Overwhelmed, with sieges.

[Rule The World]

Hey guys I am playing as Romani, I have conqured 21 cities.
I have siciliy and the islands surrounding Sicily and The Italian Peninsula. Greeks and Sweboz surround me from the east. Aeudi from the North. and Lusotsanan forces knock on my doors from the West. I have tried to focus on one enemy but they are relentless. Even after I blockaded many ports they seem to have more money then me. I cant keep fighting them off.

Diplomacy doesn't work, I wanted to take Gaul first but the I basically stuck. I cant advance into their territory and I can get the marian reforms even because I dont have enough cities. I am getting frustrated.
What should I do?
should I post a savegame file?

[Mediolanicus]

Force Diplomacy: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=80763

Updated version for 1.2:

I have tweaked the mod to work with EB 1.2. Make backup before applying it!
http://files.filefront.com/ForceDipl...einfo.html/1/1

[Rule The World]

What else, I don't want them to just give up because in my game they all have the upper hand on me at the moment.

[spqr_arcani]

Hey guys I am playing as Romani, I have conqured 21 cities.
I have siciliy and the islands surrounding Sicily and The Italian Peninsula. Greeks and Sweboz surround me from the east. Aeudi from the North. and Lusotsanan forces knock on my doors from the West. I have tried to focus on one enemy but they are relentless. Even after I blockaded many ports they seem to have more money then me. I cant keep fighting them off.

Diplomacy doesn't work, I wanted to take Gaul first but the I basically stuck. I cant advance into their territory and I can get the marian reforms even because I dont have enough cities. I am getting frustrated.
What should I do?
should I post a savegame file?

If you haven't yet, take a look at the thread "understanding a sally" which I started as an inquiry. I got some useful replies there and should be helpful in thinning down enemy siege troops.

My guess now is that you're playing VH/M, which I tried in the past but found a little too time consuming, with constant sieges and all. This is a personal preference I'm not expecting people to change. But my 2 cents is that at VH the AI gets massive tax revenue bonuses and blockading their ports will hardly make a dent in their economy.

I think it'd be more effective building up your economy and armies and keep pounded at them. Fight them at their turf if you can. Given your enemies, I find the barbarian factions easier to subdue. I'd start with Aedui. Have well-protected cities in the east and hold the line, and meanwhile conquer Western Europe and make that a revenue generator. As you might arleady know, Iberia is full of mines.

As for relentless enemies and lack of Marian reform, I just try having a constant supply of native Romani units be on the front lines (Hastati/Principe/Triarii/Accensi). These work very well against barbarians even though they come in superior numbers. The really cheap Accensi are a great bang for the buck vs those units, imho. And if you don't mind unrealistic levelling (Accensi with silver chevrons), you'll basically have a really cheap version of "slingers from hell".

I know it's a tough situation and easier said then done. But your situation was similar to mine in the v1.1 campaign before some bug made it unplayable by the 100's BC. My greater concern at the time was not so much that I was surrounded, but that Arche Seleukeia was spreading too fast. Another concern was trying to prevent the CTD that tends to happen at round 66 BC, but I never got to that point.

Good luck!

[Marcus Ulpius]

I had a similar situation. I've conquered Italy, islands, Massilia and Emporion in the West and Illiria with core Epirote territories in the East. I've started the war against the Lusos and in a short time all my northern border was a warzone as I was attacked by Aedui and Sweboz. At the beginning it was tough as the Lusos controlled all of Iberia and I had to bring significant forces there, at the same time maintaining defenses everywhere else.

Several times the Aedui were close to capturing Massilia and Epirotes managed to take back one minor town in Illiria, but that's all they've managed to do. The economy was strained at the time, but it didn't matter as I had enough reserves. Now, the Lusos are dead, Aedui lost 3 cities and I've managed to push Sweboz out of Alps.

