Roman Republic - RTR Tips please

Hey,

I was ill home from school today and loadsa time so I decided to download Rome Total Realism 6 Gold, I must say it is very fun. I chose the Romans for my first campaign, naturally. Anyway I'm just looking for some tips. I have setup trade relations with Carthage and soon the Ptolmeic(sp) and Seleucid Empires, oh and also the Germans.

My tactics were to immediatly go after the Greeks at the bottom of the peninsula before they get too strong. I have already taken two of their provinces and a few rebel ones. Currently I am leaving the Gauls alone, I dont have the resources for a war on two fronts.

My basic overall plan is like the Julii route on vanilla, drive north/west towards the english channel. Oh who are the best garrison troops? I used to use peasants but obviously I cannot use them anymore. I am currently using Italian swordmen.

Tips advice welcome. Especially on money, I am struggling to break even each turn.

Rome is a lot of fun in RTR. I had a great campaign where I was at war with seemingly everyone from Gaul to Seleucia and somehow never got to knock any one faction out (but still got 50 provinces and won the game). Rome actually has a very strong economy in RTR, I think, so you can soon afford to wage war on multiple fronts.

I tended not to attack anyone first, but only fight those who struck the first blow. But I think it is a good move to move down into Sicily (Carthage attacked me early on) and take that before heading north against the Gauls. It is very secure and quite rich. The Gauls will come for you sooner or later, so you will end up pursuing the Julii strategy. But you may find you can also simultaneously pursue the Scipii one into N.Africa and the Brutii one into Greece. You are Rome, afterall. I even landed a spoiling expedition into Asia Minor against the Seleucids after I got a message saying that they were close to winning the game (they need very few provinces to get to 50).

On the economy, I tended to only build troops in Rome and let the other cities develop their economic infrastructure - ports first, then roads, then forums. I would have limited armies - one stack for each front - and go light on cavalry.

You may find the game is rather easy if you use exclusively Roman units - the principes in particular is an amazingly cost-effective unit. I quickly gave up one campaign after boredom when playing a victory at all costs game. Instead, I now split my stacks 50:50 between Romans and allies (Italians, Gauls, whatever), to be historical and increase the challenge. And always keep to the historical proportion of 2V:2H:2P:1T with limited missile troops and cav.

For garrisons, I tended to scatter stacks across them so they would be a balance of all types (ie alternate, 1V, 1H, 1P, 1 Italian sword etc.). Not the most cost-effective approach, no doubt, but it means that is not too hard to scrounge replacement troops for your armies when you need them.

Thanks for the advice.

I'm actually finding the game alot more different than vanilla than I expected, for the better of course!

A city on Sicily rebelled back to be, then the Greeks sieged it but luckily I had mainly missile troops their so it was just a case of reining down hell on their ladders and ram.

Elsewhere to the north I'm in the early stages of raising an army to take Arrinium, currently in rebel hands. And to the south I'm preparing to siege the Greeks final province on the peninsula. All very fun stuff :)

Oh and I liked your idea of just using Rome for army and economy for other cities. Working well for me so far :)

In RTR I find the historical approach works best. Move south and kick out the Greeks since they are the biggest threat. Then take the nearby islands from Carthage. Taking any port city will help your economy greatly. Allying with the Illyrians and Gaul early will help with trading while you deal with bigger things.

Then you can move into Gaul or Greece proper once you have a financial base. Swordsmen are great for garrisons but sometimes you can also build cheaper peltast or slinger units in some areas.

I found RTR very good, now i´m playing as macedonia and i´ve conquered all the greek peninsula. my next move is conquer Rome and Italia.
After that i thinks the best move is going to the east.

OT Comments split off.