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Thread: frogbeastegg's Guide to Rome: Total War and the Barbarian Invasion

  1. #31
    Rock 'n' Roll Will Never Die Member Axeknight's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Yay for the Frog! I've read a bit, the rest is on hard drive so I can read at leasure.

    Hate to be pedantic, but Arretium, not Arrentium. Um... yeah, that's all. Once again, great guide Froggy

  2. #32

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Thanks, Axeknight. Fixed.

    Right, that should be everything from this thread that does not require a new section of some sort. Anything requiring a new section is in the next update, along with most of my own changes. The guide should be mostly error free now. Should. :crosses fingers and hopes: A lot of the vague bits have been cleaned up too; there are a few left, but nowhere near as many as before.

    The guide is actually worth reading now, unlike the unfihsed mess it was before. I am willing to bet this means patch 1.2 will appear shortly, say within a week or so, making half of this invalid.

    The beginner's part of the guide is met, so now I'm looking to add in the intermediate and advanced type stuff I had in the MTW guide. That should begin appearing from the next update onwards.

    I'm going to take the rest of the day off
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  3. #33

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Great guide!
    Ja-mata TosaInu

  4. #34
    Protecting the border fort Member Chimpyang's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Here's something for the wedge formation :

    Cavalry when put into wedge formation stay in wedge formation even after they enter combat, so as soon as the initial charge is over, take them off wedge and then

    1. Take them OUT of combat
    2, Leave them there.

    I've had just the point guy of the wedge fighting off all of the enemy unit because of the wedge formation, i'm not too sure about what kind of bonus this gives the cav, probably the charge bonus to the tuneof +1 or +2 or summat.

    Btw try it.........i havent played RTW for a day now and since it's half term i'm not remmbering much.....

  5. #35

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    A bit of an update about trade.

    It seems (at least) some cities are hard-wired to trade with certain other cities.

    Upgrading the port will not do you any good if you are at war with the port citys' trade-partner. I noticed this while at war with the Romans; capture a town with dockyard and check trade; one trade route listed where there is supposed to be three...the other routes did not come "on board" until I captured the proper cities from the Romans.

    I have checked through some of the files in RTW, but cannot find anything that tells me what cities will trade with each other.

    Another thing...distance seems to have no relationship to profit of trade routes.
    Ja-mata TosaInu

  6. #36
    Cynic Senior Member sapi's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Excellent guide.....now, i just need another day of my life to finish off the next 75 pages.....:)
    From wise men, O Lord, protect us -anon
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  7. #37

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Thanks for the latest corrections, suggestions and comments. I've beentaking a semi holiday from working on this guide so I have been neglecting this topic for a bit. When you start seeing coding for chapter heading in your sleep you know it is time for a break

    The more I hear about the 1.2 patch the more I think leaving any real updates until after that patch arrives is a good thing. AI overhauls, squalor alterations, working protectorates, plus many tweaks, fixes and alterations - that's going to change an awful lot. The patch is also supposed to be out relatively soon, according to a CA post on .com.

    I think I shall let things hang until after 1.2; I shall fix up a few errors I have spotted, block out some new sections and add in the information I have found but aside from that I will do nothing much. I can't see much point in fine tuning things for 1.1 when 1.2 is probably going to arrive within a month, if not sooner.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  8. #38
    Member Member Owen's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    A superb guide yet again Frogbeastegg. Nice. I especially wish I'd read this before I decided to choose to just take Carthage rather than enslave it.

    After my first weekend of playing RTW, I came up with a a few points, which you can change if you feel like it once 1.2 is out (number refers to the section number in your guide):

    4. (Stabilise your existing lands) "bring" should read "bribing"

    5. If your population change goes negative, the symbol goes red and has a minus sign. This usually happens when plague hits a city

    7. Adoption. Adopted captains stay at the head of the army where they just won a battle and became "The man of the moment", they don't appear in your capital

    14. Missiles. With deep ranks, inexperienced Hastati (and Principes etc.) will take a lot of losses from friendly fire. Use their alternative attacks (so that they don't use the pila) or spread them out. Against outnumbered armies of Gallic clansmen, who can rout without being charged, the Hastati can sometimes take fewer casualties from the Gauls than from a javelin the back.

