Any tips for Roman campaign?

[gabba202]

Hey i just started a new roman campaign...anyone got any tips for me to maximize my conquesting efficiency

[QuintusSertorius]

The Illyrian coast has mines and ports, grab them ASAP for lots of income. Asia Minor and Greece are also loaded.

[johnhughthom]

I think the best tip for the Romans is to try and roleplay, they are a very easy faction to use and steamrolling over Europe can get boring quite quickly. Trying to play historically (read QS' AAR for how to go about it) is a good way to go about a Romani campaign.

[delra]

Challenge 1: If you can besiege Segesta on the first turn with your starting army and then win when they sally forth, you're too good to play Romans.

Challenge 2: Never have more than 3 units of same type in an army of yours. Stacks of Principes aren't fun. Add some hoplites and bruttian hastati (from Tarentum) instead of your standard Principes and Hastati, also some Gauls from the north (Neitos make excellent infantry and Brihentin are the best cavalry you will EVER be able to train). Some Ligurians from Segesta are also a nice addition to your stacks as cannon fodder/damage sponge. Corsica has nice archer/spearmen, Crete has best archers until you reach Syria. Just outside the Alps there are Helvetii tribes who can field some really serious units. So do use those, diversify your armies!

Challenge 3: Never exterminate.

Challenge 4: Go find Quintus Sertorius code of conduct to become a true Roman (and an AAR based on it) and play the way he did!

[Cartaphilus]

I'm playing romani again, but now I'm trying to emulate historic events.

And I'm using the "force diplomacy cheat" to balance the superpowers in the east and to make Casse landing in Belgica, and create a statu quo in Gallia and Germania (I want to conquer the celts in the right time).

Now I'm busy with Epiros in Iliria and I'm fighting (to win) my second Punic War - I've put the sabean in some cities I've taken to emulate Massinissa's realm.

Very funny indeed.

[satalexton]

'-' challenge 1 ain -that- hard if you know how to play cheap.... >_>

[QuintusSertorius]

Challenge 2: Never have more than 3 units of same type in an army of yours. Stacks of Principes aren't fun. Add some hoplites and bruttian hastati (from Tarentum) instead of your standard Principes and Hastati, also some Gauls from the north (Neitos make excellent infantry and Brihentin are the best cavalry you will EVER be able to train). Some Ligurians from Segesta are also a nice addition to your stacks as cannon fodder/damage sponge. Corsica has nice archer/spearmen, Crete has best archers until you reach Syria. Just outside the Alps there are Helvetii tribes who can field some really serious units. So do use those, diversify your armies!

This is actually quite a neat little rule, though I'd say no more than two types of the same unit.

[satalexton]

naw, it's more fun to have no more than 2 armies in teh field at all times.

I've used the initial units all the way up to the marian times by leaving capua unupgraded. n their exp are all maxed out. The polybian counterpart's up to silver 3 chevs.

not that hard since all the cash can be freed up for having large garrison units in border settlements and forts. I know it's not realistic, but having 2 armies that can carve through pretty much anything is kinda fun >_>

[johnhughthom]

Challenge 1: If you can besiege Segesta on the first turn with your starting army and then win when they sally forth, you're too good to play Romans.

I loaded up a new campaign to have a go at this and I am not too good to play Romans...

[QuintusSertorius]

naw, it's more fun to have no more than 2 armies in teh field at all times.

I've used the initial units all the way up to the marian times by leaving capua unupgraded. n their exp are all maxed out. The polybian counterpart's up to silver 3 chevs.

not that hard since all the cash can be freed up for having large garrison units in border settlements and forts. I know it's not realistic, but having 2 armies that can carve through pretty much anything is kinda fun >_>

I don't retrain, ever. Unless you're using alex.exe the AI doesn't, so that's effectively an exploit in favour of the human player.

[satalexton]

i don't either, it's hard when ur trying to rampage in ibera with only one stack while the other's retraining in rome when the carthies, gauls AND the luso want to boot you out >_>

just keep a train of spare units behind ur stack ala a supply line and merge ur armies as soon as u get the chance to, u'll see those chevs stack up in no time... of course, that provides that you dun get ur supply line cut. having a doc in ur retinue helps too. Until the marian reform kicks in, the furthest i could ever go (with a train of mostly hastati and velites, they tend to get churned up pretty quickly) with only 2 stacks is the western tip of asia minor.

having an ant trail of single units following your stack from italy is quite an interesting challange.

i play using alex.exe which make battles more fun as u need to kill as many as those routers as u possibly can, or they'll come back full strength (providing they have teh cash) a turn later to wage battle with you again.

