Rebel navies do block but they don't get higher level ships like Triremes and Quinquremes IIRC. This means when the navy turns rebel, a lot of ships disappear. This makes for easier killing of the rebel navy.
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Rebel navies do block but they don't get higher level ships like Triremes and Quinquremes IIRC. This means when the navy turns rebel, a lot of ships disappear. This makes for easier killing of the rebel navy.
cool, never knew that. Never had to engage a rebel navy before.
Greetings fellow RTS fans,
All is fair in love and war... and with that said let me contribute my support for Brutti and some effective tactics that I've stumbled upon.
First, the Brutti family is awesome and definitely in one of the best strategic starting positions of the Roman alliance. Two interesting things occured that have helped my campaign.
1). Thessalonia is almost guaranteed to have an outbreak of the plague before 250 BC so after one of my spies there contracted it I promptly sent him to visit the cities of my Roman allies. I kept him in a nice loop going back and forth between these cities to ensure that when the plague lifted from a city or my spy I quickly reinfected them. This has helped keep my allies in a weakened state and puts me in a better position for when the civil war breaks.
* actually the plague is turning out to be such a godsend (pun intended) I infected another spy and am sending him to visit some of my future neighbors way way ahead of my armies.
2). The Senate assigns me a mission to take Sparta so I land an enormous army and land off of its coast. In response Greece sent a large army but they couldn't land because my ships were lining the coasts (we were at peace at that moment). So I sent my ships to attack their lone ship and I killed off an army of 8 Hoplites, 4 cavalry and 3 archers with barely a drop of Roman blood shed.
Alright, well you guys have a great weekend...
Regards,
Dennie
Welcome to the org ~:wave:
Nice tactic for the plagues, thanks, I'll use it in future. I tried to infect the Scipii with a diplomat but it didn't work. This diplomat travelled from Asia Minor (where he got the plague, he lived there for about 5 years with the plague) down to the Nile delta, on past Siwa, through Africa, past Carthage and made it to Cirta. Then he was cured of the plague, but if you think about it, that's at least 50 turns including the wandering about he did in North Africa trying to bribe Scipii stacks! So he survived with the plague for 25 years, in hot desert conditions where germs are prime for multiplication. WOW!
Thanks for the welcome...
Well the advantage of using a spy is that he can enter cities which makes them quite vulnerable to plague infection. I didn't really use him to try and infect armies though that would be a good strategy too.
My next target is of course Rome... I cannot describe how delighted it would be to bring them the plague, particulary those blessed Senators and their incessant demands. I'm sure everyone who plays RTW is smiling at the prospect as its almost as gratifying as invading Rome and putting the Senators to the sword. ~D
Plague bearing spies is certainly cool.
If you like this, you should consider putting the plague ridden spy on a ship. Then never have the ship go into port and you have a continual source of infection. Load spies onto it to get biological weapons locked and loaded.
Using the navy to sink the enemy army is indeed great.
BTW, I don't think that spies can actually infect enemy field armies since they don't actually enter the enemy stack.
Yeah, they just look at it from distance, check out the men they've got. I don't understand how a spy can find out someone's (a character) traits by spying.
They actually peer at it right next to the stack. That reveals the trait of the commanders and detailed info on all units.
If it's some distance away, there is a question mark for the actual details of the unit.
However, at no point does the spy actually enter the enemy stack, making it seem like it's not possible to give the plague to the enemy stack.
If they never entered the army camp, then they would know the units, possibly, but they would not be able to find out the general's traits without getting close to him.
Im currently pretty far in my VH/VH Brutii campaign. I started off as most have described, taking Appolonia, Thermon, Greek cities and Macedon. As with this campaign, i have started a new little trend. Leave you enemies alive, dangling by a thread. It makes me feel powerful. Example: In my war with Macedon, I completely destroyed them in Europe, leaving one measly settlement directly south of the Sea, in Africa. I did this also with Rhodes and Greece, it is their only settlement. (I am aware of the Wonder on Rhodes, but I am currently producing no less than 3k per settlement, a goo dnumber of them making more. Athens itself is making a cool 7500 per turn.) I kinda jumped from Europe and when to modern day Turkey, taking Halicarnasus, Pergamum, and that city in between them. I began a small war with the Selucids and have Tarsus surrounded with Watchtowers and my settlements. All the other Selucid citys are MINE!!!! The next logical step seemed to be Egypt of course. Yesterday saw me take the final Egytian citys, Memphis, Alexandria, and Thebes. The island of Salamis is their only city. ~:cheers:
The year is 214, my best general just died (89 years old) Full stars Full Influence. His eldest son is conquering the remainder of Africa, and his youngest has been ferried to Thessalonica to deal with the Thracian Threat. Marius reforms have yet to happen.
