Where do i get replays /tactics

**The Hun** · 12-08-2005, 00:08

http://nomadalliance.forumup.com/vie...=nomadalliance
Tactics discussed here.

**Squirrel_of_hatred** · 12-08-2005, 02:20

Thank you lad's

Yes the replays are buggered yet again, and if you pick a weaker faction it near always shows you as defeated in the play back.

Well nihil i suppose im looking for ways to win as the more challenging factions, The Gauls, Thracians etc. I may get back to you on that one. Which clans have public replay's for download? also i wasint really looking specifically for RTW type tactics but actual military tactics used historically and im too lazy to read much text unless there are animations and picture's.

The Hun, look's a tidy site ill have a look later.

**NihilisticCow** · 12-08-2005, 13:26

Well nihil i suppose im looking for ways to win as the more challenging factions, The Gauls, Thracians etc

Well against a competent opponent who doesn't mess up you just won't win as the Gauls etc. against the more common factions: Rome, Seleucids and so on. In 1.2 I did play as these factions against the much stronger ones when playing against Randoms in the lobby, but this wasn't really using any great tactics with them, but just completely out-microing my opponents and exploiting their mistakes. Against an experienced opponent I wouldn't really take these factions unless messing about.

Replays don't work so people don't really save them. Clans also can be a bit sensitive about making their replays publically available, as it could weaken them in tourney games as their opponents would know more about their preferred setups and tactics. I don't know of any good clan that regularly puts up public replays. There were some being put up in the early stages of the CWB tourney in 1.2, but the requirements were later changed, so this was no longer necessary.

There was never much discussion over tactics in 1.2 as it just was about winning the cavalry battle, so in 1v1 just a bit of micro around upgraded cavalry, or in team games getting all cav to engage together. I haven't played much 1.3 to tell much difference, but in BI infantry is more important. Probably too strong though in some cases, as there are Roman setups (with the silly amount of ammo the plumbatarii have) that are very powerful and hard to beat without any effort to use as well as the problem with horse archers not really having an effective counter in numbers.

**Squirrel_of_hatred** · 12-08-2005, 19:19

I Agree with all

The cavalry numbers in RTW are insane and very untrue of the era. The Cav numbers should be reduced accordingly. You could expect a ratio of 80,000 inf and 2-5000 or so cav back then typically.

My approach may be different in with the weaker factions though as i try to use differing methods rather than out micro them as my micro is probably not the best any how. I know its a tall order and i get my ass kicked all to often but i dont take the game too seriously and the quest for a means to beat a good player's army with a poor one is the holy grail for me. Ive done it a few times only though.

I guess even if i see a good example of winning against a superior army i.e. cannae, it may not be possible to use this in the RTW engine anyways. for example numidian/Gaulic/celtic infantry will not beat the roman's infanty as in history and numidian cavalry are not going to beat the romans cav in the program but did in history. also its not possible to move infantry backwards defensively while engaged as hannibal did in history. Perhaps im flogging a dead horse.

edit: the flawed c circle has been ported over to 1.3 and now is practically uncounterable what next?

**NihilisticCow** · 12-09-2005, 01:10

Well Numidia isn't quite the same league as the likes of Gaul etc., as they can be quite powerful, you do have to make use of their eles though. I used to use a setup with 6 camels, 2 eles, 6 Numidian Legionaries and 6 archers, which was more than capable of beating any Roman army for example.

My point though was that even if you play a perfect game, you will only beat a capable player with something like Gaul against a strong faction if the other player makes a very bad mistake. So you are probably better off just playing something that gives you a chance to be a bit more pro active and give you a chance to win a game, instead of just relying on your opponent losing it. So if you want to play something slightly weaker (i.e. not Seleucid, Rome, Egypt, Parthia, Britannia) factions like Pontus, Armenia, Carthage and Greece are still very powerful to give you a good chance to win and are interesting to play. That said, I have beaten capable players with Thrace against the likes of Egypt...

Cantabrian circle is not uncounterable individually, it's in numbers that the problem arises, as you get into the situation that archers are ineffective against them, skirmishing cav gets shot and killed and infantry is useless. Individually, you can just disrupt the cantabrian with cavalry and shoot with archers, but this just doesn't work when you have many horse archers... It's one of many balance issues I just wish would actually get noticed by CA, but lets not go there...

**Puzz3D** · 12-09-2005, 20:23

Originally Posted by Nihilist

Cantabrian circle is not uncounterable individually, it's in numbers that the problem arises, as you get into the situation that archers are ineffective against them, skirmishing cav gets shot and killed and infantry is useless. Individually, you can just disrupt the cantabrian with cavalry and shoot with archers, but this just doesn't work when you have many horse archers... It's one of many balance issues I just wish would actually get noticed by CA, but lets not go there...

CA is well aware of the balance issues, but, as MikeB said, it's not economically feasible for them to patch the game many times. The remaining balance issues would require several more patches to iron out, but I expect the next patch to be the last from CA for RTW/BI. Back during MTW days, LongJohn said he felt balancing to approximately 25% was pretty good. My contention since STW days has been that multiplayer total war needs to be balanced to within 10% for the gameplay to reach its potential. This is something that will never happen if CA's position is that 25% is good enough.

Some players here may not realize what happens when a playing community sticks around and plays a game for a long time. What happens is that the difference in skill among the players diminishes as they learn from one another. As a result, over time the weak factions and weak armies become unplayable, and the gameplay converges to a narrower focus depending on the imbalance. The greater the imbalance the narrower the focus. In the end, you have to use factions and armies that work, and at that point you decide if the gameplay is still interesting enough to keep you playing.

**NihilisticCow** · 12-09-2005, 23:54

The way the game is though is that most balance issues can be dealt by tweaking the stats etc. with without changing the code, so it should be much cheaper to do. Of course there have been efforts by the community to do this kind of thing, but it is never "official" so most just ignore it and stick with the worse set of imbalances that exist in the unmodded versions...

I don't really expect this kind of thing to happen though, as CA don't seem to consider MP to be the main focus of this game, it's just one of those things that would greatly improve the game for not a great deal of effort compared with the original development. It's just me really, the potential of the game compared with the reality does grate at times... It's still enjoyable to play, but the problems become all the more apparent the more you play.