Romani Quesitons

[yanks186]

Hey,
I have some questions while being the Romanii in my campaign. Its about 215 BC and I am currently in a war with the Carthaginians, Sweboz, Petlomai (egyptians...) and the Adui (Dark Green Gaul faction).

Now, I dont want to be at war with all of these nations, I even offered the Carthaginians peace when I was absolutely wrecking them, and currently they have their 3 Iberian based cities, along with 4 of the west most cities left in africa. I have taken everyhting else. Now they are fighting back as my attention goes elsewhere. But I would rather be at peace....

For the Sweboz, we have gone back in forth since about 240 BC in taking mediolanium and one of the northern cities in the mountains. I have tried peace with them, and it isnt happening either.

I dont get why no one will make peace? I'd rather fight one or two enemies at a time, instead of the gang raping by 5 powers. I do have Macedon as an ally, but thye never war against my enemies as well.




My other concern is the lack of ability my men have against fighting the Gaul Naked swordsmen or whatever their name is. They are command units I guess, but I cant seem to fight an enemy army when they have these units. My men basically retreat after initial contact and the battle is over, whether its on even ground or not. And most of my army is princepes, triarii, and velitites, no mercs at all. Is there some way to combat these troops so entire armies dont get obliterated?

[Megas Methuselah]

Well, I can tell you that the main reason nobody will accept peace with you is because of the hard-coded AI stupidity. This is entirely a fault of RTW, and has nothing to do with EB. If the AI diplomacy could be fixed and improved, it would have been.

Check this out: Force Diplomacy Minimod (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=80763)
This small modification was originally meant for EB 1.0, but I believe in the last few pages they have one for 1.1, too. It's essentially a cheat, but a lot of people don't consider as such because of the AI's stubborn and stupid behaviour in diplomacy.

[yanks186]

Alright thanks.

Any one have any ideas why I cant seem to fight ht eGuals without getting raped, when I have good quality soldiers on the field?...

[Rilder]

Well, I can tell you that the main reason nobody will accept peace with you is because of the hard-coded AI stupidity. This is entirely a fault of RTW, and has nothing to do with EB. If the AI diplomacy could be fixed and improved, it would have been.


On the same note, In my current Pontos campaign its completely the opposite so far. Currently, except for the Seleukids nobody has declared war on me, Hayasdan, Sauromotte, Ptollmies(!)(Well except for the KH, but that was a small territorial dispute and a ceasefire was easily gotten after it was solved.) Also on the Seleukid front, after Asia Minor was conquered they signed a cease fire, then a few years later I di d a raid on Babylon and a couple nearby towns... after returning they signed a ceasefire without difficulty!

Bear in mind I don't have force diplomacy.

[Che Roriniho]

They're Gaesatae, and, although I've never had problems with them, other people do seem to have problems. The best method of getting rid of them is Javelins, arrows, or slings. Other than that, hammer and anvil is your best option.

Oh, and in regards to yyour first problem. Try Forced Diplomacy, a Minimod on this forum. do a search.

[yanks186]

ALright thanks guys for the help.

On the note of forced diplomacy, I wont go that route yet. I am near to taking 3 Aedui cities, the Iberian heartland of the Carthaginians, and then the Sweboz, I just need the time to play to implement the plan.

So missiles work? Becuase I usually have my men throw their javelins and they take out a few, but its never enough to do anything. We will see how the battle I am fighting right now goes, as I have a 500 man advantage on the army that has been causing me so much grief. Lets hope I win.

[Megas Methuselah]

Alright thanks.

In gratitude, you should give me a red balloon. All I got are green and blue ones.
:yes:

As for the Gallic Naked Fanatics, remember that the reccomended battle difficulty for EB is Medium, as any other difficult will severely unbalance unit stats(making them nearly invincible on Very Hard). Anyways, If I remember correctly, since you're Roman, use the large stock of javelins your infantry should have to full effect. Toggle the fire-at-will button on all your infantry (hastati, principes), use a few units of slingers, who if not able to outright kill any Gaesatae at range, will at least be able to get rid of 1 of their 2 hitpoints. Finally, when in melee, flank those Nudies with the best cavalry you've got again, and again, and again, etc., preferrably with the Extroadinarii cavalry, who are pretty good.

