Announcement: Europa Barbarorum II 2.3 released!

[Hummer]

There's also a thread for reforms that was stickied last time I checked. Pretty sure you need 3 cities in Cisalpine Gaul not just 2. 3 of the 4 just north of Arretium and Ariminum.

[myarta]

Hi, guys.
Let me ask you a few things and also thank you in advance for your replies. Here it goes.

I am playing a Roman campaign and I'm in year 240, turn 128 (I think).
I have taken Tarentum and Region, all of Sicily, Bononia, Patavium, Bengirnorum and Massalia. Also Sardina and Corsega.
So far, I only got to build the government type "Roman Province" in 2 of those territories, Lilibaeum and Bengirnorum. Is this happening because most of those territories do not have a "Large Town"? If this is so, is it still worth it to build the "Civitas Libera"? Can I even build Civitas Libera and then Roman Province?

I tend to build Civitas Libera first whenever possible. This government is easier to establish, keeps the people happy, and lets me recruit locals with some free upkeep. These units serve as a basic garrison. If my finances are in order, I recruit more than the free upkeep cap in order to have a better defense. I only upgrade to a province when I'm running out of things to build due to only being at Civitas Libera. And before I do, I finish off whatever units I hadn't recruited yet (usually leave the cavalry unrecruited as they're expensive and not often allowed to have free upkeep) to bolster the garrison as you can't get any recruitment in a province until turn 500+ at the Marian Reforms.

And yes, you need a Large Town (2000+ households) to upgrade to a Province. All the more reason to go to a Civitas Libera first.

Colonists.
I am not sure if I understand it. Is the "colonist system" reprensented by the "buildings" Lex de Colonia Creando, or, Colonia Latina Minora?
How does the 4 year system work? Can I only build these kind of buildings every 4 years? Can I build more than one everytime?
Is there an actual number of colonists I get? If so, can I get more? How?

Lex de Colonia Creando is the bottom tier. Colonia Latina Minora is the 2nd tier. There is a 3rd tier as well. These are only available in Italy (Arretium, Ariminum, Capua, Luceria, Tarentum, Rhegium) until after the Marian reforms in which you can make something sort of related in the provinces. You get points every 16 turns. As soon as you queue up one of these buildings, you have spent there point. If you cancel construction, there is no way for the script to refund you the point. So be careful and don't waste them. Here is the schedule I do mine on. That's turn number and location. Note that after turn 64 you stop getting the popup about having fresh colonists available (avoid spam).

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

21    -     Ariminum 1 [Lex de Colonia creando]
37    -     Tarentum 1    
53    -     Rhegium    1    
69    -     Capua 2 [Colonia Latina Minora]
85    -     Arretium 2    
101    -     Ariminum 2    
117    -    Arpi 2        
133 -    Tarentum 2    
149    -    Rhegium 2    
165    -    Capua 3 [Colonia Latina Maiora, I think]
181    -    Arretium 3    
197    -    Ariminum 3    
213    -    Arpi 3        
229    -    Tarentum 3    
245    -    Rhegium 3

Polybian Reforms.
Since I control all of Sicily and also Bononia and Patavium, and it's already past year 242, shouldn't I have got that by now? Or it's not exactly asap, but rather something that will trigger eventually when conditions are met?

You need all of Sicily plus Albabagennum (Bagiennorum), Felsina (Bononia), Patava (Patavium). So if you only have Bononia and Patavium, and don't have Liguria yet, you're going to need to take Liguria.

Also, exactly what buildings consist my MIC? I don't see anything like a barracks or even an armourer or something.

