Defendable Territory

[Athena the Femme Fatale]

Hey guys,

I like to play defence. Build a sizable empire, defend it and maintain diplomatic relations with the other viable countries as well as messing with the politics here and there with an assasin or a plague ridden spy.

I am now playing a Julii long campaign where i gave up my position in Italy and conquered Egypt at the start of the game, expanded my empire and now am defending it.

Northwestern provinces (scythian lands) bordered by the Dieneper river where i place huge stacks to defend the bridges.

Western Border, i cover the whole of asia minor and including Byzantium (so i control entry to the black sea)

South Westernmost provinces include Cyrene and Libya

Everything east of these holdings are mine. Which is quite good since i own like 6/7 of the wonders and my Capital sited at Antioch.

Then basically i sack other factions and transfer their populations to my city at their expense so i can tech up and i spend most of my time sacking and upgrading my cities.

You guys know of any other defendable areas?

Athinai

[Celt Centurion]

One that looks worth taking is the pass just West of Tarsus. I'm presently in a Brutii campaign, and have all of Asia Minor except for Tarsus, which was taken by Egypt a few turns ago, and they are now attacking me near Ancyra. So, while I have formed 3 full stacks near Ancyra, I've also built up another full stack, foundry armor with 3 chevrons at the Temple of Mars, and went by Sea to Tarsus, which I will besiege in the next turn. There are 5 large Egyptian Armies in that Pass, which I know I will have to clear out, but I also know that pass is worth defending well, along with the ones near Sinope. Secure the passes, and the land we now refer to as Turkey is secure from invasion except by Sea.

To counter the Sea invasion, I also keep a few highly experienced, well armored fleets in port whose main job is to wait until I see an enemy fleet with an army on it. Then, I pounce on them with my fleets like so many clubs until one of them sinks the fleet, and the army! It's a satisfying feeling to sink a fleet that you knew had an army coming your way.

As you have already conquered Egypt, they won't be a problem, but the passes are still worth defending.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[Marshal Murat]

Move past Greece and secure Aquila, and then Noricum, and then the Rhine River fords. It depends on who you want to sack next. The sea area west of Crete is practically yours by my understanding, and if you wanted to take Africa, that would open up a lot of space, but all you'd have to defend are the cities. Moving into Spain, you either stop before Gibraltar, or stop at the Pyrnees.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi and welcome Athena the Femme Fatale,
May I request a screenshot of your map - I'm, very sadly, having some trouble visualising your lands at the moment. Thanks! Cheers!

[Athena the Femme Fatale]

Ah, actually my empire is in the east, not in the west as i have given up my starting towns. Italy is completely Brutii and only the other romans and all the barbarians are still surviving.

So i own the map east of crete, not west.

The pass at tarsus and the one at sinope are good holding areas and i own them all. I prefer to defend my borders by stationing guards at the bridges. 10 units of legions 5 catapults, 4 archer auxillas and 1 roman calvary (to mop up the routs). My melees hold the bridge while my missiles bombard the barbarians who threaten the Dnieper, very statisfying :laugh4:.

I too have 3 full stacks of quinquiremes and yes sinking transports laden with armies is orgasmic.

Paving the vast scythian lands and the eastern mountains with highways brings about a developer's satisfaction.

Defending my empire against the massing barbarian hordes, i could play it on forever.

[Athena the Femme Fatale]

http://rtw.heavengames.com/rtw/info/maps/campaignmap

Haha, sorry but i will be in school for quite a while (weeks) and my game is in my home computer.

Draw a line joining: Cyrene - Kydonia - Byzantium - Campus Sarmatae.
Everything east of them, including these settlements are my empire.

Campus Sarmatae's region is protected by guards at bridges along the Dnieper (the river which forms its western border).

Libya's westernmost border is sealed shut with tightly packed forts

Asia minor has no direct landbridge to it and can only be accessed navally.

Thanx for the nice welcome!

[Celt Centurion]

Went back in last night, and besieged Tarsus. The Egyptians promptly rang my shield, and I fought the attacking army, and the one inside the city, reducing the combination of their armies to 11 men.

