interesting... but I don't the Thracians had noble cavalry historically?
interesting... but I don't the Thracians had noble cavalry historically?
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
Most factions would have had Noble Cavalry made up of the factions noblemen. Maybe it's just for variation.
Well, an interesting idea nevertheless. Thracian Noble Cavalry would add to the impression that Thrace was a barbarian-greek mixed-blood faction, which is what it is. Bits from both worlds.
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
Put it in a nice detailed letter and mail it to someone who cares mate, 'inbetween the lines' is just a nice way of saying "oh yeah I actually meant this" when what some have said here was clear enough.Originally Posted by pezhetairoi
The Thracian unit lineup for example is far more versatile than the Greek unit lineup which is little but hoplites.
If one discounts siege weaponry then the Greeks have the same number of variety of infantry units, one extra missile unit (heavy peltast) and flaming bacon.
Phalanx pikemen are a fine unit and whats more under a human player are unstoppable by any AI (who don't know how to use theirs), they alone could guarantee one victory. Add in the falxmen and bastarnae though and the Thracians have some pretty damned good infantry units that don't become redundant Falxmen with their one turn buildtime can still get excellent use as extras in your battleline even after bastarnae become available.
Sure the Greeks have hoplites, whoopde do, they become redundant as soon as one gets armoured hoplites. Hastati become redundant with princepes, early legionairres become redundant with legionairres, levy pikemen are useful for nothing but garrison duty once one has phalanx pikemen as the Seleucids or Macedonians.
The Thracians may appear to some to have a small unit roster but with the exception of their poor cavalry (which is the same as Greeces) they have an on the whole versatile one. Add in the unusual variety of mercenaries the Thracians have EASY access to thanks to their starting geography and the Thracians have all bases covered quite easily.
*puts it in a nice detailed letter and mails it to someone who cares*
Yippee. I suppose you have a point re: versatility, I'll give you that. Thanks for bothering to reply.
Last edited by pezhetairoi; 05-06-2005 at 05:24.
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
Put it in a letter and mail it to some who cares.Originally Posted by Es Arkajae
But seriously, I prefer Thrace to Greece anyway. I can't command phalanxes so I may as well go for the quality infantry that Thrace has.
Bastarnae with gold weapons and 3 gold chevrons are quite a formidable force when used against legionairies...
Yeah, their 2 HP bonus will help too.Originally Posted by Bruzhev
Bastarnae are tough. Too bad they don't seem to get AP attack. Falx types should definitely get an AP attack. Traditionally, the Romans had to reinforce their armor and helmets to not get arms and heads loped off so easily by the falxes.
Bastarnaes look like they have massive machetes. Wouldn't like to get on the wrong side of one of those guys.
Those falxes are worse than machetes. The inner edge is sharpened. One would hook and pull, loping off a head or arm in the process.
Falxes/rhompaias are ones of the most deadly weapons back in those times. Romans needed to add reinforcing bars to make their armor work better against this.
The falxes should get antiarmour and maybe +2 vs. cav.
Falxmen are sufficient for butchering hoplites on walls when used with siege towers; and after you annex greece you can afford a full stack of bastarnae (and a few cretabs+illyrians) to annex rome. Of course, annexing greece is the hard part.
Absolutely, bastarnae are all you need. Perhaps we should all mod our bastarnae to give them AP, it certainly seems right that they get that sort of advantage at least. Did falxmen have an advantage against horses? I didn't know that...
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
THRACE ARE THE BEST FACTION ON THE GAME!!!!
GOOD INCOME AND EASY TO TAKE OVER PROVENCES
You-Dubya:
Thrace is a good faction, but so are they all. The inherent advantages of your brain over the AI mean that you should be able to establish a winning combination of strategy and battlefield tactics with any faction. This collection of guides illustrates this.
Some of these folks are scary good, and I would not be entirely surprised to see them lead the Amazons to victory -- if they could mod the game into making them a faction.
Seamus
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Thrace when defending really benefits in a large battle from using a roman manipular formation.
P= Phalanx pikemen, F=Falxmen, B=Bastarnae, A=Archers, S=Skirmishers
___________PPPPP_____PPPPP_____PPPPP_____PPPPP__________
______FFFFF_____FFFFF_____FFFFF_____FFFFF_____FFFFF_____
SSSSS_____BBBBB_____BBBBB_____BBBBB_____BBBBB______SSSSS
______________AAAAA__AAAAA__AAAAA__AAAAA_____________
Against phalanx based enemies, they will tend to task two phalanges onto each of your pikemen block. However this means that they come in on angles, exposing their flank to your falxmen (who should have no difficulty hacking them to bits). If the falxmen break, then the bastarnae need to go in.
