Simple Questions thread

[Craterus]

I've probably missed the equivalent thread but if not, here's a thread for those little questions that don't really merit their own topic. Just simple questions and simple answers.

A long time away etc etc. but I saw RTW in a shop the other day (my disc 1 broke several years ago) so I decided to buy it and get started again. I've bought this white label version. At first I was a little apprehensive because I remember some problem with a later release of MTW that didn't have patch support. I gather this RTW is pre-patched so my question is: anything else I should be aware of?

And, is there a white label version of BI, or will any version do?

Thanks for any help.

[amore555]

Any disc version of BI will bring RTW up to the latest patch 1.5. Then just check to see if any BI patches need to be installed.

Hope this helps, in short, any copy of BI will be fine :)

[Octavian_of_the_view]

here's a simple question what exactly does the skirmish button do, I feel like a noob for asking but it bothers me I don't know exactly.

[amore555]

Skirmish is a command for your missile troops, when activated, they will flee when approached by enemy forces, and stop to fire arrows/throw pila only when the enemy is out of range. Handy when you want to harass the enemy.

When Skirmish mode is turned off, your missile troops will stand their ground, which I find quite handy in defensive battles, though just keep an eye on them, because many missile troops can't hold their own against infantry.

Hope this helps :)

[Octavian_of_the_view]

Yes that does help but does that extend to horse archers? I was playing as Parthia and I had my HA's in skirmish mode but they didn't flee they held their ground and got massacred is this a bug or the way the game works?

[amore555]

Should extend to Horse Archers, the only I think of is maybe your HA's had guard mode activated?

[Octavian_of_the_view]

Hmmm thats a possibility I'll have to check, in any case thanks for all the help much appreciated

[Craterus]

A couple of technical questions.

I like to alt-tab out of game a lot, useful for chatting while playing, but my laptop really can't handle this. I can get away with doing it once, but after that, the screen just blacks out. Would windowed mode help this? If so, how do I do that?

Also, when occupying a foreign settlement, do I need to destroy all remnants of the previous civilisation (missile ranges and barracks seem to be designated a particular culture) or just their temples? If I don't do this, will I still be able to build my own tech tree on top? Again, sorry, once upon a time this was probably all second nature to me, but I'm struggling. Other than that though, it's going pretty well, blitzed pretty much everyone with the Brutii, footholds in Africa, the Aegean and Northern Europe.

[Octavian_of_the_view]

You can build on top of other civilizations the only thing you need to destroy to change to your culture is your temple. Sounds like your campaign is going pretty good, happy pillaging.

[Craterus]

Alright. My popularity with the Senate/People. I remember you need a certain amount of adoration from the people to be able to go for Rome, what's the point of the Senate one?

As for the campaign, North Africa's sewn up, left Carthage with Palma (the Balearic island) and that horrible province in the bottom left corner of the map. Should probably deal with them before I regret it, but they're so remote and out of the way. Allied with Numidia too, hopefully they don't get too big for their boots, I'm not in the habit of leaving big garrisons behind me.

I'm sending a small army to Spain, it's probably not big enough to take out an entire faction but we'll see what mercenaries are around.

The Gauls put up quite a fight for Patavium, I ended up killing three generals in one battle, still seem to be strong in Western Europe though. Which is good, if it slows the Julii down.

Greece have been banished to Asia Minor and Rhodes, will deal with them when I've finished off Macedon, who are down to 2 cities.

Thrace have abandoned their starting cities and have all of their units sitting in the former Dacian capital (Porolissum). I'm not sure why, as their old cities are rebelling and the Dacians aren't really threatening to take Porolissum back. I like to think they staged a huge party when they beat the Dacians and everyone forgot to go home Anyway, I'll probably go and take those Thracian cities and leave northbound expansion there. Start working away at Asia Minor before the Egyptians get too comfortable.

