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Thread: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

  1. #91
    Member Member Avicenna's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I don't think there was much of a unified African nation that was a threat to the ERE. I think there was more African in-fighting as opposed to fighting against the Romans, but I might be wrong.

    The Sarmies should be destroyed immediately when they're in a horde, so should the Goths. Then you could go for unification

    Unified Rome seems like the only true campaign completion to me, but that's just me.

    The Huns should just be made to horde when you have a stack defending the pass. I did this on H/M, and the stack annihilated all the ultra-aggressive Hun, destroying them (they just kept sending stacks at me, which usually had family members. The lack of any characters ends their lifespan )
    Student by day, bacon-eating narwhal by night (specifically midnight)

  2. #92

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    In RTWBI, the Eastern Roman Empire may seem extremely vast and unorganized at first glance but this isnt the case
    wow if you think that the ERE large and disorganized then you should look at the WRE

  3. #93

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I noticed something interesting - it appears that horde aggression depends in part on whether they can see you. I had a diplomat visiting the Ukraine a few years after the start of the game, and he found the Huns in Sarmatia. When I chose to have him keep going and head through Dacia, both the Vandals and the Huns declared war and started moving their huge scary stacks my way. Having the diplomat run back out of sight towards Roxolani territory led to just the "Transgression!" message and DoW from the Vandals, with no visible movement in my direction (two turns later, one Hun stack just reached the edge of my watchtower field of view; I'm guessing they'll attack soon...). Lesson learned - don't screw around with diplomats up in Barbaricum!

    I also have a completely unrelated question - why are limitanei and legio lancarii type "missile" rather than "light" or "heavy"? I find that very odd. Is this an error, or a deliberate gameplay decision to nerf them as much as possible (preventing blacksmiths from upgrading their attack)? I'm also unclear whether the fact that they're classified as "spearmen" on the battle map actually gives them any benefit against cavalry, considering that the unit description lacks the "bonus against cavalry" note one normally sees. Anyway, for supposedly elite troops, the lancarii are kinda lame... :)

  4. #94
    Harbinger of the Doomed Rat Member Biggus Diccus's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Quote Originally Posted by jhhowell
    I also have a completely unrelated question - why are limitanei and legio lancarii type "missile" rather than "light" or "heavy"? I find that very odd. Is this an error, or a deliberate gameplay decision to nerf them as much as possible (preventing blacksmiths from upgrading their attack)? I'm also unclear whether the fact that they're classified as "spearmen" on the battle map actually gives them any benefit against cavalry, considering that the unit description lacks the "bonus against cavalry" note one normally sees. Anyway, for supposedly elite troops, the lancarii are kinda lame... :)
    I was puzzled by this as well, so I checked in the unit_descr file. Legio Lanciarii get +8 attack bonus against cav with their secondary weapon (which is spear), and Limitaneii get +4 att vs. cav.
    General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmaney Melchett: That's the spirit, George. If nothing else works, then a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.

  5. #95

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Quote Originally Posted by Biggus Diccus
    I was puzzled by this as well, so I checked in the unit_descr file. Legio Lanciarii get +8 attack bonus against cav with their secondary weapon (which is spear), and Limitaneii get +4 att vs. cav.
    Thanks, good to know! With that and the nice pilum attack I guess the lanciarii are actually better than the WRE foederati spearmen. It appears that my anti-clibanarii approach of using comitatenses (or the Emperor's bodyguard) was not ideal; should have used more lanciarii in the Persian campaign. The last two Sassanid faction members (who were also their last two soldiers!) nearly repulsed my assault on the town square all by themselves. I probably would have lost had I not thrown the eastern archers into the meatgrinder as infantry, and I did lose my general, most of my regular infantry (no units lost, but most down to single digits), and all but one man from my hippo-toxatai.

    On the plus side, I'm thinking a Sassanid game sometime would be a lot of fun, abusing these insanely powerful clibanarii immortals.

    Is there any way to get back a title, if the person holding it dies? This particular general was the magister peditum...

