Roman: Brutii

Game Update: Turn 19 261 B.C.
Control 29 Regions Average taken per turn 1.42

Added: Cirta, Massilia, Narbo Martius, Sparta, Corinth, Larissa, Salamis, Sidon

To start with I now have collected 6 military tribunes and hold two offices after the second round of ellections. I was hoping for more, but I'll take what I can get.

Taking Sparta and Corinth proved easier than I thought once appropriate troops were shipped into place from my fleet at Athens. As well they has buildings to produce equites and Principes. I built my first temple of Mars at Sparta and plan to produce Principes their every turn until the reform. After enslaving 26 territories I was hoping the reforms would come soon.

I have managed to stabilized the barabian lands NW of MAcedon and they are all at peace, despite being allied with Macedon or myself. The Dacians I am very concerned about as they could split my empire in two and I have little or no defense while in the MAcedonian war. I am giving them gifts of tribute hoping to sate their greed for now. This is good, as I am certainly weak right now and cannot spare any troops to defend my northern border. All my forces on teh Greek mainland were concentrated on Lariissa.

I destroyed 1000 of 2000 MAcedonian troops in the field with Tiberious army then set siege to Larissa using a little trick. My army could not reach Larisa this turn but my CAV could. So I used Tiberious to build a fort one space away form Larissa and have my infantry and peasants hole up their while my cav set siege. they were only able to build one Ram, but that was enough as I just used it twice. The battle of LArissa lasted forever. Even after taking out half the MAcedonian cav, he still had 6 units and with about 12 spearman units this was long. I used my one archer and 6 velites to the max, just sitting at and stopping up the gate, while they went to work. After the second hole in the wall was made my hasati and principes attacked from the side while the thracians and hoplites moved through the door. My cav poored in htrough the side whole able to stay free from all the spears until they were pressed up.

Despite seding major forces with AMulius I still took Larissa which I am very happy with because it was quite a gamble. This gives me a headstart against the Egyptians and I hit their economic heartland right when they were having a financial downturn, taking Salamis and Sidon. I am planning on moving on Jerusaleum soon. Sidon and Jerusaluem will serve to rpudcue peasants to grow Salamis so that I can get a port up and running and start raking in some more cash.

Despite dominating the agean, my cashflow is still ow due to the massive quantity of naval vessels I have in play. i have major fleets in every sphere of influence.

Unfortunately, Cassius is bogged down at NArbo MArtius. I would prefer to push the war into spain, but to do so would be suicide. The Gauls have large forces above me and until they are dealt with, Cassius is pinned down. I do have reinforcements on the way though to relieve him and allow him to drift down teh coast.

My forces at Carthage crushed the Numidians at their capital due to their treachery then swung up to Palma. I plan on swinging them over to assist Cassius with the spanish.

Tiberious is marching on Thessalonica after taking LArissa and looking to clean up the the Macedonian threat. Once Thessalonica is mine they pose no real threat.

My first real army (built) is moving onto Pontus. His 5 Hastati, 2 Thracian, BAsternae, and 7 Equites will not be stopped.

Currently I have a ship cycle relocating peasants from Syracuse, Lilybauem, Carthage and thapsis to Lepcis Magni and Cyrene to grow these territories to port sized.

MAssalia is being grow via peasnats from Patavium and Mediolanum.

The cyrenen situation was resolved via bribery. The territory is safe from dirty Numidian hands for now.

I had a chance to grab power in Rome but didn't take it as I have essentially no armies within range of Rome. I did move an adopted 4 star general north towards Patavium to start building an army for teh civil war. He will attack the Julii. I hope to kick the slight SCipii presense of the Syracuse island via a captain and forces form Carthage. I will push north to remove the scipii presence via forces created at Sparta. This is all several turns off, but the planning needs to commence now as the Senate is just starting to get warry. My romans allies are very infantry heavy. I will need to produce many more infantry to take Italy. The MAcedonian war will consolidate my territories, and remove a constant worry of treachery, but it has angered the senate. They did everything, but order me to come to peace. Okay, actually they did order me via the diplomacy window but not as a mission. Fair enough, but these fools do not understand the difficulty that the MAcedonians create. They are thouroughly warlike and their armies are hardened. Better to take them down now before they get stone walls I think,or worse). I would much prefer to stabilize the senate, after the MAcedonian war and continue to conquest and scheme for the civil war rather than enter into it unprepared. I want to hit the Julli and Scipii so hard simultaneously that they don't even have a response. This will be tough to do in 40 turns. I have about 15 more turns of temple of mars produced principes though which should help out allot.

Will the Marius reforms ever kick in? I have enslaved 26 territories!

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Originally Posted by limitedwhole

Game Update: Turn 19 261 B.C.
Control 29 Regions Average taken per turn 1.42

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Pretty darn good pace your keepin' boy! That's what we call "travelin'" down here in Tennessee.

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Added: Cirta, Massilia, Narbo Martius, Sparta, Corinth, Larissa, Salamis, Sidon

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Impressive.

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Taking Sparta and Corinth proved easier than I thought once appropriate troops were shipped into place from my fleet at Athens. As well they has buildings to produce equites and Principes. I built my first temple of Mars at Sparta and plan to produce Principes their every turn until the reform. After enslaving 26 territories I was hoping the reforms would come soon.

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You'll like the benefits of that temple of Mars. Great experience benefits to your training regimen. It does come at a price to your public order, but se la geurre!