[Octavian_of_the_view]

Well the more popularity with the senate the more likely they are to give you easy and valuable missions or assign senatorial offices which provide valuable traits for family members. I would agree with taking out Egypt or at least putting a dent in them. I have a Julii campaign where I've taken all of Europe and am getting rid of the rest of the Scipii in Asia Minor and Egypt controls all of the eastern provinces. I am not looking forward to that fight at all.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Yes that does help but does that extend to horse archers? I was playing as Parthia and I had my HA's in skirmish mode but they didn't flee they held their ground and got massacred is this a bug or the way the game works?

HA's will take some micro-managing on your part, particularly when they get near the edge of the battle map. If they get overly tired, or if they are running out of maneuver room, they will not move away from an approaching enemy unit fast enough to stay out of melee (although they seem to manage to run around the entire battlefield just fine when you are fighting AI controlled HA's).

Always take the time to regroup them and give them a brief rest before sending them back into the fray.

do I need to destroy all remnants of the previous civilisation (missile ranges and barracks seem to be designated a particular culture) or just their temples? If I don't do this, will I still be able to build my own tech tree on top?

When you capture an enemy settlement, you should evaluate what cultural buildings would be valuable to you, and which will likely cause problems further down the road. It makes no sense to liquidate troop-producing structures or ones that generate money (like ports, merchants quarters, etc.) , and you cannot demolish the main governing building, so that leaves temples and other similar structures like coliseums, police HQ and the like. A lot depends on things like the "cultural penalty", distance to your capital, and what kind of governors you have available. Personally, I almost always tear down the temple, unless there is a decided benefit to keeping it (the Macedonian Temple of Artemis would be one example for this, as it grants considerable benefits to ranged units), and coliseums (if I capture a Roman settlement).

[Craterus]

Yep :( I tore down a temple of Artemis before realising what it was capable of. I've got one unit of uber-Velites. And I hate using skirmishers.

Right. My popularity with the Senate boomed (pretty sure it was full at one point) and initially I assumed it was due to my hyper-aggressive warmongering but it turns out they don't look too kindly on that. All of a sudden, it plummeted and I was told to stop my aggressive actions. I carried on, of course, so my senate popularity is now below the other two slackers. Scipii haven't made it further than Sardinia and the Julii are finally making their way into France. Meanwhile, I'm about to take on Egypt, one army from Asia Minor and one about to land in Libya (they've left the Nile area ridiculously weak). And, once I've finished off the Numidians (the source of my quarrel with the Senate), I'll be venturing into Iberia. Anyway, my popularity with the people is high, but nowhere near maximum.

So:
What's the trick to the Egyptian chariots? I remember they were pretty invincible when I played as the Egyptians, but I've never had the pleasure of extended campaigns against them. I can't think of a weakness because they shred cavalry to bits.

Regarding the Senate/People popularity, is the civil war imminent? If so, I probably need to curtail certain plans so I'm not completely over-exposed.

[ReluctantSamurai]

What's the trick to the Egyptian chariots?

I'm assuming you are referring to a Roman answer to these overpowered monstrosities? Pre-Marian...Velites and Cavalry Auxillia. Both historically and in RTW, the javelin spelled the demise of chariot archers. You will lose a ton of Velite, but they are cheap...chariots are not. Post-Marian it's much easier....Archer Auxilia. Since chariots almost always deploy to the flanks, that's where you deploy your chariot-killers. The Brutii get Velite Gladiators that have a bonus fighting chariots but these are best used when assaulting an Egyptian settlement that has chariot defenders. Otherwise, on open ground, they will skirmish your gladiators to death.

Now........if you are referring to the ultimate chariot-killer.........................Cataphract Archers (Armenia, and Pontus). With these bad boys, you simply assign one to each chariot archer at the beginning of the battle, and then go about conducting the rest of the fight. The chariots will be dead long before the last enemy flees the battlefield

[Craterus]

I've had some success so far. I just use a lot of archers. They can fire much further (especially Cretans) than the chariots can, and the chariots don't seem too keen to attack when the missile units are flanked by cavalry. If I don't have archers, or if there are still chariots left when they've exhausted their missiles, I try to get the chariots to charge a weak infantry unit, which pretty much stops them, and then I swamp with everything that's available. Quite expensive, but a stopped chariot is a dead chariot.

