Playing on Very Difficult Setting

[professorspatula]

Capture Sardinia, Carthage and Sparta before the Scipii and Brutii. Only make small inroads towards Gaul until you have a foothold in Africa and Greece. You'll be stretched at first, but you'll have extremely rich provinces that you're denying your Roman counterparts from having. They also make excellent staging grounds for future conquest and for the civil war that will come. If you can then take another settlement like Athens, you're really well prepared for the war ahead.

As for garrisons, they will drain your coffers, but unfortunately on VH you do need large ones whereas the AI doesn't need to bother. I recommend setting up permanent forts between every settlement, manned by some Town watch or depleted mercenary unit. They should be spaced so that an infantry unit can get from the settlement to fort in one turn. The forts provide a safer way for small numbers of units to move around dangerous areas, meaning you don't require every settlement to have lots of cavalry, archers and heavy infantry. The AI is less likely to attack a fort than 3 units out on the open road for example. You can then fill up the town garrisons with cheap units and have just one or two useful units per settlement, so that when you suddenly need to defend a settlement or form an army, you pull the decent units from the towns and move them between forts until they're gathered together in one place, ready to meet the enemy.

Not much else advice I can think of really, you just have to go with the flow and take any opportunities to seize profitable settlements when you can. And sometimes it's worth taking advantage of your AI Roman's plight - if you see them near an enemy settlement and you have some troops to spare, assault the city before they do. They ought to act quicker, so I have no sympathy with them for losing out to myself.

Good luck.

[LouCinncinnatus]

Thanks. Those are good tips.

[Severous]

As a rule you should be expanding quicker than any other faction. Aggressive play will capture regions boosting your income and denying resources to the enemies.

[Poulp']

you should try to anchor your northern frontier on natural boundaries; try to get Massilia ASAP to effectively repel the Gauls on the river. Taking Iuvavum + Aquincum will give you the same advantage when facing Germany and Dacia.
Once you've got these 3 provinces, you can concentrate your attention elsewhere.

However, in the first turns of the campaign, you should go for Caralis and take it by turn 4-5; it'll give a base to launch your assault on Carthage.
Just watch for the Scipii; once they've secured Sicily, that's the signal you were waiting for and go for Carthage and then Thapsus. (just be wary, sometimes, the Brutii send a army to Thapsus and the Scipii love to skip Lilybaeum for Thapsus once they got Syracuse.)

From Ariminum, you'll want to sent a general and as much troops you can spare to Salona, then Corinth, Crete and Halicarnassus (the wonder here will really help on the long term, allowing you to build faster).
Against the Brutii, you'll have to make a real race eastward; the first to Byzantium wins.

Once Byzantium is yours, try to complete your northern border along the Danub with Bylazora and Tylis. With Massilia, Iuvavum, Aquincum, Bylazora and Tylis yours, you can concentrate on defending the bridges knowing the Brutii will not expand in Central Europe.
Snatching Thesalonica from under the Brutii's nose is just bonus, as is taking Athens.
Taking Sparta however is no bonus, it's mendatory; it's a good way to have a military base in Greece. Just have your general to hire Cretan archers to turn the spartans into pincushions.

Then, it's up to you, Asia Minor, Hispania, Western Africa...
From Halicarnassus, you can aim for Rhodes and Cyprus easily for instance.

About temples; Ceres if you need the settlement to grow, Jupiter for settlements with mines and Bacchus where you know you'll never put a governor, in all other cities, it's your choice.

And remember that to build a temple of Bacchus before giving a city to your rival, their governor will get the same bad traits as yours...

*take a deep breath*

till next time

[LouCinncinnatus]

Thanks everyone. Looks like the major key is to get in the Balkans before the Brutii sew it all up.

[Poulp']

yup

taking the Balkans stops the Brutii in their track
the same is true for Scipii and Africa

Meanwhile, once you've secured Massilia for yourself, you're free to resume the conquest of Gaul whenever you feel like.