Fresh start : questions

[R.Graymarch]

Hello

I just started the game and was looking for a "quick questions" topic but could not find any in the first pages of this forum

So I started, inspired by DanIsStoned Crete tutorial. My goal is to unify Crete. I know that I could have chosen Rome but apparently, republics are a little complicated for a start. Egypt could be a good candidate but it's not as peaceful. So I chose Crete and especially Knossos (no mods)

In my first war, I went without my feud because his loyalty was not at 33. I paid him but apparently it needs time to build up. And when I wait, my allies call me to war so I have less control on what happens. Am I too impatient or unlucky? Edit: I just notice "dominating stance" to get an opinion boost with levies up /Edit

During a reload, I managed to be at war and it was going well, except my ally occupied the province so the only option in the peace deal was to give him the province, which is not something I want. Was I just unlucky? What does it depend on? First on the province (if that's the right name)? Higher troop numbers ?

Also I did not manage to get a general, it was my ruler and I could not change that (even at peace, with levies raised)

Thanks for your help and apologises if it's very basic questions

 

[R.Graymarch]

Molon Labe is an achievement and a discord server where we play MP with I:R

Thanks. I feel stupid now

What is your balance? (Income-expenses)

+65.24
I don't have access to cohorts tech so no legion for now

 

[IsaacCAT]

Thanks. I feel stupid now

+65.24
I don't have access to cohorts tech so no legion for now
View attachment 1086056

Your available income for legions is your surplus (65,24) plus your expenses in the military (0) = 65,24.
Your max cohorts is 297.

The ratio is 65,24/297 = 0,22.

Legions units costs money to maintain. For example, one unit of HI costs 0.38. With your ratio of 0.22 you cannot fill all your available units as HI. NOTE: this is with our own mod, HMOV2 that changes costs of units from vanilla.

Legions are far superior than mercenaries and levies if you can pay for them because their distinctions that can add up a lot of bonus to morale, discipline, offense, siege ability, etc.. :

And their ability to drill to get experience:

Drilling your legions and not using mercs or levies has a benefit to increase your military experience too as you get more military experience if you have higher average cohort experience:

Legions allow the player to choose the composition of their armies, by military traditions you can get one type of unit that is much better than the others. In this case, this player has improved its HI above the other units:

In contrast to his legion based mainly on HI his levies use other type of units that are no improved, like the Magna Hellas levy:

Not only that, the commander of the levy is the governor and powerful governors are less loyal and may be not suited for combat (martial trait).

Finally, Legions can have engineers and as much donkeys as you need for your long away campaigns.

They are your best ally when you try to expand through the deserts of Gedrosia or the mountain passes of Gandhara:

Good luck! many players have died through famine here....

 

[IsaacCAT]

Another chart, but this is done using our own mod shows how different a unit maxed out with military traditions can be compared to the basic unit without modifiers:

In this case, CARIAN light infantry has a modifier (discipline x offense x defence) of 2.6 compared to the Heavy Infantry of the Germanic Empire of only 1.2. This is huge and can make LI beat HI even with the versus factor in favour of HI.

The morale is also very important, in our mod we have tried to balance and lower morale values in general to make battles end quicker as their were in the ancient times. Nevertheless, the difference between morale 4 and morale 6 in units is huge already and makes the difference between winning or losing a battle.

 

[R.Graymarch]

Thanks for all the help and all the maths. I fear that I'm far from this level
Year 639.
I suffered 25 years for my AE to go down. My stability went to 0 and loyalty was an issue so I had to deal with some revolts without any major issue.
After that, I cleaned "centre India" in order to get some missions and to remove bordergore
I just reached 9000 POP and "cohorts" tech
My top 3 cultures (1701, 1454 and 458) are integrated.
I hope to be able to get closer to "India" borders

 

[R.Graymarch]

I thought Invictus ended in 727 but apparently it's later (753)
Anyway, I managed to secure to the Indus river (except its mouth)

 

[R.Graymarch]

754, it's the end. I conquered in the North West and switched to a new tag.

