Rtw Tactics Guide
RTW FACTIONS
-Gaul
-Britons
-Germania
-Spain
-Dacia
-Scythia
-Thrace
-Macedon
-Greek Cities
-Pontus
-Armenia
-Parthia
-Seleucia
-Egypt
-Numidia
-Carthage
-Julii
-Brutii
-Scipii
BI FACTIONS
-Sassanid Empire
-Franks
-Saxons
HINTS AND TIPS
-When Sieging
-Swimming
-Units Limited To Certain Areas
-Advantages Of Religion
-Emerging Factions
-Protectorates
-Bridge Battles
-Reinforcements And Night Battles
-Use Of Cavalry
-Relics In BI
Historical Tactics
-Hammer And Anvil
-Double Envelopment
RTW FACTIONS
Gaul:
Strong, balanced military. best unit: Foresters.
best way to survive early game: boot the britons out of europe before they get nasty ally to germania and spain and start kicking the julii out of italy. be wary of the senate army though
Britons
Strong infantry, weak cavalry. best unit (when not counting headhurlers) prolly heavy chariots or chosen swordsmen. best way to survive early game: keep you hold in europe at all costs and expand from there
Germania
Strong, offensive military, weak defense units. best unit: Berserkers. best way to survive early game: get rich provinces, get money and you'll do just fine.
Spain
Strong infantry, medium cavalry. best unit: bull warriors. best way to survive early game: kick everybody from the peninsula and look whether you north or south from there.
Dacia
strong balanced military. best unit: a good trained Falxman is deadly, noble cavalry. best way to survive early game: ??? i never played Dacia.
Scythia
strong cavalry, weak infantry. best unit: noble horsearchers. best way to survive early game: get income, and best way to do that is charge into trace and macedon, be careful of their phalanx though.
Thrace
strong balanced army. best unit: a good trained falxman is deadly. best way to survive early game: ally with dacia, scythia and macedon, then get Byzantium as fast as possible and try to get provinces on the turkish coast.
Macedon
very strong balanced military. best unit: companions or royal pikemen. best way to survive early game: kill the greeks, get byzantium and holdings on the turkish coast and make sure the Brutii doest get to much power in greece
Greek cities
strong infantry, weak cavalry. best unit: spartan hoplites. Best way to survive early game: ally to macedon and keep the brutii and scipii at bay. when you gain upperhand in those wars you can see and do what you want
Pontus
balanced military. best unit: bronze shields. best way to survive early game: ally with armenia, get byzantium as fast as possible so you have a hold in europe.
Armenia
strong cavalry, medium infantry. best unit: cataphract archers. bst way to survive early game: to get income and then or kill the parthians as fast as possible or kill the pontics as fast as possible...i recommend to ally to parthia and execute pontus so you can stroll in to turkey.
Parthia
very strong cavalry, weak infantry. best unit: cataphracts and eles. best way to survive early game: eliminate armenia and pontus so you can get free play in Turkey, or eliminate seleucia and go into turkey or egypt from there.
Seleucia
very strong, balanced military (though you must get high in the techtree). best unit: silver shield legionaries and armoured eles. best way to survive early game: get alliances with everyone. just keep the cashflow positive and build up huge funds. get to pikephalanx as fast as possible and youre ready for the confrontation.
Egypt
very strong, balanced military. best unit: pharaoh's guards. best way to survive early game: kick the the seleucids out of the game as fast as possible, your military is way better in the early game than that of the seleucids, after that you can choos to go west in to Nafrica or north into turkey.
Numidia
weak military. best unit: general. best way to survive early game: no friggin clue, never played them. not attractiv enough
Carthage
strong, balanced military. best unit: armoured eles and both sacred band units. best way to survive early game: kick everyone out sicily. then choose to build up your military and invade: SPain, Numida, Italy, Egypt or greece. or gain naval superiority and block everybodies ports.
The Julii
very strong infantry, and strong cavalry (but expensive and it shouldnt be soo strong). best unit: Urban Cohort. best way to survive early game: drive the gauls behind the alps, build forts or station armies in the passes. from there you can go whereever you want. into greece, germania, dacia, Nafrica, gaul etc
The Brutii
same as julii. best way to survive early game: get all rebel cities in greece. then choose to attack macedon or greece. or ally to them and go for dacia and thrace. or go up and invade gaul or south and invade egypt and carthage.
