Strategy or Cheating without codes?

[Atraphoenix]

I will not write any explanations on what they are, I just wanted to know how you implement on your style of play.
I give mine I hope you give yours...

I put S for strategy C for cheating without codes

For me:

Retraining = S
Retraining gold chevron units who lost at least 2/3rd of the unit: C
There should be exp loss like merging Unf. no...

Blitzing = S
Blitzing until no one left behind = C / if you play all the battles sorry men it is sadism

Using FD (Forced Diplomacy) = S sometimes C

Using all the FM in armies /like 6 Fm in one field army = C

Using just an elite army / full catas, full legions etc. = C

Mercenary dominated armies = C /if they are more than 1/3rd but I do not count a Full MERCENARY army a C, if you grow in power and have at least 2 native 1 merc. field army.

Changing historical Capitals = S / like AS revolts less if you move it to Susa ETC.

Building lots of forts = S

Banners = for me S for many C / Pahlavans used them

Breaking Alliances = S

Raids = S / temp. conquests to gain money

Making unhistorical moves for the specified faction= S / like night battles for Pahlava in fact a rarity, again using lots of inf. they mostly never used them for field armies

Naval Invasions = S

and many more so what do you think are they Strategy or Cheating without codes....

P.S. The only cheat I use that is coded cheat is 'toggle_fow' that is godmod of RTW.
I cannot live without her

[SlickNicaG69]

Retraining = S regardless of unit experience.

Blitzing = S regardless of how you blitz.

FD = C

6 FM's in Army = S

Full Elites = S

Merc Army = S

Chg Capital = S

Forts = S

Banners = Doesn't matter

Breaking Alliances = S

Raids = S

Naval Invasions = S

Toggle_Fow = C

*Money Script = C


I use none of the C's and all of the S's.

[Metaluis90]

I don't get why banners are classified as some kind of strategy/cheating...

[Olaf The Great]

Force Diplomacy to me is not cheating, it's reverse cheating. The AI "chests" by having every dice roll you can think of go badly for the player, and because of the way the AI works in the last 4 total war games....the other factions are all hellbent on fighting YOU and JUST you. Force Diplomacy to me is the only way I can play as any faction with some sanity. It also helps roleplaying too, since you can roleplaying historical client states, or bribes, or territory swapping for money. You can also bypass those really irritating diplomacy screen "features" like "You messed up one this turn, so no matter what you offer or give us we will never talk to you again for 3 months" or "You want t o trade maps? OUR ALLIANCE IS OVER!" or "You're being very generous, but since we cannot offer you ANYTHING, we decline". You can also prevent the turn 1 "EVERYONE DOGPILE ON THE ARCHE" business, and if you're playing as the AS you can actually make your sattelite nations actual vassal states, and force them to end when appropriate. Add_money+Force Diplomacy+Bribes or move_character can help easily get rid of those tiny armys that potential enemies like parking in your lands for some reason, though that could be considered cheating.

Adding money to AI factions can create very interesting situations, like the Pahlav actually doing something/the AS breaking up. I also like to move_character the starting armies for AI factions, especially the ones that don't do anything. Moving the two FM's for the Sauromatae in the begining turns makes them actually do stuff.

As for unlikely tactics for certain factions, I don't consider this cheating but bad roleplaying. If I have say, a 1-3 star general, or a general with any of the "bloodthirsty" traits, I will stack all the swordsman into one group and just rush the enemy, if I have a general with higher command I'll use actual strategy, especially if it's the time of Soldiers. If I play as the Roman's I'll use the roman checkerboard for low command and more advanced tactics for higher command. If I have a "Wants to settle" or "Nomad" general, I'll play them accordingly.

Full elite armies aren't that great, but if I'm deep in a campaign I'll have one "Royal" army that has a higher elite-regular ratio.

Changing capitals is something I don't do often, but If I'm playing a faction like the Gauls, who elect their leaders and start off very tribal, I'll freely move my capital anywhere in the Celtic sphere. If I'm playing a "New Persia" faction like Pontos, Pahlav, and especially Hayasdan I will move my capital to Babylon/Persis once my empire spreads to the corners of the old Persian Empire. If I'm playing a faction that is very nationalistic about it's capital, I will never ever change it (Pella, Carthage, Rome) unless I somehow lose it. I immediately change my capital to Athens as KH, and depending on the ethnicity of the current leader(except the primary leaders in 272) I'll change it accordingly. If I'm playing a nomad faction like Saka, Sauromatae, or early Pahlav, it's free reign, ,my capital can be Chignu, Babylon, Camulosadae, or Terhazza, this can change though if I consider my empire "civilized" which may or may not happen.

Retraining elite armies is something I do depending on the .exe I'm using, rome and BI=No, Alexander=Yes. The AI in Alex.exe does actually retrain, and yes, that includes elites.

Toggle_fow I do not consider cheating, and I use it very often. I don't use it to spot enemy armies, but I do use it to find cities that I want to conquer/negotiate with, since I forget where they are sometimes. I also tend to use it in crowded areas like Italy, Gaul, and Greece when I'm movign diplomats around, since it's irritating to see him go back and forth between two spots because there's an army blocking the way.

[Atraphoenix]

I don't get why banners are classified as some kind of strategy/cheating...