Maurya and Arachosia are my subjects. I finished many missions too (and it was a nice guide). It's interesting how it "opens" based on your current regions

Some other stats

I got levies too but the screen is too small for the screenshot :/
I'm by far the biggest country in the world

Thanks for the advice, it helped me a lot. And also thanks for the Pandya suggestion, it was fun.
Cheers

 

[DukeLeto42]

Nice work! You've unified the "Big Tag" for the region and made an impressive empire!

 

[R.Graymarch]

Nice work! You've unified the "Big Tag" for the region and made an impressive empire!

Thanks I was wondering if the new tag was better or worse than the current one. I could not find any info on this in the game or on internet. As it was the end, I just clicked.
The starting position is not the most complicated but I'm quite puzzled by the fact that for my 2nd game (and my 1st ironman), it was quite easy to expand. I know that I have some experience with other PDX titles (CK2, EU4) but still, I'm quite sure that I struggled more for those two games than for I:R

 

[DukeLeto42]

Thanks I was wondering if the new tag was better or worse than the current one. I could not find any info on this in the game or on internet. As it was the end, I just clicked.
The starting position is not the most complicated but I'm quite puzzled by the fact that for my 2nd game (and my 1st ironman), it was quite easy to expand. I know that I have some experience with other PDX titles (CK2, EU4) but still, I'm quite sure that I struggled more for those two games than for I:R

For the most part, new tags don't have major implications. They give some nice little bonuses, but rarely lock you out of mission trees (especially by the time you get around to forming them) and without national ideas you won't miss out there.

As for the ease of expansion, I've had a similar experience. I suspect that a not-insignificant part of it is due to the map quality - it's very easy to read terrain in I:R, making for much better-planned campaigns than older PDX games offer.

 

[R.Graymarch]

As for the ease of expansion, I've had a similar experience. I suspect that a not-insignificant part of it is due to the map quality - it's very easy to read terrain in I:R, making for much better-planned campaigns than older PDX games offer.

I suspected AI to be less competitive or game principles much easier to understand vs older (other) PDX games. But I agree that the terrain is nice to look at and helps. I find the combat mechanics very innovative, I just regret that peace treaties don't have more options, à la EU4 (break alliance, war reparations for example)

I still did not get into the "characters" game : I read that there are bloodlines and other elements but it seems quite confusing and not worth looking more into it. I generally fill positions to cover the requirements per family, I bribe the unhappy people and that's it. Never tried to imprison, murder or else for example. Am I missing a big part of the game? Or maybe it's more in Republic?
Same for wonders actually

 

[olivenkranz]

I suspected AI to be less competitive or game principles much easier to understand vs older (other) PDX games. But I agree that the terrain is nice to look at and helps. I find the combat mechanics very innovative, I just regret that peace treaties don't have more options, à la EU4 (break alliance, war reparations for example)

I still did not get into the "characters" game : I read that there are bloodlines and other elements but it seems quite confusing and not worth looking more into it. I generally fill positions to cover the requirements per family, I bribe the unhappy people and that's it. Never tried to imprison, murder or else for example. Am I missing a big part of the game? Or maybe it's more in Republic?
Same for wonders actually

Have you ever played ck2 (Holy Fury DLC)? The bloodlines there and the bloodline traits in IR function very similarly. That adds quite a bit of peace time game play too if you're into that

 

[R.Graymarch]

Have you ever played ck2 (Holy Fury DLC)? The bloodlines there and the bloodline traits in IR function very similarly. That adds quite a bit of peace time game play too if you're into that

I did, even if I did not really play into the "bloodline" quests. But my main issue with that is that CK is totally character-driven but not really I:R (just partially). I have difficulties to imagine myself playing as the monarch of X, rather than "country X with a person leading"

 

[olivenkranz]

I did, even if I did not really play into the "bloodline" quests. But my main issue with that is that CK is totally character-driven but not really I:R (just partially). I have difficulties to imagine myself playing as the monarch of X, rather than "country X with a person leading"

The bloodlines are essentially a completely optional mini game that will occupy you in the time you aren't microing the eco, pops or armies.