Do You Like...

[Augustus Lucifer]

Definitely a fan of big decisive battles. If the general's speeches for the Julii would say 1/4 or more of enemies armies for any given battle, those are the battles I like to fight. May as well duke it all out survival of the fittest rather than slowly peck away while the other AI take over the world.

[Celt Centurion]

I prefer the fewer battles myself.

After finally figuring out how to unlock factions, I played and won a short campaign as Macedon which wasn't too bad, but then I started one as the Scythians.

Macedon had been my ally, but they betrayed me. I have since destroyed their armies but they still have a few cities with a few troops.

Macedon has since allied with Brutii, who has attacked me at Larissa every second turn for, what, eight turns? The Brutii have sent 4 stacks, the first totally packed, and the others slightly smaller to break my gates. I have held on by letting archers pick them off from the walls, horse archers grind them into fertilizer, and heavy cavalry to finish them off. Four stacks I've destroyed, I'm under siege again, and I still see two more stacks coming down from Appollonia. Where are they coming from?

It's basically the same battle, fought over and over, the only differences being that each stack is a unit or 2 less than the one before, and every few turns I recruit another unit of Chosen Archers, meaning, I get stronger. I have a half stack on the way to take Thessalonica from Macedon, which seems to be adding a new unit each turn.

They started with armies of about 3,000, of whom all but 90 were killed. Then about 75% killed, and another with 86%. They keep coming to sacrifice themselves on my arrowheads.

I do not know where the Brutii is getting all those units to throw at me. Only 20 or so turns into the game, they only have about 3-4 regions, but somehow they can recruit 10 units for each one I recruit, if I have the money.

I've eliminated Thrace, and nearly eliminated Macedon already, but having to beat away the Brutii nearly every turn, and retrain for casualties does not leave time nor money to go after the others.

Somehow, I still have to remove Dacia from the equation.

Fewer, more decisive battles would be better.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[Ciaran]

I once had something similar, playing the Bruti, I besieged Thessalonica, then owned by Macedon. The Macedons brought up eight stacks of reinforcements, each and every tile around my single Bruti army was occupied. The first battle was epic, not all eight stacks were full, but three or four were, as was the garrison of Thessalonica. I managed to defeat them, but the problem was, each of the eight stacks started it´s own attack and every time the leftovers from the other stacks came onto the battlefield. In the end I fought eight battles, all on the same field, in one single turn and with each battle the other armies got weaker (well, so did I, but less so than the defeated Macedons). A better solution for a situation like that would have been a rule that a stack can only fight one offensive battle per turn, whether initiating it or coming as reinforcement.

But still, the first battle was truly epic, seeing a couple of full stack phalanx armies march up from all sides - that´s a sight you don´t forget in a hurry. Henry V comes to my mind:

WESTMORELAND. Of fighting men they have full three-score thousand.

EXETER. There's five to one; besides, they all are fresh.
[...]
WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING. What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
[...]
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Act IV Scene III of Shakespeare´s Henry V.

But for the details, it would have been truly a fitting general´s speech.

[naut]

Ciaran, very appropriate.

Like the battle I'm fighting now. Why do Macedon get so many different types of Phalanx units?

Decisive battles are much more exhilarating, you have the added incentive of destroying at least half of your enemies standing army!

[Ciaran]

Indeed.
Why, all Greek factions get loads of phalanx units, but very little else, except the Seleucids. But the Macedons at least get good cavalry in addition to their phalanxes.

[Severous]

I like to destory the AI armies whenever I encounter them....big or small no matter.

I would rather seek out,fight and destroy several small groups. Kill them before they can unite into a big dangerous stack. Attack the stacks led by the least able commanders.

So I voted for the bleed them dry.

That said...a huge battle won is more memorable than efficient peicemeal destruction of the enemy.

[Quillan]

That's an odd experience, Ciaran, and contrary to my recent experience. I don't know if behavior was bugging in your case or mine, or perhaps it was changed in a patch. I've been playing RTR, and rushed up to relieve a Gallic seige on Gergovia. I didn't quite have the movement to engage the beseiging army, but ended my turn adjacent to both the Gauls and the town. I was attacked by another Gallic army that moved in, with the garrison coming in to assist me and the beseigers coming in to assist the attacking Gauls. I won the fight, and both the Gallic armies were forced to retreat, which broke the seige. In your case, the garrison would have had to retreat back into the town, and if other armies moved up to attack you I could see them fighting multiple times in the season, but your first victory should have pushed all those other armies away.