Rome II

[SirAndrewD]

I'm finding the game a lot more challenging with Patch 9. 

Started a Junia Campaign, and quickly realized that was a pretty bad idea due to the cultural aversion penalty.  For the first time ever I had other nations quickly jump in and declare war on me.  Carthage was turn 2, and two Celtic tribes to the north were turn 3.  As soon as I got footholds in Africa, Knossos was pretty quick to follow. 

As it is, I'm stretched thin, at war with all Carthage's client states.  I crushed the Celts in the north in a desperate battle, which led to me getting a peace treaty.  With only three Legions, Italy is undefended except in the north, and I'm bouncing back and forth in Africa holding New Carthage and Lybia at bay.  No one will trade with me, and I'm broke. 

So, yes, much harder.  Almost too hard with the Junia. 

Also, unit blobbing seems to be fixed. 

[mikeck]

Spoke to soon... Just lost Thapsus to a slaves revolt. Sent a half added at to put it down and they got waxed

[undercovergeek]

played 6 more turns of Iceni - from newly acquired Demetae in the south west i marched north and attacked the Welsh tribes, just as they sailed south to take my Demetae lands. Reversed the troops, didnt get there in time but the garrison and general did quite a lot of damage to the invaders, they still lost, but the returning army from advancing on Wales wiped the rest of the Welsh invaders out.

This crippled the Welsh tribes, i marched back north to take their capital in wales and had a very nervous 4000 v 5000 battle, i won in the end but my army is ravaged - it will take 4 turns to rebuild the army. There is about 1200 Welsh warriors on ships parked off the coast of Demetae who were presumably about to invade me again, when i took their only capital i expected the faction wiped out screen but got nothing, but the AI doesnt seem to know what to do with these ships as they have no home - they just out to sea suffering attrition

The Caledonians in the north took Eborcun (York) and then signed a non aggression treaty with me - which gives me plenty of time to do a bit of admin before going onto crush them. So England/Scotland has 5 provinces - i own 3, Caledonions own 2. Then theres Ireland!!!

This game is a lot more personal than Carthage, Carthage is epic marches to your targets over vast deserts where England and its tribes seems to be a close quarter knife fight - its great

still loving 9

[Gusington]

^What difficulty are you playing on? I have also seen plenty of troops from tribes I have beaten flee to sea and then die from attrition on the water.

In my current game I have wiped out the Caledonians but the tribe in Isca (forgot their name) is what is standing between me and owning the region. Then on to Ireland. Then...?

[undercovergeek]

I'm playing normal - the demetae own iska, well, did in my game, and its the mormmodons or something in wales - these 2 were fully wiped out tonight barring the booze cruise off portsmouth!

The brigantes were destroyed by scotland

I'm thinking england, scotland, ireland and then the crazy belgians - I don't know if its in this game but when you took over a province you could build that provinces troops - attacking wales for instance in medieval TW to gain access to welsh bowmen, I'm hoping there's some mental irish unit I can access

[mikeck]

I am playing normal. Next game (if vanilla) will be hard. If I go back to Dei them I will play normal. Still waiting for him to work the kinks out.

I have seen troops head out to sea and then starve to death but ONLY after I took their last city. So really, they have nowhere to go

[Gusington]

Damn I guess I do suck slightly, playing on Easy. Oh well I'm over it because I now own all the British Isles, and can finally start building siege engines and get to thinking about what I will do on the Continent. Tonight's session was productive :)

[GDS_Starfury]

the northern dwarves are on the move!

[mikeck]

Looking at your map Gus, I can hear those sniviling Gauls daring you to come across that channel. I would throw together a couple of small cheap fleets of raiders and put them off the coast of each province. Set them to "raid". That will real havoc on the Gallic economy. They will have to show their ass at that point moving up their armies. Once they put to sea, take out those troop transport with your real fleet of heavy ships you were hiding in port! (You were building a real navy weren't you?). In the words of General Longstreet in "Gettysburg" "Then we'll have 'em general....then we'll have 'em"

[Gusington]

Sounds like a good enough plan...still have to build a fleet. In a past campaign as the Iceni I had built a fleet but it became a real money pit and I also made the mistake of putting it together before I took all of Great Britain. Time to try again.

[Sir Slash]

Early game, I like to recruit an admiral and sail him around discovering new factions to trade with. The Iceni and Suebi never seemed to have decent ships to build until much later in the game. Does anybody out there play with the Traits and Toadies mod? It's rated very highly on Steam but would be interested in any opinions.

[Sir Slash]

Patch 9 is public. Now I can see what all the fuss is about. Anybody taking bets for how long to Patch 10?

[undercovergeek]

Patch 9 is public. Now I can see what all the fuss is about. Anybody taking bets for how long to Patch 10?

to be fair, IMHO theres not a whole lot left to fix

[Gusington]

Maybe turn down the "AI behaving like a total sod" modifier so I can feel more like a man and turn the difficulty back up to normal.

[undercovergeek]

ah you need the 'plays like a pussy DLC'

out soon!