Some advice for a complete newbie??

[Giano]

Hi,

Just as a quick introduction, I've been wanting this game for years but it slipped out of my mind as I've never had a gaming rig. It sprung back into my mind recently though and I've got it running on my laptop and loving it.

Quick question though, I've reached an impasse in my current campaign and I was wondering where I could have improved.

So I played through the prologue until the 'tutorial' as such ended and started straight away in the Julii campaign. I've been playing for about 30-40 turns or so (can't think of the exact date I got up to, the plague of Macedonia happened about 15 turns ago though) and basically my position is:

I've taken basically all of modern day france, the only remaining region of Gaul is in Spain.
I've taken the first Spanish region just before the mountains.
I have x1 army in place to take the final territory in Gaul.
I've taken the first 3 (including what is modern day denmark/sweden) territories of Germania.
I have just over 100,000 denarii.
I am making money in the all but 3 settlements.
I have 2 core military producing cities in northern Italy as they now produce the second level of cavalry and principles.
I have x2 armies being built in northern Italy, x1 of which is about ready to be deployed.
I have x2 somewhat depleted armies in northern Germania that have just reclaimed two towns that rebelled (and I've learnt my lesson on that front, they were two of the hardest battles I've had)
Now though I have the Spanish waging war on me in the west, the Germans in the east and now the Britons are coming from the North. I've just taken one of their towns (and my goodness do I hate chariots!) and now they're sieging 2 of my other towns at once. As well as the Spanish and the threat of the Germans I'm at a point where I have depleted armies, some in useless places and I cannot produce units fast enough.

I have spies out. I have assassins who aren't very experienced and their success rate on any of these armies is a max 30%. I have x1 diplomat in northern Italy, I haven't touched this part of the game.

I'm playing on easy/easy so I thought I could just wander around conquering whilst I learnt the game, but I think I've hit an area where I've gone in too many directions at once and I'm paying the price with some poor campaign map play.

Could anyone give me some general advice on where I'm lacking, how I should be focusing my investments, ratio of military to trade towns, speed of advance etc? Also any advice on how I should have improved in earlier play, I'm thinking of starting over with a short campaign...

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ReluctantSamurai]

It's been for forever since I played a Julii campaign but I'll offer what I remember.

First, some generalities that apply to any faction....

Choose your recruitment areas in those cities with good-high population growth. Choose a temple in those cities that add something to the fighting power of your units (eg. exp. bonus, missile attack bonus, morale bonus, etc.).

As a Roman faction, get paved roads asap as this increases inter-city trade, and allows more trade to be off-loaded at ports. Speaking of ports, get to a dockyard as soon as city growth allows. A dockyard can handle three trade routes, a shipwright two, and a simple port only one. Why is this important? Port trading out-strips all other forms of income...COMBINED. Get trade agreements with neighboring factions that you are not at war with. This will appreciably increase the amount of trade value you get with them.

For cities that will not be major recruitment areas, try to get the population to ZPG (Zero Population Growth). That topic is too involved to discuss here but there are several excellent threads on the subject.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...egative-Traits

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...lation-Loyalty

For the Julii in particular...

Unfortunately, unless you start off your campaign by heading straight for Greece, instead of barbarian lands, you will become master of some very poor provinces...with some exceptions. The ex-Gallic cities (Mediolanium and Patavium) directly north of your capital are excellent recruitment centers due to their high population growth. Masillia, the first city you come to when crossing the mountains, is an excellent place to move your capital once you've begun your conquest of Gaul, Iberia, and Germania. First, that reduces the 'distance-to-capital' penalty that helps promote riots, and it takes your seat of power to a safer distance from Rome once the civil war with the other Roman factions begins.

