Rtw/bi

[caravel]

They do have that - the shield button is for hold formation; the default is engage at will.

Does it! I don't see any difference with it enabled! To me it seems to work like "hold position" used to work in MTW. Ok I'll check that out again as it appears i've been mistaken along!

Another question I have is, that when I'm drawing out formations, e.g. a group of three units of Hastatii, I expect them to line up as follows:

H . H . H

Instead the always seem to line up like this:

H . H . . . . H

Why the huge gap??? I've read through the maunal and am working through frogbeasteggs superb guide but can't see anything relating to this. Is it a bug? I am aware of a bug with groups but I thought 1.2 or 1.5 fixed it? And this doesn't seem to be related.

I am intending to get into RTR but want to get back into vanilla RTW first, because as you can tell I've forgotten alot of even the basics. I also want to see a clear comparison.

[econ21]

Does it! I don't see any difference with it enabled! To me it seems to work like "hold position" used to work in MTW.

According to the strategy guide, the guard button has three effects:
(1) stops your units chasing the enemy
(2) allows your unit to hold its formation better
(3) raises defence slightly at the cost of attack

I don't know about your other query.

[caravel]

According to the strategy guide, the guard button has three effects:
(1) stops your units chasing the enemy
(2) allows your unit to hold its formation better
(3) raises defence slightly at the cost of attack

I don't know about your other query.

Ok it looks like I had got it very wrong.

**hits self over the head with the manual and gets back to froggies guide**

Thanks for your advice econ21 you've been very helpful throughout my n00bish venture into RTW!

[caravel]

I'm doing well so far, though I have found the diplomacy to still be a bit shaky at times. Especially when a Gallic diplomat arrived with an offer of a ceasefire and that I should give them some of their settlements back. I countered this with a demand for tribute, trade rights and a ceasefire. They accepted then immediately attacked one of my settlements the following year...

[caravel]

Well so far I've had a CTD, after an 'epic' battle, I've shaken my head in disbelief at the stupidity of the AI and have seen my best general whom I had spent hours training up (playing as Parthia) charge a formation of Selucid Hoplites without orders and dying instantly.

Then there was my sortie that, under siege sallied forth, to attack a battering ram crew of archers, routed them and then pulled back through the gates leaving half the unit stuck behind the ram running at it, but not around it, despite being well outnumbered, and the enemy having HA's I won that one as well with my own HA's and slingers (I really do like those slingers for some reason!).

Next up was my 'great victory' uphill outnumbered 10 to 1 against the Armenians who suddenly decided to wreck my empire. I thought I had lost it, but repeatedly charges from my generals unit of 30 men, and a few of my HA's (vs their 800+ eastern infantry, general and horse archers) won the day, with the enemy routing in all directions. Surprising as in MTW or STW it would have been all over for me in most cases.

By this time my morale was shot, never mind the army's. The Scythians then attacked my northmost province after a long time of piece, and sent a huge army against my more central provinces. After another few battles my few Cataphracts and many horse archers smashed through these, and my forces advanced into Armenian and Scythian territory laying seige to their provinces.

After this, tired of finding annoying brigands everywhere and the level of micromanagment involved (constantly moving my forces from a to b and back again). Combine that with the poor battle AI, I began to feel I was playing some kind of civ game where the classic TW real time battle engine was a bit of an afterthought.

Should I try the "very hard" difficulty for the battles instead of hard? Or just forget it and download RTR?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I went back to MTW after that and continued my Turks/High/Hard campaign.

[econ21]

I've shaken my head in disbelief at the stupidity of the AI and have seen my best general whom I had spent hours training up (playing as Parthia) charge a formation of Selucid Hoplites without orders and dying instantly.

Mods don't significantly improve the battlefield AI, although maybe by fiddling with the starting formations they make it a bit better. I find sometimes the AI is dumb, but often is servicable. What mods like RTR and EB tend to do is slow down the battles and improve the realism. I suspect vanilla RTW makes the AI seem dumb because you can beat it so easily and quickly. With slower battles (from higher morale and lower kill rates), you still win but it feels more like a real contest.

I'd never trust the AI with one of my generals, though.

Next up was my 'great victory' uphill outnumbered 10 to 1 against the Armenians who suddenly decided to wreck my empire. I thought I had lost it, but repeatedly charges from my generals unit of 30 men, and a few of my HA's (vs their 800+ eastern infantry, general and horse archers) won the day, with the enemy routing in all directions. Surprising as in MTW or STW it would have been all over for me in most cases.