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I destroyed 1000 of 2000 MAcedonian troops in the field with Tiberious army then set siege to Larissa using a little trick. My army could not reach Larisa this turn but my CAV could. So I used Tiberious to build a fort one space away form Larissa and have my infantry and peasants hole up their while my cav set siege. they were only able to build one Ram, but that was enough as I just used it twice. The battle of LArissa lasted forever. Even after taking out half the MAcedonian cav, he still had 6 units and with about 12 spearman units this was long. I used my one archer and 6 velites to the max, just sitting at and stopping up the gate, while they went to work. After the second hole in the wall was made my hasati and principes attacked from the side while the thracians and hoplites moved through the door. My cav poored in htrough the side whole able to stay free from all the spears until they were pressed up.

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Good work. I'll try that little trick when the opportunity arises in my games. I also appreciate the combined arms approach of using your light troops to distract the enemy at the gates while your real strike force surprises them in the flank. Very cunning.

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Despite dominating the agean, my cashflow is still ow due to the massive quantity of naval vessels I have in play. i have major fleets in every sphere of influence.

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Are you remembering to upgrade your porrts? Your cashflow will increase if you do, because of the extra trading fleets it provides. The better warship types will help your naval campaign too. Try to economise whenever you can.
I generally try to keep no more than 4 Peasants or Town watch in quiet sectors, with a small mobile field army to discourage rebel activity. A few Hastati, an Archer or two, and at least one Equite is a good balanced force for such duties. I also am sure to merge as many units as I can before retraining them, unless I am getting a weapons or armor upgrade, to lessen the costs on each turn. I also keep my tax rates as high as I can until I get the blue face.

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My forces at Carthage crushed the Numidians at their capital due to their treachery then swung up to Palma. I plan on swinging them over to assist Cassius with the spanish.

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That's what comes from having a proper navy. The late Lord Nelson would approve of such a bold plan.

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My first real army (built) is moving onto Pontus. His 5 Hastati, 2 Thracian, BAsternae, and 7 Equites will not be stopped.

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Pontus too? Taking them and the Egyptians on will be a challenge. As you are moving on so many fronts, you will have to have a good logistics plan. Be sure that you have reinforcements available for sea transfer from front to front. I would use Sicilia and Greece for this task. Make them good production centers. As in chess, he who dominates the center, dominates the game.

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Currently I have a ship cycle relocating peasants from Syracuse, Lilybauem, Carthage and thapsis to Lepcis Magni and Cyrene to grow these territories to port sized.

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Intersesting approach. I don't believe I've ever thought of trying that.

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I had a chance to grab power in Rome but didn't take it as I have essentially no armies within range of Rome. I did move an adopted 4 star general north towards Patavium to start building an army for the civil war. He will attack the Julii. I hope to kick the slight Scipii presense off the Syracuse island via a captain and forces form Carthage. I will push north to remove the scipii presence via forces created at Sparta. This is all several turns off, but the planning needs to commence now as the Senate is just starting to get warry. My romans allies are very infantry heavy. I will need to produce many more infantry to take Italy. The Macedonian war will consolidate my territories, and remove a constant worry of treachery, but it has angered the senate. They did everything, but order me to come to peace. Okay, actually they did order me via the diplomacy window but not as a mission. Fair enough, but these fools do not understand the difficulty that the Macedonians create. They are thouroughly warlike and their armies are hardened. Better to take them down now before they get stone walls I think, or worse. I would much prefer to stabilize the senate, after the Macedonian war and continue to conquest and scheme for the civil war rather than enter into it unprepared. I want to hit the Julli and Scipii so hard simultaneously that they don't even have a response. This will be tough to do in 40 turns. I have about 15 more turns of temple of mars produced principes though which should help out allot.

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The was similar to how my Brutii campaign went concerning the Macedonian Wars. I was actually assigned a mission to procure a peace agreement with them, which I did, long enough to rest and reinforce my armies for the knock out blow. As for the approaching civil war, its a bit early in only 40 turns to initiate it. If you do, then try to make sure that you are at peace with as many factions as you can, and definately have trade rights with them. Your income will drop dramatically when fighting the other Romans as you will lose your two best trading partners when they become your enemies. I wasn't able to think about such an alternative until at least 40 BC or so.

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Will the Marius reforms ever kick in? I have enslaved 26 territories!

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You may be moving a little too fast, but I think that your continued emphisis on growing your populations will help. You are doing very well so far. I'll look forward to future posts.

"Pretty darn good pace your keepin' boy! That's what we call "travelin'" down here in Tennessee.

Impressive."

Thanks. :2thumbsup:

"You'll like the benefits of that temple of Mars. Great experience benefits to your training regimen. It does come at a price to your public order, but se la geurre! "

Yep I plan on having only two of these. One at Sparta for ground troops and one at Larissa for Cav. These territories don't have reources or particularly great sea lanes, so Temple of Mercury doesn't work well. they are also centered and in a good position to attack Italy from.

"Good work. I'll try that little trick when the opportunity arises in my games. I also appreciate the combined arms approach of using your light troops to distract the enemy at the gates while your real strike force surprises them in the flank. Very cunning. "

Thanks. I have found several places where your army will come up only a space short on a march of after landing after naval transport. The 500 denaarii is well worth, the increased turn in speed. I wish I had figured this out sooner. I could have been moving even faster as their were at least three spots I didn't realise this trick. I HATE losing romans. I Always use light mercs at the front gates. A couple units of light troops can usually make a pocket for a Hoplites to get in an set and lock things up, so that the Hastati, Principes, Velite chareg is more effective. Enemy spearmen cannot turn once your hoplites are in the gates.

