IXIRandyIXI
Dirty Warmonger
mungman said:Hi, I've been playing this first on v.62 and now on v.7 and have to say it's fantastic. I've been hesitant to add so far, mainly because I'm not all that experienced with the editor etc, so I wasn't too sure what I could add.
However, after playing to 30bc on v.7 I feel I can give a decent report. First some bugs I noted.
1) Can no longer sacrifice captured servii in the great games. Don't know why this is, did you perhaps add a building I'm unaware of that's needed first?
2) Can't build Circus Maximus. This is because it requires Roma and Slaves, and they must both be in the radius for it to be built. So I added a slaves resource directly to the south of Rome.
3) Imperium Scipionis never produced a Legionis Scipionis. After reflecting, it might have been obsolete at the time, but I don't recall getting a message saying it was.
Now for the play test. By 30bc I had conquered Carthaginian Spain, Cisalpine Gaul, Carthaginian Islands, Sicily, Northern Illyria (Aquileia conquered by Germans, Southern Macedonia, and Western Carthaginian Africa (Carthage had reconquered before I stopped).
Here's my take on it. Magna Graecia is way too powerful as is. I wasn't able to take Bovianum until ~175bc and then it required an army of approx. 25 units (mixed between legio, velites, and hop. alarii). My suggestion is to raise the cost for Hoplites from 40 to 45. I haven't tested it yet, but I'll let you know.
Germans are too powerful too early. I was just about to begin the second Punic War (around 200bc) when out of nowhere a huge stack (~30-40) of Bellatores shows up. I should have been prepared as I had just taken Illyria and was building up to finish them off (around 20 legios, velites and hop. alarii) but I could not stop them. Even on open ground my legios were losing to them while on the offensive. If it wasn't for a humiliating treaty and tribute, they would have overrun Italy. Personally, I think Bellatores should have a def of around 2-3 instead of 4. Early Barbarians were good attackers and ambushers, but if attacked, they really didn't have the strategic know-how early on to counter Rome. For my second go I've lowered the Bellatores to 3 def.
Another problem I ran into was Carthage kept culture flipping all the cities I conquered from them. It made it about impossible to build up the way I was able to in v.62 since just as I would reach peace and could rebuild my economy, a city would flip and I'd have to retake it. This is what led to me losing North Africa at the very end of my last game. Of course, if I could get the Great Games back that might fix it, as I would always sacrifice my captured servii and build up the culture that way.
Also, alliances, it would be good to be able to ally with the Greek city states in addition to Macedonia and Pergamum.
Well that's about it for now. I'll let you know how the game with my changes goes. Hope I've been able to help some.
Welcome to the test team mungman!
1) It does appear that pink overlooked the sacrifice issue. I didn't even notice in my game tho, since I never sacrifice Servii.
2) Another thing pink seems to have overlooked! It looks like he was trying to limit it to Rome AND require that you have a Slaves resource connected somewherein your empire. I just fixed it by still requiring the Roma and Slaves resources (but NOT in the city's radius) and required that the city have a Capitolium (something only Roma has) in it to build Circus Maximus. Problem solved!
3) It's likely that by the time you build the Imperium Scipionis, it had already gone obsolete. You need to conquer both Carthage's holdings in Sicily and Illyria fairly quickly to be able to get a couple Legio Scipionis from the wonder before it goes obsolete.
I've never experienced that problem with Germania before! 30-40 Bellatores, oh my! I always try and trade with Germania and all the other nations if I don't plan to go to war with them; this makes them less likely to invade you until your relations break down completely near the Fall of Rome stage. I too was a bit upset to see the early Bellatores' stats increased, especially their defense. My most recent game has been very frustrating with some of the unit changes.
To continue on with this subject, it seems like the boost to early barbarians in the latest patch was a bit much. As I said earlier, I added the ability for Rome to sign military alliances with other nations. So when it came to war with Carthage, I signed a military alliance with Gallia against the Carthaginians (Magna Graecia had already been defeated, which STILL was ridiculously hard for me with its weakened government). Next thing I know, the hordes of Gallia completely ran over Carthaginian Spain while I concentrated on Africa.
The changes to Hoplites and Phalanx also make the early times of the game EXTREMELY hard (and this is with a Legio with 4 defense, I mourn for you people playing with only 3 defense Legios!). While Magna Graecia, Macedonia, and the Greek City-States are massing these pop. cost-free Hoplites and Phalanxes with relative ease, Rome ends up having their army bogged down by population costs and ridiculous defeats (like an Elite Legio losing to a Regular Hoplite, Legio on offense attacking the Hoplite which is positioned on a plains tile) thanks to the "random battle calculator" (aka cheat for the computer calculator). I think that since the Greek states and other civs don't have to pay pop. costs for their main military units (Hoplites, Phalanxes, etc.), they need to have their prices increased dramatically. Also, since the pop. cost for the Legios increase with the Consular Legions, shouldn't they get an increased HP bonus as well (+2 or so)? Considering it's 2 pop. points per unit, an increase of 2 attack isn't that huge of an upgrade (it basically makes the Legion equal to the Macedonian's Phalanx, and the Phalanx doesn't even cost pop. points and is much cheaper!).
So basically, I'm asking for dramatically increased shield costs for early non-Roman units that don't cost pop. points (e.g. Hoplites), decreased stats for earlier barbarian units, and decreased unit support for Magna Graecia and the early barbarian nations (4/6/8 for Tribal Council!? was it always like that?).