It varies by faction here. Usually it is the government building itself, though there are some exceptions (for example, many Hellenic factions have minimal recruitment from governments since they are expected to get their troops from the Polis and Hellenic Colony systems). For other factions there are also Native Colonies (eastcol) that provide locals. For Romans, your recruitment is your governments (Socii, Ius Latium later as you convert culture in Italy outside Rome, and finally Muncipalities in Italy after the Marian reform) and your military colonies (the ones I mentioned above, Italy only, and not Rome itself since Rome doesn't need them). Outside Italy, you get a few troops upfront but very slow refresh (100 turns) from a CivLib which is a source of regional troops. If you need more regional troops, make it an allied government. Otherwise, after the Marian reform, you will get some local recruitment from the Province government building. And you will unlock some colonies in some places that give you some cohorts (regular for now, allied type cohorts for later when that unit is ready). Again, those require points which you get once per 16 turns. Finally, after the Marian reforms, you can disband 5 regular Cohors units to earn points to build a special upgrade to your Waystations and Garrisons building (Strategic Fortifications is the first level of this building and W&G is the 2nd) which has recruitment, I think, of two Evocati units but again with a 100 turn refresh. This represents settling veterans into conquered land colonies, and being able to call on some of them (but just once, as per the 100 refresh) to serve as called out veteran re-enlisted (evocati). A lot of this is on the PDF and the rest is in the stickied reform guide for the most part.

[Alex1987]

Great mod! but AI is passive, I play Carthage 50 turns and my rival Rome not have any expansion and not siege any city.

[QuintusSertorius]

Also, exactly what buildings consist my MIC? I don't see anything like a barracks or even an armourer or something.

People have dealt with the detail of your other questions, I'll just pick this one up. EBII doesn't use "barracks" or "armourer" or "blacksmith" buildings. All recruitment comes from one of three sources: government buildings, colonies, or one or two special recruiting structures. It isn't the same for every faction, for some government buildings are their only source. For others they have both government buildings and colonies and it's balanced (eg Carthage). For Hellenistic factions, governments are not their main source of recruitment at all, and the polis and colony are their primary source.

Your factional government isn't always the best choice, from a recruitment perspective. Every faction has it's natural sphere of influence, where it gets decent recruitment from its governments; outside that it gets little or nothing at all. That's usually a sign you've strayed beyond their sphere (and it's a design philosophy of EBII that we don't support completely freeform alt-history where any faction can go anywhere and be equally successful). In which case your best bet will be an Allied Government, which are available to everyone everywhere. However, Allied Governments only give you local units, not your factional ones. They also give fewer infrastructure choices and convert to "Independent" culture.

For the Romans, you will never get your core units outside of Italy, with the small exception of some basic Marian units with the late Provincial Colony. Before the Marian reform, your choices are either a Civitas Libera or an Allied Government. The former will give you the ability to immediately recruit a garrison, but not provide a regular source of units. The latter will give you regular recruitment, but won't be a factional government. You can opt to build a Provinciae in larger settlements, which gives better infrastructure access than a Civitas Libera, but it will give you no recruitment at all until the Marian reform (around turn 600).

Great mod! but AI is passive, I play Carthage 50 turns and my rival Rome not have any expansion and not siege any city.

50 turns isn't a long time; what campaign difficulty are you playing on, what does the minimap look like right now?

[Lord Custard]

Turn 91 of my Saka playthrough and here is my thoughts, quibbles and questions. I'm playing on H CAI M BAI

Really digging the upkeep + raiding changes that have helped to make the Saka 100% more playable than previous versions. You literally have to raid and pillage your way out of the red when it comes to making cash. Something which I'm sure the nomads of yore were fond of!
The Sakan cataphracts look gorgeous and are a joy to watch as they smash into the enemy and cause a rout. (More so when the FM/nobles pile in).
"Uncontested power is near" "There can be only one sun/A request for aid" are nice touches that make the Saka feel more finished. The latter mission is especially exciting as I'm now having to seriously consider breaking alliance with the Palahva just to 'liberate' Bukhara even though it will leave me two mortal enemies instead of one.
The troublesome region script is another good feature as the AI makes the region of Dahyu Haomagara bloody unpredictable. I have a newly spawned rebel stack raiding the region only to have the Baktrians join in, only to have the rebel stack grow bored and raid the neighboring Baktrian province (Oskobara). Haha! Same thing is happening in the NE Tarim basin region Arki Yapoy (which I haven't taken yet).

