I Hate Egypt (in the game)

[Celt Centurion]

Those reinforcements would have eventually joined once enough units had been killed, that your computer could handle adding the entire reinforcing army to the battle.

I learned this one from the A.I.

Their cavalry literally ran from my army, around the perimeter of the battle map. I could not move fast enough to "catch" them, and never did.

But, since they had started the battle, when the time ran out, I won, (close victory).

Now I use the same trick on them. If I have a far weaker force, I move them as far back as possible at the start, and make them chase me around the map. When the time runs out, I win, again, (close victory) I do not do this often, but there have been times that it was the only way to not "lose" my army.

I never trust re-inforcements to arrive in time. Mine rarely do, and when I really want the enemies to arrive so I can beat them too, they usually do not show up.

I did have the good fortune once though of being one of the Roman Factions with one army of about 1,600 men with fully upgraded armour. SPQR attacked me with two armies, also of about 1,600 men each, but they had not taken the time and expense of upgrading their armour. I nearly had the battle won when SPQR's reinforcements showed up from the City. I let my cavalry chase down the ones running away, and sent the rest of my army as high on the hill as the red line would allow. My Legionary Cohorts still had about 30% of of their missiles. When the cavalry was done, I let them rest. By the time that the SPQR army got near my infantry and archers, they were already routing as the uphill has a range advantage over downhill. At the end, I still had over 1,200 men, and SPQR had lost over 3,000. I made sure to kill all of the reinforcements. That was the first time that I ever took Rome without yet laying siege. I had literally run out of moves, and was attacked there, and "fell into" the city. Their reinforcements should have stayed put!

This game is great!

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[gardibolt]

It will be even better to see "Faction Destroyed" for Rebels if there is such a tile.


Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

Nope, no such tile. You will continue to have problems with rebels (actually, even more severe, with your cities revolting like mad) after you take the entire map, should you decide to continue playing.

[Puzz3D]

I did have the good fortune once though of being one of the Roman Factions with one army of about 1,600 men with fully upgraded armour. SPQR attacked me with two armies, also of about 1,600 men each, but they had not taken the time and expense of upgrading their armour. I nearly had the battle won when SPQR's reinforcements showed up from the City. I let my cavalry chase down the ones running away, and sent the rest of my army as high on the hill as the red line would allow. My Legionary Cohorts still had about 30% of of their missiles. When the cavalry was done, I let them rest. By the time that the SPQR army got near my infantry and archers, they were already routing as the uphill has a range advantage over downhill. At the end, I still had over 1,200 men, and SPQR had lost over 3,000.

This happened because the AI units were exhausted. Units get big morale penalties and combat penalties when exhausted, and the AI doesn't realize it. It is possible to turn off fatigue in the preferences.txt file.

[Celt Centurion]

This happened because the AI units were exhausted. Units get big morale penalties and combat penalties when exhausted, and the AI doesn't realize it. It is possible to turn off fatigue in the preferences.txt file.

That was clever making them come up the hill after me wasn't it?

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[pezhetairoi]

Egypt in my MM game hasn't lasted long... They conquered Carna in Arabia, Palmyra, Bostra, Petra, and eastern Africa (and later, Lepcis Magna) in addition to their starter provinces. But they didn't turn out any big armies, except one full stack, which took Lepcis Magna from me (I was Scipii).

I currently have two armies terrorising Egypt, one small one of 7 hastati 4 equites and 2 archers that just retook Lepcis Magna after Egypt sallied with its fullstack, and one trundling around in the heartlands of Egypt. Currently I have Sidon, Hierosolyma (Jerusalem to the uninitiated), Alexandria, Cyrene, Memphis, Petra and Thebes. There. All their major troop-producing cities gone. And in the course of doing so, they sent only 5-unit or 10-unit armies at me which my 20-unit grand armies with access to full retraining facilities crushed with finesse.

My Egypt is behaving strangely... I will have destroyed Egypt in another 40 turns, probably the minimum required for travelling and storming. After all, with catapults and cities garrisoned by only 3 units, what threat can they pose to my 2 Egyptian legions?

