Saxon Campaign (Lots of n00b questions :D..)

Hi All,

Gee, this should be my first post in the Colloseum! Cool :book: :balloon2:

Here's the story, I'm new to RTW singleplayer, and playing a Saxon campaign. It seems to go well, but there's some things I'm worried about.

I have under control now;

Vicus Saxones
Campus Chattii
Campus Frisii
Colonia Agrippina
Augusta Treverorum
Samarobriva
Avaricum
Burdigala
Arles
Campus Burgundii
Campus Lombardii
Campus Macromanni
Campus Quadi
Vicus Franki
Vicus Alemanni
Campus Vandali

I'm in war with the vandals in south france, trying to hold my settlements there. I have a small fleet in great britain and and army which is besieging Dal Raida. (it's about to fall) At Campus Vandali I've encoutered the Sassanids and started war with them.

I like destroying factions.. so far the dead list is:

Roxolani
Alemanni
Slavs
Ostrogoths
Franks
Huns
Sarmatians
Lombardi
Celts
Goths

The Burgundii, Vandals, Berbers, ERE are still there but very weak. The Romano-British haven't yet risen. (WRE still rule England) WRE seems strong, but very busy dealing with rebels. The Sassanids, my former allies, have conquered turkey, the middle-east, russia, etc etc.. they're now trying to take campus vandali. (I already defeated one full army there and killed one family member) But I'm afraid of them. In my past TW experience it was like when one faction became big, it usually became too big and I couldn't do anything about it anymore. Well.. I seem very strong too, but I don't know how much armies to expect from the sassanids. That's the first problem.. how big a war will this give?

Second.. money! I have over 950.000 denarii right now. I exterminate the populations in any settlements I take, but I also build any buildings available in all settlements, but it just keeps increasing. I think because my armies are quite small. 2 full stacks of strong troops in the east, 2,5 in the south-west, 1 full stack in great-britain. for the rest I have only peasants as garrisons everywhere. where I can't raise taxes to the max I just put in 19 of them. (+governor) in settlements that are less revolting.. I just put in as many as it takes to get a yellow face with very high taxes. I wonder what happens when I reach 1.000.000 denarii? will it keep counting? hehee

but the real problem.. loyalty, revolts! Even with a nice governor, 19 peasants and low taxes and all good buildings big cities like avaricum and samarobriva want to revolt. When they do I just let them, then besiege the settlment, kill off the sallying rebels and exterminate the population again.. but after a while they do it again. :wall: and I need to have an army to defeat the rebels around, and I do not always have. (I have peasants.. but they're no good. I need to train or move in a 'real army' when they revolt again) my capital is now vicus franki because it lies central in the area I've conquered. But campus vandali for instance is getting a serious penalty for the distance to the capital. how will I ever conquer settlements twice the distance away and keep them loyal?

ok, I don't really need to. If I conquer a few more, including london, I've won. but I want to conquer the entire map. so I wonder what I'm going to do to keep loyalty.. I could use some tips on that.

so.. some questions

what is squalor? just the size of the population? ehh

can I do something useful with all that money?

any tips on defeating a large enemy as the sassanids?

any suggestions for who to attack and what to conquer?

how do I keep loyalty, especially in regions far away?

will my family tree grow big enough to get governors in all settlements?

is there a reason why I shouldn't just use only-cav armies? with 20 saxon sea raiders I beat any army, even with lots of spears in a mattar of seconds and kill 99% of the enemies..

what can I do when I get to conquering settlements where the populations is christian?

..
thanks in advance!

I'll now go and kill off some more sassanids :yes: :egypt:

Originally Posted by :
what is squalor? just the size of the population? ehh

Originally Posted by :
how do I keep loyalty, especially in regions far away?

There was a thread about Squalor in the Entrance Hall, I think. Or here, in the Colloseum. Anyway, check that out.

One thing you should do is change your capital. If it's the original Vicus Saxones, then the people in Southern France won't necessarily be happy to be ruled by people so far away. Bring the Capital at the centre of your kingdom. That helps with loyalty.

Originally Posted by :
can I do something useful with all that money?

Yes, recruit many, many, many more soldiers, and crush the Sassanids into the next Total War game! Also, build up your towns.

Originally Posted by :
any tips on defeating a large enemy as the sassanids?

