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

[Monsieur Alphonse]

in regards to changing names of settlements in BI

IT WONT WORK!!! anyone else have problems with it?

You have to change a line in the preference.txt. In the line EDIT_SETTLEMENT_NAMES:FALSE, FALSE should be TRUE

[ratbarf]

Oh by the way in case anyone was wondering, the reason you have such a time controlling Corduba is because it historically had a Gladiator revolt. The game mimics this I beleive, seeing as whenever they revolt they seem to get Velite Gladiators. Also you can fight a bunch of Amazons in Thakistrya... wich was totally awsome but I am not about to tell you where it is.

[mrdun]

Removing fog of war will solve the riddle of the location of the elusive women!!

[Guildenstern]

Hi there,

I started playing RTW again after a long time. I had almost forgotten just how enthralling this game can be. I was reading frogbeastegg’s great guide and I have a question (probably a silly one) about the possible ways you can make your assassins gain some experience. The guide says I can get them to kill my own diplomats, assuming I have plenty of cash. But in my limited experience only spies can infiltrate enemy cities and so be targeted by assassins even belonging to the same faction. So I can't use my diplomats to train my killers, right?

Thanks in advance.

[mrdun]

Have you tried selecting your assasin on campaign map and right clicking on your diplomat?

[wumpus]

Yo, Guildenstern! Me, I wouldn't kill my own people; but if you're really THAT desperate about increasing you assassins' ranks, yes--mrdun is right. you could probably kill your own spies lurking inside town that aren't yours (enemy or neutral). But me, I'd rather kill off rebel captains and (enemy or neutral) emissaries. When my assassins have gained about 3 "eyes" or so, I'd also try hunting enemy or neutral assassins--and send my killer off to his mission ONLY when the odds are better than 60% or 70%. If you've THAT much money, try bribing enemy and neutral generals instead, so they'd join you--or build up you army or navy or trade to a higher state. Hawooh.

[Guildenstern]

mrdun, wumpus, thank you guys for your quick replies. Now a couple of points I’d like to clarify.

@mrdun: selecting my assassin and right-clicking on my diplomat were clearly the first things I did, but they don’t work for me. That’s the reason for my previous post. When I hover my mouse pointer over the diplomat with the killer selected, the usual assassinate icon (knife) doesn’t appear and right-clicking on my emissary produces no effects. That’s probably due to the fact that I’m still playing version 1.3, but I’m not very sure about that.

@wumpus: I’m not particularly desperate about increasing my assassins’ skill, lol. The fact is that more than one year has already passed since my last RTW campaign and I forgot some of the strategies for a successful game, especially about optimal management of my emissaries. (I think I’d better have a look at the guide diplomacy section again. ) So in my current campaign I found myself completely stuck with a horde of undiplomatic, tactless, and discourteous pseudo diplomats. I just wanted to use my killers to do a bit of ‘house cleaning’ , but it seems that I’m condemned to go on with my extremely rude emissaries for the moment. I can only hope for their premature death and rely on the subterfuge of enemy murderers (they should find it pretty easy to remove my useless, very low influence people). Unfortunately, during my present medium/medium Julii short campaign the AI seems to be quite reluctant to put its killers into action, although I’ve already played a lot of turns. Well, I’ll think about a possible solution.

Regards

[Labrat]

It's unfortunately not possible to assassinate your own diplomats, although you can kill your own spies if they have infiltrated an enemy city. The only way to get rid of useless diplomats (apart from hoping for an enemy assassin) is by loading them on a boat and looking for a stack of pirates. Given the low casualty rates for ship combat, this will take a while unfortunately.

[Guildenstern]

Labrat, thanks for your clarification - much appreciated.

Regards

[Good Ship Chuckle]

I am quite good at the battlefield aspect of Rome, but I find myself coming up short in.so.far.as diplomacy. Once I get the standard trade rights and map info, my diplomats immediately move to the sideboard, and are pretty much forgotten.

Moreover, I have found that other than bribing, I can't seem to get my diplomats any influence.