[rotorgun]

Hi everyone,

I hope you don't mind an 'ole boy piping up on this subject, but I just wanted to share my condolences to anyone who comes in contact with this faction. I fought them in my Greek campaign, and it felt that I had grabbed unto the tail of a tiger at times....whatever you do, don't let go!

It is essential to carry out good reconnisance when taking this faction on. Send out plenty of spies into any provinces that you will engage them in and also into their backfield as well. I also created several detachments of Cavalry forces to delay their main armies and was able to draw them into battlegrounds of my choosing at times when these forces retreated from them. If there are any Pharoah's Archers units in their stacks never engage them from lower ground if possible. They will clean your plow! Always have plenty of Archer yourself, and make the PAs a priority target during any routs.
It's the best way to avoid having to fight them again.

If you can, try to entice them into attacking your main, family member led army with your reinforcements coming from a captain led force. You'll be able to let the computer run this force while you personally direct the other. I was able to crush an elite Egyptian army and its reinforcements by luring it into such a predicament. It was a sweet moment to savor as I also killed off two of their good generals during the fight.

I cannot overstress the gathering of intelligence. I always suffered anytime I blundered into the Ptolemaic hordes by not doing this. Remember, Cleopatra herself was a Macedonian descendant; perhaps this is why the AI makes them so tough. After all, Ptolemy wasn't exactly a slouch. He was a companion of Alexander. Would his children be any different?

Hope I didn't go on too much. I just like talking tactics.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
I bribed off full stacks of Pont armies besieging the neighbouring Seleukian town just so that the poor buggers have some chance against the anachronic monsters. It's paying off.

Once the Italic barbarians () are dealt with, a blitzkrieg will blow upon the as of yet neutral Aegyptus.
.

[pyrocryo]

aaaah Egypt....love the ladies....hate the men

same here. when i finally land my Scipii troops near Halicarnassus (owned by the Greeks here), the Egyptians are already controled central and eastern asia minor....and getting hungrier. Everywhere I see halfstack armies.

Halicarnassus is a lost cause. I took it easily but then the Egyptians moved quickly to take Sardis and besieged Halicarnassus. I lost a nice legion there since I can't quickly reinforced my beachead with most of my armies are busy controlling Macedonia and Carthage. Even my half attempt to try to engage them in the field with another legion cost me dearly. They just simply threw armies at me and I have to do a 'Dunkirk' to save what's left of a nice Praetorian Legion.

But perhaps it is a balance for luck. Not long after that, Macedonia was destroyed and Carthage was left with a single colony in Spain, surrounded by Julii. Surprisingly though, as my spies pushed north from Greece, I found Britons already controlled a huge territory from Northern France to Russia up to the Baltic Sea. More on that later.

But I digress. After consolidating my Legions, I launched an attack towards Turkey proper. A full Praetorian Legion landed near Pergamum so I can use its well-developed military complex, while another one landed near Sardis' Port and a 'Front' Legion (10 Early Legionary Cohorts) from Rhodes landed near Halicarnassus.
The Egyptian was slow to react. They did try to save Pergamum, but I managed to conquer it within two turns. Of course, a full-stacked Egyptian army with another half-stack not far. Both was dispatch quicly (albeit with heavy casualties, but no cohort lost) and by then, I think the WHOLE EGYPTIAN ARMED FORCES are gathering near Ancyra.
Then I cheat. Remember my front legion? After conquering Halicarnassus--and reinforced it with three Legionary Cohort--I sent near the bridge above Sardis, and my 'Pergamum' Praetorian Legion wait a little bit behind. My strategy was to let my Front Legion sacrifice themselves to destroy a few vital Egyptian units (Chariots, Horses, Spearmen), then withdraw. Then my Pergamum Legion will advance and massacre it.
This is where I think the Egyptian Generallissimo (read: AI) is stupid. Instead forming 3-4 full armies, he only sent his forces piecemeal. After a whole (real time) days work, I think around 6000 Egyptians died, and except of Ancyra which contain a full stack, all cities from Nicomedia to the east are left with a single defender.
A nice fallout of this tactic: I have 10 silver chevron Early Legionary Cohorts . Any idea where to dispose of them

