Egypt

[frogbeastegg]

Guide

[Inuyasha12]

The first thing you want to do is take all your good troops in alexandria, memphis and thebes and build and army to take petra, bostra, and palmyra in quick succession. The numidians are very passive they will never betray u. Once you take one over, enslave them and build 1-2 peasant units, then keep going. Don't worry because they are all rebel towns ~:) Also build a diplomat in jerusalem and send it to dumatha(long way) to obtain trade rights and alliance from parthia. Do this with the numidians in lybia with the diplomat that is provided for you. Never, EVER trust the seleucids they are treacherous bastards and their word means nothing!! :furious3:
If you want you can now take a break and build up your cities, for a couple of years. Then you'll either decide to attack the seleucids or you'll be attacked by them!!

First take damascus, if you want you can slaughter/massacre the population to free up your army from garrison duty, this is a highly mobile war! Then head for antioch, divide and conquer baby!! Their settlements are now separated from each other. Build a good garrison in antioch and head either west or east to rampage through the seleucid lands. Missile troops are very good against their phalanx troops, just sit there with your archers and soften them up. After awhile throw in you chariots break their lines and send in your infantry to slaugther the rest. I suggest you don't fight parthia, they have their cities very far in the middle of the desert, and it takes awhile to get you troops there. Just go for the greek city states and pontius.


The rest, well thats up to you..
P.S. Don't use numidian spearmen, or any desert infantry on hoplites. They wont even hold for a second. Use chariots, and missle troops. Infantry is afraid of chariots.. ~:cheers:

[pyhhricvictory]

I thought the Numidians were backstabbers as well. I was fighting a rather drawn out war against the Selucids ( :furious3: ) when the Numidians blockaded my ports and attacked Thebes. I gave up on that campaign, I had wars against the Selucids, Parthians and Numidians and for sime reason the Greeks were sinking all of my ships.

[Lord_Winter]

Okey having finished one short campaign on hard with the ancient anchronism egyptians of Rome:TW I will just say a few short words...

First dont go for the barabarians first at Bosra, Palmyra and Petra these can be sub goals accomplished by small mercenary forces or family members with a few units and a diplomat...

Instead build up for the first two-three turns, built roads (important since their is a good distance between memphis and jerusalem) then blitx Damascus...Antioch and Tarsus...archers and regular spearmen as well as mercenaries will do the job without a problem most of the Selucides are hoplite or light cavalry which can easily be beaten with lots of arrow fire and then charged with at best cav from behind else surrounded by supperior number of your own troops...also as quickly as possible get egyptian chariots and cavalry since used right both these types of troops are very useful in rome...

You will after this camapign have crippled the power of the Selucides and begin to consolidate the entire area Bosra, Hatra, Babylonia, Dumathra, Palamyra, Petra remember to bribe all armies which come out of the numidian desert or conquer siwa and cyracenia...both of which can be accomplished by relative small armies...

[TheDuck]

Okey having finished one short campaign on hard with the ancient anchronism egyptians of Rome:TW I will just say a few short words...

First dont go for the barabarians first at Bosra, Palmyra and Petra these can be sub goals accomplished by small mercenary forces or family members with a few units and a diplomat...

Instead build up for the first two-three turns, built roads (important since their is a good distance between memphis and jerusalem) then blitx Damascus...Antioch and Tarsus...archers and regular spearmen as well as mercenaries will do the job without a problem most of the Selucides are hoplite or light cavalry which can easily be beaten with lots of arrow fire and then charged with at best cav from behind else surrounded by supperior number of your own troops...also as quickly as possible get egyptian chariots and cavalry since used right both these types of troops are very useful in rome...

You will after this camapign have crippled the power of the Selucides and begin to consolidate the entire area Bosra, Hatra, Babylonia, Dumathra, Palamyra, Petra remember to bribe all armies which come out of the numidian desert or conquer siwa and cyracenia...both of which can be accomplished by relative small armies...

This follows my early experience. I went for the jugular on the coastal cities (Antioch, Damascus, Tarsus, Jerusalem). Once you have roads built along this lane then the rest of the desert is yours for the taking. Later game the advanced archers (Pharoes?) are absolutely deadly against massed spear you will face in the north. And also agreed on the chariots. Chariots should be fought like MTW cavalry. Charge by double clicking behind their intended target so that the continue to run all the way through the target. You will cause massive casualties doing this (since the effectively can charge all the way through it). Its quite pleasing in an ultra-violent kinda way. ;)

Don't get involved with the Parthians early on unless you want a multi-front war. The Numidians will hit you later if they survive. If the Scipii get a foot hold in north africa, expect lots of action in that area. The choice then becomes one of either 'holding the line' on one front while advancing on another, or fighting a two front war (kinda costly). I found myself building two troop production centers, one around Memphis and the other around Antioch to handle all the aggression on my borders (while expanding into Asia Minor).

[musubi]

I did no attacking for the first few turns, and spent resources building roads and a basic infrastructure. The Egyptians enjoy a fair income to start with, so check where your resources are first and exploit them.

I then decided to take the usual local rebel towns (it would be rude not to) and moved West to take Libya and Cyrenaica. In hindsight, I didn't need to do this but I wanted a small western border to guard as I planned on moving North and East in force.

As you start with a nice coastal position, it was relatively easy to move out East and north and I totally agree that the Selucids are untrustworthy, don't lose any sleep taking the towns from these guys. Enslave is sufficient to hold a town with a small garrison as their culture is similar to the Egyptians, however don't neglect the basic hygiene development as plague was quick to break out if you dont bother. Having said that, 12000 population and no sewers - I'd probably revolt too!

In my humble opinion, the unit of choice is the axeman. These guys will go toe-to-toe with ANY of the selucid units bar their heavy chariots (and the odd elephant). They will tear through a frontal attack against even a phalanx without taking heavy casualties, so a tactic I would use would be to commit axemen to facedown the phalanx's one-on-one and use a second unit to hit from the side...very nasty! After 50 battles, I have lost only 1 and that was a sea battle I had no choice over. My standard battle group consists of 5 axeman, 4 spears, 3 archers and a couple of cavalry. The spears basically stand there, the axemen do the damage and the cavalry do the required chasing of the routed enemy.

I currently hold from Libya in the West to the towns of Tarsus, Hatra and Arsakia in the East. Unfortunately, the Romans have come to visit and it's getting lively but I have strong income and a good unit base. 2 battles with the Romans and the axemen are still the key.

[JohnTzimisces]

It seems everyone likes to go on the offensive pretty quick with Egypt. :charge:

My favorite strategy with them is to build up the settlements, take the rebel towns and then take Crete to access all that Greek trade. This puts you in a great economic position for later on in the game when the inevitable backstabbing begins. Plus, when the Seleucids decide to attack (which they always will) you can quickly take Tarsus, Antioch and Damascus to further expand your trading empire. A quick jaunt east to take Seleucia and the Hanging Gardens will really give a boost to the old economy. My reasoning for this is that the Egyptian towns seem to grow a lot faster then the other factions. All that cash coming in really turns you into a war machine later on. :duel:

[randomn00b]

Just adding a few cents.

Once you get the Antioch region (Tarsus, Antioch, Damascus), you have a juggernaut that is going to be nigh-unstoppable. Considering the Selecuids have a very, very weak army early game, Egypt is a very, very easy faction to play.

Antioch, Sidon, Jerusalem, Tarsus, and Salamis alone give you about 10k a turn once you get up Ports and Roads.

With Egypt, money troubles are nonexistant. Your early game army dominates the people you start fighting out (Selecuids).

You have a ton of Bowmen in Egypt (at least on Normal/Normal), take these and move them into Sidon and Jerusalem. Meanwhile, build up some Nile Spearmen for a decent phalanx to protect your Bowmen and city sieging, and throw in some Desert Cavalry/Chariots for the standard flanking.

You also get a few Chariot Archers in Alexandria. They kick ass, bring em along too.

Take this force, which should be everything you can muster up and put into Sidon and rush Damascus, Antioch, and Tarsus. At this point, I find Egypt overruns with gold, has a huge population in Alexandria, Memphis, and Thebes, and so gets very, very boring.

One last thing: Build Roads. They are your top priority. I cannot emphasize this enough. It's a long walk from Alexandria to Antioch.

Your main army (which whups Selecuid arse) is in Alexandria, and it's going to take way too long to go after the Selecuids without Roads, and Paved Roads.

Getting this army to Antioch is the most important thing the first two-three turns of the Egyptian campaign.

[LestaT]

I have played Egypt. After conquering 15 provinces I got bored and stop. Too easy even on VH/VH....

[Curry]

I thought the Numidians were backstabbers as well. I was fighting a rather drawn out war against the Selucids ( :furious3: ) when the Numidians blockaded my ports and attacked Thebes. I gave up on that campaign, I had wars against the Selucids, Parthians and Numidians and for sime reason the Greeks were sinking all of my ships.

What ? They blockaded your ports ? My ports have never been blockaded by AI ships.

[kendonosensei]

Egypt has a wonderful selection of units. Egyptian armies can do anything you want them to. The only thing the lack is very heavy cavalry - however in the desert, their horsemen are unrivaled.

Never forget the importance of chariots. Regular chariots are like elephants - they're designed to break up a unit's formation. Run them ahead of a unit of Nile/Desert Infantry and your pursuing troops will cut through them.

Archers, however, will be key to winning most engagements. Your basic archers units come with more men than your enemies' missile units. Pharaoh's Bowmen have excellent range, damage and armour - they excel in combat. Don't go mad with archers - have enough infantry and cavalry to protect them. But never forget to use them.

As the others have said, stay on the initiative. Your short-term target should be Antioch. Once you take this, you'll cut the Seleucid empire in two. Take Damascus as soon as you have built up a medium sized force to take it. Enslave the population and then move on.

Don't forget to take the rebel provinces. They will help you increase your income and solidify your frontiers. However DO NOT MAKE THEM A PRIORITY! Go for those first two Seleucid settlements I mentioned.

Once you have taken those first two cities, you'll have secured the immediate region. Continue to expand and increase your technology. Aim to get Temple Cities of Imhotep or Horus in your main army-producing cities, to increase their effectiveness. Don't forget temples of Isis, which are useful to increase the population of provinces which have low fertility.

[Slon]

I was playing as Egypt, and I started wondering: is there any point in getting archers/bowmen instead of chariot archers? They seem to be easier to retrain and 2*56 = 112 archers (which is almost like 120 bowmen). Plus, the chariot archers can be used for hunting down enemies and for flanking infantry/cavalry. So, is there a reason to get bowmen/pharaoh's bowmen instead of chariot archers? What about camel archers? Are they better than chariot archers, since they are so high-tier, or are they obsolete?

[Oshidashi]

Dude, don't use only chariot archers, your bowmen or pharao archers do much more missile damage to the enemy then your chariots. Why? It's quite simple: A unit of chariots concists of 24 men on 8 chariots, which makes 3 guys on every chariot. One of them drives, the other one has a small sword and the third has a bow. As a result there are only 8 men shooting. They have a strong missile power though (14) but you rather want to destroy your foes with 40 shooting bowmen with a missile power of 7, it kills many more. The elite pharao archers are the best as their unit is 40men with a missile power of 14.

I would say use a maximum of 2 chariot archers in your (fully stacked) army. If you want to chase and hunt down the enemy you'd better use desert cavalry who, at least in the desert, even outrun mounted missile units.

[RollingWave]

Sion, several reason, one is that chariot archers can't use fire arrow which is very useful in some situations, and they can't be stationed on walls, and in terms of cost effectiveness of purely shooting they aren't as good as foot archers.

However... mass chariot archer is very devestating on the right terrain.. no wonder it was THE way to fight for hundreds of years.

[Grand Duke Vytautas]

Man, I think Egypt is the easiest faction in the game ~D (I play on fair medium/medium settings, short campaign, cause I get bored on long one). This is how I played. In the first couple of turns I made some build up, placed watchtowers, forts where needed, hired some arabian mercenaries (these guys rock!), started building navy, then conquered two rebel towns to the east, prepared for war with seleucids (they are your main enemy of course), used 2 diplomats in ships to get trade agreements sell map ally with other factions. Then kicked some Seleucid ass ~D , taken Damascus from them and those bastards come to me offering ceasefire, the deal was made - they payed me 10000 for that, but they'll be crushed in the near future anyway. And talking about economy, yeah baby Egypt is a mega-cashcow. And what cool units Egyptians have, I like of course chariots the most! Pharaon rulez!
NOW ADVANCCCE! (cool accent by the way ~D )

[General Carnage]

Egypt is very very easy until you attack Rome.

[RollingWave]

How would you guys go at Rome usually? would you go strait for the Italian Penisula or try to take the Balkans and or sciliy as a jump pad?

As egypt though you are good both offense and defensively... offensvily a combination of chariot + calvary charge will beat most army (and u can hit and run with chariot archers too... giving you huge flexibility) defensively you have desert axeman on the walls, one of the best archer line ups and if those fail u still have many phalanx to hold the square. the only thing you don't have is elephants, but you are also in close proximity to places that can grab elephant mercenaries.

[Craterus]

:furious3: :furious3: :furious3: :furious3: i'm so angry!!!
i just wrote a detailed account of my successful egyptian campaign but i wasn't logged in when i posted it apparently... (waste of 20 mins) !!!! :furious3:
i will start again...

