Ok i have decided to write this guide to clarify any doubts as to whether i can really capture 39 provinces by 260BC on VH/VH RTW Gold.

Faction Used: Roman Brutii

To hit 39 provinces by 260BC on VH/VH RTW Gold, you need to strike extremely fast and furious. The roman army is the strongest at the beginning and towards the end. Hastati rapes any 3rd tier infantry with a little tactics, while princples and triarii dont have the same advantage against same tier units.

Also, Brutii's opponents are the weakest at the start. Greek units are powerful but very expensive, so they can only field a few units at the start, easily overpowered by a couple of hastati units and equites. The greeks also hold some of the richest cities and best wonders in the world, so taking over this early means you dominate the game right from the start.

IMPT Campaign Tips:
1)Do NOT garrison units in your cities at the start unless they will rebel. You need every single unit, be it peasant, velites, hastati, family member to conduct a blitzkrieg on the Greeks.
2)Only garrison conquered cities with peasants, which are equally useless in a battle as town watch but much cheaper and have more people to add to garrison troop size.
3)RUSH AND RUSH AND RUSH. The moment your army can leave the conquered town (quelled some rebellion or peasants are available to garrison), rush the next town immdiately. Build spies, one for each army so that you can conquer the town on the same turn.
4)Tax your people as much as you can at the start. The pop growth reduction is negligible at the beginning, but the gold increase is significant.
5)Scrimp and save every bit you can. Do NOT build velites(hastati much more worth it), all hastati and equites. Do NOT build any extra building or unit that is not necessary, you only need one or two hastati barracks at the start, no walls, no ships. Spend all your money FIRST on SPAMMING out hastati and equites (4:1 ratio), 2ND on economy buildings. Spam peasants to garrison, make sure you have absolutely NO hastati and equites used as garrison troops, an utter waste of resources.
6)Later on, when your empire becomes bigger and your main army moves to the borders, for every 4 towns, garrison the centre/larger/more important town with 3 hastati and 1 equites as a quick response unit and make sure the town can train more in case of an emergency. The rest just put peasants.
7)Pump out diplomats and get trading rights to increase your gold right from the start.
8)It is crucial to hit fast during the early game, the AI is either still asleep or cannot muster enough resources to defend.


Campaign Strategy:
1)Build one hastati barracks in your capital, spam peasants on the first turn. This is a main troop producing town for your early game.
2)Hit Apollonia on the 2nd turn.
3)Ally with Macedon. Hit Thermon on the 4th/5th turn with ALL your family members except the best management guy who stays in capital (change your heir to the highest rank general to get more bodyguard cavalry), all your hastati and equites. This battle is crucial, your forces will be evenly matched or even outnumbered, you will need to crush the enemy while losing minimal troops. Build a hastati barracks immediately, this will be your main troops producing town on the greek continent before you capture sparta or Thessalonica (according to my experience).
4)Hit Athens immediately after you hit Thermon, it should be a rebel town so you shouldnt have any problems. Its a rich city, which means more money for more hastati. Use your velites and peasants to garrison Thermon.
5)Make peace with greeks, by now the greeks and macedons should have some in-fighting. Use this 3-4 turns of peace to SPAM out hastati and equites, developing 2 10-unit armies one in Thermon, one in Athens.
6)Macedon is weakened, hit Corinth and Larissa IMMEDIATELY on the same turn.
7)By now you should have some spare cash from pillaging towns, income etc. What i did was to bribe the main greek army for about 10k gold, and hit the town of Sparta 2 turns after I hit Corinth.
8)From here you should have conquered the main greek cities, just move on and kill off macedon to secure your lands. You can now develop some of your towns, Sparta had a greek temple +2 to unit experience so it became my main troop producing town. Build 1-2 fleets (4 triemes) to defend your coasts.
9)Try to hit town on crete(put a family member there to buy cretan archers whenever you can, they crucial). Hit the colossus town ASAP, it gives your economy such a great boost that i instantly switched all my tax rates to low.
10)From now on, fight on multiple fronts. Hit, pontus followed by selucids, egyptians and armenians in the that order. Hit thrace, followed by Dacia in the north (try not to hit scythians coz their lands are too large, hard to traverse). Hit greeks on syracuse and carthage on libya(i didnt get libya, Scpii got it first). Try to hit carthage as well.