[symball]

ooh blimey- I made it as a member (and after all my moaning too)

Back to business: I have always found that the best way of taking egypt is a naval assault on the nile cities. They are always quite low on defenders so using a couple of stacks of reasonable troops you can overrun them quite easily with a blitzkreig style attack. Also by virtue of having the pyramids they are easy to hold and with those big walls you can just sit there and let their relieving armies burn themselves out until you have retrained and recruited enough of a garrison to start a campaign against the middle eastern cities.

once the nile has gone egypt is a spent force and falls quite quickly.

[scotchedpommes]

Have to say all of this looks interesting, but I've never had any experience
against Egypt. In all my games as the Brutii I've never come into contact with
anything more than a diplomat demanding payment in exchange for trade rights.
By the time I began my expansion to the East the Egyptians were already gone,
and I didn't realise at the time who had exterminated them. That was until my
newly conquered settlement at Rhodes was overrun by a ridiculously huge Pontic
army.

Then began to receive missions from the Senate demanding conquest of Pontic
lands, so sent a few of my main armies across, delayed mainly by the remains of
Greek navies, and later those of Pontus herself. Was met with seemingly endless
advancing forces. Slowly being pushed out of Pontus after depleting my
treasury through bribing several armies, and suffering irreplaceable losses to the
legions thanks to their chariots.

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

So my thought the other day was, why not get rid of Egypt altogether through modding?

Any thoughts on this? Is there a place where I can give all the Egyptian provinces to rebels so they die out at the beginning of the game? Has anyone done anything like this? I can honestly say that I will never miss them. I don't ever care to fight a battle against Egyptian chariots. I don't ever want to see another campaign where the same 2 factions are wiped out before they even get a chance. And I don't ever want to play as the Egyptians, ever ever ever. Just point me to the files and folders I need to make this happen, and I'll attack them in the only place that'll make a difference.


CountMRVHS

As others have said, you don't have to remove Egypt from the campaign, just mod them down so they don't steamroller their neighbours each new campaign. The main text files you'll need to change include:-

descr_strat @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign
This is where you specify starting: populations, armies, family members (in the family tree), buildings, denari, province ownership, AI recruitment / construction biases, and so on.

export_descr_unit @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data
Here you specify a list of units that are recruitable in the game, both faction-specific and area-of-recruitment mercenaries. You can also change specific unit stats here - one of the first things I changed was Egyptian Bowmen, Desert Cavalry, Egyptian Chariots' unit sizes. Other things you can change include attack / defence values, hitpoints, training influences, mentality, formation capability, and so on. Note that for a unit to appear in game, it has to be present in export_descr_buildings.

export_descr_buildings @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data
This file lets you decide which units are recruitable at specific buildings, EG Spear Warband are recruited at a Muster Field by default. You can seriously limit certain factions (and overpower others) by modding this text file. Also used to restrict / allow certain buildings from being / to be constructed by certain factions.

descr_model_battle @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data
Here you specify a unit's skeletal properties involved in both its primary and secondary attacks, as well as animation and texture settings. I found this useful when I removed the phalanx capabilty from Nubian Spearmen.

export_units @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\text
You create unit descriptions here, relates to export_desc_unit.

export_buildings @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\text
You create building descriptions here, relates to export_descr_buildings.

These are some of the main ones, obviously there are many more which you can edit too. Remember to create backups of all your original text files before you start any editing, saves you having to reinstall RTW to get the original text files back!

[CountMRVHS]

Cool; thanks for that very specific advice, Seasoned Alcoholic!

I feel like a sellout after starting this post, but I'm trying a Brutii Imperial Campaign (H/H) YET AGAIN with the intention of wiping out Egypt before they can destroy another faction. This time I was a bit more methodical and patient.

