Beginner's Guide to RTW - Question Collection

[econ21]

OK, here's some stuff I would like explored in a guide (from the point of view of a STW/MTW player new to RTW):

- How to make money: apparently, you can trade without trade buildings. And don't need ships for sea trade? Dorkus has done some research and come to the conclusion that the economic upgrades (not ports) are not so remunerative. Victoria pushes them in the early game though.

-Friendly fire: I fought a battle with the Gauls where I lost about 50 men but the Gauls only killed 8. The rest must have come from my archers and velites that were trying to fire over the heads of my front line, MTW style. EDIT: velites may best be used to skirmish in front of your lines; they may prompt an enemy charge, but the velites can withdraw allowing a counter-charge (in MTW you only got a charge bonus against the unit you targeted, so AI charging escaping velites may have lost their charge bonus). But beware - cavalry can catch skirmishers. Archers have greater range and so could be put further back, but ideally should have clear sight of the enemy.

-Roman pila: this is the primary weapon of Roman heavy infantry. Order them to attack and they will try to throw pila. Two problems: (a) if charged, the enemy may be on them before they get a shot off; (b) if out of ammo, they may waste time looking for it. Pressing alt-right click gets them to use their secondary weapons, swords. Dorkus says post-Marian units get their pila off more quickly. [EDIT]: setting hastati etc. to "fire at will" and keep them stationary should allow them to get off a volley before enemy infantry close.

-Dogs: seem to be like missiles; they regenerate after use.

-Marian reforms: seem to come after the Imperial Palace is built by any Roman faction (or is it just a city of 24000 population?).

-Squalor: something on how to deal with this would be nice. Some folk at the .com are saying use enslave or exterminate to avoid large captured cities with loyalty problems.

-Unit types: something on the importance of pikes (of varying lengths), spears, light vs heavy infantry (does it matter that hastati are light and princeps are heavy), heavy vs light weapons (does this mean AP?) etc would be good.

EDIT for some new stuff:

- Agents unlike MTW, they are not rent-free - 100 dinari upkeep per turn. Border watch towers are more economic ways of keeping an eye on a static frontier.

- Mercenaries unlike MTW seem to have no lower upkeep than comparable regular troops, but have a premium initial price. This means they should not be cannon fodder as in MTW, but are more worthwhile generally if they are superior or fill a niche your faction currently lacks. The type of mercenaries you depends on location - e.g. Dacia can give very tasty heavy cavalry (Samartian) and 2HP infantry (Basternae or some such).

-Retinues die with your general; best leave your aged generals to spend out their later years in solitude (or with mad uncles, etc), giving their retinues to younger folk. Stripping aged characters of retinues may actually lead them to acquire replacements quickly (e.g. a replacement priest of the temple in the two he is governing - this opens up the possibility of priest farming!). 8 retinue per character is the maximum.

- Ballistae can shoot down gates of some low level towns, meaning you don't have to wait a turn for a battering ram. Downside is that they slow down your army on the campaign map. Unlike MTW, they can be moved (slowly) on the battlemap.