Roman: Brutii

[pezhetairoi]

I am not a fan of assassins. They fail far too often, and the really good ones that are left after a hundred turns or two are too few and far between to actually do much damage. I don't recommend using sabotage since damaged buildings can just be rebuilt in the next turn. Better agents. Lots of them.

[King Macedon]

My strategy to Brutii is to ally with Macedon and only counquer the greek cites. If you do so, you will be able to send a army to carthage and one to the gauls to cut of the scriipi and julii expansion.

[rotorgun]

My strategy to Brutii is to ally with Macedon and only counquer the greek cites. If you do so, you will be able to send a army to carthage and one to the gauls to cut of the scriipi and julii expansion.

This was my essential strategy early on in my campaign. I modified it later after I conquered the Greek cities. I allied with Macedon until this was accomplished, then crushed them also. Thrace was next, then I invaded Gual to stymie the Julii. I have conqured Syracuse in Sicily to give me a base to expand against the Scipii. My goal with them is to isolate them in North Africa. Once all is accomplished, and I have over 55 provinces or more, I'll attack Rome, Capua, and Sicily simultaneously while defending against the Julii in Italy and the Scipii in North Africa. A quick strike will against the Senate should give my the win.

[Trithemius]

Careful folks, if this discussion gets more philosophical it will get moved to the Monastery and if you drop the "t" of cart it will get moved to the Backroom discussion of the French riots.

Hey! We've calmed down now. :)

rotorgun: I also encourage using spies to create revolts - unless the revolt would make a bigger army. I'm curious but do damaged buildings produce troops when a settlement revolts? That is to say, I know you can ensure that town only produces rebel peasants by knocking down all the other structures, but if those structures are just damaged (even 100% damaged) can they be used to create new rebel troops? If so, you can use assassins to knock down the unit buildings and then the temples and happiness buildings, while using your spies to incite revolts.

[Trithemius]

I am not a fan of assassins. They fail far too often, and the really good ones that are left after a hundred turns or two are too few and far between to actually do much damage. I don't recommend using sabotage since damaged buildings can just be rebuilt in the next turn. Better agents. Lots of them.

Teams of assassins work. If a spy has infiltrated the settlement then you can target properly and even moderately experienced assassins can get 95% success on sabotage.

[King Macedon]

This was my essential strategy early on in my campaign. I modified it later after I conquered the Greek cities. I allied with Macedon until this was accomplished, then crushed them also. Thrace was next, then I invaded Gual to stymie the Julii. I have conqured Syracuse in Sicily to give me a base to expand against the Scipii. My goal with them is to isolate them in North Africa. Once all is accomplished, and I have over 55 provinces or more, I'll attack Rome, Capua, and Sicily simultaneously while defending against the Julii in Italy and the Scipii in North Africa. A quick strike will against the Senate should give my the win.

Well, it sounds like an good strategy. I often send three armies already at the begining. I like to build up my armies of quantity more than quality. My armies bases on pesants, town watch, hastati, velites and mercenaries.

[rotorgun]

Hey! We've calmed down now. :)

rotorgun: I'm curious but do damaged buildings produce troops when a settlement revolts? That is to say, I know you can ensure that town only produces rebel peasants by knocking down all the other structures, but if those structures are just damaged (even 100% damaged) can they be used to create new rebel troops? If so, you can use assassins to knock down the unit buildings and then the temples and happiness buildings, while using your spies to incite revolts.

As far as I know, if a building is damaged, even partially, it cannot produce the types of troops or benifits it is designed for. This is what I aimed for by the use of multiple assasins sabotaging particular structures before I besieged the settlement. While under siege the structures cannot be repaired, so I would momentarily lift the siege, sabotage the same, if not already 100% destroyed, or a different building and then besiege the town again during the same turn. Trithemius, you're correct about the use of spies to increase the accuracy of the attacks while encouraging unrest. I did notice that my success rate went up dramatically when a spy was also present.

I believe that the cultural difference of your enemy target influences the sucess rate of your agents as well, in addition to their subterfuge ability. I noticed this when using them against the Middle Eastern factions (no offence intended any Islamic players out there). I may be wrong, but it is something to ponder. Maybe someone can shed further light on this anomaly.

[pezhetairoi]

well, never thought of using assassins on cities that already had spies in them. Brain circuitry problems, eh :-P

[GreatEmperor]

I believe that the cultural difference of your enemy target influences the sucess rate of your agents as well, in addition to their subterfuge ability. I noticed this when using them against the Middle Eastern factions (no offence intended any Islamic players out there). I may be wrong, but it is something to ponder. Maybe someone can shed further light on this anomaly.

I tried this and I believe you're right, it also happened to me.

[pezhetairoi]

so you're saying roman assassins used against parthia would be significantly worse off than if I used them against Macedon, that it?

[GreatEmperor]

In my case it was and also in Rotorgun's so it will be wierd if it isn't the same in your game.

[Craterus]

Without knowing enough about the Eastern Cultures of the time, I could only assume that it was to do with easier access to the general/leader in question.

EDIT: That, of course, is quite an in-depth sort of thing to put in the game, because any differences would have been very small, if there was any difference.

All important persons had guards back then. The idea that in some cultures, important people were able to walk the streets without too much trouble.

[King Macedon]

I had newer been Imperator. How is it to be one? Will your fraction automaticly transform to SPQR? And vill it be a senate?

[Kickius Buttius]

I am in the middle of the strangest Brutii game (H/H) that I have ever seen. I just had to post this after my most recent turn.

The situation was this: I hold Caralis (beat the Julii there), my two towns in Italy, Apollonia, Salona, and Kydonia. I am building an army near Apollonia and two by Kydonia with the intention of simultaneously attacking Rhodes, Thermon, and Sparta all in the first turn of war with the Greeks. I am at war with Carthage, but nobody else.