A few notes about things i did notice, it would probably be better to take Thrace out completely before you venture on. They become a big problem if you wait. Their mix of phalanxes and Falxmen is devastating to my Hastati. Pre-Marius efforts on Thrace should only be attempted with a decent general (4 stars at least) and nothing short of Principes. Believe me, those Falxmen will put the fear of god in your Hastati.
do you guys have any tips about the falxmen?
i mean, some good ways to kill them
Pin them and charge into their rearwith cav? Works with most barb infantry.
i'm trying thatQuote:
Originally Posted by Craterus
but many times they just turn and hit the cav, killing many of them
i'll try to put stronger inf to pin them.. they MUST pay attetion on my inf hehe
at the moment i'm using velite gladiators to pin them, but these glad are too
disorganized (or unorganized? dont know =p) and cant keep a good pin
Falxmen are best killed from range. Use ample archers. Also, have velites behind your lines and set them to hold ground and fire at will. Do the same for your hastati.
The mix of arrows and then concentrated pila will typically destroy 3 units of falxmen right away. Feign with cav to keep em dancing in front of your lines to eat pila and arrows.
I agree, but you'd definately need at least 3 units of archers. Im talkin going against 6-8 units of Falxmen, charging under cover of skirmishers and archers. i agree w/katank as well about keeping the velites behind the lines. BUT DO NOT USE HASTATI, they run like dogs. Principes or higher.....post marius Im sure the Earlys can handle it but dont use Hastati. Anything w/out armor or shields is gonna be SUPER vulnerable to missle attacks. If the enemy stack in question has no cav then either simply let their infantry absorb that missle fire and chase down their missle troops w/your cav. by that time the Falxmen should be close to your line. engage them w/your troops and your cav should be behind em in perfect positon to charge into the rear. can anyone say instant rout?
If you know what you're up against in the beginning, draw up your army concentrated close to (but not AT) one corner of the deployment area, and hit one flank first with your cavalry on the extreme flank to outflank the rear's archers and cavalry. Most of the time the enemy responds by setting up his line as per normal, so outflanking is easy as long as you charge your infantry at a run while your cavalry go round wide. Your infantry should hit first, so they take notice of them. Meanwhile your cavalry should advance in line with them. It is essential you do not pass the Dacian line because then they will respond and turn to face your cavalry upon which it will be harder to outflank their archers, and they will not 'notice' your infantry as well as you would like them to. Try and break their flank before the other end of the Dacian line is able to close up, and keep some cohorts in reserve to hold off those new arrivals from your flank-crushing force's flanks.
If there weren't enough benefits to using the Brutti for your campaign here is another boon that I've discovered in my games. As many people on this thread suggested I built up shrines and temples to Juno in my newly conquered territories to counteract culture penalties. However, I began to notice that my family members have been reproducing quite well while governing these cities. In fact, many of my family members have four children and nobody has less than two. Part of this reason is because Juno temples allow you to retain Physicians which increase the chances for childbirth. (or perhaps its just the water ~D )
I sent a childless and quite mad governor aged 36 from a Mars dedicated city to a Juno city and within a few turns he had 2 children. I guess they're the ancient versions of The Mayo fertility clinic.
~ Long live the Brutti
For some reason Im innately defensive when I play Brutii.
...Interesting. Perhaps it's the effect of the hoplites?
Wow, I wish I paid more attention to the last few posts before I marched on to Thrace. There I was totally victorious from my campaigns against The Greeks and The Macedonians. My Eastern armies were making steady headway into the Seleucidian empire so I figure, hey I have some nice neighbors to the Northeast with some decent sized towns and cities.