Then, in the same turn, another Egyptian army also attacked, and they were also sent to Set, or Horus, or whoever.

I got the city. The Egyptians then attacked the Army I sent to challenge them in the pass, and my army destroyed two of theirs. I dragged and dropped to bring up to full strength, and sent the reduced units to Ancyra for retraining, and sent replacements back to the pass. In the 6 or so turns I played last night, I destroyed 8 Egyptian armies in the pass, leaving them with 2. They must really want it badly. I've never before seen so many full stacks in that pass. I suspect; that their intention was to fan out and take all the cities in the Turkish peninsula at once, but my army going to challenge them put a kink in their plans.

The Egyptians have also besieged Tarsus twice, losing two armies in one battle, and when I go back in, I intend to break the other siege. By sending so much after Tarsus and the pass, they have left most of the Middle East with minimum armies. If I can act fast enough, I may be able to remove Egypt from the equation soon.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi again Athena the Femme Fatale,
Thanks very much for the map! May I suggest that, for future expansion and defend ability that you consider focusing Romanisation and expansion around this region:

https://img364.imageshack.us/img364/5120/mapvt1.gif
This great region, probably the best on the map for defence, due to it's huge amount of highly conveniently situated rivers - is very easy to defend and expand into. Down north from Vicus Venedae there is a great river bordering between yourself and Campus Scythii with two passes on it. There is also a feild of dense impassable forest and a mountain with an easy to defend pass separating you from the settlement of Campus Iazyges. Further East and slightly North is Domus Dulcis Dormus (Home Sweet Home as it would be known as in modern English). That settlement is also conveniently surrounded by rivers that split your regions up from the vast and ugly forests of Barbaric Germania. Expanding into the regions mentioned can really help you in your future conquests by providing you with a mighty and well protected base to build up armies during the civil war.
https://img126.imageshack.us/img126/6733/map2ig7.gif
After your northern expansion you have the ability to go down South into another great and easily defendable region! Taking Campus Iazyges, which is almost surrounded by epic rivers, and then taking a trip into Porolissum, also surrounded by rivers, followed by venturing into Campus Gatae, will both leave you with all of the most defendable regions on the map and with the barbaric Scythians almost completely and utterly surrounded. Also this great region will hopefully be critical in holding your ground against the Brutii in the civil war.

Good luck with the rest of your campaign, cheers!

[Athena the Femme Fatale]

Good suggestions Omanes!

But i'd prefer to keep my western border with weak scythian neighbours as allies or friendly neutrals. Already the area is quite vast and dealing with rebels can get quite a headache. And my watchtowers already line the Dnieper. It's a pity though that when i sack and destroy the barbarian cities to populate my own, i cannot totally destroy them (walls, farms, roads...)

Alternatively, i've played the scythians and control the whole of Eurasia (from campus saka all the way to corduba) leaving only asia minor, egypt and africa as my contemporary lesser world powers. The narrow passes at the caucasus mountains are highly defensible. Italy and the Balkans are money spinners but the area is vast and hard to manage (clearing out rebels and stuff) and micromanaging is a headache (i always micro).

Celt, you may want to consider a blitz and take out their major cities. One thing i realised, the whole show is run on denarii. Deprive a faction of it and its armies drop like flies.

One question: Let's say i've already a campaign. If i were to do a mod to the text to change something like say rebel army size, will this change be reflected in my current game or only when i start a new campaign after the changes?

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I am not totally sure yet, I would presume that you would have to when you change the rebel spawning rate (that is you mean, is it not?). I'd wait for a modder to pop by first, however, before being sure, my humble and feeble knowledge, or most of the time lack of it, hence the username, only really extends to how to lose my battles, sorry about that.

[LuckyDog Trojan]

Athena:
Welcome as a new, full-fledged member of the Org.

A couple of idea's for you when you again pick up the sword.

Invade and then take the southernmost provinces of Greece (Sparta & Corinth). These two cities can be good money-makers with sea trade AND the area is easily defendable. Place a fort on the tiny patch of land that separates this region from the mainland.

