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Guide
The first thing you want to do is take all your good troops in alexandria, memphis and thebes and build and army to take petra, bostra, and palmyra in quick succession. The numidians are very passive they will never betray u. Once you take one over, enslave them and build 1-2 peasant units, then keep going. Don't worry because they are all rebel towns ~:) Also build a diplomat in jerusalem and send it to dumatha(long way) to obtain trade rights and alliance from parthia. Do this with the numidians in lybia with the diplomat that is provided for you. Never, EVER trust the seleucids they are treacherous bastards and their word means nothing!! :furious3:
If you want you can now take a break and build up your cities, for a couple of years. Then you'll either decide to attack the seleucids or you'll be attacked by them!!
First take damascus, if you want you can slaughter/massacre the population to free up your army from garrison duty, this is a highly mobile war! Then head for antioch, divide and conquer baby!! Their settlements are now separated from each other. Build a good garrison in antioch and head either west or east to rampage through the seleucid lands. Missile troops are very good against their phalanx troops, just sit there with your archers and soften them up. After awhile throw in you chariots break their lines and send in your infantry to slaugther the rest. I suggest you don't fight parthia, they have their cities very far in the middle of the desert, and it takes awhile to get you troops there. Just go for the greek city states and pontius.
The rest, well thats up to you..
P.S. Don't use numidian spearmen, or any desert infantry on hoplites. They wont even hold for a second. Use chariots, and missle troops. Infantry is afraid of chariots.. ~:cheers:
I thought the Numidians were backstabbers as well. I was fighting a rather drawn out war against the Selucids ( :furious3: ) when the Numidians blockaded my ports and attacked Thebes. I gave up on that campaign, I had wars against the Selucids, Parthians and Numidians and for sime reason the Greeks were sinking all of my ships.
Okey having finished one short campaign on hard with the ancient anchronism egyptians of Rome:TW I will just say a few short words...
First dont go for the barabarians first at Bosra, Palmyra and Petra these can be sub goals accomplished by small mercenary forces or family members with a few units and a diplomat...
Instead build up for the first two-three turns, built roads (important since their is a good distance between memphis and jerusalem) then blitx Damascus...Antioch and Tarsus...archers and regular spearmen as well as mercenaries will do the job without a problem most of the Selucides are hoplite or light cavalry which can easily be beaten with lots of arrow fire and then charged with at best cav from behind else surrounded by supperior number of your own troops...also as quickly as possible get egyptian chariots and cavalry since used right both these types of troops are very useful in rome...
You will after this camapign have crippled the power of the Selucides and begin to consolidate the entire area Bosra, Hatra, Babylonia, Dumathra, Palamyra, Petra remember to bribe all armies which come out of the numidian desert or conquer siwa and cyracenia...both of which can be accomplished by relative small armies...
This follows my early experience. I went for the jugular on the coastal cities (Antioch, Damascus, Tarsus, Jerusalem). Once you have roads built along this lane then the rest of the desert is yours for the taking. Later game the advanced archers (Pharoes?) are absolutely deadly against massed spear you will face in the north. And also agreed on the chariots. Chariots should be fought like MTW cavalry. Charge by double clicking behind their intended target so that the continue to run all the way through the target. You will cause massive casualties doing this (since the effectively can charge all the way through it). Its quite pleasing in an ultra-violent kinda way. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_Winter
Don't get involved with the Parthians early on unless you want a multi-front war. The Numidians will hit you later if they survive. If the Scipii get a foot hold in north africa, expect lots of action in that area. The choice then becomes one of either 'holding the line' on one front while advancing on another, or fighting a two front war (kinda costly). I found myself building two troop production centers, one around Memphis and the other around Antioch to handle all the aggression on my borders (while expanding into Asia Minor).
I did no attacking for the first few turns, and spent resources building roads and a basic infrastructure. The Egyptians enjoy a fair income to start with, so check where your resources are first and exploit them.
I then decided to take the usual local rebel towns (it would be rude not to) and moved West to take Libya and Cyrenaica. In hindsight, I didn't need to do this but I wanted a small western border to guard as I planned on moving North and East in force.
As you start with a nice coastal position, it was relatively easy to move out East and north and I totally agree that the Selucids are untrustworthy, don't lose any sleep taking the towns from these guys. Enslave is sufficient to hold a town with a small garrison as their culture is similar to the Egyptians, however don't neglect the basic hygiene development as plague was quick to break out if you dont bother. Having said that, 12000 population and no sewers - I'd probably revolt too!
In my humble opinion, the unit of choice is the axeman. These guys will go toe-to-toe with ANY of the selucid units bar their heavy chariots (and the odd elephant). They will tear through a frontal attack against even a phalanx without taking heavy casualties, so a tactic I would use would be to commit axemen to facedown the phalanx's one-on-one and use a second unit to hit from the side...very nasty! After 50 battles, I have lost only 1 and that was a sea battle I had no choice over. My standard battle group consists of 5 axeman, 4 spears, 3 archers and a couple of cavalry. The spears basically stand there, the axemen do the damage and the cavalry do the required chasing of the routed enemy.
I currently hold from Libya in the West to the towns of Tarsus, Hatra and Arsakia in the East. Unfortunately, the Romans have come to visit and it's getting lively but I have strong income and a good unit base. 2 battles with the Romans and the axemen are still the key.
It seems everyone likes to go on the offensive pretty quick with Egypt. :charge:
My favorite strategy with them is to build up the settlements, take the rebel towns and then take Crete to access all that Greek trade. This puts you in a great economic position for later on in the game when the inevitable backstabbing begins. Plus, when the Seleucids decide to attack (which they always will) you can quickly take Tarsus, Antioch and Damascus to further expand your trading empire. A quick jaunt east to take Seleucia and the Hanging Gardens will really give a boost to the old economy. My reasoning for this is that the Egyptian towns seem to grow a lot faster then the other factions. All that cash coming in really turns you into a war machine later on. :duel:
Just adding a few cents.
