Your view on the scenarios and their difficulty level

[hannibal128]

Hi I have played quite a lot of scenarios and I wanted to share my view about how hard they were to win against the AI depending on the side.
I just tried to win, since the rules for getting major victory are pretty weird.
1=Easy (good for beginner)
2=Moderate
3=Tricky but doable
4=Maybe an expert can win
NP=Not Played (Haven't tried yet)

Marius vs Sulla: Sulla=1, Marius=4,Pontus=NP
Great Mythridatic War: Sertorius=1,Rome=3,Pontus=3
Spartacus Revolt: Rome=2,Spartacus=3
Roman Civil War:Caesar=2, Pompeius=NP
The Year of the four Emperors:Vespasianus=2,Vitellius=1,Otho=4
Severius: Severius=2,Clodius=NP,Pescenesius=NP

My favorite so far spartacus revolt as spartacus.

what is your opinion and favorite

[Hobbes]

I've always thought it would be a good addition to the site if there was a way of posting the results of AGEOD games v AI and PBEM so an idea of balance could easily be found. This is especially useful for scenario designers and PBEM players so balanced scenarios can be made. The forces don't have to be changed just the conditions required for victory - if a scenario is found to be unbalanced. A good example of this is here at the Campaign Series site: http://www.theblitz.org/scenarios/Campaign-Series/WF/action=list&game=6

Failing this though your idea of posting how hard you feel a scenario is to win is a great idea. I've not played through the scenarios enough to add to your results - but hopefully players that have can also post their findings.

Cheers,
Chris
P.S. with AGEOD games I would not worry too much about major and minor victories. If you have a major you have done extremely well (unless the scenario balance is poor). If you have a minor by a small % of VP over your opponent it is close to a draw - with a large amount of VP (1.5 to 2+ times more?) a minor victory is really a major. But difficult to know I suppose unless the scenario balance is understood.

[Taillebois]

I tried doing something like this on the Napoleon's Campaigns forum but not many people wanted to reply.

I continue to think that one of the reasons for AGEOD games being less popular than they could be or should be is that getting a satisfying victory on easy level is quite hard. Also, irrespective of how long some scenarios are - Pride of Nations 1600+ turns; Spanish Ulcer (NCP) 300+? ; there are relatively few scenarios and there's no random scenario generator - irrespective of how un-historic it maybe. I've got all the games so I guess that makes me a fan or just a fool with too much money (and a very poor player to boot). Sid Meier's Gettysburg had historical and variant (what-if) scenarios; Combat Mission came with about 50 scenarios and a random scenario generator. Of course I've never played all the scenarios, but the perceived value is terrific.

Anyway, enough of a rant, and the last NCP patch seemed to ruin my Napoleon vs Wellington strategy. Only Bernadotte seems to know how to get a complete crushing victory there as Napoleon.

[Durk]

Hi I have played quite a lot of scenarios and I wanted to share my view about how hard they were to win against the AI depending on the side.
I just tried to win, since the rules for getting major victory are pretty weird.
1=Easy (good for beginner)
2=Moderate
3=Tricky but doable
4=Maybe an expert can win
NP=Not Played (Haven't tried yet)

Marius vs Sulla: Sulla=1, Marius=4,Pontus=NP
Great Mythridatic War: Sertorius=1,Rome=3,Pontus=NP
Spartacus Revolt: Rome=2,Spartacus=3
Roman Civil War:Caesar=NP, Pompeius=NP
The Year of the four Emperors:Vespasianus=2,Vitellius=1,Otho=4
Severius: Severius=NP,Clodius=NP,Pescenesius=NP

My favorite so far spartacus revolt as spartacus.

what is your opinion and favorite

What a great way to quantify your experience. I look forward to you take on Caesar/Pompeius as my circle of players seem to think Caesar has the dominant edge in mulitplayer play. Great notion of what the game means to solitary players.
It would be interesting to see a multiplayer version, too.

[MarsRobert]

Yeah Hannibal, I've played the first three and I agree completely with your assessments. As a matter of fact I suffered a minor loss in the Great Mithridatic War as Rome, and considering that Rome is hard-pressed in this scenario and AJE is not an easy game to begin with, I felt I was doing good to avoid a major defeat.

[MarsRobert]

I've been playing the campaigns in chronological order. Just finished the Caesar vs. Pompey campaign, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the best one yet. It's big and epic, and the AI put up quite a fight. For instance, while Caesar was in Dalmatia and Antony was knocking on the doors of Spain, I failed to be vigilant with my navy. Pompey therefore caught me flat-footed with a sea born invasion of Italy where I had next to nothing to defend it. I rushed troops from the two fronts back to Italy just in the nick of time to avoid disaster. Also, Antony found it slow going in Spain simply because the AI kept launching 'end run' attacks into Gaul. Anyway, I finally beat Pompey's morale down to the breaking point with about 2.5 years to go in the game, and it was a most satisfying win. Also, I actually knew very little about that campaign until playing the game, so it was kind of an educational experience for me. Anyway, the campaign definitely does justice to the memories of Caesar and Pompey; two of Rome's all-time favorite sons.

BTW, HBO's Rome miniseries did a great job with Caesar and Pompey. The feeling I got about Pompey from watching it was that by the time he fought Caesar he was still competent, but definitely well past his prime. The only negative was that they elected not to do a re-enactment of Pharsalus, and instead spent their money on the battle of Phillippi.

[borra]

Hi. I'm new with this game.
I've played the Spartacus campaign in the roman side.
The start is difficult because the army of Spartacus is very powerful. So, you have to avoid combat.
In turn 7, you get 4 legions, and the situation changes. Now, you can win the game easily.
Now, i'm going to start in the other side (Spartacus side). I will tell you.
Regards.

[TheDoctorKing]

I have played the Caesar v Pompey scenario a couple of times from each side, and my evaluation is: Caesar = 2, Pompey = 3. Pompey needs to raise those eastern armies and get good support from the eastern client kings and the Egyptians.