Few question from MTW fan ...

[El Diablo]

Changed the spaming rate to 100 instead of 10, but that does not appear to affect ongoing campaign ... :((

Yeah the spawing rates is part of the program that is read only at the START of a campaign. Thus it will not change any of the games you have already started.

- how does the reinforcement system works ? It's seems there is no way to replace archers or artillery that have run out of arrows and that if more than a full stack takes part in the battle, the additional troops will be managed by the IA .... So how does it work if I need large number of artillery pieces to break down city walls ?

Usually you just take in two or three units of artillery and you can ner rely on the AI to give you any more. Similarly when archers run out of arrows they become pretty expensive and poor light infantry. The best way to get into cities is through sap points rams and towers.

It does mean that you need to get the composition of your army right.

- at what ages does a princess no longer available for a wedding/breeding. Some princesses who are about 25 seem to attract very little interest (I turned down quite a few useless candidates). Likewise a few of my family members have just married princesses well into their 30s' ... Have they any chance to get an heir or is there some kind of time limit for that ?

I dont think there are princess's as in MTW it is more female family members. The game will give you offers of adoption and "man of the hour" evenets if your family member:settlements ratio gets to low. The only way to lose a game from loss of FM's is if your very poor at looking after them, or if you have them all in one stack that gets slaughtered (or on a boat that gets sunk).

- how do you know what is the max farm upgrade you can build in a city in order to avoird excessive population ? I undertand that the one that takes four turn to build is normally the limit but there seems to be some difference between province regarding "natural" farming output so that max farm upgrade might have some benefit in rather arid provinces (for instance Sahara)

This is a tricky one and many people disagree on it (and there has been some quite heated "discussion" her about it). Generally I (note thats me and I am no genius on this game) treat farms as mines - i.e. a source of income. The growth bonus is good if the towns population growth is below 3% at the lower tiers of the town and 2% at city level.

- do rebels have a negative effect even if I cannot see those ? In some large provinces (Sahara again) I sometimes discover rebels roaming aimlessly around the desert ... Do I need to build watchtower every here and there and hunt them down or can I just let them live?

Yes - if they are on your roads they are stopping trade and also causing "devastation" on your farming land. This shows up as blackened "burnt" lookin raes on the map. I highly recommend watch towers if for nothing else they make good early warning systems.

Hope this was of help - but Omanes will be along soon with some better answers.

ED

[Jxrc]

Yeah the spawing rates is part of the program that is read only at the START of a campaign. Thus it will not change any of the games you have already started.

Too bad. Is there a point selecting a higher number than 100 (between 101 and 999 ?). Not that I am not hapy as it is but it seems to me that reducing the number of rebels helps the AI more than the player fro whom rebels are more a nuisance (and a bore) than an actual problem

Usually you just take in two or three units of artillery and you can ner rely on the AI to give you any more. Similarly when archers run out of arrows they become pretty expensive and poor light infantry. The best way to get into cities is through sap points rams and towers.

Ok thus is basically one stack against one stack. Fair enough. Some loved huge battles in MTW (Golden horde and the like) but those were a bit too time consuming for my liking anyway.

I dont think there are princess's as in MTW it is more female family members.

Correct indeed as far as Roman are concerned (at least until you've won the game).

The only way to lose a game from loss of FM's is if your very poor at looking after them, or if you have them all in one stack that gets slaughtered (or on a boat that gets sunk).

If one does such thing he's pretty much asking for trouble and deserves whatever he get

This is a tricky one and many people disagree on it (and there has been some quite heated "discussion" her about it). Generally I (note thats me and I am no genius on this game) treat farms as mines - i.e. a source of income. The growth bonus is good if the towns population growth is below 3% at the lower tiers of the town and 2% at city level.

Seems a reasonable rule of thumb to me but there seems to be some cities that are doomed to get out of control. Took Carthage, killed everyone, taxes very high, no agricultural improvement beyond level 2 (the one that takes three turns to build) and still I got a 6.5% increase .... Now I am building peasants each turn to send them to other cities lost in the deserts but it's no longer enough to compensate the population growth ...

Yes - if they are on your roads they are stopping trade and also causing "devastation" on your farming land. This shows up as blackened "burnt" lookin raes on the map. I highly recommend watch towers if for nothing else they make good early warning systems.

Did that just to spend my cash in excess of 50K (weird thing is that I lost two generals while doing so as a result of earthquakes ...) The bore is that if rebels appears in the middle of the desert without being close to any road it takes ages to get to them. IS there a way to now if they are devastating something with any value (farmland and the like) ? If they just burn the desert to the ground, well ... be my guest ...

Hope this was of help - but Omanes will be along soon with some better answers.

Was indeed pretty helpful. Many thanks

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Just one thing about the "man of the hour" event that I noticed ...
When your captain dies in a battle then on the campaign map you will get another captain with the "man of the hour" event ..
So far it has always happened to me .. captain gets killed in action and another one will get the "moth" event ..
This could be wrong tough.. So don't quote me on that ..

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

That's correct. If a general or captain dies, traits or rewards that would be earned on the battle field automatically go to the general/captain who takes charge after him. It's a strange bug, but sort of partially realistic.