So I'm making war with the Thracians and take my textbook, kick-butt approach, Principies deep on guard, fire at will, velites right behind on guard, no skirmish, archers behind them. Seems to work great against everyone else. The Thracians charge with 8 groups of 40 falxmen and cut into my infantry like a hot knife through butter. All of my men rout and run behind the gates like frightened children. I did eventually win that fight because they chased my men to within arrows reach of my wooden walls and I waited there on fast-forward and let my archers kill them off volley after volley.
Man, it doesn't matter how big or advanced your cities are, how far your empire reaches, how deep your treasury is or how deep your army marches, a bunch of crazy barbarians with 3 foot long scythe blades can still kick your butt.
:)
Hi Denster,
I see you are from NY too. :balloon2: welcome.
It's true that falxmen are one of the best level 2 infantry units around. Missile fire is the least expensive way to kill em off. Ballista work well too. I ideally use 6+ archers complete with ballista parked on a hill when facing those guys.
Principes are actually decent against them. Make sure you turn on fire at will and let them use all their pila. Same for hastati and turn velites off skirmish. The blanket fire of pila combined with archer power is often sufficient to crush them at near point blank range.
Hoplites one-on-one against falxmen are also extremely efficacious when they are 4 ranks deep or greater.
Possibly, but I think its probably got something to do with doubtful courage. :embarassed:Quote:
Originally Posted by pezhetairoi
Nevertheless, fresh from conquest with Egypt, I have began the Brutii campaign once more in earnest. So far, I control all of Greece, Macedon is destroyed, most of Sicily captured, ditto Carthage and Thapsus (dunno why everyone wanted to avoid the last three, because theyve we're pretty easy to get, and i've pretty much stopped any kind of expansion by Scipii in the process - the end game should be a cakewalk).. Going to spend the next fifty years capturing a few more wonders, and work my way northwards and west against Thrace and eventually Germania.
Easy. ~:handball:
All very interesting. Here is a question for most of the advanced players. What is the purpose of the seante missions? Can you ignore them and pursue victory on your own grounds. or will that just piss them off and declare civil war more rapidly. I always run into this problem. I accumulate vast wealth, only to have the senate ask me to attack a neutral faction, thus requiring me to abandon my current wars, redeploying my armies and thinning them out abroad, or create new units to defend my settlements and attack new factions. either way, it almost always bankrupts me. :furious3:
Welcome to the org ~:wave:
You don't have to do Senate missions but it is advised. When playing the Romans, I complete acceptable missions but I will not declare war on a neutral faction just because they want me to. Once, I was campaigning in Africa (as Scipii) at which point they ask me to take Larissa. IN MACEDON? No thanks. I wouldn't have even got there in the 10 turn limit.
Do the ones you want to do, but ignore the outrageous ones, that's my advice.
Although, if they offer you a major exotic unit, go for it! This can be eles or Legionary First Cohort.
Thanks for the welcome. You'll see me around for a while. I am an avid gamer and rome: total war is probably one of the best i've played. thanks for the advise ~:cheers:
see you around then... Don't complete the outrageous missions, btw. If you manage to complete them yout standing with the plebs will increase but your standing with the senate will decrease greatly making faction leader suicide demands that much quicker.
I never got those demands, I only played short campaign with Romans...
I personally find it very efficacious to complete Senate missions at the beginning of the game. It is usually quite reasonable and something you would do anyhow. The first mission is usually 5000 denarii which really helps your economy.
Afterwards, only major exotic unit missions are really great. As mentioned, first cohorts and merc eles are both excellent rewards. Both are hard to get otherwise. Besides, you can later have the irony of killing the Senate with what they gave you. I certainly had fun routing their big stack with my 2 merc eles both given to me by them crushing a flank together with some cav.
Hey Katank, howyoudoin - yup fellow New Yorker here.
I'm finishing up my first campaign thoroughly crushing any enemies foolish enough to bare swords with my armies and am looking forward to starting a new game. I've played my first one after reading through Frogbeastegg's invaluable guide and picking up some great tips from this forum.