I have an Egyptian campaign that is quite successful and i own all of Southern and Eastern Asia, i own 6 of 7 wonders of the world (not zeus -brutii) and Siwa so i'm branching into africa...

From the start, I sent a diplomat to gain a trade agreement (carthaginians and numidians) and alliance (numidians only, they betrayed this a few years later so i disagree with whoever said they don't betray you...). I also sent a diplomat to form an alliance with the Seleucids and Parthians. I sent the general (Kiya) that is wandering outside your starting towns to take Petra, Bostra, Damascus, Hatra and Palmyra.
Next, the Seleucids broke their alliance and attacked Sidon... I slaughtered them from the siege.. Next, I took Antioch and Tarsus :duel: :charge: . Thinking that the Seleucids only had one city left, I sent an army to Seleucia and I sent an army north towards the Armenians. I took Seleucia but wasn't given the faction destroyed message ~:confused:

I sent a scout navy to look for any reamaining seleucid towns around eastern asia and saw that they had Sardis. I took the army from Mazaka (taken and my city by now) to take Sardis, Halicarnassus, Nicomedia, Bergamum and Rhodes. This is all of Eastern Asia, i think. I then took Sinope and the remaining Armenian factions. Then the Numidians betrayed me by attacking Memphis, i attacked them and took Siwa for my trouble. Then I took Cyrene as I was in the area...

Back to Asia, the Parthians betrayed me and tried to take seleucia so i made a quick army and sent to divert the Parthian forces, then I took Dumatha, Susa, Phraaspa and Arta?? (dont remember the name)

This brings us to now... I have 1,240,000 denarii (masses of trade and a carful save/spend policy)I have 6 of 7 wonders of the world and things are looking pretty rosy

Where next? From Asia, I plan to march into former Parthian (now rebel) territory in the north. The Scipii are on my border in East Africa so that's a problem. I've sent a diplomat to try and ward off their attacks for now so I can establish an army worthy of holding off the Marian Reformed Romans...
Anyone who can suggest a plan of action for fighting the Romans please pm me or post here..
I was thinking i could send armies through macedon (now brutii) and attack rome at the centre but this will be difficult because I will have to trudge through a strong Brutii faction...

[AntiochusIII]

Well, I assume you're playing RTW 1.2 so...

In a big battle with the Marian Romans you have
1. Inferior - far inferior infantry.
2. Deadly Chariots - better go with archer ones
3. World-murdering Archers - Pharoah's bowmen
4. Ordinary, even slightly weak phalanxes - Pharoah's guards are pretty good, though
5. Cavalry (Cleruch) which matches Roman's after Reform ones. (What a cheat...) Though the Romans, in my experience, rarely use their Legionary/Praetorian Cavalry. They still have Generals cavalry, though.
6. Oh, and superb infantry flanker in the form of Axemen. You may or may not weaken them yourself already but they're still a great flanker nonetheless.

You will often face a massive infantry force that can easily beat yours...Urban Cohort!

Place your chariots on far left/right from your line.
Place your cavalry for flanking operation, as usual.
Place your Axemen close to the edge of your phalanx.
Use your phalanx as the main line. Place them on top of each other if you want to really pin down those Roman demi-gods.
Place your archers/onagers behind your phalanxes.
Like this...
C=chariot, c=cavalry, a=axemen, p=phalanx, A=archer/onager, -=empty

CC-----pppppp-----CC
--cc-aa-AAAA-aa-cc--

Use your chariots to disrupt enemy lines. Some Roman infantry will follow you; if not, they'll slowly be shot down freely. If they send cavalry against you (most likely) charge them and decimate them. Chariots own cavalry. It's likely that they'll lose their generals this way.

While they approach your phalanx, your archers will slaughter them. If you use onager use fire. No Urban Cohorts will survive if they are hit by burning stones. Burning arrows do you no good, however.

Stretch your cavalry far on your flank while they come.

When they reach your phalanx flank them with axemen, if your phalanx/axemen began to waver launch a cavalry charge on their rear; retreat after charge. Don't let them be bogged down. If the Roman line is thick you may even want to order your archers to shoot down those who're behind.

If they try to flank your axemen with spare Legions, rain arrows on those unit. Storm one unit at a time. They'll be decimated in no time. If not, charge your cavalry in, and out; on their rear/flank.

If you have spare chariots, let them shoot down Roman infantry on their rear. If their lines are thick enough (while fighting) you'll have minimal friendly fire.

The result should be you flanking them but they're thick in the middle and put pressure on your phalanx. When you feel like finishing them charge in your cavalry the last time. You should be sure that they'll break down by this rear-charge when you do.

After that it's mopping up.

P.S. If things get fishy you may even sacrifice some archers by engaging Romans on their open flanks/rear.

[Craterus]

i usually put my chariot archers and bedouin archers on the flanks and send them forward immediately, to fire on the armies strongest unit... this works quite well ~:) ~:)

i have no need to worry i will make many pharoh's guards and nile cavalry they are good strong units! accompanied by desert axeman and thracians (if i can get the thracians back from asia in time)

thanks for your advice Antiochus III

[McDoogle]

Does anyone know exactly where to find FULL Technology Trees for all and any cultures in Rome Total war.

A link would be awesome thanx.

[Craterus]

I'm sure that there must be a thread about it around here somewhere but I don't know where, sorry. Have you tried searching for it using the google thing? ~;)

[tibilicus]

My tips for the egyptians. Your rich rich beyond your widest dreams. Dont go and sit around go and use that wealth build armies hire mercenerise and go kill every one ! ~D

[Craterus]

I sat around for a while and secured my fronts, mainly northern (seleucid) but also western (numidians).. Sign an alliannce with the Numidians and tthey wont dare attack for a long while but keep an army outside or inside memphis ready for their attack..

The Seleucids, however, are annoying and dont know the meaning of alliance and friendship... Lol, so when they attack, hit them hard and don't give them time to recover. Make two armies from the start and send one across to Seleucia and eventually the Parthian territory, and another army to annihalate the Seleucid western provinces.. Good Luck!

[CMDR Coconut]

I have a silly question.

I'd like to play Egypt in singleplayer campaign mode. Is that possible?

[Craterus]

Yes, complete a short campaign with one of the Roman factions.. Then the Egyptians, Gaul, Greeks, Seleucid Empire, Parthia etc. are unlocked. ~D have fun

[cunobelinus]

or u could go into rome total war file and unlock everything without doin everything

[Craterus]

I think you need to complete a short campaign with the Romans first. Any confirmation?

[pezhetairoi]

Confirmation given. Egypt is a major faction unlockable by playing a short campaign. Littlegannon, not only do you have to unlock the faction files in the rtw files, you also have to set your preferences to first time play: false.

[King Clas]

As been said, go for crete. They are an excellent base for further expansion and the trade will be very good for your economy. Most of the time all roman factions end upp in war with the greek cities. Even thoue you may not be allied with Rome head forth into war with the greeks. Take Rhodes and then Sparta. Be prepared for war with Macedonia sooner or later since they will become rivals. As has been repeated over and over again here is, never ever trust the seleucid empire. They are rather easy to beat but they just keep coming and i do hope for a breakthrough to happen soon.

A fun thing that happend me. I landed a fairly large army on Crete led by a family member. The rebel army in the city decided to met me in the field :charge:. So cool! however since Rome cant reflect guerilla warfare so good the rebel army was crushed in the open field. After that taking the city was a piece of cake.

/Clas

[Garvanko]

Rebels left an open gate for me too. Have wiped out House of Scipii and Rome, but the Julii will take some leveling. Its odd though, at the moment any new family member I get is 50 years old or over? No young 'uns coming in at the moment.

[Craterus]

You might want to hope for a Man-of-the-Hour? At 50, they'll be out of the game soon. Or a young'un to adopt? Worst comes to worst, you'll have to bribe another faction's general to carry on your faction.

[Garvanko]

So what your saying is that my faction is dying out? I suppose, unless what you suggested happens, I can't really control it.

[pezhetairoi]

there's a thread on the colosseum about the sad Greek who hasn't gotten any children in 20-30 years, and no new factioners either. You're not too bad, at least you're getting new factioners, though admittedly old ones. Start sending out two-unit chariot armies to hunt rebels. You'll need MOTHS. Adoptions aren't reliable, they're too random.

[Craterus]

Yeah, if you have some young daughter's you could hope for some adoption/marriage but you would be better off trying for Man of the Hour.

Unfortunately, MOTH isn't of your faction's blood. Once upon a time, when I was playing the Egyptians I made a MOTH my faction leader and he died at 37. I wonder what happened there. My theory is that he was assassinated by his own troops.

If, however, one of your daughters was to marry, her son (not her husband) would be of noble blood.

Sorry, I like to add in a little role-play into my campaigns. Keeps it interesting.

[Garvanko]

I just got a MOTH (+3 stars) capturing Byzantium from the Brutii. ~:cheers:

[pezhetairoi]

at last! He will be your heir. :-) *prophetic*

[Craterus]

Yes, don't let him die... Get some kiddies out of him.

[pezhetairoi]

keep him in a city with a temple of love or whatchamacallit.

[Garvanko]

He conquered my 50 province (Thermon - Brutii Capital) and won me the game last night. ~:)

[pezhetairoi]

Young people these days... *shakes head* The things they do. XD

[Garvanko]

Your main army (which whups Selecuid arse) is in Alexandria, and it's going to take way too long to go after the Selecuids without Roads, and Paved Roads.

Getting this army to Antioch is the most important thing the first two-three turns of the Egyptian campaign.
Better to send 'em by ship (with your faction leader of course!). You'll have Antioch by turn 4 or 5 this way.

You can take Damascus without a fight by agreeing a ceasefire-give region deal with the SE. Make sure you garrison it immediately though or it will revolt to the rebels. Eitherway, it'll free you time and space to take Tarsus.

[Deus ret.]

people, some of you I know from other forums as passionate fighters of the Egyptian threat. their ranks include myself, though I have been pondering about playing a nice Eggy game...but what would be a good way to make it challenging without gifting the SE with all of the orient's riches (because then they would hunt YOU down...)?

btw since applying the package fixing the scarface issue and some others I experience game crashes whenever there are Lybian mercenaries involved in combat. is there anyone with similar problems?

[katank]

I personally don't think it's possible to have much of an challenging Eggy game. Even the Nile Delta alone is capable of producing some nice armies and supporting them.

You can gift a lot of things to the S.E. and hope they get their act together but it can take a long time.

[Garvanko]

The only challenge with Egypt is dealing with its incessant plague.

[Deus ret.]

The only challenge with Egypt is dealing with its incessant plague.

hey, you got it! Especially those cities in the Nile valley seem to have a strange affinity to this disease. They attract it even when you invest considerable time and money to build up their sanitary infrastructure (which the AI staunchly neglects)...when I played Armenia and already had over 30 provinces, every second plague case was on the Nile. Maybe the Pharaoh's revenge?

[pezhetairoi]

...Maybe Moses. ^_^

Anyway! Pezhetairoi the Master Strategist is officially taking up residence on the Egypt thread having moved over from Spain. But pez here has modded the desert axemen and the desert cavalry drastically, reducing their armour and their numbers. He has also modded the chariots, reducing their general defence and increasing their defensive skill. He has, however, decided to keep the bowmen at 240 a unit since it is a mainstay.

[katank]

Bowmen are still ridiculous. With 8+ bowmen, you often will not need a meat shield.

[pezhetairoi]

I have quit Egypt, it truly is ridiculous. I've decided, all because of Egypt, to remod the game's stats completely to better suit my concept of fair historical reflection. >.< Took Parthia in a two pronged attack after bribing away their main army, and crushed Armenia four turns after the first army crossed its border. When I quit in disgust, I had the lands of the Seleucids, Pontus, Armenia, Parthia, as well as beachheads at Athens, Rhodes, Chersonesos and Byzantium. Not to mention the eastern half of Africa. Whoopee. Now going on to Brutii... Egypt is truly too overpowered.

[Garvanko]

There's no point taking Parthia and Armenia. The end game will see you dealing with riots every turn. Just forget about them, and they'll forget about you.

Playing Egypt, I'd concentrate on the Seleucids, Greeks, Carthage and the Romans. Fight a multi-pronged war, and you should get some fun out of it.

[pezhetairoi]

Not true about riots... it can be done. After all, I can afford 20-unit garrisons if it really comes to that.

[Garvanko]

When you move your faction capital, as you surely must once you get to Greece and italy, riots will become a problem regardless of garrison, unless of course you send you're best leaders up there.

[pezhetairoi]

...Maybe because I'm playing on Medium because I forgot to graduate to hard. Hmm... I never had that problem after I demolished temples and built my own while my army was occupying it.

[Skott]

I have found that going for the rebel towns first or saving them for last really doesnt make much of a difference in the long run. Either strategy is good. I have also found that in the early war the Egyptians are quite powerful but once you enter the mid and late period the Romans put up a huge nasty fight.

My current campaign looks like this. Playing VH/M. Its about 171BC and I have taken everything north all the way to the Caucus Mts. Seleucids, Pontus, and Armenia are gone. Parthia still exists only in the far northern Russian Steppes (just that one province). The Greeks have Rhodes only ( I havent bothered to capture it since they are allied to me). I have taken everything to the west up to and including Tripolitania.