Conquer methodically, capture the cities close to you, and keep going until they're destroyed, or until you've got a good defense point.

Originally Posted by :
any suggestions for who to attack and what to conquer?

Well, if you keep the Sassanids at bay, I say keep attacking Vandals. Conquer Italy, Spain, easy places to defend, in other words (Spain's got only one entry point: with France. Control France, and Spain is safe. Same with Italy.)

Originally Posted by :
will my family tree grow big enough to get governors in all settlements?

That I'm not sure about, I remember reading something about 4 Family Members per settlement.

Originally Posted by :
what can I do when I get to conquering settlements where the populations is christian?

Assimilate your culture, slowly. But a very large garrison, a Pagan Governor, make sure the towns around it are Pagan, and destroy Christian-inducing buildings, such as Churches. Replace them with your Groves.

Originally Posted by :
is there a reason why I shouldn't just use only-cav armies? with 20 saxon sea raiders I beat any army, even with lots of spears in a mattar of seconds and kill 99% of the enemies..

Sieging is difficult when none of your troops can hold the Battering Ram... At least, that's my reasoning. And, it depends on your play style: prefer cav armies? Use 'em. Prefer infantry? Use those guys.


That's about it. One piece of advice I can give you with certainty is: read the manual, for once it's usefull, and read FroggBeastEgg's Guide in the RTW Guides forum.

Nice to see you back Drisos. :yes:

Originally Posted by :
what is squalor? just the size of the population? ehh

Squalor is the enemy of all things public-order. Essentially you need a large garrison to keep it down. Exterminate the population when you conquer it (and later on, if you're not too picky) in order to keep it down.

Originally Posted by :
can I do something useful with all that money?

Yeah, pretty much what Horus said. Tech up and keep recruiting. Crush the Sassanids with sheer numbers.

Also, in BI it takes 2 units of peasants to neutralize the same amount of squalor that 1 unit of any other troop can do. Use regular, low-tech troops instead.

Originally Posted by :
any tips on defeating a large enemy as the sassanids?

Stay on the defensive until you finish recruiting all of those high-tech troops. Then, slowly but surely, go on the offensive. Patience.

Originally Posted by :
any suggestions for who to attack and what to conquer?

Take out those weak factions that you mentioned. That way you'll be able to concentrate on the Sassanids.

Originally Posted by :
how do I keep loyalty, especially in regions far away?

:viking:

Also, as Horus said, change your capital to a central location.

Originally Posted by :
will my family tree grow big enough to get governors in all settlements?

Eventually. But every settlement doesn't need a governor (you can turn auto-manage off via Options in case you have that on) as they'll get corrupt. Better to use them as commanders.

Originally Posted by :
is there a reason why I shouldn't just use only-cav armies? with 20 saxon sea raiders I beat any army, even with lots of spears in a mattar of seconds and kill 99% of the enemies..

Eventually, you're going to have to start besieging cities. Worst comes to worse, just put a couple of infantry units there as bait/cannon fodder.

Originally Posted by :
what can I do when I get to conquering settlements where the populations is christian?

:viking:

As soon as you conquer the settlement, destroy every single Christian building and put a pagan shrine up. If you survive the first round of riots, then you won't have a problem.

Hi Drisos (and welcome to the Colosseum),

Originally Posted by Drisos:
what is squalor? just the size of the population? ehh.... how do I keep loyalty, especially in regions far away?

Managing public order in R:TW BI is very hard - high taxes, unrest, squalor, cultural penalty, different religions and distance to capital are factors which great leaders could do without. Squalor is possibly the worst:

To prevent squalor, the best option is to simply prevent growth - as a wise fellow once said - "your war is not against squalor - it's against population growth". Population growth will always occur in even the least hygienic and well fed settlements, yet it can be slowed down by avoiding health and population boosting buildings, including farms. Sadly, though, since to get the best military units you require maxed up cities, so, in certain strategically important cities, this rule will have to be broken.

Unfortunately, your only resort against squalor, once you have it, is building heath buildings and similar happiness structures, as you have said. I do believe, however, that they do not actually resolve squalor and instead simply counter-act and, over time phase their good out by piling huge amounts of population upon your settlement creating a worse squalor issue. You could also upgrade the Governor's palace, yet that can make things worse in the long run too.

