A couple of suggested "iron man" rules

[Kraxis]

That's true, but that just gives the effect of a scorched earth policy, or if you will the devastation of war. I restrict myself in other not-so-exact ways like not starting any wars, so all in all I get a real challenge.

It may not be the best for the AI. That would be a "no armies at all"-rule making the game a bit pointless

As long as it works for you...

[denmj]

Just a list of my rules I use for RTW.

1 archer for every 3 infantry max. 1 cav for every 5 units not counting general. No siege equipment. No mercs. Dogs are modded out of my games.

Can't recruit out of a town with less then 6k population.

I can't attack any city that the senate doesn't tell me to ( as the a rome faction). Unless that city has sent 3 armies to attack me.

Can't start any wars. Have to be attacked by a faction before going to war. Unless the senate tells me to attack as a rome faction.

I must garrison a city with 3 garrison units before the army that took it can leave that city.

* Garrison unit is the unit that one step up from peasent for each faction. ie. town watch, milita hoplites ect..


All in all I have had my most intresting campaigns now with these rules. My standard armies are very small usally 3 infantry one archer and a general.

My greatest fight so far has been with my 3 infantry and one archer and general against 2k of the enemy. I won but it was the most nail bitting experiance to date. I even had the archers in the melee and fighting. End result was the AI losing the fight with 90 men left. I had like 120 men left out of 355.

I also have some really good generals.

[Herakleitos]

There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread, cheers to you all!
Here's the list I will be using in my next campaign:

- No (re-)training of units unless the governor-building is your own.
(full units can be retrained for better weapons).
- If the governor building is already of the highest level then units
can only be (re-)trained when unrest is no more then 5%.
- retraining of units only if they are on a minimum of 90% strength
- retraining of silver and gold chevron units only if they are on 100% strength
- armies in enemy territory can only attack if led by a general
- when transporting units overseas; one ship per infantry unit and two ships
per cavalry unit. From quinquiremes up ships can transport 2i or 1c.
- restriction on selling map-information - 1000k max

I was also thinking about making the ability to train units dependable on cultural penalty, will have to look into that...

[screwtype]

I was also thinking about making the ability to train units dependable on cultural penalty, will have to look into that...

That's not a bad list Herakleitos. I think my own variations might be:

NO generals on foreign territory. Conquests made by Captains only. Either that, or mod general's stars out of the game.

Restrictions on mercenaries - no more than one or two merc units per stack.

I also like your idea of recruitment based on cultural penalty. I didn't think of that. I'm not sure if it would be viable because I don't know enough about how the cultural penalties work or how much they can be reduced in foreign cities.

Just a list of my rules I use for RTW.

Hmmm, your rules look a little extreme to me denmj.

[Herakleitos]

I like the merc-rule. Whether or not to use generals is a matter of taste I guess, I want my conquests to be carried out by them for some 'historical flavour'. I believe in BI it's much harder to gain command stars?

Cultural penalty is based on the origin of buildings in a city. For instance a foreign trader gives -5% and if you upgrade it to your own market it will give +10%. There should be an old thread around with accurate details. The governors residence has the most influence I believe, so Kraxis' governor-building rule would in a way still apply. I think a good rule would be that CP has to be down to around 10 - 15% before you could start training units; it's normally around 40% when you conquer a city.

Red Harvest is propagating the 1 unit per boat rule here: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=55976. IMHO he's right about the fact that CA should have built in these type of game mechanics from the start and we shouldn't need to use our own 'iron man' rules. (I noticed last night that I'm continuously tempted to break them... )