Siege Defense with Siege Engines/Rome Conquered

[LordK9]

1. Siege engines in walled cities seem rather useless as they can't fire over the walls nor can they be moved outside the walls. Is this a bug? Especially since the adviser tells you to target attacking siege engines.

2. I accidentally conquered the SPQR faction - really, I was trying to get an army to the sea to be evacuated (Carthage) and SPQR attacked me an were annihilated so I walked into and held Rome instead of evacuating. Will the two remaining Roman factions (the Scipi were already defeated) ever go into civil war?

EDIT: Also, how does the game determine the makeup of rebel armies when a civil revolt occurs? Once, when I was Roman, Cordoba rebelled and their army was comprised of elephants (where the heck did trained war elephants come from :) ), eastern hills tribesmen, and several other units only found in the eastrn (Persian) areas. Recently, a revolt had eight barbarian warlords (Osca, northeastern Spain). Is it random?

[ReluctantSamurai]

1. Siege engines are useless inside a walled city. Not so for wooden walls or forts. Not a bug.

2. If you are playing a non-Roman faction, the Romans will never go to war with each other. Civil war only happens if you play one of the three Roman factions.

3. Rebel armies are entirely random, but having units not of the area is rather strange...unless an eastern faction has had control of the city previously

[LordK9]

1. Siege engines are useless inside a walled city. Not so for wooden walls or forts. Not a bug.

True, as the game works but they were a huge part of the defense of Jerusalem in 71AD; they were placed on the towers. Still, one should be able to move them outside the walls to help break a siege.

2. If you are playing a non-Roman faction, the Romans will never go to war with each other. Civil war only happens if you play one of the three Roman factions.

Thanks. Its going to get hairy then with the Romans have such better troops then my Carthage can muster.

3. Rebel armies are entirely random, but having units not of the area is rather strange...unless an eastern faction has had control of the city previously

Interesting; just Spain prior to me as a Roman faction. Probably a random bug.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Still, one should be able to move them outside the walls to help break a siege.

If they were correctly modeled, you shouldn't be able to move them at all except for smaller ballista and such:

http://www.mywizards.com/catapults/onager/

Its going to get hairy then with the Romans have such better troops then my Carthage can muster.

Two things to say here...Sacred Band---Elephants

[LordK9]

If they were correctly modeled, you shouldn't be able to move them at all except for smaller ballista and such:

http://www.mywizards.com/catapults/onager/

Often wondered about that. Lots are modeled incorrectly (no ram in the towers, can't place archers and slingers in towers (although the more advanced AI towers apparently have machine darts :) ), sapping tunnels that are fired more then once and automatically affective, scorpions (ballistas) that fire darts (they are confused with onagers in the game which fired small stones while it was the scorpions that launched boulders), and there were small, mobile catapaults that were similar to the trebauchets (sp) of the middle ages that weren't included at all. I guess the designers wanted artillery that was useful offensively in the field so made them all mobile.




Two things to say here...Sacred Band---Elephants

I have been using the sacred band and elephants but they are too expensive to make a lot of them. End of filling with spearmen and light infantry (good against the Roman spearmen) and Poeni infantry when available. Oh, and lots of shield cavalry. If the AI made real armies instead of small armies, I'd be hosed but the light troops and cavalry with so many more units has been able to flank routinely.

[ReluctantSamurai]

I have been using the sacred band and elephants but they are too expensive to make a lot of them.

Playing Carthage, money shouldn't be an issue as you should have a healthy sea-trade economy, and be able to afford whatever you wish

http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...1.jpg~original
http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...1.jpg~original
http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...2.jpg~original

[LordK9]

Playing Carthage, money shouldn't be an issue as you should have a healthy sea-trade economy, and be able to afford whatever you wish

http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...1.jpg~original
http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...1.jpg~original
http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...2.jpg~original

I've generally been quite good with the economic aspect of the games; always the richest in Medieval no matter who I played but with Carthage, money is always short with having to constantly rebuild and repair quinqremes (sp) and attacks by the Roman factions on several fronts require several armies. Still, my army power is less on the graphs then the Juli, Bruti, and Egyptians even though my production, population, and territory graphs show me to be second only to Egypt so I doubt I'm over building. Not enough left to build a lot of buildings so I still have just four cities able to build somewhat decent troops and only two that can do elephants and sacred band (the two Bruti cities I took in south Italy are able to build sacred band cavalry but not infantry). Not near so much experience with Rome then with Medieval so I'm probably just not very efficient yet.

[ReluctantSamurai]

the two Bruti cities I took in south Italy are able to build sacred band cavalry but not infantry

Sacred Band spears requires an Awesome Temple of Baal plus the proper level of barracks. Worth the effort and expense, though.....

money is always short with having to constantly rebuild and repair quinqremes

Getting to a forge helps with this, tremendously. Carthage itself, is probably the first to get to 24k in population, so once you get your foundry built, send all your sea-faring vets there to get all "decked out" in silver

[LordK9]

Sacred Band spears requires an Awesome Temple of Baal plus the proper level of barracks. Worth the effort and expense, though.....



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I've read the thread that mentioned keeping the population happy with buildings from your culture but have yet to destroy old buildings to create new ones. Think I'll try that just to see what happens with the Roman temple replaced with a series of Baal temples. That way I can build SB spearmen in Italy instead of transporting them from Carthage.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Might be a good idea to keep Roman Coliseums. While they add to culture penalty, being able to hold games can be very, very useful to control those bloodthirsty Roman citizens

Also...the Brutii Temple of Juno is superior in Law&Order qualities to anything Carthage gets, so depending on what level you find it, you might want to consider keeping it. The Temple of Mars isn't too shabby either with its experience bonuses...

[LordK9]

Might be a good idea to keep Roman Coliseums. While they add to culture penalty, being able to hold games can be very, very useful to control those bloodthirsty Roman citizens

Also...the Brutii Temple of Juno is superior in Law&Order qualities to anything Carthage gets, so depending on what level you find it, you might want to consider keeping it. The Temple of Mars isn't too shabby either with its experience bonuses...

Intersting - all five Roman cities I know have have coliseums but I haven't seen the option to hold yearly, monthly, or weekly games. I guess just having it means games will be held but, unless Roman, I won't be able to manage it?

[ReluctantSamurai]

I haven't seen the option to hold yearly, monthly, or weekly games.

If a city has a coliseum, there will be a selection button in the city management screen (same page where you adjust taxes). You can hold games yearly/monthly/weekly (at a cost of 400 denarii, IIRC) and it works for any owning faction, and not just for Romans. Games have to be selected...it is not automatic.

On the campaign map you will see a little coliseum icon attached to your city tag, and at the end of your turn you should get a drop down box informing you that games were held at that city.