Highly Original Title - a crash-test T&E 0.91 Rome AAR

[Djack]

Hello!

Tribes & Empires is my pet mod and I'm working on making sure 0.91 is fine.
This is a little AAR of one of my test game, to help you decide if you'll give a try to the mod when it goes out (*).
You can give a try to 0.90, but its a quite different beast.
I'll do it functional, with pictures.
So here we go.
I'm an AAR virgin by the way

THE SETTING
EU:Rome 1.3 English. not really its the French version but I can't bear the silly translations
Mod: Tribes & Empires beta 0.91 started with private beta, continued with released version.
Country: Rome, to help show some new features in 0.91.
Objective: Play to show features.
When I write like this it will be "out-of AAR" comments on the mod


EPISODES
In italic, T&E concepts or events featured for the first time.

Pyrrhic War
474 - Episode 1 - T&E: starting map; Roman military tradition
474 - Episode 2 - T&E: diploannexation; inter-tribes wars
Interlude : Trade & Tribes T&E: explanation of...; Carthage-Rome comparison.
475 - Episode 3 - T&E: Senate Laws; Naval battles
476 - Episode 4 - T&E: Voted laws events; Faction Rivalries
Gallic Wars
479 - Episode 5 - T&E: Annexed tribe policy; Hording; Migration; Natives Uprising; Land invention
Carthaginian War
497 - Episode 6 - T&E: Stronger Barbarian Kingdom
500 - Episode 7
501 - Episode 8
504 - Episode 9

(*) although some people might consider this shameless advertising

[Djack]

Episode I
I Have a plan!

THE SITUATION


Rome starts at war with Epirus, the yellow dudes.
In 0.91 Epirus has Magna Graecia provinces, but no core on them. It also get a booster event that actually works and help them. Rome should win, but not as easily as vanilla.


THE PLAN
Here's the local situation and the plan.


I'll take a cautious "Fabian" style approach. Let Pyrrhus spend manpower and morale on land assaults while my Navy seek a decisive battle and/or blockade reinforcements.
As Rome I have the "Roman warfare" tradition which is quite nice but has overly expensive and mostly useless cavalry.


THE OPENING MOVES


Surprise! Pyrrhus leads the small army to Apulia rather than the big one to Lucania.


Reinforcements will join with the big army in Lucania.


I jump on the occasion to crush Pyrrhus at Apulia. Maybe I can wipe him out?


Meanwhile my fleet has arrived near Epirus. 14 vs 12 I have a very small advantage in numbers and a battle could go either way. I keep Epirus blockaded and wait for any battle. I would certainly loose some ships in a battle so I start building some replacements, as well as additional troops in case everything goes wrong


The first battle of the war!
Poor Pyrrhus stands no chance. While I butcher them and he kindly takes the pause, this is a good occasion to show some of the "Hellenic Warfare" modifiers Epirus got. They have though phalanxes.


Victory of course, but far from being decisive. After seing this, I'll stick to my initial defensive plan and wait for more favorable conditions.


NEWS OF THE WORLD


Illyria and Macedonia have started to grow. I hope for an early war between them.
Sometimes they bash each other early, sometimes they do their own land grabbing before clashing.


Carthage has started its campaigns in Iberia. I'm cheering for Iberians!
The outcome of the early Carthago-Iberian wars can be quite different. Sometimes Carthage crush the little tribes, sometimes they struggle against a coalition and are forced to white peace.


Well. Not much T&E specific stuff shown here, a part from the map and the warfare traditions concept.
In the next Episode: "Pyrrhic victories" and "The Rise of A Western Power".

[Djack]

Episode II

I HAD a Plan

PYRRHIC VICTORIES


'Excellent' I say, as Pyrrhus bash his phalanxed head against Lucania walls.
Notice the 1000 Elephants. Elephants will progressively become obsolete as the game advance, as they don't get any tech updates, contrary to all other kinds of troops. But early on you don't want to mess too much with them unless you have enough missile troops or a big numerical/tactical advantage.


After more Pyrrhic head vs wall contest I decide it is time to face the master himself. They have low morale, reduced forces and I'm at home. I except a crushing victory and...


..WHAT? Nice timing there! Thanks a lot! "Gaius Atilius Regulus". Noted. No more exotic female priests for you.


Let's call that a "reversed Pyrrhic victory", Gaius Atilius Regulus.


This time I go on the offensive. I decide to engage Pyrrhus again, while my other army siege Tarentum.


Looks like I am really punished by the Gods. Gaius Atilius Regulus will have no more exotic female priests AND see his salary divided by two. His name alone is a nuisance. For future reference, let's call him GAR, shall we?


Tarentum is taken. Good! Now that I have this torn out of my side, I will be able to crush Pyrrhus with all my forces without having to chase armies of headless chicken everywhere.

NEWS OF THE WORLD : THE RISE OF A WESTERN POWER

Meanwhile in the East Macedonia inadvertantly stepped on another poor tribe...


