Rome: Total Peace

[Kraellin]

i'm currently playing as Spain, having done the edit of files to add all the factions as playable. i also tried the guys over on the right side of the map, but didnt like playing that one all that much and i wanted to play one that had been classified as 'unplayable'.

apparently, CA has listened to all the cries for modding. about the only thing 'unplayable' about the unplayable factions is that you wont see their territory on the menu display map when you choose their faction. the unlocked playable factions show up their territories, but the 'unplayable' dont. but that's about the only thing that doesnt work. even the unplayables have an intro movie, so looks like CA pretty much planned for our mods in more ways than one.

as you start going through the files of the game you'll see that they've planned for our modding even more than i had anticipated. i mean, there's a LOT of stuff in there.

but, that wasnt what i wanted to tell you, really. as spain you start with four cities, 4 armies, 1 spy and 1 diplomat on the iberian peninsula. but, you dont own all the provinces there. one is owned by the gauls and one by carthage. i didnt find any rebel cities there at all, which was a bit of a surprise. ok, fair enough, this seems like a decent start for a faction and the obvious first strategy is, take the entire peninsula. however, your cites are spread out, quite far away from each other, making putting together a good attack army a bit difficult, so i decided to take a different approach.

you'll find at least one of your cites in kind of poor shape. if you raise taxes your population growth will go negative, so you're income from that city is in the negative. the other cities are ok, but nothing to really crow about. so, first, i had to build up the cities. now, someone had a thread in here about farms, are they necessary. i'm here to tell you that sometimes they are not only needed, but that they're flat out imperative, as in the case of this one city that was hurting.

because i was spending so much money trying to build up the cities, i had little for armies. so, with my thinking going mostly towards money production, i simply decided to try a different strategy. i started selling whatever i could to other factions, alliances, maps, treaties and anything else i could. in one turn i finally accumulated enough money to convince the gauls to give me the central city of the peninsula. a few turns later i managed, with MUCH negotiation, to buy capula in the south from carthage! i've also bought out one rebel army and am working on another rebel army with an heir.

now, buying cities like this can be dangerous if you dont have an army right ready to take over the city. when you buy the city, the old army moves out, but are right next to your new city. the risk is that you've just paid all this money for the city but have no way to protect it yet. the old standing army could just march back in, take the city and your money. to prevent this, i try to make deals that involve delayed payments. this is one of the very nice new things with the game in the diplomacy area.

so, i bought the cities, the standing armies vacated, and the standing armies did not attack. in fact, they marched back to their respective homes. this was rather fascinating to me and showed a level of sophistication i'd not seen before in TW games and the AI's.

so, i'm now wondering if i couldnt play the entire game like this, make money, and buy the world! :) i have had zero battles so far and own all of the iberian peninsula. shld be interesting to see if it's possible.

oh yeah.... no annoying senate telling me what to do either :)

K.

[Thoros of Myr]

Hahah, very nice!

I played a campaign with Spain yesterday and came to the conclusion that militarily they were in a real bind. It's amazing what you can now accomplish with the diplomacy alone.

[Oaty]

The Gauls were'nt being nice the just needed a little extra to take on Rome. Let's see Rome takes it by agreesiion or Spain Takes it donating to the treasury.

[Thoros of Myr]

I've been trying to play Spain (Hard/Medium) and always after 7-10 turns the Julii show up with huge powerful armies that I can't even come close to attacking and usually can't bribe them either becuase they send family members that won't accept bribes. What's worse is the Guals always take this opportunity to backstab me with 1-2 full stack armies after I moved whatever armies I could over to the fight the Julii. I offered Carthage 8000g to attack the Julii and they still refused. If I go straight for a large army to combat the romans and guals my economy is nearly crippled even with 2000g+ each turn from diplomacy.

