About to play first mod

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

@Madoushi - Yes, Cartharge might declare war if you attack Messana. But will they actually DO anything, other than sail around aimlessly in their pretty little toy boats and shout insults from the walls of Lilybaeum? I'd wouldn't worry about them - they're only sons of merchants, after all. If they actually find the courage to leave their own territory, a Roman army will soon send them packing.

[Madoushi]

Madoushi:

Remember, plebs are like rats. They are as common as rats, as annoying as rats, as stupid as rats, as filthy as rats, and - their only good points as far as war is concerned - they fight like rats and they breed like rats! No matter how many die, there will always be more where they came from. There will always be another army to recruit.

Greek cowards might whine about casualties and talk fearfully of so-called 'Pyrrhic victories' - but for a true Roman aristocrat there's no such thing. There is only victory! In fact, the harder-won the victory, the greater the glory!

Ah, but it takes time and money to raise a new army, and as a good Roman, I am also notoriously miserly when not spending wealth to secure elections!
Losing half a Legion may be one thing safe in Italy, with home just a season's march away, but to lose half a Legion in Gaul, where the only thing hairier than the land are its people!

Is it not better to be a coward in victory than a hero in defeat? :)

@Madoushi - be careful about taking any city on Sicily - the mod is set up so that you have a treaty with Carthage forbidding you from taking any cities on Sicily. If you attack Sicily, it will mean war with Carthage. I would advise letting your economy develop first before going there. Oh and maybe taking a few more cities to the north, like Bononia, Segesta, Patavium, Mediolanum (after you take it from the Aedui, they should accept a peace treaty pretty easily) and Massalia. Maybe even a couple cities in the Balkans as well, if they're controlled by Eleutheroi.


@Titus - The Romans couldn't have said it any better themselves. =D -M

Hrghsdfkdfhlkd, thanks for the heads up! That would have been a rude awakening and a half. Suddenly, northward looks more appealing! Mediolanum may be a tough nut to crack, however. That's where the Aedui are building their army. However, if they should attack the Arveni and leave their back gate unguarded... :)

[Matinius Brutus]

If Segstica and Dalminion are not taken by Epeiros or Macedonia - get these two. They are cash cows and will be of great help when you build mines there! The bad side of that is you will most probably very soon start a war with one of the above nations. But Roman have no fear- Roman caligae will stomp them easily! (The last sentence is a joke - the phalanx heavy Hellenes may prove very hard to beat).

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Ah, but it takes time and money to raise a new army, and as a good Roman, I am also notoriously miserly when not spending wealth to secure elections!
Losing half a Legion may be one thing safe in Italy, with home just a season's march away, but to lose half a Legion in Gaul, where the only thing hairier than the land are its people!

Is it not better to be a coward in victory than a hero in defeat? :)

Cautious strategy is all very well, but Roman consuls are only appointed for a one-year term. So that means the consul needs to win a battle or conquer a territory before the end of the year. Otherwise he gets no glory, and someone else gets appointed consul next year. The political annual cycle and desire for glory created an overwhelming desire for 'immediate victory' in Roman leaders.

[Subotan]

Hrghsdfkdfhlkd, thanks for the heads up! That would have been a rude awakening and a half. Suddenly, northward looks more appealing! Mediolanum may be a tough nut to crack, however. That's where the Aedui are building their army. However, if they should attack the Arveni and leave their back gate unguarded... :)

The Boii are pretty solid, so you'll need to prepare well to smash them. Also, when attacking the area that in vanilla was known as "Noricum", watch out. There's a 10 star general, with a fully gold chevroned army wandering about in that province, as well as a few others. This is to represent the difficulty of conquering the Helvetii, and the problems of fighting in mountainous terrain. If you do attack them, it is essential that you take the town that they are guarding in the same turn; otherwise, he will respawn, with a brand new army!

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Also, when attacking the area that in vanilla was known as "Noricum", watch out. There's a 10 star general, with a fully gold chevroned army wandering about in that province, as well as a few others. This is to represent the difficulty of conquering the Helvetii, and the problems of fighting in mountainous terrain. If you do attack them, it is essential that you take the town that they are guarding in the same turn; otherwise, he will respawn, with a brand new army!

I'd recommend Roman players to stay away from Noricum until after receiving the Marian Reforms. Besides, the Helvetii Elutheroi super-armies are a good buffer to protect Roman territory against enroachments by the Sweboz.

[Ludens]

Be a true Roman. Don't worry about casualties. As long as you win the battle, that's all that matters. None of the patrician senators back in Rome really care how many of the plebians get killed, unless they're planning to use the issue to try and embarrass you in the Senate...

(...)

