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.

[Slon]

Some general tips:

- Protect bridges since they usually serve as choke points. If you have an advanced settlement nearby, don't be shy when building good pikemen/phalanx units to protect it. Then, add some units of archers/onagers. Place the speak units at the very front of the bridge and set them to phalanx+guard mode. Have another unit of phalanxes (preferably 2 more) behind them. This will serve to help rotate guarding units quickly when one of your units takes casualties. Also, you will be sure to stop cavalry charges across the bridges with 2 units standing front to back in phalanx formation. Place archers at the left and right sides and have them pelt the enemies, making sure to turn off fire at will once enemy units get close to you phalanxes (cuts down friendly fire casualties). Onagers at the back are a good idea for pelting enemy archers/reinforcement units waiting behind their lines. Just be sure to place the onagers directly behind the second phalanx unit to prevent critical misses + tons of casualties.

- Sell maps to factions that are further away from you for extra profit. You can even resell it for less. In fact, try to sell everything. It will help with bribinb armies.

- Don't go for extremely expensive high tier units (unless they are guarding a bridge that is close to a settlement which can retrain the units). Go for tier 3/2 units, as they will be almost as good, but much cheaper and easier to retrain.

- Go for settlements that aren't landlocked or settlements that are profitable (unless you are Julii and are forced to go after cheap settlements). If you are Julii, used the bribed roman armies to attack the expensive greek and silician settlements before the Scipii/Brutii get their hands on them.

[roguebolo]

If I'm playing the Romans, I might occasionally bribe an allied Roman army if it consists of units that I really want -- such as triarii, before I'm able to build them myself. Otherwise I don't bother bribing them just because "they're cheaper" -- because they're really not that much cheaper, when you consider that the real cost is in the upkeep.

The real advantages are more like the advantages of mercenaries -- they might already have some experience chevrons, they might be units you can't build yet, and you don't have to wait for "build time" to bring them into play. These are the most important factors to take into consideration when expanding your army with bribes.

A more useful way to spend your bribe money is buying new family members to have for more generals, governors and (most importantly) more children! Another common use for bribing armies is when I need to eliminate a rebel or enemy army from one of my territories but the nearest army can't afford to abandon their garrison duties to attack it for a little extra experience. And the third and best reason for bribes is when I just don't feel like a rinky-dink battle with a small rebel peasant army and want to move on with the game.

Bribing an allied Roman faction's armies on the grounds that it reduces their military strength is ridiculous because it has absolutely no net gains for you. Bribing an enemy Roman faction's armies can be extremely useful though.

[Dutch_guy]

I usually don't bribe the Roman armies, sometimes I do though depends on the situation.
I normally prefere battleing them , for experience and just for fun.
ofcourse when I see an army I just can't defeat with my already worn out army, I will try and bribe .

and I agree that bribing an army on grounds that it will reduce their strenght is not a good way especially in the later game ( post marian as Romans ) since every other Roman factions when playing the Julii have so much money that they can recruit every army that you bribe without even looking twice at what their spending..it's much better to try and sabotage the enemy army buildings if you really wan't to reduce their military strengh.

[Pomerium]

I knew about selling map information over and over again. I never thought of selling alliances though. If it makes money I'm for it. Next time I start a campaign I will keep those hints in mind. Thanks for the idea!

[Ar7]

As good as these tips are, selling the map/alliance/trade rights and bribing, it feels like an abuse to me, I am not really into exploiting the already weak AI even more. But of course everybody has his own preferences, I myself always try to be historical and try not to exploit, makes for a game that is more fun

[Slon]

Now that I played Germania, I don't think it is even possible to win unless you sell maps to the Romans. Getting Alesia is the first step, but it is hard because Gaul keeps quite a few troops there. With your poor settlements, there is almost no chance in training/maintaining enough troops to take it (I was bankrupt almost instantly). However, selling maps to the romans helped offset my -1000 income and got me through the Alesia-taking step.

[Dutch_guy]

I do agree with ar7 that exploiting the AI reduces the fun of the game ( I've had experience with those exploitations. )
and as for the difficulty of taking Alesia you should try to build as many of the spear warbands ,they really kick ass , especialy versus warband infantry.
accompanied with a good general you shouldn't find it to difficult.
BTW it is possible to make money as Germania, just build as much economic buildings as possible. and try not to build more troops than you need. It's hard. the faster you take gallic settlements the more money you will generate

[Oaty]

I' never sell map information. What I do is do a map info for map info and in the beginning any of the A.I. factions will do a map info for map info. If you ever ask the Selucids for map info heres the response that's almost guaranteed. Map info for map info and an alliance. Just avoid the selucid fleets or they'll take you down with them

Also if you wait a while and make your map info unique as in never selling it. Then go to the Egyptians and they'll pay you a nice 25g denaris for your map info. Surprised me a bit I asked trade rights and map info for map info, they replied map info for 25 g's and accept or we will attack........ um ok but after that you wo'nt be able to afford to attack me.

Anyways the only time I try to milk money is in a ceasefire and dangit the comp never accepts.

I looted over 100 grand from Egyptian cities and they wanted me to pay for a ceasefire. So the only thing I could do in return was retrieve former Selucid cities and return them to them. and continue looting the Nile cities as I could not hold onto them playing as the Numidians.

[Darius]

Yea the map info thing is really ridiculous. Whenever I sell map info, I'm able to get them to pay a tribute of their ENTIRE NET INCOME FOR THE WHOLE GAME!!! Just how does this make sense? Are they really that into maps? I mean are these people compromised of geographers or something?

[sunsmountain]

best tips are economic (how to gain money):

- Concentrate on buildings first. Units require upkeep, buildings dont.

- Build Roads & Ports to maximum level, and first. They allow/increase trade. Temples are fast & cheap to maintain order.

- Use peasants to maintain public order and very high tax rate for cities below 6000 population.

- Do not use peasants to maintain public order and very high or high tax rates for cities above 6000 pop.
Use buildings to maintain public order for thse cities.

- A public order of 75% is considered stable. So 80 is more than enough.

- Concentrate on either Barracks, Stables, Ranges OR Smiths, and let each city specialize.

- Place your capital in the 'middle'. This reduces corruption. Otherwise, only Law bonuses reduce corruption. Your capital never experiences corruption.

(Growth rate: you want the combined growth rate in your settlement to arrive at 8% at level 5. This will give you a population of 24000, which are easy to manage, and unlikely to rebel due to squalor penalty to public order.)
- This means: Dont build farms unless the area is poor in farming (ie below 3% base).


This is enough and doesnt need the lame Diplomat strategy to work. You can add Trade Rights, you dont even need to sell them.