Couple of things I would like to ask...
1. I can only get the game playing in windowed mode, this isn't a major problem but if I try playing it in fullscreen the game freezes up either after 'new campaign' or after I select a faction and start a new game. I've waited for it to load but I'm still stuck with the spinning hourglass.
2. Is the Sakan royal camp site limited to Saka Agnu/Sakan homeland? Can't spell the last settlement name.
3. Will the Saka FM unit be re-made or will it remain the same as the Sakan Nobel (Nadi Chara). I remember the Saka FM unit being different on EB1. They had lovely head scarfs.

Amazing mod. Well worth the wait!

[neo_deus]

Thank you very much for the reply, myarta!
I have also decided to keep building Civitas Liberta. It will take me some time to be able to upgrade most settlements to Large Town, so I guess it's worth doing it. Mostly for the reasons you have described.

Note that after turn 64 you stop getting the popup about having fresh colonists available

I don't remember seeing a single pop up about colonists. That's what was bothering me the most, even making me doubt what the heck were colonists after all. A few days before 2.3 came out I installed 2.2, played a few turns as Carthage and I did get the pop ups. Weird, I guess.

after the Marian reforms, you can disband 5 regular Cohors units to earn points to build a special upgrade to your Waystations and Garrisons building

Nice piece of info! Wasn't aware of this.

You need all of Sicily plus Albabagennum (Bagiennorum), Felsina (Bononia), Patava (Patavium). So if you only have Bononia and Patavium, and don't have Liguria yet, you're going to need to take Liguria.

I do control Liguria, though. The only town not in my control between Italy and the Alps is Mediolanum. However (and I'm now way past 242 BC) no reforms so far.
@QuintusSertorius, any idea of why I'm not getting the reforms?

[neo_deus]

@Hummer

There's also a thread for reforms that was stickied last time I checked.

I don't see any stickied threads about this. If you can point it to me, that'd be great!

[QuintusSertorius]

Turn 91 of my Saka playthrough and here is my thoughts, quibbles and questions. I'm playing on H CAI M BAI

Really digging the upkeep + raiding changes that have helped to make the Saka 100% more playable than previous versions. You literally have to raid and pillage your way out of the red when it comes to making cash. Something which I'm sure the nomads of yore were fond of!
The Sakan cataphracts look gorgeous and are a joy to watch as they smash into the enemy and cause a rout. (More so when the FM/nobles pile in).
"Uncontested power is near" "There can be only one sun/A request for aid" are nice touches that make the Saka feel more finished. The latter mission is especially exciting as I'm now having to seriously consider breaking alliance with the Palahva just to 'liberate' Bukhara even though it will leave me two mortal enemies instead of one.
The troublesome region script is another good feature as the AI makes the region of Dahyu Haomagara bloody unpredictable. I have a newly spawned rebel stack raiding the region only to have the Baktrians join in, only to have the rebel stack grow bored and raid the neighboring Baktrian province (Oskobara). Haha! Same thing is happening in the NE Tarim basin region Arki Yapoy (which I haven't taken yet).

Excellent, Saka are one of several factions who've been lavished with attention to bring them up to the standard of some of the others. In 2.2b there was a real feeling that some factions were well-developed, and others were barely-developed. We feel that in 2.3 that is no longer the case, every faction should feel like there's something interesting going on with them.

One of the other things many of those new scripted features was supposed to do is make the gameplay experience (not the game!) less stable, as in things can change unexpectedly. Clearly that is happening in your game, which is good.

