Getting my but kicked in the civil war, need help

(long RTW noob post)

Ok, I have been playing the TW games (mostly singleplayer) off and on since Shogun first came out. I skipped Rome 2 years ago becuase my computer was too beat up to run it properly. A few weeks ago I bought it and have devoted WAY too much time to plyaing through my first campaign (normal difficulty, unpatched, unmodded) to the point where I am basically obsessed with winning just so taht I can take a break from the game and not have to play it between 9 pm and 3 am every night and be late to work the next day, lol.

So my campaign was going swimmingly as the Julii, as I said it was my first time through so I didn't know anything about the civil war until it was too late. Anyway I started out going up & over into Gaul & Germania & Britain, and eventually expanded into Spain. by about year 200 or so, I controlled all of Western Europe, and Eastern Europe about as far over as Vicus whatever - essentially if you draw a line vertically up the map from Segesta that's what I control - everything west is mine (maybe 30 provinces). I also have Rhodes & Crete as well.

Anyway since I didn't know about the civil war I let Scippi and Brutii (both about as powerful as me, relatively speakign) expand like crazy and Pontus also did/does very well. The rest of the factions have either died out or are pitifully small.

Eventually my popularity with the people was high and it was low with the senate so I just decided to take over Rome and be done with it around 190 or so. Rome fell easily, but then my factio leader died and i don't really have too many good generals down there. I'm churning out units from Arretium, Patavium, etc but they are getting chewed up because the Scippi keep sending big stacks through Rome and into my heartland to the point where I'm in a bit of trouble now since I just lost a few generals down there (stupidly) Plus they are all inexperienced so thaty don't fight all that well. My good gnerals and units are all old and spread way throughou the map (mostly far north) so it's going to be rough going down there for a while.

To make matters worse the Brutii sat around for a while doing nothing but then decided to start moving in on my eastern euro territories, they just destroyed me with numbers in a badly executed siege battle on my part but anyway that part of the empire is under threat.

financially I make about 10 k per turn, most of my cities are already in decent shape as far as buildings go, and can create good units. I have decent sized forces but most of them are spread thinly on garrison duty due to lots of rebellions (not sure why as I've been good about building public order & sanitation faciilities and have been using the "rotating governors" startegy).

The only strategies I could think of was to get some allies - but Pontus keeps turning me down. The other thing I noticed is that while they were brutalizing me at home Brutii left the backdoor to Greece wide open and lightly defended and I have a full stack in Crete and Rhodes (as well as a decent navy in most areas) I just took sparta easily and am trying to contemplate whether I should hold on to it or just destroy all the buildings and let it rebel and then move on up into Greece, repeating the same way. Should I keep doing this or try to hold on to them?

Also, should I move my capital inland? Trier is probably the geographic center of my empire, I just don't feel like moving in for sentimetnal reasons (plus I would lose crete and rhodes proabably, which are good troop training states for me)

I will post a screenshot of my stuff if I get a chance when I get home.

Sorry for the long post, I just want to win the darned game so I can get part of my life back.

Well, pretty good for your first campaign! I would advise you to keep expanding into greece. Keep hitting the enemy where they aren't in force and take as many cities from them as possible. As for the Brutii attacking your eastern border, try to reinforce as much as possible and sit back on the defensive a while until you can train more men. Don't just train new soldiers on the front line of your eastern border, but reinforce the cities on roughly the second row as well if you have the money, so if the front row falls, your army will still be strong. Well, that's my two cents...

Use peasants for garrisons if you aren't already. They are cheap and numerous, so they'll free up good troops for use in battle. You're already powerful, so adopt a policy of extermination in the roman cities you take. That'll cut the numbers way down so you won't need loads of troops to maintain order there. Attrition should be your friend here. You're bigger than they are, so destroy their armies when you can. Try to catch small armies alone when possible so they don't join together. Put forts in mountain passes or at river crossings, if there are any between you and the enemy. Build a navy for use against the Scipiones. Don't spread it out, but keep it all in one fleet. If you hold all of Italy, they'll only be able to come at you by sea or from the north side of the peninsula. Keep the generals out of the fighting as much as possible. Use bribery if you have the spare cash. Since they are also roman, all the troops you bribe will join your forces except for the gladiators. You weaken them and strengthen yourself in one move.

