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

[Atreides]

Map: http://bbb.unknownnet.com/rtw/bestcap.htm

You can find tech trees in the game. (in the cities, just like you can find trade) --> see Guide.

A genaral more basic guide including general use of units: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/rome-total-war/551582p1.html

So enjoy: copy and past the url's .

[B1ueBa11]

I've found that a surefire way to get protectorates and military access is to give provinces. Especially those that used to belong to the nation you're dealing with. Lothar... What I would recommend for getting Mil access is that you load your army onto a ship and attack your ally's enemy's provinces (if at all possible) and then give those provinces to your ally in exchange for a military rights agreement. In my last game, I managed to get 3 protectorate nations and 4 military rights agreement using this technique. I think the AI sees provinces as having huge diplomatic value so they are more likely to accept if you offer one to them.

[Braden]

Another tour-de-force from you Froggbeast! I’m sure in time it will build to be just as comprehensive as the Medieval guide you produced (which was a complete Godsend to me for that game) and to be honest the only thing it really lacks is unit stats and breakdown.

Things you might want to add:

Troop Rally Point / Campaign Map:

Select a Settlement with left click & then hold Alt and Right Click elsewhere on the map nearby. This sets up a rally point for all trained units from that Settlements (Combat units and Agents). It’s possible to “stack” this at the same point (a map feature perhaps) as that from another nearby settlement so you can build an army in half the time with some micro-management.

It actually tells you this from the box that comes up from your pointer if you leave it stationary.

Keeping formation / Battle Map:

The guide states that you can’t move groups of units without them becoming a complete mess and I thought this at one point BUT I’ve found that if you don’t change the initial formation (which are usually quite good) you can advance an entire army forward by selecting all the units or groups of units and then simply single right clicking where you want them to go – check using spacebar and you’ll find the units remain completely in formation and do not clash.

I thought at first I’d have to move units individually as I was adjusting opening set-ups in line with my Medieval experience but as you don’t need to have archers spread thin and the like I stopped doing it.

This doesn’t help if you want to do fancy flanking moves but helps no-end on getting your army at least part way to a combat zone.

Shrines / Campaign Map / Settlements:

It might be worth also noting that once you’ve selected a type of deity you cannot change this unless you destroy that temple and you cannot add another deities temple in the same settlement. It appears that whatever shrine you use you are stuck with as the Settlement becomes dedicated to that deity. Example: If you erect a shrine to Bacchus the option to erect one for Jupiter and Ceres disappear and you must progress with temples etc of Bacchus only. This means that careful selection must be made from the very start when choosing a Deity for your settlements – and Bacchus isn’t the best for Julii long term.

[Viriato]

Congratulations for the guide.. It's nice and very useful. But I've a question. I don't understand really how I can debug the problem with Horse Archers ¿Could you help me?

[Franconicus]

I have a question:

How can I save game when I am in a running battle. Last night I was just about going to bed when those Macedonian attacked me. It was a huge battle and it took hours!! I am so tired today.

[Raijer]

Frogbeastegg, I just wanted to thank you with the deepest of gratitude for this guide. It has really helped me dig deep into the game, which in turn, has helped me enjoy it!

Thank you!!

[Franconicus]

I have a question about population; Is this just the male population (I know that in the old times women did not count)? I play with huge units and so there is a significant reduction of population in some of my production towns. And it seems that the populations goes to zero. What if I built female units (screaming women...). Does this reduce the population as well?

[frogbeastegg]

Yipes! More than past time I dropped by and answered a few things here. How time flies when you are insanely busy

Brittanicus, thanks. I shall try and remember to include a note about earthquakes somewhere.

Lochar, I think it is one of those 'game' things; the developers perhaps stretching one line of text a little too far because of lack of time/resources/space/whatever to add more suitable ones.

Franconicus, I'm a bit late on the first set of questions (thanks, Atreides), but I can field the more recent ones. It is not possible to save in a battle, only on the campaign map. It is a long standing grumble with the series, although there are people who like and support the current set up. Now, in the last itineration of the series (MTW's add-on, VI) CA added a little icon to the popup you get on the campaign map before a battle begins, the same one where you choose to fight yourself or hand over to the AI. Basically it was a save option; you could save your game just before the battle began. I do not know if this feature carried over into RTW, but logically it should have. Take a close look at the assorted icons on that battle pop-up next time you get one; you might find one offering you the chance to save.

