Roman: Scipii

[frogbeastegg]

Guide

[Doug-Thompson]

The Scipii have the most clear-cut mission of any of the Roman factions. Their job is to kill the Carthaginians. The also need to solidify their control of Sicily, but that's part and parcel of the overall mission.

Carthiginians are easier to destroy sooner than later. Kick them right off of Sicily and don't be shy about enslaving the Greek city of Syracuse and committing massacre in Lilybaeum. People like to preserve those cities for good troops and income, but that is a mistake. Your true goal is to build up as big an army as you can and get it across the water into North Africa as soon as this can be done. You don't have troops to spare for a big garrison. I've even hired mercenaries after a failed siege, which is a no-no with other Roman factions in the cash-tight early game.

If the Sentate gives you a mission in Greece, take the town, massacre the inhabitants and take your army right back to the war in the central Mediterranean.

A note about Mount Etna, the volcano near Messina. It will erupt. You don't want to have troops or fleets near it when that happens. Bring new troops and leaders from Italy to the point of land behind Messina and disembark them there. Use your full movement allowance next turn to march armies past Mount Etna. If you're besieging, take care that you don't lose a battle and have to retreat to the vicinity of Mount Etna. You will lose troops and you could lose generals if it erupts.

After securing Sicily, it's time for the main event: The invasion of North Africa. Collect your forces in Lilybaeum and invade in one jump. I've even invaded North Africa before the final conquest in Sicily, when the Senate ordered me to take Thapsus.

One thing to notice about moving across the sea against the superior Carthaginian fleet: Don't move beyond horizon range. Move to the limit of your fleet's visibility range when making the all-important invasion crossing. Take another look around, then move some more, avoiding enemy fleets. You want to get across the strait into North Africa in one turn and disembark your troops, a diplomat and your best general without accidentially bumping into anybody.

You will probably have to commit massacre to at least one of either Carthage or Thapsus in order to have enough troops left over from garrison duty to take the other.

Once you take Carthage and Thapsus, you can forget about the Carthaginians in Spain. They're a remnant, at least for now.

By now, the Brutii, Greeks and Macedonians are having a big brawl. Build up your troops and fleets and backstab the Greeks in Sparta. Chances are you'll get at least two of Sparta, Corinth and Athens. You'll now have a new, very nice base in Greece.

Go over to the other Greek cities in Asia Minor. Be on the lookout for Greek armies led by generals that you can bribe to add talent to your faction. It can be very expensive, but notice that you can bribe a general, then often hire a lot of mercenaries, which I assume were his recently disbanded troops.

The Greek provinces in Asia Minor, including Rhodes, have three wonders of the world. Taking them grants enormous prestige. They're also rich provinces in their own right.

By now, you're probably at war with Egypt. Keep it naval. You will need to soften them up a lot, probably, before dealing any knockout blows.

The rest is up to you.

[camulos]

Doug's strategy works extremely well for Scipii but i'd like to add a couple of notes.

1) For me the volcano on Sicily erupted in 261. Don't keep any family members or important units in Messana until after this happens because they can get killed.

2) A good approach to conquering Carthage is this. Don't take Lilybaeum right away. Make 2 armies, with 2 good generals. Send the larger force with the best commander by boat to Carthage. Form your second army on the border between Syracuse and Lilybaeum. (be sure to bribe any remaining greek armies out of the way) Once both armies are in place, attack Carthage and Lilybaeum on the same turn. The reasoning for this is so you don't have to declare war on Carthage before shipping your troops. Early in the game they have a very strong navy which can give you trouble transporting forces. Once Carthage is taken their economy is crippled and you will see most of their ships disappear. After this Thaspus will fall easily and you can mop up any roaming armies.

[metatron]

I recommend a cavalry force of heavy cav if you're fighting the Numidians. Their provinces cover alot of ground, and they have particularly light forces. It has worked for me well.

However, when it comes to the Spanish, be careful.