...while in the West the Arveni, the most powerfull tribe in Gaul, use a more civilized way and peacefully annex the Allobroges, EU-style. And they are a backward tribe! What the world has come to?
This is a diploannexation. The player is notified when it happens to another country. Sometimes it happens quite fast, sometimes it takes longer. It's a bit tricky to balance because the event is complex. I tried to balance the event so the small tribes have a chance to grow a bit bigger with diplomacy by the time the big factions get at them, especially Rome vs the Gauls.


Wait! Weren't the Arverni supposed to be peacefull? Seems like they have grown more confident in their military capacities.
The Ligures often clash with Massilia instead. I was surprised to see the Arveni there so fast and so agressive early.


In the next episode: Senate Laws!

[comagoosie]

Haha, there are certainly a lot of tribes, I can't imagine ones BB score after conquering all of them

Quickly destroy your enemy and then move on to carthage

[Murmurandus]

Seems like fun... Oh, and after the war just sacrifice GAR to the Gods or something...

[Djack]

Haha, there are certainly a lot of tribes, I can't imagine ones BB score after conquering all of them

Don't worry the BB issue has been taken care of in 0.91.

Quickly destroy your enemy and then move on to carthage

I'd like too but I'll have a surprise guest to handle first
Plus Carthage ain't as easy to crush as in vanilla, they can field all kinds of units from the beginning and a larger navy.

Oh, and after the war just sacrifice GAR to the Gods or something...

GAR makes another apparition later and he's still annoying

[vanin]

A good and interesting AAR, and the mod seems very interesting. Hopefully it's crash-proof, good luck!

[Djack]

INTERLUDE

TRADE & TRIBES

No this is not a spin-off mod.
This interlude provides some explanations on how Trade works in T&E and why Tribes are not as weak as they seem.


OF TRIBES

Lets have a look at Tribes. We'll look at the Arveni. They start as the most powerfull tribe in Gaul.


They have the "Warbands warfare" tradition, which basically allows them to field much more troops than expected, recruit them faster and their warriors are fierce. But this comes with a price, their warriors are not good in defence, their discipline is awfull and they take more time to recover from lost battles (land organisation).
They will want to win wars fast as they take too much casualties and are slow to recover from defeats.


Lets have a look at the countries comparison. Look at the manpower column. A major tribe alone can raise about 30k.
If say the Arveni and the Aedui ally against Rome, that would make 67k vs Rome's 129k.
Not bad for two tribes! With other minors tribes allied with them, they can perfectly manage to hold back Rome.

And thats the key. Alone each tribe stands no chance vs a big power. But if united, either by force or by diplomacy they can be a match for anyone.


...AND OF TRADE

The relation Trade - Units build is different from vanilla.
Basically you can build all units everywhere and the goods makes their cost drop, but their initial price is higher than vanilla. The more you have of a ressource, the cheaper the unit. You can also get additional bonuses. You need about 4 ressources of the proper kind to bring the cost back to vanilla level. (not for Elephants though, still handled as in vanilla).


Wood for instance lower the cost of all your ships and missile infantry by 5%, and allows you to build ships 10% faster in the province.


Cloth is very insteresting for navies as it lower the cost like wood, plus it improves all your ships abilities and allows to build them in the province much faster.
A nice combo is to have cloth in a province and trade it for wood. That means you can build a ship in that province 60% faster!


Finally everyone favorite ressource Iron. A 5% cost improvement isn't ass negligible as it sounds as most your units should be Heavy Infantry. Horses have the same effect for Cavalry and Light Cavalry but are more interesting as mounted units are very expensive.


CARTHAGE vs ROME COMPARISON

So, how does the ressources thing plus the tradition thing affects the early gameplay?
Lets compare two big bullies, Carthage and Rome, to see in what aspects they differ.

Traditions

The traditions plus the different goods they start with give different unit costs.
Cost is the same wherever you recruit the unit, so I picked random provinces.

Army Costs - dont compare the recruit times.


Navy Costs


To sum up the early balance:
Advantage Carthage:
- Income.
- Navy cost.
- Units cost.
- Better light cavalry.
- Better missiles.
- Elephants!
Advantage Rome:
- Manpower.
- Discipline.
- Better heavy infantry.

A Carthaginian player early standard strategy could be to seek naval superiority for its defence vs Rome and expand in Iberia to get all the nice goods here.
While a Rome player could try to get as much iron as possible to be able to field large legions and make good use of its large manpower, with wood and horses as a secondary objective. Gaul is the most obvious target.
Of course there are other early strategies possible, such as a naval Roman or an offensive Carthaginian.

[Djack]

Episode 3

Sexy naval "action"!

Pyrrhus strikes back!

The Senate being The Senate!

Back to our main program.


I had enough of the staring contest with the Epirote navy, so I decide to MAKE A TRAP! I hide and will see if the Epirastian sailors do their coming out. I can't move any army into Epirus itself while their navy still there. And I want to grab all I can in this war and forget about Epirus.