Greek cowards might whine about casualties and talk fearfully of so-called 'Pyrrhic victories' - but for a true Roman aristocrat there's no such thing. There is only victory! In fact, the harder-won the victory, the greater the glory!

Nonsense. Greek aristocrats could be equally callous. Even in democratic Athens, many of the upper-class had an intense dislike of the "naval mob" (i.e. the poor citizens that served as rowers). It's true that the Romans brought an all-or-nothing, grind-'em-down mindset to warfare, but was that any different from the frontal pushing-match of the old hoplite battles? And it's not as if the Greeks started to employ tactics because they lacked enthusiasm for battle.

[Mulceber]

I think Scato's just trying to be "in character" for a Roman. I agree that Greeks could play the callous game as well, although Romans definitely took it to a new level. -M

[Madoushi]

Well, I took his advice when assaulting Bolonia,a nd lost 1100 of my 1600 men, my general barely escaping alive, and was forced to starve the settlement out (I figured they would sally forth, but I suppose my rebuilt army was too large)

I leanred my lessons at Patavia, I punched three holes in their walls, sent most of my force toward one to lure them into engaging, sent my cavalry and hastati around through the other two, effectively hammer and anviled them, broke their army with minimal casualties, then as I stormed their town square.... crash to desktop.

Well, maybe this will be a good excuse to intall the mini mods and try a different faction. It was a big bummer though. Are there any ways to minimize CTDs?

[Andy1984]

Some after-battle-ctd's are triggered by closing too fast the 'battle result-tab'. Especially when the fighting involved numerous soldiers, your pc needs some time to calculate everything towards the campaign map: give it some time. Waiting ten seconds after a battle usually does the trick. If that wasn't the reason why you experienced your ctd, then the AI hating your blatant victories is. :) Besides: you did set autosave on 'each turn', right?

About different factions: go ahead and experience some more pyrrhic victories. You may also want to increase difficulty levels.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

Bononia is always hard because of the elite Gestatae naked warriors - better than anything early Rome has, man for man. Gallic cavalry is also better than Roman.

The average Roman unit is better than the average Gallic unit, but the BEST Gallic units are better than the best Roman units.

Rome's greatest strength is not her ability to win every single battle - she doesn't. Her greatest strength is her ability to just never accept defeat, and win every single WAR as a result. When defeated, Rome just builds and sends another army. And, if necessary, a third and a fourth! Victory at any cost!

[Madoushi]

It was the Battle Result tab opening that caused the crash, I think. They had their last unit in the public square, and my army was pressing upon it from both sides, firing missiles. Just as my cavalry charged in from one side, and my Princepes from the other, the game crashed.

Also, I was surprised at just how effective starving them out was. If I play as Rome again, I think I'll do more of that when attacking Northern Italy. Why waste thousands and thousands of mnai raising new armies, when I can spend the money developing infrastructure and economy?

@Andy: I'm pretty satisfied playing on medium, for now. I seem to make it hard enough for myself as it is. :)

[Madoushi]

Well, I started new games as the Casse and Koinon Hellenon. With the Casse I've been taking my time, building my economy and taking England piece by piece. It's already 257 B.C. and I'm getting ready to take Wales, though it looks like it'll be a bloody encounter. I'm making thousands of mnai a turn, though, so captured settlements get rebuilt quickly saving up for three turns can get me a 6000+ mnai improvement started and I have my first triple chevroned unit (a lowly Imannae).

As for the KH.. I'll need to read a guide to play as them because no matter how many units I sell off, I always go broke instantly, get besieged by the Makedonians and can never afford to raise armies to defend myself, the nightmare scenario I invisioned when I first installed the mod...

[Subotan]

Making Money? With the Casse?

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

As for the KH.. I'll need to read a guide to play as them because no matter how many units I sell off, I always go broke instantly, get besieged by the Makedonians and can never afford to raise armies to defend myself, the nightmare scenario I invisioned when I first installed the mod...

Have you tried my KH suggestions here?

KH is tough if Macedon is determined to take Athens from you - all you can do if they seige it early is hope they either get bored and lift the seige, or assault the city and fail to take it. But your hoplites aren't too effective fighting on the walls, and if the Macedonians take a gate, then their heavy Companion cavalry is very hard to stop even with hoplites. The best chance you have is to block the streets in places where towers still under your control are shooting the enemy troops in the back as they attack you.