Population is a very abstract figure; I'll spare you my rambling thoughts on what exactly it represents. Basically people come in one flavour: human. Each unit you build takes a certain number of people from a settlement, and regardless of the sex of that unit the people are subtracted from the same pool of population. So there are no seperate male and female recruiting pools. The amount of people taken from the population pool usually matches the number of people in the completed unit, so if a unit of peasants is 240 people on the battlefield it will take 240 people from the city when built. Population cannot drop to 0; you are not allowed to recruit any units if it would take the population below 400. That ensures there is always a pool of people from which the population can grow back. If you are recruiting so heavily you are encountering population problems (easy to do in some cities with the largest unit sizes) all you can really do is try to boost population growth. If the problem is getting very bad you can try spreading out your recruitment across several cities instead of just a few.

B1ueBa11, more to add to my diplomacy notes when I can. Thanks.

Braden, thanks.
Troop rally point: will add.
Moving units: this was altered significantly, and the for better, in 1.2. The first 3 posts of the guide have been edited to match this, but the last parts are still work in progress.
Temples: will add.

Viriato, I'm not much of a modder myself, and I have not edited my own copy of RTW to fix the problem, so I can't really explain any better. There were some topics with good instructions, but with the search function disabled I can't find them. So I recommend you head over to the RTW modding general forum and ask there. People will be happy to walk you through what is required.

Raijer, thank you.

[therother]

I don't understand really how I can debug the problem with Horse Archers ¿Could you help me?

See here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...2&postcount=66

If you don't fancy doing that by hand, I'd suggest installing player1's Bug-Fixer which fixes a number of confirmed bugs including the Horse Archers issue.

[Franconicus]

Mylady frogbeastegg,
thank you once again for your help. We are all in your debt!

If you ever need some help from the Barbarians, please do not hesitate!

[Braden]

Froggy my dear girl!

Ship capacity –

“It is possible to put 10,000 men in one ship” is misleading, if you clarify it by stating that “one full stack” will fit in one ship. Number of actual troops depends on unit size settings and if you have non-troop based units in the stack (siege weapons for example).

Basically, no more than one full stack will fit on one ship. Weather it is the same no matter how many ships you have in a “fleet” I cannot confirm yet (i.e. will 10 ships carry 10 stacks of troops?).

Also:

Previously in Medieval you could place a “string” of ships and get instant transport for troops or agents – this no longer applies. All troops/agents etc need to board a ship at a port or beach then be actively transported where they need to go. This is a much more realistic feature but needs to be pointed out as it differs greatly from the previous TW games.

[Franconicus]

Hello out there,

I have a questions! I play Skythia and I try to sell Campus Sarmatae. It is just too big and I cannot prevernt riots. I offered it to the Spanish, the Gauls, Germania, Greek and even the Brutii. Noone was interested. What is wrong with that region. Did anybody has better experiance with that?

[player1]

Maybe they realised it was trash too?

[Craterus]

Is it in the centre of your empire, no-one likes an annoying little region out of the way.. Won't it turn rebel the next turn if there's no men in there?

[Franconicus]

So noone tried before?

If I find a way to sell regions I am going to file a claim

[Olorin I]

@Frogbeastegg:

I know that you are busy and that this body of work is a gift to the community. I appreciate the amount of time you have put into this and am grateful you chose to share your product with us. If it is not too much trouble, I was wondering whether you were working on the Multiplayer section referenced in the index and, if so, when might that be completed. Thank-you.

Olorin I

[DarqueRayven]

sometimes you just need to let the little ingrates revolt
then terminate them completly and the ones that are left
they'll love you for it

[DarqueRayven]

hello i like the guide its very helpful
bye

[frogbeastegg]

:runs in, a speedy amphibian blur: I'm sure you know the disappointing usual: busy froggy and all that. Gah!

Thanks for all the thanks and kind words

Braden, I shall clarify the first point. The second point is already in there, and always has been.