[Cartaphilus]

I post it here this question: Why the romani can build Type II Government (expansion) in places like Poland, Denmark, etc, where they never arrived???

They never held it territories beyond the Elbe.

[Aaldaemon]

Everyone seems to love playing the Romani historically... I did that once too... but then I tried something else and it was exceedingly fun - I turned the armies of the Res Publica into fully Celtic armies (bar the generals and the odd unit, usually some Triari to act as the Roman "elite")... Gaul became my heartland of recruitment... and I started overruning Europe with streams of Neitos and Brihentin under the SPQR banners... Basically the Romans became the tax payers, with the Gauls their military enforcers. Gallia Victrix! Wish I still had the savegame, I was just about to take on the Gray Death with my Gauls.

[Reno Melitensis]

I don't retrain, ever. Unless you're using alex.exe the AI doesn't, so that's effectively an exploit in favour of the human player.

You are wrong Sertorius, the AI with Rome.exe. do retrain his troops. As I am about to get out of mainland Italy, had have spies every where, I already noticed troops with silver and even gold chevrons at full strenght. The Hellenes, the Macedonians and the Gauls are retraining them. And I dont use Alex.

Cheers.

[konny]

That must not be the result of retraining but can be done by merging experinced troops (don't forgett that the AI gets a lot of chevrons from autocalc). In this case there should be a couple of units from the same class understrength.

The only evidences I could find for retraining was with the ALX.exe. That were depleted forces in isolated towns that became full strength within one turn without creating understrength units of the same class. It might be that the retraining function was deliberatly left out for the AI in the other games because it might (and does with the ALX.exe) lead to the situation in which AI towns become unconquerable for other AI forces.

The gameplay in RTW:Alexander is much different (human vs. all AI factions).

[QuintusSertorius]

You are wrong Sertorius, the AI with Rome.exe. do retrain his troops. As I am about to get out of mainland Italy, had have spies every where, I already noticed troops with silver and even gold chevrons at full strenght. The Hellenes, the Macedonians and the Gauls are retraining them. And I dont use Alex.

Cheers.

They're more likely merging of survivors of battles, or equally likely created by revolts. The AI doesn't retrain outside of alex.exe.

[jhhowell]

This idea that the RTW AI does not retrain is a popular myth, but it is indeed false. Play around with a plague city or a rioting city and pay attention - once the disease/disorder ends the garrison will be back at full strength, with all unit cards fully accounted for.

Now, it is true that the RTW AI doesn't retrain often or very effectively... But there are an awful lot of things the AI doesn't do effectively.

[Aaldaemon]

This idea that the RTW AI does not retrain is a popular myth, but it is indeed false. Play around with a plague city or a rioting city and pay attention - once the disease/disorder ends the garrison will be back at full strength, with all unit cards fully accounted for.

Now, it is true that the RTW AI doesn't retrain often or very effectively... But there are an awful lot of things the AI doesn't do effectively.

I actually think you are correct on this one. I believe I have noticed this in the past myself.

[Reno Melitensis]

I noticed that even some Eleutheroi city from time to time retrain their units. I agree with jhhowell, it is impossible that the Macedonians and the Hellenes merged all those troops to create a full trained army with so many chevrons. Macedon owns Mithilene, and the army there faught against the Pontic kingdom and against Halikarnasus, which rebeled to the Hellenes. Now as the struggle on mainland Greece is ongoing, I noticed that the AI got this army on ships. It included levy Phalangites, some with three bronze chevrons, toxotai, hippies, and a mixture of light troops. After some turns this army was shipped to Greece, unfortunately it was almost destroyed by the Hellenic army, but its intervention saved Chalkis.



Cheers.

[Swordmaster]

I'm quite certain that the AI does retrain, although it's very unclear what the requirements for it to do are. It's certainly not to do with money or population.