Secondly - and this is a more bold initiative - conduct a major invasion of the Iberian (Spain) peninsula. Once you've conquered the six provinces there, the region can be defended somewhat easily by again placing forts in the mountain passes that separate Spain from mainland Europe. On the downside, the distance from your capital will be considerable. So you'll have to contend with the challenges of unrest and those treacherous rebels! If you choose to do this, I suggest that you 'exterminate' the local population, destroy their temples and immediately replace them with temples that produce loyalty to the Julii faction.

Of course, in all of the above, I'm making the assumption that your Roman brothers & sisters don't already occupy those lands.

Good luck and keep us posted on how things turn out!

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I have found that the best temples for far away provinces are law temples such as temples of Jupiter (Julii) or Saturn (Scipii). They increase public order two fold and reduce corruption at the same time. Overall, these temples help provide you with happier and wealthier settlements.

[Third spearman from the left]

When you do get back to your PC do remember to post a couple of screen shots. Am very interested to see your Map. Two questions for you,

1. When you left Italy for the east, did this not lead to the senate giving you missions based on fighting Gaul in northern Italy, if so how did you complete them?

2. What level of difficulty are you playing at the moment?

:2thumbsup:

[Athena the Femme Fatale]

Trojan, thanx for the tip but i've razed them to the ground. Haha..

Omanes, I built Law temples only in the 5 cities near my capital where i put governors, for the rest, i put Bacchus for the better bonuses (50 happiness 10 law or something like tt). No Bacchanalian festivals for my governor's cities. Dun want them to get bad traits: drinking, whoremongering etc..
I kill incompetent Julii family members with plague and kill off all family members who are not Julians.

TSFTL

1. I didn't. That's why the Brutii owned northern italy cuz the senate had to get them greens to do their bidding since i was ignoring them. No reprisals though, i started the civil war, not the senate.

2. VH/M

Will take a while, a few weeks before i can post pics... I have detroyed off all civilized factions. Now it's just be living with the Barbarians (the way i want) who are all fine except the scythians are gone. I'm at war with the gauls and neutral with the rest though none wanted an alliance.

[Roman_Man#3]

One question: Let's say i've already a campaign. If i were to do a mod to the text to change something like say rebel army size, will this change be reflected in my current game or only when i start a new campaign after the changes?


Sadly you cannot. descr_strat is the file where you would change the rebels spawn rates, but descr_strat only defines the beginning of a campaign. As soon as you move an army, a person, build a building, whatever!, descr_strat is basically ignored.


I may be wrong, but doubtful.

RM3

ps. Welcome to the ORG.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi again Athena,

Omanes, I built Law temples only in the 5 cities near my capital where i put governors, for the rest, i put Bacchus for the better bonuses (50 happiness 10 law or something like tt). No Bacchanalian festivals for my governor's cities. Dun want them to get bad traits: drinking, whoremongering etc..Bacchus is a very good temple to have far away, yet I would suggest that you would go for Jupiter for settlements a fair distance from your capital myself. The Jupiter temple's law bonuses can reach vast proportions and provide a great benefit in tackling corruption - one of the main sources of income loss in many cities away from your capital. It also supplies the same happiness bonuses as the Bacchus temple - law is a statistic which bumps up happiness.

Enjoy your empire building, cheers!

[César Victor]

Stop defending. Kill them all. KILL THEM ALL!!

Heh. But seriously, how close are yee from civil war victory? Any of the Roman factions been destroyed yet? You mighta already said so but I've been skipping through and mighta missed it. You took a very interesting rout to conquest travelling south. In my Julii campgain took the boring path of Gaul and Spain and, eventually, north Africa. Make sure you target the weakest of the two other families as, if you focus all your attention on the one faction, they get crushed uber fast (that's three times today I've said uber :boxing:).

Ah btw, LuckyDog was right, Spain is a hawt place to mount a defensive.

And welcome to the Org! It's about time we got some ladies around here.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Sorry to disappoint you César, but (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1461182&postcount=13)....