Slitherine

Hi,

So I'm playing my first full campaign as Dacia and Antigonids are pretty much unstoppable. I'm curious if there's anything I can do to try and catch up or just call it quits. They have hundreds of regions and the weird thing is that they somehow keep it all together. They do have some loyalty issues in their oldest part of the empire and some regions go independent from time to time, but they're swiftly crushed by the Antigonid war machine.

I was hoping they will become decadent but they manage to stay in the top or middle of the CDR chart (or I didn't wait enough time). So I tried conquering some of their territory. I allied myself with Rome, Epyrus and even Carthage (after I sent tons of gold to them) in the hopes that they'll help reduce Antigonids territory. Which they did in part: with Epyrus I drove them out of Macedonia/Greece, Rome took a few islands and Carthage basically did nothing in North Africa. I even took their main capital from them because the manual says Diadocii will have trouble if you do that but nothing happened. What would taking their main capital do, btw ?

So now I have a few of their best developed regions, their capital (it looks like the AI will send giant armies to retake it though) but my military power is running out of steam and they still produce more legacy per turn than me (they have +350 with about 32k, I have +260 with about 19k) with about 250 turns to go. So my question: is this AI behaviour (one nation going unstoppable) an exception or the rule? And what can I realistically do about it (except hope they'll crumble in time) ? I'm glad that my first learning campaign will likely be a loss (makes me want to try again) but I am a bit frustrated that the whole game is supposed to revolve around the concept of giant territory gains -> decadent empire...it feels like the Antigonids AI made it a map-painter...

its unusual in the main, but I have seen it when I play a relatively minor faction - so have little early game impact. If the Antigonids survive, they are indeed well placed.

The capital problem, is that it can move. So have a look for where it is currently - you'll often see the region on the map as that is where their diplo and state messages are displayed. Try to take that - somehow. that is usually at least one, sometimes 2 progress tokens lost immediately (& you get a cash pile). If you can't see it, click on the diplo display for them, that'll dump you on the right region.

spend the cash, carry on digging away at their objective regions, you can tip them over. Saying this as I managed a similar recovery with Sarmatia facing a hugely sucessful Antigonid Empire.

Having said all this, my last game did indeed end with 4 (incl me) huge Empires - Maurya, Rome and Carthage. Now it was clear the AI couldn't cope as what happened is they would progress to glorious (start to pick up govt age related decadence), slip over to old/decadent, civil war and back to stable

Bend the knee and offer soil and water.

loki100 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2019 1:47 pm its unusual in the main, but I have seen it when I play a relatively minor faction - so have little early game impact. If the Antigonids survive, they are indeed well placed.

The capital problem, is that it can move. So have a look for where it is currently - you'll often see the region on the map as that is where their diplo and state messages are displayed. Try to take that - somehow. that is usually at least one, sometimes 2 progress tokens lost immediately (& you get a cash pile). If you can't see it, click on the diplo display for them, that'll dump you on the right region.

spend the cash, carry on digging away at their objective regions, you can tip them over. Saying this as I managed a similar recovery with Sarmatia facing a hugely sucessful Antigonid Empire.

Having said all this, my last game did indeed end with 4 (incl me) huge Empires - Maurya, Rome and Carthage. Now it was clear the AI couldn't cope as what happened is they would progress to glorious (start to pick up govt age related decadence), slip over to old/decadent, civil war and back to stable

Thanks, I know how to find their capital I was refering to their original main capital, because the manual says this:

All the Diadochi (including the Lysimachids) are vulnerable to
crumble when played by the AI depending on their decadence and if
they have lost their original national capital

I was curious what effect does losing their capital trigger that makes them 'vulnerable to collapse'.

Geffalrus wrote: ↑Tue Sep 17, 2019 2:31 pm Bend the knee and offer soil and water.

Always an option I suppose.

Nestus is the region for Lysimachids.

It only happen if they are old or worse... Same for the others Diadiochi.

Pocus wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2019 3:00 pm Nestus is the region for Lysimachids.

It only happen if they are old or worse... Same for the others Diadiochi.

Ok, that's good to know. So it's best to go after them when they're old.

However, in the meantime something really interesting happened. I kept chipping away at their territory, just about to conquer their main capital again ( I conquered their original capital about 10-15 turns ago). They kept asking for peace so I knew they're finally losing military power. And then they just... dissapeared. Every single one of their regions is now Hellenic independent, their armies vanished and they're also gone from the Faction table. I assume they'll reappear in different parts of their former territory (maybe under different names) but still..if it wasn't a bug I'm super curious what caused their complete collapse. They were at Glorious Empire and in the middle portion of the CDR table so it wasn't the decadence...

theres a random element in this (at least I think so) as I've seen them collapse when losing a war but not actually already old.

in my last game, a load of nations spawned over the next couple of turns to fill the gaps but there was about 40-50 years with some very strong independent armies stomping around till their breeding grounds were all conquered

loki100 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2019 7:20 pm theres a random element in this (at least I think so) as I've seen them collapse when losing a war but not actually already old.

in my last game, a load of nations spawned over the next couple of turns to fill the gaps but there was about 40-50 years with some very strong independent armies stomping around till their breeding grounds were all conquered

Yeah, same here...in 2 turns the rebels disappered and new (and old!) nations took their place. I also think it has something to do with war...they were at very high war weariness for at least 15-20 turns.