Never keep your cavalry in melee, always pull them back out 5 seconds after the charge, and charge all over again. Here, this might help: Ibrahim's Quick Guide to Using Cavalry (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=103172)

Remember, slingers are, in many people's opinions, better than archers, as they have the ap attack, making them very good against armoured opponents, and in general, plain good. The pila(Romani javelins) are also ap, so if you can deal those Nudies some good, low blows before the melee, you should be fine, assuming you'll use your cavalry to charge those buggers from behind while they're fighting your infantry.
:beam:

EDIT: Aw, Che kind of beat me. Although this really beats his sentence-long explanation. Heh heh.

[Che Roriniho]

Remember, slingers are, in many people's opinions, better than archers, as they have the ap attack, making them very good against armoured opponents, and in general, plain good. The pila(Romani javelins) are also ap, so if you can deal those Nudies some good, low blows before the melee, you should be fine, assuming you'll use your cavalry to charge those buggers from behind while they're fighting your infantry.
:beam:

EDIT: Aw, Che kind of beat me. Although this really beats his sentence-long explanation. Heh heh.

If Meths makes a sound, and no-one is around to hear him, is he still barmy? Only the pohpurri can elongate the cheese. BEWARE THE ASPHALT SUN!

In other news, playing on VH battle difficulty adds +8 to both attack and defence. That's all folks! Ta-da da-da duh-da daaaaaah... duh.

[Megas Methuselah]

If Meths makes a sound, and no-one is around to hear him, is he still barmy? Only the pohpurri can elongate the cheese. BEWARE THE ASPHALT SUN!

In other news, playing on VH battle difficulty adds +8 to both attack and defence. That's all folks! Ta-da da-da duh-da daaaaaah... duh.

Lol. That's funny because I'm going to kill you.
:san_laugh:

@yanks: i'm still waiting for my red balloon, bro. :yes:

[yanks186]

That explains a bunch. Thanks guys. I am playing on hard for both diffuculties, as when I first started, medium was too easy?

I guess its too late to change the difficulty now, huh? lol

I managed to win by taking a hill while they attacked me, putting my Veletites in front to throw their weapons at them, and while they retreated behind my lines, the princepes tossed their lot of javelens into the mess. My already large advantage of 500 men became somewhere near 700.

Their damn nude druidic men, they had 4 left and they were going to defeat my 50 princepes Isent after them lol. Damn them...

[Megas Methuselah]

My balloon, dangit!!!! Where is it?!

Anyways, yeah, those Romani javelins can really tip the balance before the battle actually starts. It makes me happy to see you taking advantage of that. Don't forget that cavalry can really help out, too.
:yes:

[yanks186]

:balloon2::balloon3::balloon4:

If I figure out how to give you a red one, I will... haha

[Megas Methuselah]

Heh heh. I'm just going to assume that "balloon4" is a red one. THX!!!

[yanks186]

I just won the most crucial battle of the war against the Aedui, killing their most powerful army in the region when I wwas outnumbered... and my game crashed. 30 minutes of battle for nought.

Anyone know if there is a way to speed up gameplay like in vanilla rome? I never managed to figure that out.

EDIT: Not to mention, I forget I fought 3 other battles in the AI turns as well... so I have to redo them all

[QuintusSertorius]

It happens, it's an RTW error, not an EB one. Best bet is to wait 10-15 seconds after getting the battle result screen before clicking to continue. I've found that cut my battle-on-AI-turn crashes to zero.

[Megas Methuselah]

Moreover, save and quit every few hours to restart your computer. As wise Quintus previously stated, this is a RTW problem, where there's some sort of (RAM?) memory leakage, which causes EB to lag over a few hours, and in your case, quickly clicking the end battle button crashed it, which can be resolved by giving it a small wait to load(again, as Quintus previously stated).
:2thumbsup:

EDIT: bad joke, Quintus. Srry.

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

meh...

Why worry? how big are you? how much money do you have? which areas do you hold?

IMO you have better troops, so just fied loads and loads of heavy troops, and leave them to suffer... Pedites extraordinarii come to mind... Cav if you want, but a few accensi as well... Not to mention, being at war, doessn't necessarily fighting... In my epeiros campaign, i'm at war with ptolemai, sweboz, lusotanna are allied with sweboz but i'm not fighting them, arverni, kart-hadast, and a few others... i'm only actually fighting with ptolemai, and beating them pretty well...

my ally is aedui, and i hold rome, greece, and asia minor, but i'm doing okay...