Basically I'm at war with all of Rome now. It was easy up till I decided to invade the Balkan Penisula and Libya. Once I did that I found myself in a long long war of attrition with the Brutii and the Scipii. I landed and took Sparta, Athens, and Corinth pretty fast but then everything bogged down. The Brutii constantly throw army after army against me in large waves. I'm not kidding when I say they have 12-14 armies (half that are full size) swarming all over my cities.

The same thing against the Scipii. I got Libya quite easily but its been a huge war of attrition after that. The problem is that the Roman factions have a endless supply of money apparently. The Julii are fighting whats left of the Brits so havent seen them yet other than a few ships.

I have a nice big income but bribing is a huge drain on it as is the constant repair of troops. I have to use only the best troops now (Pharoh Bowmen, P.Guards, and axemen) to even have a chance of winning a even fight. These types of armies are not cheap and dont gurantee a victory. Auto-Resolving is a big no-no too. I have had 10-1 odds in my favor in numbers and still lost trying auto-resolve so manual fighting it is the only way to win. The computer AI favors the Roman factions in this campaign obviously.

I think I finally got the upper hand on the Brutii now though. They have lost Sparta, Corinth, Athens, Larissa, Thermon, Thessalonnica, Byzantium, and the city directly north of Thessalonnica. They still have armies swarming about but not as full stacks as they once were.

In Africa I'm still in a stalemate against the Scippi. Tripoli is mine but I'm bogged down in a war of attrition with the Scipii. They have a mass of armies that constatly assault my town. If it werent for the Pharoh Bowmen I'd be in trouble. The Romans use those Auxilia Archers and I need the best Egyptian archer to match their range.

Anyway, my point is that once you go head to head with the Romans its a tough serious fight compared to the early fights against the Greeks, Parthians, Pontians, and Armenians. Right now I'm hoping the Romans hurry up and get into their civil war to relieve the pressure somewhat but from my experience that doesnt happen usually until around 140BC. Thats another 30 years at least. Until then its a slow snail pace crawl to get any extra territories. If the Julii were to come at me before then Then it could go very bad. Luckily they are preoccupied with the Brits at the moment.

So, yeah, the Egyptians are easy earlier but later on it does get tough once you take on the Roman Eagles. :dizzy2:

[pezhetairoi]

Is this post-Marian? By right if you use combined arms attacks with Nile as backbone no Roman army is going to be able to stand against you, full-stack or not. I took on a Brutii full-stack with 2 generals as Eggy with 8 Niles, 5 Desert Cav, 3 Generals and 4 Nubians. The losses I suffered (10% compared to the enemy's almost-everything) suggest to me that as long as you're in Greece where population is mightily high you should be able to defeat at least 3-4 full-stacks before finally running down your army enough to need retraining. Use desert cav! They may be lightly armoured, but they have armour-piercing attacks, they're MADE for the armoured Romans.

From a strategic pov i crossed to Greece and took on Rome only after I'd finished off the Seleucids and taken over Asia Minor, about turn 30.

[Skott]

Lately I been playing the RTR 5.4.1 mod. The Egyptian faction is very easy to win with. In all fairness though they tell you at the start its an easy faction to play.

Carthage never bothered my Egyptians much even when they declared war on me. Sent a few boats to blockade and that was it. I was amazed how silly that strategy was. There was never an invasion from them although they had about 6 full stacks and a couple lesser stacks on the border. Maybe it was bugged?

Basically I wiped out Pontus, Armenia, Seleucids, and all the rebels in that part of the world and then went straight to Southern Italy. Left the Balkans alone. Fought my way up to Rome, took it, and then quit. I didnt see a need to go on really.

Only played the Egyptians once so others may experience a different fight. But just based on that one campaign I would say the Egyptian faction in 1.0 is harder than in 5.4.1.

[symball]

The egyptians are far too easy. once you start building blacksmiths you can roam the map with hoards of cheap chariots. I have used armies of 14-16 chariot units combined with a few spearmen and archers (for sieges). even being attacked by armies of urban cohorts couldn't stop me. one mass charge with the chariots and I would have yet another heroic victory on my hands.

[Craterus]

The key is the Light Chariots. I remember using those a lot in my campaign. I built entire armies of them, and just used them as horse archers to kill the enemy. That was my second campaign, and before I found this place. Shortly after joining, I gave it up. And then I realised about their UberUnits.

[Garvanko]

Ive just finished a short/longish campaign with Egypt. A good combination of Desert Cav, Archers and Chariots still owns everthing in its path, post-BI/1.3.

[Stefan Ehlers]

Hi I am Stefan, this is my first letter to you. I still trie to figure out how the forum works.:bow:
Theres one question I have.
Apparently there is a provincial campaign in rtw, how do one access that campaign.

Greetings
Stefan

[Craterus]

Provincial Campaign is with mods such as Rome: Total Realism and Mundus Magnus.

Not sure about EB, probably because I don't care.

[aarya]

auto resolve in RTW:egypt is very tough i had 6 numidian spear ,4bowman ,2 nile spear, while defending city i lost to a selucide genaral????????????????

[Seamus Fermanagh]

auto resolve in RTW:egypt is very tough i had 6 numidian spear ,4bowman ,2 nile spear, while defending city i lost to a selucide genaral????????????????

Auto-resolve is not the way to go. According to the computer, their spies opened the gates, the general raced outside, ran through the open gate on the far side charged to the square and ran down everything in his path. Enemy factioneers can sometimes make Yoda look like a candy-ass....if the AI is wholly in control.

On the other hand, garrison work with the anachro-egyptions in Vanilla is pretty simple. You have bow units that are as large as peasants so you can pump up garrison numbers and wall defense simultaneously. Moreover, the upkeep on a Nubian spear -- which can for phalanx -- is DIRT cheap. 6 bows + 4 nubes + 1 cavalry give you a garrison force of nearly 1100 for a cost of 2200 denarii or so and many towns can do with a smaller garrison of 4 + 2 + 1! Once they have their archery ranges open, the Eggys should only build peasants for population relocation.

You can even build whole armies as a pre-set. Attack army takes town, retrains and leaves the next turn. Moments later, you arrive with the occupyer force of 6 Bow, 4 Nube, 1 Cav/Governor, and 9 peasants. Town suddenly bops up by over 1k pop -- all of them from Memphis/Thebes/Alex. Gets your conquests healthy and happy quick.

[Plaguelion]

I am in the middle of a very successful Egyptian campaign, i own all seven wonders of the world, and im master of the eastern mediterean. all of this aside i was wondering if anyone else has had problems fighting heavy calvary with the Egyptians. i personally have found it incredibly hard to put down cataphracts and other heavy calvary, i do a normal strat, move up phalanxes(nile spearmen) then flank with everything i have. Then hopefully that takes out the tanks...(cataphracts).
Anyways i was just wondering if anyone had a suggestion on another approach cause right now im stuck fighting pontus and Brutii at the same time and honestly im having more trouble from Pontus with load of heavy calvary than with the "civilized" roman army. BTW already elminated Armenia, and Parthia in bloody wars.

[x-dANGEr]

Use your desert cav, they are deadly.

[Watchman]

Chariots might work too. Particularly the heavy ones. Not that I've tried, but any and all cavalry seem to be positively allergic to chariots in RTW, and the buggers are easy to retrain anyway.

[Mamba]

Although video games are little more than a simple hobby of mine (as such I'm not very good at them), I would like to say a few words about my experiences with this campaign.

Since I was a woefully inadequate strategy game player when I first received this game, I looked on various webpages as to a concencus of what would be the *easiest* faction to play as. With the tutorial I only went so far as basic controls, and I felt I needed more hands-on experience.

Upon taking a concencual vote that took quite some time, I arrived at the insurmountable conclusion that this, Egypt, was by far the easiest faction to play as. I quickly modded my game so as to immediately unlock all of the individual factions, chose Egypt and set the game on Easy/Easy, and began.

Oh, how easy it was. I was able to wholly ignore my west side for the first 75 years of gameplay. With absolutely no skill involved, I managed to subdue the Selucid Empire within a matter of a few hours. I quickly began expanding into Asia Minor and finished off the kingdom of Pontus, again, with absolutely *no* skill involved. I took a brief break and consolidated the Middle East before pressing the assault into Russia. The Parthians and the Armenians quickly fell to my legions of diplomats and peasants as my Egyptian juggernaut (made entirely out of money) steamrolled Asia literally into powder.

About the time I finished off the Parthians, a new threat encroached upon my doorstep, this time from the west. Out of literally the blue, a large Scipii army approached my HQ at Alexandria. Suddenly, it struck. Luckily, I had one of my countless diplomats on hand and managed to bribe this strange army for the reasonable price of 100,000 gold. I brought out the army from Alexandria, which, likely as not, only really knew how to unscrew a few cabernets and twiddle their thumbs, and struck out into the Saharan desert. When I saw how weakly Siwa was defended I laughed in mirth at the pitiful fools defending it. I had a strange computer pull off a crushing victory for me, as by this time I had almost forgotten about the actual commanding of troops, since I had my money houses. I approached Lepcis Magna with that same army (consisting entirely of Pharaoh class units), beseiged it, and gave command to the strange AI. A shocking piece of news came back to me: my armies had been lost! Quickly and easily I formed a new army while my wall of diplomats kept the Scipii armies at bay. This time, I commanded my army of nearly 1300 men against a paltry 400. I was sure my victory would be swift and sweet. However, I lost. This loss showed me a painful reality I had been blind to up until that point: I had forsaken the basic points of the game. The bright gold color I so easily procured from my vastly wealthy cities had allowed me to bribe everything, taking away a part of the game that is critical.

However, I did manage to procure a more-than-basic knowledge of advanced units through this campaign.

In closing I would like to say that, even on Vhard/Vhard, I'd imagine this game to be terribly easy. If you don't want a challenge, knock yourself out with this campaign.

[Plaguelion]

In reply to two things:

1st. Desert cavs are light and not very strong and besides simple swarming techiniques its kinda a pain to rout heavy cavs, but to each his own. It wont work for me because im in a part of my campaign where i need to minimize losses of men and material(money).

2nd. I am sick of hearing this about Egypt being incredibly easy business. If you set the game at VH/VH, as i do, no campaign is easy. I have also found this campaign to be deceptively hard. Granted your first 40 years are a cape walk through the middle east, and possibly North Africa. But you will sooner or later find your armies outclassed in infantry and cavalry, the only thing you really keep a good showing in all the way through is arty and archers. thats just on the battlefield. On the home front, the middle east is a pain in the rear to keep quiet and profittable. I have often found myself having to slaughter 3-4 rebel armies a turn. especially the judean rebels, they always pop up every other turn and i find that to keep jerusalem in the green i must kill this mass of rebels, which means i must keep large useful garrisons everywhere. Also while bribing is fun, i find the ridiculus prices theses little tyrants ask for is far too much and not cost effective.

So in conclusion, Yes the Egyptian position at the begining of the game is incredibly favorable. You begin with some of the most prosperous cities, and there are many rebel provinces simple waiting to be plucked and milked of resources. But 100 years later, when you have swallowed up the Middle East and span Anatolia. You come up against a new a dangerous enemies; Parthia, Armenia, and Rome. Parthian and Armenian cavalry outclasses any calvary you have got. Roman legion cohorts out class your infantry. Now your stuck fighting up hill for at least 20-30 years. You find you must out smart your enemy and make as few mistakes as possible. Oh before i forget, Egyptian navy isnt too hot. You can only go up to the second class of ships with your native built ports, granted if you capture a Roman city you can access the decemeres.

[x-dANGEr]

Desert cav has a AP attribute, which makes them deadly to 'armored' units. Espiecially Catas. I know that from an experience, before 1.3, Egypt was so strong that it was banned from MP. All you had to do is get 8 Desert cav and you can punish loads of other cav.

Though, during my experience in playing VeryH/VeryH, it may not work. As the VHard bonus for the enemy is too much, and makes it impossible for any cav to match theirs. Though, may chariots can do some pain, as they're launching units and get a bonus VS cav.

[Watchman]

I don't think those rattling anachronism get an actual bonus against horses per ce; rather, it seems that whereas infantry tend to mainly get knocked down only to get back up a moment later by an enemy chariot careening by, cavalry just dies. I guess the horses get their legs shredded or something. Fighting Pontus with Egypt convinced me that even Scythed Chariots *can* be dealt with by throwing enough Desert Cav and sword-toting Bedouin Camels on them, but the casualty rates tended to be fairly ugly especially in the first unit to make contact. Frankly, I prefer to send infantry against the buggers (Desert Axes seem to work well, and failing that Skirmishers).

At least the early-type javelin-carrying Eastern General cavalry tend to die pretty quickly against even Chariot Archers, though. I've yet to rumble with Catas so I don't know how hot the Egyptian antiques are against them, but I think I recently saw a Parthian stack with a few (prolly the ones they start out with, mind you)...

'Course, if you blitzkrieg to Asia Minor and Persia fast enough both Parthia and Pontus ought to be in shambles long before they can start sending Catas or Cappadocians against you anyway. And Eastern Infantry, Horse Archers and Pontic Cavalry don't really measure up against Nile Spearmen, Chariot Archers and Desert Cavalry (except perhaps on -/VH), I know that much.

