RTW: Roman Factions

[Arciel]

Hey guys! I'm playing vanilla RTW, unpatched and just noticed something. The Roman Factions when played by the AI, frankly, sucks. I mean, the Julii has already beseiged Mediolanum and Patavium for at least 5 years and still no new settlements for them(except Segesta). At least the Brutii are faring well, only if at least slightly. They managed to capture Salona and Apollonia but still can't take Thermon. I don't know what the AI's doing but even I'm doing better than them(I'm a horrible strategist and an even worse battlefield commander). Oh and I'm playing as the Scipii and I've actually managed to kick Carthage out of Africa and it's little island, Palma. As of now, I'm trying to pick out the next target. Numidia might be my best bet, since after taking Carthage, Thapsus, and that other little town next to Thapsus, I've effectively split the Numidian Empire into two, one on my right and left. They don't seem to be that powerful, especially after I've just bribed two of their family members. Another option would be to strike Spain, but their navy might pose to be a problem. They have a few small stacks of biremes which I think is weaker than my battle-hardened fleet of biremes and triremes. I'm not exactly sure about their land forces though. Guess i'll have to do a little diplomatic manuevering.

[Brother Mark]

I wouldn't recommend wading too deep into Numidia, it takes ages to get anywhere and it ties up your early troops in lengthy desert marches to capture tiny settlements that you have to exterminate anyway. They won't make too much money either since they're mostly landlocked. Putting down rebellions is hard due to the huge distance between settlements and this will be a factor with the culture penalty.

If the other Roman factions are doing as badly as you say they are, I'd recommend you begin to encircle them rather than going deeper into Africa. Greece is loaded with booty and it's always better to sieze this for yourself rather than let the Bruttii squander it. You also get far more interesting and satisfying battles crushing the phalanx rather than chasing around the desert after skirmish cavalry. Once you have Greece - you have opened the door to Turkey and the wonders that are there. Greece will give you the Temple of Zeus, a bit further will get you Rhodes and the Colossus, Turkey easily gives you Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Bribe Bruttii faction members at will whenever they wander around alone - ignore the troops you can produce these for less.

All this sets you up well for the end game, if you have developed Greece into a thriving trade nation - easily done since most settlements are coastal. You've eliminated one of your main rivals for dominance in Rome by stopping his expansion and you've eliminated the Greeks and Macedonians who can be a nuisance. You also own more than half of the wonders of the world. In short, you can't lose.

Because you're bribing faction members in the East, if you want to contiue a Western campaign to please the Senate, feel free to rampage through Spain as it is potentially wealthy.

[Bombasticus Maximus]

Numidian towns maybe far apart but then you can always turn them into slaves and helpout the settlements that need to grow population wise. As for the AI they never do anything special. In my latest game I am the Julii and I have looked around in greece/macedonia and seen that the brutii have full stacked armies but none of the settlements get taken...


I'd also say take spain as it can get you some healthy profit if you build the right buildings and it stops you having to take it later when the cival war coles along as the julii will take it.

[Al Khalifah]

Personally I'd advocate Brother Mark's strategy of going it alone. The other Roman factions are generally rubbish and too hesitant. It really is for the best to try and take the best settlements for yourself rather than let the AI waste them.

AFAIK it doesn't advance the story line if you take other factions target settlements. Only moving along in your own does - so the civil war is postponed which is handy for getting plenty of reward units.

[doc_bean]

Don't worry about the Roman factions, they tend to start slow but often get quite good after a while, I assume this is a feature.

As for what to do, get rid of Egypt ! They're the hardest nut to crack in vanilla RTW. You could take Numidia to avoid being stabbed in the back, but they usually don't have the (man)power to become a serious threat.

EDIT: and take as many islands as you can, the AI almost never attacks them so you can have peasants or town militia guard them while you turn the town into cash cows.

[Brother Mark]

EDIT: and take as many islands as you can, the AI almost never attacks them so you can have peasants or town militia guard them while you turn the town into cash cows.

Except Sardinia when you're Carthage. The Julii will not stop attacking until this is theirs for some reason. The high woodland density makes it perfect for ambushes too.

Once it has been theirs they seem to lose interest in it though.

[GottMitUns]

I'm playing my first RTW campaign (the gold edition packaged with RTW:BI) also- not sure if it is patched. But my experience of the other roman factions is very different. They are very agressive and it is a chalenge keeping up with them- especially learning the game as I go. Numedia is gone
as is Carthage- the other roman factions have them. After pushing east and stopping at the border of Spain, I am going after the last of the greek cities- Rhodes and the 4 cities immediately above it on the continent. The only non-roman factions left with real power are the Germanic Tribes, Egypt and Thrace. Seems like this campaign hasn't been going on very long either. I'm suprised by how quick things happen.