The thing is though that once I caught my momentum the game lost a great degree of its challenge for me. I learned how to efficiently and effectively manage my cities to produce more than enough money and troops to feed my insatiable bloodlust and thirst for expansion. In combat I formulated a nearly undefeatible strategy and formation - winning over 112 battles by raining pilas and arrows onto my enemies and only losing one battle - to egyptian chariots who rolled over my tight formations of principes and velities standing there on guard mode. Even this I quickly ammended by learning to keep loose formations and a wide crescent and broken line whenever a good number of chariots were involved.
I was wondering how much smarter is the AI on Very-Hard mode or should I perhaps look into some of the mod packs like RTR or perhaps looking into moding myself to make it more challenging? For instance, in anticipation of a civil war I masses up armies upon armies all with Onagers either just on my adjacent borders or off the coast of my Roman allies so that when it came I took over about 70% of the other roman faction's settlements in just one turn. I had tons of troops just sitting there, whereas any human player would feel rightfully threatened way before the fact.
Just my two cents, would appreciate some personal experiences of difference, etc...
AI isn't much smarter. The money tightness of the VH campaign makes the beginning a bit more challenging and makes naval combat insanely hard.
However, it's still the same in mid-end game. VH battle is bugged in 1.2 as you get attack bonuses too, making battles over faster but no AI advantage.
You should check out mods for more challenge. I personally like SPQR and Vlad mod.
Hey Denster.
Brutii campaign has a ridiculous advantage over the other factions. You get SOOOOO much money that you literally can bribe away battles. Ive bribed full stacks for a little over 100k but when you're making 25k++++ a turn then its no biggie. Try some of the Barb factions, they are pretty tough. You money management needs to be really good. You also dont get more than Roads as Barbs so that hurts a lot. Also no siege weaponry. The Romans got it made sometimes....
Yeap. Try Dacia. Now *that*'s a challenge. Of course, Germania would be nice too, but it's too easy to win battles as Germania with your phalanxes.
Dacia, Spain, and Numidia are economic toughies. Spain even stinks on the military front initially so is probly the hardest.
I always had the impression Numidian javelinmen were even worse than Iberian Infantry...
My joint-campaign with Spain isn't going too badly. I have the economic power to march on Rome immediately. Unfortunately, Bull Warriors take 2 turns to build and their military units aren't that great as it happens anyway.
Numidians can get Desert Spearmen which are reasonably good infantry the same time as Iberian inf. Besides, archers at the large town level makes Numidia a blitzing powerhouse. Their jav cav is also a tactician's dream.
Spain should definitely take Tingi quickly. This coupled with Cordoba brought me into prosperity. Palma should also be a priority.
Very early expansion into Gaul is financial suicide.
Thanks guys for the advice... I love this game and hate to nitpick but once you figure out a few things it becomes clockwork butt-kicking and empire expanding.
I think however to truly experience this time period you need to play against true guile, cunning, deceit and betrayal - meaning playing multiplayer with your buddies, hehehe.. stuff like making alliances with Carthage to kill Senate missions for Scipii or with Gaul to hurt the Julii.
Just for curiosity sake how would you guys handle differently than the AI if faced with an army of Principies standing 4 deep across the entire line, evidently on guard and fire at will, backed by Velites and archers ? The AI would send in his cavalry to be butchered then march in like a dummy under a hail of pila. I've never played against another human being or found myself in a similar situation so what would you do tactically?
Denster
First of all, it depends upon your army composition.
If you are a horse archer faction, you can simply mass fire and rip those Principes to bits while staying out of range of the enemy archers.
If you are a barbarian faction, then war cry and charge from just out of pila range. If you are traditional faction, either missile duel or move up your infantry. Note to turn off phalanx formation and charge up to them and then turn phalanx on.
Always try to flank with cav. 4-deep principes cannot stretch across the map unless corner camping. If they seem strong on refusing flanks, try smashing in their center.
Be flexible and look for opportunities.
Id dump on them w/my Onagers until that stupid line looks like swiss cheese. Then I would send 3 seperate lines of phalanxes to begin enveloping their degenerating line; under cover of archers of course. Then Id use my cav to attack between the 2 openings between my phalanxes, w/2 other cav units going around. Thats a fun one.
