Roman: Scipii

[bedlam28]

Quick question: Do I need to wait for the reforms to get Heavy Cav ? (please tell me I get Heavy Cav !!!)

I have taken Spain / Africa and now working 3 fronts - against the Brits to the West - Pontiac to the north - Egypt to the East.
But I've just been massacred by 5 stacks of Egyption Heavy Chariots, who rode through my Infantry like a knife through butter, set everyone routing; my equites wet themselves just seeing these chariots coming.

I need some equality power here.

[Roman_Man#3]

hey bedlam, to answer your question, you do need the reforms for better cavalry than equites, although you can hire sarmation heavy cavalry up near the red or dead sea, i forget, well, near scythia. onbce reforms kick in, you get roman cavalry alot like equites, but i think a bit better, legionary cavalry, which are crazy good especially for such and infantry heavy faction like the romans, and preatorian cavalry, which are, IMHO, a little cheap. they are way to powerful, its a little cheesy. but for you every day needs against chariots, try triarii or the spearmen you can hire as mercs near the brutii town, merc hoplits, or legionary cavalry. if you use spearmen and good cavalry, you will be able to decimate those egyptian chariots.

[bedlam28]

Thanks Roman,

you will be able to decimate those egyptian chariots.

Ohh, thats what I wanna hear !!

I'm going shopping for Hoplites

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Thanks Roman,

Ohh, thats what I wanna hear !!

I'm going shopping for Hoplites

Spears are your best choice, but not solo.

Have velites in front, race the velites behind the hoplites as the heavy chariots come up, let the chariots hit the spears. As they hit, give the velites the command to charge with alt weapons so that they'll hit the chariots just as the chariots come to a halt before swirling. This will give you lots of kills with the velite bonus -- which only seems to work when the velites attack as they get chummed too quick if they await the charge. Scythed chariots are deadly while moving but not too scary at all on the moments they are still -- so hit them then.

Do NOT use cavarly against eggy chariots unless you must. The scythe blades will ruin your troopers and they can't take those casualties and stay viable. Cav can sometimes catch them from behind when tired and this seems to kill fewer of your horse troopers.

Eggy archer chariots you should shoot -- preferably with rental cretans. Don't bother with flame, their morale is excellent, but they can't take a hit for beans. They almost always deploy in skirmish mode so you rarely get to hit them with foot troops. Sometimes they will charge, but usually only when they can cheap shot a unit while you're busy with other attacks. If you have anybody close, try to hit them just as they stop from the charge just as you did with the heavies.

[Caius]

Thanks Roman,



Ohh, thats what I wanna hear !!

I'm going shopping for Hoplites

The hoplites, they are good including for Elephants, but the problem is a bad rear.They are nothing in hand to hand combat, think twice if you are going to send the hoplites to hand to hand combat.

If the chariots come to a frontal charge, it becomes an total fail for the chariots, they will have too many losses and you will lose noone, max 3 or 4

[Guillaume le Batard]

Playing my third RTW campaign ever, as the Scipii, on M/M.

I am currently calling my campaign the "sitzkrieg," as I have become more or less bogged down in North Africa, c. year 220 BCE.

I immediately took Sicily in its entirity, Carthage, Thapsus, Lepcis Magna, and Cirta. No serious problems economically or militarily, a couple of somewhat hairy battles with the Carthaginians, but nothing too serious.

Having played as Egypt previously, I was prepared for population growth problems, and of course realized that my first serious opponent would be Egypt, due to their massive wealth.

However, due to a combination of factors, I am really wondering whether I will ever be prepared to take on my fellow Roman factions, particularly the Brutii, who have taken all of Greece, Macedonia, and Eastern Europe at this stage.

Here's my problem: Economically, my finances have taken huge hits from restlessness in my N. African settlements. Despite following conventional advice (e.g. building Roman temples, slaughtering large cities I capture, etc.) I have had to put significant resources into maintaining large garrisions (town watch) in many of my "foreign" settlements. The fact that I was down to four family members for a while (gah!) really did not help my management efforts.

Militarily, I did not consider that the vast distances in N. Africa would end up creating such a problem in my wrapping up my campaign against the Numidians. Makes Greece look like a walk in the park. Stupid Brutii. Anyway, in the midst of marching all over the continent to conquer their remaining cities, the Egyptians (who had taken most of the middle east, plus a good portion of Asia Minor) decided they wanted Lepcis Magna, while three of my cities went to blue or red due to squalor.