Couple of things I would like to ask...
1. I can only get the game playing in windowed mode, this isn't a major problem but if I try playing it in fullscreen the game freezes up either after 'new campaign' or after I select a faction and start a new game. I've waited for it to load but I'm still stuck with the spinning hourglass.
2. Is the Sakan royal camp site limited to Saka Agnu/Sakan homeland? Can't spell the last settlement name.
3. Will the Saka FM unit be re-made or will it remain the same as the Sakan Nobel (Nadi Chara). I remember the Saka FM unit being different on EB1. They had lovely head scarfs.

Amazing mod. Well worth the wait!

1. You need to change the video settings in the config to match your native resolution, that way fullscreen isnt necessary. Windowed, borderless is more stable than fullscreen.
2. Yes, those two plus Bukharak are the only places you can build Royal Clans. It's the same for Sauromatae, Pahlava and Bosporans, all have defined locations they can put Royal Clans. Everywhere else has to be an Allied Clan.
3. They were remade, they now use a variant on the cataphract rider, instead of the nobles.

[QuintusSertorius]

Thank you very much for the reply, myarta!
I have also decided to keep building Civitas Liberta. It will take me some time to be able to upgrade most settlements to Large Town, so I guess it's worth doing it. Mostly for the reasons you have described.

If they are places on your frontier, you might want to consider Allied Governments for now. The civlib will not give you regular recruitment, just about enough to get a garrison in place. An Allied Government also means a Client Ruler can stay in place freeing up your FMs for other duties.

I don't remember seeing a single pop up about colonists. That's what was bothering me the most, even making me doubt what the heck were colonists after all. A few days before 2.3 came out I installed 2.2, played a few turns as Carthage and I did get the pop ups. Weird, I guess.

Did you get the popup asking you to select a successor at the start of the game? Have you seen any popups so far?

I do control Liguria, though. The only town not in my control between Italy and the Alps is Mediolanum. However (and I'm now way past 242 BC) no reforms so far.
@QuintusSertorius, any idea of why I'm not getting the reforms?

247BC is the date for the battle-based trigger. For the land-holding one, it's 235BC (ie after turn 150). That might not actually happen til turn 151 or turn 152.

@Hummer

I don't see any stickied threads about this. If you can point it to me, that'd be great!

It's in the AAR subforum: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ents-as-at-2-3

[myarta]

Oops, sorry about that. I was going to warn you about turn 150, but I did my mental math wrong and came up with 244 BC instead of the proper 234 BC that it translates to. Yeah, you're almost there. A few more turns.

As a recent Romani player, I will say that you can manage civlibs in:

Sicily
Cisalpine Gaul including Mediolanum
Illyria

But you will need to devote good governors to Bagiennorum and Mediolanum in particular for a couple of decades at least. Remember to prioritize the culture conversion buildings to help chip away at that unrest.

Get the aedes negotiarum (tier 1) if you are below 15% culture ASAP, as it converts up to it. If you're below 30%, get the Societas (tier 2) asap. Higher level market buildings unlock it. You can see its requirements in the PDF guide. The top tier converts to 45% but it needs a much bigger city (6k? don't have my notes with me) so that's something that comes later.

For Massaila, I sometimes get a client ruler and sometimes make it a CivLib, depending on how many good governors I have in the campaign at the time I take it, if I can spare them from Cisalpina. Illyria will also need some governors to hold on to so you start to get pressed for them.

Any incursion into SE Gaul or away from the Adriatic coast will start to grow your distance from capital penalties, besides the 0% culture issues, so by that point you're likely to have to go through a client ruler cycle, spending 100-200 turns on their life getting some slow conversion from their influence points and replacing with factional government when they die. It's a long hard slog when you slam into the 0% culture wall, but Rome wasn't built in a day. It feels just-right difficulty for me, I think, tracking my best governors and giving them the tough assignments, and being forced at times to rely on client rulers when I'd really rather get some romanizing influence started (since you Romanize a lot faster in a civlib/province thanks to access to the the higher tiers of the negotiarum buildings, but at a public order hit that sometimes you just can't take), with a nice feeling of reward as the places slowly start to calm down a little after a generation.