"Are you remembering to upgrade your porrts? Your cashflow will increase if you do, because of the extra trading fleets it provides. The better warship types will help your naval campaign too. Try to economise whenever you can.
I generally try to keep no more than 4 Peasants or Town watch in quiet sectors, with a small mobile field army to discourage rebel activity. A few Hastati, an Archer or two, and at least one Equite is a good balanced force for such duties. I also am sure to merge as many units as I can before retraining them, unless I am getting a weapons or armor upgrade, to lessen the costs on each turn. I also keep my tax rates as high as I can until I get the blue face."

First thing I upgrade just about every time. I have about 40-50 ships. This accounts for the cost. If I had not lost trade with MAcedon this wouldn't be such a big deal, but as it is I have just enough to build and recruit each turn and no more. The vault is stable but not growing. Yep I try to leave very few if any people engarde. I try to take away avenues of attack and use alliance building as defense. Having naval dominace goes allong way towards never getting attacked. I keep my taxes as high as possible in governed cities reasoning that slaves will grow them. Otherwise starit growth policy with the exception of Carthage in ungoverned.

"That's what comes from having a proper navy. The late Lord Nelson would approve of such a bold plan."

Yep flexibility. Without naval dominance, my forces are left sitting waiting for the Numidians to march for 4 turns to counterattack plus turns for building. As it is, they move on to the next prime target, and reinforcements move up to take their position.

"Pontus too? Taking them and the Egyptians on will be a challenge. As you are moving on so many fronts, you will have to have a good logistics plan. Be sure that you have reinforcements available for sea transfer from front to front. I would use Sicilia and Greece for this task. Make them good production centers. As in chess, he who dominates the center, dominates the game."

I don't usually transfer from fornt to front as the distance is so long. Normally what I do is make use of places I conquer that can produce troops and ship them in bits with smaller navies once naval dominace has been achieved. I don't use Sicilia as it doesn't have production capabilities. I instead use CArthage and Thapsus which is alittle closer and more centered to my western front. Greece is a definate. I has become my center. I do disagree on one point though. He who dominates the periphery wins. It is a matter of having a strong center in order to dominate the periphery. Up till recently I had no center. I just picked up troops whever I could. In a matter of speaking, it is pointless to have a strong center until you get a vast empire which requires a strong center. My strategy can be summed up thusly. If I take a city form the Greeks a turn faster, thats a 2 unit swing in prouduction on the following turn. As well, the Egyptians produced one fewer unit in that time. As well Pontus, etc. If you move fast, you can pick apart each nation in order to keep them small. At that point they pose no real threat. If egypt loses Salamis, Sidon and Jerusaleum, they pose no threat. If you play slow and take like 200 turns the Egyptians will have a vast empire by the time you reach them. Then, its justs two vast empires pounding each other. fun if you like that, but I think keeping them small is tactically better.


"Intersesting approach. I don't believe I've ever thought of trying that."

Works well, these places will never be port sized in forty turns unless, you ship peasants. I try to produce in just about every territory ever turn. Peasnats are the bomb. A small price to pay for rich ports faster. Each peasant unit increase the percent return on growth as well. Kyodonia is rich,rich,rich. Salamis is rich,rich,rich. If you wait 20 turns for them to grow its like watching paint dry. Producing peasnats at places like Carthage and the barabrian territories that have high growth rates or place you have grain imports doesn't make a big dent in the population. just one more reason to have naval dominace.


"The was similar to how my Brutii campaign went concerning the Macedonian Wars. I was actually assigned a mission to procure a peace agreement with them, which I did, long enough to rest and reinforce my armies for the knock out blow. As for the approaching civil war, its a bit early in only 40 turns to initiate it. If you do, then try to make sure that you are at peace with as many factions as you can, and definately have trade rights with them. Your income will drop dramatically when fighting the other Romans as you will lose your two best trading partners when they become your enemies. I wasn't able to think about such an alternative until at least 40 BC or so. "

Senate mission for peace agreement would suck. Glad i didn't get that. Good thing you were able to make use it it and use it to replenish your losses. My idea is to pick apart allot of empires so that their advances pose no real threat to me, and then call a ceasfire leaving on army in place at aeach front. I want to control the richest markets in each regions. Good thing I have been shipping those peasnats to build forts aye? I will control the Salamis, Sidon, Jerusaleum trade center, the Aegean trade center, the bay east of Italy, the Syracuse/east italy trade center, the Kydonian trade center, the Carthingian trade center, and the Palma trade center. Should be plenty of loot once it up and running. Just need ot get those heavy infantry armies in place by turn 40.

"You may be moving a little too fast, but I think that your continued emphisis on growing your populations will help. You are doing very well so far. I'll look forward to future posts."

You my be right, I am getting a little bogged down and my fleets are becoming a burden, but I haven't stopped yet. Hope to post agin soon once I have some time to play some more turns. They are getting quite long now as I am moving like 5-6 armies a turn and 20 small stacks of ships. MArius triggers when Rome gets a certain size, no? What are the triggers, i would like it to happen soon. Massive slaves near Egypt. Hears hoping that'll do it. I want legions when I march on Rome!

Best and thanks for all the remarks.:2thumbsup:

It sounds like you have a good strategy going limitedwhole. I can see now why you have attacked so many factions. I had never given it much thought as I have always tried a more traditional approach. I generally only like to have no more than two or three enemies at one time, because I'm not the best micromanager in the world, and I like the more "historiacal" approach. Stll, your concepts have merit.

I agree that your navy may be a bit large. If you can afford to economize here I would. 40 to 50 ships are very expensive, and If you have dominated the seas, you could put some of those crews "on the beach" to save money. It sounds as if you could use the denarii saved to strengthen your land forces, as they are now approaching a critical juncture.

