Faction Ideas

[JD XKiller]

highly informative articles, so if you haven't already noticed them...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Greek_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism

[DimeBagHo]

I've expanded the Baktrian AOR line-up a bit with the addition of Baktrian Archers and Baktrian Horse Archers, using the Immortals and Scythian Horse Archers from Alexander TW.



The area of recruitment for Indian units will probably be cut back a bit, and won't include Baktria anymore. I'm also going to take a look at the possibility of adding an Indian faction using the Senate faction slot.

[RedFox]

I think you should leave baktria as it's pretty much the only thing stopping seleucid from quickly advancing around the Black Sea... Also, in my mod i've made romans_senate into Epirus... Will add another gaulish faction by removing carthage rebels, same goes for egyptian rebels, a barbarian faction could return with a slightly different position - between thrace and macedon...

[DimeBagHo]

I'm not wild about the idea of adding another Greek faction. I know, it's the Extended *Greek* Mod, but there are already six Greek factions, and three more hellenised factions.

I don't see much need for adding another barbarian faction either. There isn't much scope for unit variety, and not much gameplay point to it apart from maybe limiting the expansion of the existing barbarian factions.

I'm inclined to add an Indian faction because there is still a lot of space out on the eastern edge of the map, and because we already have a complete set of new units to add (from Alex).

[Zarax]

I'd rather see something like galatians or gallic rebels (even though giving some extra units to baktrians wouldn't be bad), Indians doesn't have that many units in alex even though there is plenty of eastern and greek models for AOR units.

Having senate back as oracle of delphi would be another option given some faction swap, I think it would be fun for many people...

Another option would be the bosphoran or massilian kingdom which are a nice mix of greek and steppe or barbarian units...

[Kara Kolyo]

Dime if you are changing the indian AOR take a look at Taxila. this town can't recruit indian units although it's in India. i think i mentioned that awhile ago but it's not a big deal. other thing about baktria- could you change the legionaries to hipaspist or some other such unit?

Couldn't Epirus be like Baktria now? option in the installer? this could go for some other factions and would give great ammount of variations. today i chose to play this way, tommorrow with other factions and so on. if it's not too much work, but seeing how fast first baktria was made i guess it's not that hard for a skilled moder like you guys.

[RedFox]

Well, right now most of northern europe is an empty forest, with only a few factions and rebels. By creating two gaul factions that will fight for supermacy in gaul, effectively creating a realistic barbarian atmosphere in the region we could create a much more interesting area there. It would also be fun to have dacia or something similar back again, right now AI seems to blitz it's way through everything, quickly trying to expand it's borders (seleucid stacks *cough*) quickly creating a few huge empires that are boring to watch.
I really don't see the point in some of the rebel factions. I know having rebellions and disloyalty is kinda fun, but having more factions seems a bit more interesting. The rebel factions usually get eliminated really early into the game anyways...

[Zarax]

Well, one option could be to go EB style and lock out the north-east part of the map. this way we could also have rebels available for loyalty use...

[Cymera]

Would there be any way to simulate the Senate without them being an independent faction? I am a little shady now on Roman Imperial History, was the Senate ever really "dissolved" or did it just lose the majority of it's authority and power? There could still be Senate missions and perhaps eventually a historical event where the Senate loses power and no longer gives out missions.

When I was in high school i was a Rome aficionado but after university i forgot far more then i was comfortable with.

This would be a cool thing if it were possible without a huge background script.

[Maraxus]

I love AORs!!!!! I'm like a kid in a Baktrian candy shop. Cant wait to start recruiting those DBH. I like the idea of an Indian faction too, very exciting.

though I must say Redfox's idea of a Gaulic rebels at the price of removing the Ptolemiac rebels (instead of Carth's) sounds reasonable. Sure there were multiple Egyptian dynasties earlier in Egyptian history at once, but not at the time of XGM.

Just a little sales pitch for Gaulic rebels, not only would it he the easiest recoloring ever (as opposed the the ptolomaic which is near impossible to recolor) the Gaulic rebels could be placed partially in Iberia representing the Celtic Iberians without giving the impression on a sparse Celtic empire. Unit variety could be a possibility, maybe a spear gestae instead on a sword gestae for the rebels, and maybe a more diverse barbarian AOR structure, like axe or sword version on the current Barb infantry AOR split up in different regions of Europe that barbs can recruit

Not to mention I havnt seen Rome get past the Alps lately, perhase a Gaulic civil war could let Rome squeeze in.

this sounds like a lot of work, but its just something to think about.

DBH, also I finished recoloring the Carthage rebels I'll email it to you later tonight

[DimeBagHo]

Kara Kolyo: I just noticed Taxila myself. It's been fixed, and the Baktrian AOR has been extended to include Kophen.

It would be possible to get something like an Epirus campaign just by (more-or-less) swaping the positions of the GCS and GCS rebels. You would still play as the GCS, but starting out in Epirus, Tarentum, and Syracuse. That would just require a re-write of descr_strat.txt. Sounds like a good idea for a sub-mod.

RedFox: Dacia certainly left a significant gap, but I like the way that Thrace, Germany, and Scythia all get big by filling it up.