Against non phalanx enemies, it's a little more brutal. It basically is hold until they hit your phalanx line, then surge the falx men forwards.
I don't like fighting Thracian because they have good units, but being them is pretty cool. You're like the only civilized nation around that area except for Macedon and Greece.
In RtR 5.4.1 Thrace VH/M is pretty fun and challenging.
Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh
Yea some poeple are scary good.
Please check out my art http://calcaneus.deviantart.com/
At the beginning I hate Thracians cos they have a damned bunch of militia cav and skirmishers. Really annoying, and I have to tire out my horses to catch them in traps. =_=
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
Good to see you posting again, Pez', I'd begun to think that EB had taken a lien on your soul.
Seamus
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
I only played Thrace once, in a VH/M short campaign before switching to RTR...damn these folks are a challenge! The only army one has & can afford can barely deal with the Macedonian onslaught while there are rebels popping up in your homeland all the time. Which wouldn't have been all too bad but those guys started besieging my cities, esp. Tylis, after being left alone for a few turns and I had absolutely nothing left to deal with them!!
Additionally, Scythia and Dacia took turns in attacking Getae, pretty much choking me there. Dacia also had enough armies to repel an attack on Byzalora; all the more astonishing since it was Macedonian and they just helped them - if my allies only would do so....sadly, Bastarnae only come at 12,000 pop, meaning you somehow have to get past early game without them....
Congratulations to all who had more success with Thrace; I gave up after I had finally taken Thessalonica, when 1) a massive Dacian army showed up ready to take Tylis and 2) the Greeks betrayed me and attacked my victorious but severly weakened main army just outside of Thessalonica.....I've never had such opposition. In RTR, those guys are way easier if one deals correctly with the Sarmatians.
Last edited by Deus ret.; 09-14-2005 at 11:55.
Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni.
Bastarnae Mercenaries.Originally Posted by Deus ret.
That's what I use when I'm the Brutii faction when I fight Thrace. Boy do those mercenaries come in handy. I make full stacks of mercenaries, cuz I've got 400,000 denari...
Thrace is the faction for the next joint campaign of littlegannon and me:
We started off by taking Byzantium (it's the obvious target) and exterminated. Moved the army out of there immediately, leaving some peltasts and militia cav. Then marched up to Porolissum, took that, and moved on to Campus Iazyges. The faction has not been destroyed because it turns out those crazy Dacians have taken Aquincum, and they have also got a pretty good force in there. Campus Iazyges was sieged the turn after we captured it, by the Dacians. We'll wait for the relief force, some of those kick-ass falxmen, and then break out.
It's been fun so far.
Excuse me for asking a question here Craterus. I don't mean to intrude, but...how does one conduct a joint campaign?Originally Posted by Craterus
Rotorgun
Onasander...the general must neither be so undecided that he entirely distrusts himself, nor so obstinate as not to think that anyone can have a better idea...for such a man...is bound to make many costly mistakes
Editing my posts due to poor typing and grammer is a way of life.
Well, we start campaigns round each others houses (in real life), and continue them whenever he comes round, or I go round to his.
So far, we've done: Spain, Britannia, Julii and now Thrace. We started Dacia, but never really continued it..
Sounds like fun. I thought that you both played on different computers, and just used the same strategic moves, but then I'm sure it wouldn't take long for the outcomes to diverge too much. I sure would like to see an online multiplayer mode for the imperial campaign, allowing for each player to resolve any battles as in the current multiplayer system. Don't you agree?Originally Posted by Craterus
Rotorgun
Onasander...the general must neither be so undecided that he entirely distrusts himself, nor so obstinate as not to think that anyone can have a better idea...for such a man...is bound to make many costly mistakes
Editing my posts due to poor typing and grammer is a way of life.
Online Imperial Campaign, just like you asked...
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=54704
Goodness, just saw Seamus' post about EB taking my soul, and goodness, I think it really has. I haven't posted here for an eternity. Anyhow. I'm on MM now, but I've finally discovered the beauty of Thrace when I tried a sample campaign for myself. Nothing could stand against my Hoplite-falxmen combinations. Ranged troops were just plain annoying since I was up against light lancers, whose horses simply ran down my peltasts thrown out on the flanks with the hippakontistes a la Gaugamela. But the peltasts bought enough time for me to bring up the falxes in reserve and give seven kinds of hell to the light lancers. Nasty. Bet no one's ever seen 2 units of falxes rout 5 6 units of light lancers double-unitedly ever. :-D Beautiful. By turn 15 I had the eastern Balkans. If there's one grouse I have it's that the falxmen die really too quickly. 3-7-0 is a sure recipe for fast kills.
...Well it was, till I applied my hitpoints mod to the entire export_descr_units.txt file.
EB DEVOTEE SINCE 2004
Bookmarks