[Monarch]

I'm currently having quite a bit of fun with an Egyptian campaign. I'm fielding nice mixed armies with the not bad cavalry, nile spearmen, axemen for hand to hand fighting and the good egyptain bowmen.

I have a screenshot of current map, I have spray painted where I will be heading next, basic plan is to control the whole right side of the map. This will mean eradicating the likes of Parthia, Scythia, Greek Cities, Armenia and Pontus. After that I will sweep down to Byzantium.

https://img224.imageshack.us/img224/1220/helpful6sc.gif

Oh btw, the Numidian province west of my capital Memphis, I do not wish to expand this way so I'm using it as a buffer zone so I do not have to go to war with Scipii.

[Lanemerkel1]

after playing a campaign as them I would have to say one thing:


build Blacksmiths and spam Chariots and their sedecessors


that should do it

[McDoogle]

When u first begi your egyptain campgain, the lil intro movie for them shows spearmen and archers with black crowns on theirs heads like the pharoahs wear. Now is this a later development like the marius reforms? because i cant seem to find what unit they are.

[Watchman]

They're the "old" Pharaoh's Somehtingorother unit skins; if you search the descr_model_battle.txt, you can find them puttering about in there (with a programmer note along the lines "new realistic skins, the cone-heads are reserved for the generals" around the new skins the game uses by default ~;) ).

If you want to use them it's a simple matter of editing the EDU so the appropriate units refer to those and not the new ones.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Strategic Goal:

Domination of Asia Minor, the Middle East, and the Eastern Med.

Strategy:

Block West, expand North and East. Establish borders at the Gulf of Sidra, the Cuacas Mountains, and the Eastern edge of the Map. Build up forces for further conquest Westward.

Campaign Tactics:

Go West old man!

Send out your faction leader to quickly attack Siwa with most of the forces you can scrape away from the garrisons and purchase in the Nile valley. This fellow then leaves Siwa, building watch towers at good intervals while traveling to the Western border of the province. Establish 5 forts and a tower to guard this border -- Libyan Mercs are dirt cheap on upkeep for this -- and then use the balance of your forces to conquer Cyrene. A second general should be sent out to build up Cyrene as a minor military base (to supply the field army necessary to supporting the forts).

The faction leader can be sent via ship to Kydonia and/or Halicarnassus to buy or conquer an outpost for the empire. Remember to queue up a good build pattern wherever you alight, since the bloke will pass on shortly after.

Send a Dip to Carthago overland. He should get there before the Romans, though only just.

Master the Middle East

Your younger generals should mostly go towards Jerusalem picking up cavalry and camel mercs and building command stars against rebels in the time-honored "whack-a-mole" fashion. Keep the peace with Selkies for now, grabbing Petra and Bostra and Palmyra to build up your trade empire in the Red Sea and keep attacks off Jerusalem. Sidon's garrison must be grown. Either Parthia or the Selkies will eventually attack you and begin the war you'll need to dominate the Middle East, so just build your strength and experience while setting up for this. Get lots of spys out to supplement any towers you build.

Both of these opponents are difficult, but will succumb to heavy cavalry/camel forces coupled with chariots and bowmen. You'll need to develop at least one siege army to handle Damascus/Antioch/Tarsus/Hasta.

Send dips into Asia Minor and Russia. Build more to bribe defend your Nile and Jordan regions.

On the Main

You start with few ships and you don't have the money to build more for some time. Use them carefully to get a dip to Greece and later to sneak over your faction leader and perhaps one more general and/or dip for Asia Minor.

Build powerful fleets to crush the opposition after consolidating the Middle East.

--TBC

[Seamus Fermanagh]

A couple of add-on points:


Dealing with Rebels:

Always scope them out first. If they're peasants, skirmishers, or eastern infantry they are prime targets for your generals to rack up stars. If they are bowmen - 120's, then buy them! You can't get bowmen easily for a few years and the buy-overs come to you dirt cheap. Be careful attacking rebels with lots of camel archers or archer -80's; your generals will get murdered by enemy archers far too easily (something about the bulls-eye on their chariot).

Building Garrisons:

Don't build peasants unless you must. Bowmen-120's are great for numbers and for defense and you Nub-Spear boys are just as good as militia hoplites and just as cheap. I typically get 3 Nubs, 1 Nile, 1 Axe, 3 Bow, and 1 Des Cav for most cities. You can replace everything but the Nubians with bows if your city is nowhere near the front.

Fighting Pinkies:

Use an all-cav/chariot force, or cav and bowmen if you must. Parthian cavalry is a tough opponent, but you can handle them if you have enough of your own. Parthian infantry is just fodder for your troops. They can be tough in a siege as long as they have enough bows, but have no staying power once it gets to the hand to hand.

Fighting Num-'nads:

They'll come at you with a mix of spears, missile, and cavalry. Never engage quickly, but make them come after you (defense) or flank them. You'll end up fighting their cavalry first, which is good. Once you kill off their cav, the spearmen aren't mobile enough to tear you up. Remember, though, that their spearmen have good morale and will not fold up like Parthian infantry.

Fighting Selkies:

You'll need a mixed army here. Their infantry can break you, and they'll have elephants as soon as they can field them. They also have scythe chariots that they love to mow you down with. Their missile troops are pretty standard. Use mixed tactics on them where you can. Your goal here is to engage their cavalry with yours (your units are bigger and or using camels) or draw their cavarly onto a unit of your cheap slingers (who're lined up in front of the spear-boys) and then use your surviving cavalry to hunt their missile troops. Their infantry is slow but deadly, so let your numerous bowmen chew them up (then send in the axemen as they get close if you have axes). Stay mobile against his phalanxes and your bows should winnow them well. Draw elephants after a cavalry unit and run them until tired, then bow them into running amok. After that, camels and javelins do well at killed tired, amok hefalumps.

TBC (as I learn more on taking out the tough cavalry forces of Armenia and Pontus).

[GeneralHankerchief]

My strategy for the Romans is "strength in numbers."

During my 50 year war with them, we fought everywhere from Sardinia to West Africa to Byzantium and the main reason why they were finally destroyed is because I had the superior resources. Once the former Parthian and Seleucid territories are yours you are pretty much rolling in the cash, enough to keep up with the ridiculous amount of bribing that you will do.

The type of troops generally differs from region to region, but when invading Italy and Greece (which should be solidly Brutii by the time you invade) you're going to be doing a lot of siege work so I recommend skimping on the cavalry and instead loading up on the infantry and artillery/archers. The reason for this can be explained in my short story "1st Battle of Tarentum."

Pharoah was pleased. The Italian invasion was going splendidly. In a four-pronged attack, Capua, Arretium, Croton, and Patavium had fallen to his mighty armies. Now he was personally leading the army of Croton to Tarentum, setting off the second wave of attacks.

Everything would go great. His army was designed to excel in the field of battle. Several units of his best Pharoah's Guards would pin the enemy down while his personal archers would rain death upon them. Finally, his chariots would chase down and cut apart those who survived. This had worked extraordinarily well in Sicily and in front of Croton. He saw no reason to believe it wouldn't at the gates of Tarentum.

During deployment, Captain Wah informed Mighty Pharoah that the Samnite Mercenaries would only take up one of the two siege towers. Pharoah, annoyed, replied:

"Of course I know that. And one of my Guard Units will occupy the other tower."

"Actually sir, they're phalanx units. They don't go up siege towers. Your Bowmen will occupy the other one."

This was a foresight that Pharoah had not seen. Making an executive decision, he decided that at least one unit of Bowmen would fight in hand-to-hand combat to open up the gates for the rest of his grand army to enter. As the siege towers neared, Pharoah felt elation. The Brutii would finally be kicked out of Italy. But when the towers hit and the men climbed out, something was wrong. They were... losing. ~:eek:

In desperation Pharoah sent his remaining Bowmen to fire at the Romans on the wall. However, their constant volleys were not enough. The Roman leader, displaying wisdom, loaded all his men up onto the walls, thus providing no rest for Pharoah's noble troops. Pharoah sent the Bowmen, now out of arrows, up the towers to desperately finish the job. His elite infantry and chariots could only watch as they saw their comrades get slaughtered on top of the walls of Tarentum. Pharoah wisely called the attack off before he lost all of his archers. The Romans jeered as the once-great Army of the Pharoah withdrew, the siege broken.

As you can see, there's no point in having great infantry if they won't fight. The Egyptian armies were not built for siege combat. This army was one of my favorites, seeing as how their makeup had annihilated several Scipii and Brutii full stacks. However, they didn't have enough siege infantry (ie Desert Axemen), and had zero Onagers. They were pretty much doomed the first heavily-defended city they hit.

In case you were wondering, I resumed the siege of Tarentum the next turn (this time with Desert Axemen) and sent them all to the walls at once. The gates were opened and my Chariots mopped up the Romans inside the city. The Second Battle of Tarentum was an Egyptian victory. :charge:

[Papewaio]

Egypt.

Main Strengths (apart from the Treasury) are the combinationschariots/axeman and bowmen/spearmen.

The chariots of course are countered easily by spearmen and coin for coin spearmen of the lowest order are going to rip apart your chariots. However in the world of paper-rock-scissors the Egyptians have the axemen. These guys rip apart spearmen and don't take many hits in return. With the right priests and other characters you will be able to heal up in minor amounts of wounded easily enough. As there are plenty of phalanx's to pick on the axemen will return their cost quickly. However they are expensive to keep around so they should be in the frontlines or in a city that is in need of defence just like mercenaries. While the phalanx's get chewed up by axemen your chariots are free to chew up nearly everything else.

The Egyptian bowmen are like the longbows of MTW. Great range and hit hard, and they are easily accessible. I'm not a huge fan of archers in an attacking army, however I always have a few to move enemies off strong points and hit hard hitting but poorly armoured troops. They are great value for money. They are like all bowmen vulnerable to cavarlry attacks. As such defend then with spearmen. The spearmen of the Egyptians are not great, but they are better then speed bumps.

I typically set up with a line of 5 spearmen units who are closely supported by two units of axemen who sit on a flank. Then towards the center will be two units of archers. Two more units of spearmen will be behind on the two flanks so that they can counter flanking cav. Behind all of this sits the general and missile cav/chariots. On the opposite side to the axemen the melee cav/chariots will sit these will move out to the far flank and hopefully draw out the enemy general and/or outflank and hit the enemy missile troops.

SsSsSsSsS
.AABB
SsHQ....Ss... CC

With a city specialising in Chariots, another in Bowmen and a third in Axemen. The rest supply low grade spearmen. I try and keep the axemen producing city as close to the front that I will attack on.

[Severous]

RTW V1.5 VH/VH No mods

Against most factions this tactic works well.

https://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5637/egypt263w1crete32lz.th.jpg (https://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt263w1crete32lz.jpg)

On vh difficulty the enemy will not easily rout. So the Egyptian archers gain experience at the full rate rather than the much reduced rate they would get from killing routers. Experience is earned fast.

Against horse archer enemies the tactic becomes more aggressive.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

whenever i charge my chariots into seleucid battle lines most of them get killed. Am i doing something wrong?

[Craterus]

Charging chariots isn't great. Just get the Light (missile) chariots and you can take on the Seleucid lines without much trouble.

[Drusus Magnus]

whenever i charge my chariots into seleucid battle lines most of them get killed. Am i doing something wrong?

Charging cavalry, but especially chariots, head-on into a falanx will instantly kill alot of your troops. I assume you will be fighting a lot of militia hoplites or maybe levy pikemen in your Egyptian campaign. By charging chariots into their sides or backs you will easily rip them apart. Just don't go headon to a falanx unless you're doing it with a falanx yourself.

[Severous]

Chariots are mobile missile platforms. Move them to enemy flanks and rear for shots into unshielded infantry. Do not stop when fighting close. Keep moving. Those spikes on the wheels are deadly..but only if the chariot is moving.

Early Seleucid forces of militia hoplites should not be charged until their morale is low and you are out of arrows. Make the arrows count by only shooting when you have a back shot. I favour the archer and general chariots over the mellee chariots.

[Severous]

Deleted..double post Sorry.

[Severous]

Egypt Imperial Campaign -Vh/Vh-RTW V1.5-No Mods-Large unit scale

https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/366/egypt256wbylazora18vd.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora18vd.jpg)

Egyptians beseige rebel held Bylazora. Over the end of turn another rebel army appears and rebels launch an attack on the Egyptians. Fools. Did they not take into account the 2nd Egyptian army that would act as reinforcements ? (thats a serious question by the way)
--

Brrrrrr. Its cold in the snow.

https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4069/egypt256wbylazora26dt.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora26dt.jpg)

Barbarians with bare chests get bonus in the snow. Whilst the better clothed Egyptians get a bonus in the Desert. So will the egyptians be penalised in the snow ?
--

Rebel Peltasts will skirmish away from an approaching enemy.

https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8403/egypt256wbylazora35el.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora35el.jpg)

So down hill, in the snow, against the skirmishers backs, the Babarian cavalry should do well. The Peltasts morale is going to be poor. Frightened by both chariots and fighting a cavalry unit, insecure flanks, and about to suffer losses. Will soon rout.

https://img129.imageshack.us/img129/257/egypt256wbylazora46ze.th.jpg (https://img129.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora46ze.jpg)

General was blowing his horn to steady the Barbarian Cavalry. They suffered a few casualties and are a unit with fragile morale. Egyptian chariot general will go after the rebel general who is unwisely in the peasant unit.
--
(Edit: image deleted as it was lost by Imageshack)
As the rebel hoplites in phalanx will slaughter chariots you have to be careful. To keep the chariots away from the hoplites I will turn on the 'keep your distance' icon. The chariots will run away from the phalanx.
--
Shaken and tired the three Rebel Peltast units are going to be mowed down by the Chariots.
https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/139/egypt256wbylazora61dk.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora61dk.jpg)
But chariots must not stop. Peltasts might have a bonus against Chariots. Peltasts also have height advantage in this situation.