RTW does have balance issues with cavalry and infantry - especially 2HP generals and lamentable eastern infantry. I'm inclined to edit all generals' units to be 1HP.

A horse archer army in the hands of the player can be devastating (as can be an all cav one in vanilla RTW).

After this, tired of finding annoying brigands everywhere ...

This is one of my biggest bug bears, but from 1.5 onwards, you can edit down the brigand and pirate spawn. Find the descr_strat.txt files (there's one each for RTW and BI, hidden deep away under data\world\maps\campaign\whatever) and set the spawn parameters to 100 (you could search the text file for "spawn" - but it is very early in the file so you could eyeball it).

Should I try the "very hard" difficulty for the battles instead of hard? Or just forget it and download RTR?

I've never raised the battle difficulty - I like the historical balance - and never really felt the need. I fight on VH campaigns with less than full stacks and find it challenging enough.

Personally, I would forget it and download RTR Platinum Edition (Gold will not let you edit down the brigand spawn rate).

If you want a challenge, I'd recommend SnakeIVs Roman factions mod for RTR PE - it brings back the Senate and I find Julii a struggle at the beginning (which is striking because Julii is about the easiest faction in vanilla RTW).

But I think RTW factions differ from MTW in being of greatly different strength. In MTW, most factions have similar unit rosters (basic spears, cav, swords, archers etc). In RTW, there is a much wider dispersion in the power of different units. Romans, Macedonians, Parthians etc are always going to be powerful in the hands of the player. Numidians and Gauls are going to struggle etc.

[caravel]

Mods don't significantly improve the battlefield AI, although maybe by fiddling with the starting formations they make it a bit better. I find sometimes the AI is dumb, but often is servicable. What mods like RTR and EB tend to do is slow down the battles and improve the realism. I suspect vanilla RTW makes the AI seem dumb because you can beat it so easily and quickly. With slower battles (from higher morale and lower kill rates), you still win but it feels more like a real contest.

I find the AI simply horrendous and can't make excuses for it. I still don't understand how the AI in TW games has become progressively worse. There is still no positive confirmation from CA regarding M2TW's standard of AI, all the talk is about graphics, so I doubt if we can expect the legendary AI we had all hoped for.

I'd never trust the AI with one of my generals, though.

The general in question wasn't AI controlled he simply took it upon himself to ignore my orders and charge the phalanx full on.

RTW does have balance issues with cavalry and infantry - especially 2HP generals and lamentable eastern infantry. I'm inclined to edit all generals' units to be 1HP.

Forgive my ignorance, but: 1HP and 2HP? (hit points???)

A horse archer army in the hands of the player can be devastating (as can be an all cav one in vanilla RTW).

I find that arrows do far to much damage on the whole. I won a particular battle just by sitting my horse archers in front of the enemy and leaving them there. I was concentrating on hunting enemy foot archers with my generals units and was surprised to see a few stragglers routing... battle over. My HA's had cleaned up. The AI sat there and took it. It either bumrushes or sits there. There is no tactical maneouvering, the crap flat terrain, complete with giant trees, combined with the moto cav doesn't help.

This is one of my biggest bug bears, but from 1.5 onwards, you can edit down the brigand and pirate spawn. Find the descr_strat.txt files (there's one each for RTW and BI, hidden deep away under data\world\maps\campaign\whatever) and set the spawn parameters to 100 (you could search the text file for "spawn" - but it is very early in the file so you could eyeball it).

I've never raised the battle difficulty - I like the historical balance - and never really felt the need. I fight on VH campaigns with less than full stacks and find it challenging enough.

Personally, I would forget it and download RTR Platinum Edition (Gold will not let you edit down the brigand spawn rate).

Done it, and once I've fixed my wife's PC I may even have a chance to play it. It looks absolutely superb.

If you want a challenge, I'd recommend SnakeIVs Roman factions mod for RTR PE - it brings back the Senate and I find Julii a struggle at the beginning (which is striking because Julii is about the easiest faction in vanilla RTW).

I find the senate missions odious, so I may have to avoid that one for now. I like the way RTR creates a single Roman faction with which you can do as you please.

But I think RTW factions differ from MTW in being of greatly different strength. In MTW, most factions have similar unit rosters (basic spears, cav, swords, archers etc). In RTW, there is a much wider dispersion in the power of different units. Romans, Macedonians, Parthians etc are always going to be powerful in the hands of the player. Numidians and Gauls are going to struggle etc.

I do feel that vanilla RTW represents the "barbarians" as a rabble and doesn't really do them justice.

(sorry for late reply)