I took Appollonia on turn 1 and started to build an Egypt Assault Army. I got an alliance with Macedon and trade rights with the Greeks; of course that lasted all of 3 turns. By the time my 1-stack army was halfway across the Mediterranean, the Macedons attacked and threw me out of Apollonia. I started to go into the hole a bit, but was able to take Alexandria and get back into profit.

This time, rather than sack towns, I accepted that I'd have to stay put and hold them until Egypt was utterly dead. The last couple times I tried this I would take the town, exterminate, and raze all buildings -- but when I left I'd get a stack full of the Uber Golden Peasants for my troubles. No more of that, thanks. I took and held Alexandria and Memphis, and currently I'm right outside Thebes. I know Egypt has Jerusalem and Sidon, but hopefully they don't have Antioch yet... oh who am I kidding. I'm lucky the Seleucids are still alive; their map information showed they only have 2 provinces, far away from each other. Maybe Parthia will be the big power in this game... don't I wish!

My plan is to destroy Egypt, then get out of that part of the world altogether and go back to fighting Greece & Macedon. As I conquer in the middle east, I'll plant Roman temples & buildings to make my eventual return that much easier. I know my economy will take a hit when I leave all those rich towns, but I should be able to make it all back by disbanding and taking Greece.

I'll let you know how it goes. So far the Egyptians haven't done anything "cheaty", and I'm hoping to stick with this... for real.

As a side note, I noticed the Scipii have taken that town on Corsica or Sardinia... the island west of Sicily. They have that town plus 2 towns on Sicily (Carthage stil has Lilybaeum). I just thought it was interesting that the Scipii actually expanded beyond Sicily in a 1.3 game... To be honest though, I'm kind of looking forward to fighting a strong Carthage by myself at the end.

CountMRVHS

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Another important file that you should mod down for Egypt is:

descr_regions @ C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\base
If you look at base farm level, you will see part of the reason why Egypt steamroller the Seleucids - Egyptian population growth rates are larger than most other factions.

If you combine that with high starting populations (therefore bigger cities), a better economy, and a bigger starting military than the Seleucids, its easy to see why Egypt (and Pontus, Parthia etc) always make the Seleucids the first faction to be destroyed.

Egypt can simply churn out full stack armies like there's no tomorrow Also, their 'elite' units, such as Pharoahs Bowmen and Pharoahs Guards are dirt cheap compared to other faction's elite units

[CountMRVHS]

Well, if I manage to beat them in this campaign I'm going to savour it, as it'll be the LAST time I confront them without some major modding. Maybe something as simple as only allowing them to train peasants, denying them access to all other buildings....

I'm afraid though that Pontus will become the next big bully if Egypt gets toned down. Probably have to take away their chariots to even things up on the autocalc when the AI factions are fighting each other.... oh well, I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

CountMRVHS

[CountMRVHS]

Seasoned Alcoholic, I just looked into descr_regions and was wondering which of those numbers to change in order to mod down the pop growth rate.

After a couple lines of text, there is always a series of 3 numbers on the same line, like this:

14 244 213

followed by a couple single numbers, like this:

5
9

I'm not sure what does what in there...

Anyway, so far here's what I've done:

-Taken away all Egyptian starting armies (and navies) except family members.
-Changed Egyptian starting cash to 100 denarii
-Changed pop levels in all Egyptian towns to 100 (however, I noticed that despite setting this level myself, the pop in game seemed to be 2000 for all towns... odd).

This meant some towns started off with no garrisons, and the Egyptians would have to wait a bit before they could start to make an army.

However, after playing many turns of a new Brutii campaign to see how this worked, I noticed Egypt was doing too well for my tastes. Seleucia was ganged up on (no surprise) and down to Hatra, which was periodically under siege by Armenia. Parthia had Seleucia as a protectorate (yay Parthia!), and Pontus was the other big power in the area, with possession of Tarsus and a few big stacks floating around Antioch. However, Egypt had Antioch itself and all towns south of it, and was threatening Hatra and Tarsus with some large stacks.