Giving the Chariots orders to run to a point on the other side of the Peltasts will keep the chariots moving. Keep repeating the order to force chariots to break off combat.


https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/9100/egypt256wbylazora77lc.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora77lc.jpg)

Its working...Just as well as the rebel general is charging. Chariots knock down more troops than they kill. Those knocked down troops will stand up and fight again so dont get suckered into thinking the Chariot charges are man killers. They are not that effective at killing during a charge.
--

Egyptian bowmen are great. They can also use fire arrows like the Romans.
Edit:Image deleted - lost by imageshack
One Bowman unit uses regular arrows (greater killing power), whilst the other uses Fire arrows (less kills but big morale impact).

--

Massed missile fire, and the threat of so many enemy has routed the phalanx.

https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5797/egypt256wbylazora95ui.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora95ui.jpg)
--

Bastarnae has a bonus in snow. Egyptians might be penalised in snow. So Egyptian commanders may be well advised to hire mercenaries with snow bonus when they go north. Not that it matters when all the enemy are routing.
https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4633/egypt256wbylazora102ne.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora102ne.jpg)
--
Egyptians dont need to worry too much about fighting in the snow.
https://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5240/egypt256wbylazora111pg.th.jpg (https://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt256wbylazora111pg.jpg)

Hope those shots and comments provide a few pointers to prospective Egyptian commanders.

[Severous]

An Egyptian battle from the last turn of my vh/vh Imperial Campaign

--
My forces are exactly outnumbered 2:1 yet the battle odds are nearer 3:1 against. The computer rates the Scipii as better troops than my Egyptians.

https://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2899/egypt254smessane18eo.th.jpg (https://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane18eo.jpg)
--

There is a rumble heard. The inhabitants of Messana look nervously at the volcano Etna. But no. It is the Egyptain army on the move.

https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5579/egypt254smessane23ve.th.jpg (https://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane23ve.jpg)

Masses of mounted troops race uphill. They are claiming the high ground for their chariot archers use, plus going to attack the small Scipii reinforcement detachment entering from Messana.
--

No finesse here. Charge !
https://img399.imageshack.us/img399/9797/egypt254smessane32qi.th.jpg (https://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane32qi.jpg)

Kill these troops before the main Scipii army can come to their aid.

Equites routing
https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/169/egypt254smessane48bd.th.jpg (https://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane48bd.jpg)

Starting to attack the principes rear
https://img375.imageshack.us/img375/4682/egypt254smessane53lx.th.jpg (https://img375.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane53lx.jpg)

Principes routing
https://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5549/egypt254smessane68nc.th.jpg (https://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane68nc.jpg)

The General is routing...as are my Nubian cavalry. I dont rate them as much as the less advanced Desert cavalry. Come on kill that general..he must not escape to regarrison the city. Good. He is dead.
https://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8476/egypt254smessane84ss.th.jpg (https://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane84ss.jpg)
--
Resting. Letting the Scipii come to me now. Like to see them kicking up dust. Tires them out. Organised my forces and watched my poor Nubian cavalry rout away being persued by roman cavalry.
--
Nubian cavalry rally. Suffers more casualties from shots but has drawn away a part of the Scipii force.
https://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5264/egypt254smessane102om.th.jpg (https://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane102om.jpg)
Decide to lead the Roman missile cav down to my missile infantry.
--
Foolish AI. Its sending its overall general to attack chariot archers that had been annoying it. The chariots would lead the Romans into dense Egyptian forces and combat. And death.
https://img373.imageshack.us/img373/3213/egypt254smessane134fg.th.jpg (https://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane134fg.jpg)
Thats a reduction in Scipii combat and morale scores.
--

The Scipii are starting to hem the Egyptians into the side of the battlemap. So all forces being ordered to run out of the corner.
https://img374.imageshack.us/img374/5157/egypt254smessane144pc.th.jpg (https://img374.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane144pc.jpg)

One cav unit ordered to kill routing Roman cav, it touches a Scipii infantry unit which also routs. Is this the start of a chain rout ?
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3129/egypt254smessane159zz.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane159zz.jpg)
No. I bide my time as the Romans are not yet exhausted.
--

Meanwhile the Nubian cavalry has lured the roman cavalry to missile troop who start to take a toll. But too late to save the Nubian cavalry who are routing again
https://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3651/egypt254smessane166qm.th.jpg (https://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane166qm.jpg)

Now the romans rout.
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/7595/egypt254smessane171gm.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane171gm.jpg)
--

Main cavlary army is out of the corner and waiting for the Romans to continue their attack.
https://img455.imageshack.us/img455/3516/egypt254smessane184sm.th.jpg (https://img455.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane184sm.jpg)
Chariot archers take a toll whilst the Scipii army reforms its battle line.
https://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4679/egypt254smessane190lu.th.jpg (https://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane190lu.jpg)
--

Scipii infantry get a bit too close. Run the cavalry/chariots back a bit ..quick.

https://img373.imageshack.us/img373/3357/egypt254smessane206vd.th.jpg (https://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane206vd.jpg)
--

Roman Cavalry auxillia chase the chariot archers...who have desert cavalry nearby which is ordered to assist.
https://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1126/egypt254smessane219sz.th.jpg (https://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane219sz.jpg)

https://img405.imageshack.us/img405/9494/egypt254smessane229ex.th.jpg (https://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane229ex.jpg)

https://img70.imageshack.us/img70/181/egypt254smessane233as.th.jpg (https://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane233as.jpg)
--

Three more scipii units rout.
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/5659/egypt254smessane240su.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane240su.jpg)

Going to hold back on the all out charge a bit longer. Let missiles continue to kill.
https://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5701/egypt254smessane255do.th.jpg (https://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane255do.jpg)
--

Missiles now causing routs. Time, at last, to make one big attack.
https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1701/egypt254smessane268vl.th.jpg (https://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane268vl.jpg)

Charge!
https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6845/egypt254smessane279ki.th.jpg (https://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane279ki.jpg)

Come on break them. We want those distant units to break as well.
https://img50.imageshack.us/img50/7573/egypt254smessane288oa.th.jpg (https://img50.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane288oa.jpg)
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2935/egypt254smessane290jq.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane290jq.jpg)

Thats it ...now kill them all.
https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9696/egypt254smessane309mk.th.jpg (https://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane309mk.jpg)
--

https://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6050/egypt254smessane319ad.th.jpg (https://img50.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane319ad.jpg)

https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4867/egypt254smessane323eh.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane323eh.jpg)

https://img57.imageshack.us/img57/1195/egypt254smessane338ot.th.jpg (https://img57.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane338ot.jpg)

[ATE]

Egypt is easy, even on vh/vh. Those bowmen slaughter evertyhing...

I started by sending any availble troops to greece. The Selucids didn't bother me for at couple of years, so i was able to build an army before they started attacking me. Right now, they are annoying as they have small stacks besieging my cities, but not really a problem, and i just took Antioch and Damascus.

My Greek invasion is going splended. The Greeks have been driven from greece, the Macedonians are now protectorates, and the Romans have been tought a lesson and is being pounded back into Italy.

My main problem have been getting bowmen reinforcements to greece, but now both Sparta and Corrinth are producing.

The moneyflow is about 12000 - 15000 per turn. All cities are buildning, and most producing armies. The only real problem i see, is if Numidia attacks.

Back to the thread. Go straight for Greece. Not only is there a lot of money, it's also a strong base of operations. And who can, early in the game, match a phalanx/bowmen defensive stand? No one, not even the almighty Romans! 8 x 240 men firing arrows.... DOA! :D

:duel:

// ATE

[ATE]

Forgot the screenshots ;)

http://allan.eu/rtw/0000.jpg
http://allan.eu/rtw/0001.jpg

Bowmen reinforcements, think they will be used to raid Rome itself :laugh4:

[Avicenna]

Scipii in Greece? :inquisitive:

By the way, how do you destroy super-heavy Roman infantry with Bowmen? Do you set ammo to unlimited?

[Monarch]

Scipii in Greece? :inquisitive:

By the way, how do you destroy super-heavy Roman infantry with Bowmen? Do you set ammo to unlimited?

I'm no 1.5 expert, but I guess you would just form something of a U shape with archers, lure Romans in, fire at their side (eliminating shield bonus) then perhaps send a unit round the back to really encircle them.

[Severous]

Good first post ATE. Welcome to the forum :2thumbsup:

An unusual approach.

Definately right about the cash from Greece. And the Bowmen...they are excellent. Even better, ive heard, when you can build the more advanced bowmen.

I see your faction leader is called.."the infantryman". Is it all those archers ?

You and I played very differently. My leaders gained cavalry commander traits from the all the chariots and desert cavalry used.

[Tyranus]

Wow, that sure is a lot of archers. That is a good strategy Monarch, but what happens when there are a lot of heavy roman infantry and Roman heavy cav or they get smart and use a testudo. I think you might have to add some more variety to your army pretty soon. Perhaps some chariot units and spearmen could help. Form a wall with your spearmen and then take out their cav with your charriots and then bring your bowmen and around and fire on their rear.

[ATE]

I'm no 1.5 expert, but I guess you would just form something of a U shape with archers, lure Romans in, fire at their side (eliminating shield bonus) then perhaps send a unit round the back to really encircle them.

Not excactly. One line, cover flanks with a few phalanxes, and all the bowmen in a line right behind it.

Like this:
G

x x
ppppppppppppppppppppppppp
p bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb p

X is whatever tropp i want to get rid of, a worn out merc or a small leftover from previus battle. I use them to break up formations. If they run from side to side, they take most of the hits from velities, and hold back the legions to give the bowmen a chance to go their work.

G is my general. Since i use a defensive stand, and put my back to the red line, the only option is to place him far away. But i found this to be very helpful, as half the Romans descide to chase him instead, as if they wish not to rout my weak phalanxes :)

So 1 or 2 units running in front of the line, and 1 (or as many as you have) chariots behind the enemy, not to kill, but to mess up their line.

The next city i besieged was Rome (i'm at work, don't have screenshots). S.P.Q.R Attacked me, and threw a full stacked army at me. Approximately 4 pricepes, 5 hastati, 3 velities, 4 triarii, and some cavelry. Using the defensive stand, and with their lines broke, they didn't hit me full force (which would have eradicated me, nile spearmen sucks). I won the battle with low casulties, and Rome is now mine... MINE! ;)


Scipii in Greece? :inquisitive:

By the way, how do you destroy super-heavy Roman infantry with Bowmen? Do you set ammo to unlimited?

Is Scipii in greece unusual? They have attacked corinth 3 times so far.

Limited ammo! I play "by the rules". What is your definition of super-heavy infantry? Pricipes? Hastati? The principes are harder to kill, but in this case, i used 6 x bowmen, and 2 x cretan archers. They DO take casulties, and the strategy with holding them back a little longer, they get slaughtered.


Good first post ATE. Welcome to the forum :2thumbsup:

An unusual approach.

Definately right about the cash from Greece. And the Bowmen...they are excellent. Even better, ive heard, when you can build the more advanced bowmen.

I see your faction leader is called.."the infantryman". Is it all those archers ?

You and I played very differently. My leaders gained cavalry commander traits from the all the chariots and desert cavalry used.

Well thank you :)

My 3 generals are all "the infantryman". I'm not sure why, but have not yet purchased any cavalry, only used the 2 chariots i stared with. So my lines are always infantry and bowmen.


Wow, that sure is a lot of archers. That is a good strategy Monarch, but what happens when there are a lot of heavy roman infantry and Roman heavy cav or they get smart and use a testudo. I think you might have to add some more variety to your army pretty soon. Perhaps some chariot units and spearmen could help. Form a wall with your spearmen and then take out their cav with your charriots and then bring your bowmen and around and fire on their rear.

There ain't any testudo 12 years into the game :)

Kill of the Romans before the reforms. Cohorts are scary...

[ATE]

A little nuisance about the bowmen... their aim is bad, they are unable to fire a burst without placing a few shots in the back of the phalanx-line... But who cares when the other 1900 shot pound the ememy :2thumbsup:

[Tyranus]

O sorry, I didnt realize that you were only twelve years into the game. I just assumed that you meant legions by "super heavy roman infantry". Well you could still use what I said above.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

A little nuisance about the bowmen... their aim is bad, they are unable to fire a burst without placing a few shots in the back of the phalanx-line... But who cares when the other 1900 shot pound the ememy :2thumbsup:

I've never used that many bow, but the "thin line of spears and firepower backing it IS a personal fave. Works best on a hill so that the archers have more range and a less fratricidal shooting window. Always take the bows off fire-at-will when the opponents reach heavy jav range -- too much fratricide else. You can often target the second line for more fun while your spears cope effectively with the weakened initial rush.

