Really need help in the game!!!

[Myth]

Hey, I have a few problems, I wonder if anyone could tell me how to deal with them?
1. I can't fight against chariots, I tend to lose even if outnumber the enemy.
2. I never seem to get the flank attacks right.
3. When I'm attacking in a siege, I cant use the siege tower ballistas.
4. What's the best way to fight against phalanxes? I can handle phalanxes up to the greek hoplite level, but I can't fight anything higher than that.
5. (I'm still at the roman faction level) Whenever I start, there's one of the 2 starting settlements which have a low income, and they usually go into negatives, no matter what I do. This really is a big problem later on, as it sometimes almost bankrupts me. I even let the settlement be taken by rebels and recaptured it, but it didn't work. (Usually its Ariminum, Croton, or Capua).
I'd really appreciate if someone helps me out with this.Thanks!(by the way, i have version 1.5).

1: as a Roman faction you only need worry over the Egyptian chariots. The Seleucids get wiped out by their neighbors almost 100% of the time, and the Britons are too far away from the center of the world (Italian and Peloponnese Peninsulas). Fighting Egypt comes first to the Scipii, second to the Brutii and latest to the Julii.

While Chariots break your formation remember that units sent flying are not auto-killed. I advise you to start off with the Brutii and follow the numerous strats and guides for them. They are the easiest to play early on. See the Brutii section in these very forums, I've written a couple of walls of text there detailing my start and transition into mid and late game.

Once you debark on Alexandrian shores the Egyptians will have already conquered Mesopotamia. However, with your high experience and upgraded troops you will hold your own versus their chariots. Getting 3-4 stacks of Gladiators helps immensly versus chariots as well as getting some Auxilia. Remember never fight Egypt before the Marian reforms. Even if you lose a stack so long as your 10 star general is alive you can replenish quickly in your main troop production centers (Italy and Greece).

2. Practice practice practice. Always plan out your deployment and assign troops to be flankers. The best flankers for inexperienced players are cavalry, because they are fast and have a high charge bonus.

3. Just right click on the wall. There are several sections that can be attacked, apart from the towers. But you can't attack wherever you like.

4. Early on, hold the line with hastati and run some Veities behind their backs. This will slaughter them. Fighting them when they are defending a city requires superior numbers.

Later on just use your pila and charge your better trained and upgraded cohorts at them. Urban cohorts smash trough phalanxes 1 on 1 in a fair fight. Don't be afraid, once you charge and run past the spears, they switch to swords and then they die pitifully to roman infantry.

Or master the good ol' hammer and anvil with cavalry (see point 2)

5. Rome has it easy. Build roads, then temples, then farms, then ports. Take your armies and start on a conquering spree. If you are Brutii the moment you take Athens, Corinth and Sparta your money will be more than you can spend. Remember roads + ports everywhere! Don't over recruit units, as their upkeep makes you lose money. Only recruit as many as you need to win. With your back protected by your Roman allies, you will usually fight one or two factions at most. The Brutii war machine is perfectly capable of stomping trough the Greek Citis AND Macedon at the same time. Just remember to always be attacking and building infrastructure.

[Morgoth101]

Thanks! Now I use urban cohorts or praetorian cohorts against armoured hoplites-if I can train them! Some games I don't bother with units that take two turns to train.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I'd have to disagree with you, Myth, about not tangling with the Eggies until after Uncle Marius shows up. Principes are nearly as rugged as Cohort I's, and you can recruit "Creeshan's" to take out the Chariot Archers. In the Brutii campaign I posted screens for above, the only addition to my pre-Marian raised armies in the Middle East was Archer Auxilia and Roman Cavalry. My line infantry were still Principes. I had no problems whatsoever with full Eggie stacks (on h/h) with 6-8 chariots in many of them. Having Cretan's and Equites would have made little difference in the outcomes...

Also, I assume you were referring to the use of glads and auxilia against the scythed chariots?!? The Chariot Archers will skirmish infantry to death because the infantry units are too slow to catch them. In any case, it's been my experience that Egypt rarely builds the scythed variety....only piles and piles of the archer kind

There is a very good discussion in the Ludus about the effects of roads. It's not that I disagree with building them ASAP (which should be done), but that until you get all the roads in a certain vicinity upgraded to the same level, you get no increased trade movement...only better movement for your troops.