    More circumstantial support for the "horde attacks what they see" theory - the Huns DoWed the Goths as one might expect, rather than charging immediately towards the Danube as in that one save game with my diplomat standing right in front of their stacks. Still no sign of those Vandals who are theoretically at war with me.

  6. #96
    Member Member andrewmuir's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI)

    Quote Originally Posted by Afro Thunder
    I started this one as my first campaign in BI. Right off the bat you have to deal with a few cities that are suffering from some redness of the face if you get my meaning. That's because the settlement's official religion is Pagan, and it has a majority of Christians. Wreck the Pagan temple and build a Christian shrine in those cities. Stabilizing your internal situation should be your first concern, then you should worry about the Sassanids. You're at war with them at the start of the campaign.

    How do iou wreck a pagan temple?

  7. #97

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI)

    Quote Originally Posted by andrewmuir
    How do you wreck a pagan temple?
    Right click, then click on the hammer icon. Just like destroying any other building (aqueducts in Alexandria and Constantinople, for example - very very handy for some early cash while reducing excessive population growth).

    I haven't tried this yet, but I think you can get away with keeping some of the pagan provinces as is, which would then allow you to upgrade troops at Mithras temples. I plan to try being as pagan as possible in my next ERE game. The one positive side of going all Christian is that it should strengthen the WRER - if Cyrenaica flips Christian, Tripolitania will revolt, while if Cyrenaica stays Pagan Tripolitania can remain Pagan as well. The western Balkan provinces can likewise push Salona into revolt if they go Christian.

  8. #98

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    It's quite a good idea to have some temples of the opposing religion. not only for the perks of said temple but it gives you somewhere to pack family members of the 'wrong' religion to.

    The same can be said for Pagan factions-simply use a Christian city as a priest factory.
    Last edited by Mithras; 12-17-2006 at 13:43.
    Roma locuta est. Causa finita est

  9. #99

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Quote Originally Posted by Mithras
    It's quite a good idea to have some temples of the opposing religion. not only for the perks of said temple but it gives you somewhere to pack family members of the 'wrong' religion to.

    The same can be said for Pagan factions-simply use a Christian city as a priest factory.
    What, exactly, to priests do? Is whatever bonus they give nearby units worth the bother? I've always disbanded the buggers on sight, and never even considered building new ones. Better to have that 100+ maintenance going towards limetanei, archers, 2-3 peasants, whatever. The monks in the Badon Hill scenario didn't have any effect strong enough for me to notice.

    Personally I don't worry too much about the religion of individual governors. If they're good they're almost certainly worth the 5-10% unrest of a religion mismatch, while if they suck they shouldn't be governors at all. Loitering in the province is a good default task for bad governors of a minority religion, I suppose. Though I'm partial to getting them killed off fighting large rebel stacks, myself.

  10. #100

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Quote Originally Posted by jhhowell
    What, exactly, to priests do? Is whatever bonus they give nearby units worth the bother? I've always disbanded the buggers on sight, and never even considered building new ones. Better to have that 100+ maintenance going towards limetanei, archers, 2-3 peasants, whatever. The monks in the Badon Hill scenario didn't have any effect strong enough for me to notice.
    Well Romans do have units enought to stand against most threats without priests, but they are worth to use! For example I once used to play the Goths, which have only fair spearunits to defend a bridge, but are always close to get routed when under hard preassure and enemy missles. If you have some priests behind them making their songs those units will stand much longer and in most cases the spearmen will easier get anhilated insted to get routed. This way is easy to boost your defence with priests, which also scare the enemy a little bit. So always try to use priests to boost your defence. Mounted priests for Vandal armies are great as they can move fast to any point at the battle field...
    So: Priests only boost own forces, but are no match alone. So test and judge for your own.
    Last edited by teja; 12-18-2006 at 22:30.

  11. #101

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    They have their uses for low lever armies or barbarian forces. High tech Roman armies are better off with the Mithras experiance bonus.
    Roma locuta est. Causa finita est

  12. #102

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Quote Originally Posted by Mithras
    They have their uses for low lever armies or barbarian forces. High tech Roman armies are better off with the Mithras experiance bonus.
    Yes, for pure combat experience this is right. But it is far easier to handle the empire if you convert to Christianity early on to keep your empire quite.
    Using priests helps to let your nearby units fight as if there is no tomorrow.
    So all over all I prefer Christianity to keep my ER-Empire running, even when I miss the boni of Mithras.
    Maybe there is a compromise, when you convert an isle-province into a pagan city of Mithras-belivers. You will not have to deal with the influence of the churches of adjecting provinces and the open sea is great for to ship your units fast to their destiny.