An all-bow army can actually do well against the Mac's and Greeks in the early game. Lancers/Greek cav drop quick to concentrated bow fire and the phalanxes are so slow that you have time to kill the cav and still get them. ATE'll have more trouble with Thrace (Falx & Bast are fast with decent morale) or 3rd tier Romans (Princ and Tri last much better than Hastati, plus Rome will be fielding at least some archers in place of velites).

ATE, be aware, strategically, that you will be facing Parthians, Armenians & Seluc's all at the same time with this strategy. You'll be well-funded, but have to process a lot of enemies from 240-200 B.C.

[ATE]

Hello again,

Errr... guess who was playing the 1.2 version of the game :embarassed:

I have re-started the campign, now playing 1.5. Sorry for the screw up guys!
Unfortunately, the game-update made the game laggy on my laptop. Half a year ago i became the dad of THIS (http://allan.eu/anna.jpg) little timestealing cutie, so I haven't been able to play as much as needed to get as far in the 1.2 campaign.

The whole "go straight for greece"-strategy is valid for just about any other faction as well. I used it on my last Julii campaign also, but with the other roman factions backing me up, it was a lot easier. I played it to world domination.

Now, as Seamus pointed out, I'm at war with half the world. The greeks, Mac's, Romans, carthegenians, and the selucids. I allied with parthia, but they are moving troops around on the border, and have just begun moving them towards Jerusalem... Backstabbing I DOWNLOAD PORN ON MY MOM'S COMPUTER.

I don't think i will have Rome by year 251 this time. The Romans got stronger I guess, they are almost impossible to rout after the update. Also, the bowmen has been reduced to normal size units (160), so the phalanx/bowmen strategy is no longer strong enough to withstand a Roman assualt.

So I did as suggested by Tyranus, and added variety to the army. 1 - 2 axemen, and 3 - 4 chariots. Besides from that, same strategy, I use the axemen to draw fire and stur op the lines, and the chariots to attack from behind/take out cavelry.

I'll post screenshots and give a more detailed description of the first 20 years when i conquer Rome again... If the little brat gives me a break :)

// ATE - So ends the bloody business of the day!

[WarMachine420]

I have played Egypt. After conquering 15 provinces I got bored and stop. Too easy even on VH/VH....

I actually found everything easier on RTR....

[WarMachine420]

Hello again,

Errr... guess who was playing the 1.2 version of the game :embarassed:

I have re-started the campign, now playing 1.5. Sorry for the screw up guys!
Unfortunately, the game-update made the game laggy on my laptop. Half a year ago i became the dad of THIS (http://allan.eu/anna.jpg) little timestealing cutie, so I haven't been able to play as much as needed to get as far in the 1.2 campaign.

The whole "go straight for greece"-strategy is valid for just about any other faction as well. I used it on my last Julii campaign also, but with the other roman factions backing me up, it was a lot easier. I played it to world domination.

Now, as Seamus pointed out, I'm at war with half the world. The greeks, Mac's, Romans, carthegenians, and the selucids. I allied with parthia, but they are moving troops around on the border, and have just begun moving them towards Jerusalem... Backstabbing LOL INTERNET.

I don't think i will have Rome by year 251 this time. The Romans got stronger I guess, they are almost impossible to rout after the update. Also, the bowmen has been reduced to normal size units (160), so the phalanx/bowmen strategy is no longer strong enough to withstand a Roman assualt.

So I did as suggested by Tyranus, and added variety to the army. 1 - 2 axemen, and 3 - 4 chariots. Besides from that, same strategy, I use the axemen to draw fire and stur op the lines, and the chariots to attack from behind/take out cavelry.

I'll post screenshots and give a more detailed description of the first 20 years when i conquer Rome again... If the little brat gives me a break :)

// ATE - So ends the bloody business of the day!

Rome? As Egypt by 251bc? Please do tell how you did that...unless it's on E/E or something...:inquisitive:

[WarMachine420]

Man, I think Egypt is the easiest faction in the game ~D (I play on fair medium/medium settings, short campaign, cause I get bored on long one). This is how I played. In the first couple of turns I made some build up, placed watchtowers, forts where needed, hired some arabian mercenaries (these guys rock!), started building navy, then conquered two rebel towns to the east, prepared for war with seleucids (they are your main enemy of course), used 2 diplomats in ships to get trade agreements sell map ally with other factions. Then kicked some Seleucid ass ~D , taken Damascus from them and those DESUDESUDESU come to me offering ceasefire, the deal was made - they payed me 10000 for that, but they'll be crushed in the near future anyway. And talking about economy, yeah baby Egypt is a mega-cashcow. And what cool units Egyptians have, I like of course chariots the most! Pharaon rulez!
NOW ADVANCCCE! (cool accent by the way ~D )

Not to be a thorn in anyone's side, but this Egypt thread has me a little baffled...

You say it's the easiest faction in the game and then say that you play on "fair" medium/medium settings.

Just put it on H/H or VH/VH. Saying that you find m/m to be "fair" implies you've struggled on the higher difficulties which would make Egypt not that easy :2thumbsup:

[WarMachine420]

Although video games are little more than a simple hobby of mine (as such I'm not very good at them), I would like to say a few words about my experiences with this campaign.

Since I was a woefully inadequate strategy game player when I first received this game, I looked on various webpages as to a concencus of what would be the *easiest* faction to play as. With the tutorial I only went so far as basic controls, and I felt I needed more hands-on experience.

Upon taking a concencual vote that took quite some time, I arrived at the insurmountable conclusion that this, Egypt, was by far the easiest faction to play as. I quickly modded my game so as to immediately unlock all of the individual factions, chose Egypt and set the game on Easy/Easy, and began.

Oh, how easy it was. I was able to wholly ignore my west side for the first 75 years of gameplay. With absolutely no skill involved, I managed to subdue the Selucid Empire within a matter of a few hours. I quickly began expanding into Asia Minor and finished off the kingdom of Pontus, again, with absolutely *no* skill involved. I took a brief break and consolidated the Middle East before pressing the assault into Russia. The Parthians and the Armenians quickly fell to my legions of diplomats and peasants as my Egyptian juggernaut (made entirely out of money) steamrolled Asia literally into powder.

About the time I finished off the Parthians, a new threat encroached upon my doorstep, this time from the west. Out of literally the blue, a large Scipii army approached my HQ at Alexandria. Suddenly, it struck. Luckily, I had one of my countless diplomats on hand and managed to bribe this strange army for the reasonable price of 100,000 gold. I brought out the army from Alexandria, which, likely as not, only really knew how to unscrew a few cabernets and twiddle their thumbs, and struck out into the Saharan desert. When I saw how weakly Siwa was defended I laughed in mirth at the pitiful fools defending it. I had a strange computer pull off a crushing victory for me, as by this time I had almost forgotten about the actual commanding of troops, since I had my money houses. I approached Lepcis Magna with that same army (consisting entirely of Pharaoh class units), beseiged it, and gave command to the strange AI. A shocking piece of news came back to me: my armies had been lost! Quickly and easily I formed a new army while my wall of diplomats kept the Scipii armies at bay. This time, I commanded my army of nearly 1300 men against a paltry 400. I was sure my victory would be swift and sweet. However, I lost. This loss showed me a painful reality I had been blind to up until that point: I had forsaken the basic points of the game. The bright gold color I so easily procured from my vastly wealthy cities had allowed me to bribe everything, taking away a part of the game that is critical.

However, I did manage to procure a more-than-basic knowledge of advanced units through this campaign.

In closing I would like to say that, even on Vhard/Vhard, I'd imagine this game to be terribly easy. If you don't want a challenge, knock yourself out with this campaign.

Another one... :wall:

No kidding it was amazingly easy...you chose EASY/EASY!!!! What would lead you to believe that this was going to provide a hard challenge?

I can assure you, despite your opinion, that VH/VH is just a tad more challenging than E/E...

Shouldn't that be obvious? :laugh4:

[WarMachine420]

An Egyptian battle from the last turn of my vh/vh Imperial Campaign

--
My forces are exactly outnumbered 2:1 yet the battle odds are nearer 3:1 against. The computer rates the Scipii as better troops than my Egyptians.

https://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2899/egypt254smessane18eo.th.jpg (https://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane18eo.jpg)
--

There is a rumble heard. The inhabitants of Messana look nervously at the volcano Etna. But no. It is the Egyptain army on the move.

https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5579/egypt254smessane23ve.th.jpg (https://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane23ve.jpg)

Masses of mounted troops race uphill. They are claiming the high ground for their chariot archers use, plus going to attack the small Scipii reinforcement detachment entering from Messana.
--

No finesse here. Charge !
https://img399.imageshack.us/img399/9797/egypt254smessane32qi.th.jpg (https://img399.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane32qi.jpg)

Kill these troops before the main Scipii army can come to their aid.

Equites routing
https://img132.imageshack.us/img132/169/egypt254smessane48bd.th.jpg (https://img132.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane48bd.jpg)

Starting to attack the principes rear
https://img375.imageshack.us/img375/4682/egypt254smessane53lx.th.jpg (https://img375.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane53lx.jpg)

Principes routing
https://img211.imageshack.us/img211/5549/egypt254smessane68nc.th.jpg (https://img211.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane68nc.jpg)

The General is routing...as are my Nubian cavalry. I dont rate them as much as the less advanced Desert cavalry. Come on kill that general..he must not escape to regarrison the city.
https://img352.imageshack.us/img352/6567/egypt254smessane71ow.th.jpg (https://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane71ow.jpg)

Good. Hes dead.
https://img232.imageshack.us/img232/8476/egypt254smessane84ss.th.jpg (https://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane84ss.jpg)
--

Resting. Letting the Scipii come to me now. Like to see them kicking up dust. Tires them out. Organise my forces and watch my poor Nubian cavalry rout away being persued by roman cavalry.
https://img487.imageshack.us/img487/6082/egypt254smessane91vw.th.jpg (https://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane91vw.jpg)
--

Nubian cavalry rally. Suffers more casualties from shots but has drawn away a part of the Scipii force.
https://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5264/egypt254smessane102om.th.jpg (https://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane102om.jpg)
Decide to lead the Roman missile cav down to my missile infantry.
--
Foolish AI. Its sending its overall general to attack chariot archers that had been annoying it.
https://img487.imageshack.us/img487/9520/egypt254smessane115vx.th.jpg (https://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane115vx.jpg)

Combat
https://img352.imageshack.us/img352/3382/egypt254smessane126ql.th.jpg (https://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane126ql.jpg)

Death
https://img373.imageshack.us/img373/3213/egypt254smessane134fg.th.jpg (https://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane134fg.jpg)
Thats a reduction in Scipii combat and morale scores.
--

The Scipii are starting to hem the Egyptians into the side of the battlemap. So all forces being ordered to run out of the corner.
https://img374.imageshack.us/img374/5157/egypt254smessane144pc.th.jpg (https://img374.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane144pc.jpg)

One cav unit ordered to kill routing Roman cav, it touches a Scipii infantry unit which also routs. Is this the start of a chain rout ?
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3129/egypt254smessane159zz.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane159zz.jpg)
No. I bide my time as the Romans are not yet exhausted.
--

Meanwhile the Nubian cavalry has lured the roman cavalry to missile troop who start to take a toll. But too late to save the Nubian cavalry who are routing again
https://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3651/egypt254smessane166qm.th.jpg (https://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane166qm.jpg)

Now the romans rout.
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/7595/egypt254smessane171gm.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane171gm.jpg)
--

Main cavlary army is out of the corner and waiting for the Romans to continue their attack.
https://img455.imageshack.us/img455/3516/egypt254smessane184sm.th.jpg (https://img455.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane184sm.jpg)
Chariot archers take a toll whilst the Scipii army reforms its battle line.
https://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4679/egypt254smessane190lu.th.jpg (https://img411.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane190lu.jpg)
--

Scipii infantry get a bit too close. Run the cavalry/chariots back a bit ..quick.

https://img373.imageshack.us/img373/3357/egypt254smessane206vd.th.jpg (https://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane206vd.jpg)
--

Roman Cavalry auxillia chase the chariot archers...who have desert cavalry nearby which is ordered to assist.
https://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1126/egypt254smessane219sz.th.jpg (https://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane219sz.jpg)

https://img405.imageshack.us/img405/9494/egypt254smessane229ex.th.jpg (https://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane229ex.jpg)

https://img70.imageshack.us/img70/181/egypt254smessane233as.th.jpg (https://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane233as.jpg)
--

Three more scipii units rout.
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/5659/egypt254smessane240su.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane240su.jpg)

Going to hold back on the all out charge a bit longer. Let missiles continue to kill.
https://img70.imageshack.us/img70/5701/egypt254smessane255do.th.jpg (https://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane255do.jpg)
--

Missiles now causing routs. Time, at last, to make one big attack.
https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/1701/egypt254smessane268vl.th.jpg (https://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane268vl.jpg)

Charge!
https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6845/egypt254smessane279ki.th.jpg (https://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane279ki.jpg)

Come on break them. We want those distant units to break as well.
https://img50.imageshack.us/img50/7573/egypt254smessane288oa.th.jpg (https://img50.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane288oa.jpg)
https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/2935/egypt254smessane290jq.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane290jq.jpg)

Thats it ...now kill them all.
https://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9696/egypt254smessane309mk.th.jpg (https://img268.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane309mk.jpg)
--

https://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6050/egypt254smessane319ad.th.jpg (https://img50.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane319ad.jpg)

https://img133.imageshack.us/img133/4867/egypt254smessane323eh.th.jpg (https://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane323eh.jpg)

https://img57.imageshack.us/img57/1195/egypt254smessane338ot.th.jpg (https://img57.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt254smessane338ot.jpg)

Again...how on EARTH could that be done in a matter of what, 30 turns? I just don't see that as physically possible without a mod or cheat of some kind. And to have almost 30,000 denarii SAVED ? Was the army free?