Battle Strategy:
1)Manually resolve every battle, arrange your troops and engage in the MOST orderly fashion to minimise casualties and maximise your kills(i take around 30 mins to 1 hour to fight a battle). A typical 1000 vs 1000 strong army in city siege, my casualties are around 50-100 after healing. For a field engagement casualties may be much higher due to the presence of chariots (pontus, selucids, and egypt), 200 after healing half hastati half equites. You can mow through enemy towns turn after turn without the need to replace your troops.
2)Try to force a city siege if possible, it takes longer(at least 1 hour) but can reduce your casualties to as low as 50 in a 1000 vs 1000 batte.
2A)WOODEN WALLS - build 4 rams, spread your forces over all 4 gates with a little bit more emphasize on one particular entrance (more infantry, general, cavalry). THIS ENTRANCE SHOULD NOT BE THE ONE YOUR ARMY IS FACING AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE. This is because the com tends to concentrate its forces at the gate your army is facing at the start. It is impt not to over-emphasize troop placement on one gate or else the com will shift most of its troops there in VH/VH mode. The basic strat is to pepper troops standing at the entrace with archers, they will move away for a short while. Use this opportunity to rush your general(or a cavalry unit) in quickly, to a point away from the gate to one side. The defending troops now march to your general, pass the gate. Rush one hastati unit thru the gate now, pincer the defending troops. (note that the one bearing the brunt of the defending troops should be infantry, or you will lose preciouse cavalry in a frontal assault) In the event one gate is heavily guarded, you will do this strat on other adjacent gates. After that, march one unit of cavalry thru these gates to the heavily guarded gate, defending troops now move to this unit to counter the new threat. Again, rush your infantry in, pincer the enemy.
2B)STONE WALLS - if gates are open and enemy troops are minimal(meaning they will not be guarding all the walls), rush one infantry unit in thru an unguarded gate, take the gateway, march around the whole wall around the town to remove hostile towers. Even if you meet any infantry guarding along the way, your hastati and principle can handle them with ease.
2C)STONE WALLS - if gates are locked, huge enemy army defending. use siege towers (game too early to build onagers, siege ladders are useless, saps makes some hostile towers unreachable, sustain lots of casaulties) at least 2 for each gate. time your siege towers, make sure your 1st tower reaches about 20 secs before your 2nd one. Your first unit of hastati should ideally not be flanked on both sides, it will draw all enemy units on the wall towards it. Now, the 2nd unit drops behind the enemy line 20 secs later, pincer the enemy.
2D)For some reason after you break thru the stone/wooden walls and defeat the immediate defenders, the AI stupidly sends individual or poorly protected units at the breach(if they have enough to spare, if they dont they just camp at the city square). Just use the city layout to flank these troops with cavalry and you should kill most of the defenders.
2E)This one is the best trick of all. If the AI finds that it has insufficient troops to put up a fight, it sends all its units to camp at the city square. Your job will be to lure these troops out of the square, into a trap, and then annihilate them. Cavalry will be your first targets, since they will chase you all the way(being fast units) if you reach within their zone. Choose a long straight street from the square to the walls, preferably with side tracks as well. At the wall end of the street, position your infantry on the 2 flanks, your cavalry at the centre back, directly infront of the wall.


CITY SQUARE
(enemy cavalry)


I I
I I
I I
I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
I (equites)
I
I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
I I
I I
I I
I I
I I
I I
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
(hastati) (hastati)
(general)
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
WALLS


Now, send your general to lure the enemy cavalry, Take note NOT to get them engaged. Just walk near them, the moment they move, double-click your general to return the the position above. If they engage just keep double-clicking to run back. The enemy cavalry, often the enemy general will chase your general all the way until the end of the street. When they reach the end, let them charge into your general (or if your timing is gd, charge your general such that they engage right at the end of the street). Then spring the trap, flank the enemy cavalry on the sides with hastati, move your equites from the sidetrack and charge them from the back. If the remaining troops are infantry, line up your hastati near them, in range to throw their pilum, then charge them and flank them from the back with cavalry. Infantry cannot be lured using this strategy unless they are missile troops. This strategy will ensure the total annihilation of enemy generals, faction leaders/heirs, enemy cavalry with almost no loss on your side.
2F)For city sieges, try to use up all your ammo, archers stand outside wall shoot until no ammo, hastati stand directly outside gate and throw pilum in thru the gate, or right before engaging. This will be your only chance to do so as during field engagements, the enemy will close in on your troops before a few volleys are fired.
3)For field engagements, its much simpler. Just line up your troops, 4 ranks deep (5-6 ranks for engaging enemy chariots or elephants, this will ensure they do not break thru your lines, turn around and charge your troops from the back, because they get bogged down during the first charge). Heavy infantry in front, archers behind them, cavalry behind them at the sides. Flank with cavalry. Try to stretch your lines so that your line is longer, use any extra infantry to flank the enemy sides, while your cavalry flank from directly behind. Try to engage flanking enemy cavalry with your infantry instead of your horses.
3A)If you meet any elephants, chariots, target your archers to shoot them with fire on sight. Keep firing and firing until they run amok. If they do come, use 5-6 rank deep infantry and just tank. Or if you have mercenary hoplites, they are the ideal for dealing with such threats.
3B)If you are fighting multiple armies (AI reinforcements), look at the campaign map before hand, find out where they will appear on the battle map, move your troops closest to where a reinforcing army appear. Rush them to that spot and engage before the enemy armies can unite. I normally do not have my own reinforcing armies( i dont trust the AI to control my armies at all).

Yup thats all. Those who like it just say something to encourage me. Spent 2 hours doing this.