So I quit that game and changed some more things. In addition to the above, I did this:

-Took away ALL buildings from all Egyptian towns.
-Changed settlement level to "village".

Hopefully, with absolutely no buildings to work from, the Egyptians will have a harder time. The big problem, though, is that no matter what I do, Egypt is pretty much guaranteed a 7-8000 profit on turn 1. Can you give a faction a NEGATIVE starting income?

The other big problem is that Egypt is basically guaranteed a quiet game. Seleucia is their only northern neighbor, and Seleucia gets picked on by Pontus, Armenia, and Parthia by turn 5. Egypt's only other neighbor is Numidia, with that crappy town west of the Nile very far away from the Numidian center of power. So while Seleucia is getting banged up north, Egypt can take its sweet time and get everything in order.

Oh well. See how this goes.

CountMRVHS

[hrvojej]

This happened because the AI units were exhausted. Units get big morale penalties and combat penalties when exhausted, and the AI doesn't realize it. It is possible to turn off fatigue in the preferences.txt file.

Sorry for being OT, but can anyone confirm that this works? In a desperate attempt to finally make the AI armies not rout upon contact, I've decided to give this suggestion a try. However, I still see the fatigue indicator changing to "warmed up" etc. for both my own and the AI units. Do I perhaps need to start a new campaign for it to have an effect? Though I don't see why that's how it should be, since most other changes in the preferences.txt file have immediate effect.

Btw, there is no other way to turn off fatigue and at the same time leave the limited ammo and morale on, right?

[Rilder]

I have never had problems with egypt, to counter there charriots i send in my more maneauverable general adn he makes quick work with them usualy ending up behind lines in the process which he then goes to taking out there archers... hell in my scipii campaign most of the battles werent even fought with infantry... they just ended up there for "show"

[Seasoned Alcoholic]

Seasoned Alcoholic, I just looked into descr_regions and was wondering which of those numbers to change in order to mod down the pop growth rate.

After a couple lines of text, there is always a series of 3 numbers on the same line, like this:

14 244 213

followed by a couple single numbers, like this:

5
9

I'm not sure what does what in there...

Anyway, so far here's what I've done:

-Taken away all Egyptian starting armies (and navies) except family members.
-Changed Egyptian starting cash to 100 denarii
-Changed pop levels in all Egyptian towns to 100 (however, I noticed that despite setting this level myself, the pop in game seemed to be 2000 for all towns... odd).

This meant some towns started off with no garrisons, and the Egyptians would have to wait a bit before they could start to make an army.

However, after playing many turns of a new Brutii campaign to see how this worked, I noticed Egypt was doing too well for my tastes. Seleucia was ganged up on (no surprise) and down to Hatra, which was periodically under siege by Armenia. Parthia had Seleucia as a protectorate (yay Parthia!), and Pontus was the other big power in the area, with possession of Tarsus and a few big stacks floating around Antioch. However, Egypt had Antioch itself and all towns south of it, and was threatening Hatra and Tarsus with some large stacks.

So I quit that game and changed some more things. In addition to the above, I did this:

-Took away ALL buildings from all Egyptian towns.
-Changed settlement level to "village".

Hopefully, with absolutely no buildings to work from, the Egyptians will have a harder time. The big problem, though, is that no matter what I do, Egypt is pretty much guaranteed a 7-8000 profit on turn 1. Can you give a faction a NEGATIVE starting income?

The other big problem is that Egypt is basically guaranteed a quiet game. Seleucia is their only northern neighbor, and Seleucia gets picked on by Pontus, Armenia, and Parthia by turn 5. Egypt's only other neighbor is Numidia, with that crappy town west of the Nile very far away from the Numidian center of power. So while Seleucia is getting banged up north, Egypt can take its sweet time and get everything in order.

Oh well. See how this goes.