[Severous]

6 months of game playing several hours most days.

In that last turn Army and General wages were running at €70k per turn. So it wasnt free. Income at €170k. Paid for by an empire built for best finances..I rarely build military buildings. Taxes very high and public order of 70% (red face) is acceptable.

There any many posts on this forum as I went through this campaign. They will give a better idea of campaign strategy than that post above which was about battle tactics.

No mods or cheats. Plenty of exploiting of the AI. I can take a couple of hours to play a single battle.

[WarMachine420]

Apologies on the implication...

I've looked around some of your other threads/posts and have to say, you really do know this game forwards and back. I won't question you again :2thumbsup:

You have however, gained another "student" of war lol...

Let me start by asking my first question which you already touched on, even though it's not really what this thread is about (although it's not entirely off-topic): 70% happiness/red face is ok? I thought that 80% was the lowest you could go...

This would have a much different effect on my game if I could be working with 70 instead of 80...if you include 4 or 5 cities all in the middle east, that's a half a stack a turn I could be moving to the front in that region, that I'm not now because of keeping the garrions up and keeping happiness at 80...

:wall:

[Severous]

Hi WarMachine420

Sorry to be slow responding. Just back from vacation.

75% Public order = blue face. No riots

70% Public order = Red face. But no riot.

65% Public order = red face & riot. If left rioting more than one turn you run the real risk of rebellion and losing control of the city.

The danger of running at 70% is there is no room for error, or change. If an enemy inserts a spy causing more unrest or your population grows causing extra squallor then your 70% city could become 65% (or less) and riot unexpectedly.

On occasion when I know I cannot achieve 70% public order I will raise taxes to very high, withdraw the garrison, and let the city (on 0% order) riot for one turn. Then next turn do my best to achieve that 70% public order. Rinse and repeat it reduces population, achieves good tax income, helps governors traits..but risks building damage and governor death.

[WarMachine420]

:2thumbsup:
Hi WarMachine420

Sorry to be slow responding. Just back from vacation.

75% Public order = blue face. No riots

70% Public order = Red face. But no riot.

65% Public order = red face & riot. If left rioting more than one turn you run the real risk of rebellion and losing control of the city.

The danger of running at 70% is there is no room for error, or change. If an enemy inserts a spy causing more unrest or your population grows causing extra squallor then your 70% city could become 65% (or less) and riot unexpectedly.

On occasion when I know I cannot achieve 70% public order I will raise taxes to very high, withdraw the garrison, and let the city (on 0% order) riot for one turn. Then next turn do my best to achieve that 70% public order. Rinse and repeat it reduces population, achieves good tax income, helps governors traits..but risks building damage and governor death.

Thanks for the reply and hope you had a good vacation...I myself took a little 1 week trip too, which led to the end of my Egypt campaign :skull: (Britons now and going well).

I've fiddled around with public order more. I never knew you could push it as far as you can...your advice on this alone has upped my game quite a bit.

Another thing: What about population as a barb faction? (do you play mostly barb factions?) I have like 5500 in londonium and a scattered 800-2400 everywhere else. I don't want them to outgrow my ability to build...I'm actually in a real military style economy with a GREAT slave and goods trade. Is it even worth building up most cities with a barb faction? My priority thus far has been keeping some cities as mainly income/trade cities...keeping the capital as an "everything" city...main producer, highest pop, etc, and keeping other cities primarily as military cities supported by some growth. My money is always low...because I usually balance it off to spend it as it comes in...saving a turn or two when needed...my biggest campaigns have yet to come (still at war with Gaul, 252 bc, crushing them though, I'll post pics later...I've taken like 9 provinces...read my thread on amazing battle heroic victory).

Thanks again for your previous advice and thanks in advance for any advice you can provide now and in the future.

p.s. Thanks for the great counter-terrorism. As always, proud to have you as an ally.

:2thumbsup: :balloon2:

[Goalie]

You might want to be careful about raising the taxes and then just leaving I did that once and the city rioted and they had uber units like gold cheveroned peasants, naked fanatics and milita cavalry.

[WarMachine420]

current campaign map (will continue playing later on tonight) and pic of another battle of mine that wound up with a historical marker (3rd). The chariots were in defense on this one.

just thought I'd show this.

https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n225/WarMachine420/Chariotsindefense.jpg

https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n225/WarMachine420/Newest.jpg

https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n225/WarMachine420/Newest.jpg

https://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n225/WarMachine420/Chariotsindefense.jpg

[4th Dimension]

Couldn't you have posted bigger screensshots. You know you don't need to make images smaller for imageshack, it will prowide you with a clickable thumbanil

[WarMachine420]

Couldn't you have posted bigger screensshots. You know you don't need to make images smaller for imageshack, it will prowide you with a clickable thumbanil

I can assure you that I didn't do it to frustrate you. If I could've I would've.

I'm not using ImageShack, I'm using PhotoBucket becasue ImageShack wasn't working yesterday (got an email today from them explaining that this was the problem).

you have links to the pictures anyway...can't you resize them then? If not...ok, I'll figure it out and the pics I post tonight/tomorrow AM after I play will be resized.

Again, apologies on the size but I didn't do it on purpose.

[Goalie]

You saved them as a full sized screen right? I use photobucket and it always has full sized shots if I either post the image or the link.

[Severous]

Hi

The advice on public order is relevant to all factions. However, as BH Goalie points out, playing so close to the riot point (65% or less) means players need to regulary check each town to ensure all is ok. I personally check every unit, agent and town, every turn before I press the end of turn button. It takes me months to play a campaign.

Barbarian faction city management discussion would be best in a thread of its own in the RTW forums. But I cant answer that anyway as im part way through my first and only barbarian faction campaign...Gaul. Havnt reached any city limits yet.

Screenshots. Always good things to have. I use Imageshack and prefer it when others do so. Their thumbnail links dont have any resizing problems when uploading or viewing. Imageshack is playing up still today..I just tried to upload one and had problems initially.

Heres an on topic picture. From a since finished Egyptian campaign. The chariot generals are really powerful. Here 100 men took on 800 Carthage men(including elephants)...battle odds calculated at 1:3 against...and won.
https://img115.imageshack.us/img115/4885/egypt255swestlepcisij2.th.jpg (https://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?image=egypt255swestlepcisij2.jpg)

[Natasen]

Some thoughts on generic Egyptian strategy (not tactics)

I. The Seleucid Empire
Jerks. Don't know when trade is a really neat thing. My second Egypt game was purely to have a western sweep across Africa, but that got nixed when the Seleucids thought war would be fun.

a. De-Port Campaign- obtain local command of the sea. Egyptian ports in Alexandria, Jerusalem, Siwa (captured in strategy mentioned later), Sidon, and Salamis allow for a quick augmentation of Egyptian sea power when needed. One big thing about RTW, everyone likes the Meditterranean. Denying its use to the Seleucids will render them impotent. If there is a sizable and annoying Seleucid fleet, simply put all your ships into fleets that carry your men.

b. The Pincer- Strike at Antioch, and then Tarsus. You can ignore Hatra and probably Damascus. Supplement this by an 'amphibious' offensive into Asia Minor.
You want to come after Seleucid beach property from both directions. You can come from Cyprus, Alexandria, wherever but bring the pain. I had a sizable force in Cyrene so I hopped from Cyrene to Halicarnassus and on to Sardis from there which netted two wonders and ran across mostly rebel resistance.

c. Hang'em out to dry. If you don't like Parthia next door, leaving Hatra and Seleucia isn't a big deal.

II. Maximize Wealth and Earning Potential
By gathering the Seleucid ports you have already followed this step. Crete is also a necessary element. Send diplomats out much earlier than actual fighting and trade with every you can.

a. Pick the apples- Petra, Bostra, Palmyra, and Dumatha can be ignored during the Seleucid war, but they are cheaply won afterwward and add to the income. This can be left to 'task groups' rather than a full fledged army.

III. Grow the Western Front- Siwa right away then put Watchtowers all over Libya when you can. Keep the bottleneck closely watched for the Scipii or Carthage. Cyrene becomes the cornerstone of defense of this area. I was able to reach out for Lepcis Magna and Thapsus with some amphibious reinforcement, but traded Thapsus with the Scipii constantly. I was fine with this-- my buffer was well established.

IV. Use Communications to strike into the interior. There are troop trains present in several parts of the map. For Egypt, three are most important.
Jerusalem-Sidon-Antioch-Tarsus (with a siding at Damascus, and maybe Palmyra) Antioch becomes your natural base to strike Armenia (through Hatra) and later Parthia and mop up the Seleucids. Tarsus offers possibilities against Pontus. (A train is where units can reach one city from another in one turn). The second train is Sparta-Corinth-Athens-Larissa or Thermon-Apollonia which will bring you through Greece from a strong attack on Sparta. The final stroke is the road to Rome-- Tarentum-Capua-Rome and points beyond. With forces based in Apollonia, you need a big fleet to survive long enough only to get to the port of Tarentum.

V. Don't Forget to bring your Sword with you. This is no pilgrimmidge, it looks easy but only the tactician will get past the dangers. For tactics, I would read the posts that proceeded this one. Fight and bribe as you see fit.

VI. Review
a. Grab the Seleucid ports---Gain the command of the Eastern Med
b. Trade and Accumulate
c. Protect the West.
d. Strike from Points of strength using the Roads
e. Fight like a general who reads and learns from those proceeding tutorials written by people with more posts than me.

A shimmering Pharaonic Empire awaits you, and so do misplaced Nubian spearmen (I can raise Nubian spearmen in Ireland? Those Irish-Africans are a tough breed)

[Guyus Germanicus]

I share many of Natasen's sentiments. Though I've noticed, when I play with the Seleucids, I think the Egyptians are jerks. Funny how that works. :) I do love playing as the Seleucids because of their unit depth and variety.

After owning RTW and playing constantly now for almost five months (I'm a charter member of RTW-holic's anonymous) I started my first Egyptian campaign the other night. Gosh, what lucky stiffs these guys are! They have only one serious front at the start of the game and that's the one they share with the Seleucids. The Numidians are no threat. So, I slowly built up my strength taking Bostra, Petra. I got alliances right away with Parthia, Pontus, and Armenia. Knowing by experience of the Seleucids geopolitic isolation - (they can't get good alliances and usually end up in a four or five front war with all their neighbors) - the Egyptians have a gravy geopolitical situation. The cities in Egypt-proper grow like weeds. You can get good population growth which means good tech development. Their cities make good cash too. Egypt can grow their navy strong early. Much of the naval action (outside of rebel pirates) is in the Aegean and Ionian seas, so you can develop in quiet isolation from major enemies. Salamis has no early threats, so I don't need to garrison it with much. Even when I play Seleucia, I can't usually get to Salamis with a serious force until after I've pushed Egypt out of Palestine and beaten off the immediate Armenian and Pontic threats.

So, when war breaks out, Egypt's strategy can be very focused, and I target my schwerpunkt for Antioch without fearing too many distractions. Damascus is easy to pinch off making the drive on Antioch - their key city of production - easier as your flank is covered. (Parthia is not a big threat and looks for an alliance with you early on.) You can grab Palmyra, and Hatra (if you want - the Armenians like that city) as the opportunity arises. My campaign has only been interrupted when one of my allies becomes allied to Seleucia. Then my relations with Seleucia go to automatic cease fire (until they blockade one of my ports again, which they invariably do - the AI seems stupidly obsessional on that point. Then their alliance with my ally falls apart and we're back to the infantry war again.)

I had one 16 yr old faction member take a little trip to Crete to buy some archers (usually two units are available.) Cretan archers have longer range than factional archers. I've been able to bleed enemy armies significantly before having to close with them with the Cretans. I'm making an amphibious assault on Halicarnassus. If the Greeks get snitty and challenge you, Rhodes is easy pickings and yields big trade dividends when captured. The natural route of conquest from there is Asia Minor, then Crete, then Corinth and Greece proper, then the Brutii realm on the Italian boot, then Rome. That seems to be the route that I've taken in my Seleucid campaigns. Carthage tends to be too far away to justify a large military expedition, while Corinth, with its public-order-bonus ancient wonder, needs to be a part of your general campaign strategy in your drive to Rome. As your empire expands and cities get larger where public order becomes a concern, having Corinth is very helpful.