[Phill Davies]

My Empire is now pretty big, I own all Africa and a good portion of Asia Minor, Greece and Londinium (Hey, I wanted a little piece of home)

I found keeping the citizens happy a problem in the former Egyptian cities of Alexandria and Thebes. I had to transfer my Capital to Athens which is a nice central point on the map.
Solved the problems of unhappy citizens in one go.:)

[Lanemerkel1]

I had to transfer my Capital to Athens

how the hell do you do that?

[Avicenna]

I recommend a cavalry force of heavy cav if you're fighting the Numidians. Their provinces cover alot of ground, and they have particularly light forces. It has worked for me well.

However, when it comes to the Spanish, be careful.

There's no need to commit a huge force to destroy the Numidians. After wiping out the Carthaginian presence in Africa, take and exterminate Cirta and Tingi, while wiping out the huge Numidian armies usually present in the area. The southern part of Africa in the game is usually deserted and easily taken by a few units of equites recruited from Carthage, which gives you a few general promotions as well.

[Goalie]

Numidians can be taken care of pretty easily with a small army of about 3 archers, 4 roman calvary, and 4-5 Legionary Cohorts or such.

[Doug-Thompson]

A good approach to conquering Carthage is this. Don't take Lilybaeum right away. Make 2 armies, with 2 good generals. Send the larger force with the best commander by boat to Carthage. Form your second army on the border between Syracuse and Lilybaeum. (be sure to bribe any remaining greek armies out of the way) Once both armies are in place, attack Carthage and Lilybaeum on the same turn. The reasoning for this is so you don't have to declare war on Carthage before shipping your troops. Early in the game they have a very strong navy which can give you trouble transporting forces. Once Carthage is taken their economy is crippled and you will see most of their ships disappear. After this Thaspus will fall easily and you can mop up any roaming armies.

Nice!

[afrit]

Err, this is probably obvious to most, but I missed it: at the beginning of the campaign (at least on VH/VH) you have a nice army sitting in your fleet.

I didn't know about it till about turn 10 or so when I needed my fleet to transport an army to Carthage. I was (pleasantly) surprised to see it contained a bunch of Hastati. Of course, had I known about it, I would have gotten to a much better start!

[Torqemada]

A quick note.

The Samanite Spearmen have the same base stats as Triarii. I've found them incerdibly useful as an early roman spearwall. Alot better than worthless townwatch. Although town watch isn't as worthless as Iberian Infantry.

[scipio the even younger]

Military: early
1. Attack Syracuse, with army made from the hasti in the ships and messana, family member from messana too.
2. Enslave Syracuse, build army in Capua, and rebuild army in messana, ship family members to be governors of messana and Syracuse. Try to get trade agreement from Carthage.
3. Send spy to libaeum,send diplomat to SPQR asking for money and in return you will attack carthage. Send army,led by family member, from capua north to the Gaul city’s north of Julii.
4. Attack libaeum and hopefully have your spy open city gates.
5. Try to make peace with Carthage, build a strong navy, capture a Gaelic place and try to sell it to either Julii or SPQR for however much.
6. After you sell your Gaelic place, head south and put them in ships. Put your Sicilian army on a boat too.
7. Send your weaker army to Thapsus and your stronger army to Carthage.

Military: middle
1. Make peace with Egyptians and get trade rights with as many country’s as possibl’
2. Wage war on Numidia and don’t stop till they’re completely destroyed.
3. Head north into Spain and hunt down the last remnants of Carthage.
4. Conquer all of Spain except the little town on the north-west side of Spain providing the Spaniards own it. Blockade the entrance and demand regular tribute + become their protectorate. If they refuse ATTACK!
5. Now turn back for the moment and go beat the Egyptians.
6. Do the same to the Egyptians as you did Spaniards except don’t become protectorate and leave a thin line as a buffer between you the selucids.
7. Now go back to Spain and demand huge tribute before you attack and annihilate them. Go north now and attack Gaul(chances are you’re all ready at war with them thanks too the Julii) and keep going north till you either meet the Britons, germainians or the English channel.
8. Now go east and conquer Germainier while building ships in the English Channel.
9. As your armies march back you need to win control of the English channel.
10. Now , after the channel is yours send a army to Ireland and 1 to England . Conquer the British isles.
Military: late
1. Now you’ve got the power to defeat Rome single handedly.
2. As your border in Gaul will most likely be next to the Julii , why not attack them first.
3. Just head south and don’t stop till you reach Rome.
4. Now you have Rome just pursue the Julii till their gone.
5. The only large contender now is the Brutii who, as they have Greece a rich place mark my words, will have pretty large armies and good generals.
6. Once their gone you will win and if you don’t, just keep going,no out there is a challenge any more so happy hunting…
P.S. I used the bribe technique quite a lot but forgot to mention it, it helps a lot against the bruti.

