Conversion overview

**The Potty 1** · 05-23-2007, 13:11

Hi

I'm currently on my first RTW playthrough, with no mods apart from BUG-FIXER v3.36 from player1. I have however won Shogun TW as every faction. I am finding this way too easy.

My thoughts:

Are the romans ridiculously overpowered? Given the Marius reforms, this looks possible. If I play as another faction, will my units be much weaker, and thus give me more of a challenge?

Should I just ditch this game and try a BI game instead?

Should I download & install a total conversion? If so, which one. I had a glance in google, & came up with the following:

Europa Barborum
Rome Total Realism
Roma Surrectum
The Fourth Age

I have RTW gold, which installs RTW v1.5, & BI v1.6. So I can't install any mods which require earlier patches. Can anyone recommend a good mod thats stable etc. Reskinning isn't my top priority.

Another thing is, I am finding the entire Ancillaries thing kinda time consuming and irritating. Are there any mods which alter this? Ideally it would remove Ancillaries entirely but give you traits more often. Yes I know, NOOB :p

**The Potty 1** · 05-24-2007, 10:06

OK well I read the 'romans are ridiculously overpowered' thread, so that answers that. Just to confirm, I had taken Africa West of Egypt, Spain, northern Europe, & Britain, I controlled 30+ regions, & was ranked in the top 3 along with Egypt & some other lot on the other side of the Romans. Was this a pretty foregone win?

I've started a new game as Carthage. Took the first Greek city, made peace with Greece, Spain, & Numidia, & am moving on the Rebel cities on the Spanish peninsula & south of Carthage. The Romans are attacking, and are about to have a bad case of elephants.

After Carthage I'll try BI, and then The Fourth Age. Which is better, Rome Total Realism or Europa Barborum.

Are elephants one-shot weapons, do they always rampage? If so, is it better to use them against infantry lead by one general, or two generals alone in a city? I think the two in a city.

**I of the Storm** · 05-24-2007, 10:44

Hi,

the romans are definitely op in vanilla. Due to the necessity of the civil war in order to win the game you will have some fun battles in the late game.
As for the other factions, they are all somewhat unique and require a different approach to strategy and battles. Just give them a try, it's interesting.

As for the mods: Practically every mod will slow down the campaign pace and will try to balance the game a bit better. Most of 'em have a larger map. Europa Barbarorum is slow paced, history oriented and very educating. Fewer and therefore decisive battles. In RTR you will have more battles, and I personally like their skins. I wouldn't say this one or that one is better. Each mod takes a different approach. Cannot tell you about Roma Surrectum or Fourth Age, though. You might want to go over to twcenter.net, there are some more nice mods in the mod section there.

Oh and the elephants, I personally find them overrated, but they can be the decisive factor in a battle, if used correctly. I tend to keep them back until the enemy is pinned by my battle line, then have them coming in from one flank, stomp through to the other flank, retreat, rest (resting is important!).
They become extremely vulnerable in the presence of archers (fire), many skirmishers (using eles against numidia is quite pointless imo) or artillery.

**The Potty 1** · 05-25-2007, 10:22

Thanks

OK then as deciding factor regarding RTR & EB, do they both nerf heavy cavalry and toughen up infantry? The thing with STW was, the units really did follow rock/paper/scissors. Which probably isn't historically correct, but does make for a better game. In RTW on the other hand, heavy cavalry applied judiciously from two directions beats just about anything. Except chariots, which I think really do beat everything. I don't want Cavalry to be whipped by swordsmen, but I do want routing to be harder to achieve.

Anyway, Carthage is floating my boat for now. I took over Sicily, with some pain. I took the rebel town in western Lybia, and the romans are attacking me in Sardinia. The romans rule the sea, but given the Scipii are probably down to one region, I doubt I'll see many Decere's.

**I of the Storm** · 05-25-2007, 11:17

Difficult. I think Heavy Cav in RTR carries quite a punch due to a high charge bonus. Hitting from behind, they will most likely rout any infantry with the second charge. But: in RTR Heavy Cav is ****ing expensive.
I think in EB Heavy Cav isn't so powerful. You'll need some more charges there.

But why are you trying to decide anyway? They are both beautiful mods, where thousands of hours went into. You should play them both otherwise you'll really miss something.