[General Appo]

Maybe the AI is smart enough to realise that you are the biggest threat to everyone, and so gangs up on you? Seriously, why does everyone always assume the AI doesn´t accept peace because it´s stupid? 99 out 100 times the human player becomes the most powerful faction, so wouldn´t it just be common sense for the AI to try and gang up on him to stop him from becoming so powerful and pwning everyone? I think the diplomatic AI is really smart, just that his economy and military brothers ruin it all the time.

[Zarax]

After doing some crazy modding I suspect that at least part of the diplomatic AI behaviour is related to the old vanilla senate.
After reactivating it for Rome and Carthage in XGM I noticed a sudden change in diplomatic activity, with factions much more ready to offer ceasefires and keeping them for at least a few turns.
Mind you, there still was the annoying "accept or we will attack" offer at times but much less than before.

[QuintusSertorius]

After doing some crazy modding I suspect that at least part of the diplomatic AI behaviour is related to the old vanilla senate.
After reactivating it for Rome and Carthage in XGM I noticed a sudden change in diplomatic activity, with factions much more ready to offer ceasefires and keeping them for at least a few turns.
Mind you, there still was the annoying "accept or we will attack" offer at times but much less than before.

Senate slot has been used in EB, so that's impossible.

[Tiberius Aurelius Cotta]

i'd rather have the factions as they are now, then better diplomacy, and having to deal with the senate again

[Dogukan]

Hey,
I have some questions while being the Romanii in my campaign. Its about 215 BC and I am currently in a war with the Carthaginians, Sweboz, Petlomai (egyptians...) and the Adui (Dark Green Gaul faction).

Now, I dont want to be at war with all of these nations, I even offered the Carthaginians peace when I was absolutely wrecking them, and currently they have their 3 Iberian based cities, along with 4 of the west most cities left in africa. I have taken everyhting else. Now they are fighting back as my attention goes elsewhere. But I would rather be at peace....

For the Sweboz, we have gone back in forth since about 240 BC in taking mediolanium and one of the northern cities in the mountains. I have tried peace with them, and it isnt happening either.

I dont get why no one will make peace? I'd rather fight one or two enemies at a time, instead of the gang raping by 5 powers. I do have Macedon as an ally, but thye never war against my enemies as well.




My other concern is the lack of ability my men have against fighting the Gaul Naked swordsmen or whatever their name is. They are command units I guess, but I cant seem to fight an enemy army when they have these units. My men basically retreat after initial contact and the battle is over, whether its on even ground or not. And most of my army is princepes, triarii, and velitites, no mercs at all. Is there some way to combat these troops so entire armies dont get obliterated?
I'm in a similar situation....
I play on hard difficulty and barbarians always beat me while I beat others much more easily.....and I don't want to restart a campaign......I hope it's not soooooooooooooo hard as you say but it makes it more fun to win battles...

[Zarax]

Senate slot has been used in EB, so that's impossible.

I never suggested doing that for EB, in XGM it was possible because we dropped the loyalty feature and so had a free faction slot.
I'm just saying that diplomacy may be negatively affected by deactivating references to that hardcoding, that's all.

[Rilder]

/me looks at his pontos game where its almost getting to the point where he'll actually have to start a war since nobody else wants to.

[QuintusSertorius]

I seem to have remarkably long peace stretches with everyone but the Seleukids in my Pergamon game.

[bigmilt16]

The only way to keep a neighboring faction off of your hide is to use diplomacy to always ensure that your neighbor is (1) weaker than you, and (2) has somebody else (besides yourself) to fear:

1. I constantly am playing Averni against Aedui (paying one neutral faction a few coins to attack the other.

2. The Carthaginians and Iberians never stay at peace for long and the Iberians will eventually try to cast the Carthaginians out of their lands. Keep that war in play as long as possible to keep both factions weak and distracted while you build your empire.