[Beefy]

Heres Beefys guide to the Early stages of the Scipii.

Get your Troops onto Scilliy straight away, yo will be told to take syracuse anyway so do it anyway!
This will now be your Troop Supply city (for the moment) . Build Better barracks, Stables here etc. Then move over to take Lilybaeum. This will be your money maker. Build traders ports and roads here to get the dosh flowing in!

As for you capital build it up gradually and build units there (just in case things go pear shaped)

Prepare for the crossing to North Africa. Get a lot of ships, Pile all your troops on from scilliy (just leave pheasants, townwatch behind in cities you will get no trouble from scilly regarding rebels etc)

THE VOLCANO WILL ERUPT IN 261BC.

Do the leap to NA in one swoop to catch the Carthaginians with their pants down. Take your massive armies (buy Mercs if needed) and (this is what happened to me) Destroy the massive Carth army that was waiting for you.

You are now free to take Carthage and Thaspus (the senate tells you to do this anyway). I slaughted all the people in Carthage and that will become your MASSIVE money maker. Also your new Troop Production city. By now you should be having Principes in your armies with Cav auxillia etc

So what to do now?

Take Carlais (really easy) this will just to nothing this city, dont even leave a general there.

Now Walk West Wards with your massive Blue mean machine and take the coast for your self. These cities wont really offer anything for you before or after you encounter them.

Now if you feel like it hope across to spain finish off the Carthagians and start a campaign in spain. (should be easy against the weak spannish)

And thats as far as ive got so far.

[Craterus]

i've beaten a campaign as Scipii (short not long) so I didn't bother taking Greece, no point is there?

I took all of West Africa - as far as Lepcis Magna and then I went and took most of Spain.. easy.

[cunobelinus]

the romans are one of the strongest infrantry groups i dont find them very exciting they have no challenge really

[Craterus]

the romans are one of the strongest infrantry groups i dont find them very exciting they have no challenge really

There's always a challenge, I bet a long campaign with the Romans would be quite challenging for me. (lack of early decent cavalry)

[Imperator]

This question may be totally out of context, but does anyone know if you can modify what units you start out with? If so, how?

[pezhetairoi]

In the descr_strat file in the /data/world/campaign/imperialcampaign. The part of the file that details your faction defines what units they start out with, how much their starting treasury is, and what cities and economic assets you have. Change those, and you change the game.

[crazybastard]

I've just recently conquered Cathrage, the heart and capital of the annoying Carthgenians. But when I look at the city details, I was, in fact, shocked. The population growth rate is freaking 8.5%!! Even though I exterminated the original population when I first arrived, I soon have a pouplation of 10,000 in no time! AND the public order is dropping like shiznits because there's simply too much people and the squalors (the little mice thingy) are increasing like crazy!!!! What should I do?!?!?!?

[orcorama]

build sewers/baths
then turn up the tax level
if it gets too bad then move all your soldiers out of the city and turn the taxes up to very high
then wait for it to revolt then you can take the city again and exterminate

[crazybastard]

Right now I'm the Scipii and it's 230 BC and the Marius reform hasn't taken place yet! Why is that? When I was Brutii and Julii the reform started like at 245 BC or something...(confused major)

[Roma Victor]