[Soulflame]

See this thread to add maps to the selection screen for the normally unplayable factions, as well as add descriptions and a portrait for them.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...hlight=faction

[Kraellin]

thoros,

not sure what difficulty level you're playing at, but it might make a difference. i wanted a relatively easy time of it, so i'm just playing on medium/medium. also, timing might be everything on this. i tended to try my bribes while the gauls and carthaginians were at war with rome. this gives them extra money to fight the romans and thus might be keeping the romans smaller than in your game. the only romans i've seen so far are one diplomat. that's it and i've played more turns than what you're saying.

oh, just read your post again. you're playing hard/medium, so that could be it. you'd be getting less money than in my game. it could also be just a random factor where 'luck' went against you, but favored me in this game.

i think i'll try the britons next. they shld be a bit easier to defend. or maybe i'll try spain again on your settings, thoros, and see if i get the same problem.

i definitely like that CA made this so much easier to mod. it gives a lot of variety to this game.

K.

[Orda Khan]

Beat me to it Soulflame
Yes that mod works well, map location, description and portraits ( for the majority )
Kraellin, are you still playing with Ben Johnson units or have you slowed 'em down?

.......Orda

[Underhand]

Heh. I used to do that on Civilisation II. Make tons of money, buy your enemies' cities and watch them smash their armies on the defenses they once owned. Bit of a game-breaker, since it was so effective.

[Praylak]

in one turn i finally accumulated enough money to convince the gauls to give me the central city of the peninsula. a few turns later i managed, with MUCH negotiation, to buy capula in the south from carthage! i've also bought out one rebel army and am working on another rebel army with an heir.
K.

That's so cool. I'm really curious Kraellin, do you recall how much it cost to buy these cities, and how much were they developed? Like level 1 or level 2 structures?

Also what influence level was your diplomat, and could you elaborate a bit on what you mean by "much negotiation"? Take allot of attempts you mean?

[Hosakawa Tito]

So Krae, what buildings do you have to construct for your units of Lawyers & Accountants?

Kraellin's Faction Leader: "Never mind the Cavalry, send in the Legionnary Lawyers Cohort, and out flank them barbarians with the Accountants & Real Estate Battalion."

[Krosword]

I'll wait for you to try to buy Rome!!! :D Wouldn't that be a riot! How much you reckon it's worth?

[Axeknight]

So Krae, what buildings do you have to construct for your units of Lawyers & Accountants?

Kraellin's Faction Leader: "Never mind the Cavalry, send in the Legionnary Lawyers Cohort, and out flank them barbarians with the Accountants & Real Estate Battalion."

But seriously, there is no way the Dacian Barristers wore that kind of pinstripe suit. And the Macedonian Bankers' Cavalry are waaaay overpowered. What's with all these fantasy units, CA?

[Colovion]

If you send the Screeching Women in to negotiate with the "Pleasurable Bribers" trait you can get a really good deal - especially with the straight edge Julii; they're just dying to try new things.

[Kraellin]

hehe, dont know what levels my diplomats are/were. i dont pay much attention. the cities were both 'small towns', i believe, so level 2 buildings, on both cities, i believe. the long negotiation was somewhat because i was trying to keep from overpaying, so i just kept working up the price in each re-nogotiation attempt. i also found some clues about how to negotiate and interpret their answers. they'll give one answer that basically says we want more money up front and not most of it in long term payments, because we dont trust you. another basically tells you that they want more money, period. you start to get a feel for what the answers mean the more you play.

as for the costs of the cities, i paid about 8k for the central city and about 12-15k for the southern one. one city had about 9 buildings already built and the other had about 4-6 built. i made a bit of a mistake in my bargaining for the southern one and could prolly have paid a bit less.

i've been building the city money production up first, in all cities. i'm also building up my diplomats and spies and ships. these are my eyes and ears so i dont get surprised by an invading fleet somewhere. so, i've got a network around the entire peninsula. this saves me having to build up armies and army buildings. as the network expands, i'm sending diplomats and ships out to find rebel cities, which i'll also buy. spies i simply spy on most everything to raise their skills for when i really need them.