Is it just me or is it that the Romans have the best all-around infantries? Take for example, the hastaii and later, the cohorts, which with their decent missile attack, pretty darn well defense, and not bad attack can chew up other factions' units up in no time. And don't even get me started on Praetorian Cohorts...they are truly savages. The only infantries that can really face off with Roman infantry are (I think) German axemen and berserker. (Chosen axemen and night raider SUCK)
its you ......
j/k
well if you dont count phalenxes maybe
they do have very very good infantry but i dont know about claiming the best all around infantry i would say it depends on situation
against eastern infantry yes definately the romas would win against a human player with phalenexes, other infantry, archers, and some good calvery the romans would get whooped
the germans have very good infantry and the high carthage infantry is pretty good
also thrace has falxmen which im told are pretty good also
the greek cities have sparten hoplites which are extremely good with swords
but....
i havnt played the romans after the marian reforms and i only got about to hasati and some pricipes so....
what do i know
most of this is based upon other's observations not my own experience
hope this stirs up some discussion among some of the better players than I
orcorama
btw: the german chosen axmen have an attack of almost 30!
I'm currently very popular with the Senators. Four of my family members are holding top-notch offices in the Senate (Profineus Maximus, Praetor Concuil...) but the "People" doesn't like me very much. I wonder why? Perhaps I need to conquer more lands?
Actaully it`s "only" 18, unupgraded.Quote:
Originally Posted by orcorama
Berskers are better than Chosen Axemen `cause they have better attack stats and 3 hitpoints while the axemen only got 1.
Moreover Bastaerne(sp?) is a better unit than Falxmen `cause of their HP`s and attack stats.
I think the best non-phalanx unit ingame is either Urban Cohorts or Berserkers.
:bow:
First Legionary Cohort = Best unit in game.
Chosen axemen most definitely don't suck. They get armour piercing attack which is most useful against legionares. With warcry, they can beat urban cohorts and get so much bonus from armour piercing that their attack does work out close to 30. Ideal flankers as when they crash into a flank/rear, they can negate shield and defence effects, only against armor which they get a bonus against.
night raiders are fast and have balanced stats. they also scare infantry and thus make for pretty good flankers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by orcorama
They just slautered my Hastati, it was a Tracian army with almost only falxmen.
They're army was a little larger than mine.
I don't know how, but after the battle my 4 units of Hastati had routed and my Principes, who had fought far more then my Hastati, had almost zero losses.
I won with only 3 units Pricipes left, the rest had routed.
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but you really can't evaluate a unit until you've seen a human rip you a new one with it.
But if the AI rips you a new one with it, it's even more impressive as it means the unit is so godly that it can suffer absolute tactical incompetence and still come out on top.
AGREED!!! fervently ~:cheers:Quote:
Originally Posted by katank
I'm about 20 years into my Brutii campagin. I'm on H/H. The Greeks are kicking Macedon's ass with their armoured hoplites, (tough mother *&%**&) so I decieded to join in and ally myself with the Macedonians. The Greeks still slaughter like fully 3/4 of our (me and the Macedonians) troops with only half of their units lost. But I still manage to beat them a couple of times, earn my faction leader the "Legendary Hero" and "Conqueror" thingy (yay) and now all my troops have a +4 morale and 25% more valour. LOL. But I'm still waiting for the freaking Gaius Marius Reform. Goddamn it's taking its sweet time. I can't hold off much longer with only hastaii and principii. Wish I can speed up the process somehow and get the reform done and go oblierate the Greek Cities.
I'm 220BC now and I haven't seen a Marius reform yet.
Although I already have an Imperial palace (Some say that when you build one the Marius reforms begin).
Please take note.
v 1.0/1.1 - Marius Reform happens as soon as you have an imperial palace.
1.2 - You need: Imperial Palace on Mainland Italy and date has to be after 220BC. There is a random trigger as to when the reforms happen. It could happen in 219BC, or it could happen as late as 175BC. Maybe even later, but 175 is the latest that I've ever heard.
This topic was discussed in the coluseum , so you may check there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rome's Total Ruler
In RTW 1.2, the region needs the Italy resource which includes all starting Roman cities as well as the Gallic regions in North Italy and all of Sicily.
It's random after 220. It can often take place at late as 200 or even 180 when you have a palace by 220.