    War dogs are better than cavalry for chasing down infantry routers. They seem to be even quicker, and the new moves for cavalry mean they aren't quite as good chasing infantry from the field. EDIT: After a bit more testing, I find that war dogs aren't always quick enough to take down routing fresh light infantry. They are otherwise excellent though.

    Siege items can take less than one turn to make, it depends on how many build points your army has per turn. (Sorry I can't be more definite than that).

    Oh, and the screenshots don't seem to work for me.


    Given quite how exhaustive this guide is, I think that's a pretty short list. Thanks.
    Last edited by Owen; 11-09-2004 at 10:31.

  9. #39
    Tired Old Geek Member mfberg's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Navies:

    Retraining in cities with blacksmith/armourer gives armour/weapon bonuses
    Ships with fewer than 6 men sink instead of retreating from battle (just like the disappearing small units on land, but with a nice little gurgling sound and a circular wave surrounding the sinking ship if it is the only ship left).

    Admiral Command Bug
    Quote Originally Posted by Sinner
    The bug is that unlike Generals, Admirals don't gain/lose Command rating for winning/losing battles. You need to edit a text file to fix the bug as described in this thread.
    I hope they fix this in 1.2

    mfberg
    It is not complete until the overwieght female vocalizes.

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    Brain : The same thing we do every night Pinky. Try to take over the world!

  10. #40

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Owen, mfberg, thanks. As ever I'm working on the suggestions slowly.

    What do the screenshots look like to you, Owen? Are they little totalwar.org logos? If so then you need to enable refers; either your browser or your firewall have them blocked. The location of this setting varies from program to program and I know some, like zonealarm pro, call refers 'private header information' instead. I shall add a note about this to the front of the guide.

    If that's not your problem then please let me know.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  11. #41
    War Story Recorder Senior Member Maltz's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    There are so many good tips across so many forums, and I tried to collect some of them. Hope they are not too repetitive, and some of them are actually useful to this guide

    1. Army/Town/Agent List

    Right click on the Army/Town/Agent tab (center down of the screen) brings you a list of them. You can also sort the army by its size, towns by its public order, and agent by its type. Useful to identify free agents who hasn't moved.

    2. Sell maps

    Selling maps (offer map information + demand single payment) brings in very good cash at the early game. Every clan will buy it. Map sale and can be done every subsequent turn with a small amount as well - more than enough for diplomat's own salary.

    3. Double Tribute Duration

    When the AI offers to pay a certain tribute for 2 turns, ask the same amount for 4 and it usually agrees.

    4. Navy

    In higher difficulties there is no point even to attempt naval dominance. AI builds so many ships and they can easily win in auto-calculation anyways. While AI does not blockades ports often, and never attacks ships docked in their own port (unless being in the vincinity of another battle), we can just use ports as jump points for safe army transfer.

    5. Primary target at the beginning

    Small rebel towns are good to grab at the beginning, but not as sweet as your neighbor's BIG towns. This way, you not only beef up yourself with capital-grade cities, but also cripple your most significant enemy in the immediate future. Advancing the rich lands/city early makes your faction strong way faster. Here are a list of not-so-obvious primary target for some factions:

    Armania: Parthia
    Dacia/Thrace: Macedon -> Greek cities -> Rome
    Germania: Julii -> Rome
    Numidia: Carthage -> Brutii -> Scipii -> Rome
    Carthage: Brutii -> Scipii -> Rome

    Get ready to leave cross-swords on the ground!

    6. Garrison

    Garrison maximally contribute to 80% public order. The quality of garrison troops does not matter. Peasants are the most cost-effective garrison in rather peaceful regions.

    7. Squalor

    Squalor is only related to population number (6000, 8000, 12000, etc.), not to population growth rate. A fast growth only makes squalor problem emerge faster. To cut squalor you need to plan your city carefully early on - i.e. if it has a high growth rate, you want to start with a low population when you occupy it. You know what that means.

    If your city already has a fast growth rate, don't ever bother build farms and health buildings.

    The most important factor affecting growth rate is the farming factor. Some cities also import food adding to the food supply. There are some known cities with HUGE growth rate like 7% plus:

    - Carthage city
    - All Egyptian towns

    Extermination feels great - they will grow back in no time anyways.

