Veteran EB Players - My Issue

[Myrmidon]

So after 3 years I've finally managed to get this mod working and I love it. I've begun a campaign as Romani and I'm currently in 247BC. I've captured 2 out 3 of the immediate rebel settlements to the north, 1 on Sicily and I've kicked the Hellenics off the heel of Italy. I'm trading with every faction in the game and have explored most of the map with diplomats and spies.

What I'm confused about though is that it all seems fairly easy and all of the factions are pretty passive. Literally the only faction that has attacked me in 30 years has been the rebels. The borders and regions of all the other factions have also barely changed in the last 30 years. I can see them besieging each other and fighting battles but territories never seem to change (yes I am updating my map information).

Is there something wrong with my game? Maybe it's the script? I enabled it at the start of the campaign and it asks me to enable it every time I load a game which I also do. I'm playing Hard/Hard... I'm VH/VH usually but it was my first time on the mod and I heard this mod was supposed to be painfully brutal.. So surely on Hard/Hard it should still be quite challenging?

[Efstathiou]

If I recall correctly, there are options before you launch the game that affect the gameplay. For example you can choose if the AI will be agressive or not. Just to let you know, I might be wrong. My information are not 100% legit. Hope I helped you. Its been at least 10 months since I played EB.

[Armchair Civilian]

First of all, massive congrats on FINALLY getting the mod working :)

i've only played as rome once because i frankly find them boring and inevitable in victory (although EB does make them a lot less OP), but from memory, the only people that bothered me once i'd got to the stage of expansion that you have was the Epirotes, and that was limited to constant Molossan Phalanx spam attacking me for control of a settlement in Illyria. Carthage and the Gallic factions seem very much diverted by affairs on their other borders (and may well be scripted to build up against rome rather than provoke it), i'm only guessing but in your instance, Epirus may be too pressed by other matters to go for you? It sounds to me like you haven't expanded agressively enough to provoke a response from the ai, which is DEFINITELY not meant as a criticism since i like to play it slow too :)
The main note of caution i would issue though, is that on my installation, once it gets much past 240BC and once all battles seem to be between full stacks or more, CTDs after battle become much more of a problem.
In my current campaign (as Macedon) it's 23something, rome is dead, and i'm fighting the Ptollies for Africa and the Sillysids for the roads out of Asia Minor, but i have to save and reload between battles - and if i have two battles during an end turn, i generally have to auto-resolve one just to get to the next turn. Which sucks since i hate auto resloving on Rome 1, and especially on EB.

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by The Winking Skeever:

First of all, massive congrats on FINALLY getting the mod working :)

i've only played as rome once because i frankly find them boring and inevitable in victory (although EB does make them a lot less OP), but from memory, the only people that bothered me once i'd got to the stage of expansion that you have was the Epirotes, and that was limited to constant Molossan Phalanx spam attacking me for control of a settlement in Illyria.

Carthage and the Gallic factions seem very much diverted by affairs on their other borders (and may well be scripted to build up against rome rather than provoke it), i'm only guessing but in your instance, Epirus may be too pressed by other matters to go for you? It sounds to me like you haven't expanded agressively enough to provoke a response from the ai, which is DEFINITELY not meant as a criticism since i like to play it slow too :)

The main note of caution i would issue though, is that on my installation, once it gets much past 240BC and once all battles seem to be between full stacks or more, CTDs after battle become much more of a problem.

In my current campaign (as Macedon) it's 23something, rome is dead, and i'm fighting the Ptollies for Africa and the Sillysids for the roads out of Asia Minor, but i have to save and reload between battles - and if i have two battles during an end turn, i generally have to auto-resolve one just to get to the next turn. Which sucks since i hate auto resloving on Rome 1, and especially on EB.

Yeah I found they toned down the OP'ness a lot which I liked. I really like how nearly everyone has some kind of projectile weapon. I've fought very few melee engagements because I don't want to take the hits. At the start most of my military forces were slingers. I'd just do hit and run attacks on everyone and fork out for one unit of cavalry to give theirs the run around to cover my withdrawals. I've still got about 60% of my forces as slingers. I think infantry for infantry I would be in trouble because as you imply a lot of the barbarian and hellenic infantry are fairly on par with early Roman forces.

Yeah I can see Epirote across the sea he has two big stacks that sit there, wander off and come back. I have a stack there though so perhaps hes discouraged from crossing. Carthage doesn't seem to be bothered by anyone they're just sitting around building men. They've not expanded anywhere at all. Maybe the other factions are too busy with each other and I just haven't noticed but I know for a fact the territories have barely changed... You'd think someone would get the upper hand on someone else somewhere after all these years...