Once you get the Antioch region (Tarsus, Antioch, Damascus), you have a juggernaut that is going to be nigh-unstoppable. Considering the Selecuids have a very, very weak army early game, Egypt is a very, very easy faction to play.
Antioch, Sidon, Jerusalem, Tarsus, and Salamis alone give you about 10k a turn once you get up Ports and Roads.
With Egypt, money troubles are nonexistant. Your early game army dominates the people you start fighting out (Selecuids).
You have a ton of Bowmen in Egypt (at least on Normal/Normal), take these and move them into Sidon and Jerusalem. Meanwhile, build up some Nile Spearmen for a decent phalanx to protect your Bowmen and city sieging, and throw in some Desert Cavalry/Chariots for the standard flanking.
You also get a few Chariot Archers in Alexandria. They kick ass, bring em along too.
Take this force, which should be everything you can muster up and put into Sidon and rush Damascus, Antioch, and Tarsus. At this point, I find Egypt overruns with gold, has a huge population in Alexandria, Memphis, and Thebes, and so gets very, very boring.
One last thing: Build Roads. They are your top priority. I cannot emphasize this enough. It's a long walk from Alexandria to Antioch.
Your main army (which whups Selecuid arse) is in Alexandria, and it's going to take way too long to go after the Selecuids without Roads, and Paved Roads.
Getting this army to Antioch is the most important thing the first two-three turns of the Egyptian campaign.
I have played Egypt. After conquering 15 provinces I got bored and stop. Too easy even on VH/VH....
What ? They blockaded your ports ? My ports have never been blockaded by AI ships.Quote:
Originally Posted by pyhhricvictory
Egypt has a wonderful selection of units. Egyptian armies can do anything you want them to. The only thing the lack is very heavy cavalry - however in the desert, their horsemen are unrivaled.
Never forget the importance of chariots. Regular chariots are like elephants - they're designed to break up a unit's formation. Run them ahead of a unit of Nile/Desert Infantry and your pursuing troops will cut through them.
Archers, however, will be key to winning most engagements. Your basic archers units come with more men than your enemies' missile units. Pharaoh's Bowmen have excellent range, damage and armour - they excel in combat. Don't go mad with archers - have enough infantry and cavalry to protect them. But never forget to use them.
As the others have said, stay on the initiative. Your short-term target should be Antioch. Once you take this, you'll cut the Seleucid empire in two. Take Damascus as soon as you have built up a medium sized force to take it. Enslave the population and then move on.
Don't forget to take the rebel provinces. They will help you increase your income and solidify your frontiers. However DO NOT MAKE THEM A PRIORITY! Go for those first two Seleucid settlements I mentioned.
Once you have taken those first two cities, you'll have secured the immediate region. Continue to expand and increase your technology. Aim to get Temple Cities of Imhotep or Horus in your main army-producing cities, to increase their effectiveness. Don't forget temples of Isis, which are useful to increase the population of provinces which have low fertility.
I was playing as Egypt, and I started wondering: is there any point in getting archers/bowmen instead of chariot archers? They seem to be easier to retrain and 2*56 = 112 archers (which is almost like 120 bowmen). Plus, the chariot archers can be used for hunting down enemies and for flanking infantry/cavalry. So, is there a reason to get bowmen/pharaoh's bowmen instead of chariot archers? What about camel archers? Are they better than chariot archers, since they are so high-tier, or are they obsolete?
Dude, don't use only chariot archers, your bowmen or pharao archers do much more missile damage to the enemy then your chariots. Why? It's quite simple: A unit of chariots concists of 24 men on 8 chariots, which makes 3 guys on every chariot. One of them drives, the other one has a small sword and the third has a bow. As a result there are only 8 men shooting. They have a strong missile power though (14) but you rather want to destroy your foes with 40 shooting bowmen with a missile power of 7, it kills many more. The elite pharao archers are the best as their unit is 40men with a missile power of 14.
I would say use a maximum of 2 chariot archers in your (fully stacked) army. If you want to chase and hunt down the enemy you'd better use desert cavalry who, at least in the desert, even outrun mounted missile units.
Sion, several reason, one is that chariot archers can't use fire arrow which is very useful in some situations, and they can't be stationed on walls, and in terms of cost effectiveness of purely shooting they aren't as good as foot archers.
However... mass chariot archer is very devestating on the right terrain.. no wonder it was THE way to fight for hundreds of years.
Man, I think Egypt is the easiest faction in the game ~D (I play on fair medium/medium settings, short campaign, cause I get bored on long one). This is how I played. In the first couple of turns I made some build up, placed watchtowers, forts where needed, hired some arabian mercenaries (these guys rock!), started building navy, then conquered two rebel towns to the east, prepared for war with seleucids (they are your main enemy of course), used 2 diplomats in ships to get trade agreements sell map ally with other factions. Then kicked some Seleucid ass ~D , taken Damascus from them and those bastards come to me offering ceasefire, the deal was made - they payed me 10000 for that, but they'll be crushed in the near future anyway. And talking about economy, yeah baby Egypt is a mega-cashcow. And what cool units Egyptians have, I like of course chariots the most! Pharaon rulez!
NOW ADVANCCCE! (cool accent by the way ~D )
Egypt is very very easy until you attack Rome.
How would you guys go at Rome usually? would you go strait for the Italian Penisula or try to take the Balkans and or sciliy as a jump pad?
As egypt though you are good both offense and defensively... offensvily a combination of chariot + calvary charge will beat most army (and u can hit and run with chariot archers too... giving you huge flexibility) defensively you have desert axeman on the walls, one of the best archer line ups and if those fail u still have many phalanx to hold the square. the only thing you don't have is elephants, but you are also in close proximity to places that can grab elephant mercenaries.
:furious3: :furious3: :furious3: :furious3: i'm so angry!!!
i just wrote a detailed account of my successful egyptian campaign but i wasn't logged in when i posted it apparently... (waste of 20 mins) !!!! :furious3:
i will start again...
I have an Egyptian campaign that is quite successful and i own all of Southern and Eastern Asia, i own 6 of 7 wonders of the world (not zeus -brutii) and Siwa so i'm branching into africa...