3. The Dacians and Germans are the scariest of them all because in combat they are absolutely ferocious. Moreover, if you cannot focus you absolute attention on them, they can topple your bordering cities with ease. Do everything in your power to ensure that you never, ever share a border with them. I often avoid all-out war with the other barbarian factions for most of the campaign because they make a great buffer between you and the Germans. I know that it is very tempting to topple the Aedui and Averni first and avoid decades of invasion attempts from the north, but defending Averni/Aedui invasions are still better than bordering the Germans.

4. Most importantly, do whatever you need to do to keep Ptolemy at bay EARLY IN THE GAME! Like the first few turns "early"!. (cheat, faction swap, use FD, use victory conditions). If you don't keep them at bay, then by the Marian Reforms, they will be the only legitimate eastern faction remaining. WARNING: If Ptolemy takes Antioch, then AS is doomed, and Ptolemy will become unstoppable.

5. Use that money you make in diplomacy too! Rome becomes pretty darn rich between the first punic war and the Marian Reforms. In order to keep your family members from becoming corrupt pigs, you are gonna have to do something with the money anyway. Use your spoils of victory to influence other factions to stay at war. Not only do you prolong another conflict, but you keep your FM's from becoming corrupt.

6. Keep Asia Minor busy with war. I have thrown Eperios out there as Pergamon and the Averni out there as Galatia. This keeps any one eastern faction from getting the guts to enter Greece (esp. Pontus).


Rich factions, like Ptolemy, Carthage, AS and Rome, historically did not just maintain their dominance through sheer military force alone (history and modern warfare today proves that it's impossible to do so), and neither can you. If you do not focus on your diplomacy as much as your legions, you will remain at war on five fronts. My advice is to start your campaign over and keep other factions weak and scared.

[yanks186]

Thanks for all the responses,

The basic gist of this thing is this:
The Germans (Sweboz?) captured Mediolanium from the Aedui early on in the game and from there we have had a border, they attacked me, so I seized that city and after back and forth I have fully secured it with a large garrison. I can push them back, once I deal with the Aedui.

My main saving grace is the fact that I allied Macedon really early off in the game and they are dominating the Greek and other areas. I have no fears from there.

The Iberian tribe has declared war as they are invading Gual now.. so I have to defend Gual while conquering it, but I might try to bribe them out of war with some money when I get some. I feel like, once I gain all Carthaginian Iberian territories, I can make them a client kingdomand send my marauding army under the now Africanus (formerly the Brutus family name) army with all silver chevrons of experiance to Egypt to start my invasion.

Against the Aedui, I took their 2 westward cities, leaving their middle and east 4. I have an army getting replacements then will go north, and an army full of pedites extraordanarii about to be sent north to Gaul to hopefully take them out of hte game for good.

[yanks186]

I decided to start over after all the things I learned from you guys and how the hard difficulty is a bitch to overcome. So I am brand new Romanii.

But my one question persists... is there a way to speed up gameplay?

[satalexton]

nope. u can blitz...but u'll find mid-late game harder n harder to manage as you're over stretched...then the sheer tediousness would bored you off the campaign....

it's better to take it nice and slow... consider each settlement as a mini-campaign of it's own...

[yanks186]

I might have phrased it wrong,

when I say speed up gameplay, I meant within the battle. So instead of waiting 10 minutes for hte enemy to march to me ontop of a hill, it will take 3 minutes. there used to be buttons for that in normal RTW, and I guess I never figured it out on here

[Rilder]

Ctrl+ T

[bigmilt16]

nope. u can blitz...but u'll find mid-late game harder n harder to manage as you're over stretched...then the sheer tediousness would bored you off the campaign....

it's better to take it nice and slow... consider each settlement as a mini-campaign of it's own...

I agree totally. It is very tempting to blitz as Rome because they have great capability to (esp. into Gaul); however, you will lose all hope once you realize you have no infrastructure, or reasonable means of getting reinforcements to the front.

[yanks186]

I have actually decided for a semi-blitz in my campaign, but nothing that should hurt me too much in the long run. In the beginning I took Bononia, Segestica, Patavium and Taras within the first 6-10 years. Mainly seiging them out until they starved. The whole time I usually spent my money in Rome or the other main cities. Then another 10 years I blitzed (and currently am) Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. The whole time I am doing this, I am spending money on things like barracks, roads, ports, anything of monetary or military value. I figure once I am done taking those areas, I will have the room I want monetary wise to further improve upon the Italian Heartland (highways already line 2 of my main 7 cities, with paved roads in the rest, along with the best of the ports that was historically allowed)

[satalexton]

u'll find it harder and harder to maintain your borders and field enough armies when more than half your settlements have yet to break-even economically...with the germans scratching your back and Tuat down there rebelling....then Alas! you get the marian reforms and realize your current army is semi obsolete, and you cant recruit replacements from greece quick enough.