  13. #103

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Hi, new member, and I just had a very interesting experience fighting for the Eastern Roman Empire. I’m not sure if I can offer a coherent overall strategy any diffrent from what's already out there, but I can tell you of a campaign that went off in a number of completely unexpected ways, and how I dealt with it.

    At the beginning, having read all the guides here, I gathered up all the forces I could and sent them to block the incoming hordes at the Danube. After Christianizing my empire and fortifying Ceaseria, I concentrated everything I had on the Persians. I sent a wave of assassins and spies before my main force, targeting each and they wiped out everything, from rebel soldiers to Sassanid generals. Before long, one or two of them were “the Killer”, and were very, very good, indeed.

    There was very little open combat against the Sassanids. It was the quietest war I’ve ever fought in this game. The only time my forces met the Persians directly were when one of us attacked a city. I took out their most powerful unit with assassins, so I only met armored horsemen a few times. They mostly tried to take Ceaseria, but I had begun building it’s defenses early, so they failed each time.

    My main force took it’s time, concentrating on maintaining control and converting the population. Since spies have the “Christian” trait, I often sent a large number of them into an enemy settlement ahead of time, causing a nice deal of civil unrest, in a couple of instances. I used the money from looting and devastating cities to bribe one or two Sassanid family members. The presence of a local, Zoroastrian governor with helped ease the transition.

    Finally, in an extremely fortuitous couple of turns, I managed to assassinate the Sassanid king, and the faction heir, which pretty much ended any serious resistence, although it was a little while longer before I finally came and finished them off.

    I had no idea I could be so lucky . . . which is why I stupidly failed to anticipate a sudden change in fortunes.

    The defensive line at the Danube failed. Somehow. While the Huns completely passed it by, they drove out the Sarmatians, When the Sarmatian hordes appeared, they appeared on my side of the river! I’ve never seen that happen!

    My forces were too spread out and totally unprepared for anything of this nature. I drew back from the Danube, and defeated one of the Sarmatian armies, but several more reached Constantinople, and put the city under siege. The Vandals were on their way in through the gap, and I just decided to cut my loses. There was nothing I could do about the capital, but I managed to abandon the other northern cities, and retreat to Macedonia.

    The siege of Constantinople was a grand thing, I must admit, and it was worth losing the city just to fight the battle. Hordes of archers bled their quivers dry, and drove back the first multi-horde attack with heavy losses on both sides. Not only did they buy me enough time to get my general out, and tear down anything that might be useful to the invaders’ military, but they also severely weakened the Sarmatians. The Vandals rushed in, and the two fought each other, making it impossible for them to concentrate on me. I surrounded the town above Athens with forts, sent spies north, and waited patiently.

    While I waited, I concentrated on my Asian empire. I swatted down the last, pitiful Sassanid resistence in the mountains. I moved the Emperor to Alexandria, and made it a major military and religious fortress, surpassing what Constantinople had been. It would be my staging area for my later invasion of Africa. Christianity blossomed everywhere, and I swiftly became the richest and most advanced empire.

    Finally, my fortune began to change once more. The Vandals moved south, but they were spred out, and were crushed one by one as their reinforcements got separated on the map. I pushed north with my old Danube forces, backed by new forces shipped in from Asia Minor. As I got closer to Constantinople, the weakened Samatians were thrown out of the city by a loyalist revolt in my favor! I couldn't believe it!

    Before long, I had driven the hordes back north of the Danube, right into the waiting arms of the Goths, and re-established Constantinople as the center of my faction. The Empire had returned to the city, in triumph!