Now, I have enetered into a massive naval war with ethe Egyptians, just to keep them from blockading my ports, and am winning thanks to my Quinqueremes. But the cost is killing me!

I have also taken Cyrene (sp?) from the Egyptians, and am slowly making my way towards Siwa... but in the process I'm facing year after year of multi-stack waves from the Egyptians -- it appears they have no other enemies at this point. I am winning every battle, but my offensive stacks are continually being ground down... I have probably killed 15 of their family their members in battle in the last 25 or so years.

I have no problem winning battles, but I am starting to question whether I will conquer Egypt in time to rebuild my finances, and grab what's left of Asia Minor before the Brutii take that, too. The Brutii are simply huge at this point.

So should I just start a new campaign, or slug it out and see if I can't ramp up quickly enough to take on the other Roman Factions and win? I certainly won't quit until I have wiped out the Egyptians - as I have now come to loathe them !

PS - When does the game actually end? What year?

Thanks,
Guillaume

[Caius]

I have no problem winning battles, but I am starting to question whether I will conquer Egypt in time to rebuild my finances, and grab what's left of Asia Minor before the Brutii take that, too. The Brutii are simply huge at this point.

The Brutii are biggest, they are faster in conquering lands.

PS - When does the game actually end? What year?

Year 14

[Poulp']

to Guillaume

first, try to snatch Halicarnassus if the Brutii didn't; it'll give you an edge in upgrading your cities quicker than your Roman rivals.

then, on your way to Egypt, conquer the mediterranean islands, Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus; they are money makers and you can use them as bases for futures conquests. If they are already under Brutii rule, send a couple of spies and assassins, and make them revolt before conquering them. (of course, have an army stationned nearby)
That's more money making for you and less for your rivals/enemies.

Cyrene and Salamis are great positions from where to take the Nile valley; from Salamis, you can launch an assult on Alexandria and disrupt the egyptian supply line along the shore. From Cyrene, you can either support the assault on Alenxandria or siege Thebes, the Pyramids will help you to keep egyptian cities under control.

If you can get the Brutii to help you in taking out Egypt (in Asia Minor I guess) so much the better; you should not suffer cultural penalty once you take them back from the Brutii during the civil war

Create unrest in the Nile valley too, every egyptian city which goes rebel is one less which builds units to attack you.
If you can send a plagued spy into those cities, that's usually a hard blow for the Ptolemees. It means you won't be able to take them (at least taking them with a family member) but it will buy you time to launch a campaign against them.
Likewise, keep a spy in your cities to prevent other's spies from creating unrest.

In North Africa, your priority should be to build highways wherever and whenever possible. Highways, a cavalry force (or two), and watch towers are the keys to holding Africa; it lets you enforce quickly the (trampling) Pax Romana.

...

pretty much all I can think at the moment.

Edit:
hum? promoted to member, yeah !

very important: Beat them, and beat them hard !

And thanks to whoever promoted me

[Guillaume le Batard]

Caius Flaminius:

Thanks. That gives me another 200 turns to win, which even someone with my limited skill set shoud be able to do!

Okay, time to do some damage to those Egyptians.

Guillaume

[Squid]

I have had to put significant resources into maintaining large garrisions (town watch) in many of my "foreign" settlements. The fact that I was down to four family members for a while (gah!) really did not help my management efforts.

Try replacing your town watch with peasants, the peasants are cheaper to recruit and are bigger so will give you a bigger garrison bonus per unit (i.e. less units to get the same effect)

[Guillaume le Batard]

Thanks for the advise, Squid -- you're absolutely right. However, I generally prefer to use Town Watch beacuse I just can't stand the thought of peasants being used as guards. It's a peculiarity of mine -- but I just hate peasant units.

But on the topic of unit prices - I noticed something a little unusual recently. Mid-campaign (about 30 turns ago), I switched my game settings to "Huge" unit sizes (I had been playing at the "Large" setting). Nothing happened. I didn't think anything of it, I just assumed that you cannot change unit size in the midst of a campaign, and carried on playing, quite happily.

Anyway, I noticed later that my unit descriptions now reference Huge unit sizes, and Huge unit prices. I double checked, and I *am* being charged at huge unit prices.

This may explain why I have been struggling financially in my campaign for so many years! The difference is sizeable in unit cost, but I can't remember what the difference is in upkeep... has anyone else seen this??

Guillaume