Don't you suffer from "bad tax assessor" traits causing a long term income penalty, keeping taxes so low?
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Don't you suffer from "bad tax assessor" traits causing a long term income penalty, keeping taxes so low?
only if you put it on LOW tax, keeping it at normal gives you bonus' if not nothing at all. on cities without a governor put it up to the highest possible taxation.
Is that Brutii specific (or may be playing difficulty)? Because that's not what I found generally in the Vanilla 1.5 game, there if your population was too happy, you caught the trait rather frequently. There are mods that alter that, think bugfixer is meant to make the annoying bad tax trait less frequent.
My experience is, as long as you either cannot raise the tax rate (ie, already Very High) or raising the tax rate will cause red faces, you're safe. Anything less than that, you risk running into the bad taxman traits. I've had a family member get useless assessor in a city where the taxes were High instead of Very High, because I didn't hit the triangle button the last time I clicked it.Quote:
Originally Posted by RLucid
I will thus raise taxes as high as I can while a family member is in residence, and drop them to low taxes as soon as he leaves to get the population up quickly. Well, unless it's a city where I don't want it growing quickly, in which case I keep taxes as h igh as I can regardless of whether any governor is present.
Me to, and it's annoying as pursueing pop. growth seems perfectly legitimate to me, and it means moving Governors about more often, to take advantage of discounts, or enslavement pop growth (which is then counter-acted by need to raise taxes to avoid the trait).Quote:
Originally Posted by Praetor Rick
Bugfixer helps supposedly with this, but leaves your files incompatible with othes online.
in my experience any tax regime higher than normal turns your governor into a total asshole:dizzy2:
That's why I use them for conquering the world and not sitting in a little town some place on the edge of the world ~:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Celtic_Punk
haha, good call good call, but sadly your largest settlements require a governor present, or else all hell will break loose. Plus some men are just not fit to die on the field of battle.:no:
And still others are such useless gits that they become the third general in the army, functioning as self-regenerating cavalry until they've either died or become some kind of killing machine.Quote:
Originally Posted by Celtic_Punk
All these anti-Governor practices, basically show why mods have attempted to fix this bug.
Part of the game design, is building up influential governors, not just fighting generals, in order to be able to manage large cities' rebellious tendencies later on.
May be "useless assessor" is not actually in practice harmful to Brutii, as it postpones corruption issues caused by being stinking rich. But lowering taxes risks over-population issues later, which trouble many players.
But with the Corinth massive loyalty bonus wonder, in the Brutii's natural domain, I really wonder if anyone has a real problem with all of this. I kind of got the impression from the introductory film, that the Brutii were a bit barking, and they weren't breeding much either, so do these "angry man" tendencies actually pose significant difficulty towards fulfilling victory conditions?
well i am absolutely stinking rich, (well i shot all 160 grand on cueing up buildings across my vast empire) and the scipii have corinith. and im doing alright, my cities are not having problems with unrest (except the damn thracian settlements, ive chased thrace to the northern end of the baltic, :duel: and their homelands continue to bitch at me for no reason.)
by the way, is it odd that the julii have conquered what was nazi europe?
minus poland which happens to be in my possetion...:chinese:
has anybody else had the senate assign them to take Patavium?
the Senate assigned it to me right as the Julii were sieging Mediolanium...I took it, the Julii lifted their siege and the Gauls sued for peace with me. I said, "No way unless you give me Mediolanium", and the Gauls caved.
So now I've got these nice territories in Northern Italy, and the Julii are stuck having to take the long walk through the mountains to get to the Gauls...they still don't have the guts.
Is it just me, or in other people's games are the other Roman factions wimps? in my Julii game the Scipii only had Sicily, the Brutii two provinces in Greece, this was in like 236.
Now I've got all of Greece as the Brutii, while the Julii only have the 3 Italian provinces and the Scipii two of the three provinces in Sicily...250 BC. I'm pretty much walking all over Greece into Thrace and the other Romies don't look to be problems. Is it because I'm playing M/M?
It could be that your playin M/M. On E/E the Roman Factions take around 1/4 of the map and destroy 3/4 factions so i guess M/M is giving those factions space and time to become hard enemies.