On H/H, I own the senate basically. all the positions of power in the SPQR governement are under my family rule: Prontifex Maximus, Aedile, Praetor...all six (or seven) of them. The Julii and the Scipii are busying themselves with meager and hard-to-hold provinces while I'm slaughtering the Egyptians and taking their rich-ass lands. I have about 30 provinces and still, "I don't have enough support" to attack the other Romans. I wonder why?
Someone mentioned just how good Legionary Cohorts are. Roman infantry are pretty incredible, but not as good as well marshalled phalanxes. But the support they get from Legionary Cav, Archers etc is unbeatable, post-Marias reforms.
Playing Scipii on hard/hard, and reforms happened by 235 BC. Taken Carthage, destroyed Greece and Macedon, taken Memphis, Thebes and Alexandria, blockaded all the other Egyptian ports (just to rub it in) ~:) , and am now looking to finish of Pontus.
My popularity with the poeple is good, and the civil is only a few years away I suspect.
Legionaries are better due to maneuverability. Their pila is also deadly.
Even the AI cannot mess up too badly while playing with Roman infantry. The pila storm alone can often send 2-3 units packing and many attrited.
true. most times, though, it just decides to rush you due to superior numbers & unit stats (often). Romans ARE powerful....and not easily outmaneuvred.Quote:
Originally Posted by katank
The AI rarely flanks and often just busts through your center and with pila, massed Roman infantry are very good at this. I've intentionally made multishot lines only 3 units wide just to cope with this type of situation.
I bought RTW two days ago and am, surprisingly enough, still on my first campagain. I chose the Brutii just out of the blue (or the green, if you will) and took Apollonia and the other city far north of it, Segestica, on the coast and then Thermon to the south. So essentially I took the whole coast to the east across the sea from me. That's sound enough. This is where it gets strange.
The Senate asked me to blockade Sparta, so I did. This is before I learned that the Senate has this tendency to blockade-invade. So, I took Sparta. The Greek garrison there was small and I'm glad most of my tactical knowledge from MTW carried over. So I had Sparta.
Well, then they got it in their heads that I should blockade a city in Asia Minor: Pergamum. So, I take that place. Then they send me to Rhodes, and I eliminate the Greeks.
You can imagine what my faction's territory looks like right now, and I can tell you that it's far from consolidated. I declared war on Pontus, took Nicomedia to the north, and then the Senate ordered me to blockade-invade Sinope. So, I did. This is where things go from weird to sour.
I occupied Sinope just like I'd occupied every city up until this point. Only, my army wasn't nearly enough to quell the locals. What's worse, the season after I took Sinope, the Senate ordered me south to take the capital of Mazaka. Well, I'm far from home I think. I checked my history, and I'm sitting in places that historically Rome wasn't even thinking about until a century later, so I figure I'll abandon Sinope without destroying buildings (I was already rich and thought that I'd come back later and wouldn't want to rebuild). I march my men from Sinope south and siege Mazaka. Then the armies of Pontus emerged.
They sent a large army into Phrygia, 800+ men (I only had about 500 in Pergamum), and they sent another 800+ to siege Nicomedia. They sent a relief army to lift the siege on Mazaka, and that's when I started to not feel welcome. And so now to end this and tell you where I am:
I have Bruttium, Apulia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Aetolia, Laconia, Crete, Rhodes, Phrygia (their army is just sitting there half a move from Pergamum), and Bithnyia (I broke the siege). The one kick-in-the-pants I was able to give them happened on the plains between Mazaka and Sinope where their King happened to be marching alone with his contingent after they lifted my siege on the capital. I took my last remnant there, which I was planning to put on the long march back to Pergamum, and killed their King. This really didn't make them happy and the remaining bodyguard routed and slaughtered my men.
This whole time the Senate has been preaching about how Macedonia is the greatest thing since the stain-free toga, but now I have the feeling I should have just taken all of Greece and stayed out of Asia Minor. So, it's Winter 244BC.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BoloBouncer
I think this large army is from your revolted city Sinope. In RTW, when a city revolted, either they becomes rebels or go back to the civilization they are from, in this case, they return back to Pontic and created a large army in the process.
If you want to avoid this, just give the city back to Pontic, then there will not be a garrison in the city, or at worst a city full or rebel forces not forces loyal to the Pontic.