I've just went through my first several turns of civil war myself in my current Julii campaign, but knowing only RTW (never played the other Total War games) was well aware of the civil war from past campaigns and had a good inkling when it would start or I could initiate it by attacking Rome and the other Roman factions, and what to expect. I also had 42 provinces when it started, had contained the Brutii quite effeciently to the Greek peninsula through troop placement and early expansion up and around them to keep them small in size. The Scipii were also kept contained to Sicily and Numidia/Egypt, the former areas where most of there troop strength was when the war started so they're just fodder for my navy, which I also built up, if they try to attack now.

Its a bit of a predicament your in for sure, especially being low on generals and troops in the Italy/Rome area. One thing to be carefull of is building too many health/farming bonus buildings particularly in regions that may have an already high growth rate due to farming and fertile soil. Although they do provide happiness they also add to the growth rate which can lead to the need for huge garrisons to keep public order. It may be a be to late now though as you've mentioned building public health buildings widely. Perhaps start concentrating on law/happiness only buildings and stop any further health/farming building. It may eventually wind up in a settlement been stricken with the plague, but my experience has been that if you sit the plague out (and move any generals/govenors out and to other settlements as soon as it hits) its actually a mixed blessing as it thins out the population a bit thereby improving public oder.

10,000 dinari a turn seems a bit low too for the provinces you made. Before expanding north into dacia I had a pretty similar map presence to what you described and was making around 17,000 - 19,000 dinari per turn. Sounds like you might need to also concentrating on buildings of wealth as well. My personal favorite is the Jupiter temples as they tend to add good law bonuses as well as increase profits by reducing corruption. I think thats something many overlook honestly. Building a paved road might only take two turns and bring in 300 dinari more per turn, but can often have a 30 dinari corruption penalty. But building a Temple of Jupiter can bring %10 law/happiness bonus and eliminate 30 (and I've seen as much as 100 dinari in large-huge cities far form the capital) so you get a bit more bang for the buck with them. Besides, you can always built the road later.

As for your troop number and placement issues, I'd say you need to start building peasants in those north most provinces and start moving your any quality troops you have garrisoning up there down to fight the civil war. Keep churning out the ather troops in Rome and your original and more developed provinces and send them to the meat grinder. Eventually you should be able to wear down those encroaching Brutii and Scipii troops and once you have theyre probably going to be up a creek since, as you've stated, they seem to have left light garrisons behind. And on that note...

I'd say grab all of those Greek provinces you can and hold at all costs. Exterminate the populace when you do, it'll bring in lots of dinari for you use for training new troops/recruiting mercenaries, continue building in other settlements and keep them in line where public order is concerned since the population will be reduced. Plus they tend to be very wealthy in resources which equals more cash per turn, usually well developed by the Brutii/Scipii already and you'll be adding to your province count, which requires 50 including Rome to win. But you've already got Rome, so hold it if you can.

And, oh yeah:

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so taht I can take a break from the game and not have to play it between 9 pm and 3 am every night and be late to work the next day

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and...

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I just want to win the darned game so I can get part of my life back.

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Aint gonna happen, your addicted now! :laugh4:

Thanks for the advice folks, i haven't visited this forum since I weaned myself off of MTW a few years ago and I forgot how helpful it was.

I'm actually flying off to Turkey tomorrow for a few weeks but I will surely be hooked on Rome as soon as I get back, though I'll binge tonight before I go.

try to make a front... they will usually attack your outercities first. Make these cities strong. I always have like 6 archers (most advanced version) on the walls.
Let them attack your cities, you will be able to repel them without to much losses (less then in the field).

Btw often the army that is attacking you will be set up parallel to your walls. For some reason 9 out of 10 times they will mover to the right and take up position. So position your archers on the wall from the gate to the right. Since the moving army will be fired upon from the side they will sustain many casualties.
Then you sally out and try to force the fight close to your walls so the towers actually help you in your fight.

personally I let all my cavalry go out the (right) side gate to be able to make 2 fronts on them, foot (inclusiding archers) from the front and cavalry from the side.
sometimes I will let 2 archers teams stay on the far right side of the wall. If the fighting begins they can give support fire. The other 4 units join the fight outside the wall

:)

good luck

(did you try to bribe a general yet?)

A sound tactic, indeed. I wonder why the AI always turns right, though. Well, at least they don´t rush in onto the first unit to leave the gates and get slaughtered by the tower arrows.