Quintus Sertorius' Guide to Conduct Becoming of a True Roman (Redux for EB)

[QuintusSertorius]

Hi Quintus :)

I was wondering what kind of strategies you use in sieges, I don't see any of that mentioned, or my eyesight is going worse by the day

Thanks,
grwn

I haven't really spoken about it in the guide, mostly because I find them boring, but I should make an effort to. Strictly speaking, in the period most places were taken either by starving them out or treachery/surprise rather than direct assault. Professional Hellenic armies had other options, but the Romans weren't up to their levels of skill until deep into the Second Punic War, and most of those skills were lost again when veterans demobilised.

To get to the point, I tend to use a full stack, build four rams (or ladders) and attack from two sides. With wooden walled places, once a gate and wall is breached on each side, I wait a bit for my skirmisers to whittle down the defenders. Then the assault goes in.

With stone walls, I try to get people onto the walls as quickly as possible and seize towers before doing anything else. Once I'm in no danger from tower arrows, I move the rest in.

[lobf]

So are you going to update post Punic War II?

[QuintusSertorius]

So are you going to update post Punic War II?

Eventually.

[lobf]

You better hurry up because I'm just about to start it!

[paullus]

What about rules for engaging in battle? These come to mind, how do they sound?

Don't use skirmishers on the front line if the enemy a) doesn't have skirmishers on its front line AND b) is neither intimidating by its quality nor by its numbers nor by its advantageous position

Don't deploy on high ground to tire the enemy unless one or more of the following are true:
a) the enemy is intimidating by its quality or numbers,
b) the nature of the battlefield yields no other option.

Pursue routers.

[Timoleon]

There's Roman Warfare (a bit short, IMO), lots of useful stuff in In the Name of Rome: The men who won the Roman Empire, and the one I've used for a lot of the early parts of this guide is The Fall of Carthage (also sold as The Punic Wars).

If you think "Roman Warfare" is a bit short, then there is "The Complete Roman Army" of the same author which is COMPLETE indeed!
I've just finished reading "In the Name of Rome" and I think it is one of the best books on roman history.
Also consider another of Goldsworthy's books, "Caesar: Life of a Colossus". Great biography and rich in battle details and tactics in 1st century BC.

@Quintus Sertorius
Do you enslave the towns of the Italian peninsula that you are conquering? Or you just occupy them and build a Type IV Government immediately?

[QuintusSertorius]

I rarely enslave anywhere, it's just not worth the hassle of all the additional population in your governed settlements. Better one problem settlement that takes a while to settle down than lots of trouble at home. I always occupy and install type IV (though not in Ariminium, that goes straight to type I).

I will, however make an exception on the no enslaving rule in Greece when I eventually conquer that. Same for when Carthage is finished off too.

[Macilrille]

This is nice, but I see you adhere to Badian et al's interpretation of Roman imperialism, saying, "Extermination is rare. Only two settlements were razed to the ground (and in the same year - 146BC), Kart-Hadast and Korinthos."

This is definately not true. I recommend reading W. V. Harris; "War and Imperialism in Republican Rome", Oxford, 1976.
Though a bit old and though some scepticism is definately necessary reading this as well as other accounts and original sources (Source Criticism is what differentiates History from fiction), he has some points on the mentality of Romans and their treatment of the conquered. And he lists several instances where subjugated cities and populations were massacred by Romans, even in the Hellenistic world where the good Quintus maintains Romans behaved benevolently.

Good job on the guide though, this sort of thing is exactly what we need in order to not just conquer everything in two generations.

[JNR]

add_unit Roma "roman infantry triarii early"

This command actually doesn't work... :( But no problem, I'll just cheat the money to build new ones and delete the old ones^^

[General Appo]

Ahem. It should be:

create_unit "Roma" "roman infantry triarii early"

[Sarkiss]

could someone post a "guide" on how to reduce a unit of triarii for dummies?
i always did it in RTR but that was ages ago. i can see recruitment cost but not sure which entry is to do with number of soldier.

thanks

[V.T. Marvin]

Quite simple, just change this

soldier          roman_infantry_triarii, 40, 0, 1.2

into this

soldier          roman_infantry_triarii, 20, 0, 1.2

You could also half the cost and upkeep by changing this

stat_cost        1, 1524, 381, 30, 40, 1524

into this

stat_cost        1, 762, 191, 30, 40, 1524

Have fun!

[miotas]

In the files "Rome - Total War\EB\Data\export_descr_unit"

and "Rome - Total War\EB\sp game edu backup\expot_descr_unit"

For those who didn't know.

They can be edited with notepad, but notepad++ or "crimson editor" would be better choices

And remember to BACKUP!

[cosmyn12]

cool guide but idk who are the Achaeans? Where is thei homeland or provinces

[Ludens]

cool guide but idk who are the Achaeans? Where is thei homeland or provinces

Wikipedia is your friend.

[JinandJuice]

I've been tracking this thread for a while now, and I've noticed that we've never had the historical Marian formations updated. Are we planning to do this at all?

[froogle_king]

where do you get allied units such as the Samnite, Lucanian, Bruttium, Ligurian or Gallic infantry for your socii alae? the only way i've seen is by generals recruiting mercenaries.

[Hakomar]

Unfortunately, it would seem the creator of this guide has dissapeared off the face of the .org.

[QuintusSertorius]

Unfortunately, it would seem the creator of this guide has dissapeared off the face of the .org.

I genuinely did for a long while, life got in the way. :)

I go through fits and starts with computer games, I have weeks of frantic activity then months (or even occasionally as long as a year) of not playing any game at all. I'm also now the father of a nearly-four-month old daughter, which impacts my free time. A lot.

Having gotten on a Master of Magic kick lately (cheap from Good Old Games), I've been looking back at EB again. Though I'd have to do a thorough optimise job on my creaky old shuttle PC to make it playable, as I did last time.

Anyway, to answer the question about the post-Marian reforms, I never got round to it, and never really got a good answer from anything I was reading as to how the allied part of the formation would be involved (besides the obvious taking the flanks inside the cavalry wings).

[Mediolanicus]

where do you get allied units such as the Samnite, Lucanian, Bruttium, Ligurian or Gallic infantry for your socii alae? the only way i've seen is by generals recruiting mercenaries.

Lukanians for the Romans are indeed mercenaries. The rest are just regional units (in Samnium, Bruttium, Liguria and Celtic regions).

[Alexandros Megas]

Hello to everybody. I am a new member of the forum. I want to play the campaign with the romani in a historical point of view. However, I would like to recreate a legion from the camillan times, but if I update the MICs to recruit for example the Equites Extraordinarii (to reproduce a consular army), when I reach the conditions of the Polybian reform, I can't update the MIC (these cavalrymen are only recruitable in the last MIC). Anybody had had this same problem?.

My second question is about the second punic war. I`ve seen a script to recreate the presence of Hannibal in Italy, but many people couldn't reach this goal. So, I thought in a console command. Is it possible to create a unit or a general for another faction with a console command? And give him good traits (as logistics for example)? In the same manner, for the first punic war, I saw that carthaginians DON'T create a strong navy to fight against the romans. Can I give them several units of ships to fight against them?

For the moment I will begin a new campaign with the romani, until reach the polybian reforms, without update the MIC.

Thanks a lot for your attention and for your answers.


Edition: I discovered the first question. I used the console command: add_unit Roma "roman cavalry auxilia equitesextraordinarii" to recruit them without the MIC and the command: add_money seleucid, -3088 to pay the cost of their recruitment. I have still the other question without solve.