CountMRVHS

If you look at the very top of descr_regions, you will see a list which describes the structure of each (or most) rows in each section. So from this list, the 3 digits appear to be RGB values. The 2 following digits look to be triumph point value and base farm level. If you want to weaken Egypt's population growth rate, you will need to lower base farm level accordingly.

Give Cyprus (Salamis) to the rebels - any islands a faction owns can really rake in trade income (through sea exports). But Salamis in particular can be a real earner

The reason they appear to be making so much each turn could be that you've removed all their starting armies, so they are paying no upkeep on that. Leave them some armies and family members to start with so this drains on their income. Also, the more starting provinces a faction owns, the more trade income it will generate. Strange though that you've removed all buildings and this is still the case...

Also, for each Egyptian starting province (in descr_strat), did you change level large_town (level minor_city, level town etc) to level village? This could be the problem you're running into here.

Think of ways to screw them over financially

[EDIT:]You may also want to do the following in order to resolve potential bugs you come across when modding:

* On your desktop (assuming you have a shortcut there), right-click the RTW shortcut and select Properties from the list menu.

* Select the Shortcuts tab.

* In the Target text box, you should see "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe"

* Simply add the following to the end of the target location:

-show_err

* Note that you must leave a space between "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" and -show_err, like so:

"C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -show_err

* Each time the game finds something in the text files it doesn't understand, it should give you prompt text box highlighting the problem text file reference. Simply browse to the appropriate text file and change what is requested.

[Emperor Aurelius]

Egypt is a tough fellow to beat. Unluckily I was expanding into Asia Minor while Egypt was AND fighting a civil war with other roman factions. In my campain I am the brutii. I took Greece,then Western Asia Minor, then Italy,then Macedonia and all of the THracian and part of the Dacian Empire. WHen war broke out I sent my commander Opius Dio in there. So far all of my top generals are dios. I have Cassius Dio,Augustus Dio, Herenius Dio, Oppius Dio, and another dio. Each of them was given their own sector. Herenius got command of the Dacian Legion. Cassius is now dead of old age. He was the father dio and had command over the Italian Legions. Augustus finished the conquest of ITaly and is now fighting in Gaul and Spain. And Hector Dio is fighting in Sardinia and Siciliy! Oh yes and Oppius got command of the legions in Asia Minor against Egypt. I had also generals of the paulinius family who have 6 family members aiding the Dios in other parts of the Empire.

I like managing my generals you see.:)

So oppius took all of Asia Minor except Mazaka which is part of Pontus. Pontus is now my ally and control part of Armenia,Mazaka, and Hatra. THey only control 3 cities but they are a buffer against the Parthians.
So now both me and the scipii advanced into Palestine and the MIddle East. It was a 3 way war: me vs scipii vs Egypt. The 3 of us foght it out all over the place. Luckily I took cyprus which produced Legionary Cavalry, Praetorians, and Catapults. I constantly shipped reinforcements from Greece and Asia Minor into the middle east and even my pontus allies sent soldiers to my aid! The pontus army even managed to capture Hatra from Egypt!

Finally the Egyptians were thrown out of all thje coastal cities but stilll controled Petra, Bostra, and Palmyra and Damascus. While these cities were not on the Coast they were areas were Egypt was amassing nearly ALL of its armed forces! I sent several generals using the regular root: transport from greece takes generals and their armies into asia minor. From ancyra, halic, nicea, and pergamum more reinforcements join them unitl an army of over 3,500 soldiers bursts out of Asia Minor. I had to send several Collossal armies like this in there to fully eradicate not just Egypt but Scipii too! Scipii actually lost Alexandria to me but they snuck an army into Palestine and took Jerusaleam. Also my best general in teh area ,Oppius Dio, was unable to do anything due to the fact taht him and his army were being beseiged by the scipii in Alexandria.

Well I suffered some bad defeats at the hands of Egypt and the Scipii but in teh end I have taken all territory under Egyptian control except Memphis, Cyrene, and Thebes. I intend to seize Cyrene but will get a ceasefire with Egypt afterwords.

[Zalmoxis]

Everyone hates Egypt in the game.