From the start, I sent a diplomat to gain a trade agreement (carthaginians and numidians) and alliance (numidians only, they betrayed this a few years later so i disagree with whoever said they don't betray you...). I also sent a diplomat to form an alliance with the Seleucids and Parthians. I sent the general (Kiya) that is wandering outside your starting towns to take Petra, Bostra, Damascus, Hatra and Palmyra.
Next, the Seleucids broke their alliance and attacked Sidon... I slaughtered them from the siege.. Next, I took Antioch and Tarsus :duel: :charge: . Thinking that the Seleucids only had one city left, I sent an army to Seleucia and I sent an army north towards the Armenians. I took Seleucia but wasn't given the faction destroyed message ~:confused:
I sent a scout navy to look for any reamaining seleucid towns around eastern asia and saw that they had Sardis. I took the army from Mazaka (taken and my city by now) to take Sardis, Halicarnassus, Nicomedia, Bergamum and Rhodes. This is all of Eastern Asia, i think. I then took Sinope and the remaining Armenian factions. Then the Numidians betrayed me by attacking Memphis, i attacked them and took Siwa for my trouble. Then I took Cyrene as I was in the area...
Back to Asia, the Parthians betrayed me and tried to take seleucia so i made a quick army and sent to divert the Parthian forces, then I took Dumatha, Susa, Phraaspa and Arta?? (dont remember the name)
This brings us to now... I have 1,240,000 denarii (masses of trade and a carful save/spend policy)I have 6 of 7 wonders of the world and things are looking pretty rosy
Where next? From Asia, I plan to march into former Parthian (now rebel) territory in the north. The Scipii are on my border in East Africa so that's a problem. I've sent a diplomat to try and ward off their attacks for now so I can establish an army worthy of holding off the Marian Reformed Romans...
Anyone who can suggest a plan of action for fighting the Romans please pm me or post here..
I was thinking i could send armies through macedon (now brutii) and attack rome at the centre but this will be difficult because I will have to trudge through a strong Brutii faction...
Well, I assume you're playing RTW 1.2 so...
In a big battle with the Marian Romans you have
1. Inferior - far inferior infantry.
2. Deadly Chariots - better go with archer ones
3. World-murdering Archers - Pharoah's bowmen
4. Ordinary, even slightly weak phalanxes - Pharoah's guards are pretty good, though
5. Cavalry (Cleruch) which matches Roman's after Reform ones. (What a cheat...) Though the Romans, in my experience, rarely use their Legionary/Praetorian Cavalry. They still have Generals cavalry, though.
6. Oh, and superb infantry flanker in the form of Axemen. You may or may not weaken them yourself already but they're still a great flanker nonetheless.
You will often face a massive infantry force that can easily beat yours...Urban Cohort!
Place your chariots on far left/right from your line.
Place your cavalry for flanking operation, as usual.
Place your Axemen close to the edge of your phalanx.
Use your phalanx as the main line. Place them on top of each other if you want to really pin down those Roman demi-gods.
Place your archers/onagers behind your phalanxes.
Like this...
C=chariot, c=cavalry, a=axemen, p=phalanx, A=archer/onager, -=empty
CC-----pppppp-----CC
--cc-aa-AAAA-aa-cc--
Use your chariots to disrupt enemy lines. Some Roman infantry will follow you; if not, they'll slowly be shot down freely. If they send cavalry against you (most likely) charge them and decimate them. Chariots own cavalry. It's likely that they'll lose their generals this way.
While they approach your phalanx, your archers will slaughter them. If you use onager use fire. No Urban Cohorts will survive if they are hit by burning stones. Burning arrows do you no good, however.
Stretch your cavalry far on your flank while they come.
When they reach your phalanx flank them with axemen, if your phalanx/axemen began to waver launch a cavalry charge on their rear; retreat after charge. Don't let them be bogged down. If the Roman line is thick you may even want to order your archers to shoot down those who're behind.
If they try to flank your axemen with spare Legions, rain arrows on those unit. Storm one unit at a time. They'll be decimated in no time. If not, charge your cavalry in, and out; on their rear/flank.
If you have spare chariots, let them shoot down Roman infantry on their rear. If their lines are thick enough (while fighting) you'll have minimal friendly fire.
The result should be you flanking them but they're thick in the middle and put pressure on your phalanx. When you feel like finishing them charge in your cavalry the last time. You should be sure that they'll break down by this rear-charge when you do.
After that it's mopping up.
P.S. If things get fishy you may even sacrifice some archers by engaging Romans on their open flanks/rear.
i usually put my chariot archers and bedouin archers on the flanks and send them forward immediately, to fire on the armies strongest unit... this works quite well ~:) ~:)
i have no need to worry i will make many pharoh's guards and nile cavalry they are good strong units! accompanied by desert axeman and thracians (if i can get the thracians back from asia in time)
thanks for your advice Antiochus III
Does anyone know exactly where to find FULL Technology Trees for all and any cultures in Rome Total war.
A link would be awesome thanx.
I'm sure that there must be a thread about it around here somewhere but I don't know where, sorry. Have you tried searching for it using the google thing? ~;)
My tips for the egyptians. Your rich rich beyond your widest dreams. Dont go and sit around go and use that wealth build armies hire mercenerise and go kill every one ! ~D
I sat around for a while and secured my fronts, mainly northern (seleucid) but also western (numidians).. Sign an alliannce with the Numidians and tthey wont dare attack for a long while but keep an army outside or inside memphis ready for their attack..
The Seleucids, however, are annoying and dont know the meaning of alliance and friendship... Lol, so when they attack, hit them hard and don't give them time to recover. Make two armies from the start and send one across to Seleucia and eventually the Parthian territory, and another army to annihalate the Seleucid western provinces.. Good Luck!
I have a silly question.
I'd like to play Egypt in singleplayer campaign mode. Is that possible?
Yes, complete a short campaign with one of the Roman factions.. Then the Egyptians, Gaul, Greeks, Seleucid Empire, Parthia etc. are unlocked. ~D have fun
or u could go into rome total war file and unlock everything without doin everything
I think you need to complete a short campaign with the Romans first. Any confirmation?