    The three barbarian peoples battled each other, and turned the entire mess into an inescapable quagmire. Eventually, the Vandals and Goths settled down to avoid going extinct, starting a long, brutal war as neighbors that drained them both, so that I never even needed to bother crushing them. The Samatians somehow escaped into the West Empire, and set their home up far away from the true Romans of the East. Meanwhile, I seized control of all the sacked rebel provinces, regaining all my lost land and more, all the way to the Aegean Sea.

    My Empire was whole once more, and stronger than it had ever been.

    In rebuilding, the new governor of Constantinople gathered a huge retinue of sacred relics and sacred people and Christian conversion traits. I couldn’t believe this man’s ability to convert. He could turn a completely pagan city Christian in just three or four turns. I have no idea how I managed to make a character who specialized in that (building churches, monasteries, and libraries, I suppose), but he turned out to be a potent asset, later on. I tagged him as faction heir, knowing that having such a man with such powerful faith as Emperor would be useful.

    From Alexandria, I sat out on my long-delayed quest to seize the land of the Berbers, and establish Roman dominance over Africa, when yet another reversal of fortune occurred. In spite of my rising fortunes and extremely generous donations to the Western Empire over the years, an arriving diplomat told me that they were breaking off their alliance with me, dividing the Empire! Outraged, I sent spies to learn more, and found out that, not only did the West not like me anymore, but that the Western Emperor was a Pagan! Christian persecution must have returned in the west.

    Infuriated by this betrayal, I set to work reorganizing my forces into an army of the East. I drew from my army in the now-pacified Persian lands. I built my forces primarily around the idea that the West wouldn’t have experience fighting Eastern units. My new African army consisted of basic spearmen and cohorts, a first cohort, supporting a number of horse archers, Clibinarii, and Eastern archers, eastern mercenaries, and a set of onagers.

    The war went very well: hardly surprising, since my army could crush just about anything. If the Berbers had ever caused trouble for the Westerners, I couldn’t see it. Most of the cities were defended by a few light infantry and cavalry, which my archers and heavy horsemen tore to pieces in moments. I exterminated the cities as revenge for the Westerners betrayal, and turned my eyes to the Berbers.

    They had gathered a huge stack, short on archers, in a fort in the road on the edge of their territory. A mistake. Instead of blasting down the gate with my onagers, I waited a turn to build a ram and recruit a balista team. At the beginning of the battle, I deployed my many archers around the fort, and basically surrounded it. They had no place to run. As they hid behind their wall in fear of my cavalry, my archers and siege engines slaughtered the tightly packed fools like fish in a barrel. Hundreds died. By the time the ammunition ran dry, half more their force was dead, and the other was half essentially dying and completely demoralized. I rammed down the gate and massacred the broken survivors. After that, the Berbers fell quickly. I turned Tirigi into a fortress, to block any attempt to invade my empire from Iberia.

    Africa was secure. To the East, there was nothing but sand. North of the Danube, the exhausted barbarians scurried to earn my favor, in a laughable attempt to get me to ally with them, turning the tide of their little war. Years of war and settling had bled dry their loot. They knew any army caught approaching the river would be slaughtered to the last man, and avoided my territory entirely. In Constantinople, the general, now Emperor of my faction, had almost become a saint; a one-man conversion team, and a potent weapon against the pagan Emperor of the West.

    The time of the divided Empire was over. The time of the old gods was over. The Empire of old would be reunited, under my rule, under my church, rather they liked it or not.

    My powerful navy gathered my scattered forces from Persia, Asia, Macedon, and Africa, and landed them in south Italy, under the command of the Saint, who was now the Emperor. Italy hadn’t been invaded in this manner since the early Republic, and it caught them completely by surprise. I occupied Tarentum after disposing of the token resistence, and the faithful, mostly Christian populace welcomed me with open arms. The rest of the population was swiftly converted by my Saint, and the next turn, I was told that Christianity was now the dominant faith in the world. My population had boomed, while the pagans and other barbarians in the north and west had slaughtered each other.

    Two turns later, it was raining arrows in Rome. The surprised defenders fell in droves, and soon, my army marched into the center square and claimed the city, and the Empire. Rome’s advanced military infrastructure, combined with my other cities' income, allowed me to make my army even stronger. I swept over the rest of Italy, driving out the red Romans, converting the pagans, and winning both the war and the game in one fell swoop.