I hadn't thought of Carthage and Thaspus as production centers, but yes, they would make better resupply centers as they already have good facilities upon capture. I was thinking more along the lines of a more traditional approach. I guess I must like having a big empire to fight against in the end game. Have you already eliminated the Carthaginians and Numidians? In my games, I tend to concentrate on eliminating one faction at a time, thereby leaving no potential enemy in my rear, except the inevitable rebels, as I move on. It's just a more methodical strategy, which suits my style.

All in all, your game should be getting very challenging when you have so many potential enemies ready to exploit any percieved weakness. When the Civil Wars begin, be prepared for them to make their bid for freedom.

I'll be out of town for a couple of weeks, but I'll try to check up on your progress when I get time from another computer. Good luck, and may the God Victrix accompany your hosts. :flybye:

Marius happens as soon as a Roman city builds an 'Imperial Palace' (24k population mark).

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

Marius happens as soon as a Roman city builds an 'Imperial Palace' (24k population mark).

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But it doesn't have to be yours, nescessarily. I found this out just recently.

But it 'must' be a Roman one ;)

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Originally Posted by x-dANGEr

But it 'must' be a Roman one ;)

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Yes - not including the senate.

Game update: TOTAL WAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Turn 27: Began the civil war on this turn
Regions: 40 Taken per turn: 1.41
Allies: Thrace, these guys don't do a dang thing. Thankfully they don't attack me either.
Enemies: Julii, Scipii, Macedon (all but removed from the game, holed up in the mountains), Egypt (left decimated and not a threat), Seleucids (dang these guys just came up with like4 stacks out of nowhere), Carthage (One etrritory left and it will be mine soon , mhah, hah hah), Pontus (There entire army was destroy in thefield, they still have a few regions as I moved on to other targets), GAuls (wow, these guys never run out of troops, on the dfeensive against them), Dacia (These guys betrayed me, marched down a tiny army, I reinforced a settlement defended by townwatch and killed one warband unit of theirs, now it no holds barred, they refuse a ceisfire although neither of us is in a position to attack the other.), Numidia (These guys own two territories off in the desert far away from anything useful and half way across the world from each other with no one to trade with but me and they still won't accept a ceisefire.) , Spain (Just wanted their richest territory, now if they want to fight they can die at Osca).

Regions Added: Osca, Palma, Tingi, Thessalonia, Nicomedia, Sardis, Ancyra, Tarsis, Jerusaleum, Alexandria, Memphis

General Strategy: Changed all towns to financial form growth due to approaching civil war about 2 turns ago. All the growth for the first 25 turns now translates into major taxes.

North and Western fronts:
After swinging up take Palma, my forces assisted at Osca. A suitable defensive garrison is in place to hold back teh Spanish. Soe forces went south to assist at Tingi while other returned to NArbo to reinforce this defensive position. After taking Tingi my forces hopped across the pond to attack the BAetica region. In the north I am on the defensive as I need no more expansion for 50 and the Gauls and Spanish are too strong without further reinforcements which I cannot spare due to the civil war.

My armies at Mediolanum and Patavium descended on the Julii at Segesta and Arinumum and blackaded Arinumum. Mediolanum is my weaker strike as it is mainly mercs with some solid romans tossed in for good messure. Arinimum is a massive block of Hastati with EQuites shipped from Greece in reinforcement.

Forces from Carthage and Thapsis landed at Messan to meet with a general and hire merc to siege Messana, the port has been blackaded.

Center:
After Taking Thessalonica with an epic battle Tiberious went west to Italy. Troops in Greece are beeing pumped out every turn and shipped to Italy. Tiberious army is compose of 8 Principes and 4 Hastati plus full Equite compliment. He has a support army of 8 Equites, 4-5 Principes/Hastati plus mercs. More units continue to arrive evry turn to bolster and losses he may face. These two armies laid siege to Capua and the port was blockaded. Ofer 6000 Scippi troops are here as well along with 6, yes 6, generals. A major battle approaches at the next midturn.

EAst:
An aRmy marched on Nicomedia and Ancyra, defeating the majority of the Pontic army at Ancyra in the fields on a sally attempt. They then went SE to Tarsus to betray the Seleucids. In a simultaneous strike, a rear army took Sardis and now marches in support of the main army but is a few truns behind. Out of nowhere the Seleucids come up with 4 stacks that have been sitting in the desert doing nothing. To top this off, there region which was under siege by Armenia became free and they now can muster another full stack. This blood bath will be nasty. My forces at Tarsus are vastly outnumbered and undersiege. Reinforcements are at least two turns away and the siege will occur this midturn. They must win this key battle! A new army composed of forced recruited at Nicomedia and Byzantium now sails towards Sinope. Moved forces at Sidon onto Damascus but had to return before setting siege at a stack from Antioch approached. Amulius took Jerusaleum and fought 5 epic battles here but got no marker. Once he was on his way to Alexandria by ship but had to go back to crush the Egyptians yet again. The upshot of this was when my forces landed at Alexandria, the Egyptians were spent. A governor met up with Amulius by ship and took the reigns at Alexandria along with the withered cal units while they recruited replacements for their lossed. Amulius took Memphis easily. Rather than take Thebes he has been put to ship to sail in reinforement agains the selucids along with the cal units.

So many masisve battles each turn, but the bigggest are yet to come. I guess thats what you get when you fight on like ten fronts. The Seluecids and romans are all that remain between me and world domination!

Planned Regions to take for 50:
Sinope, Antioch, Damascus, BAetica region, Segesta, Arretium, Arininum, Rome, Capua, Massana!

The imminent release of M2TW has given me total war fever. I'm playing an MTW campaign as the Egyptians and an RTW as the Brutii.