Your temple choices should be mainly Jupiter, for the law-and-order benefits, and being a leadership type of temple, it will grant very good traits to family members. Ceres is a good choice for those slow-growing cities as it grants a population growth bonus along with law and order, but.....be careful with it, as the pantheon level temple grants a whopping 2.5% pop. growth bonus which may drive a city to rebellion once the pop. numbers get huge. I use it to get a city to the pop. level I want, and then tear it down in favor of Jupiter. Stay away from Bacchus...it's nothing but trouble and every trait it grants to family members is bad, all drinking related.

If you haven't captured Caralis from Carthage, do so at once. Like Crete in the central Med, and Cyprus in the eastern Med, Caralis opens a whole bunch of trade routes by acting as a central hub, in this case, to the Scipii on Sicily and in N. Africa.

Without the Marian reforms, giving you access to Archer Auxillia, I would suggest you land a family member on Crete to recruit some Cretan Archers (you can also get them in the vicinity of Thermon and Larissa, in Greece). These will easily decimate those donkey carts, err...British Light Chariots due to their longer range bow. (They burn real good too if you choose to use fire arrows)

In going to war in Iberia, take the coastal cities first. This makes for a tidy profit in port trading once you take Palma from Carthage, as well. Corduba is the Jewel of Iberia, however. It's a port city, and has excellent population growth making it an idea recruitment center and an economic powerhouse. It is difficult to control, however, so Temple of Jupiter here, and a family member with at least 5 stars of influence as a governor.

I'm sure I could think of a few more details, but that should be enough to chew on for awhile.....happy hunting!

[Giano]

That's some really good advice, thanks for taking the time to share that. It looks like, from that, I didn't spend enough time creating a suitable area for military production and move my capital close enough to the rest of my empire. Trade doesn't seem to be a problem for me as I'm raking shed loads of money but now I need to know how to curb this as I see some negative traits appearing with the governor's in cities. The problem is I'm taxing some of my large cities hugely and they love it (I guess because it's on easy...). i.e one has +210% public order on v. high taxation with over 10,000 population making tons of money.

In terms of battle I think, certainly whilst I get used to the game, I need to balance my armies properly and build more alliances, like with the Britons maybe whilst I take Gaul. And certainly I don't want to take Germania before I conquer Gaul as this seems to cause a number of issues...

I didn't know about the ZPG thing though so I'll definitely check that out. Thanks again.

[ReluctantSamurai]

but now I need to know how to curb this as I see some negative traits appearing with the governor's in cities.

Refer to the first link I provided on making huge amounts of denarii and family traits. In particular, post #10 where I posted some screenies on my family members while I had millions of denarii in the bank. It's all a matter of taste. You can have family members with average to very good traits with boku bucks in your account. But you probably won't get one of those 'super management freaks' with 10 star management skill, if that's what you're after.

And you can move your capital at any time. Just choose to view city detail for the city you wish to make your capital, and find the button in the lower left corner that's sets that city as your capital.

The problem is I'm taxing some of my large cities hugely and they love it (I guess because it's on easy...

That will definitely change at higher difficulty levels

Battlefield tactics with the pre-Marian Romans is a matter of preference, but you have better infantry than most. I, personally, don't waste my time or money on Velite...all Roman infantry except Triarii are spear-chuckers anyway so why waste the effort on a unit with poorer stats? Only an occasional Roman Archer....they are short-ranged and don't have very good missile stats. I prefer to go and recruit Cretans until I can have my own Archer Auxillia (after Uncle Marius makes his appearance) for my projectile unit. And being a cavalry man, I use the Equite in numbers. These guys are not the greatest cavalry in the game, but they are resiliant and at least the equal of Barbarian Cavalry (though not Barbarian Nobles or Gothic Cavalry). I don't use Cavalry Auxillia much either....another spear-chucker. If I want a cavalry skirmisher, I'll send a family member to Scythia to recruit some Horse Archers

[Myth]

As always, Reluctant Samurai gives sound and in-depth advice. I can add a few more things:

Since you're on E/E the AI will actually keep your alliances until you decide to break relations off, since your faction standing (how much you are liked by AI factions) constantly rises on it's own. On hard and above they decline over time and the AI turns rabid very fast. Diplomats can do nice things like bribing settlements and armies, so if you have denarii coming out your nose you might as well buy some enemies off.

