RTW: Some basic questions

[BRO,JD]

I'm about to finish my first RTW campaign as the Scipii. I played at the beginner level and did not find it very challenging.

I have some basic questions/clarifications I wanted to throw out before I start my next campaign. Because of the length of the game, I think it would be easier to ask some of these questions to all you experienced folks than having to figure it all out myself.

Civil war -- As the Scipii, I controlled the Iberian Peninsula, all of Africa and the modern Middle East, and was working on Anatolia when the Senate demanded that my faction leader commit suicide. I controlled over 40 territories and am much more powerful than the other factions. Should I have instigated the civil war earlier? And what's the best way to instigate the civil war -- try to take Rome immediately or just randomly attack another Roman faction's army?

Influence, offices, the Roman people, etc. -- How much does any of this matter? Should I care what offices my people have been assigned to? Is this a "playable" part of the game or just a rough guide to how powerful I am?

It's a great game and I'm ready to start a new campaign with a higher difficulty. I just want to figure out what I might have done wrong the first time.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

You did nothing wrong really. The point of the game is to gain power as one of the great Roman factions, but then grow too powerful for even the senate to control therefore throwing the Roman factions into civil war.

I play mainly mods, but when I played Vanilla (R:TW unmodded), I found it did take a while to start the civil war to start. I was ready, but for some reason it just wouldn't happen.

I really don't have any more advice, but welcome to the forums. Have a wonderful time!

[econ21]

Civil war -- As the Scipii, I controlled the Iberian Peninsula, all of Africa and the modern Middle East, and was working on Anatolia when the Senate demanded that my faction leader commit suicide. I controlled over 40 territories and am much more powerful than the other factions. Should I have instigated the civil war earlier?

That sounds ok. If the game tells you the people support you enough to make a bid for the throne, you can start a civil war. Often the earlier you do it, the more challenging it will be.

And what's the best way to instigate the civil war -- try to take Rome immediately or just randomly attack another Roman faction's army?

Knocking out the Senate immediately may be most efficient, but I find it more fun to do it the long way and taken down another faction on the road to Rome.

Influence, offices, the Roman people, etc. -- How much does any of this matter? Should I care what offices my people have been assigned to? Is this a "playable" part of the game or just a rough guide to how powerful I am?

I think it is a rough guide. The offices are good though. Popularity with the Roman people is important for allowing you to march on Rome.

It's a great game and I'm ready to start a new campaign with a higher difficulty. I just want to figure out what I might have done wrong the first time.

Personally, I'd recommend VH campaigns to give the AI resources but keep battles on M - otherwise you skew the battles in a certain direction (towards attack and against intuitive match ups).

If you find it getting easy, I'd recommend some of the "realism" mods - Rome Total Realism and Europe Barbarorum in particular. You'll love them if you are into history, but the gameplay is also more challenging.

[ShadesWolf]

Welcome to the ORG - Nice post

You could always have a look at some of the mods for the game. These will improve your enjoyment of the game.

[Severous]

Hi and welcome.

I suggest plan your next Roman campaign around a civil was kicking off around 40 regions. Plan it so your forces are gathered for the attack on the Romans. I tend to aim for Rome as the 50th as SPQR doesnt expand whilst the other factions do.

Senate offices I dont really understand. I had none in my Brutii campaign. The generals who hold offices gain positive traits and bigger bodyguards (more influence). I havt figured how to 'play' the senate office part of the game.

I played Julii on M/M, Brutii on H/H and now Egypt on Vh/Vh. At least as Egypt I dont have the civil war to worry about....but Rome will still be around region 50.

You might want to experiment with unit scale and graphics settings before you start. I recommend Large scale (Hastati=80men) and turn your grass graphic settings off (and the others way up).

Enjoy your next campaign.

[gmjapan]

If you dont want to play Romans in the new campaign, Greece was a fun campaign for me.

I normally play short campaigns but my recent full ones have been Greece and Carthage. As Greece I took all Sicilly and then stormed Italy from the bottom up!

[BRO,JD]

Thanks for the tips.

I finally won tonight as the Scipii in 208 BC. I could have finished about 7 years earlier but my Egyptian provinces went into big-time revolt and I didn't have enough troops anywhere near there to recapture them quickly.

I'll probably play as the Julii next. After a wide-ranging Med strategy full of open battlefields, a slogging match in Europe might be a different kind of challenge.

[BRO,JD]

What mods do you recommend? Why are the mods better than the "vanilla" version (which I already think is pretty great)?

[econ21]

What mods do you recommend? Why are the mods better than the "vanilla" version (which I already think is pretty great)?

I highly recommend Rome Total Realism.

http://forums.rometotalrealism.org/

This is a copy of a post I made the other day:

It's probably the most popular RTW mod (although not strangely not discussed much by Org members despite the endless grognard grumbling about vanilla RTW).

It started off getting rid of the "fantasy" units of RTW and gradually replaced virtually all the vanilla models with more authentic (and arguably better looking) ones.

It also slowed the movement speed and kill rates, and raised morale, so that the battles "feel" more like those in MTW.

It rebalanced the combat arms. Cavalry & missiles were somewhat downgraded in power (& cavalry raised in price), making heavy infantry more dominant than in vanilla. Peltasts and javelins in general arguably have more of a role in RTR than RTW.

It implemented a nice recruitment system whereby it takes years to train units in captured settlements. This acts as a break on player expansion.