I've never played as the Brutii before. I had a pretty weird beginning to it. I got the initial senate mission to take Apollonia. Did it. Then I met was given a mission to take the city south of that. Thermon I think. I had my heir and two of his brothers with the army.

I won the battle, but lost the heir and another brother. WHat happened was I received the message saying the enemies reinforcements were delayed. SO I pulled off a classic blunder. Routed the whole Greek Army and sent the brothers and heir to chase the routers. Put the battle on fast forward. Reinforcements showed up and I was busy scratching my balls or something. Over half my army got wiped out. I don't know how I won the battle.

Needless to say that set my timeline back a bit. The Scipii took the city north of Sparta. I'm pretty mad about that. For some reason, the Senate gave me the mission to take Patavium from the Gauls. THat's way out of my way.

Went up to besiege. Attacked the fortress with my "new" heir from that first battle. He died quickly. Again, a blunder of laziness. Routed all the Gauls and sent him to give chase. Ran into a Warband Skirmisher unit who hadn't routed and died. My whole army routed. That was the last turn I had to take Patavium. I failed that one.

Next mission was blockade Sparta. Did it. Next mission was blockade Patavium. Did it. Now I'm on the way to Sparta. Only the Macedonians have now laid siege to Thermon. So I had to go rescue Thermon. I have my units in the retraining cue there. After I've reconstituted the Army I have three turns to take Sparta.

Sparta is defended by 7 various phalanx types and an army in the field which is 5 units shy of being fully stacked. SHould be interesting.

Needless to say, I've started this campaign like I've never played the game before. But what is bizarre is my failures have made it a bit more fun than normal.

I should also mention at one point I tried to besiege Larissa with 2 Hastati, 2 Velite and 2 Equites. The Spartans had 3 units in the city. THey relieved the city with an army of 3 militia pikemen, 1 peltast and a general. The phalanx spanked my Hastati's arse.

My equites charged their Peltasts which garnered the attention of their general who counter charged. Bye Bye Equites. But not before I sent one of my Velites in to try to salvage that part of the battle. Bye Bye Velites.

The other Velite I sent to hit the phalanx from the flank with their javelins. It was going fine until the enemy General got done routing the other units. Bye Bye velites. And the three phalanx units easily mopped up my two Hastati.

It was an insignificant defeat. But needless to say, if this were a console game I'd have been slamming my controller against the floor.

Hey guys. I am new to the RTW game but am enjoying it.

Just something that I noted from playing last night.

I was attacking the Macedonians (their Capital). I had a fine 6* General but his forces were a little depleted from campaigning so I shipped in some reinforcements by sea (the south) and seiged the city. The 6* General had come from the North and also seiged the city (same turn) but the armies did not merge. The next turn I decided to assault the city but I "attacked" it with my reinforcements rather than the generals army. Oops I thought - but hey no worries, the Generals army showed up as "reinforcements". All good and no problems.

What was a problem was I had not noticed that the city had the plague. So usually when you capture a city and your army occupies it the general (if he is a family member) gets the plague and is effectively taken out of the game for a while.

BUT (finally he get to the point) as I "attacked" with my reinforcements only they occupied the city and my 6* general stayed parked up out the outside of the city - PLAGUELESS and keen to continue the conquest.

Better to be lucky than good sometimes!!!!

I thought this a handy way of taking cities with the plague with out losing guru Generals or family members.

Thoughts????

^ I had not thought of doing that against plague cities.

I do use such tactics when the main stack runs out of movement points. Bring up a fast reinforcement unit, taking care not to join the main stack, and attack from a different location. It means the battle is fought without the combat and morale advantages of the general leading the main stack.

Started a Brute campaign recently (vanilla 1.0; VH/VH).

Took Salona, Kydonia, Appolonia, Syracuse, Segesta, Thermon, Rhodes and Halicarnassus in that order.

Then my best general was swamped by Greek hoplites (I thought my attack would work, but not enough cavalry to both counter his and roll up hoplites so I was annhilated), Macedon betrayed the alliance and has since taken Thermon (the assault force included 450 cavalry) and I have been soundly thumped twice by the Carthas outside of Lilybaum.

Current mission is Thapsus (in progress with decent force) but forces in the Balkans are weak (Appolonia abandoned and likely to fall, Segesta and FL threatened by a huge stack of "neutral" Gauls, and the Senate yelling at me whenever I seek to defend the bridge between Sardis and Hali.

This leaves me sort of betwixt and between. Thoughts on strategic goals I should set at this juncture? Best Roman counter for Mac armies fielding (typical) 3-4 phalanx, 1 General, and 6-12 Lancers?

Yeah I started as brutii, and it was fairly easy, I just always made sure I had a nice big navy to follow my troops around as I took them from island to island, and took over greece, rhodes, kydonia, and all of turkey, I then moved up towards the black sea, when I got bored and went for Rome.

I took 4 full flags, of the best combinations I could have, and sent them to Rome. This left my wars against, Britain, Dacia, Scythia, Egypt, and Armenia wide open, I easily seized capua on my way to rome losing half a flag, and marched on to rome and took that along with the starting colonies for Julii.

I then finished off the scipii at sicily and tried to hold of gaul and the julii from coming down into italy. That was tiny compared to my other problem, see Britain owned the second biggest army in the game, and was pushing down on my weak northprovinces. I also did not put away armenia while I had the chance, and them and eygpt took turns whooping my ass in the east. I am still working ont the campain, and what I plan to do is, send my large armies from sparta corinth and athens to delay britain, while I take my turkish army and take over eygpt and armenia. I don't know how I can keep gaul and julii off me because they don't seem to attack each other just me.