I've found that I use my Egyptian chariots more as archer skirmishers. I tend to fight in the Greek style with phalanxes predominating. And I try to build up cavalry to match the Greek cavalry of Seleucia rather than chariots. You will definitely need good cavalry when it comes time to face the Roman factions. Anyway, that's my perspective on Egypt at the moment. Perhaps as I play this faction more, my opinion will change on some things. But, gosh, compared to taking Seleucia, these guys have a breezy opening game. No worries at all. Of the main playable factions, the Greek cities, Carthage and Seleucia seem to have the most challenging opening positions in terms of potential enemies. Seleucia's money position is slightly better than the other two. The Greeks have a shortage of military tech depth. But they have Rhodes, and Athens is a reasonbly easy grab. And if Macedon causes problems, Corinth is in your front yard. Parthia has no money, but doesn't have to face a five front war. But . . . I haven't played the Gauls, Brits or Germans yet, (and don't really have a desire too, at this point - lack of good cavalry is discouraging the attempt.) So, maybe I should just shuddup. :)

[bedlam28]

Hi all,

After getting sick of being poor, I decided to be tempted by the lure of infinate wealth as an Egyptian.

So here I am at the beginning of my journey, and my first question that I havent spotted so far is regarding Memphis and Thebes - why do they have Port options on the little lake to their right? is this a bug, or does this actually pull in some trade from somewhere ??

Thanks.

[jhhowell]

So here I am at the beginning of my journey, and my first question that I havent spotted so far is regarding Memphis and Thebes - why do they have Port options on the little lake to their right? is this a bug, or does this actually pull in some trade from somewhere ??


Yes, huge heaping buckets of money. :yes:

You have to have Petra and Bostra, though. I find that for some reason Memphis's port is useless (you'd think it would trade with Bostra's, but it isn't in my game), but the Thebes-Petra-Bostra trade is booming.

[bedlam28]

excellent, thanks jhhowell :2thumbsup:

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Stumped:

Playing = XGM (RTW 1.5 Base) with vh/vh

I cannot get the Ptolemies over the hump.

I tried a passive strategy, taking rebel towns for expansion and counter-attacking when attacked. For a while I controlled all of the Eastern Half of African, Tarsus, Antioch, Sidon, Hiero, Palm, Bostra, Petra. Despite this, the Selkies (and later the Pontics as well) kept sending full stacks to tear me apart. I beat them virtually every time, especially at bridges, but take modest casualties -- doesn't help. The Pontics and Selkies seem to be able to replace their full stacks (-6 Pontic, 8-12 Selkie) faster than I can replace my 200 casualties per win -- and develop their cities so as to have 3rd tiers to my 2nd. I can barely fund my 1 full stack, 1 half stack, and modest garrisons. Winning 13 times in 15 I was still attritioned into collapse.

I tried a go after Selkies first strategy -- which hammered them back nicely and took out most of their heavy stacks. But I couldn't even afford to keep more than a half stack defensive army (in addition to my deep strike army) in the field and Pontus and Armenia both came in against me in support of their ally. Again, the attritition goes against me despite victories and then I'm in the red economically.

What is the deal? I'm no Craterus the Cavalry Lord, but I am not a schmo at this.....:wall:

[Moah]

Blacksmiths. Light Chariots.

I won the short campaign and kept playing just for the challenege of facing the romans. But guess what? No decent spears. Stupidity with their cavalry.

Light Chariot archers backed by a handful of mounted axemen. Wipe Out Romans. Twice. Thrice. Decide to try BI...

[13th-Caesar]

One weakness I found with Egypt is to attack them as a Julli-or-more-north-faction in campaings. I was the Julii and the Egyptians were losing a huge war against the house of Scipii. I sent a full army of praetorian cohorts, heavy cavalry, a great general and decent archers to smash the Egyptians and gain some land there. As soon as I had won one battle, laid seige to a town and besiege two maybe three docks a diplomat came and asked for a ceasefire. For this ceasefire you can put the price extremely high asthey will only offer once, I think I got 10 or 15,000 denarii out of that small attack 9and at that time it was still early in the game and I was getting into debt). This also works with Greek cities.

[guineawolf]

Yes, huge heaping buckets of money. :yes:

You have to have Petra and Bostra, though. I find that for some reason Memphis's port is useless (you'd think it would trade with Bostra's, but it isn't in my game), but the Thebes-Petra-Bostra trade is booming.

Perhaps you can try let numidian take your memphis and thebes,take them back after they built the dock for you...:2thumbsup: the Egyptian can make more money from naval trade if they got dockyard...

secret police network give 20% of law,temple city of Horus give 25 % of law and level 3 weapon and armor,there is 45 % law to avoid losing money from corruption,plus the dockyard and highways,the egytian will be the best choice of faction in RTW!:2thumbsup:

[paul_kiss]

Actually when I played for Egypt (and I played quite successfully) I didn't use any other kind of units except "the pharao's guard" and "the pharao's bowmen". The rest of units didn't make any decent profit in battle. Powerful falanx supported by heavy archer fire - I crushed so many enemies with this simple combination that I can't recall how many. Noone could stand against that - neither the Greeks, nor the Scipii, nor any one else.

[Lacedaemon]

Hi, I just started the egyption campaign today, and had a question about what the smartest temple is to build.

Also, i have a general question. Is there any way to reveal the whole map so you could see what all the factions are doing every turn?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Hit the squiggle key to the left of the 1 key on the top row of a standard QWERTY board.

This will open up the chat "ghost" screen.

Type in:

toggle_fow


This will turn the fog of war feature off and reveal the whole of the map.



Eggie temples didn't do much for me. Set/Horus/Osiris seemed all about the same in benefit. Isis cranks up population growth, which is overkill for most of Egypts core cities. The "Doctor" temple ws useful for keeping up health (and happiness thereby).

Don't wreck any temples of Hephaesteus captured from the Seleuks -- they make great temple towns for running troops through -- gotta love gold weaps and shields.

[guineawolf]

for me,i use temple of Imhotep to get my population up,it is better than temple of Isis coz health add up population growth at the same time it add public order too(when the population is increase 0.5%,it increase 5% squalor too,but the public order add by health cover it,not the temple of Isis).

Of coz you can build temple of Isis just for the retinue or Ancilliaries it will give you.

Then when your city reach huge city,i will recommend you to build Temple city of Horus coz it give 25% law to prevent more corruption(money lost from corruption mostly at those cities far far away from your capitol,check settlement details for distance from capitol,and the law % prevent the corruption to occur,then moreDENARIIgo back to your coffer).At the same time,temple of Horus give Bonus of weapon and armor,not the temple city of Set

Or you can build Temple city of Imhotep for those cities that got low base farming level to increase population of those cities,at the same time it increase in tradeable good by 2 and give experience bonus
to troops 2.

or you build Temple city of Imhotep and temple city of Horus in all your cities,that way you can recruit troops from city own temple city of Imhotep(gives experience bonus to troops 2),then upgrade your war gear(weapon and armor)at city own temple city of Horus(gives bonus to weapon and armor)

Tips:
set rally point from the city own temple city of Imhotep to city own temple city of Horus,when you recruit new troops,they will just head to city own temple city of Horus.When there is more than 9 unit of new troop,upgrade them at once(coz recruitment queue can up to 9 unit only at the same turn),
doing this,you can get the same effect as Pantheon of Hephaestus.:2thumbsup:

[Lacedaemon]

Awesome, thanx guys thats a huge help.

A couple more questions for you:

1. Is there a unit chart that you can check the stats of all the different factions?

2. How do you change the battle clock to no time limit?

[Poulp']

there is a chart, search for "rome unit guide", that's a pdf to download, probably in the download section
unfortunately, I no longer have it on my HD

in your RTW folder, open your preference.txt and find an entry time limit: TRUE
and change it into FALSE

[Lacedaemon]

Thanx for the info. I found the chart. i also tried to change the battle clock and couldnt find it in the file. I scrolled up and down the preference.txt several times and didnt find anything resembling a time limit entry. Is there a chat code i could use maybe?

[Poulp']

you can also change the time limit at the beginning of a new campaign IIRC.

[Emperor of Graal]

Well check out this I knocked up
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/picture.php?albumid=91&pictureid=763
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/picture.php?albumid=91&pictureid=764
Would it be blitzing?

[Quintus.JC]

That would must definitely classfied as blitzing... completing the long campaign under 50 turns. That is at lighting pace compared to my usual pace, which is extremely steady and slow.

The most frightening RTW campaign I have witnessed will still have to be this though :scared:




Best Comprehensive Greek Guide Ever. (http://www.geocities.com/AMD_4EVER/Rome/main.html)

:burnout:

Can anyone beat it?

[Emperor of Graal]

Wow! I'll give it a shot...

[jack95]

I have conquered all of asia minor up to the mountains that border the scythians. The scipii have cartahge thapsus and the rest of north africa. Should i attack the scythians or romans?

[Quintus.JC]

I have conquered all of asia minor up to the mountains that border the scythians. The scipii have cartahge thapsus and the rest of north africa. Should i attack the scythians or romans?

Take on both if you can, definitely wouldn't be a bad idea to prepare first before they attack you.

However I'd advice you on taking on the Romans first, before they become too dangerous and powerful. It's also much more fun then the Scythians, trangressing through the wastelands of the Northern East of the map isn't much fun at all. Not to mention the revenue you'd gain by taking over the rich area of Carthage and the rest of North Africa.

[paul_kiss]

I have conquered all of asia minor up to the mountains that border the scythians. The scipii have cartahge thapsus and the rest of north africa. Should i attack the scythians or romans?My word - attack the Romans, the Scythians are no big threat for your elite spearmen and archers. Romans, they're your possible nightmare.

[weejonnie]

My word - attack the Romans, the Scythians are no big threat for your elite spearmen and archers. Romans, they're your possible nightmare.

Running through the gamut of factions, it was the turn of the Egyptians. For variety am playing on huge armies (160/108). M/M.

TBH the only hard battle was for Antioch where the Selucids had several ellies in the city.

I took Siwa very early basically as a buffer as the Carthaginians have to cross the whole of Africa to get there and a spy stuck out well over gives you plenty of time to build up a defensive army if someone decides to move. Then the rebels (Petra/ Bosra) before moving up to take on the Selucids. Having defeated an Armenian army near Selucia, I have now removed Parthia from the South of the Black Sea.

As is usual, I made a beeline for Kydonia (for Cretan Archers) and Rhodes (sea trade bonus)/ Helicarnassus and then cleared up Pontus from the East (large rebel army between Tarsus and Asia Minor acted as a good buffer to stop Pontus coming down) and the Greek City on Asia Minor (Pergamon?)

During this time, the Scipii took Sicily/ Sparta/ Corinth/ Athens and the Brutii Thermon/ Thessalonica/ Larissa/ Bylazora. So I launched three armies at Sparta/ Corinth/ Athens to gain a foothold and took Byzantium with another, just to annoy Thrace.

With Greece secure, Italy beckons - Tarentum has fallen and Croton goes next term.

As for tactics - in the desert you invest in Nile Spearmen/ Bowmen. Opponents are lightly armoured and fall like flies. Against the Romans desert cavalry (armour piercing) work wonders. Romans hate cavalry. As for chariots - well they tend to be used against cavalry and peltasts/ archers, avoiding the Heavy Greek Infantry. When facing chariots, I find slingers to be very effective, as well as bolstering the flanks with spearmen.

I thought that huge size would slow down growth (after all recruiting 160 at a time (or 240 peasants) makes a severe dent in population. However that does not seem to be the case. My only regret is that there wasn't a temple of Artemis available to me in Greece - giving Pharaoh archers +3 would have been ideal.

As for temples - other than in the backwaters of Barbarianland, is there any need for any one of them other than Horus? It is disappointing that none of them give a military upgrade until Temple City is founded.

[Vincent Butler]

Egypt has a problem with public order, that is a main reason I don't like them. Chariots are overrated, though they are nice when fighting cavalry.

If there is a Pentheion to Zeus (sounds like you moved too quickly for them to get to that level), you could get +2 for missile units, when combined with armourer upgrades would give gold sword to your archers. I guess you have to get them from the Gauls, a Scythian temple may give +1, so maybe you can get it there when combined with a foundry. I don't remember for sure if they get that bonus, though.

Yes, I love slingers when fighting chariots. I first found that out as Parthia, and when your slingers are Balearic/Rhodian...even better.

[ReluctantSamurai]

As for temples - other than in the backwaters of Barbarianland, is there any need for any one of them other than Horus

Set works well in those barbarian "backwaters". An additional 10% happiness more than Horus plus the 1% population growth. Indeed, Horus has to be at Temple City lvl with foundry to get the weapon upgrades, but it's easy to get there with any of the Nile Delta cities due to their grain-driven population growth:shrug:


Egypt has a problem with public order, that is a main reason I don't like them. Chariots are overrated, though they are nice when fighting cavalry

I haven't played Egypt much, but the times I did, PO wasn't a big problem:shrug: Chariots are the reason I never liked them much...hated having chariot generals. Utterly useless for city assaults :furious3:

[Vincent Butler]

I haven't played Egypt much, but the times I did, PO wasn't a big problem:shrug: Chariots are the reason I never liked them much...hated having chariot generals. Utterly useless for city assaults :furious3:

But their regular generals aren't much better. I had one attack (granted, I think I was on E/E) a unit of my Early Legionary Cohort that was climbing a tower, so it wasn't the full unit and they weren't braced for the charge. The ELC sent him packing. At least Chariot Generals get the intimidation factor, though they also die easier thanks to archers or hoplites.