because i'm playing a money game and not an army game, i'll also conserve on where i build certain buildings. osca gets a stockade, since it borders france and the rest of the mainland. the central city i'll prolly make my capital and build up all buildings and generate my main armies from there. not sure, though, the northwestern city is VERY well protected. it has a small pass leading to it and that's the only way in, so very defensible.

my current strategy has just changed a bit. the carthaginians are under siege from every roman faction. they are all at war with carthage. this opens up the possibility of taking cathaginian cities fairly easily. i'm currently sending ships and diplomats and spies to check out the situation. i might invade. i might buy them out, or offer them a protectorship, or maybe even ally with them to keep rome from being too powerful, but all this is pending on first finding out what's going on out there.

so, all in all, this has been an interesting faction to play. oh, and one last note, make forts at key places, particularly at choke points. this can save you a TON of hassles and give you time to protect your cities better in case of an invasion.

K.

[Kraellin]

oh, and to the person who asked, yes, i did mod the unit movement speed in tactical, but playing the way i am, i havent had to use it yet ;)

K.

[Thoros of Myr]

I'm going to restart Spain on medium. On hard you always get invaded hardcore by Julii and then gual backstabs.

[Tamur]

Wow, this sounds like a blast, well done! I've been playing Hard/Hard with the Macedonians but they're still doable without a heavy emphasis on diplomacy. Will have to give Spain a go for fun.

[Kraellin]

my kingdom expands! i've still not had one battle and i own two more cities now, both formerly gaul cities. i'm also close to negotiating a deal with the numidians for another.

the gauls have made a few overtures towards invading, but a well placed fort in a choke point discouraged that and they left.

the julii have also become curious and landed a small contingent on my shores. so, being a good trader, i sold them map information for about 6000 denari and bought one of the gaul cities with it :) i also bribed one of the julii armies out of existence to keep things sociable.

this is getting so interesting that now, if i have to actually fight anyone, even if i win, i'll take it as a failure on the part of my diplomats. ah, donald trump would be proud of me. i'm a roman corporate raider ;)

K.

[desdichado]

Kraellin
"the julii have also become curious and landed a small contingent on my shores. so, being a good trader, i sold them map information for about 6000 denari and bought one of the gaul cities with it :) i also bribed one of the julii armies out of existence to keep things sociable".


this is hilarious. have tended to ignore diplomacy because of the effort of moving diplomats around but now can't wait to get home and start cranking up production.

So how many provinces do you own now Krae?

[R'as al Ghul]

my current strategy has just changed a bit. the carthaginians are under siege from every roman faction. they are all at war with carthage. this opens up the possibility of taking cathaginian cities fairly easily. i'm currently sending ships and diplomats and spies to check out the situation. i might invade. i might buy them out, or offer them a protectorship, or maybe even ally with them to keep rome from being too powerful, but all this is pending on first finding out what's going on out there.
K.

Hey Kraellin,

great hilarious thread. I read in another thread that you play this as an campaign only atm and autocalc all battles.
That's the same thing I'm doing at the moment. It's my style of play since STW. I start to explore the campaign map until I know everything. Only then do I play the 3D battles. In STW this took me only 1 day, in MTW a week but in RTW it will take a month, I reckon. There's so much to discover, it's absolutely fantastic. I guess it takes my agents years to explore the whole map. There are regions in my world I never even heard about yet, factions I haven't even seen an agent from. In fact I have no idea what's going on in the world and it will take a while to change that. Amazing.
I have only played about 6 hours since Monday and have barely scratched the surface. Diplomats are great, bargaining is fun. Built my first assassin yesterday and will give him orders this evening.
Question: Any roaming armies on your territory or can you use the chokepoint in North-Spain to keep them out?

R'as

[RJV]

Hi,

Probably me being thick, but how do you sell map information? Is it simply a case of going into the negotiation screen and Offering Map Info, while at the same time Demanding a lump sum?

Cheers,

Rob.

[Thoros of Myr]

Hi,

Probably me being thick, but how do you sell map information? Is it simply a case of going into the negotiation screen and Offering Map Info, while at the same time Demanding a lump sum?

