Scorched Earth Policy: good or bad?

[weejonnie]

I have done - sent 4 armies into southern greece to take out athens, sparta, corinth and another one. All sea trading is now blocked so income for the greens and blues is zilch (remember they need to pay their army). Obviously my name is now mud - but I had to take out the Brutii before they got too far ahead of me. (The game is in the balance - I am weaker than they are militarily but I can recruit and they can't.

Probably going to send my assassin to take out forums, which will further hit trade. It's a pity you can't see exactly how badly they are doing (income is down to virtually nil while mine is at 10K.)

One interesting event - The Blues were sieging a town, so I joined in and then attacked first. At the end of the day the blues had all sorts of casualties and I had the town. Does this always happen or does it depend who gets the central square?

One thought - the Scipii are now stuck in Africa (no ships and they'll have to fight all the way round the black sea to get home.) Has anyone tried letting a ship be created in a Mediterranean port e.g. Sicily, let it go and pick up an army and then sink it on the way back?

Final note - re re-training. I can re-train troops to make them stronger, but not recover their numbers - am I doing something wrong that can obviously be corrected?

Further to the scorched-earth policy : probably be a good idea to leave in the port since you can always blockade it if you lose the city.

[Ludens]

1) One interesting event - The Blues were sieging a town, so I joined in and then attacked first. At the end of the day the blues had all sorts of casualties and I had the town. Does this always happen or does it depend who gets the central square?

2) One thought - the Scipii are now stuck in Africa (no ships and they'll have to fight all the way round the black sea to get home.) Has anyone tried letting a ship be created in a Mediterranean port e.g. Sicily, let it go and pick up an army and then sink it on the way back?

3) Final note - re re-training. I can re-train troops to make them stronger, but not recover their numbers - am I doing something wrong that can obviously be corrected?

1) It's been a while since I played the game, but IIRC the army that attacked first would always get the town. I could be wrong, though.

2) IIRC the vanilla R:TW A.I. was not very keen on naval invasions. Chances are that, fleet or no, they will simply sit around in Africa (maybe attacking nearby cities) until you show up.

3) Most likely the city doesn't have the barracks level required to train your troops, so all you get are the armour/weapon/experience bonuses.

[Vincent Butler]

I have done - sent 4 armies into southern greece to take out athens, sparta, corinth and another one. All sea trading is now blocked so income for the greens and blues is zilch (remember they need to pay their army). Obviously my name is now mud - but I had to take out the Brutii before they got too far ahead of me. (The game is in the balance - I am weaker than they are militarily but I can recruit and they can't.

Probably going to send my assassin to take out forums, which will further hit trade. It's a pity you can't see exactly how badly they are doing (income is down to virtually nil while mine is at 10K.)

One interesting event - The Blues were sieging a town, so I joined in and then attacked first. At the end of the day the blues had all sorts of casualties and I had the town. Does this always happen or does it depend who gets the central square?


Final note - re re-training. I can re-train troops to make them stronger, but not recover their numbers - am I doing something wrong that can obviously be corrected?

You blockaded Brutii/Scipii ports? I must be misunderstanding something, because you would not be allied with them and still blockading the port, the computer would not let you blockade them. Or did you blockade all trade coming into their ports, is that what you mean?

Yes, since you attacked first, you took the town. I have done that myself before, though my personal code of honour keeps me from doing it more. I also used to send spies into allied towns to force a revolt, but I have the same issue with honour.

AI will sometimes land armies, mainly if you take Sicily as say Greece, Scipii keep bringing mainland armies to Sicily to take Messana back. Other than that, they don't do invasions much, Kydonia stays rebel for a long time usually, and Rhodes rarely comes under attack as well. Palma and Caralis do get attacked quickly.

You actually can see how a town is doing financially, send a spy into a town and it will tell you its financial status, you double-click on the town and it will be near the bottom.

As Ludens said, you are getting the armour/weapons experience upgrades only, since town apparently does not have sufficient barracks, or possibly numbers to retrain (though that usually only happens at the town level).