[neo_deus]

Did you get the popup asking you to select a successor at the start of the game? Have you seen any popups so far?

Yes, I got the "successor" one at the beggining. As I said in previous replies, I think I did it all correctly, (I clicked the character I wanted as successor, then clicked the check button in the message) but even so I haven't got the chance to pick any other succesors since. It should have happened twice by now.
I also get the "year in history" pop up every 4 turns, for instance.

Well, those are not the Reform conditions I have read about. I think it's possible I was reading a thread about EB, not EBII now that I think about it...

If they are places on your frontier, you might want to consider Allied Governments for now. The civlib will not give you regular recruitment, just about enough to get a garrison in place.

They mostly are. Since I'm roleplaying (as much as possible), I 1st took Magna Graecia, then desimbarked in Sicily and besieged Messana triggering war against Carthage (I also got the pop ups for that, btw), etc. So, apart from Tarentum, Syracuse and Massilia I did not choose allied governments. I want to have a romanized province of Galia Cisalpina asap, aswell as Sicilia, and Corsica/Sardinia.

[Colos1987]

I can confirm that there is no pop-up for Roman colonists.

[QuintusSertorius]

Ah I know why the Roman colony notification isn't appearing. I changed the name of the event_counter. The mechanic still works fine, it's just broken the notification.

[neo_deus]

I can confirm that there is no pop-up for Roman colonists.

Colos, are you playing a Roman campaign on 2.3 version? If so, did you have any problems with choosing your successor?

[ExtremeBG]

- Rebalance of cavalry to be less capable in melee, culture-based defensive skill and reduction in morale. AP removed from lances.
Heavily disappointing.......

[QuintusSertorius]

- Rebalance of cavalry to be less capable in melee, culture-based defensive skill and reduction in morale. AP removed from lances.
Heavily disappointing.......

Cavalry were overpowered before. Especially in their ability to grind their way through melee even with heavy infantry. That was not working as intended. Heavies should charge, disengage and re-charge. Not simply charge and sit their duking it out with whatever they charged.

The reduction in morale means much more realistic movement of cavalry; they can be driven off without having to be slaughtered, but will reform and come back again.

[jim600]

Do FM`s gain military experience/traits whilst in the field and stacked with general and stack. I know this occurs with Romana but do other factions benefit as well/

thankyou

[QuintusSertorius]

Do FM`s gain military experience/traits whilst in the field and stacked with general and stack. I know this occurs with Romana but do other factions benefit as well/

thankyou

Yes, Skhan discovered a means to trigger this, so now there's the AncillaryGeneral trait, which gives CommandExperience from being in the same stack, without being the commander.

[Genghis Skahn]

AncillaryGeneral trait

That's AuxiliaryGeneral trait--and you can find the triggers by ctrl+f-ing in EDCT for AuxiliaryGeneral and AuxGen.

[Krampus]

Cavalry were overpowered before. Especially in their ability to grind their way through melee even with heavy infantry. That was not working as intended. Heavies should charge, disengage and re-charge. Not simply charge and sit their duking it out with whatever they charged.

The reduction in morale means much more realistic movement of cavalry; they can be driven off without having to be slaughtered, but will reform and come back again.

I only picked up EBII after these changes came into effect, but overall cav seem very well balanced, even compared to EBI:
- they have appropriate staying power in melee, even heavy cav can do real damage as long as they aren't left for a while, but they don't get to hang out and murder spearmen in melee.
- morale across the board is balanced enough that cav are actually good against missile units and light skirmishers! Compare to EBI when slingers would hold their ground and shank your light cav to death...
- proper shock cav will still slaughter most infantry with a well placed rear charge, and even non shock cav are useful in a rear charge to break wavering troops.

Whatever you guys did, it works as intended!

Im guessing that, despite the low stats, cav attack animations are still really powerful?