Unlocking Allies

[TheDoctorKing]

Forgive me if this is a question that has already been answered (a quick glance through the earlier threads didn't tell me anything): In the 50BC scenario, playing Caesar, there are some Mauretanians at the start who are my allies, but they are locked in place for 200 turns or something. Later on, I get Galatian and Cappadocian allies, same story. I tried moving Caesar next to them, capturing Pompeian territory on their borders, and nothing seemed to release them. I didn't see any political options to get them moving either. What's up? Is this something that has yet to be implemented? Those legions looked handy, especially the Asia Minor guys. And the Mauretanians would have been handy early to keep Juba honest. As it was, I needed five legions to hold Italia against the African hordes.

[PhilThib]

Those nations are, for most of them, Roman clients of the Republic, i.e. loyal and faithfull to the Senate, at start. Pompey can unlock them via options. If he does not (or even if he does), most will "turn coat" when Caesar is winning... for instance, the Mauretanians will unlock if Caesar lands in Africa with a strong force. The Asia Minor guys will unlock once Caesar captures Byzantium and Ephesus, etc...

This is all done via Events

I believe we should find a way to give more warning and explanations about these, as I agree it's a bit obscure to new players

[pantsukki]

On the same subject, currently the Numidians seem hilariously aggressive. The Pompeian AI always lands them in either Sicily or Southern Italy early in the game, which seems very unhistorical. I doubt Juba would've agreed to that, especially if the Caesarians weren't close to being beaten. What I'm suggesting is keeping them locked longer. Or at the very least activate the Mauretanians if Pompeian/Numidian strength drops below X in Africa. I can't believe that they would've been idle if all of Africa was stripped devoid of troops.

[PhilThib]

This will be fixed in next patch (hopefully), as we are adding some geographical usage limitations for some nations (and Numids will be tempted to stay "home" = in Africa)

[PJJ]

I don't have much to complain about AGEOD games, but I agree that the events system is too obscure, especially the automatic events that are activated when you move troops to some location, capture something or reach some goal. It would be nice to have some clue of what to expect as a new player in a new scenario.

BOA2 is the AGEOD game that I know the best, so this example comes from it. When I started playing it, I had no idea you could automatically receive new forts in some scenarios, without having to waste your precious few resources into building them yourself. There was nothing in the manual about this. It's something I learned over time as I played the game more and read the forums.

I don't see it as cheating if you have at least some advance knowledge of such events. After all, not everything came as a complete surprise to historical commanders.

[Ebbingford]

In WIA you get red event messages that tell you that if you have a certain force in a region by such and such a time then a fort will be built. You must have missed the messages.

Something like that would be good here though.

[PJJ]

It would be best to have them also in the manual. You can easily miss a message that is visible maybe only for a turn. If somebody doesn't want to know the events, he can always ignore that section of the manual.

[caranorn]

This will be fixed in next patch (hopefully), as we are adding some geographical usage limitations for some nations (and Numids will be tempted to stay "home" = in Africa)

Yep, it's much too easy to gain enormous ammounts of experience by slaughtering the Numidians in Sicily and Italy :-) (even though it means keeping some freshly formed Legions in Italy for a year to deal with Numidians and Slaves)...

[Soulstrider]

On the same subject, how do you unlock the Ptolemaic armies in Mario vs Sulla and the bulk of the Parthian Army in the Year of the 5 Emperors?

[TheDoctorKing]

In my game, a large Caesarian army (5 legions commanded by Antony) landed in Africa but the Mauretanians stayed locked. Later, Caesar captured Byzantium and the Galatians and Cappadocians appeared on the map, but their forces were locked in place. I could build units in Ankara, interestingly, but not use the ones that were there to start. They never moved for the duration of the game.

[caranorn]

I've had the Mauretanians unlock in both my games. First game it was after I'd conquered Africa (the province), second almost as soon as my force set foot in Africa (I believe I may have taken one city). In both cases my invasion force was commanded by Caesar himself, might that play a role?

Like I haven't had the Hispanic event happen in both my games despite conquest of all Pompeian cities in the Penninsula and destruction of all Pompeian forces there except an auxiliary wandering around. In my first game Caesar never went to Hispania and in my second he only stayed for one fighting season leaving the mopping up to his subordinates. So might some of those events require Caesar's presence?

[Franciscus]

In my game, a large Caesarian army (5 legions commanded by Antony) landed in Africa but the Mauretanians stayed locked. Later, Caesar captured Byzantium and the Galatians and Cappadocians appeared on the map, but their forces were locked in place. I could build units in Ankara, interestingly, but not use the ones that were there to start. They never moved for the duration of the game.

Do you have a save ?

[Franciscus]

I've had the Mauretanians unlock in both my games. First game it was after I'd conquered Africa (the province), second almost as soon as my force set foot in Africa (I believe I may have taken one city). In both cases my invasion force was commanded by Caesar himself, might that play a role?

Like I haven't had the Hispanic event happen in both my games despite conquest of all Pompeian cities in the Penninsula and destruction of all Pompeian forces there except an auxiliary wandering around. In my first game Caesar never went to Hispania and in my second he only stayed for one fighting season leaving the mopping up to his subordinates. So might some of those events require Caesar's presence?

Regarding the event HispaniaUlteriorSurrender, the conditions are, if WAD:

- minimum date is -049/01/01
- Caesar must be in Area_Tarraconensis
- Pompeus must not be in Theater_Hispania
- Caesar must control Carthago Nova, Salduba, Cesse and Ilerda

Please provide a save if this event does not fire if fulfilling this conditions.

[caranorn]

Regarding the event HispaniaUlteriorSurrender, the conditions are, if WAD:

- minimum date is -049/01/01
- Caesar must be in Area_Tarraconensis
- Pompeus must not be in Theater_Hispania
- Caesar must control Carthago Nova, Salduba, Cesse and Ilerda

Please provide a save if this event does not fire if fulfilling this conditions.

As I thought, Caesar had left Hispania by the time the event could have fired (not sure on the date, but I probably sent him back to Italy with veterans before the capture of Carthago Nova, after all there was no serious resistance to be expected of the Pompeians after that point as by my count I had destroyed at least 6 of their legions). I will try and remember this for my next game...

[Franciscus]

We are considering to change the conditions for Caesar: he will now may be in any region of Theater_Hispania, not just in Area Tarraconensis (all other conditions would remain, however)

[yellow ribbon]

if you do so, please increase the number of the turns the units in Hisp. from the event remain FIXED, otherwise we will bombard you with, can-i-win-with-POM-requests...

[Franciscus]

But other conditions will remain: Pompeus must not be in Spain and all the 4 cities must be controlled by CAE...

But this has not yet been made, so opinions and thoughts are welcome. I just think a bit counter-intuitive that CAE maybe in Hispania (ex: Gades), have conquered the 4 cities, and the event not fire...

Inputs welcome

[yellow ribbon]

But other conditions will remain: Pompeus must not be in Spain and all the 4 cities must be controlled by CAE...

But this has not yet been made, so opinions and thoughts are welcome. I just think a bit counter-intuitive that CAE maybe in Hispania (ex: Gades), have conquered the 4 cities, and the event not fire...

Inputs welcome

see the "why" the other forum, i am still using it