Strategy Tips

[roguebolo]

Here are some things I've found to be useful on the campaign map. So far I have only played the three Roman factions and the Seleucids on vh/vh.

During the opening moves of the game, the most important thing to me is the rate of growth of my starting settlements. So I rely upon my diplomat for an income rather than taxes -- he can make me a lot more money anyway. I set the tax rate in all settlements to "low" except for those which are very close to their next settlement upgrade. Meanwhile, I send the diplomat on a ship from faction to faction, attempting to hit one new faction each turn. Each faction that he encounters, he attempts to SELL them trade rights. Usually they will only pay a small amount, if any, but the trade rights themselves will be profitable even if I can't convince them to pay. Then, that same turn, he attempts to SELL them an alliance. This is easy to do early in the game, before warfare has broken out, and they are generally willing to pay somewhat more for that, often in excess of 3000 denarii. Finally, I SELL them map information, for which they will often pay as much as 15000 denarii, although they won't pay that high until quite a few moves into the game. Then he moves toward another faction to do the same on the following turn. As my diplomat moves around the Mediterranean, he can get increasingly better prices because of his growing influence and map information.

While he's busy bleeding the other factions dry, my smallest settlements are building sewers, traders, farm upgrades, and possibly temples in order to increase their growth rate (along with their low tax rate) while my larger settlements are building any structures which improve weapons and armor so that I can make the lousy units I started the game with a little less lousy. Then I retrain all of those starting units.

I'm pretty good at keeping archers out of melee during combat, but Seleucid Archers and Roman Archers prior to the Marius Reform are pretty lame, short-range units, so I don't waste time building the structures for archers right away. Instead, I use some of the horde that my diplomat is amassing to purchase as many long-range Cretan Archers as I can and I'm very careful not to let them get killed foolishly in melee. I also pick up Slingers and Mercenary Peltasts with their large shields if they have an experience of "1". If necessary, I can send one of my family members on a tour to collect them, and send them back to my settlements to have their weapons and armor upgraded. Hence, I end up with the best missile troops of any opposing forces.

Because my settlements are growing so fast, their potential for generating an income is fairly vast by the time my diplomat has tapped all of the factions bordering the Mediterranean. At that point I can increase their taxes. My diplomat is not done, however; it seems that there is always somewhere, by this point, where he can sell a new alliance where one has been broken or resell map information to a faction that has already bought it. (It is a myth that you can not sell map information to a faction if they have already bought it; your map information is constantly changing as you conquer new territories, or observe your neighbors being conquered, or explore the world, so after a period of time a faction will buy new map information from you.)

As far as building new units, I attempt to use and retrain and reuse my starting units as much as possible, holding off on building new ones until I can build the more advanced unit types.

Anyone else play this way? It works pretty well.

[roguebolo]

This system does not allow me to edit my post as a junior member, so I had to reply to my own post to add to it.

The other thing about building new units in the opening of the game, since I'm waiting for better buildings to build the better troop types, I concentrate on building fleets -- which I can afford, because of the money generated by my diplomat and because they have a low upkeep cost. Early naval power is invaluable; and I upgrade their weapons and armor as soon as possible, of course. I also focus on building spies so that I can have one in each city and a few to move around with my armies and the map. Fleets and spies and a few additional diplomats take priority to military units at this early point in the game because of their low upkeep; by the time I have a good naval force and spy network, I'll be ready to start building some of the more advanced military units.

Another thing I often do, any time during the game, is build a fort and with a spy in it rather than building a watchtower. It costs a little in upkeep, but is far more flexible. I garrison the fort with a single, fast moving, low upkeep cavalry unit so that if he is besieged, he can be used as "reinforcements" (which actually make it to the battle in time!) after his rescuers attack the besieging army...This works great for blocking enemy movement through passes, bridges, etc., including blocking rebel armies from wandering into your territories.

[pukey123]

Roguebolo: I read with great interest your strategy in the use of the diplomat. I'm brand new at the game and would appreciate your telling me if this strategy is applicable with the Julii family, full campaign or short campaign. Thanks in advance.
pukey123

[roguebolo]

Yeah, it works quite well with the Julii. I haven't actually played a short campaign yet but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't have the same results. Try it, you'll like it.

Are you playing the full campaign or the short one? I have a couple of other guidelines that I follow when I'm playing one of the Roman factions, but they probably only apply to the full campaign because they are based on a foreknowledge of the imminent Marius Event.

Basically, I build as few hastatis as possible -- none if possible -- using, retraining, and replenishing only the squads I started the game with (some with experience bonuses) -- until I'm capable of producing principes. Even at that point I build only the minimal number of principes needed for conquest, since they will soon become ridiculously obsolete. I continue to to rely on mercs for my missile troops; and the only way that Romans can get decent spearmen is by hiring mercs until they can build triarii. Cavalry has a low upkeep, so I freely build cavalry auxilia but I never build equites; in a pinch, cavalry auxilia are almost as good at melee as lousy equites and they are better at chasing fleeing enemies, including other cavalry.

The only pre-Marius unit I build a lot of are triarii, since they have some melee advantages over their post-Marius equivalent (auxilia) although they don't have quite as good stamina. A neat trick to know is that if you have a bunch of triarii (or some other unit) in the construction queue when the Marius Event occurs, you will be able to continue building those units that are queued even if they become obsolete. However, there is a small bug in RTW: they will no longer get experience bonuses applicable to the settlement!

Despite this conservative policy of NOT building units that are soon-to-be-obsolete, I train a lot of wardogs for future use, especially in regions where I get experience bonuses. After the Marius Event, these regions will be reserved for training advanced cavalry, infantry and missile units; but because of my forethought, and my modest and unassuming character, I'll have a stockpile of prebuilt, experienced and well-equipped wardogs (which take 2 turns to build) and cavalry auxilia waiting to accompany them on their conquest of the Mediterranean.

I guess the whole approach capitalizes on the idea that the quality of your units is more important than the quantity. Generals also gain rank and good character traits faster by beating up bigger armies with their smaller, more efficient ones.

[Exodus]

using diplomats to sell map info when ur playing julii is important coz the area the gauls occupy doesnt really give u alot of trade money.

[Aggie]

Diplomats are not only vital for getting trade rights and selling map info. You can also use them to bribe armies. If you bribe the other Roman faction armies you get those armies for a lower price than the training costs!! So by bribing you will get cheap troops and a reduction of the army size of the other opposing Roman factions. And you don't need to build troops yourself. I also have a lot of diplomayts guarding my borders, to bribe invading armies. They mostly will disband, but the threat of an invasion dissapears with it.