Have you changed the files? Another reason is that you could have changed the Romans personalities.
nah, just vanilla v1.3, with the exception of unlocking all the factions...
that could be true, I'm also thinking though of some of the people playing on H or VH who have the other Romies taking a chunk of the map.
maybe CA has it written up somewhere that there's only a total number of territories that Rome is supposed to have at a given time, and if the player is exceeding that, then the other factions become wimps.
or maybe M/M makes the armies more cautious...
other thought is that I have been blocking some of the other factions a little bit, in my Brutii campaign I took the two N. Italy provinces, so that's kind of preventing the Julii from expanding...which is weird because they constantly have an army shuttering back from the coast to the gap in the mountains to stare at the Gaulish provinces.
and in my Julii campaign I took Cirta, but the Scipii took an army and sent it to explore the Thracian territories? it's just wondering around in Scythia/Dacia, a full stack of Scipii. nowhere close to any of their lands in Sicily:inquisitive:
In my first Brutii M/M game, which I intended to be just a quick run through of first 5 yrs or so, to "scout" the ground, the Scipii rapidly took Sicily and broke out into Carthage, as I was crushing the Macedonians. I had early on moved up the Adriatic, to take the mines, and seen off a small Gaullish force. When the Julii besieged Mediolanum at last, I besieged Patavium, and got attacked by the main Gaul army which I destroyed to take the town. The Julii, took Mediolanum much later, and was very sluggish to move against Massilia.
If the Scipii had had an early setback, and had difficulty breaking out of Sicily I would be agreeing with your experience. As it is, though I feel the Julii are a harder faction to play well than Brutii (due to their diverse strategic interests, with natural land expansion into poorer lands), I think how well the AI factions do is partly down to luck, and where/how the rebel interventions come disrupting the faction strategy.
Do you have Barbarian invasion installed eliterun? That makes RTW version 1.3 instead of its original version 1.5. That also destroys the Superalliance features and makes it almost like a normal alliance. That could have an effect on the Romans.
id just like to tell you all about a battle that amazed me. i was brutii on normal/normal large unit size. i had about 400 troops. 2 hastati 2 velites and 2 generals. the enemy(macedon) had 1400 troops. he had a heaps of phalanx pikemen, macedonian cavalry, light lancers and levy pikemen. a few of the cavalry were way out in front so i destroyed them. then macedon had just a heap of phlanxes and levys and using hit and run tactics i destoyed his troops.
DEATH TOLL-losses-men remaining
brutii(me)- 220 184
Macedon- 1432 0
I found an interesting strategy in my last Brutii game. I decided to toss things up and after taking Apollina, Syracuse, Dalmatia and Illyria like usual I decided to avoid Greece and go after Carthage. I destroyed Carthage and Numidia, but the real benefit here was that the Scipii were never able to expand. In addition to their two starting provinces they only ever captured Sardinia/Corsica. When civil war came I was faced with a Scipii faction only slightly more advanced than it was in 270BC. Of course, this tactic comes at the price of delaying a Greek conquest, but neither the Julii nor the Scipii attempted to attack Greece in my case.
Thats what I did and scipio went for Greece, I had to abandon Carthage and blitz Greece. but not in time to stop scipio jumping over to Turkey. I made short work of their laterally expanded empire though in the civil war. Though my greek campaign, I took over sicily first and scipio never moved out of Italy... This was all on M/M
As soon as you think you can predict AI behavior, they go and do something totally different!:frog:
I had lots of success with the Brutii when I started a campaign last night. I managed to do a series of successful assaults on all Greek held cities in Greece, and I'm slowly moving up to Macedonia. Ill just tell you what I did:
I grouped both starting armies you get together and got a boat over to Appolina, I took it in the first turn. I then sent a spy and a diplomat down to Thermon and with my army following I demanded they give me Thermon in return for an alliance, trade rights and some map info. Realising that the Scipii would break the alliance before I did, I quickly attacked the Greeks who had left the city and got a Heroic victory.
I then allied with Macedonia and walked on to Sparta. The Greeks has left a garrison of some hopilites, some armoured hopilites and some Spartans. I quickly got rid of these and took Sparta. When I took Sparta I realised I had taken a city with Principines ready to be trained. So I quickly began training some for use on my attacks on Macedon. I also built up a fleet to keep the large stack of Greek troops from leaving Rhodes, I will get rid of them soon. Also there is another Greek city near Pontic lands, but I'm not too worried about it.
I built up a few units of principines and sieged Corinth. I managed to take it with minimal casualties and killed 2 Macedonian generals. I find that the key to defeating Macedonian cavalry and phalanxes is:
1. Use phalanxes to engage cavalry on equal ground, if it is uneven then just use your generals bodyguard to kill the cavalry.