I used Type IV government in each key region. It was Emporion in Iberia and Aventicos against the Sweboz (Massilia was easy enough to reinforce from Italy). In Emporion I trained Ilergeti soldiers and they fought together with the legions I've brought from Italy. In Aventicos I've trained Alpic phalanx and Helveti phalanx. They were more than capable of pushing the Sweboz back with some Celtic light troops from Mediolanum and a few legion units from Northern Italy.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Yes, please post a savegame . Do you want for someone to get you out of this situation, or would you be willing to release it so everyone can try it. As for me, I have been waiting quite a bit of time to play a challenging EB game.

BTW, what version of EB are you playing, and what year are you in?

[Rule The World]

http://www.axifile.com?9031462
that is the savegame.

I am fairly new to Rome Total War and I am playing EB 1.2

I don't want to use Force Diplomacy.

Also if anyone can give me tactics to use on the Greek armies should I use my own Hoplites, or just calvary with roman infantry?

I want to get better at the war part of the game. I find that my slingers do nothing against Phalanx troops. But they move down any light infantry unit. Aren't they supposed to be good against armor?

can someone explain. Also if i used archers against the phalanx with fire arrows would that help me kill or shake their lines?

[Decius Carbo]

http://www.axifile.com?9031462
that is the savegame.

I am fairly new to Rome Total War and I am playing EB 1.2

I don't want to use Force Diplomacy.

Also if anyone can give me tactics to use on the Greek armies should I use my own Hoplites, or just calvary with roman infantry?

I want to get better at the war part of the game. I find that my slingers do nothing against Phalanx troops. But they move down any light infantry unit. Aren't they supposed to be good against armor?

can someone explain. Also if i used archers against the phalanx with fire arrows would that help me kill or shake their lines?

You have to hit their sides of their rear with your slingers to do any significant damage to better armored opponents. Use the versatility of your legions against the hoplites. Hoplites move poorly and once they engage an opponent they are easy to flank. Post your hastati to the front with auxiliary (foreign mercs or locally recruited troops) on the wings. Once the hoplites are engaged with your hastati come around behind and smash them with either your mercs or your cavalry. It works even better against Phalanx unit with pikes cause they are so slow to move or disengage. Same basic principal Alexander the Great used. Use the infantry to pin the foe in place and then hit them from behind with your cavalry or another unit if you don't have cav available. Your infantry is the anvil, your cavalry is the hammer.

[Blxz]

http://www.axifile.com?9031462
that is the savegame.

I am fairly new to Rome Total War and I am playing EB 1.2

I don't want to use Force Diplomacy.

Also if anyone can give me tactics to use on the Greek armies should I use my own Hoplites, or just calvary with roman infantry?

I want to get better at the war part of the game. I find that my slingers do nothing against Phalanx troops. But they move down any light infantry unit. Aren't they supposed to be good against armor?

can someone explain. Also if i used archers against the phalanx with fire arrows would that help me kill or shake their lines?

I had a look at your save game and have been playing it for the last 5 game years. The major thing that I think is giving you trouble is that your whole country is very badly set up. It reminds me of te Western Roman Empire in barbarian invasion. You are not set up economically or even very well defensively.

Some of the main things I noticed was that you have bad garrisoning, I found a general and a unit of Equites Extrodinarii in Capua. That horse unit is 700 mnai a turn. Meanwhile you are fighting in iberia with light iberian spearman. I have nothing against those spearmen, they have their place. But those horses should be moved up.

Secondly I found lots of client rulers. I mean LOTS! You had all your homeland governments with Type 1. EVERY other town had a Type 4 government except for Syrocusae with a Type 2. Each town had a client governer or sometimes 2. Those guys cost money...lots. Between 500 for a gallic king up to about 1200 for a Hellenic horse. But you had no shortage of family members, I found 6 of them in Roma. Unless you are roleplaying I seriously think that is a bit of overkill.

In those 20 turns that I played, I managed to kill off all your client rulers, rebuild Type 2's in all towns, lose 1 town (shame) but take back 2 of the enemies (as well as Patavium which you were siegeing at the save start point) by moving up some of the garrison troops.

You can win, but you need to look at your overall financial security when building your empire next time. Type 4's are good for getting military units from other cultures but generally have public order negative hits and other stuff. Try and ease up on the client rulers too, I know lots of generals is fun but they do cost.