    You can see how many people you will exterminate when you get to choose occupy/enslave(50% gone)/exterminate(75% gone), by moving the cursor on the option. If you can exterminate 6000, the city currently has 8000. Exterminate is the main way to go in mid-late game.

    8. Cultural penalty

    Cultural penalty exists in any 2 incompatible cultures. Here are the compatibility list (0 cultural penalty):

    Group I: Romans. SQPR, Julii, Brutii & Scpii.
    Group II: Greeks. Greek cities, Macedon, Thrace, the Selucid empire.
    Group III: Barbarians: Gauls, Germania, Britania, Dacia, Spain
    Group IV: Africans: Carthage, Numidia, Egypt(? not sure)
    Group V: Easterns: Parthia, Armania, Scythia, Pontus

    For cultures that are compatible it is not really necessary to exterminate their towns especially in the early game. You will not have public order trouble.

    Max. cultural penalty is 50%. This penalty is calculated by the ratio of buildings of the previous culture and buildings of the current culture. Government building counts for 25%, though. Temples are not the only factor that contributes to culture penalty, and is only a tiny bit of the solution. If anything can be built is built and there are still cultural penalty, you might want to hammer down some previous buildings and rebuilt them in your own model.

    9. Retinue transfer

    You can transfer retinues when family members are in the same place at the same time. Simply hold the left botton and drag them to the picture of the recipient family member. There is a maximum of 8 retinues one can have. Categorize your retinues to maximize the ability for the military commander and influential huge city manager can be very beneficial. Governer's influence raise public order 5% per influence point.

    When your family member gets old, you might want to retire them into a city and transfer their retinues to the next generation. Retinues never die, but they are buried alive with their dead host.

    10. Virtue and Vices

    A governer gains virtue and vices from whatever they do and don't do: on the battlefield, the presence or a new building in their city, or the lack thereof.

    Now comes the rumor on the street: If the movement of the governer is not full, he will not gain any virtue/vice in that turn. I haven't verified it personally though.

    11. 50k treasury

    After your treasury exceeds 50k, your family member starts to receive negative financial traits.

    12. Cavalry charge

    Cavalry charge is best used to charge as a support unit, on the flank/rear. This way the cavalry will face little casaulty and cause huge moral penalty.

    13. Luring the enemy

    On the battlefield it is useful to "back off" to lure a small portion of enemy units deep into your formation. This way, by the time you surround and kill them, the rest of the enemy troops can't rescue them in time. Then you can proceed the charges and rout the rest of the enemy.

    14. Movement & funny fast motion

    Hold the space bar to make agents/army move fast. If they have depleted the movement and you still click on them, you can see funny fast-motion agents.

    15. Stone castle siege

    Ladders won't appear in castles with large/epic stone walls, only on regular walls. Never go through the front gate without occupying it first - the oil will burn you badly.

    16. Sally cheats (don't use it if you don't like cheating :p)

    (a) When you sally from the castle and you have a significantly weaker army than the AI, you can simply lure the AI to rush towards the gate. They will stay there to become neat body rows. AI will retreat as a whole when its power becomes significantly weaker than yours.

    (b) As a defender you can sally many times in a given turn. Replenished arrows!

    (c) As an attacker(sieger) you can "refuse" to fight a sallying army by "Esc" then "Exit Battle" right after the battle starts. This way you can starve out any city with any kind of army.

    17. Occupy settlement in 1 turn

    If there is a free stack just outside the enemy, just attack this free stack and elminate the reinforcement that comes from the settlement garrison. Then you can simply occupy the empty settlement in the same turn.

    18. Agents blocks path

    You can sit an agent on any narrow path to block enemy army. It would be also possible to "stuck it" with 2 of your agents from both sides. (evil)

    Another way to block path is to use forts, but it has been reported that AI do attack forts sometimes.

    19. Hostile ally

    If you see an ally march an army into your territory, it is going to attack you 100%. Bribe it early if you want to avoid breaking alliance, or just kill them.

    20. Dealing the alliance

    Sometimes the AI will not accept an alliance easily. This is because they don't feel the urgent need to ally with you although it might be obvious to you. The following conditions makes it easier to deal an alliance:

    - You constantly have friendly & successful diplomatic relationship with them (such as selling them updated maps every turn). I suppose this increase the "friendship factor" over time.