CTD's? For ♥♥♥♥ sake.... I know them well from vanilla. Most can be avoided if you let the end battle music completely finish before clicking end but perhaps not always.

[Armchair Civilian]

i may have to get Large Address Aware onto it, that may help....

i'd recommend trying to get the jump on both Epirus and Carthage (not at the same time though probably) since their units can be quite a handful - the elite phalanxes seem to have extremely good resilience in combat against roman units, and Carthage's infantry (if they bother to build the good stuff) is also REALLY good. Prepare to take quite severe casualties, but try to deprive them of unit recruitment as quickly as possible. Naval warfare and artilllery are so expensive in EB that i try not to have to rely on them; it might be worth looking at the recruitment viewer program to check which provinces mean most to each factions' military options ;)

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by The Winking Skeever:

i may have to get Large Address Aware onto it, that may help....

i'd recommend trying to get the jump on both Epirus and Carthage (not at the same time though probably) since their units can be quite a handful - the elite phalanxes seem to have extremely good resilience in combat against roman units, and Carthage's infantry (if they bother to build the good stuff) is also REALLY good. Prepare to take quite severe casualties, but try to deprive them of unit recruitment as quickly as possible. Naval warfare and artilllery are so expensive in EB that i try not to have to rely on them; it might be worth looking at the recruitment viewer program to check which provinces mean most to each factions' military options ;)

I've heard of 'Large Address Aware' and it being something to do with CTDs but I have no idea what it is. I'm not very knowledgable with computer stuff...

Yeah I don't have any ships at present and no option to build any kind of artillery. Do we get Marian Reforms? I know they'll be a while off if so.

[Armchair Civilian]

i got lost in the instructions for LAA so i'm trying to put off doing it lol; i can tinker with a text file given enough of a run-up to work out what and how it does, but that's pretty much the extent of my tech-savvyness :)

There's actually mulktiple reforms for rome, check the FAQ for details ;)

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?84854-Europa-Barbarorum-FAQ&highlight=romani+reforms

[SuperGorp]

As you gain more territory other factions will take note and be looking for you. Take those two easterly cities on Sicily (Messana and Syracuse) and the Carthaginians will go after you. Take out Epirote cities across the Gulf and the Greeks or Macedonians will be on your butt. It won't take too long before your fighting Greeks/Macedonians to the East, Barbarians to the north, and Carthaginians to the west. And soon as you severely weaken the Carthaginians the Egyptians will be raising all hell. Hang in there a little longer and things will heat up

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by SuperGorp:

As you gain more territory other factions will take note and be looking for you. Take those two easterly cities on Sicily (Messana and Syracuse) and the Carthaginians will go after you. Take out Epirote cities across the Gulf and the Greeks or Macedonians will be on your butt. It won't take too long before your fighting Greeks/Macedonians to the East, Barbarians to the north, and Carthaginians to the west. And soon as you severely weaken the Carthaginians the Egyptians will be raising all hell. Hang in there a little longer and things will heat up

Yep it's all kicked off. I'm fighting Epirote now although I'm doing it via the long winded land route as they have taken a couple of settlements parallel to the east coast of Italia. Finding them quite tricky, having to hire a lot of pike and spear units to compete with their phalanxes. Even when completely surrounded front, flanks and rear a single one of their phalanxes seems to take ages to kill. Part of me doesn't want to advance on them but rather just establish a buffer to hold them at bay. The reason I don't want to press too far is as you say I don't want to encroach on Macedonia or Greece until I focus a higher percentage of my forces.

Kinda thinking once the buffer is established I'll just hold them whilst I go deal with Carthage as they're definitely easier to fight although they are more spread out which is annoying. Luckily the barbarians in the north haven't come anywhere near me. I've been in trading alliances with them since the start of the campaign. I suspect it's because I have 1 and a half legions spread over 2 forts and a bridge on my northern border which I imagine is enough of a deterant for them as they're busy maiming, raping and killing each other quite happily.

After recently taking Sicily though I've gained access to archers and baleriac slinger which will make a big difference as I'm primarily a skirmisher myself.

[SuperGorp]

Originally posted by Myrmidon:

Originally posted by SuperGorp:

As you gain more territory other factions will take note and be looking for you. Take those two easterly cities on Sicily (Messana and Syracuse) and the Carthaginians will go after you. Take out Epirote cities across the Gulf and the Greeks or Macedonians will be on your butt. It won't take too long before your fighting Greeks/Macedonians to the East, Barbarians to the north, and Carthaginians to the west. And soon as you severely weaken the Carthaginians the Egyptians will be raising all hell. Hang in there a little longer and things will heat up

Yep it's all kicked off. I'm fighting Epirote now although I'm doing it via the long winded land route as they have taken a couple of settlements parallel to the east coast of Italia. Finding them quite tricky, having to hire a lot of pike and spear units to compete with their phalanxes. Even when completely surrounded front, flanks and rear a single one of their phalanxes seems to take ages to kill. Part of me doesn't want to advance on them but rather just establish a buffer to hold them at bay. The reason I don't want to press too far is as you say I don't want to encroach on Macedonia or Greece until I focus a higher percentage of my forces.