[ReluctantSamurai]

Also be aware that at higher game difficulty settings, Roman factions get monetary cheats. I have had games where I've had every single Roman port blockaded, yet the financial graph shows them actually gaining money (usually the SPQR). Since income from port trading is more than all other forms of income combined, the only logical conclusion is there's some serious gifting of money built-in

The only empirical data I ever collected was to add up the maintenance costs for the Roman armies and fleets in a campaign I was playing, and there was no way those armies/fleets could be maintained if they belonged to a player

Game difficulty will also affect AI behavior concerning amphibious landings. Higher settings>>>more attempts at naval landings, lower difficulty settings>>>few to none.

[weejonnie]

You blockaded Brutii/Scipii ports? I must be misunderstanding something, because you would not be allied with them and still blockading the port, the computer would not let you blockade them. Or did you blockade all trade coming into their ports, is that what you mean?

Yes, since you attacked first, you took the town. I have done that myself before, though my personal code of honour keeps me from doing it more. I also used to send spies into allied towns to force a revolt, but I have the same issue with honour.

AI will sometimes land armies, mainly if you take Sicily as say Greece, Scipii keep bringing mainland armies to Sicily to take Messana back. Other than that, they don't do invasions much, Kydonia stays rebel for a long time usually, and Rhodes rarely comes under attack as well. Palma and Caralis do get attacked quickly.

You actually can see how a town is doing financially, send a spy into a town and it will tell you its financial status, you double-click on the town and it will be near the bottom.

As Ludens said, you are getting the armour/weapons experience upgrades only, since town apparently does not have sufficient barracks, or possibly numbers to retrain (though that usually only happens at the town level).

I am retraining troops in cities with the facility to train praetorian cohort (and ones with amphitheaters for Samnite gladiators). I can understand hastati/ principes not being trainable (post Marius). Oh well, no doubt I can muddle trhough - but it would be very useful for cities that have fought off sieges.

[Vincent Butler]

You can have an Proconsul's/Imperial Palace and without an Army Barracks to train Praetorian Cohort. Of course, if those towns are at that level, then they would almost certainly have an Army Barracks. Of course if you just had Marius...I guess your recourse is to just train Praetorian Cohort as your garrison Nobody is taking that town. I rarely use gladiators or Arcani, are your gladiators not retraining either?

[weejonnie]

You can have an Proconsul's/Imperial Palace and without an Army Barracks to train Praetorian Cohort. Of course, if those towns are at that level, then they would almost certainly have an Army Barracks. Of course if you just had Marius...I guess your recourse is to just train Praetorian Cohort as your garrison Nobody is taking that town. I rarely use gladiators or Arcani, are your gladiators not retraining either?

The only troops that are being recruited back to original numbers are the ships. I can retrain 1 war dog for 600 denarii - and get 1 war dog.

[Vincent Butler]

And the buildings are all repaired, I take it. War Dog means, what, Stables? And it only gives you one wardog in the entire unit? You should be able to train Roman Cavalry at that level as well, since you have had Marian reforms. What is the population? Assuming you have not modded the game, especially in the buildings files, if you are unable to retrain in repaired buildings that are of sufficient level, with sufficient population and finances, it sounds like a glitch in the game.

I was wrong, it looks like a Proconsul's Palace does not train Praetorian Cohort, only Army Barracks level or higher, or an Imperial Palace.

On a rabbit trail, in Gaul, if you capture a town with a Sacred Circle of Epona, you can upgrade it to Awesome Temple of Horse, automatically giving troops trained there a silver chevron, then the Pantheon level gives two silver chevrons.

[ReluctantSamurai]

The only troops that are being recruited back to original numbers are the ships

Check to make sure the appropriate buildings for training/retraining a particular unit are repaired. If you have placed multiple buildings in a queue, only one building at a time becomes usable...the others only come online after they are actually repaired. If the structure required to train a particular troop type is in a usable state, and you cannot train/retrain, then there's a problem with the save-file as Vincent has pointed out. That only naval vessels are being repaired leads me to believe that there's damage to structures, as ports are never damaged during sieges. Structures can sustain partial damage and still be usable, but I've never tried to use a building that has even slight damage so I can't say what happens when you do try