Confirmation given. Egypt is a major faction unlockable by playing a short campaign. Littlegannon, not only do you have to unlock the faction files in the rtw files, you also have to set your preferences to first time play: false.
As been said, go for crete. They are an excellent base for further expansion and the trade will be very good for your economy. Most of the time all roman factions end upp in war with the greek cities. Even thoue you may not be allied with Rome head forth into war with the greeks. Take Rhodes and then Sparta. Be prepared for war with Macedonia sooner or later since they will become rivals. As has been repeated over and over again here is, never ever trust the seleucid empire. They are rather easy to beat but they just keep coming and i do hope for a breakthrough to happen soon.
A fun thing that happend me. I landed a fairly large army on Crete led by a family member. The rebel army in the city decided to met me in the field :charge:. So cool! however since Rome cant reflect guerilla warfare so good the rebel army was crushed in the open field. After that taking the city was a piece of cake.
/Clas
Rebels left an open gate for me too. Have wiped out House of Scipii and Rome, but the Julii will take some leveling. Its odd though, at the moment any new family member I get is 50 years old or over? No young 'uns coming in at the moment.
You might want to hope for a Man-of-the-Hour? At 50, they'll be out of the game soon. Or a young'un to adopt? Worst comes to worst, you'll have to bribe another faction's general to carry on your faction.
So what your saying is that my faction is dying out? I suppose, unless what you suggested happens, I can't really control it.
there's a thread on the colosseum about the sad Greek who hasn't gotten any children in 20-30 years, and no new factioners either. You're not too bad, at least you're getting new factioners, though admittedly old ones. Start sending out two-unit chariot armies to hunt rebels. You'll need MOTHS. Adoptions aren't reliable, they're too random.
Yeah, if you have some young daughter's you could hope for some adoption/marriage but you would be better off trying for Man of the Hour.
Unfortunately, MOTH isn't of your faction's blood. Once upon a time, when I was playing the Egyptians I made a MOTH my faction leader and he died at 37. I wonder what happened there. My theory is that he was assassinated by his own troops.
If, however, one of your daughters was to marry, her son (not her husband) would be of noble blood.
Sorry, I like to add in a little role-play into my campaigns. Keeps it interesting.
I just got a MOTH (+3 stars) capturing Byzantium from the Brutii. ~:cheers:
at last! He will be your heir. :-) *prophetic*
Yes, don't let him die... Get some kiddies out of him.
keep him in a city with a temple of love or whatchamacallit.
He conquered my 50 province (Thermon - Brutii Capital) and won me the game last night. ~:)
Young people these days... *shakes head* The things they do. XD
Better to send 'em by ship (with your faction leader of course!). You'll have Antioch by turn 4 or 5 this way.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomn00b
You can take Damascus without a fight by agreeing a ceasefire-give region deal with the SE. Make sure you garrison it immediately though or it will revolt to the rebels. Eitherway, it'll free you time and space to take Tarsus.
people, some of you I know from other forums as passionate fighters of the Egyptian threat. their ranks include myself, though I have been pondering about playing a nice Eggy game...but what would be a good way to make it challenging without gifting the SE with all of the orient's riches (because then they would hunt YOU down...)?
btw since applying the package fixing the scarface issue and some others I experience game crashes whenever there are Lybian mercenaries involved in combat. is there anyone with similar problems?
I personally don't think it's possible to have much of an challenging Eggy game. Even the Nile Delta alone is capable of producing some nice armies and supporting them.
You can gift a lot of things to the S.E. and hope they get their act together but it can take a long time.
The only challenge with Egypt is dealing with its incessant plague.
hey, you got it! Especially those cities in the Nile valley seem to have a strange affinity to this disease. They attract it even when you invest considerable time and money to build up their sanitary infrastructure (which the AI staunchly neglects)...when I played Armenia and already had over 30 provinces, every second plague case was on the Nile. Maybe the Pharaoh's revenge?Quote:
Originally Posted by Garvanko
...Maybe Moses. ^_^
Anyway! Pezhetairoi the Master Strategist is officially taking up residence on the Egypt thread having moved over from Spain. But pez here has modded the desert axemen and the desert cavalry drastically, reducing their armour and their numbers. He has also modded the chariots, reducing their general defence and increasing their defensive skill. He has, however, decided to keep the bowmen at 240 a unit since it is a mainstay.
Bowmen are still ridiculous. With 8+ bowmen, you often will not need a meat shield.
I have quit Egypt, it truly is ridiculous. I've decided, all because of Egypt, to remod the game's stats completely to better suit my concept of fair historical reflection. >.< Took Parthia in a two pronged attack after bribing away their main army, and crushed Armenia four turns after the first army crossed its border. When I quit in disgust, I had the lands of the Seleucids, Pontus, Armenia, Parthia, as well as beachheads at Athens, Rhodes, Chersonesos and Byzantium. Not to mention the eastern half of Africa. Whoopee. Now going on to Brutii... Egypt is truly too overpowered.
There's no point taking Parthia and Armenia. The end game will see you dealing with riots every turn. Just forget about them, and they'll forget about you.
Playing Egypt, I'd concentrate on the Seleucids, Greeks, Carthage and the Romans. Fight a multi-pronged war, and you should get some fun out of it.
Not true about riots... it can be done. After all, I can afford 20-unit garrisons if it really comes to that.
When you move your faction capital, as you surely must once you get to Greece and italy, riots will become a problem regardless of garrison, unless of course you send you're best leaders up there.
...Maybe because I'm playing on Medium because I forgot to graduate to hard. Hmm... I never had that problem after I demolished temples and built my own while my army was occupying it.
I have found that going for the rebel towns first or saving them for last really doesnt make much of a difference in the long run. Either strategy is good. I have also found that in the early war the Egyptians are quite powerful but once you enter the mid and late period the Romans put up a huge nasty fight.