Kinda thinking once the buffer is established I'll just hold them whilst I go deal with Carthage as they're definitely easier to fight although they are more spread out which is annoying. Luckily the barbarians in the north haven't come anywhere near me. I've been in trading alliances with them since the start of the campaign. I suspect it's because I have 1 and a half legions spread over 2 forts and a bridge on my northern border which I imagine is enough of a deterant for them as they're busy maiming, raping and killing each other quite happily.

After recently taking Sicily though I've gained access to archers and baleriac slinger which will make a big difference as I'm primarily a skirmisher myself.

Yep, you're about ready to get into the thick of it. Deal with Carthage but leave the city Lepki (Lepcis) alone for a bit, don't take it from Carthage until you're ready to deal with some ticked off Egyptians

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by SuperGorp:

Originally posted by Myrmidon:

Yep it's all kicked off. I'm fighting Epirote now although I'm doing it via the long winded land route as they have taken a couple of settlements parallel to the east coast of Italia. Finding them quite tricky, having to hire a lot of pike and spear units to compete with their phalanxes. Even when completely surrounded front, flanks and rear a single one of their phalanxes seems to take ages to kill. Part of me doesn't want to advance on them but rather just establish a buffer to hold them at bay. The reason I don't want to press too far is as you say I don't want to encroach on Macedonia or Greece until I focus a higher percentage of my forces.

Kinda thinking once the buffer is established I'll just hold them whilst I go deal with Carthage as they're definitely easier to fight although they are more spread out which is annoying. Luckily the barbarians in the north haven't come anywhere near me. I've been in trading alliances with them since the start of the campaign. I suspect it's because I have 1 and a half legions spread over 2 forts and a bridge on my northern border which I imagine is enough of a deterant for them as they're busy maiming, raping and killing each other quite happily.

After recently taking Sicily though I've gained access to archers and baleriac slinger which will make a big difference as I'm primarily a skirmisher myself.

Yep, you're about ready to get into the thick of it. Deal with Carthage but leave the city Lepki (Lepcis) alone for a bit, don't take it from Carthage until you're ready to deal with some ticked off Egyptians

By the way as you sound you've played Europa Barbaroum before and particularly played as Romani... There's these 2 full stacks of absolutely monsterously tough elite barbarians up in the alps. They're all double gold chevron with some having 35-40 defense! Apparently they're always there I've heard on the TW Centre forums. They seem to patrol along a set border. I did however have them hunting me when I crossed the border though, I had to keep hiding my legion in the trees and they passed me a few times and some very close calls.

[Armchair Civilian]

The inland parts of Europe are full of uber-well defended rebel settlements - there's enough in Spain as well to be keeping the Lusotann and Carthage more than busy too. They make a good brake on the AI "barbarian" swarming everywhere and forming rome 1-style spuperpowers, imo

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by The Winking Skeever:

The inland parts of Europe are full of uber-well defended rebel settlements - there's enough in Spain as well to be keeping the Lusotann and Carthage more than busy too. They make a good brake on the AI "barbarian" swarming everywhere and forming rome 1-style spuperpowers, imo

Hmmm this explains why the factions have expanded very little. These stacks seem ridiculous though.. The rebels appear to be the strongest faction(s) in the entire game.

[Armchair Civilian]

They always seem to serve as a nice buffer so i can epend all my forces in another direction; i usually leave a spy within sight of them though, so i can see other factions lose again and again against them - if it's one i want, i'll nip in and take it once the rebels have been sufficiently whittled down :)

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by The Winking Skeever:

They always seem to serve as a nice buffer so i can epend all my forces in another direction; i usually leave a spy within sight of them though, so i can see other factions lose again and again against them - if it's one i want, i'll nip in and take it once the rebels have been sufficiently whittled down :)

It kinda diminshes my sense of accomplishment though. It was kinda like on vanilla Rome I would always focus on the barbarains and Carthage and never worry about Greece or Macedon to the East because the other 2 Roman factions would just keep them busy then as soon as I tried the same VH/VH on Darthmod where you're the only Rome faction I found it much harder because I did my usual thing of going for the weaklings to the north and west and had this unchecked super power coming from the East that I had never taken seriously.

[Armchair Civilian]

i can see where you're coming from, but t least they are there for when you want an extra l challenge lol :)