Bactrian Decadence

[Geffalrus]

Is there any way for Bactria not to immediately fall into the bottom tier of the CDR list and then stay there for most of the early game? I've played a few times now, and I have yet to find a way out of the bottom culture tier.

Is this intentional? Having Bactria of all places decline into an Old Monarchy relatively quickly seems kind of weird to me. We know the historical trajectory of Greco-Bactria, and having the big problem be decadence in the early game just seems slightly off to me. In general, Bactria seems kind of weak on the strategic map as most of its territories are underpopulated and poorly developed, while the historical record says the opposite. That it was populous, rich, and productive.

[Surt]

put all of your people in culture and see if it helps. You have to give it some turns as an average over some turns are used.

[Geffalrus]

put all of your people in culture and see if it helps. You have to give it some turns as an average over some turns are used.

I put quite a few, but most of the pops are non-Greek, and thus generate less culture. You only have one or two greek pops at the start. And then there's the issue that all those pops in culture crater your food and infrastructure production, not to mention your gold income. Compared to even the small factions in Greece, Bactria feels under powered in terms of economy and culture.

Hence why I'm asking if anyone has had any luck in overcoming the culture hurdle. I can handle money and military aspects. It just feels like Bactria has a rather large culture hurdle compared to other minor factions I've tried.

[Geffalrus]

Looking around a bit at the other factions, Bactria starts out with a fairly small treasury and one of the smallest Greek populations of the Greek factions. Cyrene, the Bosporus, Massilia, and Emporium all have larger Greek pops at the start. Heck, even Colchis and Illyria have larger starting amounts of Greek pops. Because Bactria has just a single Greek pop, which is a big limitation on their culture generation.

All of which contrasts with Bactria historically being a rich location with a decent Greek population.

[Surt]

The Greeks were a drop in the ocean of the Persian population of millions, the other nations amount of Hellenics is most likely also over the top.

[Pocus]

It might have skipped one revision pass indeed, it should have quite a decent Greek population. For 1.35 I guess

[Geffalrus]

It's mostly a comparison thing. It's fine if they're outnumbered by Persian and Nomad pops, but having just a single Greek pop seems a bit low when compared to the others. That combined with a relative lack of buildings compared to other Greek colonies. Bactria was fairly rich and urbanized when Alexander and company arrived there - they shouldn't need to build up quite as much as traditionally more rural regions do.

[Pocus]

Indeed, and it was the vacation place of all Greeks prisoners

[Geffalrus]

Having a lot of fun using their early army roster of armored hoplites + sparabara. Nice combination of units and pretty unique compared to other factions I've played. At some point, though, I'll probably want to transition to the army roster that you can see in FoG2 which features lancers and a few phalanx units. Is that something that can happen within FoG Empires? I know that I can eventually get Cataphracts once I upgrade to Empire government and get the right building. Is there any other way for Bactria to access superior lancer units in game? In other games from this period, I've seen Bactria portrayed as a hellenistic faction with some of the earliest access to heavy lancer cavalry. As a way to make them distinct from the Seleucids.

What about pike phalanx units? Not in large quantity, obviously. Just curious on how to make the two army rosters match up.

[stormbringer3]

After reading your posts I thought I'd give them a try. Do you give up the vassal status and if so when?
Thanks.

[Geffalrus]

After reading your posts I thought I'd give them a try. Do you give up the vassal status and if so when?
Thanks.

I have not done so yet. I know from experience dealing with the Seleucids in the past, that about a dozen turns in, they get into a big war with the Mauryans. And since I was getting objectives in that area, I figured being a part of that war made sense. I imagine there are other ways to handle the situation.

One positive sign is that I finally got myself out of the bottom culture tier through a combination of population growth and the regional decision that boosts your colony. In both cases, these gave me Greek pops that I immediately set to culture generation. At -4 progress tokens, I am now middle tier culture. Here's hoping I don't lose any of the objective regions........

Edit: Well, one answer to your question is that you should do it before the Seleucids and Mauryans make peace, if you've been taking territory from them. Ideally, the Seleucids will be struggling a bit and won't be able to take aim at you. And by declaring independence, you can make your own peace with Maurya and keep the regions you conquered.

[Pocus]

You would need to mod an extra event given them said lancers.

[FrenchDude]

You can also create a custom scenario and add some iranian lancers to Bactria's units inside the FACTIONS.csv file (go to to the "Units_Age" column), if you want to have a list closer to Field of Glory 2's army list

[Geffalrus]

You would need to mod an extra event given them said lancers.

Is there a particular reason why the Bactrian unit list is so different from what is in FoG2? I'm used to different games interpreting their army differently, but not usually within the same company/series......

[Pocus]

Initially the game intent was more beer-and-pretzel than it ended up, and so the 200+ nations had a unit roster derived from the 15 or so ethnicity defined, with only the major nations having a custom unit roster. Bactria was not part of the major nations list.