the one reason why I don't do VH campaign for anyone but Carthage is because the romans can create big armies out of thin air on that difficulty level, so I only do it with someone I know I can take them out with before they get to expand to much. That is kind of what you are experiencing in Greece.
I’ve always thought it was weird that they just play with a different set of mechanics entirely and can build and sustain enormous armies in impossible timeframes with no impact on their economy at all. Definitely think it would have been better for them to be bound by the same population and economic restrictions as me but just have higher morale, damage, or defense stats. I am guessing that programming all of the AI factions with fully functional systems was a bit out of reach for the devs in 2004, especially since many of those systems were scrapped in future games. It’s fun to have a challenge in the late game but it gets really repetitive 😭
Also for Carthage you might just let them keep the last town, I keep seeing the bug where factions with one small settlement left simply stand around next to it and do nothing forever, they have about a full stack of troops and get no income, the only exceptions are if they got a big army of more than a full stack or with agressive factions like Romans, Pontus and Egypt, even Egypt was really slow to attack and Pontus sent a few units a couple of times then stopped. I think at that point the AI with the exception of the Romans are programmed to hang on to their settlement at all cost so they never leave their own territory.
That’s worth considering! I am partial to ending the faction entirely so I don’t have any surprises later and can totally disband my armies in North Africa and focus entirely on other enemies. But if I’m ever in a situation where a faction has a city that is totally out of the way I’ll definitely test that bug and see if it’s reliable. It’s definitely tempting!
Ending it might be the best course of action then, it looks like their big army would be something they might use, and an unhappy city could flip to them. If it is possible to bribe the elephants to join your army, It could be worth it leaving them alive, I know that is how bribe worked in Medieval 1 and Shogun 1 but I never build up a treasury large enough in Rome 1 to try it.@@tdsniper215
I would love to know if it would work. I know if you bribe a unit of your culture, it can sometimes switch sides. For example if a Scipii diplomat bribed hastati from Brutii, it would keep them, but I don’t think it would work with Spain bribing elephants since I can’t train any standard (non mercenary) elephants. If I could, it would be worth doing but I don’t think it would work.
A few of the old Rome bugs came in to play on this one. The 'ghost' unit that is almost impossible to escape. The AI bugging out with walls. And that damned cheesy Rome logic that lets them re-besiege your settlement before you've had a chance to repair your walls and rest your troops. You probably over-thought that last part of the Thermon battle. If you'd taken all your cav out you could have isolated and killed that general with far fewer casualties. Not sure it'd make a difference for the new siege though, you're so low on infantry. I prefer it when the AI does stoopid things like bribing your diplomat. Bribing your settlements is just rude. One of my least favourite things with Rome 1 is the culture penalties, particularly when playing as a barbarian faction. Having huge swathes of cities full to the brim with peasant units and still blue in the face gets old real quick. It's particularly stupid when tiny towns (like Nepte) with a population of 1,000 or whatever can kick out your fully-professional army of twice that size and pull a huge garrison out of thin air.
Yeah it feels like there should be some solution to culture like in Med 2 where the religion slowly changes over time. Having permanent culture penalties just because of a few old government buildings you can’t demolish is wild. And yeah, this was a buggy one and not a perfectly executed battle. I’m just doing what I can to not lose Thermon until the cavalry arrives. I’ve had too many bad experiences with units breaking out of nowhere to trust any long shield cavalry with fighting infantry at this point. Hopefully we can move past the constant defenses of thermon in the next few parts and conquer all of Greece.
the one reason why I don't do VH campaign for anyone but Carthage is because the romans can create big armies out of thin air on that difficulty level, so I only do it with someone I know I can take them out with before they get to expand to much. That is kind of what you are experiencing in Greece.
I’ve always thought it was weird that they just play with a different set of mechanics entirely and can build and sustain enormous armies in impossible timeframes with no impact on their economy at all.
Definitely think it would have been better for them to be bound by the same population and economic restrictions as me but just have higher morale, damage, or defense stats. I am guessing that programming all of the AI factions with fully functional systems was a bit out of reach for the devs in 2004, especially since many of those systems were scrapped in future games.
It’s fun to have a challenge in the late game but it gets really repetitive 😭
Also for Carthage you might just let them keep the last town, I keep seeing the bug where factions with one small settlement left simply stand around next to it and do nothing forever, they have about a full stack of troops and get no income, the only exceptions are if they got a big army of more than a full stack or with agressive factions like Romans, Pontus and Egypt, even Egypt was really slow to attack and Pontus sent a few units a couple of times then stopped. I think at that point the AI with the exception of the Romans are programmed to hang on to their settlement at all cost so they never leave their own territory.
That’s worth considering! I am partial to ending the faction entirely so I don’t have any surprises later and can totally disband my armies in North Africa and focus entirely on other enemies. But if I’m ever in a situation where a faction has a city that is totally out of the way I’ll definitely test that bug and see if it’s reliable. It’s definitely tempting!
Ending it might be the best course of action then, it looks like their big army would be something they might use, and an unhappy city could flip to them. If it is possible to bribe the elephants to join your army, It could be worth it leaving them alive, I know that is how bribe worked in Medieval 1 and Shogun 1 but I never build up a treasury large enough in Rome 1 to try it.@@tdsniper215
I would love to know if it would work. I know if you bribe a unit of your culture, it can sometimes switch sides. For example if a Scipii diplomat bribed hastati from Brutii, it would keep them, but I don’t think it would work with Spain bribing elephants since I can’t train any standard (non mercenary) elephants.
If I could, it would be worth doing but I don’t think it would work.
Intros are back, yay!
Yesss, definitely gonna try to keep them up 🫡
A few of the old Rome bugs came in to play on this one. The 'ghost' unit that is almost impossible to escape. The AI bugging out with walls. And that damned cheesy Rome logic that lets them re-besiege your settlement before you've had a chance to repair your walls and rest your troops.
You probably over-thought that last part of the Thermon battle. If you'd taken all your cav out you could have isolated and killed that general with far fewer casualties. Not sure it'd make a difference for the new siege though, you're so low on infantry.
I prefer it when the AI does stoopid things like bribing your diplomat. Bribing your settlements is just rude.
One of my least favourite things with Rome 1 is the culture penalties, particularly when playing as a barbarian faction. Having huge swathes of cities full to the brim with peasant units and still blue in the face gets old real quick. It's particularly stupid when tiny towns (like Nepte) with a population of 1,000 or whatever can kick out your fully-professional army of twice that size and pull a huge garrison out of thin air.
Yeah it feels like there should be some solution to culture like in Med 2 where the religion slowly changes over time. Having permanent culture penalties just because of a few old government buildings you can’t demolish is wild.
And yeah, this was a buggy one and not a perfectly executed battle. I’m just doing what I can to not lose Thermon until the cavalry arrives. I’ve had too many bad experiences with units breaking out of nowhere to trust any long shield cavalry with fighting infantry at this point. Hopefully we can move past the constant defenses of thermon in the next few parts and conquer all of Greece.