More moreover, I have found that I can never bully around other factions with purely diplomats, as frogbeastegg so says is possible.

More more moreover, I have never been able to make a faction become a protectorate.

If someone could provide insight into these humble moreovers, I would be much obliged.

[Paradox]

It is possible to get another faction to be your protectorate, but this is only possible when you inflicted enough damage to their forces, like if they have one province left, but they wouldn't really be able to benefit your forces at that rate, but you could force them to pay a tribute.

[Punicus]

Moreover, I have found that other than bribing, I can't seem to get my diplomats any influence.

More moreover, I have found that I can never bully around other factions with purely diplomats, as frogbeastegg so says is possible.

I have the same couple of problems. I think that the first one is caused by the second one being true, but it could also be vise-versa. I'm not sure. Could it be the version of the game that makes it harder to deal with them? And what difficulty do you play on? I most commonly play on Hard campaign v1.5 and trying to make deals with the AI is like talking to a wall.

However, I've seen that you can get factions to become protectorates occasionally with large sums of money, but I have never had success in any other case. Sometimes they demand ridiculous things like a couple of cities and money, but if they're demanding things like that they're probably so weak that they should be gotten rid of anyway.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

It is possible to get another faction to be your protectorate, but this is only possible when you inflicted enough damage to their forces, like if they have one province left, but they wouldn't really be able to benefit your forces at that rate, but you could force them to pay a tribute.

It's definately not a case of whether I have crushed them militarily. Played on Very Hard and v1.5, as the seleucids, I bled the Macedonians until they had only Bylazora. Yet when I offered them to become a protectorate, they scoffed in my face and acted as if I was to about to crumble before them. However I haven't offered large sums of money to sweeten the deal. I'll try that before I call it quits on protectorates.

By the way, could someone give me a textbook definition of 'Protectorate' in reference to RTW. I think maybe I don't really understand the purpose of acquiring protectorates. In my mind, it seems kind of silly to keep a hated faction alive that you are on the brink of finishing off.

BTW. This is my 50th post, and still going strong.

[The Wandering Scholar]

Very nice guide FBE

[Quintus.JC]

By the way, could someone give me a textbook definition of 'Protectorate' in reference to RTW. I think maybe I don't really understand the purpose of acquiring protectorates. In my mind, it seems kind of silly to keep a hated faction alive that you are on the brink of finishing off.

I find it's better to be a client kingdoms than the master (depending on the situation), In one of my Dacian campaigns I was focusing on Thracia when the Germans backstabbed me, the first wave was beaten off but the second large one was closing in. before that they offered me to become their 'Protectorate'. I thought why not, so i accepted. immediate after, it was a cease fire, and trade rights. after a while my main force was besieging Bylazora why the Scythians crossed that river and advanced deep in my land, they offered me to become Protectorate as well. I accepted with the same result. Germany and Scythia never attacked me again, and never asked for single payment or tributes. I was able to focus on the Romans down the south without worrying about my northern provinces.

[The Wandering Scholar]

Did they not take any D without asking though?

[Quintus.JC]

What do you mean by ‘D’.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

I think he is refering to Denarii $$$$$.

I was about to ask the same question. I'll restate it:

In you Ecomony Tab, did you see a large subraction from your renenue that went to the Germans or Scythians?

[Quintus.JC]

never concetrated on that, but my economy was always ok though. Never running out of cash after destroying Thrace and taking Constintinople.

[omg3969]

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[Guildenstern]

Dear All,

probably my question has already been answered. If so please give me the link.
I was just wondering if RTW and BI work on Vista. In other words, is it possible to install and play the games on Vista? Are there any kinds of problem? I'm asking this because I'd like to play the games on my laptop, which is currently running Vista (preinstalled on purchase).

Thanks in advance.

[Quintus.JC]

Dear All,

probably my question has already been answered. If so please give me the link.
I was just wondering if RTW and BI work on Vista. In other words, is it possible to install and play the games on Vista? Are there any kinds of problem? I'm asking this because I'd like to play the games on my laptop, which is currently running Vista (preinstalled on purchase).