Well now....

I've acquired Patavium, sacked Medialanum twice, taken Carthage, Thapsus, and LilyB (in that order) and followed the Senates directions to blockade Pergamum and return to war with the Greeks. Took Pergamum. Had fun smashing weak Pontic armies to help the Seluc's.

Problems:

Lost a powerful army sent to attack Cirta (the Numids keep sieging both Africa provinces) -- my leader was assassinated just as 2100 numids attacked my siege force of 1300. On VH/VH with no 5 star leader, I was torn to shreds. Assassinated on the eve of battle is a first for me, and this is -- believe it or not -- unreleived vanilla RTW 1.0!

The 5th or 6th attack on Segestica finally swamped me. Lancers with 1 or 2 stripes and phalanxes just ate my troops alive. Lancers get killed, but only after their charge kills my leaders and tears up my best troops -- and Mokdon has 6+ of lancers in every full stack. Aaaargh.

Greece (down to just Sparta) amphibbed to take Kydonia ?!?!?:dizzy2: Same game, and two "They've never done thats...."

I've despatched the Asian army to take it back, but that leaves Pontus free to rebuild and Egypt free to grow (I gave the Eggies Nicomedia after a sack as I had to go after Pergamum and couldn't garrison. Of course, they've kept it no prob with a zero-start garrison).

Won most other non naval engagements, but have lost 2 good commanders in the process. Have no offensive army in Africa (garrisons have to be full stack to stay yellow+), have one rebuilding army in Patavium, and the force in Kydonia. Budget is in the plus, but only a few thousands per turn and there is so much to build and do.....

Lancers and Numid Long shields are killing me. I get them onto the spears, in waves, and I win, only to see them take 2/3 of my rental hoplites. Then I get to fight the next battle with Hastati and Princ's against lancers and I beat them again -- losing 80% casualties. It is, needless to say, hard to make any real headway.

Thoughts?

I had unlocked the other factions on my old computer, but I got a new computer recently, and I reinstalled and tried out the new(to me) 1.5 patch. Don't have BI yet, though I'll get it soon I think.

So, I'm starting out as the Brutii this time having done Julii the first time. I had a hell of a go as Julii, Brutii seem MUCh easier in terms of cash and opponents. I've only got 12-13 provinces right now, but Im starting the steady march against Macedon now. I own the starting Brutii provinces, the Greek cities right across the bay, and the thin strip of land that heads north to the gaulish town of (can't remember exactly)Patavium I think.

So, I had a mission to start picking on Macedon and I took their first town Larissa since it was completely un-defended...not a single troop stationed there. I think they used a lot of resources fighting the Greeks, then I just swooped in and gobbled up the greek towns, not sure where they went off to.

But, I had my first really adrenaline pumping battle I think i've ever had with this game. Macedon decided to seige one of my small towns, Salona I think, on the coast. It had a token garrison of 1 general(heavy cav), 3 town watch, 1 hatasti, 1 principi and 3 equites. The general had no stars at the beginning and most of the troops were raw, they were travelling south and I had just stationed them in Salona for a turn or two thankfully.

So, Macedon lays siege...they had 4 light cav, 3 ballista, and about 9 phalanx spearmen units. When I was deploying my troops, i noticed my front gate was open...not sure why, and it wouldn't close. I think maybe when I started the battle it would close, but it didn't. I had set my troops up pretty far to the left or right of the main gate in line with where the AI had positioned their battering rams(of which they had three).

I started the battle and 2 light cav just came streaming through my unlocked front gates. All their phalanx spearmen(long pointy stick guys) started coming at me. Through some manuvering and some lucky slaughter, I ended up winning the fight with about 20 troops left. I think I had 4 heavy cav, and about 8 light cav left at the end. I used the insides of the town to come around behind the AI and attack spearmen from the rear. Once I saw their general, I went directly after him sacraficing some town watch in the process but really helped to demoralize them...

One thing I would ask, is there a bug with AI units getting to the center of town and not doing anything past that. There were two units of phalanx spearmen left, and I had about 40 light cav and 15 heavy cav left, and they didn't turn to meet me once they were at my flag. I would attack and draw back, come around from a different angle and attack again. Sometimes they turned to meet me, other times they didn't...the whole fight I see sections of walls being blown down by ballistas and entire sections of my city were on fire.

Overall, it was an exciting battle, I fully expected to lose the town...but I won. I think I killed 98% of them and they killed 98% of my troops, but I started with about half their forces. Needless to say, my surviving 2 light cav came away with some really nice morale and combat bonuses, and my general got two stars for commanding that fight and winning...man, that was an exciting battle.

Hey nice reply grapedog.

I have also started a brutii campaign recently which has been pretty fun up until now. i have now started replacing my town watch units with proper units in my cities to prepare for any eventualities and for easier response and conquest. unfortunately i did lose some of my family members in the battles which now means that i have lots of young family members but few really experienced ones. i am not taking new cities withput the senate's plodding. i have a 8 senate rating and 4 people rating. the fighting with macedon has been the longest and most bloody. anyway i now have half of their six city empire and have enough forces to easily capture the rest... just that i dont feel like conquering them without senate telling me. yeah, i really like to be obedient to the senate ;). i won over 72 battles and lost 14 (yeah I know a bit too high). anyway this gameplay has helped refine my battle strategies further.