[Quirinus]

Did that just to spend my cash in excess of 50K (weird thing is that I lost two generals while doing so as a result of earthquakes ...) The bore is that if rebels appears in the middle of the desert without being close to any road it takes ages to get to them. IS there a way to now if they are devastating something with any value (farmland and the like) ? If they just burn the desert to the ground, well ... be my guest ...

I think devastation shows in the settlement details scroll, so if you see the devastation symbol in the expenses row, a rebel army must be wrecking havoc somewhere. I usually use a spy/diplomat combo to scout them out and bribe them away instead of going to the hassle of assembling a decent-like army and sending them out there.

Not sure if devastation happens in the desert though.

[Jxrc]

I have two additional questions.

Phalanxs. I've played as the Roman for the most part and I sucked big time using the odd mercenary hoplite, the only units against which they seem quite good to me were chariot. Otherwise even if I manage to get the phalanx tidy and all, it gets very quickly disorganised and those silly hoplites start using their swords with no great effect. Even when an heavy cavalry unit charge it head on, it does not get impaled on the spears but somehow manages to disturb the phalanx and turn it into mincemeat .... I have tried to find the answer on the forum but could not find an answer that was reliable enough ... Tried to start a Greek campaign to test things out but except when I faced infantry only I run into trouble each time because it was way too easy to flank me. Could someone point me in the right direction ?

Games slow down eacg time I have played the game for a few hours. That's someting which I undertsood was to be remedied by patch 1.5. but I still get the same trouble each time I play a bit too long ... Any way to solve that ?

Thanks again.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Phalanxs. I've played as the Roman for the most part and I sucked big time using the odd mercenary hoplite, the only units against which they seem quite good to me were chariot. Otherwise even if I manage to get the phalanx tidy and all, it gets very quickly disorganised and those silly hoplites start using their swords with no great effect. Even when an heavy cavalry unit charge it head on, it does not get impaled on the spears but somehow manages to disturb the phalanx and turn it into mincemeat .... I have tried to find the answer on the forum but could not find an answer that was reliable enough ... Tried to start a Greek campaign to test things out but except when I faced infantry only I run into trouble each time because it was way too easy to flank me. Could someone point me in the right direction ?

Phalanx mobility in the game is terrible, so it is often best to focus on keeping all phalanxes marching in a totally straight line with avoidance of moving corners of any shape or form. If you keep them regimented, simply using them as a wall that just walks up to the enemy, you can't really go wrong. They work best in defence rather than the attack which is why, even if you are on the offensive, its best to force the enemy to attack you than you to have to engage with them - just stand close and wait for them charge onto the pikes. If that doesn't work, move the line closer so their spears will touch the enemy - never ever order them to actually attack - that's where their weakness is and when their lines start to bend and become disordered.

Games slow down eacg time I have played the game for a few hours. That's someting which I undertsood was to be remedied by patch 1.5. but I still get the same trouble each time I play a bit too long ... Any way to solve that ?

The memory leak never really was ever fixed - the problem was very slightly improved, but not by a very significant amount. Beyond installing extra RAM to cope with the game's hunger for memory, there isn't really much you can do. You could also try disabling RAM hogging services as described here, but the positive effect felt here often isn't very large. Sorry

Hope this is useful

[Jxrc]

Phalanx mobility in the game is terrible, so it is often best to focus on keeping all phalanxes marching in a totally straight line with avoidance of moving corners of any shape or form. If you keep them regimented, simply using them as a wall that just walks up to the enemy, you can't really go wrong. They work best in defence rather than the attack which is why, even if you are on the offensive, its best to force the enemy to attack you than you to have to engage with them - just stand close and wait for them charge onto the pikes. If that doesn't work, move the line closer so their spears will touch the enemy - never ever order them to actually attack - that's where their weakness is and when their lines start to bend and become disordered.

If I understand correctly, I basically should let the enemy charge or have the phalanx bump into the enemy ? Seems tricky stuff but I'll give it a try.

The memory leak never really was ever fixed - the problem was very slightly improved, but not by a very significant amount. Beyond installing extra RAM to cope with the game's hunger for memory, there isn't really much you can do. You could also try disabling RAM hogging services as described here, but the positive effect felt here often isn't very large. Sorry

Is there an amount of RAM that is sufficient to satisfy the game's appetite or will "eat" whatever amount of RAM I will "feed" him ? I've got to restart the computer after 4 hours of play so it's not that bad anyway

Hope this is useful

Sounds promising. Many thanks indeed

[Quirinus]

If I understand correctly, I basically should let the enemy charge or have the phalanx bump into the enemy ? Seems tricky stuff but I'll give it a try.

Yep, pretty much. IMO it's not too difficult once you've gotten it. As a rule of thumb the less you move a phalanx the better, especially when using the Macedonian/Seleucid phalanx. Just move them close to the enemy to intice them to attack, then if they don't just sorta inch forward little by little until either they do, or you 'bump' into them.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Is there an amount of RAM that is sufficient to satisfy the game's appetite or will "eat" whatever amount of RAM I will "feed" him ? I've got to restart the computer after 4 hours of play so it's not that bad anyway

I'm not too certain, but I think that the amount of RAM the game can chew up is only limited to the size of the RAM itself. More of it/preventing other programs from taking it just allows you to play longer without noticing the slowdown problems.