2. For phalanxes, just engage them and hit them from behind with your light or heavy cavalry. You colud even use a trick that I use in cities when I have two cavalry units. You make the phalanx head for one unit, then hit it from behind with the other. Then when the pikes are lifted hit it head on with the unit facing the phalanx.
Anyway, I sent a spy into Athens and the gates were open when I attacked. I didn't fight this battle particularly well and lost much more men than usual. The phalanx blocking the gate held for a long period of time, and the towers wiped out most of my archers. However as soon as the phalanx at the gate broke I wiped out the enemy with principines and heavy cavalry.
Oh and I sent a small force to secure Salona so the Macedonians couldn't capture it.
This is where I am now, I've been quite fortunate in my campaign, the Greeks have offered no resistance and the Macedonians are doing badly economically.
I have had even more success as the Brutii. I have managed to fight my way right through Macedon, and their faction is now extinct. I captured Larissa, Thessalonica and Bylazora, and have sent a small army to capture Byzantium whilst using my larger army to cross into Asia Minor and to secure Pergamum. The Selucids are down to their last settlement, Sardis, in which I have let them stay and have made an alliance with them. I took the city south of Sardis, and then declared war on Pontus as they are allied with Greece.
I have fought my way through Asia Minor, taking 3 Pontic settlements and leaving them in their capital and another settlement to the south. Whilst doing this I have also made another small army and took Kydonia. I have left the Greeks in Rhodes as I dont have the money to spare to eliminate them just yet. I have allowed the Scipii and the Julii to expand, as I want the civil war to be an epic struggle.
I had an incredibly annoying situation with Brutii today. Was going back to RTW for nostalgia, now that ETW is out, and scouring the Greeks and Macedonians from the face of the earth. The turn I took Thessalonica was the turn the plague broke out. I knew it was coming, of course, but I didn't remember exactly when - I figured I'd at least have a chance to move my army and my legion of spies out of the city before it came.
Sigh, really put a cramp on my campaign plan. I just marched my horribly diseased army up and took the last Macedonian city with it, then had to levy up a new army just to jump over to Asia Minor and thrash the Pontics.
The moral of this story is, I hate the plague. I know there's all kinds of fun things you can do with it, but it's so annoying. Plus, the idiot Thracians keep infiltrating spies into my plagued cities so the plague never goes away. Not really keen on taking on Thrace just yet, but if they keep this up, I'm gonna have to explain that biological warfare is off limits.
Also, remember, Thessalonica gets the plague in 256 bc, or at least it did for me. Don't put family members you care about in the city around then, even if you figure it's only for a turn. I lost a perfectly good faction heir to that, not to mention some really nice armies.
The plague is an event which is pre-determined by your decr_strat file. the date can be altered at will.
I find with the Brutii that the danube is a very good natural frontier, expand to there and a few good armies can defend from the barbarians at choke points so you can direct your attention someplace else.
I knew the plague was a pre-scheduled event, I just didn't remember the exact date. And got boned because it hit the exact turn I conquered the city, so a bunch of stuff got infected that I had intended to move out of the city next turn.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alp Arlsan
Also, Thrace is now dust. We virtuous Romans frown on the use of biological weapons. Well, we frown on their use by our enemies. Which includes pretty much everybody.
Hah, same here. Im replaying brutii as Ive never finished laying as them.
Ive started this game several times though and like turtling in the following:
Grab the rebel coast towns quickly, keep up on senate quests usually telling you to thrash greece (and maybe sending you to gaul territory). Once I'm making bank with some rich greek citys whose perfumed noses I just cut off, I send a stack off to romp across Gaul to get some generals xp and GIFT the territories back to jullii to bolster them.
I'll turn on my macedon allies then hop to the turkish penisula, gift gobs of gold to the armenians to keep them in the game.
Slow pace game, but fun. This time I WILL take 50 territories with bruttii though.
My first sentence should read more like :Hah, I hate the plague to. Macedon plague drives me batty.
Couldnt find the damn edit button anywhere.
Mate, you know your'e replying in a thread thats been empty for a few months right? (just checking cause my first post was in a thread that was pretty inactive and i thought i did something wrong when no one replied) :laugh4:
Anyways welcome to the .org
As to the brutti i like to do basically the same thing. (i help out the romans because i like a tough fight in the end). Personally i love the turtle game, it maintains a tougher ai in the long rin, than does a quick steamroll, i believe personally.