The alternative to big AI empires, is small AI empires that are easy to beat. One of my goals has been to make AI factions that can expand as quickly as the player in the early game. Players who want them to go slower can always use the reduced AI bonus option.

Zarax: I still can't see any way around the bugs that would result from re-introducing the Senate.

Adding another barbarian faction in the west would mean that the Gauls would get stomped sooner, and the Romans would expand faster, which doesn't strike me as desirable.

Massilia and the Bosphoran Kingdom were never more than minor powers. I don't really see Galatia working as a faction either, although I guess it would be interesting to play a barbarian faction on that side of the map.

Cymera: The Senate never really went away (at least until the Roman Empire itself went away), and it did regain considerable power under some Emperors. The problem with keeping the Senate in is that it messes with the re-used Roman factions, and causes CTDs with the BI exe.

Maraxus: The current Ptolemaic rebels are more-or-less historical. The Kingdom of Cyrenaica broke away from the Ptolemaic Empire in 274 BC, and was re-taken around 250 BC. Still they do seem to be the most expendable of the rebel factions.

[Zarax]

DBH, are you sure about the CTDs? I don't remember having any with the older versions of XGM when using the BI exe...

Maybe (at the risk of redundancy) we could have both baktria and seleucid/parthian rebels?

Other possibilities are another steppe faction (but scythia still needs some work imho), reintroducing one of the rebel factions and use the senate slot to replace the loyalty slot or maybe having someone deep in arabia?

[HopliteLysander]

Those new Baktrian units look awesome! I'm hoping to play an eastern faction soon.

I wanted to weigh in to support Epirus as an independent faction. Although I agree there are a lot of Greek factions I think it would improve the game, especially the early game, greatly.

As is, as soon as you start (as Greece) you find yourself thrust into a life or death struggle for survival with Macedon. This, in my experience is the hardest and most exciting part of the game.

However if you do crush Macedon not only have you survived but you are swimming in wealth, and because you are surrounded by water on three sides almost completly secure. Its kind of hard to lose from there on out, I mean sure...I might have an army crushed out in Baktria or Gaul, but I just whisk in a few stacks of crack troops from Greece to replace them.

I think introducing a third powerful faction to Greece will
a) make the early game much more unpredictable...will you fight Macedon, Epirus, both, fight one while allied to the other?

b)slow down development of an unbeatable Greek empire: even if you defeat one of your neighbors, you are still not going to be master of Greece, you will have to share...or fight another tough war right near your core cities. Only then can you start to think about the rest of the world.

c)let a the player take on the Romans right from the get go. Usually by the time I fight Rome, even though they have such good troops...I have a mighty empire. If Epirus is playable you'll have to deal with them from day one.

Anyway, love the mod and the community, If you miss even a week there's a hundred interesting things happening when you come back! Now I have to go dig out my car...2 ft of snow yesterday :-}

[scannerfish]

I think a Indian faction would be more interesting . Not many mods have them as a faction .

[Zarax]

India wouldn't have much of an impact except for helping the seleucids crumble even faster...
Plus historically they were focused east and not west...

[LucretiusTC]

Personally I like the present situation where all the major "players" (Rome, Carthage, Greeks, Seleucids & Ptolemies) have their own rebel factions. It seems quite a balanced solution. Maybe those various Rebels between the major Factions could be a little bit stronger, so that eg. Epeirus, Illyria, Pannonia or Dacians could stay independent a little bit longer and work as a barrier zones.

Luc.

[Internazionale]

I think its waste of faction slots to have rebel factions..... Make Eperus! Make 1 more hellenic faction in greece, let the new greek faction have 2-3 regions in northern greece

[Deiphobos]

While I love Greek factions, I think that another one would make Greece a bit too overcrowded and the parties in Greece to weak to really achieve much. I would rather have a faction to give the Seleucid some trouble in the east. In my two campaigns till now, they had an amazing growth rate (one in RTW XGM and one in BI XGM).


Slightly off topic (I apologize):
Has anybody had some thought about the situation in Greece? Somehow I have the impression, that Macedon tends to have a slight upper hand at the beginning. The independent Greek Cities can be overwhelmed quite quickly and the "normal" Greek Cities tend to have trouble with their army distribution. They just produce a huge force on the Peloponnese and don't seem to know what to do with it (unless they manage to move before Macedon or the independents and take over Thermos). Or does this change with difficulty? (I am playing medium/hard at the moment)

[Hippias]

Personally I like the present situation where all the major "players" (Rome, Carthage, Greeks, Seleucids & Ptolemies) have their own rebel factions. It seems quite a balanced solution. Maybe those various Rebels between the major Factions could be a little bit stronger, so that eg. Epeirus, Illyria, Pannonia or Dacians could stay independent a little bit longer and work as a barrier zones.

Luc.

Sounds good to me - buff up those rebel barriers in certain key areas (Dacia, Galatia, Cyrene perhaps) - give 'em full stack army in province or as a garrison

[JD XKiller]

Nice pics, especially like the archers cut-in shields.
But the neon-green hurts. Should add a sign to their shields: "watching this without sun goggles will cause you eye-cancer!"