Bad idea to go so far withough consolidation.
I definitely recommend taking Macedon out and then you can move your capital to Athens before you head far into Asia Minor. Athens gives nice traits to govs due to academy and low capital penalty is good.
Hey, @Bolobouncer one good way is to exterminate the population and the squalor will be press down...for a while. And don't build farms if you don't want the pop. growing like a mofo. Oh and do not take Carthage even if your life depends on it. Its growth rate is 7-8%...go figure. And destroy their temples and replace them with your own. Temple of Juno cuts the culture penalty by half.
you have to use archers to initially equalize the situation. Generally, they run much faster than hoplites walk. You just have to have lots of them.Quote:
Originally Posted by crazybastard
Massed archers they cannot deal with. Use some cavalry, preferably cav auxila to run back and forth distracting the enemy. This way, you can keep them under your archers' umbrella of death while they don't charge your archers, being distracted with the cav.
Thats a shocker of a first campaign. ~:) Im surprised you didn't run out of money running around like that. I largely ignore any unreasonable Senate requests, especially, when all they offer is a new unit.Quote:
Originally Posted by BoloBouncer
The most unreasonable request I got however was to blockade the Port in Petra (Egypt), after I'd taken Thebes, Alexandria and Memphis with Scipii. Problem was, Petra was protected by a massive uber-fleet, and I only had five turns to complete the mission. Of course I failed, was investigated for financial irregularites, and got fined 90,000 d. Needless to say I was not a happy chappy, and relations with the senate deteriorated to the point of no return shortly after.
just so you know you can blockade from the land by moving and army into the port spot
Anyone have any tips about taking on Egypt, I just started my invasion of them? Supposedly heavy infantry get tired in the desert, does that mean I have to go with only hastati??? And cavalry are no good against chariots so what do I counter them with???
watch out for pharah's guard and pharoh's bow men. They are tough mofos.
Get a bunch of cohorts (legionary is better than early legionary btw) and run up to the Egyptians and turn on testudo mode. They Egyptians have a lot of missile units, and imho, they actually have the most diverse and balaned missile units in RTW. So anyway, by locking your cohorts in testudos will save them from Egyptian missile fire, and waste up all their ammos, although you might still lose quite a few men if you're up against pharoh's bow men. As for the chariots...auxila and plain cohorts will do the job. Just make sure you keep your missile and cavalry units (especially your general!) out of their crazy-two-wheeled son-of-a-gun and you'll be fine.
Oh and turn on fire at will for your cohorts when against massive chariots. Chariots have low defense and are vunlerable to pila.
May the force be with you, sockerconny
Yes, cavalry auxilia is a good option. Also good are archers w/ flaming ammo (though often you won't have much time to pepper them before they close in) or plain peltasts/velites. Yes, even in melee; if I interpreted some cruel battles right, the combat bonus vs. chariots and elephants also applies to close combat (or mercenary peltasts are simply darn good against chariots). And if it doesn't, who the hell cares about losing some velites...
as mentioned, just make sure your general stays far away from anything on wheels, whether routing/panicking or not.
So that stuff about heavy infantry in the desert is incorrect, or it doesnt apply to cohorts? What about principes and triariai, the reforms recently happened but i have lots of the old troop types already produced and plan on using them. Are those specialist elite troops (acani and gladiator velites) worth building?
From my first battles with the egypts it seems like the AI handles them a bit better than the greek/macedon-style armies, which I could generaly smash totaly even when clearly outnumbered. Or maybe I just havent found the right tactics yet.
in general the AI handles phalanxes very poorly, so indeed a campaign through greece is not too great a challenge.
yes, the Eggies seem to fare somewhat better, I made the same experience. maybe one more unreasonable built-in advantage of this most odious of factions.....about tiring heavy infantry I'm not informed. I always used some lighter phalanx units against these &%*#$ยง-chariots and apart from them exclusively (missile) cavalry. works well.
Fatigue is indeed often bugged. Anyhow, it's the sheer overpowered Eggy units that make them hard to beat.
Their hordes of chariots and many bowmen makes for the need for a mobile force as infantry gets shot up. Then their superarmoured axemen and buff phalanxes pharaoh's guard make cav not that great.
