congratulations :) playing as celtic insular tribes is always fun. But then you have to hurry if you don't want Rome on your doorstep, it always expands like crazy and eats celts pretty fast.

I've had a few runs where Rome barely touched Western Europe by 570. This one.. it seems every one and everything wants to go on a rampage :D

yeah, good to see enough randomness in modern paradox titles (especially after EU4 compared to Eu3, although most scripted probably was Vicky 1). Although some things like Seleukids turning Persian Empire or dying Antigonids is almost guaranteed.

Still, if you plan to play till the final date, Rome can still be an issue.

Originally posted by Menkerot:

yeah, good to see enough randomness in modern paradox titles (especially after EU4 compared to Eu3, although most scripted probably was Vicky 1). Although some things like Seleukids turning Persian Empire or dying Antigonids is almost guaranteed.

Still, if you plan to play till the final date, Rome can still be an issue.

I want to play this one to the end. I really do. I'm still shocked the Antigonids, Selucid, and the Mauryans all collapsed and the Dahae are coming. Meanwhile in Western Europe there's atleast 6 super Celt states excluding me ( I consider any super Celt states to be any nation who has 20+ Territories ). Meanwhile Rome itself went Northeast, ignored the Macedonians who are still doing well, Thrace is doing well, The Kush are doing extremely well, and Carthage seems to be intact.

not bad, seems like it can still be a challenge. What are your end game goals?

Honestly, I'm not even sure! My capital is actually spilling over with people as of 500 - over 50 some pops, I didn't even know that was possible in Hibernia (by year 500)!

probably lots of food speed up pop growth. Personally, I like creating and setting free big countries just for the fun of it, although at times quite the opposite - destroy a big state and release it as separate provinces. Especially useful as a buffer against really nasty people like Rome.

Honestly, that might be interesting. Now that I've "made" ALbion, I'll see how it decides to engage the world over the next 250 years. I believe vanilla ends in 720something?

Yes, I think it's 735 or so. Of course, you can continue playing which is nice. Although I can imagine if you continue playing indefinitely, Rome will sooner or later conquer everything but you and maybe some other giants like Seleukids if they still live.

I haven't yet seen what it's gonna do, but Albion/Brittany, formed that early, does seem like it can be strong enough to contend with the big hitters. I did a prior run where I had more tech levels than even city states that seemed focused around tech growth at 1570 and it only seemed to want to accelerate. Chariots instead of HI does seem to be an issue, but I don't know how big of an issue it'll be until after it has to face Rome. There's also alot of "good" mercs in Brittania.

well, to be fair, AI isn't very hard to beat since it never utilises many game features humans do, like instigating civil wars or snitching disloyal governors (including on purpose). But it still can be tough. I spent almost the whole game beating Egypt as Kush, it was tough as hell. Rome must be a nightmare.

I tried to see what ALbion would do.....
turns out, pretty close to nothing. They did at least start a wonder construction... but then banked 11k gold over the course of 70 years.

if you don't have land borders, AI indeed will do nothing because it only claims and attacks neigboring countries it has a land border with. Unlike humans, who can and will claim faraway lands or those separated by water.

It didn't even make allies or build new cities or even really build new buildings! Or if it did, not a lot of it. I don't think it was trying to Road up either, nor was it trying to establish a legion - then again, I did start the observation just before forming Hibernia and it decided to go Republic rather than Monarchy, so maybe I should try again with Albion made into an empire. The only thing it seemed to really do is fill positions and integrate a culture. I have been avoiding integrating cultures this entire run as Druidic Pretani assimilate fairly quickly, and I'm assuming most of Gaul/NW Gaul atleast will do the same.


As an aside, I continued the game on my own as well - Rome seemed to be deadset on repeatedly marching its levies/legions around the hard way to Greece, fight relatively meaningless wars there that didn't really go anywhere, while colonizing up into Germania. Maurya collapsed multiple times, Persia reformed alongside of #(@# huge Parthia on its north border, and it was Thrace of all peoples who seems to have the best foothold in Greece/Anatolia. Carthage was also kicked out of Spain.

Meanwhile I was diplo annexing big swaths of Gaul to the point I went into Spain and even client stated Massilia all by 1550.
It would seem Albion is really good at making friends with the tribes as any stance, particularly Mercantile or Appeasing.

Originally posted by shoobers:

It didn't even make allies or build new cities or even really build new buildings! Or if it did, not a lot of it. I don't think it was trying to Road up either, nor was it trying to establish a legion - then again, I did start the observation just before forming Hibernia and it decided to go Republic rather than Monarchy, so maybe I should try again with Albion made into an empire. The only thing it seemed to really do is fill positions and integrate a culture. I have been avoiding integrating cultures this entire run as Druidic Pretani assimilate fairly quickly, and I'm assuming most of Gaul/NW Gaul atleast will do the same.

Allies come and go, but you are right about cities and roads, AI does it but much slower than humans and not really on purpose. Also, I think tribes don't do such things at all, and can't have legions anyway. AI in general acts slow and lazy most of the time compared to the player, which is especially notable compared to other paradox titles, especially Victoria, HoI and EU. Especially EU - in 3, for instance, it was colonising like crazy.

Originally posted by shoobers:

As an aside, I continued the game on my own as well - Rome seemed to be deadset on repeatedly marching its levies/legions around the hard way to Greece, fight relatively meaningless wars there that didn't really go anywhere, while colonizing up into Germania. Maurya collapsed multiple times, Persia reformed alongside of #(@# huge Parthia on its north border, and it was Thrace of all peoples who seems to have the best foothold in Greece/Anatolia. Carthage was also kicked out of Spain.

not bad. In my games Thrace also sometimes feels good enough and Carthage often loses lands in Spain, especially if it's focused everywhere. For a game set around Rome Imperator has enough randomness to be interesting every game.

Originally posted by shoobers:

Meanwhile I was diplo annexing big swaths of Gaul to the point I went into Spain and even client stated Massilia all by 1550.
It would seem Albion is really good at making friends with the tribes as any stance, particularly Mercantile or Appeasing.

Tribes are easier because you certainly make them tribal vassals which is very beneficial to them and doesn't make them your puppet. But yeah, it's the only paradox game where you can vassalise everybody peacefully as much as you like which I also do as much as possible. You can even do funny things like giving barbarians lands and making them your tribal vassals, although I never yet saw them settling down, let alone civilise. Fortunately, AI does civilise, just not as fast as you would.