Dead Knight of the Living, fund reading your post. Yeah I also lost family members during battles. But anyway I play this game for fun so it really doesn't matter to me if I have a fun battle. But sometimes during really large battles it happens due to a lack of control. I recently lost a 8 star general (Cassius Brutus) agaist a Macedonian epic army... and it happened as the thousands of phalanx pikemen and lancers coming as reinforcement (the main army I attcked was only one unit of militia hoplites, 23 other units came as reionforcements) and they were just overloaded on my right flank due to their 'reinforcement positioning'. That kinda sucked...

hello all,

i did my funky things with my game, deciding to take up new cities with an all-mercenary army. whereas it worked for a while, and was fun while it lasted, my territory was just wayyy too big for this to be effective for the long run. i also took the rather brilliant decision of replacing my garrisons with real, powerful troops (praetorian cohorts and legionary cavalry anyone) instead of town watch! hmm, why exactly did i take that decision, you ask? because at one point town watch didn't seem exactly 'realistic' to me. i decided that the game had abstracted internal security and as such 'realistically' started garrisoning uber troops in cities!

Anyway, I am pretty sure I can recover... and I wanna play proper and gamey this time. Town watch garrisons, massive armies. Bring it on!

Strange as it may sound, Seamus, but you might try patching your game. In 1.5 cavalry is a lot less powerful than in 1.0. Of course, it's still very very strong, and playing on VH won't make the task easier... Mac Lancers can really be a pain in the behind. Try luring them around and apart using light missile cav. These can't stand up to Lancers in melee, but they can keep them away from the main engagement. When they return later, they're a little tired and sorely outnumbered. Against all or mostly cav armies this would still be difficult, so use the terrain to your advantage. Deploy high up, use missiles to best effect (Lancers can kill quickly but also die quickly), or best yet, use forests (if any are available) and bridges (of which there are none in Greece... oh well).
Best of luck to you!

Just remembered: If you're playing 1.0, try bribing the suckers into nonexistence. Shouldn't be too expensive.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Empirate

Strange as it may sound, Seamus, but you might try patching your game. In 1.5 cavalry is a lot less powerful than in 1.0. Of course, it's still very very strong, and playing on VH won't make the task easier... Mac Lancers can really be a pain in the behind. Try luring them around and apart using light missile cav. These can't stand up to Lancers in melee, but they can keep them away from the main engagement. When they return later, they're a little tired and sorely outnumbered. Against all or mostly cav armies this would still be difficult, so use the terrain to your advantage. Deploy high up, use missiles to best effect (Lancers can kill quickly but also die quickly), or best yet, use forests (if any are available) and bridges (of which there are none in Greece... oh well).
Best of luck to you!

Just remembered: If you're playing 1.0, try bribing the suckers into nonexistence. Shouldn't be too expensive.

---

I will, before too long. Swore I'd play the original til bored, and I've played a goodly number of the original vanilla games since purchase, so it's getting close to time. Don't have BI yet either.

I'll try luring with cavax and see what that nets me.

As someone new to the Total War games firstly let me say that I'm glad I've stumbled upon this community. I was originally drawn here by FBE's brilliant guide but I've since read through some of the wealth of inform oration in these forums and I have found loads of handy tips and hints.

Groveling done ~;), I'd like to ask you for some advice on my first and current campaign.

The year is 235BC, vanilla 1.0 med/med. I've taken all of Greece, Macedon, and Turkey as well as large chunks in mainland Europe to the north. My concern is the senate. They have been getting rather snotty of late. Missions no longer offer any reward. Instead they offer the "reward" of avoiding financial audit or the senate's displeasure should I complete them. I've noticed the Scipii has massed two large stacks on the boarder of Croton and although I have strong armies, these armies are all many turns away from getting back to defend my heartland or threaten the other Roman factions.

Do you think civil war is imminent and should I start sending my most powerful generals and armies back to my relatively undefended home regions (Italy and Greece) to prepare for it? Or perhaps I have quite a few more turns to go before that point? I really would rather keep expanding right now while I've got some good momentum.

What would some of you RTW veterans do in this situation?

Thanks for you help,

M

Welcome to the Org!:2thumbsup:

I guess you're not far from civil war anymore; depends on your standing with the Senate and the People. Maybe they don't like you because you never did any missions assigned to you. And maybe they don't like you because you've been too successful and the People love you too much. In any case, once they offer you missions in which the "reward" is a negative like "X won't happen", you're bound for war rather sooner than later. They may also order your faction leader to committ "honorable suicide". If you agree, this will keep them off your back for a short while, but don't count on keeps. If you don't agree, it's instant civil war. The Senate usually lets the other Roman factions handle the dirty business of actual fighting, but as you say, there're already some armies on your borders. Better prepare some troops to stop them from sacking your home provinces once the MARLBORO ULTRA LIGHTS 100s hits the fan.
Having a run elsewhere is nice, but conquering Italy means getting a lot of provinces very quickly, and having some very interesting fights against armies around as powerful as your own. So: definitely prepare for war in Italy. Oh, and protect your fleets, try to sink the Scipii ones. Their largest armies are usually in northern Africa, so stop them in transit!

Welcome ~:wave:

Civil war certainly is at hand. If you'r playing vanilla 1.0, you can bribe those Scipii armies with one of your diplomats (I assume you have a lot of cash by now). Or bribe the big SPQR stack. It are Roman troops, so they'll come on you side, giving you extra armies.

Have fun, soon to be Imperator.:bow:

hey, started a brutti campaign, m/m.

started with a 3 pronged attack. one army at appolonia, 1 to thermon, and 1 to sparta. i was sent to take halicarnassus by the senate, so i took it. then went after athens. ordered to take rhodes, hopped to halicarnnassus and about to make another jump to rhodes. with mercs hired on rhodes, ill take crete, then solidify my greek peninsula.

Empirate and AndrestheCunning, thank you both for your advice.