    The Saint-Emperor died peacefully the very next turn, having lived just long enough to see the rise of the new Roman Empire. That seemed like a good place to stop.

    Probably the best advice I can offer you is to use assassins on the Sassanids,watch the Danube line closely, keep a strong force of archers, spearmen, and light cav behind it in Constantinople as a backup . . . just in case. Trust me, you'd rather have it and not need it, then need it and not have it. If I did it over again, I'd send those same kinds of units over the river, led by a night-fighting general, and pick off some of the hordes, one at a time.

  14. #104

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I always destroy all churches and send my christien generals in to battle and I build pagan tempels and use the pagan generals in immportant battles. is it only me that does that.

  15. #105

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Wow, very lucky there Malkut. Welcome to the ORG. The only campaign i won in BI was as the franks, and they are pretty easy. ERE sounds like a fun campaign from how you described it. Just one question, what difficulty level were you playing on?

  16. #106

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I hadn't played the game in a while, but I wanted a bit of challenge, so Hard/Medium. The strange difficulty probably accounts for some of the weirdness that occurred. I wouldn’t try repeating, since I’m still confused about what caused some of those things to happen! How often do loyalist revolts in your favor happen on Hard?! The barbarians must have really screwed over the people of Constantinople.

    They're a fun faction, combining my favorite things about vanilla RTW from the Eastern factions with my favorite things from the Roman factions. It gets a bit easy, once you defeat the Persians. Maintaining control over your far-flung empire can be a bit problematic, as no matter where you put your capital, there’ll be unrest on the other side of the map. I had to put down ERE Rebels or rioters every now and then seemingly regardless of what I did. I guess that’s what empires are for.

    It’d be nice if you could have two capitals, but I guess that’s what caused this mess in the first place.

    Plus, in a week or two, I’ll pick up Mediaeval 2, and pick up where I left off, with the Byzantines!

  17. #107

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I'm currently playing as the ERE and I'm getting increasingly infuriated by the WRE. Despite my sending them 3500 denarii a turn, reconquering their lost territories and giving them back to them (with money too!) and sending valuable troops of mine to assist in defending Italy against the Vandal hordes, they decided to blockade my main naval port at Kydonia (with 4 quins, 4 tris and 4 bis) with a single ship with only 12 men. The WRE can rot in hell now, ungrateful gits.

    LB

  18. #108
    Fredericus Erlach Member Stuperman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I usually just keep any territory ther was formerly owned my the WRE, lower cultural penalty.
    Fredericus Erlach, Overseer of Genoa, Count of Ajaccio in exile, 4th elector of Bavaria.


  19. #109

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Yes, but I was hoping if the WRE stayed strong that it would be able to stand up against the hordes, then I would have less of them to fight when I finally moved east.

    Maybe they saw through my plan!!

    LB

  20. #110
    Upstanding Member rvg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    ERE really is very-very easy. The entire campaign boiled down to staving off Hordes and WRE to the West (via defensive/night battles) while concentrating the offensive power against the Sassanids. After the last Sassanid city fell, the rest of the game was just a mop up. I guess I got a bit lucky as the Huns instead of hitting Goths or me just aimlessly wandered the steppes. By the time they decided to attack my borders they were facing stacks of fully upgraded Plumbatarii backed by Eastern Archers with a sprinkle of First Cohorts... Needless to say, Huns' fate was rather painful.
    Speaking of the unit roster....I never bothered training a single mounted unit. Just infantry/achers all the way with a couple of family members as cavalry support (who spent most of their time twiddling their thumbs).
    On the battlefield, aside from the Persian Clibinarii no other unit was able to do much harm to my armies. Even Hunnic heavy cavalry had its charges broken by the waves of plumii and arrows. As far as Clibs go, I would mob them with Legio Lanciarii andsmack them down with General's cavalry. For some reason they seem to lose to general's cavalry rather quickly while being just about invulnerable to anything else. Never saw a single Elephant unit....never let the Persians have the luxury of building them, even though it took me some forty odd turns to smash the Sassanid Empire.
    WRE managed to hold together all along until it was their turn to die by my sword. Despite being bigger they never managed to put together a single high tech stack that would look even remotely threatening.
    On the religious front, I went Christian all the way, but left Crete as Pagan and Ctesiphon as Zoroastrian just for variety's sake.

