Politically incorrect>
This is not a rant or complaint whatsoever. I only wish to put this out and see what the community has to say.
Recently I was playing the barebones mod as the julii faction. I began my compaign by building up an army or two to conquer northern italy and then proceded into southern Gaul. After I managed to take all of Gaul I proceded into Iberia, and about fifty years later Iberia succumb. I am still pacifying southwestern Gaul and Northwestern Iberia. After my first invasion of Gaul and before I moved into Iberia, I was met by the Brittanic faction at the channel. They managed to cross the sea and took the nearest city. Couple turns later they had struck as far south as Marseilles, Gaul was cut in half and there were frequent incursions by the Iberians into Narbo. Eventually I pushed the Brits back into the sea save a city in Belgium, they just simply won't give it up. Destroy one army and two more come from across the sea. Enough said that the AI sucks.
Now heres what bothers me. Rome total war takes place in the age of tribes, city-states, empires, and kingdoms. There were no nation-states. Thus the Factions in the game shouldn't portray Gaul as a united faction as they portray it as a civilization. Up to Julius Caesar the only times the factions united was in coalitions to resist the romans or the germans. In Gaul there were the celts and the gaels who were further seperated into further tribes that control cities or villages that were certainly no more than a couple miles of territory. In Briton the same can be said. Tribes in the north, tribes in the south. Brigantians, celts, and gaels. The strongest tribe was center at camulundum, northeast of London.
So... what does this come down to? Factions should represent a single tribe instead the who civilization. They should control one city on the vanilla map. For Gaul for instance, every other provine would be rebel owned and strong enough to resist several invasions in order to prevent ai from expanding too fast. The Factions in General game would be the individual tribe instead of the overarching ethnic group or civilization. The Romans have already been seperated. The Carthaginians were done well, they were an empire. The Greeks in several rtw mods portray the faction as an empire stretching across the mediterean. The Faction should instead focus on a city such as corinth, while the Greek colonies revolt to rebels with Greek units garrisoning them with Greek rebels names obviously. Barbarian factions in the north and in the east are done in the same way.
As I realize that Hegemonia will not be doing this mod on a vanilla map which I am thankful for, the ability to make factions represent individual city states is a lot easier to accomplish. This is not a rant on hegemonia or any other mod but a forum to discuss this with others. So feel free to add your thoughts on this issue and on other mods.
For Hegemonia. On certain barbarian factions such as the Thracians and the Illyrians do you plan to have them united at the start of the game, or perhaps have them represent the Thracians of the lower danube or the Illyrians by Epirius, where each faction begins with a single city.
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Originally Posted by scheuch13