Get into the habit of setting up fronts with multiple stacks (aka. armies). Sooner or later you will get tired of leading battles (at least I do) and you will focus more on macro management (building new stacks, logistics, city development). As a Roman faction you have the advantage of crushing everything in atuoresolve, especially on E/E. So, you can go with 3 armies, marching side by side, conquering on one front, three more on the other etc. until you get to where you want to be. Three Roman fullstacks are a nightmare for the AI, lead or AR alike. But AR works wonders against super annoying army compositions like chariots, horse archers, berzerkers (not that the AI gets to make them) and Egyptians in general. So if the Britons give you too much trouble, don't be afraid to AR them to death since the chariots have pathetic attack/defence ratios mathematically speaking.

I personally take the "every city can recruit my best armies" approach since you end up with more gold than you know what to do with anyway, but retraining on the fly can really save time. Also, there is a way to rush the Marian reforms (but you are probably not familiar with them since it's your first time) by growing a city to huge size ASAP. The best city to do that with is Carthage since it has insane farmland bonuses. Speaking of that, take a look at Carthage, Athens (and the other Greek cities on the peninsula) and the situation on Sicilly. Sometimes the Scipii/Brutii take too long to obtain these crucial settlements. If you deny them the opportunity your life will be much easier later on.

Check out this Brutii save of mine on VH/VH, as an example of a relatively rushed Marian reform, blocked Scipii expansion and monstrous unit production centres in Italy and Greece.

[ReluctantSamurai]

But AR works wonders against super annoying army compositions like chariots, horse archers, berzerkers (not that the AI gets to make them) and Egyptians in general.

Wussy The Middle East is where you're supposed to post all those veteran Principes you accumulated fighting in Greece to cover your Archer Auxillia while they toast all those chariots! But....

....I suppose you are right. When there's no player to oppose the Big E, facing down endless stacks of gold does get boring.

The best city to do that with is Carthage since it has insane farmland bonuses.

In the vast majority of my games, it is usually Carthage (in the hands of the Scipii) that bring about the Marian reforms.

[Decaywolf]

Faster tips about what I've read on begin.

Spend all your money on investment.

1- Public order, I always try make my cities above to 100% public order, but a averange or 80 - 100%+ is acceptable. We don't want lose a city right.

Also when you take a city far away from your capital and they have unresting -15% / -30% as default, you should send a family member with high influence status, and build academy to help with manageament, income and corruption, also could get anything against squallor...

Some things to think...
Capital distance could put -80% public order, unresting could put -15 / -30% as default for some cities, squallor could go to -125% public order (maximum), culture penalty could put -50% public order... so these cities really need governament help!

Also still there's anouther tip, always upgrade their old building to eliminate culture penalty and build temples of your god, always when you have enough public order to demolish and replace the new one.

2 - Economy, always focus on it, on every single city which aren't military based, also even the military cities should go for economy resources once the building are ready...
I personally still choose 1 city for legionary, and outher to foundry, this speed up alot the construction time speed... Julis have a amazing start with segesta, segestica, arretium, arratium, patavium, luvanum cities... also there's malassia and near citys which got port nearby...

Economy buildings are...

Port, always priority to island cities
Roads, paved road is always priority when a city is nearby many
Market, always priority when you have at least paved roads build
Farms, always priority when you want a fast grow with this single city, if not want avoid it till you control the public order, and then build it!

Other tip is, keep looking on garrison level, some times pay 400 denaris for monthly gladatorial games could be better than a garrison with 4 pesants...
Depends about city size of population

Always spend your money making army as well and use them to quicky expand, but don't spend more than you coldn't effort cities building upgrades.

And the last tip is...

Only fight against who you can win and don't make more enemies as you can haddle...

By the way I'm the only one who is playing on VH/VH and thinks this game is ridiculous easy?