    Overall it was the smoothest and easiest campaign I ever played.
    "And if the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war and not popularity seeking. If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war." - William Tecumseh Sherman

    “The market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do.” - Warren Buffett

  21. #111

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I love to play ROME Total War and I just finish ERE campaign. I follow some of this posts, but I guess a I was lucky. I found out soon it isn’t a good idea to fight a horde in a classic battle. So, I reinforce Constantinople and Sirmium fast and I raised two full armies (main force of heavy infantry (commies, limitanei, later replaced with legio lanceri, lot of eastern archers, few light cavalry units, heavy mercenaries units). This armies was placed on the northern bridges and the hordes have something against it. The hordes attacked every turn this bridges and I won most of the battles. Remember this: YOU HAVE RESERVES, THEY DON’T. After many turns the barbarian were out of heavy troops, the only remains was horse archers and generals. Now I detached the cavalry units, I make a single army and go after them. Soon, I destroy the Goths, the Vandals, the Sarmatians and, finally, the Huns. I was lucky when at the beginning the hordes battle each other. I make an alliance with the Goths and destroy the Sarmatians. The Vandals were decimated by the Huns and I hunted down the remaining forces. The Huns were the hardest one to battle, but I have already experienced units at my disposal and a take fewer casualties as at the beginning. At the same time, I have to deal with the Sassanids. I applied the same “bridge tactics”, but the main Sassanid armies were a joke. The Clibinari was responsible for 90% of the causalities suffered in the battles. I was able to purchase 2 Ballistae and I go on the Clibinari hunt. The Sassanids were easy to conquer, but hard to keep. I have revolts in all the settlements and this blocked my eastern army for the rest of the game. The Western Empire was disintegrated in to several Rebels towns. Rome, Salona, Carthage and others was this kind of towns and I go and besieged them without going to war with WRE. After I conquered Rome, WRE attack me, but it was to late for them. With two huge and full armies (Onagers, repeating ballistae and others “goodies”) I take the rest Italy and several others towns.
    For military purposes I upgrade Constantinople, Sirmium, Antioch and by mistake Alexandria. With the army of Alexandria I take Carthage and go to Rome. One of northern armies landed in Italy at the same time and Game Over.
    For the rest of empire I make money.
    Use Assassins to kill enemy diplomats and generals. Make alliances with the Hordes but don’t let them pass the bridges in your territories. Blocked them with the armies.

  22. #112

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Hey all, I just got the game about a week ago, due to my "underestemating games cloud" I didn't play it for a few days because I thought it was a rubbish buy, however now I realise its the part of Roman history I love. No offence to the Romans, I just simply love them guys! , but the fall of the West peaks my interest and this game allows you to play it woo!!! Oh from a few of the posts, much appreciated people!! the forts idea at all entries to your empire really helps in the East! Anyway I thought I'd play as the Eastern Empire, but I'm not too sure now... the West looks good but so does the East... can anyone give me advise on who to play first? and is Testudo formation in the game?
    Thanks

    Also, any advise on handling hordes? I put too much effort on bettering the economy and hordes run through the armies posted in the forts... A real head banger that is, as Yoda would say lol.
    What we do for our children dies with us and us alone, what we do for others and the world lives immortal

  23. #113

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Oh sorry forgot to add, Does anyone know how to make Victoria, the adviser, repeat what she says at the start about the Roman faction you play? I would like to know if its possible to hear her everytime I start the Western Empire or the Eastern Empire again because heard her the first time mention how bad the state was of each Empire. So if anyone knows i'd be grateful, sorry I didn't know if this request should be posted here, again very sorry.
    What we do for our children dies with us and us alone, what we do for others and the world lives immortal

  24. #114
    Fredericus Erlach Member Stuperman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Hey Gizmo04, and welcome to the .org!