    - Their enemy is also your enemy.

    - You don't share a long border with them, so you are not their primary target.

    - Your diplomatic reputation is good. You don't attack neutral clans often and don't break up alliances.

    Sometimes you can't ask for alliance if the target clan is at war with one of your allies. Sometimes you can. Perhaps it matters who is the war declarer?

    21. Income from tax

    Trade is important, but especially for the poor nations in the higher difficulty, it is TAX that brings in 70% of the income in the critical early game. So you probably don't want to over exterminate at the beginning.

    22. Mercenary Crete archers / Rhode slingers

    They are very good shooters - long range and high attack. You can hire them in the vincinity of Crete island (just below the Aegean sea) and Rhode (right east of Crete, below present-day Turkey). Excellent for sieges!

    23. Stamina recovers in battle

    All units recovers stamina slowly when leaving idle in battle. (In STW they will eventually become tired even if standing idle.) As the attacker it is sometimes useful to first wipe out the enemy reinforcement in a rush, rest a while and then go for the rest.

    Oh yes - divide and conquer. If you always create a local advantage you can never lose any battle.

    24. Wardogs & keepers

    Wardogs will keep attacking the next victim once set loose by their keepers. If the keepers survive the battle, they will immediately regenerate new dogs after the battle. Each keeper is responsible for 4 dogs. You can retrieve the keepers after the dogs are loose to protect their lives.

    25. Grouping

    At the moment the grouping key/button is pressed, the units in the group will maintain the same conformation at this moment. Therefore, it is desirable to select them first, choose its destination and conformation, then press group bottom. Or you will end up with awkward formations.

    While issuing orders in groups during a city assault, the units in the group usually move outside the gate - very annoying. It is better to issue orders to individual units no matter what.

    26. Space bar to see the projected army conformation

    You can press the space bar any time to see where the units will go and face during a battle.

    27. Pause & Right click to bring up unit stats.

    During a battle you can pause and right click on the unit card to see unit information. Before the battle starts, a simple right click will do.

    28. Unfriendly Diplomats

    Enemy diplomats love to bribe your diplomat, army and even city if they are rich enough. To prevent this from happening, either (a) bring a good assassin to the front line and kill them all (b) prepare some cash to bribe them before they bribe you.

    29. Avoid friendly fire

    Friendly fire kills a lot, especially if you leave missle units on "fire at will" and ignore them for too long. You can avoid most friendly fires by:

    (a) Turn off fire at will right before the melee units engage. You won't continue the morale penalty on enemy this way - so depends on how good your chances are. If you have a slim chance and routing the enemy fast is your only hope, then leave them firing.

    (b) Don't overlap another unit on a firing missle unit, or let them stand right in front of one. They will be shot in the back.

    30. Phalanx

    (I am not at all a phalanx expert so these are just opinions I collected.)

    (a) Phalanx are best used in vast quantity and advance like a long wall. This way the enemy has to come to your spears.

    (b) Must have flanking troops to rout the enemy and chase down the routers.

    (c) Turn off the guard mode to make phalanx fight better.

    (d) When moving, turn off the phalanx mode so they move fast and tire slowly.

    (e) Always issue a command way before the melee engagement so soldiers have time to lower their spears.

    (f) VH difficulty gives enemy units +7 bonus in melee attack, so your phalanx wall can't necessarily stop anything, even a cavalry charge head-on. I personally prefer to ignore phalanx as a whole to avoid frustration.

    (g) When issue the attack, don't give group orders because they will all turn and face that particular target unit. Instead give orders to each unit.

    31. Mt. Etna eruption

    Always happens on 261BC, on Sicily. Any army & agent close to the erupting volcano will be killed.

    32. Plauge in Macedon

    The starting capital of Macedon will contract a plague no matter what in about 255(?) BC.

    33. More about Plague

    Plagues will extinguish itself in about 6 turns, provided no new source has entered the city in the period. New source includes any agent or army that contradicted a plague, leaves and re-enters the city. So watch out carefully. Rumor is that health buildings shorten the plague period but there is no proof yet. They do help the population recover faster.

    Plague can also be spread purposely by a spy who has the ability to infiltrate another faction's settlement. All of the army/agent currently in the settlement will get the plague immediately.