My current campaign looks like this. Playing VH/M. Its about 171BC and I have taken everything north all the way to the Caucus Mts. Seleucids, Pontus, and Armenia are gone. Parthia still exists only in the far northern Russian Steppes (just that one province). The Greeks have Rhodes only ( I havent bothered to capture it since they are allied to me). I have taken everything to the west up to and including Tripolitania.
Basically I'm at war with all of Rome now. It was easy up till I decided to invade the Balkan Penisula and Libya. Once I did that I found myself in a long long war of attrition with the Brutii and the Scipii. I landed and took Sparta, Athens, and Corinth pretty fast but then everything bogged down. The Brutii constantly throw army after army against me in large waves. I'm not kidding when I say they have 12-14 armies (half that are full size) swarming all over my cities.
The same thing against the Scipii. I got Libya quite easily but its been a huge war of attrition after that. The problem is that the Roman factions have a endless supply of money apparently. The Julii are fighting whats left of the Brits so havent seen them yet other than a few ships.
I have a nice big income but bribing is a huge drain on it as is the constant repair of troops. I have to use only the best troops now (Pharoh Bowmen, P.Guards, and axemen) to even have a chance of winning a even fight. These types of armies are not cheap and dont gurantee a victory. Auto-Resolving is a big no-no too. I have had 10-1 odds in my favor in numbers and still lost trying auto-resolve so manual fighting it is the only way to win. The computer AI favors the Roman factions in this campaign obviously.
I think I finally got the upper hand on the Brutii now though. They have lost Sparta, Corinth, Athens, Larissa, Thermon, Thessalonnica, Byzantium, and the city directly north of Thessalonnica. They still have armies swarming about but not as full stacks as they once were.
In Africa I'm still in a stalemate against the Scippi. Tripoli is mine but I'm bogged down in a war of attrition with the Scipii. They have a mass of armies that constatly assault my town. If it werent for the Pharoh Bowmen I'd be in trouble. The Romans use those Auxilia Archers and I need the best Egyptian archer to match their range.
Anyway, my point is that once you go head to head with the Romans its a tough serious fight compared to the early fights against the Greeks, Parthians, Pontians, and Armenians. Right now I'm hoping the Romans hurry up and get into their civil war to relieve the pressure somewhat but from my experience that doesnt happen usually until around 140BC. Thats another 30 years at least. Until then its a slow snail pace crawl to get any extra territories. If the Julii were to come at me before then Then it could go very bad. Luckily they are preoccupied with the Brits at the moment.
So, yeah, the Egyptians are easy earlier but later on it does get tough once you take on the Roman Eagles. :dizzy2:
Is this post-Marian? By right if you use combined arms attacks with Nile as backbone no Roman army is going to be able to stand against you, full-stack or not. I took on a Brutii full-stack with 2 generals as Eggy with 8 Niles, 5 Desert Cav, 3 Generals and 4 Nubians. The losses I suffered (10% compared to the enemy's almost-everything) suggest to me that as long as you're in Greece where population is mightily high you should be able to defeat at least 3-4 full-stacks before finally running down your army enough to need retraining. Use desert cav! They may be lightly armoured, but they have armour-piercing attacks, they're MADE for the armoured Romans.
From a strategic pov i crossed to Greece and took on Rome only after I'd finished off the Seleucids and taken over Asia Minor, about turn 30.
Lately I been playing the RTR 5.4.1 mod. The Egyptian faction is very easy to win with. In all fairness though they tell you at the start its an easy faction to play.
Carthage never bothered my Egyptians much even when they declared war on me. Sent a few boats to blockade and that was it. I was amazed how silly that strategy was. There was never an invasion from them although they had about 6 full stacks and a couple lesser stacks on the border. Maybe it was bugged?
Basically I wiped out Pontus, Armenia, Seleucids, and all the rebels in that part of the world and then went straight to Southern Italy. Left the Balkans alone. Fought my way up to Rome, took it, and then quit. I didnt see a need to go on really.
Only played the Egyptians once so others may experience a different fight. But just based on that one campaign I would say the Egyptian faction in 1.0 is harder than in 5.4.1.
The egyptians are far too easy. once you start building blacksmiths you can roam the map with hoards of cheap chariots. I have used armies of 14-16 chariot units combined with a few spearmen and archers (for sieges). even being attacked by armies of urban cohorts couldn't stop me. one mass charge with the chariots and I would have yet another heroic victory on my hands.
The key is the Light Chariots. I remember using those a lot in my campaign. I built entire armies of them, and just used them as horse archers to kill the enemy. That was my second campaign, and before I found this place. Shortly after joining, I gave it up. And then I realised about their UberUnits.
Ive just finished a short/longish campaign with Egypt. A good combination of Desert Cav, Archers and Chariots still owns everthing in its path, post-BI/1.3.
Hi I am Stefan, this is my first letter to you. I still trie to figure out how the forum works.:bow:
Theres one question I have.
Apparently there is a provincial campaign in rtw, how do one access that campaign.
Greetings
Stefan
Provincial Campaign is with mods such as Rome: Total Realism and Mundus Magnus.
Not sure about EB, probably because I don't care.
auto resolve in RTW:egypt is very tough i had 6 numidian spear ,4bowman ,2 nile spear, while defending city i lost to a selucide genaral????????????????
Auto-resolve is not the way to go. According to the computer, their spies opened the gates, the general raced outside, ran through the open gate on the far side charged to the square and ran down everything in his path. Enemy factioneers can sometimes make Yoda look like a candy-ass....if the AI is wholly in control.Quote:
Originally Posted by aarya
On the other hand, garrison work with the anachro-egyptions in Vanilla is pretty simple. You have bow units that are as large as peasants so you can pump up garrison numbers and wall defense simultaneously. Moreover, the upkeep on a Nubian spear -- which can for phalanx -- is DIRT cheap. 6 bows + 4 nubes + 1 cavalry give you a garrison force of nearly 1100 for a cost of 2200 denarii or so and many towns can do with a smaller garrison of 4 + 2 + 1! Once they have their archery ranges open, the Eggys should only build peasants for population relocation.