In war many friends will kill each other and in diadochi they nearly had the same type of troops if you use banners you can decide what units are yours and you use them accdordingly. but in real real battle chaos I do not think that sometimes command orders can reach the units on time BTW we have no option to implement it. You can onlu select your center as your commanders main unit and flanks are under AI control but I do not do it :*)

and I can say that under the chaotic atmosphere if you omit banners you lose more men. I do not count it a cheat without code but it reaaly give the human player great advantage.

[Atraphoenix]

what about bridge wars?

I have not lose any AI is incapable of blocking bridges. I have lots of heroics one that I block the bridge and place my archers on the flanks of the bridge and let the massacre begin.

Also not adopting none - S/C/V generals = for me S but there were lots of stupid generals and governors who incited many rebellions thanks to their pompous charecter...

[Olaf The Great]

Yeah, bridge battles are pretty much a guarenteed win if you have any decent line infantry and missle troops on your side. I once fought a battle with the Casse where they threw all of their army on the bridge at the same time which became a meatgrinder, then they charged three units of chariots on the bridge which pushed half their army off the bridge.

[Skuda]

What about using sallies especially if you have stone walls and a lot of cheap missile units. Sometimes you have to have 6 such units to easily defend any of your border settlements against even the strongest phalanx army. You can sally twice in two seasons and totally destroy practically any enemy... Extremely cost-effective tactics and a great chance to promote your FM... Is it C?

[Chris_]

In my opinion any in-battle move or strat-map retraining/repairing/whatever goes - whatever keeps the game entertaining and fun. If the AI is going to send 3000 elites every single turn I won't have any regrets about cutting them down on a bridge or sallying.

[Atraphoenix]

In my opinion any in-battle move or strat-map retraining/repairing/whatever goes - whatever keeps the game entertaining and fun. If the AI is going to send 3000 elites every single turn I won't have any regrets about cutting them down on a bridge or sallying.

that's the spirit :-)

[Scutarii]

Exactly, if the AI is being blatantly stupid I will use cheats to resolve this (e.g.: parking a half stack in the middle of your lands which sits there for no reason and does nothing).

The only other cheats I use are Toggle_fow - because I like to see what is happening with the other nations and add_money - to clear some of the barbarian debt (I bump myself back up to -1000 or something when I start making a profit) simply because I hate sitting there for a load of turns doing nothing because I can't afford to build or retrain anything.

The thing that pisses me off the most right now though is the AI Makedonians...I am 50 turns in as Getai and they're running around with full stacks which have 50% Hetairoi/Hypaspistai/Agrianians/etc but they only control Mytilene, Chalkis, Byzantion and Pergamon, how they can afford that and recruit fresh every turn I don't know. If it weren't for Drapanai...

[seienchin]

Blitzing is Cheating in my eyes, because it was impossible for most factions in a logistical way, since most armies in EB early timeframe were levies.

[Morte66]

There is a comment somewhere on the EB website: the AI has money, you have brains. If the AI is allowed to run armies three times the size their population allows, and magic fresh population out of nowhere, I'm allowed to fight river battles.

Blitzing: I blitz because it makes sense, because only a fool doesn't, because RTW and EBBS fundamentally encourage it. When your enemy gets free money and free population for every turn they exist, so anything you kill is replaced, it makes sense to finish them ASAP. The longer they live, the more free stuff they get. When they hardly develop their cities at all, just recruit, it makes sense to get any cities you will eventually be conquering into your domain ASAP. Then you can make with the sewers and markets they should be building. And EB's anti-blitz measures (making it difficult with build times etc) are missing the point: they don't affect the motivation to blitz, they encourage rational players to get really good at it so they can do it despite the hindrances.

Forced diplomacy: Sometimes I do the AI a favour that it won't do for itself, e.g. give them back their city which just rebelled to me in return for a ceasefire. This is rare.

Fog of war: I prefer not to remove it, it's such a huge advantage that any reasons for doing so feel like excuses.

One big advantage that I do feel a bit guilty about is having prior knowledge from previous campaigns. I know who's dangerous, who'll get dangerous after the reforms, where to send the spy to "discover" things, and so on. It's quite hard to get around this.

[Atraphoenix]

Sometimes the most common cheat without using any code is our brain.
Sorry men "War is deception itself."

If AI is clever(!) enough to send me 3000 men 3 times when I was ambushing in high terrain with my Horse archers and cataphract archers. I annihilate them whatever you call it.

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Zero Loses!

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[Scutarii]

One thing I do consider a cheat rather than a strategy is to play Sweeper against Saruo/Saka/Horse Archer types.

Taking an army of almost all combat cavalry (obviously lateish game) and deploying in a single long line stretched across the whole width of the field and just running forwards - they auto withdraw until they run out of room and are then squished. You can do this with Pike Phalanx as well if you spread them out a bit.

This only works because of the battle maps being defined areas.

Not EB but a similar kind of thing in MedII was to declare a crusade and then attack another Catholic faction - you never had to worry about being attacked en-masse as they can't declare a crusade against you. Similarly if on a crusade and about to take the target on your turn you make all of your family members join a crusade no matter where they are, take the target and all your FM's gain bonuses for being successful crusaders even though they never actually left home and were only part of it for less than a turn...