If Athens falls, then things get very bad for KH. You might be able to retake it later if the Macedonians don't garrison it sufficiently, though - or put a spy in there and try to start a revolt. If all else fails and you lose Sparta as well, then, you'll have to 'emigrate'. Save enough of an army (if possible!) to go and take a rebel city somewhere else around the Mediterranean - Syracuse or Massilia would be best, although Empiron or Arse in Spain are alternatives. You'll also need a 'getaway fleet' to ship your surviving army elsewhere. Really, really try hard not to lose your family members in a hopeless seige or battle, because their bodyguards will regenerate no matter how badly in debt you are. So even if all your other troops are wiped out, you can still use your family members to conquer a new home from the Eleutheroi, somewhere far from the terrible Macedonian oppressors.

[Ludens]

Making Money? With the Casse?

All settlements in Britain have a port and the land is fertile. Once the Casse take the British islands, they're swimming in money.

[Intranetusa]

Madoushi:

Be a true Roman. Don't worry about casualties. As long as you win the battle, that's all that matters. None of the patrician senators back in Rome really care how many of the plebians get killed, unless they're planning to use the issue to try and embarrass you in the Senate...

Unarmoured javelin infantry, 'Leves' in particular, are just fodder to soak up enemy missiles, and should be used (and abused!) accordingly. And they are from the poorest section of Roman society eligible for military service (poor Latin trash). Doesn't matter how many of them get killed, or if they rout screaming from the field - the heavy infantry will always win the day in the end.

Remember, plebs are like rats. They are as common as rats, as annoying as rats, as stupid as rats, as filthy as rats, and - their only good points as far as war is concerned - they fight like rats and they breed like rats! No matter how many die, there will always be more where they came from. There will always be another army to recruit.

Greek cowards might whine about casualties and talk fearfully of so-called 'Pyrrhic victories' - but for a true Roman aristocrat there's no such thing. There is only victory! In fact, the harder-won the victory, the greater the glory!

Well said! The only thing worse than a damn filthy plebs are damn filthy slaves!

[Madoushi]

Making Money? With the Casse?

I took my time and built up my port in my main settlement. Once I took Wessex and Mercia, they money started pouring in.

Have you tried my KH suggestions here?

KH is tough if Macedon is determined to take Athens from you - all you can do if they seige it early is hope they either get bored and lift the seige, or assault the city and fail to take it. But your hoplites aren't too effective fighting on the walls, and if the Macedonians take a gate, then their heavy Companion cavalry is very hard to stop even with hoplites. The best chance you have is to block the streets in places where towers still under your control are shooting the enemy troops in the back as they attack you.

If Athens falls, then things get very bad for KH. You might be able to retake it later if the Macedonians don't garrison it sufficiently, though - or put a spy in there and try to start a revolt. If all else fails and you lose Sparta as well, then, you'll have to 'emigrate'. Save enough of an army (if possible!) to go and take a rebel city somewhere else around the Mediterranean - Syracuse or Massilia would be best, although Empiron or Arse in Spain are alternatives. You'll also need a 'getaway fleet' to ship your surviving army elsewhere. Really, really try hard not to lose your family members in a hopeless seige or battle, because their bodyguards will regenerate no matter how badly in debt you are. So even if all your other troops are wiped out, you can still use your family members to conquer a new home from the Eleutheroi, somewhere far from the terrible Macedonian oppressors.

Not yet. When I started my KH game, my internet was down. I didn't realise it would be so difficult. I'm finding the stated difficulties for some of the campaigns to be not neccesarily accurate, at least not to my play style.

I'll check your guide and possibly try again, though I think it may simply be a lot easier to play Epiros or Makedonia. The faction selection screen seems to imply they should all be relatively equal in terms of challenge.

Casse seems to be one of the easier campaigns; they have lots of opportunity to expand at the expense of Eleutheroi, money is fairly easily made, virtually every units has projectiles, and they don't seem to need to conquer much territory to achieve victory.

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

KH has it tougher than Macedon or Epirus, because your starting army is both smaller and has less advanced units. Also the Macedonians have pike phalanxes and superb heavy cavalry that can smash though almost anything, even your elite Spartan bodyguards have trouble with them, while KH has no cavalry at all. Finally, AI Macedon can replace its losses in dead soldiers, whereas you, as KH in the early stages can't recruit anything because you're in debt, so only your FM bodyguards are replacing their losses.

Casse is indeed very easy, as long as you get their economy running properly. Casse don't even need to blitz any cities to get their economy making a small profit, so you can just sit there and spend your money on new buildings for your capital. Also Casse get lots of new family members quite quickly, and six FMs make a formidable chariot-based army on their own, even without any infantry - enough to raid enemy towns and kill off more of their troops with each raid.

I tend to regard Casse's victory condition as just to conquer all of Britain - once I've done that, Casse are so powerful that's it's really not much of a challenge to invade Gaul, because they are so rich by then that they can afford unlimited mercenaries. Casse have everything they could possibly want right there in the home islands.