[yanks186]

As of right now, I have a decent surplus per turn, with 1 full field army, and another one being recruited right now. All of my settlements are building something or another so none of them are idle. Money really isnt a problem, and will further cease to be, once I recruit local Iberian troops and dismiss 10 units of Mercs.

My second major field army is at sea coming back to Rome to get replacements and then move for North Africa where I plan on taking out carthage for good. I have 3 settlements not making any money, which totals a -600 combined. The rest are making a lot of money, or atleast 300. Some are in the 2000 range. So perhaps I am not blitzing as fast as some have done? Its only 247 BC

[yanks186]

Has anyone had any problems trying to subdue the last 2 Carthaginian cities? They are Tuat, and Palla? (Spelt wrong, the city all the way left on the map). I have taken them in battle, killed as many civilians as I could, low tax rates, level 4 government, and they rebel and I am left to deal with 1000 gold chevron slaves? I went from about to destroy them for good, to them having 2 decent armies...

After the two cities are done, I can finally dismantle 3 of my larger armies and focus my income on building my army for conquering Iberia (I already built 2 new armies, still making 15,000 a turn, I want a third army of cheap troops, to garrison while my main armies conquer them, city by city). Iberia is my next choice due to the simple facts of, most of it is still open to conquring, as the Lusotanians havnt taken any amount of cities. I have 2 cities in Iberia already, so it makes sense to take the 2 coastal cities in the east to finish the western Medetaranian Sea Empire, and then move inward from there. With Iberia firmly under my control, I believe I will have the perfect income to build my armies and conquer Kionon Hellenon whom has controlled Greece for some time.

[satalexton]

you don't have to take all their settlements, you just need to nail all their FM. IMO those settlesments down there are far too much trouble to be worth keeping... the easiest way to nail their FM is to siege a place, lift the siege on the last turn, then siege them again. keep doing that and keep killing whatever they throw at you.

[Aemilius Paulus]

What's all this talk I hear about getting rid of the first gaesatae hitpoint? I did not think the hitpoint system of RTW resembles any hitpoint systems of other RTS games. I don't think you can just take out a hitpoint of a naked fanatic with a javelin/pilum and expect the gaesatae to have only one hitpoint remaining, or can you? After all, I have not actually seen the code involved in this process of calculating the lethal hit, but from my game experience it just seems unlikely that you could simply "get rid" of that second hitpoint. Even a single hit can take out Gaesatae, it just has to be very lucky as the probability of such occurrence is rare. A second hitpoint, on my opinion, simply halves the lethality of the attacker's weapon, making a quick kill very rare. You never lose hitpoints in RTW, you either have them both or lose them all and die. Please correct if I am wrong, because I was simply stating my opinion. I would really like to know how the hitpoints system truly works.

[Foot]

That is not how it works. It is like you say, with disbelief, at the beginning. At successful strike (one that both hits and is lethal) takes away a hitpoint. If a soldier only has one hitpoint then a soldier will die. If a soldier has two hitpoints then it removes one for each successful strike until the soldier has none left.

Foot

[satalexton]

basically the gaesatae takes twice as much punishment before going down xD

Funny though, I never had any problems taking them down...yet I keep seeing people say they're too hard to deal with...

...If I'm the one using them though...xD they chew through anything...so long they're properly supported.

[Megas Methuselah]

Sata, your words hit the spot. So long as you're playing on the recommended difficulty, and provided you don't underestimate the guys, the Gaesatae shouldn't be much other than a small problem. However, used correctly, the fanatics can destroy anything.

Watch out. :yes:

[Aemilius Paulus]

That is not how it works. It is like you say, with disbelief, at the beginning. At successful strike (one that both hits and is lethal) takes away a hitpoint. If a soldier only has one hitpoint then a soldier will die. If a soldier has two hitpoints then it removes one for each successful strike until the soldier has none left.

Foot

Thanks a lot. :yes: