Rome almost defeated

[DMu]

I'm in trouble.

In my Roman campaign, I pacified the South, Corsica and Sardinia, so I don't get much grief with the Epirotes and the Carthaginians.

But now, the Aedui are getting so powerful that they lay siege to this Aventicos town that I conquered. I mostly trained Celts to deal with Celts, and even got a full stack army (fully trained Roman citizen legion, hastati, principes, and triarii etc) into the vicinity. Except after a few victories, the armies got decimated. after facing several stacks.

So while I'm occupied with Aedui, the Sweboz starts attacking. I took one of their towns (Iuva or something), looted it, and abandoned it.

But then a few turns later, the Sweboz and Aedui ally and laid siege to Aventicos and captured it. Then they turned to Milan, and Segesta. I tried to reinforce Segesta by moving the Arpi Garisson of Archers to Segesta, but the city fell before the reinforcements could get there.

So now, Milan is on it's last legs, with Sweboz eyeing Patavium.

And the 1 turn recruiting is killing me. I need more men! I could bring the men up from the central and South penisula, but it's just too slow.

One thing I learned though, is the value of Archers, specifically, fire arrows are my friend.

Oh, and I got this Scipio Asina guy into Vanquisher of Germans when he captured Iuva, but then he died a few turns later in the siege.

[CountArach]

I would fall back. Drag whatever troops you still have in Northern Italy towards Arretium, and start recruiting everywhere. Start stockpiling mercenaries as well. I would disband any ships you have, because they will just be wasted money for you.

Have you had the Polybian reforms? What difficulty are you playing?

[DMu]

playing M/M, with Polybian reforms!
That's what I'm going to do, I guess, fall back! Fall back!

[Intranetusa]

"playing M/M, with Polybian reforms!"

Are you new to Rome total war?

Cuz most people steam roll by polybian reforms...even on VH/VH.


Build forts so the enemy don't seige your cities & cut off your trade income...build mercs and go on the offensive.

btw, are you playing by any house rules?

[DMu]

The problem is with finances.
I also distrust mercs for some reason, but I might give it a try.
Yes, I'm fairly new, or rather, I never get into the game to study the tactics, etc.
Anyway, the point is I almost always put my battle formation like this

AAAAA

G HHHHH G

PPPPP

TTTTT

(Archers or slingers) Hastati, Principe and Triarii. and (General and cavalry)

And I'm a hopeless Infantry nut, so I always or almost always put the Gs in the AI control

Total noob, I know.

[Intranetusa]

The problem is with finances.
I also distrust mercs for some reason, but I might give it a try.
Yes, I'm fairly new, or rather, I never get into the game to study the tactics, etc.
Anyway, the point is I almost always put my battle formation like this
(Archers or slingers) Hastati, Principe and Triarii. and (General and cavalry)

And I'm a hopeless Infantry nut, so I always or almost always put the Gs in the AI control

Total noob, I know.

lol, you should've played RTW before playing the EB mod
also don't use formations...just stretch out your infantry melee force and surround the enemy when they engage. Works every time and causes massive enemy rout with few casualties yourself. Archers/skirmishers in front of course

[CaesarAugustus]

Like CA said, pull all troops out of other parts of your empire and reinforce Italy. If you allow Milan and Segesta to bw taken then you will soon be facing a situation similar to the Second Punic War. Divert all funds to creating more legions. Upgrade walls in your threatened Northern Italian cities. Make sure that your central Italian cities (which, at this point in the game, are by far your best) are well guarded in case any sneaky barbarians slip past.


After you are safe from attack in Italy, you might want to spend some time consolidating your power, makeing economic improvements and building up armies. Take your time, and play on the defensive. Your soldiers shouldn't cross the Alps until you're confident that you are prepared for anything and everything.

Don't over expand, and go into Spain before Gaul. Conquering Gaul is what indirectly caused all of the problems in my (recently abandoned) Romani campaign, and led to my eventual downfall.

Above all, don't give up, even if the barbarian alliance surrounds Roma itself! Remember that Roman stubborness even in the face of certain defeat is what saved them from Hannibal. Good luck on your campaign.

[Intranetusa]

can you send me your saved game? Your game progression sounds fun :)

Anyways, plz post a screenshot of the campaign mini map so we have a better idea what you're talking about.

Since you're doing badly, are you playing by any house rules or something?

If you have enough cash, just hire crap loads of mercs...

[Cata_Tank_Guy#3]

How strong is your economy?

If you can afford to, build walls or military buildings, and then shift over completely to training units.

I was in a precarious situation at one point too. I had a large empire and I was at war with Aedui, Avernii, Sweboz, Lusotana, Pontus, Seleucia, and Sauromatae.

My economy was doing well enough that I had 3 buildings queued up in every city. I cut it down to two and I had so much cash left over I hired 3 full merc armies in the span of 2 turns.

Thus far I have wiped out (in this order) Lusotana, Avernii, Aedui, and I've pushed the Sweboz back far east of the Rhine. The entire Ionian coast is now under my control, except for Halicarnassus.

I am, however, having problems with pirates. But then again I never really focused on my navy until now.

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Try these rules (well, rules to me anyway):
-Focus on one enemy at a time
-Command you battles personally
-Skewer your building production and focus exclusively on training and hiring mercenaries. And the EB team was pretty good in pricing the merc's, as you generally get what you pay for (i.e. pay more for better troops). Well at least in my experience.




.

[Wolfman]

I downloaded your campaign and when I started it up I noticed one thing. You hardly had any Romans in your army most of them were locals. Build more Polybians and you might survive the (sorry if this offends any body I'm trying to sound dramatic) barbarian invasion.

[DMu]

I did destroy those armies in Sardinia, but in some of them I still have 7 or so units, because otherwise the rebel.

Germanicus died. (siege battle.)

I have built an army in a fort guarding the pass of Milan into inner Italy, but then one unit of Arverni bypassed the pass, and I had to move the army out to its destruction.

I think I lost Segesta, but I took it back again, same deal with Segestica.

I did conclude a peace with Carthage and the others, but I'm at war with Sweboz and Arverni right now.

It wasn't so bad with only Sweboz, and I came close to Ak-Ink, but my army was driven back. Lost the entire full stack vs. one full stack of Germans.

[NeoSpartan]

Hey man I trying loading your saved game but got a CTD while loading.

I'll see if later today I can play a costume battle with the Romani before any of the reforms and a strong Sweboz army.