Thanks in advance.

RTW vanilla works just fine on my Desktop Vista, so presumablely BI shold work too. I think it should work fine on your laptop, can't make any gurantee though.

[gardibolt]

Both RTW and BI working fine on Vista on my laptop.

[illoye]

years ago i played this game and finished it.
thanks for this guide it really help me alot
i can finish the game and i satisfied with the result
but now i want to play this game again.
then when i look for guide since my old guide scrapped.
yeah i found my old guide yes it is the guide from the frogg
thanks for the guide i really miss the frog
sory i don't give a thanks before and i wish i can complete this game again for my 3rd times

[Seamus Fermanagh]

years ago i played this game and finished it.
thanks for this guide it really help me alot
i can finish the game and i satisfied with the result
but now i want to play this game again.
then when i look for guide since my old guide scrapped.
yeah i found my old guide yes it is the guide from the frogg
thanks for the guide i really miss the frog
sory i don't give a thanks before and i wish i can complete this game again for my 3rd times

Welcome to the .org. Froggie still swings by and reads up from time to time, so she will see this. Her guide brought many a person here as well as helped many to really enjoy the game.

[Brandy Blue]

Here’s a few diplomacy tricks that I’ve used. I’ve imitated the format used by Froggy to some extent.

1: The talk-first-then-fight gambit
Quote: “The troops are already there, Caesar, I just need help paying them.”
You are about to attack the Gauls, for example. See who is at war with them and promise to attack the Gauls in exchange for cash, or as a good will gift. You can do this before every battle or assault you initiate, not just when you initiate a war. I find this works best if play a pre-civil war Roman faction, because there will be three friendly factions nearby, usually at war with whoever you are fighting. I think that gifting attacks makes the Senate more friendly but I’m not sure.

2: The something-for-nothing gambit
Quote: “Caesar, can you spare me a dime?”
Maybe your Roman faction has an emissary hanging around Italy waiting for a chance to do the talk-first-then-fight gambit. Give him something to do by asking other Roman factions for small sums of money in exchange for nothing. Normally I don’t advise this because you are not likely to get much money and the other faction might take the opportunity of diplomatic contact to do things you don’t like, such as cancel your alliance or make a demand backed by a threat of war. However, if you are playing a Roman faction and the civil war hasn’t started, then there’s not a lot the other Roman factions can do to you, so you may as well give your agent more experience and maybe get a bit of cash.

3: The free map gambit
Quote: “Forget these idiots, O Caesar. They have nothing worth taking.”
Demand a province from a faction and then cancel the transaction after the province list pops up. Do this when you want to know what provinces they hold and don’t think they’ll sell you their map. Of course it will not tell you where their capitol is because you cannot demand a faction’s capitol.

[Jakkal]

" Plus j'apprends plus je m'aperçois que je ne sais pas "

I just finish my reading of this awesome guide and I should say that it is humble me and was a fool to believe I have masterized the game and now I feel the urge to go back to RTW. I guess that S2TW will wait a bit.

At this rate, CA should sell their TW séries 100$ each cause I feel like I'm stealing while I spent so much time in each game :)

A bit tough on the social life but what can I say, I'm a junky!

[Ipman]

How can you make your guys in a certain formation and some of them in one whole group that moves together.In Rome total war.

[Vlad The Impala]

Just select the units you want to group, and press control+number 1-9. Then, if you press that number, you select the units you grouped.

If you press Alt and then click somewhere on the battlefield, your units will stay in the formation they previously were, unless they can't fit that way due to buildings, rocks or trees.

[Major Robert Dump]

This is the one TW series I never got to play. I have the whole set purchased on Steam, but won't be able to play in for several months still. I will probably be looking to play each game and expansion only once, and will do it on the ahrdest difficulty because I am stubborn, so any recommendations on fun factions/campaigns would be appreciated.

Thanks to FBE for the informative guide