[Arciel]

Yeah, things are much quicker in RTW than in MTW... Anyway, I'm now in a war of attrition against the Egyptians and the Greeks. So far, Macedon, Dacia, Carthage and Numidia have been eliminated, Spain controls the Iberian Peninsula except the large central province which the Gaul still continue to hold. I've also established a foothold in Greece by taking both Sparta and Corinth although the latter seems to be under perpetual seige. Also took Alexandria as my first city in Egyptian territory and I also eventually took Crete. Those chariot archers sure are a hell to deal with though... Taking Crete was quite interesting as I miscalculated and only set a small force consisting of a unit each of Equites, Principes, and Roman Archers. The reason for such a small force was that I was dealing with Rebels and saw that the town only had a one unit garrison. Anway, as I proceeded to lay seige on the town(which really didn't need seiging as it had no walls), I was surprised to see that another Rebel force was waiting in ambush on the other end of town. Well, I was outnumbered 3-1, but what the heck. I rushed my units to the town plaza, with my archers providing covering fire, while my principes charged their phalanx on its left flank and my equites on the right. Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to finish it off and had to deal with reinforcements, two phalanx-capable units and two cretan archers, all coming towards me in a single cramped alley. As I had no choice, I allowed my principes to remain in the town plaza, engaging the remnants of the first phalanx units while I whisked my cavalry to a side alley with my archers raining flaming arrows on anyone who dare go near them. Luck was on the rebel's side as they managed to rout my principes, then my equites. With my archers(who still had over 3/4 of their ammo left) still remaining, I withdrew to an open square and let it loose on the phalanx units with fire. I managed to rout all 3 phalanxes(?) and a cretan archer uni, which eventually left me with a slightly weakened cretan archer to contend with. As engaging in a missile duel was not really in my best interest, I rushed my archers to the plaza and held it for the full 3 min, while constantly engaging fire with the enemy... Lesson learned: I suck as a commander and always make use of a good intelligence network...

[dacdac]

My favorite trick is to do something unexpected by the AI and other human players at time. Go to the other side of the map. Ex. With the Scipii, i put a very good defensive army on Sicily along with a good navy, and then built up a couple of stacks to send to Egypt, Greece, and Briton. As i held Carthage off, Egypt attacked them from the east, so i put my 1st and 2nd stacks at Jerusalem, allied with Seleucia, and hit Egypt from behind. All of their chariots were at Carthage, and in a couple of years, all they had left was a blockaded Carthage that I used the Sicilian troops to capture. My 3rd stack went to Greece and I took out the Greeks, Thracia, and Macedonia. Lastly, my 4th and 5th stacks went to Briton and Northern Gaul. One stack took all of Briton, then reinforced the stack in Gaul. I allied with the Germans, then marched south taking all of Gaul. So now what I have done is cut off all expansion of the other Roman factions. My Sicilian stack and the 2 in Gaul (1 and a half by now) took Spain, getting rid of Carthage. Then, the Senate declared war, I took the ones in Spain and raised two from Greece and overtook all of the Romans in less than 20 turns. I had all of the Julii and the SPQR sieged at one time. Victory is mine and only 10 years past the Reforms.

[Arciel]

Looks like you have a very effective strategy there dacdac. A couple of questions though. How high was the loyalty in your british settlements?? I think that with your capital being somewhat in the middle of the Mediterranean, your british colonies would have had a severe distance-to-capital penalty. And, what year do the reforms take place?

[dacdac]

well, with Sicily freed and some good buildings built there, I was able to put my capital to Briton without a severe penalty in sicily, even though i had to lower takes drastically, the garrison to protect against Carthage almost balanced it out. The only problem I had were the ones in Egypt and Africa, but only one revolted. The economy was so good there that i didn't suffer from having the taxes at a minimum. After some buildings were built in Briton and my invading force in Gaul, I moved it back to Sicily to balance out the Egyptains, Briton, and the newly aquired Greeks. The reforms came later than usual for me due to higher taxes to pay for the army and I wasn't really trying to build stuff in Italy or Sicily as that money was being used to help out my Gaul. Greek, and Egyptian campaign. I do not remember the exact date as i was doing so well i just cared more about where everything was than when. I like to postpone it a little bit anyway so i can build some trarii. About 5 years in and i was having a 2-3 battles every turn it seemed. Sometimes, they were huge on both sides, and only once did I lose a land battle that I did not auto-calculate. It was against the Macedonians, and i used the Brutii to assist me by making the Macedonians go towards the Brutii's invading force. I had about 600 troops on large scale, about 300 trarii, 100 calvary, and the rest were priciples(sp?). The Brutii had a mixture of town watch and hastati(sp?) and totaled 1200 troops. The Macedonians had 200 troops of 3/4 calvary and the rest were weak pikemen. At the start, they rushed the Brutii, so i sent my calvary, with my infantry charging theirs at their left flank. Their calvary stops, and thier infantry charged the Brutii. I sent my calvary after their infantry, and my infantry after their calvary. At the last second, their calvary charges into the side of mine, their hoplites kill the brutii, and my infantry are tired. The rest is self-explanatory, but i gave up that battle. got my revenge though