You can even build whole armies as a pre-set. Attack army takes town, retrains and leaves the next turn. Moments later, you arrive with the occupyer force of 6 Bow, 4 Nube, 1 Cav/Governor, and 9 peasants. Town suddenly bops up by over 1k pop -- all of them from Memphis/Thebes/Alex. Gets your conquests healthy and happy quick.
I am in the middle of a very successful Egyptian campaign, i own all seven wonders of the world, and im master of the eastern mediterean. all of this aside i was wondering if anyone else has had problems fighting heavy calvary with the Egyptians. i personally have found it incredibly hard to put down cataphracts and other heavy calvary, i do a normal strat, move up phalanxes(nile spearmen) then flank with everything i have. Then hopefully that takes out the tanks...(cataphracts).
Anyways i was just wondering if anyone had a suggestion on another approach cause right now im stuck fighting pontus and Brutii at the same time and honestly im having more trouble from Pontus with load of heavy calvary than with the "civilized" roman army. BTW already elminated Armenia, and Parthia in bloody wars.
Use your desert cav, they are deadly.
Chariots might work too. Particularly the heavy ones. Not that I've tried, but any and all cavalry seem to be positively allergic to chariots in RTW, and the buggers are easy to retrain anyway.
Although video games are little more than a simple hobby of mine (as such I'm not very good at them), I would like to say a few words about my experiences with this campaign.
Since I was a woefully inadequate strategy game player when I first received this game, I looked on various webpages as to a concencus of what would be the *easiest* faction to play as. With the tutorial I only went so far as basic controls, and I felt I needed more hands-on experience.
Upon taking a concencual vote that took quite some time, I arrived at the insurmountable conclusion that this, Egypt, was by far the easiest faction to play as. I quickly modded my game so as to immediately unlock all of the individual factions, chose Egypt and set the game on Easy/Easy, and began.
Oh, how easy it was. I was able to wholly ignore my west side for the first 75 years of gameplay. With absolutely no skill involved, I managed to subdue the Selucid Empire within a matter of a few hours. I quickly began expanding into Asia Minor and finished off the kingdom of Pontus, again, with absolutely *no* skill involved. I took a brief break and consolidated the Middle East before pressing the assault into Russia. The Parthians and the Armenians quickly fell to my legions of diplomats and peasants as my Egyptian juggernaut (made entirely out of money) steamrolled Asia literally into powder.
About the time I finished off the Parthians, a new threat encroached upon my doorstep, this time from the west. Out of literally the blue, a large Scipii army approached my HQ at Alexandria. Suddenly, it struck. Luckily, I had one of my countless diplomats on hand and managed to bribe this strange army for the reasonable price of 100,000 gold. I brought out the army from Alexandria, which, likely as not, only really knew how to unscrew a few cabernets and twiddle their thumbs, and struck out into the Saharan desert. When I saw how weakly Siwa was defended I laughed in mirth at the pitiful fools defending it. I had a strange computer pull off a crushing victory for me, as by this time I had almost forgotten about the actual commanding of troops, since I had my money houses. I approached Lepcis Magna with that same army (consisting entirely of Pharaoh class units), beseiged it, and gave command to the strange AI. A shocking piece of news came back to me: my armies had been lost! Quickly and easily I formed a new army while my wall of diplomats kept the Scipii armies at bay. This time, I commanded my army of nearly 1300 men against a paltry 400. I was sure my victory would be swift and sweet. However, I lost. This loss showed me a painful reality I had been blind to up until that point: I had forsaken the basic points of the game. The bright gold color I so easily procured from my vastly wealthy cities had allowed me to bribe everything, taking away a part of the game that is critical.
However, I did manage to procure a more-than-basic knowledge of advanced units through this campaign.
In closing I would like to say that, even on Vhard/Vhard, I'd imagine this game to be terribly easy. If you don't want a challenge, knock yourself out with this campaign.
In reply to two things:
1st. Desert cavs are light and not very strong and besides simple swarming techiniques its kinda a pain to rout heavy cavs, but to each his own. It wont work for me because im in a part of my campaign where i need to minimize losses of men and material(money).
2nd. I am sick of hearing this about Egypt being incredibly easy business. If you set the game at VH/VH, as i do, no campaign is easy. I have also found this campaign to be deceptively hard. Granted your first 40 years are a cape walk through the middle east, and possibly North Africa. But you will sooner or later find your armies outclassed in infantry and cavalry, the only thing you really keep a good showing in all the way through is arty and archers. thats just on the battlefield. On the home front, the middle east is a pain in the rear to keep quiet and profittable. I have often found myself having to slaughter 3-4 rebel armies a turn. especially the judean rebels, they always pop up every other turn and i find that to keep jerusalem in the green i must kill this mass of rebels, which means i must keep large useful garrisons everywhere. Also while bribing is fun, i find the ridiculus prices theses little tyrants ask for is far too much and not cost effective.
So in conclusion, Yes the Egyptian position at the begining of the game is incredibly favorable. You begin with some of the most prosperous cities, and there are many rebel provinces simple waiting to be plucked and milked of resources. But 100 years later, when you have swallowed up the Middle East and span Anatolia. You come up against a new a dangerous enemies; Parthia, Armenia, and Rome. Parthian and Armenian cavalry outclasses any calvary you have got. Roman legion cohorts out class your infantry. Now your stuck fighting up hill for at least 20-30 years. You find you must out smart your enemy and make as few mistakes as possible. Oh before i forget, Egyptian navy isnt too hot. You can only go up to the second class of ships with your native built ports, granted if you capture a Roman city you can access the decemeres.
Desert cav has a AP attribute, which makes them deadly to 'armored' units. Espiecially Catas. I know that from an experience, before 1.3, Egypt was so strong that it was banned from MP. All you had to do is get 8 Desert cav and you can punish loads of other cav.
Though, during my experience in playing VeryH/VeryH, it may not work. As the VHard bonus for the enemy is too much, and makes it impossible for any cav to match theirs. Though, may chariots can do some pain, as they're launching units and get a bonus VS cav.