@ !@#$%^&*

Urbans and Praetorian's are over-rated, IMHO, and not historically correct for the time period of RTW. The Lorica Segmentata did not appear until around 100AD (some accounts place it's use a bit earlier), and this was the standard armor for Cohort II's, Praetorian, etc.

My own personal preference is to not use them, and I've gone as far as modding them, as well as Cohort II's out of the game, for all Roman factions. Makes the game more balanced, IMHO. The Roman factions already get a ton of perks and advantages over other factions, so removing these units makes things a bit more interesting.

Also, the AI uses Armored hoplites very poorly (as it does for many things) because it brings them into phalanx formation far sooner than it should. They move considerably slower in phalanx, and should become your primary archer target once enemy archers are disposed of. Make them turn sideways by positioning your infantry just off either flank. Charge them with a third unit in the flank, or from the rear with cav.....finis.

[Morgoth101]

nice advice....my archers i usually send to kill enemy archers(which i find surprisingly low in number in my campaigns against the greeks-well i'm not complaining!) and then hoplites(if any). But when i'm facing chariosts, i send my fire arrows at them first. I make sure i load up on velites and archers before i go to war against Britain and Asia Minor.

Oh, and i've noticed something else- in my last few games, Armenia is turning VERY aggresive. Those guys wiped out Parthia in the beginning of the game, brought down Pontus and the Seleuicids, and now they were fighting(and winning) against the greeks AND the egyptians-those greeks had armoured hoplites and the egyptians were getting to the Pharaoh's Gaurd level! I was the Scipii- I wasn't too worried as I could train triarii by then, and most of my troops to the eastern border of my empire had gold chevrons. But it was still wierd....

[ReluctantSamurai]

Oh, and i've noticed something else- in my last few games, Armenia is turning VERY aggresive.

Ahhh...Armenia. My favorite faction! If an AI-led Armenia can be successful at taking either Sinope from Pontus, or Hatra from Seleucia early in the game, they can quickly become a force to deal with. If they get to producing some of the more advanced troops in their roster (heavy spearmen, the cats, and Armenian legionaries) they autocalc well against Egyptian chariots.

Use of fire arrows is nice and has a demoralizing effect on whomever is the target, but keep in mind they are less accurate than normal arrow use. When it comes to dealing with chariot archers, my preference is to put them away as quickly as possible so I use normal arrows only.

But it is cool to see them burn

[Morgoth101]

It IS cool to them burn! The thing I love about fighting carthage is when I have onagers and they have elephants. I LOVE to see those pachyderms BURN!!!!! I also like seeing Scythed Chariots run amok.

I like those eastern factions, but the infantry you start with isn't that good... my compensation is that they have epic stone walls, onagers and(in a few cases) elephants.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Only Parthia is limited to Hillmen and Eastern Infantry. Armenia get Heavy Spears, and a version of Legionaires; Pontus gets Phalanx Pikes.

[Morgoth101]

Oh, yeah. I forgot Armenian Legionaries. Its fun fighting with them against Roman Legionaries. Fighting Romans with their own weapons...

[ReluctantSamurai]

A pretty thorough description of the kinds of units used by the Armenians can be found here:

http://www.ancient-battles.com/catw/armenia.htm

[Ibn-Khaldun]

It's fun fighting against the Romans with Legionaries when the Romans still use pre-Marian troops. I managed to do that as Seleucids. However, they were not exactly the cheapest units and transporting them from one side of my empire to another wasn't exactly cost effective.

[Myth]

I play VH/VH only. And the Scythed chariots gave me more trouble. Praetorian Cav cuts the archers to shreds. Then again, I don't bother with Egypt until I hit the higher levels of development for my cities.

Urbans are by no means overrated, they are very good and you admitted yourself you've modded them out to make the game fair. Point is, if you want to smash into a phalanx and slaughter it, there's no better unit to do it with than fully upgraded Urban Cohorts. Except maybe fully upgraded Berzerkers.