    I'd recommend that you play the eastern emipre first purely because they are easier to play as. The WRE has serious financial and loyalty problems that make it a challenge for even the best players. The east on the other hand, is (relitivly) rich and has fewer loyalty problems.

    One piece of advice that I found very helpful is unify your empires religion first thing, if you are the east you should only have 2 pagan generals, they should go on a distraction/suicide mission deep into sassnid territory, and destroy all pagan temples in your cities replacing them with Chrisitan ones.

    As for hoards, I'd recommend posting your armies on bridges in the north west of your empire, they make amazing choke points on the battle field. Use archer/Horse archer heavy armies and let them come to you (make them cross the bridge on the battle map) I've had much success with this tactic.
    Watching guys dodge tons of arrows just to get a pila in the chest is funny in a sick sorta way, LOL.

    I'm not sure about Victoria though, hopefully someone here can help with that
    Fredericus Erlach, Overseer of Genoa, Count of Ajaccio in exile, 4th elector of Bavaria.


  25. #115

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Woo! Thanks Stuperman that was... more information than I expected. Ok then I'll play as the Eastern Empire first, they looked cooler anyway because I always preferred the Romans with the purple colour. Reds cool aswell but theres something about purple that makes them cooler...

    Oh and I'll try your army tactic on the bridges that should do some damage but those horde stacks have LOADS of missle cavalry (most of the renegade factions) What about the Western Empire? Roman against Roman... er... that will hurt my own morale... but anyhoo War is war. Also I tend to focus on my economy more than army sometimes TOO much and keeping up with the incursions becomes lacking.

    I must admit so far I've taken a "Lose battle quit and restart campaign" policy. Again any suggestions sorry this is turning out to be a psychology thing. I was never like this in Rome:Total War.
    What we do for our children dies with us and us alone, what we do for others and the world lives immortal

  26. #116
    Fredericus Erlach Member Stuperman's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    fighting the WRE isn't a bad Idea, thier cities have all roman buildings so there is less cultural penalty for taking them.

    As for Horse Archers, IIRC the computer under rates them hugely in autoresolve battles, you could try and auto resolve a battle or two to find out.

    I always have a save called 'battle' that I save ofer before overy battle, as my computer has a tendence to lock up after a few hours of heavy 3d, you could do the same....although this is a bit cheap.
    Fredericus Erlach, Overseer of Genoa, Count of Ajaccio in exile, 4th elector of Bavaria.


  27. #117

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Quote Originally Posted by Stuperman
    fighting the WRE isn't a bad Idea, thier cities have all roman buildings so there is less cultural penalty for taking them.

    As for Horse Archers, IIRC the computer under rates them hugely in autoresolve battles, you could try and auto resolve a battle or two to find out.

    I always have a save called 'battle' that I save ofer before overy battle, as my computer has a tendence to lock up after a few hours of heavy 3d, you could do the same....although this is a bit cheap.
    Have you considered cooling problems? It might be something to look into if you have fan problems, a poorly sited tower, or a laptop. I -always- run a desk fan under my laptop, to prevent CPU, memory and GPU temperatures from going over ~70 celsius. Without the fan they can easily get into the 90s which is dreadful for their longevity and can cause instability.

    There is a popular Dell laptop temp/fan monitoring program called I8kfangui that I highly recommend to anyone who games on Dell laptops.

  28. #118
    Fredericus Erlach Member Stuperman's Avatar
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    Jan 2007
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    785

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    Quote Originally Posted by GM1940
    Have you considered cooling problems? It might be something to look into if you have fan problems, a poorly sited tower, or a laptop. I -always- run a desk fan under my laptop, to prevent CPU, memory and GPU temperatures from going over ~70 celsius. Without the fan they can easily get into the 90s which is dreadful for their longevity and can cause instability.

    There is a popular Dell laptop temp/fan monitoring program called I8kfangui that I highly recommend to anyone who games on Dell laptops.
    well, no it was a dodgey mobo I think, the NB would get insanely hot, and my HD had a problem or 2, it wouldn't de-frag cause it said it wasn't formatted correctly (my boot drive). I ran checkdisk and it came back fine, I've changed all the HW this past weekend and it is going good
    Fredericus Erlach, Overseer of Genoa, Count of Ajaccio in exile, 4th elector of Bavaria.