Another option is Numidian cavalry, fairly cheap and do plenty of damage.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Another option is Numidian cavalry, fairly cheap and do plenty of damage.

As a Roman faction, I wouldn't think there's any need to recruit merc spear-chuckers, as you have Cavalry Auxillia even before Uncle Marius shows up...

[Craterus]

Yeah, the few units I had are running thin now. Most of them being used as garrisons.

About to take on Rome, Scipii have around 3.5 stacks sitting around Capua but they've left Sicily and Sardinia barely guarded. Guess I'll just put enough of a force on the mainland to distract them while I sweep up there with a smaller force. I've got 2 stacks at Patavium ready to take on the Julii and the rest of the Eastern force is on its way. (Egypt fell surprisingly quickly - between 6 and 8 turns, wish I'd taken note of when I started). I've also sent some of my old North African contingent to the South of France.

So I've got a plan for the Julii, hit them hard at home and cause enough of a ruckus throughout the rest of their Empire to keep them busy. But I'm not sure what to do about the Scipii, they never expanded so they've got that huge army just sitting around Rome. The battle for Capua will make or break this march on Rome.

[Guyus Germanicus]

Yes that does help but does that extend to horse archers? I was playing as Parthia and I had my HA's in skirmish mode but they didn't flee they held their ground and got massacred is this a bug or the way the game works?

Skirmish mode doesn't help if your skirkishers (whether they be javeliners, peltasts or skirmishing cavalry) are backed up against the boundary of your combat area as marked by the red borderlines around your combat map. Many times I've had the misfortune of having jav-cav or horse archers pursued by an enemy unit, whether it be enemy cavalry or spearmen, and had them pursued to the border of the combat map only to be pinned. The AI for some reason doesn't handle this well. You can turn off skirmish mode and try to force them by the enemy unit, but if they make 'contact' with the enemy unit, the AI tends to have them commit to engagement. Then you have to repeat the command to flee a few times before they respond. You end up losing troops and may even unintentionally trigger your own troops to rout. It's frustrating.

I've also had occasions where the game just seems to get quirky. You give a command to move quickly and the troops just seem to be frozen in place. This often happens to me right after my unit has just finished killing off the last man of an enemy unit. You give the command for them to move and they unit doesn't repsond. Repeating the command to move eventually triggers them to move. But this too can be frustrating if you're trying to muster them to pursue fleeing enemies and the response delay is long enough that it allows the routing enemy soldiers to escape from the combat mapboard.

Try to keep your skirmishing cavalry away from the outer boundaries of the combat mapboard. This will prevent the entrapment scenario I described. But it requires micromanaging the movement of your skirmishing cavalry. Alas, this is one of the pains of playing those factions that feature horse archers, chariot archers and jav-cav.

Senate popularity is important to your faction. Being gifted Senate offices improves the management skills and influence of your faction members. Their authority and influence make them better governors increasing tax yields, discounting building costs, and attracting more benefits from the Senate.

As for city culture clash, you needn't destroy all your foreign culture buildings to end the culture penalty to your public order. Most of the culture penalty goes away after you've replaced the foreign admin building with the next level admin building. Usually the last of the culture penalty goes away when you have either eliminated all the foreign buildings or reduced their number to just one or two.

When playing one of the Roman factions, I like to retain foreign temples if they offer some significant military benefit such as experience chevrons or upgrades to weaponry or armor. The British shrines of Andrasta, Macedonian temples or Artemis and Ares, the Greek temples of Nike are good choices for retention. But I eventually will destroy them once the Marius event occurs and these cities grow to the large and huge levels. I have modified the game so that the Ludus Magna provides a 20% public order benefit and two experience chevrons for units recruited in that city. The foundry gives me enough armor and weapons boost to compensate for the loss of the weapons temples. I usually destroy taverns in foreign cities where I tend to station governors so that my governor doesn't develop bad traits like 'drunkard.' I also retain the execution square and specialty justice buildings that are features of Carthage and Egypt. Their added public order benefit is useful, and whatever negative affect they may have on a governor is insignificant compared to the tavern series.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

A couple of technical questions.