[ytghazal]

Hello a little late but Ive played as the the Julii and brutii family(brutii on medium where i was winning too easily so i sort of stopped) and Julii on VH which recently has put me on the defensive and had to take a break to collect my wits) Now while playing as the julii i had the random luck to have the last surviving Carthage family member come near one of my cities just as the Scipii destroyed their empire. i engaged them (small force) and killed their family member. Carthage got destroyed so i play them now. One thing annoys me i just started on hard with them (still learning after being used to romans) and their forces are epicly weak. 3 units of town militia and javalin throwers against one battalion of hastati lose. even though i harass with javalins. surround on all sides and attack. I even had one battallion of peaseants to act as a buffer.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Urbans are by no means overrated, they are very good and you admitted yourself you've modded them out to make the game fair.

Overrated was perhaps a poor choice of words. What I meant is that Cohort I's and II's are more than adequate to get the job done. And making the game more fair was not for my benefit, but for the other AI-led factions.

3 units of town militia and javalin throwers against one battalion of hastati lose. even though i harass with javalins.

Town militia have poor morale and skirmishers do very little damage because of the high defensive stats of even pre-Marian Roman infantry. I forgot what the unit bonuses for the AI are at the "hard" setting, but this only serves to make an iffy situation even worse.

I'm assuming the battle you are referring to is the defense of Caralis? If so, your best bet is to not let the Julii anywhere close by chasing off, or sinking the invasion fleet. After you take control of Sicily (which you must do quickly before the Romans have time to ship units there), use your navy to the fullest extent until you get some of your more advanced barracks constructed. Once you get to the level of having Ellies and Long Shield cavalry, your job gets a bit easier.

The roster for Carthage isn't really all that bad once you get to Peoni and Sacred Band for your phalanx, Armored Elephants for 'line-busters', and Sacred Band cavalry. But the key early is the use of mercs on Sicily to oust both the Greeks and the Romans, and your navy.

[Sabazios]

You already got some good advice, but heres my 2 cents. :)

Hey, I have a few problems, I wonder if anyone could tell me how to deal with them?
1. I can't fight against chariots, I tend to lose even if outnumber the enemy.

Use skirmisher troops like Velites for this, they get a attack bonus against chariots

2. I never seem to get the flank attacks right.

Well practice makes perfect. ;)

3. When I'm attacking in a siege, I cant use the siege tower ballistas.

You have to put the 'fire at will' button on to get them shooting!

4. What's the best way to fight against phalanxes? I can handle phalanxes up to the greek hoplite level, but I can't fight anything higher than that.

Pin and flank. When facing an army with phalanxes, I always try to destroy all other troops so after that, i can use my spare units to attack hem in the back.

5. (I'm still at the roman faction level) Whenever I start, there's one of the 2 starting settlements which have a low income, and they usually go into negatives, no matter what I do. This really is a big problem later on, as it sometimes almost bankrupts me. I even let the settlement be taken by rebels and recaptured it, but it didn't work. (Usually its Ariminum, Croton, or Capua).

Dont let those numbers fool you! Some cities may apear loosing a lot of money, but i fact they are your main income source. The cost of your army is dvided over the cities based on their population. So when Capua is your biggest city, most of te upkeep of your armies are paid by this city. (you can see it in the setlement details scroll) When you exterminate this city, it just means that your army upkeep will be paid by other cities. So you'll actually makes less money then before!

[Morgoth101]

@ sabazios: even though Iv'e got a lot of advice(thanks to the other guys!) I always appreciate the help I get. So, thanks, man! By the way, that info on the city income thing kinda surprised me. I didn't think of it that way.
And yeah, that 3rd point on the ballista thing sounds kinda dumb now. :-P but thanks anyway!

@ myth: those beserkers rule! I tried a few custom battles with ridiculous odds against me: like literally 10 times my small force- I just massacred. And by the way, Cohort I or II are good enough to fight a phalanx, actually.
But fighting with bezerkers is WAY more fun. Next custom battle: 3 bezerkers units against 20 triarii. Let's see what happens...:-D