  29. #119

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    I am playing ERE H/H and I find it to be challenging and rewarding - money is no problem with some adjustments - defend the northern frontier and kick the Sassinids right off the map. I have just eliminated the Sassinids from the game and I am in the process of moving three large armies to staging points for my move westwards. The hippotoxi are awesome as mobile artillery and very effective at wearing down an enemy - I typically have about 4 units of them with each army stack. The cities with ports are now building a few boats that I will use to move my armies across the Mediterainian and poor old WRE is not going to know what hit them. Great fun and lots of free time spent playing this game.

  30. #120

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire (BI faction)

    mornin all. need a little bit of advice on my ERE campaign.i might as well go through how ive played it so far, to give you guys a better idea.

    I started the game, making all the towns christian ofcourse, then i spent some time getting to grips with the game. After a decade or so, i had achieved little, and the hordes descended on Greece and i lost most of my territory there, including Constantinople. This basically forced me to concentrate on my Asian offensive. I used Alexandria as my main troop-producing facility, and sent one or two legions (full armies/stacks ect.), into Asia, wiping out the Sassanids in quick measure. Then, after producing another 3 legions, i descended into Europe, where i took back Greece and managed to secure a good foothold in mainland Europe. I also took carthage and Italy, thus completing the game.

    This, believe it or not, was the highpoint in the game. After securing this beachhead in the mainland, i fell victim to a horrible financial crisis. I lost one hundred and sixty million dinarri (160 000 000!!!) in around a few decades and went bankrupt. I managed to recover (a process im still "enjoying" to this day), but it took a long time. After i could afford to purchase another Legion, i renewed my European Crusade. I invaded the closest settlements, hoping to establisha defensive line before i could concentrate on wiping out the Berbers in Africa, who were begining to become annoying.

    I seized Carnuntum, Campus Quaddi, Campus Marcomanni, Campus Lombardii and Campus Burgundii. I fortified these towns, and then established a supply line (a strategy im rather proud of).



    (Purple line : supply line
    Black circle : fort)

    If any of the towns were seiged, and won the battle, but took casualties, the nearest twon to them, would send 5 units over to compensate, and the next town would send 5 to that, all down the line, to a total of four troop producing facilities behind the front lines. This allowed me to allways keep a large army at the fortress towns.

    However, before i could complete this, the celts invaded. The bloody celts and twenty full strength armies.

    I had completely underestimated the celts. I thought i was facing the Vandals, who i had bested in Russia during the first crusade, and i thought the celts were holed up in Britain. I was wrong. the celts came at me with loads of armies, all taking advantage of the horrible pagan experience bonus, thus besting my untrained troops.

    I tried to hold them off, but the supply line wasn't finished, so i couldn't reinforce my towns in time. All of the fortresses fell in quick sucession (only Carnuntum remains), and the celts lead a spearhead into Russia and Greece. I lost everything i had worked three hundred years for in just a few turns.

    I attempted to send my Legions off to combat them, but, since i was still recovering from the massive drop earlier on, i couldnt afford to send more than one legion. So, my untested armies were destroyed peacemeal (I use a strong core of lanciarii, backed up with lots of mercs and generals), and the celts continued.

    Now, theres no way i can stop their advance. I falling back to my last ditch defence plans. Im fortifiing Constantinople with comitatenses (a very rare purchase for me) and bolstering my remaining towns in Russia.

    I've developed a last resort plan, where i let the towns of Kotais, Artaxarta, Phrsaspa and Arsakia rebel, thus forming a buffer between me and the celts so i can build up some armies behind in Antioch, Ctesiphon and Hatra. I see the celtic advance into Asia inevitable, and if i lose my holdings around the mediterainian, its game over. I'll never recover withouth the trade they bring in. So, i need a little bit of help. Am i right in my plans at the moment, or should i try something else? Much appreciated. c4st

    The map at the moment. All the celtic land used to be mine. Note, the vandals dont control all that territory anymore.



    ps. its around 660 AD.

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