Discussion and Announcements

[DimeBagHo]

I suppose one solution would be to drop long pikes enitirely and use the shorter pike to represent the Macedonian style phalanx.

The more I think about it the more I like this idea. The different pike lengths are totally ahistorical - everyone was using longer pikes by the time of the game period. But there were other significant differences in the way that phalangites were equiped. Some used relatively small shields and light armour, others appear to have used relatively large shields and heavy armour. So it would still make sense to differentiate along the lines of smaller heavier units vs larger lighter units.

Balancing would also be *much* easier without the long pikes.

[Zarax]

Well, there's a few things to consider:

1) having few phalanx units per carthaginian stack isn't a bad thing on the historical side, as the phalangites never took more than one quarter of a typical carthaginian army (at least in the 2d punic war)... The problem is more on how to make the AI employ other heavy infantry to cover the flanks...

2) Have you tried modding phoeni infantry to be classified as heavy infantry, give them the short pike (not the hoplite one) and raising their sword attack to 6 or 7? In my tests the carthaginian tends to build them in decent amounts, and they quite capable of holding the line against roman infantry and cavalry...

3) What I found quite unbalancing is actually the land bridges on Sicily, especially that between Carthage and lilybaeum... The punics can afford loosing sicily (which is even easier now that there are no GCS there) but they absolutely gets crippled by often having a scipii stack knocking on carthage in 30 turns... That gives the romans a really easier start, which isn't something they quite need... If it was for me i'd give messana to the mamertines (strong rebels) and Syracuse back to GCS as sicily wasn't quite the roman playground for a long time.

3) Finally, even though carthage used a macedonian-like combined army approach they usually didn't have more than 1/3 of their army based on heavy units, usually divided between some phalangites and other, more flexible heavies to hold the center with the rest being a mix of light spaniards, medium spearmen like the lybians and a mix of light cavalry composed mostly by numidians and barbarian lancers with few heavier cav composed by the richer punics, all of course with some elephants to give the initial shock...

[DimeBagHo]

(2) I've tried using short_pike a little and I didn't like the results much. They have such a short reach in phalanx formation that the troops switch to swords almost immediately on contact with the enemy. I'll try some more experiments though. I am planing to make a new model for German spearmen so that they can use short-pike phalanx / long-spear non-phalanx rather than the current pike / sword setup.

(3) I would rather beef up the Carthaginians to slow down the Scipii than take away the land bridge. Giving Messana to the rebels might be worth a try though (as long as it doesn't fatally weaken the Scipii or prevent them from expanding at all).

For the cavalry, one possiblility is to make Iberian Cavalry into quite good light lancers, and to make Round Shield cavalry into low quality auxilaries.

[Pompei the Great]

The Carthaginians usually lose their cities quickly and make oodles of small armies, so they become sword fodder for the Scipii. My custom mod gives them good units, but they won't create a large army. What should I do?

[WhiteProphecy]

wdf

i tryied downloading the greek mod, i did, i also installed it, but right when i turn the greek mod on from my desktop, the RTW screen comes up, than it exits, what do i do?

[WhiteProphecy]

do i have to have the greek campaign unlocked? i had it unlocked than i had to reinstall RTW, now i lost all the campaigns i unlocked, is that why it wont work?

[WhiteProphecy]

ok, i got it where i can go on to the menu, now it says when i click on Imperial Campaign, it says

Pick somthing from the list





where is teh list?

[Zarax]

(2) I've tried using short_pike a little and I didn't like the results much. They have such a short reach in phalanx formation that the troops switch to swords almost immediately on contact with the enemy. I'll try some more experiments though. I am planing to make a new model for German spearmen so that they can use short-pike phalanx / long-spear non-phalanx rather than the current pike / sword setup.

(3) I would rather beef up the Carthaginians to slow down the Scipii than take away the land bridge. Giving Messana to the rebels might be worth a try though (as long as it doesn't fatally weaken the Scipii or prevent them from expanding at all).

For the cavalry, one possiblility is to make Iberian Cavalry into quite good light lancers, and to make Round Shield cavalry into low quality auxilaries.

1) Short_pike is exactly what can make carthaginian heavies follow the historical unit... They will use the spear against cavalry and sword against infantry, making them a very good unit although somewhat weaker than principes and triarii... While not exactly a perfect setting that's what the carthaginian interpretation of hypaspists was.

2) I fear the problem is a bit complex here... Despite Hannibal running wild in Italy the 2nd punic war was mostly fought in Spain, the carthaginian economical and recruiting base.

3) I'd say change the round shields into something akin to light lancers or remove them fully... Aside from the sacred band and some other heavy cavalry corps the carthaginian totally relied on mercenaries like numidians and some barbarian cav...

[WhiteProphecy]

ok, i'll install the 1.3 patch

i hope this works!! lol

[WhiteProphecy]

alright, i got the greek mod to work, so far its awsome lookin, but i didnt play yet becuase everything is in GREEK!! lol but i think that is my fault, i downloaded the Greek Localization Mod 1.3, i think that puts the game in greek, than i downloaded the regular 1.3, and now the Greek Mod works, but it is still in Greek! how do i change it so its just in english?

[Zarax]

I fear you messed up your RTW and need to reinstall it... XGM doesn't use greek fonts...