As the Scipii I would first send down most of you units from your capital towards The Scilian Island and start making more as soon as possiable. The take lilybeam and Syacuse as quick as you can. When you take syracuse i would make it your capital city because of the all the trad routs and incomes it gets plus it will later become the central part of your empire. Also I would try to beat the juli to the island just north of charthage for future western expansion. Then build up a huge army of hasti and calvary and about 3 generals to take charthage main two cities. I always take Thapus first and then go for charthage. While you are doing this you are building more troops to take on the eyptians and numbia. I always take the western route so When I ake on egypt I cover my backside. Because usally spain leaves you alone. Don't worry about charthage after you take their capital just hunt down the remaining ones on the North African coast try to bribe any of their generals because you need them to be commaders and governors. While taking egypt I take all the eastern island so I don't have to ship troops so far. I also take the southern part of greece so as soon as I can I am next to my roman brothers to backstab them. If you have te money and troops build a couple of forts by their capitals and rome with a full garrison. After egypt i use the red sea as a stopping point, I head back west to take out the spainish. I usally stop at the spain-france border. By this time I can take out the julii and the bruti. I always sack their cities so if i lose them the are worthless. Well take is how i took down rome and her alllies.
Roma Victor
"As he was valiant, I honour him; but, as he was ambitious, I slew him".

[Roman_Man#3]

very interesting roma, but lacks a lot of detail.

[GeneralHankerchief]

I return to the Guides forum after a long absence.

How many of your RTW games have lasted 100 years? Well, my Scipii game has just passed that mark and the Civil War hasn't even started yet!!!

Started out pretty generically - I take Sicily, island hop, Western Africa is mine. Crete and Rhodes are also nabbed before those nasty Brutii can take 'em. Anyway, here's where things start to get interesting. The Brutii, having taken all of Greece, decide to expand north and into Eastern Europe. So they leave me with two big empires to take down: Pontus (Asia Minor and the Parthian/Armenian territories), and good ol' Egypt, which owns the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean.

So the conquering begins with a man named Secundus Dolabella leading a half-stack and taking Pergamum, finishing off Greece in the process. Cue up the Pontic full-stacks. Army after army dies at the gates of Pergamum, without success. They breach the walls, they break the gates, but they just can't take the streets! It was some of the toughest defensive fighting I've done, and loved it. The highlight was when there were two full-stacks attacking from opposite directions. Obviously, one of the gates were gained but I had my Arcanii run all the way across the city and ambush the attackers who were making their way up the streets. Heroic victories were common.

After reinforcements arrive there are dual armies making their way through Asia Minor, killing stack after stack of Pontic troops. Secundus dies as faction leader with something like ten command stars, six heroic victories, and a lot of influence.

Meanwhile an effort is made to capture the Nile, with success. The Egyptian stacks are even more numerous though, but luckily enough troops were brought over so that the generals weren't forced to remain in a city at the mercy of the enemy.

It takes forever, but Egypt and Pontus are conquered and driven deep into the desert. Meanwhile, back at home things look ok. There is an obvious rivalry between the Scipii and the Brutii with the Senate favoring us. The Brutii are the more powerful faction in terms of military, but the problem is that all their forces are out in the middle of nowhere or assisting the incompetant Julii in driving the Britons out of Europe.

At the moment, it is 170 BC and there are four non-Roman factions left: Spain, Brittannia, Pontus, and Egypt. Spain is about to be conquered by the Julii. Brittannia is fighting valiantly but losing their grip in Europe. Pontus, bled out by Dolabella, hasn't been on the offensive in twenty years. Egypt is the only faction that can threaten, but they no longer have a financial advantage. So the time has come to attack the other Roman factions.

The brass in the Scipii family, Julianus the Killer and Lucius Scipio (until recently, the only actual Scipio left), have decided to do a three-pronged attack. Large, powerful Roman armies will strike Tarentum, Corinth, and Byzantium simultaneously. Everyone waits in anticipation as the long rivalry is about to be turned up a notch...

(The storytelling baton is passed back to you, Pontifex Rex. Hope you don't mind that I interrupted.)

[Pontifex Rex]

Hope you don't mind that I interrupted

Nah,...go ahead. I'm off to wargame tournament in a couple of days and may not have time to post the next chapter beforehand.

[GeneralHankerchief]

Good God, this is a refreshing change, I'm in the fight of my life here.

When we last left off the civil war was about to start, with me preparing to strike Tarentum, Corinth, and Byzantium simultaneously, along with continuing to finish off Egypt. The results were mixed.