The Scipii
same as julii. best way to survive early game: kick everybody from sicily and the world is there for you to grab.
BI FACTIONS
Sassanid Empire
strong cavalry, weak infantry (though the sughdians are good but limited to a few provinces. Best unit: Cataphracts and GENERAL (aka Clibarnii Immortals)...best way to survive early game: NO NEED TOO, JUST CHARGE YOUR LITERALLY ALMOST IMMORTAL CLIBARNII IMMORTALS HOME, THESE GUYS CAN OWN ENTIRE BATTLEFIELDS ON THEIR OWN, HAVE FUN CRUSHING EVERYONE ON YOUR PATH.
The Franks
good balanced army: best unit are the Paladins...best way to survive early game: There are two options. One: expand into the roman empire by or changing into a horde and settle somewhere or just rapidly blitz every bordercity. or Two: ally to the romans and leave some rebel cities left for the romans to expand there so they wont be to tempted to attack you, while you expand east into barbarian territory. but either way be up for some very hard fighting.
The Saxons
strong infantry, weak cavalry: best unit is saxon hearth troops..theyre pretty hard. and their situation is similar to the Danes in MTW. there are 2 rebel cities you can take early on and after that youll be bordered with many factions. from there U can expand further inwards or cross the sea and land in England.
HINTS AND TIPS
When sieging
when attacking
Dont attack with only only one ram when the enemy has archer or stone walls. the chance that the ram will be burned and youll loose the battle is to big.
when defending
its best to place archers and missile units on the walls but get them outa there before the enemy reaches the wall. put your infantry in the streets, esspecialy do it when your outnumbered, the numbers of the enemy cant be used at full advantage there. also try to get your cavalry around and charge the enemy in the back while youre infantry pins them down.
Swimming (only BI)
be careful with ordering units to swim, they get exhausted very fast and theyll drown even faster. never order your general to swim cuz he can drown too and he will. a good strategy is to pin units down on the riverbank but be sure that your unit will not chase them or charge into the water.
Units Limited to Certain Provinces
Sughdian Warriors (Sassanids BI): limited to Atropatene, Armenia, Media, Assyria, Babylonia and Arabia Inferior (thanx to Antagonist
Elephants and Camels: only to provinces that have a elephant or camel rescourse. if they have that rescourse youll see a camel or elephant icon on the 3D stratmap.
Spartan Hoplites: limited to Sparta and in vanilla also to Syracuse.
Advantages of Religion (BI)
Christian Religion: It will enable alot of units for factions. not only priests wich are generally weak but also topclass cavalry like Paladins for the Franks and Lancers for the Burgundii and likewise factions. It will also benefit law, relics, retinues and traits and other stuff.
Zoroastrianism: It will mostly benefit Law and retinues and traits.
Pagan: Pagan religion is very diverse but it generally will add morale, experience or weapon bonusses.
Ancillaries
Ancillaries can be very useful. They can gain a general commandstars, boost morale and acumen. Only generals can get ancilleries (and Admirals, i believe). Ancillaries can be passed on from general to general, just put them in the same army or settlement and drag the ancillary from one general to the other. Each general can have up to 8 ancillaries. I advice to pass on every good ancillary to another (young) general when a general turns 60, because they now easier die of natural cause. Also pass bad ancilleries that some generals posses to those old generals, this way the bad ancillary dies with the general. Some ancillaries rule each other out. You can't have a doctor and a surgeon, or 2 kind of priests per example.
Some ancillaries require certain buildings to be build before they can occur. Like you need a temple to get a priest ancillary. But drunkards are more likely to occur when you have a Tavern (only for barbarian factions/cultures)
Some other ancillaries can only occur if the general has the right culture. Warlords only occur in barbarian factions while playwrights only occur in civilised cultures (roman, greek, eastern and carthaginian i believed). However you can pass those ancillaries from one culture to another. Per example you are Gaul and you bribed a roman general, you can pass his ancillaries to your generals, even the Roman ones (though i'm not sure, and i know that this can not be done in BI).