Cheers,

Rob.

Yes.


One thing I have noticed about this and a Q for anyone who knows...When you constantly sell map info to a faction turn after turn why does a message pop up sometimes saying "Transgression!" while a person being whipped/beaten SFX plays and the faction issues you a warning?

What's the trangression? It doesnt explain it in game. After all they were dumb enough to buy the map right?

[Tamur]

hi Thoros,

It appears that reselling map information to a faction IS in fact recognised by the faction as bad behaviour, in the same way that gifting cash to a faction over and over is considered "undiplomatic" (and hence gives you a Transgression warning). I've had three players report that they were removed from their alliances because they tried to resell map information to their allies.

Basically, I think it lowers your standing with a faction when you resell map info to them. If your standing gets low enough through that, then you'll either 1) get booted out of any alliance you have with them, and/or 2) become a target for invasion.

[mfberg]

Basically, I think it lowers your standing with a faction when you resell map info to them. If your standing gets low enough through that, then you'll either 1) get booted out of any alliance you have with them, and/or 2) become a target for invasion.

Useful information, maybe I'll try getting factions to attack me by selling map information.

mfberg

[Kraellin]

yes, i get the occaisonal army wandering or standing around in my territory. usually, i can either bribe them or they simply go away. however, it IS annoying that one can use a diplomatic solution of 'hey, you bloody invader, you have NO military access rights! didnt you see the no hunting, fishing or tresspassing signs we posted at the borders?'. this is the ONE missing diplomatic function that is REALLY needed!

i also find it a bit annoying that i cant offer bribes at times. this is usually when there is a family member in the offending army/unit. i suppose one of their v&v's is honesty or something, so the choice to 'bribe' doesnt come up. i'd have preferred that the option showed and when attempted i just got some indignant response, but, oh well.

i also find i annoying that i cant choose how many units will remain active when i attempt to bribe. the game just says captain so and so will join your faction and one other unit. the rest will return to wherever. what a strange thing to do. and it seems quite random how many units will remain and how many will disband. on cities, when bribing the entire city, ALL units disband! hey, wait a minute, i NEED those guys to quell the unrest created by turning over the city! and trust me, i've lost several cities on the next turn by rebelling cities. if i've got the money, let me buy at least some city militia to keep the populace under control during the bribe. i mean, come on; we all know the city is going to be ill at ease over new ownership and we shld be able to at least bribe a few peasants to keep order for a turn or two.

as for keeing out new wandering armies, i've found that forts at the choke points do a pretty good job. the armies i've seen heading for my territory come up to the forts, have a look around, mabye stay for a turn or two and then wander away again. i do have one carthaginian army that's been hanging around corduba for ages, but he's the army that got kicked out of the city when i bought it and he seems pretty much attached to staying there. it's also got a family member in it, so i cant bribe him gone. i did manage to get him to move a bit when i broke an alliance with numidia when carthage and numidia went to war together, but i forced the peace by re-allying with numidia and the carthaginian army in my territory decided all was cool and took up residence again. so, being a good diplomat, i let him sit there and park a diplomat next to him and that army is now my 'embassy' with carthage. when you get lemons, make lemonade, i guess :)

meanwhile, i've been cheating like crazy, giving myself money, population, new buildings and attempting to 'create_unit'. havent figured out how to do that last one yet. the whole idea here is to set up a game using the cheats to get spain how i want it and i was just too lazy to mod all the files i would need to do this. so, i just started over and used the cheat codes to get things in order. i've got all the cities in spain and couple remote provinces i bought and increased the size of Numantia, the central city and made it my capital, so i'm about ready to 'play fair' now.

i dont play a great deal every day, so all this is taking a bit of time to set up. the world is mostly at peace with the romans being constantly at war with greece and carthage, as normal and a few other wars going on for a short time here and there. the julii did try to take one of my remote provinces, but i bought out the armies and they then accepted a ceasefire. amazing what a little money can do :)

K.