RTW shines if you play AGAINST Rome!

[Longasc]

Well, I want to explain why.

The Romans field right from the start quality Infantry. Even the pretty basic Hastatii beat Gallic Spearmen, Germanic Spearmen and Hoplites hands down.

The same applies to early Carthaginian Infantry types.

I am playing Carthage right now, and just let me describe how I fought against the Romans:

I used Cavalry units. Except Elephants and good ranged Attackers, nothing can really wreck Havoc upon a Roman Army.

The Julian Faction Leader landed with Triarii and Hastatii on Caralis / Sardinia, and it took me considerable effort of Hasdrubal and two Round Shield Cav plus some Town Milita to

a.) charge, charge, charge, kill & rout the enemy troops, especially the high powered Triarii

b.) Kill the Roman General who had 8 stars or so command rating.

c.) The Roman Infantry was heavily mauled by every charge, but they recovered and paid back at least somewhat.


Now I always said, Cavalry is too strong. I still say this is true. But you cannot do without Cav, Elephants and Archer Units as Carthage, because your Infantry is not able to shift the battle in your favor against the Romans.

The Romans have weaker Cavalry, but this is why they are so strong: Their Cav is not so much worse against foot troops. Plus their Troops are superior in general, often they have better Generals, too.

Just take a look at the Demo, Trebia Battle. Sacred Band Cav owns Roman Cav, but they are the very end of the tech tree, the Roman Cavalry (+Equites) fares well compared to the Large/Round shield cav of Carthage.

While Rome totally owns most surrounding factions due to many quality units and quality Generals, Carthage relies on fewer superb Generals and, quite historical, on Cavalry to swing the tide of battle. Elephant Tanks are of course still overpowered, even if Rome has many other advantages.


So far playing Carthage is much more fun than playing the Julii.

I would say, try the Scipii or Brutii, the Julii have too easy enemies early on (Gauls, Dacians, Germanians perhaps).

The harder Campaign makes me forget some balancing gripes and is much more enjoyable so far.

[Jambo]

what difficulty levels do you play on? I found the Julii campaign on VH/H particularly tricky as I ended up getting triple-teamed by the Gauls, Dacians and the Britons who had all allied together. It was my first campaign and therefore I did make some fairly costly mistakes.

I'm now trying as Scipii (VH/H) and although Sicily was easy to take straight away, I got savaged by elephants whilst besieging Carthage. This has put me back several turns and to compound matters, the Numidians have just laid siege to my otehr city just south of Carthage. Despite that, as the Scipii, one's borders seem to be much better protected than the Julii and it seems easier to tech up and earn money through trade. I'll see how I fair as a more experienced player.

[discovery1]

The Romans field right from the start quality Infantry. Even the pretty basic Hastatii beat Gallic Spearmen, Germanic Spearmen and Hoplites hands down.

What? Even urban cohorts get destroyed in a frotal attack against regular(not levy) pikemen.

[Orda Khan]

Most of my time on TW has been MP and I will admit to being a campaign noob and my campaign is normal/hard. I never felt inclined to use a Roman faction and I am currently campaigning as Scythians. Talk about skint!! and just when I actually started making some money my Thracian ally decides to attack. As they are already at war with Dacians I thought this was naive strategy and so far I've slaughtered everything they have sent into my realm. However I am all too aware of the fact that I am at the bottom of the tech tree ladder, making no money and stand the risk of my armies being slowly eroded. Still, it is fun watching my Scythian horse archers

.......Orda

[lars573]

^He's talking about Carthage where you don't get a phanlanx type unit until pheoni infantry. Carthaginian infantry units go
town militia
iberian infantry
libyan infantry
pheoni infantry
sacred band infantry

Libyan spearmen are the first decent footman unit that carthage gets and that's not until minor city with it's barracks type. Iberain swordsmen are useless going up against even hastati, as they have only a small shield and leather armour. The only thing there good for is chasing down skirmishers.

[Basileus]

1 of the best factions to play is Seleucid, try it and you´ll see

oh and Carthage of course heh

[Longasc]

I do not know Jambo, i played Hard/Hard.

But regardless of setting, I think the Julii have an easier time as the Scipii -> facing Carthage's more dangerous unit mix

or the Brutii -> hmm... the Greeks are probably more dangerous, but they have rich cities.

BTW, can someone explain me WHY the Brutii always get so quickly so goddamn rich??

[bighairyman]

Because Greece is rich? After extermination, each of the 12< Greek and Macedonian cities will give around 1000--3000 denariis per turn. In my Brutii game, i have over 700000 Denarii, and it's only about 230B.C.