Migration and population growth
Small cities only grow very slow. A way to boost their population is to train peasants in cities that have high growing rate (doing this only makes them grow faster), vast amount of citizens or are squalored. Then migrate those peasants to the province you want to boost and disband them. This will add population equal to the amount of disbanded soldiers. I advice to use peasants because they are cheap, big and are no good anyway. Though any unit will do for this trick.
Emerging Factions (BI)
Romano British: Theyll emerge if you take Londinium and Eburacum. from my own experience you dont have to hold both provinces.
Slavs: Time Related, theyll emerge in 410 AD
Ostrogoths: The Ostrogoths will emerge when a gothic city rebels.
Roman Rebels: These will appear when a roman rebellion emerges. youll see this factions quite often. if you supply them with a light/heavy fund these factions can get quit succesful.
Protectorates
getting protectorates in 1.2v or higher is very lucrative. i recommend getting one or more as fast as possible.
pros:
1 Their provinces also count as yours in getting the 50 provinces + Rome (so you have 10 and they have 5...it says that you have 15 provinces)
2 They'll pay you allot of money every turn.
3 They cant break the protectorate allience only you can...however if you attack their ally they might not choose your side.
bug/cons: they wont expand theyre empire anymore. in my game they just sat and did nothing. i dont know if it is a bug or if it is becuz they pay nearly all their income to you
4 Protectorates are also lucrative since they don't give you any trouble concerning from being too far form capital, which is a major pro. especially if your playing as say the Julii and your having trouble with the newly conquered parthian towns...
Bridge Battles
Under Construction
Reinforcements and Night Battles
Under Construction
The Use Of Cavalry
FIRST, NEVER FRONTALLY CHARGE SPEARMAN. Cavalry in the roman era was never intended to play the same role as in the medieval ages. it was meant to scout and screen the flanks. the best way to use cavalry is to pin the enemy down with infantry and charge your cavalry in the flank or rear. you can also lure the enemy out formation with a cavalry unit, when the enemy follows that one you charge another cavalry unit in the lured units rear make sure both of your units hit the lured unit at the same time. when doing this your timing must be perfect (especially when charging heavy infantry) it can be the difference between your units routing or theirs.
Horse Archers
these are a special chapter within cavalry. Horse archers are fast, prolly among the fasted units youll encounter. their deadly advantage lies in the fact that they can shoot their arrows while keeping themselves out of enemies hands. some HA are even capable of melee vs light/medium troops, dont rely on them however to break any medium/heavy unit frontally.
Factions with good HA: Parthia/Armenia/Sarmatia in RTW. Huns/Sarmatians/Roxolanii/Sassanids in BI
Relics in BI
more coming soon about this
Historical Tactics
The Hammer and Anvil
Used effectively by by macedonian kings this tactic became famous under the rule of Alexander the Great. He used his pezhetairoi (pikemen) as the anvil. they held the enemy at bay while his Companions and other cavalry tried to get around and crush the enemy from behind and the flanks. So they as the hammer squashed the the enemy against the anvil. (ill make a diagram soon till then...here's a link to a diagram made by ARCADE81 showing the tactic with shogun units)
more tactics coming soon
Double Envelopment, thanx to Ludens
Single envelopment is essentially that one flank of an army wraps around the opposing flank of the enemy army. Double envelopment means that both flanks wrap around the opposing enemy flanks.
I think Cannae is the first time where it was planned manouvre. The Romans played perfectly to Hannibal's plan by throwing their entire army at his weak centre. The centre fell back but did not rout (which is a testament to the soldiers' discipline and trust in their commander), drawing the Romans in and thus exposing the Roman flanks to Hannibal's Libyan infantry. Arround that time, Hannibal's elite cavalry had finished trampling over their Roman opponents and returned to seal of the trap (yet another example of their strong discipline, as victorious cavalry usually went on pursuing their opponents or started plundering the enemy camp). The result was the biggest slaughter of a Roman army ever. This is the classic example of a double envelopment, and of how a experienced, well-led army can defeat far greater forces.
My Tactics
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LINK TO A SEEMINGLY ANNOYING BUG
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=55510
QUIETUS TOTAL WAR GUIDE
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=45315
HERE ARE LINKS TO FACTION GUIDES, WHERE YOU CAN ASK QUESTIONS
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=36843
A link to another Battle Guide of WoadWarrior, very useful
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=63532
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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Re: Rtw Tactics Guide
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