Imperator - Rome Mod v1.0

[LestaT]

Imperator - Rome Mod v1.0
Gameplay Guide & Tips


Out of boredom, I would like to share some game guide & tips for my mod. Please note however that this is not a house rule or anything but just guidelines for anyone who have never played Metropolis Mod or Roma Mod by Bouis (for RTR 5.41) as this mod takes some elements from both mods.

Introduction

This mod is optimize and modified to be play as Roman faction (Senatus Populusque Romanus) only though other faction will be unlocked after finishing the Roman campaign. The idea of this mod is to make Roman campaign more challenging than vanilla RTR Gold Edition. If you find the vanilla RTR Gold Edition is hard enough then this mod is definately not for you. The challange is more directed towards the campaign mode , and not the battle mode.

Buildings

Only one new building tree is added which is war harbours. In Imperator, the ports,shipwrights & dockyards only open trade routes and bring trade income only. All naval vessels are only recruitable at war harbours. Only certain provinces that have timbers will the war harbours be build. That makes Roman start with province that have no war vessels building facility.

Other buildings like walls & roads are buildable one level higher that vanilla RTR. For instance , walls only buildable starting from large town. This makes most towns belonging to rebels starts with no walls in the beginning. This provides extra challenge earlier in the campaign as player can no longer assault a rebel town like Corfinium , leave a unit and move to another town like in vanilla.

Basic roads can only be buildable from large town onwards. This is taking into account of slowing gameplay a bit o curb fast expansion. However an army led by general unit have bonus movement points , except in winter. (4TPY v1.8 mod features).

Almost all buildings got double contruction time from vanilla RTR and the cost have been up too. For Roman auxilia , upgrades from Aux I to Aux II will follow town developements. For example a village for Aux I , town for Aux II , large town for Aux II and so on.

Units

Newly added Leves (City Militia) recruitable from Provincial & Roman barracks. This unit are only better use for garrisoning duty. Though they dressed and armed like Triarii, they don't hold much in battle and will likely run at first contacted with enemy.

I decided to use RTR unit number because of population control. This game is better player with huge unit settings. In a way it adds to the challenge. For instance in my test game I occupied a huge Greek city only to find that the population in less than 2000. Takes some years to build up population and eventually to use it as forward Roman base in further campaign.

Roman unit costs & upkeeps have been increased. It's no longer possible to multiple full stacks sitting idle in early to mid campaign. Some of 'favourite' merc units have their cost increase also. To balance the book, an idle Roman Legion pre & post Marian should be kept at half stack. My favorite is pre-Marian Legion army composition is :

2 Equites Consulares (General Units)
2 Hastati
2 Principe
2 Triarii
2 Missiles (Funditore or Velites)

If it comes to war, like any province under attack. I will quickly raise additional reserve force in form of Auxilia. This can just be done in 1 turn due to I have given all AOR foot unit types (all factions) a 0 turn recruitment. They are best as fodders before heavier roman infantry gets in. They can quickly be disbanded into the population once the threat has been reduce to minimize upkeeps.

Post Marian is where it gets exciting (if you play tis mod long enough and not bored by it . Instead of common legionaries recruited in any Roman province, you can now be able to recruit Named Legions which restricted to their area of recruitment zone. For example the first Italian legion , Legion I Italica can only be recruited and retrain in Italy. Their stats and costs are varied according to legions. Some legions can form testudo though you don't have to use it if you think its ahistorical but I have given most eastern legions that have contact with the highly acclaimed Eastern Horse Archers to be able to form testudo.

So far I have make 22 legions for Romans altogether. Though there's no house rule whatsoever to say that multiple same named legion can be created, it is much more economic to only create one each. The only region where no legion can be recruited is the British Isles. Any player bold and brave enough can send 4 legions to invade British Isles and hope reinforcement from Gauls.

Suggested legion composition

2 Equites Pretorianii (General Units)
1 Prima Legio Cohortis (Legionaru First Cohort)
9 Legionary Cohorts (according to ZOR)

The rest to be fill up with auxillia units depending on location.

Starting Campaign

The campaign starts in 280 BC. Phyrrus has landed near Tarentum. Senate decides that Corfinium need to be within Roman control to further Roman interest. You can see from the victoria pop up informing events that happen at certain season and year.

Rome starts with 4 armies. 2 in the field while 2 are stationary in 2 other cities. An experience player can stop Phyrrus right at first turn. The Greek army had a small reinforcement from Tarentum. A good commander can surely defeat the army but the might be high.

Even though Rome starts with 8000 Denarii but the upkeep is about 4000 Denarii. I usually use the money for trade income buildings first while a few balance to recruit at least 2 funditores. It is useful to counter the Cretan archers that were employed by the Greeks.

My tactis were to retreat the forces led by Quintus and merge them with the force led by the faction heir. With the combine forces avialable, Corfinium which is full of rebels are quite easy to defeat. Eventhough the town starts with no walls, I prefer to siege instead of attacking them. Most rebel towns starts with no walls though they are compensate with much more rebels than usual. If you let them for quite some times, they even venture out and attack you settlements instead.