The best thing I find if the problem is too out of hand is abandoning the settlement, leaving it to revolt, and then returning to exterminate the populace. It reduces the population's numbers, yet also removes income within the settlement, so, if your desperate for cash, then you may wish to avoid this evil strategy.

May I also suggest that you try rebalancing the population. Simply train many units of peasants in your largest cities and disband them in your smaller ones. This migration moves men from the large city, that could do with less people in the populace, to a smaller one that requires the population to expand to the next level to gain better troops. If you have no small cities that require this boost, send the Peasants to their deaths - stick 'em on a boat and send them into pirate/enemy infested waters. They will soon be dead, leaving you with nothing to worry about!

Unrest is caused by recent conquest of a settlement, governor's traits and enemy spies stirring up trouble!

Sadly, resolving unrest caused by the settlement changing hands in unresolvable and cannot really be changed without the help on a unrest reducing governor - sorry.

However, checking out your characters can solve unrest. Does the governor have unrest causing traits in his selection? If he does then get your calculator out and add things up! For every happiness influencing point which is positive, such as influence/subtraction from squalor, add 5% onto your totals unless a percentage is given and then instead add that on. Then subtract everything negative taking away 5% per point of anything unless a percentage is given. If the governor's rating on your calculator turns out to be below 0 (causing more problems than he is resolving) then take him out and find somebody with a better rating. You can work them out using this system, and install them as governor of this realm. As a rule, it is best to install those with the highest ratings in the more rebellious settlements (often on your borders).

Enemy spies are the chief cause of unrest, causing +5% unrest per subterfuge point. Put your own spies in the settlement to track them down and get them executed for their evils, this may take a few turns, however, so it may not be useful if you need an emergency quick-fix.

Cultural penalty is caused by buildings of a different culture being in your settlement. For example, if the Romans were to capture a Greek settlement with many Greek buildings then this factor would run rampant. It causes a -5% penalty per building that is not your culture with a 20% penalty for the governor's building. It does, however, reach it's maximum capacity at 50%.

It can be removed through upgrading the buildings in the settlement to the next level, upgrading the governor's residence, and the city, to the next level and destroying buildings not of your culture, although it's best to do a balancing act here and thing about the positive effects of the building versus a -5% happiness penalty.

Religious unrest is caused by several factors. In resolving it, firstly you need to work out the settlements official religion. This is set by the temple/church existing there first, then the governor, if there isn't a church, and then by the faction leader, if there isn't a church or a governor.

Often it's a good idea to change a town's official religion - you can do this by destroying it's church/temple and building one of your own. However, when conquering a settlement, you have to consider if changing it's religion is worthwhile.

The factors that should be noted are:
The faction leaders religion - This results in -15% should it be different from the official religion of the settlement.
The assigned governor's religion - This results in -10% happiness should it be different from the settlement's official religion.
The religion of the populace - Once the religion changes, if the populace is of a different religion to what they once had, then they will be very un-happy till conversion takes place. You have to consider if the settlement can take a drastic fall for several turn before making any religious changes.

Once you have made your choice to change the religion, by building a new religious building, you have to convert them as soon as possible to prevent them from revolting in rage at your sacking of their almighty temple. Send agents and family members which are of the new religion in to begin preaching and speed up the process. Also upgrading your new temple as fast as you can helps in this process too. Once the settlement is totally converted, religious unrest should go away for good.

Originally Posted by Drisos:
can I do something useful with all that money?

Yep, you most certainly can - spend it on military expansion ready to blitz the Sassanids (Spearmen and speedy Light Cavalry will be good here).

On a different note, however, it may be useful to know that your treasury will be causing no end of nasty corruption traits with your governors! Keeping your coffers below 50,000 denarii will keep these horrible traits at bay, but often this is impossible once you get to a certain stage in the game - your simply too rich for it!

Originally Posted by Drisos:
will my family tree grow big enough to get governors in all settlements?

It's perfectly possible - although it can be a little hard and slow to get to. However, once your family has expanded immensely, there often will be a permanent supply of generals ready to serve you in your actions and quests!

Originally Posted by Drisos:
any tips on defeating a large enemy as the sassanids?

The Sassanids are a very tough foe. However with a large army of high quality spearmen at your side (backbone) aided by fast light cavalry (to chase down those cursed horse-archers), they are quite easily destroyed due to their heavy cavalry based forces. However, remember to have patience - don't attack before you are ready, check the size of their forces with spies and make sure you almost equal them before conquering.