I am only two from the top of the chart for popularity among the people and even though I just completed another mission for the senate in the last turn, my popularity has plunged to two from the bottom with them. As per your advice I have started to my main armies back towards home for what is probably the inevitable civil war.

My military is huge and it's costing a fortune to maintain. I can build whatever I like during a turn and still make a profit but when I start training more troops I lose cash and probably would continue to do so with the increased maintenance of an even larger military. The Marius reforms occurred during the last turn and I'd like to have a couple of stacks of modern troops.

The problem is I don't think I can afford to maintain these two new stacks as well as maintain my current forces. Should I start disbanding obsolete units as I produce the new ones or would it be wiser to break the old units into smaller "attackable" bands and use them to cause maximum causalities and fight to their death?

Also, regarding the new troops that are now available to me since the marius reforms - in terms of melee infantry I now have "early legionary cohorts" and "auxillia". The legions seem like a basic upgrade to hastii/principi style of infantry. The auxillia however are something new. They don't seem as versatile as the legion. Are they worth recruiting? If so, what's the best way to use these new troops?

Thanks again for you help,

M

im not to sure about this, but auxilia are sort of like triarii. they have a bonus against cavalry, cood discipline, attack and what not. they are a lot cheaper.they are good troops, and i use them.

hope it helps.

Post-Marius units:

Auxiliary troops are basic spearmen, quite solid (more solid than any other spearmen short of Phalanx, that is). I don't use them much except for flank protection. Early Legionary Cohorts can stop a cavalry charge almost as well and are more versatile, but be careful against the heavier sorts of cav.

Early Legionary Cohort are your basic Principes plus some more armor and a little better at attacking. They seem to hold together better, too. Use them like you would Principes. Actually, some of your old Principes or even Hastati might be up to par with ELC because they already have some experience under their belt.

Legionary Cohorts are basically the same, but much, MUCH more durable and powerful. These guys are excellent, I use them all I can. As long as they're not flanked by heavy cav, or take a Phalanx unit head on, they will survive most anything. Try to match them against the most powerful melee infantry your enemy has. They'll take their time, but they'll win. This obviously doesn't apply to their like...

Pretorian Cohorts have strange building reqs: They can be built with a sufficiently large Palace (second to last, iirc). These are even more powerful versions of Legionary troops, in that they have still a little more durability. They take two turns to recruit, though. I don't build them much because of this except in large cities in which I don't have barracks (unlikely...).

Urban Cohorts are the crème de la crème of roman armies. They're war gods, but take quite a buildup (highest level barracks, two turns to train). You don't see them often. If you do, swamp them. As they're not that much better than Pretorians or even plain Legionary Cohorts, the buildup isn't really worth it. They still can't take Spartans head on...

Light Auxiliary troops are almost identical to Velites, except they have good stamina. For what it's worth... I don't find I need even more javelins when I can have a full army of Pilum-equipped Legionnaires. Too plain for my taste in the later game.

Auxiliary Archers are excellent! They have long range (same as Cretans) and pack a lot of punch. Although they have chainmail, don't send them into melee. They're better than Cretans on defense, but shoot a little bit less awesome. Still, a very very good unit.

Auxiliary Cavalry is a bit hard to use, but can really perform phantastically if you take a little care. They're like Numidians: great speed, javelins, weak melee (but of course their stats are better than Numidians'). They're mainly for disrupting enemy formations, and for running down routers. Don't expect them to inflict much damage with their javelins. Still, they fill a role the roman armies had no real candidate for until now. I like them.

Roman Cavalry is solid if uninteresting medium cav. Much more durable than Equites! You'll use them a lot, if only because you don't have better. As with all cav, charge charge charge.

Legionary Cavalry are very powerful, almost measuring up to Cataphracts. Use them all you can. They have a powerful charge and a very good defense, so you don't have to worry about them too much.

Pretorian Cavalry really is a little ridiculous. Why do the Romans get so much powerful cav? These are even better than Legionary Cavalry. They'll survive most anything cavalry CAN survive (meaning everything short of Scythed Chariots and Phalanx walls). Very expensive, though, you might want to make do with Legionary Cavalry because of this. They get the job done just as well.

That's about it. If I forgot anything, please feel free to expand on this!

Hi, quite new here but this is some of my tips i can share.

1) the temples of brutii give good bonuses, also being the first roman faction to be able to train gladiators.

2) Crash Apollonia at turn 1, muster all troops available. Can hire mecernaries if u think need.

3) Focus is primarily greece, ur best chance in winning is attacking their hoplites at their flanks, skirmish them frequently.

4) A foothold in greece would give good access to better units. Take one or even better two of the sicilian cites. Sack Carthage even though if it is not ur job. It will be one big factory to churn out units.

5) Roman but hiring merceneries is a must. Cretan Archers, hoplites and rhodian slingers are ur aim. Cretan Archers and rhodian Slingers give support to the skirmish force. Hoplites to poke away calvary charges.

Oh missed out the city, Kydonia. Island of Crete. Sack that place, it will be one of the most busiest sea trade in the East Medditerrian.

@IRONx. Use your now "outdated" troops as much as you can! Since you cant retrain them anymore you wont be slowed down by refits when you win battles or capture cities. Simply combine units to replace losses and press onward. This will allow you to maintain a high level of offensive pressure on your enemy (fellow Romans by the sounds of it) while you start to build new unit armies. By the time your "old" armies become depleted your new armies should be appearing right behind them...

They can still fight just as good as they could before and the AI wont have a lot of new units if the Reforms just occurred. If you disband them you save upkeep but that shouldnt be an issue for Brutii. If you keep them you have a significant fighting force at your command that is 100% disposable.