Franconicus, no idea about selling cities; it's not something I have ever tried.

Olorin I, yes, I'm still working on the MP section. It's the main source of this long hold up; writing a new section from scratch in an area like this is not easy. There's a lot of ground to cover, and MP provides plenty of scope for contradictory advice. Obviously I don't want to produce a confusing, contradictory mess of a section, so I have to try and cram in as many viewpoints as possible without it all going to hell in a hand basket. "Take a large army of decent level troops; small armies of elite troops tend to get dragged down by superior numbers, except when .... and if .... but a larger force can ... and that can help if ... but then you might find that it all gets too much for you to control and .... so in conclusion take an army containing some units!"

As for when it's likely to be finished, no idea I'm afraid. I'm only managing about 10-15 minutes work on the guide at present anyway.

[Olorin I]

Thank-you, madam Frog. I appreciate the update and confirmation that you were still planning to complete it. I quite understand that you cannot give any firm completion date or even a target date. Real life always trumps gaming.

Olorin I

[Mount Suribachi]

Unless I missed it, is there a printable version of the guide available somewhere Froggy? I'm trying to get a head start for when I can finally play RTW

[frogbeastegg]

:tears through so quickly she looks like a blur, calling as she goes, "No printable yet; there'll be one when the 1.2 update is done. I have all the details arranged; I just need to finish writing the confounded thing!":

[Viriato]

Now I'm playing a campaign with the seleucids, a short one. Perhaps I'm not very good with the phalanx (at least with the militia phalanx), but I've lost three or four generals. (Before I've played one with the julii and I only loosed one of two, and they were controlled by the AI)...

Well, what I discovered (I don't read it in the guide) is that when you loose a general, and you win the battle, automatically apears the man of the hour (with two or three stars...). It sounds logic to imagine that there was a man who asume the leadership when the generals dies in combat. Perhaps, It could be a good idea when you have a bad general with great vices, involve him in a battle with good troops (against rebels, for example), send him to the death, win the battle and have a new general. I didn't do it, but perhaps it works.

[Garvanko]

Good way to kill off an old general, and get a new one in the process.

[Junkertubs]

I'm a newb, and I've been reading around. This is the best guide I've seen... awesome. Now If only I can find a guide of non-well-known control tips... (I wish I could select one unit to a numberic shortcut). Also, if someone could help a newb, I read that in order to change the army size (to 200 which sounds good), I have to do it in the options menu before beginning the campaign. I looked around, how do I do this, I don't see an option for it.

Anyway, put that thing into a PDF file and it'll be awesome, ASAP!




Great Job.

[Enderel]

Yes thanks frogbeasteggs and all those who contributed. This is a completely awesome guide which has really helped me during difficult periods of play.

[sockerconny]

Hey, I can`t find out how to change the unit number of ranks, how do I do it? Now all of my units deploy in deeper formations than I would like.

[gardibolt]

I had the same question which someone else answered in another thread. I'm told that you right click on the unit and drag. I haven't had a chance to confirm but that's what they tell me. :) Frog, if this is indeed correct you might add this little poorly-documented point to the relevant part of section XIV in your next revision.

Hey, I just got an edit button and figured I should use it. :)

[furball]

Froggy, I know this is really late. I'm only a casual RTW player and I found your guide humorous and informative. Thank you VERY much!

Please know that these efforts are *definitely* appreciated.

"You're English. . . aren't you?" he said quietly.

"What, like that's a shameful thing? Why did you lower your voice?"

"No," he whispered. "I'm just in awe of you."

[Sid Arthur]

I don't think anyone's mentioned it yet, so...

I believe it is possible to train the Early Legionary First Cohort or Legionary First Cohort. While playing the Julii in the long campaign, I happened to invade Rome a little bit "pre-emptively," so when I took control of Rome I didn't have the 50 cities needed to win the campaign. On the recruitment list for the city of Rome only, the First Cohorts appeared as options to recruit. I'm not quite sure what the combination of buildings required is, as they were already available after I'd conquered it. I didn't try to recruit them, since I didn't find it necessary at the time, so I don't know what exactly happens when you do.