Hope this helps you, cheers!

I stopped the campaign and started over again, I felt like getting a fresh start after all this new good info. It goes lots better already, though I just started. I'm trained armies lots faster because I know I'll have enough money anyway.. I've switched from peasant garrisons to levy spearman garrisons, better against sqaulor it seems and of course stronger in defense..

expansion is going very fast now. Conquered samarobriva, colonia agrippina, augusta treverorum, avaricum, vicus franki, campus chatti, campus frisii, campus burgundii, campus lombardii, campus marcomanni.. besieging burdigala & campus qaudi right now, and I was just about to invade great britain. the franks and lombards are hordes and in my territory, in a few battles I've severly damaged them, soon I will make them so weak they'll capture a settlement anymore. the huns seem to doubt between attack me or invading italy.. money is already above 150K while I create more then 1 unit a turn and am creating buildings in all regions I can.. I just can't spend enough :S

:furious3:

how do I make my men cross the bridge instead of swim? it should go lots faster, I wanted to chase off some peasants, but they jumped into the water and I didn't want to miss my cavalry for so long because another army was approaching, I tried to use the bridge but for some reason they only wanted the water :dizzy2: :furious3: :embarassed:

Hi Drisos,
I'm sorry to say that you have met a nasty pathfinding R:TW bug - men often arrogantly refuse to cross a bridge at certain points. There is a chance that placing your men directly ontop of the bridge may work, but it's not guaranteed and your men will often disobediently hit to the waters. Luckily, however, you can resolve it by removing the swim ability completely, but it will take some complex modding which is beyond my humble R:TW modification information. My sincere apologies about the bug.

gah! a bug? in the gold edition? why didn't they edit it out? :embarassed: :dizzy2:

aw well.. I'll just except the fact that I can't use normal tactics in fights in area's with water.. :(

btw - I already made it to victory in the campaign.. but I'm going to play on to conquer everything - as planned. :egypt:

I wonder, what would change when I would increase the 'campaign difficulty'? Will they just appear to make less blunders or will the AI actually 'cheat'? (like getting more money then they actually should?)

:book:

Still busy with this campaign.. conquered north-west africa, italy, spain, greece, constantinople and the settlements to the north that belonged to the sarmatians, roxolani, etc. Now at war with ERE mainly, conquering turkey and the north-east at the same time. :book:

Increasing campaign difficulty, I believe, just makes it harder to deal with the AI, diplomatically speaking. They should, once they border you, attack you with no reason whatsoever.

There may be other effects, but that's the main one I think.

Correct me if I'm wrong... I believe Campaign Difficulty effects Autoresolve too? And on VH difficulty the AI gets money given to it every few turns?

Also on VH difficulty, on the campaign map, the AI is much more aggressive and/or reckless in both diplomacy and in the way it acts on the map. On VH some have seen suicidal generals attack full stacks alone and refuse the acceptance of a whole empire off the player. Due to these issues, I always play on Medium or Hard.

On the battlemap, with VH active, the AI gets huge bonuses to morale and attack. I consider these bonuses unrealistic and too overpowered, so I stick to Medium which is a perfect playing field for both the AI and the player.

On the battle-map AI gets just a +7 to attack on Very Hard, nothing more...

Originally Posted by :
On the battle-map AI gets just a +7 to attack on Very Hard, nothing more...

... except +7 Morale too.

Nope, it's just the attack bonus. And because of the +7 attack, the AI gets stronger, doesn't lose so easily and therefore doesn't lose morale so fast.

Run this simple test: Start a battle on Medium Difficulty. Take a unit with high stats and frighten_foot as yours and choose a worthless enemy with few men and very low morale as enemies. Walk your unit towards the enemy. As they approach, mouse-over them and observe how much time it takes (counting from the moment you are able to see their morale rating) to drop from eager to steady. Do not fight at all. (If the enemy try to flank you, give them slightly better morale, until you manage to have them attack you without running away or sideways.)
Now do the same on Very Hard Difficulty. You will find that the time is exactly equal, aka there is no morale bonus. This also applies to Steady==>Shaken etc, although it's harder to make a unit drop so low before combat starts.