There are also some changes to the strategic map: more provinces, more realistic starting dates and changes to the faction line ups (unified Rome, no British faction).

Naval combat was tweaked to be more decisive.

The main version is RTR Gold but it has recently been ported to 1.5 (RTR Platinum) so players don't have to put up with the save/reload bug, bugged charge stats and can control bandit/pirate spawn rates.

If you want to see what it is like, have a look at the "Will of the Senate" PBM in the Throne Room, e.g. the battle reports thread:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65721

To be honest, I got very disillusioned with vanilla RTW - no challenge, didn't feel very realistic. But after finding RTR, I've become a fan of the engine.

Europa Barbarorum is another major "realism" mod that shares nearly all the above virtues and some more. But currently it crashes too much on my rig to be fun to play.

[Garvanko]

Rome Total Realism looks really interesting.

[Master_Thief]

I'm loving the look of Chivalry Total War. Haven't downloaded it yet though, as it sounds like its still pretty buggy. I heard that the campaign map in total realism has been reduced to constant seiges by the increased number of settlements. is this true?

[econ21]

I heard that the campaign map in total realism has been reduced to constant seiges by the increased number of settlements. is this true?

I'm not a fan of more provinces for that reason. I think BI did better by reducing them.

However, I would recommend the Metropolis mod for RTR. It strips most settlements of their walls and only allows the historically more significant cities to have stone walls etc. It's a not a perfect solution, but it speeds things up and leave your settlements rather vulnerable to the AI, adding to the threat.

In the Throne Room we are playing a mod of RTR platinum with the metropolis and naval mod, and most battles have been field battles so far (have a look at the Will of the Senate battle reports thread; also the First Consul's reports).

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65721

[Master_Thief]

Looks pretty good. Do you know if there is a utility anywhere that allows people to switch between different mods without having to install and uninstall anything (similar to Darkloader for Thief)? RTR looks good, but I still want to have access to the vanilla game.

[econ21]

Yes, there's a mod-swapper. I think it is called JSGME. I don't use it but many other people do:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=34559

What I do is more crude - just copy my RTW folder, rename it and install the mod on the copy. Works without a problem, although as I know have 6 RTW folders, I'm starting to wonder about JSGME.

[Master_Thief]

Thanks for the advice. I looked at the mod-swapper, but decided that you're "crude" method was even simpler and pretty fool-proof. I only intend to play a few mods anyway. I've currently got two installs of Rome and have begun patching one of them (though as you may have seen from my thread in the entrance hall, I've been having trouble (thats nearly sorted now)). I'm hopefully going to get RTR platinum as it does look pretty cool. Cheers for the help, it has been of great use to me.

[Glaucus]

Problem is, when you copy the folder it takes up 2 times the space. I don't have an unlimited amount of hard-drive space, so I only have vanilla + BI and RTR on my computer now. 6 would be far too much RTW to be healthy (if such a condition exists)

[Kralizec]

If you're interested in RTR, be sure to get the Platinum Edition (or RTRPE) wich is built on the 1.5 version on the game. You'll have to browse a bit around their forum to find it. I find that the step from 1.2 to 1.5 was a huge improvement for the mod.

Some points about RTR: don't expect to be fighting the Roman civil wars, there is only one unified Roman faction you can play. Cavalry has been rebalanced, they're more expensive now and they've got weaker defense so they can't charge infantry head on anymore and win, but if used with tactical sense they can be devastating. Personally I like having to use them more carefully more than then being able to charge them straight into a phalanx and still win. Battles are a little slower, overall units can be counted on to last longer than they did in the original RTW.

I highly recommend it

EB is good but it's still in the beta stage. It focuses a lot more on detailed historical realismthen RTR, so if you're interested give it a try. Their forum is on this site, check the hosted mods section.

[Garvanko]

I like RTR Platinum (concept, units, etc), but Im not a big fan of the MM map. Its just too big, and there are far too many settlements.

[Mithrandir]

Welcome to the bOrg.You will now be assimilated.

[Master_Thief]

I eventually got round to downloading RTR. However, the size of platinum put me off quite a bit. I attempted to download it, but it got stuck at around 250mb (and thats with a 2mb broadband connection). I decided to settle with RTR Gold, and I've been blown away. Its just so good! I'm sure its nowhere near as good as platinum, but compared to vanilla its like heaven. I've currently secured the whole of the Iberian peninsula and am looking to head south into North Africa. I think it'll take me a while to get used to the tactics thing, as I'm still so used to just grabbing a large number of men and hurling them at the enemy. Cheers for the help and suggestions people have put forward on this thread.

[edyzmedieval]

I suggest trying out Europa Barbarorum.
Much better than RTR.

www.europabarbarorum.com

[Garvanko]

I thought the latest EB was still in Beta stage.

[econ21]

Yes, I think the current version is 0.74 which is a beta. There are some incomplete unit cards & building descriptions etc, but it's nothing to really marr your experience of the game, IMO. The big problem I have with the EB beta is repeated CTDs. Some folk don't have that problem. But for me, it makes the mod so frustrating it is unplayable.

The next version of EB will be 0.8, so still a beta. But it is for the 1.5 version of RTW, so in some ways it should be comparable to RTR Platinum and the forthcoming RTR 7.0. However, on the EB forum, one of the team said they have not yet got to the stage of testing 0.8, so we will have to be patient. I can wait and in fact I'd prefer them to make sure the game is stable rather than rush it out.