    Any new unit, including ships, will contract the plague when they are trained in a plagued city. Rumor is that ships can never recover from plagues until all crews onboard die. It is possible to send a plague ship to another friendly port to spread the plague there, too.

    Plagues are actually GOOD when the population is growing out of control. You might want to purposely plague your huge cities to reduce squalor.

    34. Missle units stuck on the street

    You might sometimes find your missle units unable to move at all on the street. If you take their "skirmish mode" off they will be able to move again.

    35. Army upkeep

    Army upkeep is very expensive. If your finance is not going well, stop building soldiers at once.

    ***

    If I have more I will keep posting.

  12. #42

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Edited, revised etc. All suggestions added, all my extra bits and pieces added and so on.

    Thanks, Maltz. Some of that was new. Nicely layed out too, I could work from it at a glance.

    Aside from the currently missing new appendix B this is the completed guide for 1.1. No further changes will be made until the patch. I just have to finish editing the currently 64 page long new appendix
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  13. #43
    Member Member Owen's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Quote Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
    What do the screenshots look like to you, Owen? Are they little totalwar.org logos? If so then you need to enable refers; either your browser or your firewall have them blocked. The location of this setting varies from program to program and I know some, like zonealarm pro, call refers 'private header information' instead. I shall add a note about this to the front of the guide.

    If that's not your problem then please let me know.
    To be honest, I'm not sure what the problem is. I can see the title jpg and I can see the picture with the grain circled showing population growth due to farms, which I'm not sure I could see before, but everything else has the big red X. If the files haven't changed address on the server (which you might not notice since they would have remained in your cache), the only thing I can think of is that my browser is timing out too quickly, not giving the server long enough to send the files. I have no idea which it is, so I'd ignore me unless other people who haven't read the guide before complain as well.

  14. #44

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Owen, it is possible your browser is timing out. The guide takes about 20 seconds to fully load for me and I have a broadband connection. Well, to be honest you aren't missing much anyway, the pictures aren't that interesting.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  15. #45
    Member Member Owen's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Quote Originally Posted by frogbeastegg
    Owen, it is possible your browser is timing out. The guide takes about 20 seconds to fully load for me and I have a broadband connection. Well, to be honest you aren't missing much anyway, the pictures aren't that interesting.
    Assuming you've got 512kb/s, then downloading the page is probably at the forum end. I find it hard to believe that page with images is 10MB. I was trying to load it on a shared 2mb/s line, I think.

    Most likely the forum was just running slow at the time for some reason.

  16. #46
    Member Member Thaum's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Great guide. A really great guide. Thanks a lot. To all you guys who contributed.......

  17. #47

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    There is definitely a problem with the pictures; after clearing my cache out a few times they have vanished for me too. A few other people have also PMed me about this. I have no idea what is causing this, but investigation is under way with the aid of TosaInu.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  18. #48
    Nur-ad-Din Forum Administrator TosaInu's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Ja mata

    TosaInu

  19. #49

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Problem is fixed; so simple, so easy to overlook. When I corrected the Arretium typo I used Word's find and replace function and it altered the coding from the missing screenshots despite the fact it should not have. Heh, that's the problem with proofreading something you have written; you tend to read what you know you wanted instead of what you actually wrote.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  20. #50
    Member Member MrWhipple's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Great job!!! (as usual)
    Any chance of getting a printable version, like you did with MTW, when you get the kinks worked our? (please, please, please). This thing is so good, you could most likely sell adverts in it. Think about it.
    MTW it's not a game; it's a part time job.
    ---
    Any sufficiently advanced technology in indistinguishable from magic.
    -Arthur C. Clarke-


  21. #51

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    brillant guide!
    I just got the game yesterday and its helping me so much!

  22. #52
    Cynic Senior Member sapi's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    No, dont' think about it. Adverts are bad. Guide is good.
    From wise men, O Lord, protect us -anon
    The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions, a statistic -Stalin
    We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area -UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer

  23. #53
    Member Member pukey123's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Dear Frogbeast: I have just completed 50 odd pages of your fantastic Guide to Rome: Total War. Congratulations on a job well done. It is most enlightening and helpful - BUT - how does one remember everything, considering that I have yet another 30 or more pages to consume! I have only played first person shooters and this game will be my first attempt at what I call a truly strategy game.
    Do you have any suggestions on how to proceed in the game, given the wealth of information that I have to digest and remember.
    I will be most grateful for your advice. Thank you in advance.
    pukey123

  24. #54

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    I have to keep up with this topic better!