Oh and the edit button is in the bottom right corner of your post
Greetings fellow brutes!
I realise this is not a terribly active and wellread thread and most things have been said already, but I wanted to share some tips and pointers on the Brutii that come from my latest campaign:
* You may want to think both once and twice about taking over Segestica, the rebel settlement up north from Salona and Appolonia, at least at the beginning. Even with mining possibilities it's not a terribly profitable province and both the Dacians and Gauls seem keen to take it as well. Holding a decent army up there with at least 2 years to the closest military hub can prove difficult at the start.
* If you act very quickly you can send an army westwards to Caralis and take it from the Carthaginians before the Julii get there. Islands with ports do wonders for your economy, and as the only ones that seem to attack them are romans they'll be safe for quite some time. Mind the pirateships though, anything less than 6-7 biremes will be beaten to a pulp if you run into them.
* The Brutii have access to very profitable provinces right from the start, so hiring more mercenaries than usual can really help you out even from the start. One unit you should get any time it is available is Cretan Archers, the best bowmen in the game (Pharao's aside) pre-Marius. Despite their name you can get them from any territory in southern Greece it would appear, but they're rarer to spawn than other mercenaries it would appear. Also you have a chance of gaining one of the best retinues in the game (Mercenary Captain, +1 command, +2% denarii from looting and -10% recruitment discount) every time you hire mercs, which helps even more at the start of a game.
Oh, and mercs are usually dressed in green which matches your main troops nicely!
* The Greeks and Macedonians do sport some mean hoplites, but seeing as the AI usually sends them against you one or two units at a time you can work them down to nothing easily with minimal losses on your side using these two tactics:
1) Hunt them down with skirmishers as they advance, or let the archers behind your main battleline hit them as they advance. Seeing as hoplites are slow in formation (which they always stay in, it seems) you can probably use all your ammo on them before they reach you, if you please.
2) Surround them with your own infantry and rush them from behind when you attack. Also note that using your units' pila (throwing spears) before attacking can reduce the hoplite unit by as much as 25% in one go, so make sure you have used this before rushing. As the AI isn't the brightest you can usually let the unit facing the hoplites move around in circles and let some other units sneak up behind the hoplites for the charge, without them reacting to it.
* The plague in Macedonia is scripted and can't be avoided without altering your files, but there are some tricks you can play to stop it from reaching your provinces. Judging by my latest campaign you don't seem to get the plague even from bordering provinces if they belong to the a faction you are at war with. Of course you should wait until the plague is gone before conquering it as well, as the plague will most likely affect any invading army and may even start on a new timer. I'm not sure about the effects of public healthbuidlings (Sewers, Public Baths etc) but they appear to reduce the length of the plague if nothing else, so if you do get the plague make sure to start building that.
* Your diplomatic relations will be tense no matter how you play it, so think long and hard on which way you want to go. The juicy provinces in Greece are held by both Macedonia and the Greek Cities so any offensive there will probably bring you to war with both of them. Taking Salona will make the Gauls angry and send armies down the coast, at least if the Julii are friendly with the Gauls like in my campaign. The Senate really does hate Carthage and will give you missions to block their ports and maybe more, but you should probably weigh the benefits before accepting these missions. Hauling a precious navy way off your mainlands just to get games thrown in your honour might just not be worth it.
Hope this helps, and sorry again if I just repeat what has already been said!
Kind regards
Good solid points.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bellicin
I often send the army for Caralis to Syracuse first. Many times, I can let the first wave of Scips take all the casualties while the Bruti take the city. That army (with a few mercs) can often re-embark and STILL reach caralis ahead of the Julii -- or at least in time to do the same thing I did in Sicily (let them start the siege, but YOU start the siege assault, let them bleed on the walls, but take the city for the profits yourself). I do this with one bireme (which NEVER has troops still on it at the end of a move after turn #2).
Welcome to the org!
One of my favorite games was one in which the Carthaginians took messana. then i took over all of Sicily. Trust me sicily looks far better in green. :2thumbsup:Quote:
Good solid points.
I often send the army for Caralis to Syracuse first. Many times, I can let the first wave of Scips take all the casualties while the Bruti take the city. That army (with a few mercs) can often re-embark and STILL reach caralis ahead of the Julii -- or at least in time to do the same thing I did in Sicily (let them start the siege, but YOU start the siege assault, let them bleed on the walls, but take the city for the profits yourself). I do this with one bireme (which NEVER has troops still on it at the end of a move after turn #2).