Tarentum - taken without difficulty. This was the first strike. Seeing as how the culture was Roman and was close to my capital (Syracuse), I occupied. After five turns of constructing the typical starting garrison - two archer auxilia, two legionary cohorts, one Roman cavalry - I moved on to Croton. As soon as it's taken, the Julii amphibiously land a medium-size force consisting solely of Praetorian and Urban Cohorts. Wow. I do the best I can but am hopelessly outnumbered and outclassed. Tarentum falls and they exterminate it. As soon as that happens the army in Croton hires mercenaries to garrison it and immediately resieges Tarentum. It is retaken and that's where the army is now.

Corinth- The Wonder was a huge boost for my Eastern settlements. I was expecting a Brutii effort to reclaim it but none came. I figured that this would be my primary expansion point in Greece, while Byzantium held off the brunt of the armies. Boy, was that silly of me. All of a sudden the Pelloponessius is clogged with Brutii troops. Good ones, and lots of 'em. The reinforcements trying to help were defeated soundly, but luckily both generals survived. The army trapped in Corinth is extremely high-tech, but I don't know how much more they can take.

Byzantium: This is the new Pergamum. The poor troops in the city lost their 65-year-old general before the first Brutii assault, so they had to repulse it without a leader. I had to bring Decimus Scipio, Lucius' son, all the way from Memphis to help out. More battles have been fought but this army, unlike the one in Corinth, is in good shape. Once this last siege is repulsed I think I'll go on the offense.

Egyptian front: Two armies are making their way through the desert, little by little whittling away at the Pharoah's power. The Egyptians have been completely cut off from water (including the Red Sea), but it's been costly. Lucius' son Titus in his first action, was killed by an Onager in the taking of Petra. That hurt, but my heir himself died in a massive battle for Bostra sometime later. Right now Lucius' former army is bloodied, in a city not high-tech enough to retrain, and with several large Egyptian armies nearby. I'm sending the other force to assist, but it's going to be hairy.

Future plans: Gentlemen, this is where I'm stumped. A new army in Sicily is being created but that's a little off. I'm thinking about sending the Italian army to Western Greece to help out. Anyone have any other suggestions? I'm really enjoying this campaign right now and don't want to lose.

[SCViper]

One thing to go along with the over-all campaign...enslaving is okay but just occupying a captured setlement isn't enough...your best bet would be just to exterminate the population of every settlement you capture so you don't need to go back to that settlement while punching say...Egypt in the face...extermination is the way to go...it's helped a lot and keeps me focused on taking out the next man in line...you can do what you please but this hint might help...good luck everyone

[gardibolt]

Extermination is often good policy in Egypt, where population grows at an uncontrolled, insane rate and the people are difficult to control (at least until you seize the Pyramids). But it's terrible policy in places like Numidia, which will never recover from an extermination due to their miniscule growth rates. The game is not one-size-fits-all.

[Sonicdahedgie]

Amen, Gardibolt! I made the mistake of slaughtering Nepte. Now it just kinda sits there, producing absolutely nothing, except a few denarii eaach turn.




I created my own little strategy, which I kow could be executed with either Scipii or Brutii houses.

I concentrated all my resources on getting through Sicily, and then taking North Africa. Once I had taken Carthage and Thapsus, I began to look for new fronts to fight on, since those cities are the powerhouses of North Africa. Then I hatched a little plan.
I remembered someone mentioning that AI tend to not attack islands. So, I used Sicily as a manurfacturing plant (all those cities that close together are PERFECT for making quick armies), loaded the stack onto my ship, and sailed east.

The only islands I don't control are Rhodes, the big island just north of North Africa, and Ireland and Britan (naw duh.)







Oh! Just thought of something! Which is better for your economy, islands or a concentrated blob of cities?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Best for your economy is any city with ports/roads/markets and trading partners.

As to a slaughtered Nepte: Any turn you are not making "real" troops in Syracuse and Carthage -- where people breed like rodents -- you should be making peasants and marching them to your de-populated towns. Disband upon arrival and goose up the population to a productive level.