I don't think those rattling anachronism get an actual bonus against horses per ce; rather, it seems that whereas infantry tend to mainly get knocked down only to get back up a moment later by an enemy chariot careening by, cavalry just dies. I guess the horses get their legs shredded or something. Fighting Pontus with Egypt convinced me that even Scythed Chariots *can* be dealt with by throwing enough Desert Cav and sword-toting Bedouin Camels on them, but the casualty rates tended to be fairly ugly especially in the first unit to make contact. Frankly, I prefer to send infantry against the buggers (Desert Axes seem to work well, and failing that Skirmishers).
At least the early-type javelin-carrying Eastern General cavalry tend to die pretty quickly against even Chariot Archers, though. I've yet to rumble with Catas so I don't know how hot the Egyptian antiques are against them, but I think I recently saw a Parthian stack with a few (prolly the ones they start out with, mind you)...
'Course, if you blitzkrieg to Asia Minor and Persia fast enough both Parthia and Pontus ought to be in shambles long before they can start sending Catas or Cappadocians against you anyway. And Eastern Infantry, Horse Archers and Pontic Cavalry don't really measure up against Nile Spearmen, Chariot Archers and Desert Cavalry (except perhaps on -/VH), I know that much.
I'm currently having quite a bit of fun with an Egyptian campaign. I'm fielding nice mixed armies with the not bad cavalry, nile spearmen, axemen for hand to hand fighting and the good egyptain bowmen.
I have a screenshot of current map, I have spray painted where I will be heading next, basic plan is to control the whole right side of the map. This will mean eradicating the likes of Parthia, Scythia, Greek Cities, Armenia and Pontus. After that I will sweep down to Byzantium.
https://img224.imageshack.us/img224/1220/helpful6sc.gif
Oh btw, the Numidian province west of my capital Memphis, I do not wish to expand this way so I'm using it as a buffer zone so I do not have to go to war with Scipii.
after playing a campaign as them I would have to say one thing:
build Blacksmiths and spam Chariots and their sedecessors
that should do it
When u first begi your egyptain campgain, the lil intro movie for them shows spearmen and archers with black crowns on theirs heads like the pharoahs wear. Now is this a later development like the marius reforms? because i cant seem to find what unit they are.
They're the "old" Pharaoh's Somehtingorother unit skins; if you search the descr_model_battle.txt, you can find them puttering about in there (with a programmer note along the lines "new realistic skins, the cone-heads are reserved for the generals" around the new skins the game uses by default ~;) ).
If you want to use them it's a simple matter of editing the EDU so the appropriate units refer to those and not the new ones.
Strategic Goal:
Domination of Asia Minor, the Middle East, and the Eastern Med.
Strategy:
Block West, expand North and East. Establish borders at the Gulf of Sidra, the Cuacas Mountains, and the Eastern edge of the Map. Build up forces for further conquest Westward.
Campaign Tactics:
Go West old man!
Send out your faction leader to quickly attack Siwa with most of the forces you can scrape away from the garrisons and purchase in the Nile valley. This fellow then leaves Siwa, building watch towers at good intervals while traveling to the Western border of the province. Establish 5 forts and a tower to guard this border -- Libyan Mercs are dirt cheap on upkeep for this -- and then use the balance of your forces to conquer Cyrene. A second general should be sent out to build up Cyrene as a minor military base (to supply the field army necessary to supporting the forts).
The faction leader can be sent via ship to Kydonia and/or Halicarnassus to buy or conquer an outpost for the empire. Remember to queue up a good build pattern wherever you alight, since the bloke will pass on shortly after.
Send a Dip to Carthago overland. He should get there before the Romans, though only just.
Master the Middle East
Your younger generals should mostly go towards Jerusalem picking up cavalry and camel mercs and building command stars against rebels in the time-honored "whack-a-mole" fashion. Keep the peace with Selkies for now, grabbing Petra and Bostra and Palmyra to build up your trade empire in the Red Sea and keep attacks off Jerusalem. Sidon's garrison must be grown. Either Parthia or the Selkies will eventually attack you and begin the war you'll need to dominate the Middle East, so just build your strength and experience while setting up for this. Get lots of spys out to supplement any towers you build.
Both of these opponents are difficult, but will succumb to heavy cavalry/camel forces coupled with chariots and bowmen. You'll need to develop at least one siege army to handle Damascus/Antioch/Tarsus/Hasta.
Send dips into Asia Minor and Russia. Build more to bribe defend your Nile and Jordan regions.
On the Main
You start with few ships and you don't have the money to build more for some time. Use them carefully to get a dip to Greece and later to sneak over your faction leader and perhaps one more general and/or dip for Asia Minor.
Build powerful fleets to crush the opposition after consolidating the Middle East.
--TBC
A couple of add-on points:
Dealing with Rebels:
Always scope them out first. If they're peasants, skirmishers, or eastern infantry they are prime targets for your generals to rack up stars. If they are bowmen - 120's, then buy them! You can't get bowmen easily for a few years and the buy-overs come to you dirt cheap. Be careful attacking rebels with lots of camel archers or archer -80's; your generals will get murdered by enemy archers far too easily (something about the bulls-eye on their chariot).
Building Garrisons:
Don't build peasants unless you must. Bowmen-120's are great for numbers and for defense and you Nub-Spear boys are just as good as militia hoplites and just as cheap. I typically get 3 Nubs, 1 Nile, 1 Axe, 3 Bow, and 1 Des Cav for most cities. You can replace everything but the Nubians with bows if your city is nowhere near the front.
Fighting Pinkies:
Use an all-cav/chariot force, or cav and bowmen if you must. Parthian cavalry is a tough opponent, but you can handle them if you have enough of your own. Parthian infantry is just fodder for your troops. They can be tough in a siege as long as they have enough bows, but have no staying power once it gets to the hand to hand.
Fighting Num-'nads:
They'll come at you with a mix of spears, missile, and cavalry. Never engage quickly, but make them come after you (defense) or flank them. You'll end up fighting their cavalry first, which is good. Once you kill off their cav, the spearmen aren't mobile enough to tear you up. Remember, though, that their spearmen have good morale and will not fold up like Parthian infantry.