I like to alt-tab out of game a lot, useful for chatting while playing, but my laptop really can't handle this. I can get away with doing it once, but after that, the screen just blacks out. Would windowed mode help this? If so, how do I do that?

Windowed mode will help. I use it to play RTW.
1. Open the Properties of your RTW shortcut.
2. Add -ne to the end of the target line.
3. So, it should look something like this:
"C:\...\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -show_err -ne

[Craterus]

Skirmish mode doesn't help if your skirkishers (whether they be javeliners, peltasts or skirmishing cavalry) are backed up against the boundary of your combat area as marked by the red borderlines around your combat map. Many times I've had the misfortune of having jav-cav or horse archers pursued by an enemy unit, whether it be enemy cavalry or spearmen, and had them pursued to the border of the combat map only to be pinned. The AI for some reason doesn't handle this well. You can turn off skirmish mode and try to force them by the enemy unit, but if they make 'contact' with the enemy unit, the AI tends to have them commit to engagement. Then you have to repeat the command to flee a few times before they respond. You end up losing troops and may even unintentionally trigger your own troops to rout. It's frustrating.

I've also had occasions where the game just seems to get quirky. You give a command to move quickly and the troops just seem to be frozen in place. This often happens to me right after my unit has just finished killing off the last man of an enemy unit. You give the command for them to move and they unit doesn't repsond. Repeating the command to move eventually triggers them to move. But this too can be frustrating if you're trying to muster them to pursue fleeing enemies and the response delay is long enough that it allows the routing enemy soldiers to escape from the combat mapboard.

Try to keep your skirmishing cavalry away from the outer boundaries of the combat mapboard. This will prevent the entrapment scenario I described. But it requires micromanaging the movement of your skirmishing cavalry. Alas, this is one of the pains of playing those factions that feature horse archers, chariot archers and jav-cav.

Senate popularity is important to your faction. Being gifted Senate offices improves the management skills and influence of your faction members. Their authority and influence make them better governors increasing tax yields, discounting building costs, and attracting more benefits from the Senate.

As for city culture clash, you needn't destroy all your foreign culture buildings to end the culture penalty to your public order. Most of the culture penalty goes away after you've replaced the foreign admin building with the next level admin building. Usually the last of the culture penalty goes away when you have either eliminated all the foreign buildings or reduced their number to just one or two.

When playing one of the Roman factions, I like to retain foreign temples if they offer some significant military benefit such as experience chevrons or upgrades to weaponry or armor. The British shrines of Andrasta, Macedonian temples or Artemis and Ares, the Greek temples of Nike are good choices for retention. But I eventually will destroy them once the Marius event occurs and these cities grow to the large and huge levels. I have modified the game so that the Ludus Magna provides a 20% public order benefit and two experience chevrons for units recruited in that city. The foundry gives me enough armor and weapons boost to compensate for the loss of the weapons temples. I usually destroy taverns in foreign cities where I tend to station governors so that my governor doesn't develop bad traits like 'drunkard.' I also retain the execution square and specialty justice buildings that are features of Carthage and Egypt. Their added public order benefit is useful, and whatever negative affect they may have on a governor is insignificant compared to the tavern series.

Windowed mode will help. I use it to play RTW.
1. Open the Properties of your RTW shortcut.
2. Add -ne to the end of the target line.
3. So, it should look something like this:
"C:\...\Rome - Total War\RomeTW.exe" -show_err -ne

Great posts. Thanks very much.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

Your welcome!

[Craterus]

I recently noticed one of my up-and-coming generals had gone missing. You might wonder how I can lose track of a family member but I've got over 75 of them now. A check of the family tree, hovering my cursor over his picture, tells me he 'died tragically' 3 or 4 turns ago. I don't remember being told about this and I don't remember ever coming across this in the past.

Does anyone know what 'died tragically' refers to? A quick Google search tells me a family member will have this if they were killed when a town under their command rebels. I'm not sure he was even a governor at the time. Does this label also turn up when a character gets assassinated?

So, yeah, if anyone could explain what might have happened to my character, that'd be helpful. Also, are there any other death descriptions? 'Assassinated'? 'Natural disaster'? 'Died at sea'?

Thanks.