well? Note that on the battle mechanics do you need me to offer some tips as well? If my advice does not help then feel free
to give me any constructive feedback. Thanks for your question too

[mingyong2424]

Actually it's not as hard as you seen. Having playing the romani campaign a few times I can offer some tips and to be honest once the rebel stacks have
been neutralised from there it's relatively easy.

When it comes to select potential successor, I preferably to choose Marcus Reglvs I don't know the exact spelling but he is slightly younger
than the faction heir. More on that later.


There are 2 stacks of armies and about 2 units of infantry and 1 skirmisher in each town. Learn about 3 infantry units and some levies to defend the
southern border. Garrision ALL of them in Capua and choose Marcus Reglvs to govern Capua. Send the rest of units in other cities to the north. Choose
the faction leader Marcus Dentatvs and Marcus Maximus. (Sorry for my spelling><)

Send a spy up into the northern border to keep track of the army movements and ambushes. If you don't once you are ambushed it will land
you into more trouble. If you want to get rid of the stacks fast then just let the faction leader lead the armies and fight night battles to pick them off one
at a time.

However as he is old and by the time you neutralised the threat then all the command stars he gained are for nothing as he will die soon. So I strongly
recommend to let faction leader to command one army and handle those major stacks while the 2nd army finishes off the stacks that are smaller. In this way
the faction heir can gain valuable command stars. Why is it important I will explain below.

In all total war games, the general is your most VITAL piece of assets so it is a must if you have a easier time in battles. Training one or a couple of generals is a must
if you want to succeed. The next post I will discussing about battle mechanics in EB2. The ones I have been saying in this post are of the campaign mechanics.

[I_Damian]

Think of the Eleutheroi not as one faction but as individual factions all lumped under the same banner (thanks to engine limitations). On hard or very hard they sometimes go on the offensive.

Anyway, as Rome (on hard or very hard) those 4 stacks of marauding barbarians in the north will come down and besiege Ariminum. It's always Ariminum. So what you need to do is this:

Make two decent sized legions, one in the north and one in the south (the northern one should be bigger, a full stack if you can manage it). The one in the north is to be garrisoned in Arretium with a good commander, the other in the south to deal with Tarentum and the traitors in Rhegion. One by one the marauding rebels in the north will besiege Ariminum. When they do, see them off one by one with your full stack.

If playing on hard campaign difficulty you can even auto-resolve the battles with few casualties, provided you have a good size legion, and then retrain a few units in Arretium and await the next onslaught. On very hard campaign auto-resolving won't work.

[Paltmull]

I defeated all the starting Eleutheroi stacks in northern Italy on H/H by going on the offence, picking them off one by one through fighting night battles. It's not that hard to with one stack that you refill when needed, even with historically correct army composition and tactics. You will have enough resources to keep a smaller army in the south that can deal with Epeiros and the Eleutheroi there too. Also, fighting offensive battles in northern Eleutheroi territory, instead of waiting for them to come to you, will give you early progress towards the Polybian reforms. Neighbouring Eleutheroi armies might also cause devastation in your regions by simply hanging out on your borders, so it's a good idea to get rid of them asap even if they don't invade.