In the end, it requires decent tactics to beat them rather than a cakewalk.
They also have great wealth and population growth.
The fact that their chariot generals are overpowered in autocalc makes certain that they kill S.E. early and seal an enormous advantage.
I am playin as scipii, its about 210BC and the selucids are still there, infact they seem to have lost 1 only province.
I sent a diplomat to see them as i was advancing on Alexandria/Memphis/Thebes to see if i could convince them to declare was on the Egyptian. I figure a second front would make my job alot easier. It turns out that the selucids and egyptians had allied with each other. I figure they allied very early becasue they hadn't taken any provinces from each other.
(I had 4 stacks advancing from the West on land and dropped 3 stacks on Alexandria from my fleet, needless to say i took all 3 cities in short order.)
Alliances usually don't last too long but i have had 1 with gaul which has lasted so long i don't remember how longs its been going, decades need less to say. And I have never given a single gift, not 1 denari. Has anyone else experienced these uberalliances. ~:grouphug:
Katank, it's no longer that bad. I don't know now if it was the scarface fix pack or v1.2....but the defence stat of those axemen has been downgraded to 12 from 19 or so. At least that's what I saw when the Eggy was still alive ~D This leaves them still dangerous but they're way easier to deal with.Quote:
Originally Posted by katank
However those Pharaoh's guards still pose a serious challenge and are served best with veteran missile (cav) or by a decent cataphract charge into their flank. :bow:
The fatigue was better as is pri/sec bug in 1.2. The axemen no longer have 11 armor but they still shouldn't have 7. It should be like 3 or 2.
Pharoah's Bowmen is still crazy though in the horribly inaccurate infantry run speed. It allows them to run away from cav for a long time and then turn around and slaughter them in melee.
I started a Brutii campaign a few days ago. I was expecting to take on the Greeks first, then the Macedonians who the Senate for some reason seems to be in love with.
However, 2 turns after I had conquered Thermon the Macedonians laid siege to it...so much for the historical run of things.
I ceasefired with the Greeks and had some great battles against full stacks of Macedonian armies :charge:
Later as I took Larissa and killed off their giant armies, I underestimated Macedon and sent a medium size stack with my faction hair to take Athens. What I didn't know was that Macedon had several stacks in that province that assaulted me one by one, forcing my heir into several desperate battles wich he all won until the desperate last stand in wich he still managed to kill off half the enemy army :duel:
The senate kept telling me to blockade Sparta, bringing me into war with Greece but I chose to ignore them. The gauls attacked me too with fleets and later on Segestica, but those attacks were easily repulsed. Later they would demand me several times to become a protectorate. Silly barbarians.
Macedon, too, asked me to become a protectorate. I accepted just to see what happens if you become a protectorate, then cancelled his military acces ~D
Later I chose to comply with the senate mission and blockade Sparta, then sieged it and conquered it next turn. I offered the Greeks a ceasefire and they actually took it ~:eek:
For the future, well, Macedon won't last much longer and after that the Greeks shouldn't last to long without Sparta. I guess the Thracians will become my next target, then Egypt in hopes that it will make the Seleucid grow stronger and more of a challenge- otherwise they're always the first faction to perish. The Julii have behaved extremely stupid this game, they still only have their two starting cities and just have large armies sitting in forts guarding the bridges to the Gallic cities in Italy. The Scipii will be more difficult once civil war breaks out, they conquered all of Sicily fairly early but nothing else so far.
It's been fun so far, challenging battles and all. This may very well become the first game in where I'm actually going for the required 50 provinces ~:cheers:
IMO, Brutii are just as overpowered as Seleucid and Egypt. If you were ranking factions generally I'd say..
1. Egypt, Brutii, Seleucid
2. Macedon
3. Scipii, SPQR, Julii
4. Greece, Carthage (if you play them right)
5. Britons
6. Germania
7. All the rest, except...
8. Thrace
Alot depends on how you expand of course.
How are you ranking that? Unit type? Expansion routes?
If you were ranking by unit type, Egypt and Seleucids have strong line-ups, as do Brutii, but you would have included other Romans because their rosters are almost identical to Brutii.
Expansion wise, Brutii and Egypt are fairly easy, but Seleucds have a tough start because they are surrounded by many enemies..