    Printable version is planned after the 1.2 update. This version still needs that final appendix, but editing 64 pages of dense text is proving very slow and tiring. Nearly every single line needs some work. Adverts aren't planned, but I did toy with the idea of setting up a paypal account so people could 'pay' me for my work if they wanted to. The idea never really got going.

    The best advice for a complete beginner is to start small and take things slowly. Practise your battle skills and get familiar with the units and interface in custom battles. You might find it helpful to play the tutorial campaign again, just for slow practise. Start your campaign games on normal/normal, as easy gives you bonuses that might actually make it harder for you to learn, and very hard stacks things very heavily in the AI's favour.

    Remember that RTW can be a very slow moving game; it is perfectly acceptable - common even - to have turns where you do very little. Unlike FPS type games you do not need to be constantly doing something.

    Each turn try to run through a mental checklist: check and use agents, check cities and set up any new build orders you might need, then finally check and use armies.

    Don't get discouraged if you lose a few battles or feel lost, or make so many mistakes things go pair shaped. It happens; it's the same kind of thing as accidentally fragging yourself with your own grenades.

    Perhaps start a campaign as the Julii (I find them easiest; Gaul has weaker armies on a per man/stat basis than you) and play around with no intention of winning. Then, when you feel you have a good understanding of how everything works and what you want to be doing start over, this time with serious intent.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  25. #55
    Urwendur Ûrîbêl Senior Member Mouzafphaerre's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    -
    Great work as always, from the resident amphibian of the ORG. Reading thrugh it was almost listening to good music.



    One stupid question from a MTW semi-vet who has not yet touched RTW: What about victory conditions? AFAICT from what I've read, this game is GA by default. (Great if so!)


    -
    Ja mata Tosa Inu-sama, Hore Tore, Adrian II, Sigurd, Fragony

    Mouzafphaerre is known elsewhere as Urwendil/Urwendur/Kibilturg...
    .

  26. #56

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    Hehe, nice smilies.

    Victory conditions are not similar to GA, but nor are they as simple as the old conquest victory. You have a choice of major or minor difficulty at the start of your campaign. Minor is more goal oriented than major.

    On major victory all factions must hold 50 provinces and Rome to win. The Roman factions must wipe out all the other Roman factions in addition to this.

    On minor victory all factions must hold 15 provinces and wipe out certain designated faction(s). The targets are unique for each faction, so the Julii need to wipe out the Gauls while the Brutii need to remove the Greeks and Macedonians.

    With major victory you can keep on conquering way past the 50 province target as long as you do not take Rome. If you leave Rome until last you can conquer the entire world. In minor you can leave one of your designated targets alive and ignore them to prolong the game.

    Throughout the game the Romans get missions given to the by the senate; this adds a bit more ... aim to their games.
    Frogbeastegg's Guide to Total War: Shogun II. Please note that the guide is not up-to-date for the latest patch.


  27. #57
    Urwendur Ûrîbêl Senior Member Mouzafphaerre's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    -
    Thanks.

    Both ways sound interesting to me.
    -
    Ja mata Tosa Inu-sama, Hore Tore, Adrian II, Sigurd, Fragony

    Mouzafphaerre is known elsewhere as Urwendil/Urwendur/Kibilturg...
    .

  28. #58

    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    I have one game where I am playing after 50 areas including Rome.

    I saved before taking Rome; you get a pop-up that says a few things (incl: :do you wish to continue?"; with no "yes/no" choice) at that point I hit escape and saved. Returned to Main Menu; only choice available and reloaded. Game continued on
    Ja-mata TosaInu

  29. #59
    Member Member Minimus's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    In another forum - from the RTW site I saw a sceenshot that had units exceeding the size they are made in - i.e. in one of the 20 slots that an army is composed of there were 108 cav - I will post a link on my next post - how do you get larger units

  30. #60
    Member Member Minimus's Avatar
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    Default Re: A Beginner's Guide to Rome: Total War

    photobucket.com/albums/v2...rebels.jpg

    the third screenshot shows the units

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