Picture > Words.
So I'll let Pyrrhus do its "thing" with Lucania walls and ask kids to look the other way. Must be the name, "Lucania" sounds like an arousing latino female name.

This fine senator has proposed a law and the Senate is about to vote it. I have two options:


I don't care about diplomacy and intrigue yet, so I let the law pass and avoids making a rival and annoy the Senate.


I get a nice stamp and this policy will be active for 5 years.

On Laws and their politics:
- Republic governments only.
- Voted laws can trigger additional events, both positive or negative.
- If voted, the Senator who proposed the law gets more popular.
- Blocking a law will prevent it from being proposed again while "blocked" is active; and you make a rival of the Senator.
- If you block too many laws and are not a good politician (high finesse ruler) the Senate will get hostile with bad effects.
- Think of Laws as simplified policy sliders, as each law as an opposite law that does the... opposite!



The exotic female priests taken from GAR were put to good use by embarking them on my fleet and showing them to the Epirotians. Some of them couldn't resist and made a sortie. Exactly what I wanted! 12 ships vs 4...


...and 4 Sunk. Take that Epiranians!
T&E naval battles are more decisive, as naval damage was increased a lot.


Another law. Innovation sounds good, so I vote it...


..And get another nice stamp. You know the deal by now.


NEWS OF THE WORLD

Bunch of wars, love and treason left and right, but Iberia interest me the most.

Emporion is growing, while Carthage struggle with Iberian tribes. Good!
The messier Iberia, the better for me.


In the next episode: GAR strikes back and someotherstuffificanfititintenpictures.

[Qorten]

Nice AAR, good way of showing your MOD, which I will definitely try out.

[Capibara]

You definitely got my attention with that title You are having a good start and I agree with Qorten, good way of showing your mod, which looks great, maybe I could start playing Rome again because of it

[Qorten]

I'm waiting for Vae Victis and the updates to some mods and then I'll retry Rome again. This will help carry me over.

[Nikolai]

Diploannexation??

[comagoosie]

Wow, what an interesting mod. I see many gameplay balances, I think you have just gotten yourself a downloader

Great comparison, or should I say advertising

[Murmurandus]

Ooooohhhhh, GAR will strike back... I fear for Rome...

[Djack]

Thanks the comments!

Diploannexation??

Almost like EU diploannex, but via en event, if certain conditions are met.
I had to use a workaround due to event coding restrictions (missing vassal_of trigger) but I tried to make these workarounds interesting for the gameplay and I think it works fine now. I'll put the event in the FAQ cause it works a bit differently from the hardcoded diploannexation of EU and you must know what are your chances to get your diploannex offer accepted.

About the AAR, I'll continue until I think I gave a good overview of the mod.

[Enewald]

oooh, this mod looks really neat!

No more easy colonizing for rome.

[Djack]

Episode 4

Arverni may have a plan

GAR shows his true colors

Take that Epirus!

Rome has a new neighbour.


Either Arverni has a plan and is going straight for Etruria or I am paranoid.
Or they have a plan to make me paranoid.
Well, say hello to our new barbarian neighbour. Shave and clean yourself a bit please.
Anyway I'm Rome I'm strong and I don't care...
...i'll ask the other consul to recruit some troops and send them north. remember: its him, not me!

Time to show the Roman way to the Epirasts!
Recruit a lot of troops. Send. Do battle. If it fails, repeat procedure.
The plan works well. I love when a plan comes together.


Of course! That's what I keep saying! GAR is my enemy!
Voted laws can popup events like this from time to time, good or bad.

I'll just ignore him...

He doesn't deserve my attention...


Not a single second of my time...


I won't even talk about him....



What? I didn't make this, it was the other consul! He's afraid of gallic weaklings and draw childish pictures! Tsss.

So the war is going fine and the next step is to

Come on! Won't these guys stop popping up at the worst times!
No I don't want war with Carthage yet, thank you, goodbye, the exit is on your left, see you later ok thanks.
This is the factions rivalries feature. Some factions have historical rivals and they will be put under pressure for war (Carthage vs Rome, for instance). Sooner or later you'll get dragged into a war with your rival(s).

SO! The war is going fine. Epirus keep sending desperate peace offers but I want all the provinces I can get so I continue.
I get another nice law and start collecting them.


Epirus keep refusing my reasonable peace offers. 3 provinces annexed out of 4, that's reasonable. In Roman terms.
So I have to go straight to their capital. I have naval superiority now, so I'm safe.
In the meantime some officers have great ideas and we make good use of them.


I will soon order the troops to assault Epirus.
Meanwhile I would like to

I knew it!
Good the other consul raised two legions on the barbarian frontier.

What? There are no other consul? Don't be silly, who is that voice I hear then?


NEWS OF THE WORLD



In the next episode: pillage, rape and plunder. and rape (with pillaged plundered women too).

[Enewald]

Haha, news for romans.

Brilliant!

Tough times ahead it seems!

[comagoosie]

no exotic females shown?! Turn to page 7

Anyways, nice showing off the unique events.