Fighting Selkies:
You'll need a mixed army here. Their infantry can break you, and they'll have elephants as soon as they can field them. They also have scythe chariots that they love to mow you down with. Their missile troops are pretty standard. Use mixed tactics on them where you can. Your goal here is to engage their cavalry with yours (your units are bigger and or using camels) or draw their cavarly onto a unit of your cheap slingers (who're lined up in front of the spear-boys) and then use your surviving cavalry to hunt their missile troops. Their infantry is slow but deadly, so let your numerous bowmen chew them up (then send in the axemen as they get close if you have axes). Stay mobile against his phalanxes and your bows should winnow them well. Draw elephants after a cavalry unit and run them until tired, then bow them into running amok. After that, camels and javelins do well at killed tired, amok hefalumps.
TBC (as I learn more on taking out the tough cavalry forces of Armenia and Pontus).
My strategy for the Romans is "strength in numbers."
During my 50 year war with them, we fought everywhere from Sardinia to West Africa to Byzantium and the main reason why they were finally destroyed is because I had the superior resources. Once the former Parthian and Seleucid territories are yours you are pretty much rolling in the cash, enough to keep up with the ridiculous amount of bribing that you will do.
The type of troops generally differs from region to region, but when invading Italy and Greece (which should be solidly Brutii by the time you invade) you're going to be doing a lot of siege work so I recommend skimping on the cavalry and instead loading up on the infantry and artillery/archers. The reason for this can be explained in my short story "1st Battle of Tarentum."
Pharoah was pleased. The Italian invasion was going splendidly. In a four-pronged attack, Capua, Arretium, Croton, and Patavium had fallen to his mighty armies. Now he was personally leading the army of Croton to Tarentum, setting off the second wave of attacks.
Everything would go great. His army was designed to excel in the field of battle. Several units of his best Pharoah's Guards would pin the enemy down while his personal archers would rain death upon them. Finally, his chariots would chase down and cut apart those who survived. This had worked extraordinarily well in Sicily and in front of Croton. He saw no reason to believe it wouldn't at the gates of Tarentum.
During deployment, Captain Wah informed Mighty Pharoah that the Samnite Mercenaries would only take up one of the two siege towers. Pharoah, annoyed, replied:
"Of course I know that. And one of my Guard Units will occupy the other tower."
"Actually sir, they're phalanx units. They don't go up siege towers. Your Bowmen will occupy the other one."
This was a foresight that Pharoah had not seen. Making an executive decision, he decided that at least one unit of Bowmen would fight in hand-to-hand combat to open up the gates for the rest of his grand army to enter. As the siege towers neared, Pharoah felt elation. The Brutii would finally be kicked out of Italy. But when the towers hit and the men climbed out, something was wrong. They were... losing. ~:eek:
In desperation Pharoah sent his remaining Bowmen to fire at the Romans on the wall. However, their constant volleys were not enough. The Roman leader, displaying wisdom, loaded all his men up onto the walls, thus providing no rest for Pharoah's noble troops. Pharoah sent the Bowmen, now out of arrows, up the towers to desperately finish the job. His elite infantry and chariots could only watch as they saw their comrades get slaughtered on top of the walls of Tarentum. Pharoah wisely called the attack off before he lost all of his archers. The Romans jeered as the once-great Army of the Pharoah withdrew, the siege broken.
As you can see, there's no point in having great infantry if they won't fight. The Egyptian armies were not built for siege combat. This army was one of my favorites, seeing as how their makeup had annihilated several Scipii and Brutii full stacks. However, they didn't have enough siege infantry (ie Desert Axemen), and had zero Onagers. They were pretty much doomed the first heavily-defended city they hit.
In case you were wondering, I resumed the siege of Tarentum the next turn (this time with Desert Axemen) and sent them all to the walls at once. The gates were opened and my Chariots mopped up the Romans inside the city. The Second Battle of Tarentum was an Egyptian victory. :charge:
Egypt.
Main Strengths (apart from the Treasury) are the combinationschariots/axeman and bowmen/spearmen.
The chariots of course are countered easily by spearmen and coin for coin spearmen of the lowest order are going to rip apart your chariots. However in the world of paper-rock-scissors the Egyptians have the axemen. These guys rip apart spearmen and don't take many hits in return. With the right priests and other characters you will be able to heal up in minor amounts of wounded easily enough. As there are plenty of phalanx's to pick on the axemen will return their cost quickly. However they are expensive to keep around so they should be in the frontlines or in a city that is in need of defence just like mercenaries. While the phalanx's get chewed up by axemen your chariots are free to chew up nearly everything else.
The Egyptian bowmen are like the longbows of MTW. Great range and hit hard, and they are easily accessible. I'm not a huge fan of archers in an attacking army, however I always have a few to move enemies off strong points and hit hard hitting but poorly armoured troops. They are great value for money. They are like all bowmen vulnerable to cavarlry attacks. As such defend then with spearmen. The spearmen of the Egyptians are not great, but they are better then speed bumps.
I typically set up with a line of 5 spearmen units who are closely supported by two units of axemen who sit on a flank. Then towards the center will be two units of archers. Two more units of spearmen will be behind on the two flanks so that they can counter flanking cav. Behind all of this sits the general and missile cav/chariots. On the opposite side to the axemen the melee cav/chariots will sit these will move out to the far flank and hopefully draw out the enemy general and/or outflank and hit the enemy missile troops.
SsSsSsSsS
.AABB
SsHQ....Ss... CC
With a city specialising in Chariots, another in Bowmen and a third in Axemen. The rest supply low grade spearmen. I try and keep the axemen producing city as close to the front that I will attack on.
RTW V1.5 VH/VH No mods
Against most factions this tactic works well.
https://img136.imageshack.us/img136/...ete32lz.th.jpg
On vh difficulty the enemy will not easily rout. So the Egyptian archers gain experience at the full rate rather than the much reduced rate they would get from killing routers. Experience is earned fast.
Against horse archer enemies the tactic becomes more aggressive.
whenever i charge my chariots into seleucid battle lines most of them get killed. Am i doing something wrong?