I look on the map and see that Segestica is held by rebels and I figure I can just walk an army up and take it. I grab it. Next turn, it is beseiged by a Gaul army. This doesn't surprise me too much, since the Julii have an army that has spent the whole game sitting forelornly outside Caralis and, rather than invading Gaul, have simply built forts all over their lands. I defeat the Gauls.

Next turn, Segestica is beseiged again. By Dacia. I defeat the Dacians. Next turn, besieged again- this time by Thrace. I defeat the Thracians. I am now at war with Carthage, Gaul, Dacia, and Thrace, as well as planning to attack Greece. More foes than I wanted, but okay. A few turns go by.

I go up to look at Segestica and see:

To the northwest, about a turn away, a full stack Gaul army led by their heir
To the east, about a turn away, a full stack Dacian army led by their heir
To the southeast, about a turn away, a full stack Thracian army, led by- you guessed it- their heir
To the south, about a turn away, a full stack Greek army led by their heir

When I pull my jaw off the floor, I say to myself, "Wow, only missing Carthage." I then look off the coast and discover a Carthaginian fleet packed with units including elephants and- wait for it- their faction heir.

I've never seen so many command stars in all my life.

I did the only sensible thing: destroyed every building I could, raised the taxes to very high, and headed my army for Salona. After the earlier battles, I was down to about four town watch units, my general, and a bunch of remnants of merc units.

The end result: Dacia took the town, Carthage's fleet headed for home. The moment Dacia took the town, Thracian and Gallic diplomats near other cities offered me a ceasefire. The Greek army attacked and mangled me on the field of battle, setting off the war I'd been planning with them anyway.

Wierd, huh? Anybody else ever been attacked by five faction heirs at once?

[rotorgun]

Without knowing enough about the Eastern Cultures of the time, I could only assume that it was to do with easier access to the general/leader in question.

EDIT: That, of course, is quite an in-depth sort of thing to put in the game, because any differences would have been very small, if there was any difference.

All important persons had guards back then. The idea that in some cultures, important people were able to walk the streets without too much trouble.

My thinking on this was drifting in this direction too. I think that it's a matter of three factors which make up a character's ability to resist assasination.

1. Character- traits and abilities.

2. Retinues- ancillaries who help keep the family member safe.

3. Cultural differences- an assasin from Germania would probably tend to stand out in a place such as Jeruselam...no?

Whatever the case, isn't it outstanding that this game operates on such a detalied level? I like how many of the aspects of international politics and grand strategy are included in RTW.

[GreatEmperor]

I had newer been Imperator. How is it to be one? Will your fraction automaticly transform to SPQR? And vill it be a senate?

No, you'll just get a message you've won with a video sequence and you will be asked if you want to play further or the stop.

[King Macedon]

Ok! Anyway I have just two popularity points in the senate so I think I will be outlawed soon. They hate me for declare peace with the Gauls and because I never care abouat senate missons. I am in the year 250 AD and have conquer The greeks and the Trache, I am in war with Dacia and Macedon.

[pezhetairoi]

kickius buttius has earned the funniest campaign post of the year, methinks. Mein gott. That's the saddest thing that could have happened to anyone. Tip: you should bribe that forlorn Julii army sitting outside your Sardinian village, if you can.

[Kickius Buttius]

Just did last night. That Julii army is on the way to help my frantic efforts on the mainland. I've been able to conquer most of the Greek cities, which has won me some breathing room, but The Julii have done so little that Gaul and the Britons have between them eliminated Germania and, recently, Dacia. Macedonia is long gone and Thrace is down to one city (I think Byzantium).

Nice ending to the Segistica situation, though: The town rebelled against the Dacians and then somehow reverted to my control. I'd heard sometimes that can happen if a town rebels against the Rebel faction, but I had never seen it before. The truly nice thing was that it came under my control with a whole host of gold chevroned peasants.

[rotorgun]

Just did last night.
Nice ending to the Segistica situation, though: The town rebelled against the Dacians and then somehow reverted to my control. I'd heard sometimes that can happen if a town rebels against the Rebel faction, but I had never seen it before. The truly nice thing was that it came under my control with a whole host of gold chevroned peasants.

I agree with Pezhetairoi; your previous post was a belly laugh. I'm sure it wasn't for you when you were going through it. You are to be commended for your ability to deal with such a desperate situation of being attacked by five large armies, all led by faction heirs, and managing to come out on top. As for the town of Segistica reverting to your control, it's probably because your faction was the last to control it, so it was your people doing the rebelling. A nice bonus to recieve the peasants. That's probably why so many factions wanted this town- good facilities. I faced such a force of rebelling Britons in Deva during my campaign. It was interesting to watch them taking on my legionary cohorts and actually defeating them in a stand up fight! had to pulverize them and exterminate the population to regain order. Good luck during the rest of your campaign.

Strength and honor!

[King Macedon]

I have choosen Byzatium as my capitol. There, i have buildit up to a huge city with urban baracks! Strange is that i can recuit urban cohort, altrougth
they havent been any marian reforms yet!

[Craterus]

You can recruit Praetorian Cohort. Not Urbans.

[GreatEmperor]

Can you build Praetorian Cohorts before the Marius Reforms than?

[Craterus]

[pezhetairoi]

You can get praetorian cohorts before marian reforms. But in vanilla that is not supposed to happen. (Wuss. :D) Edit it out.

[rotorgun]

Ok, here we go....

I have finally eliminated the dreaded Egyptians! I had a little help (very little) from my Pontic protectorate (now ex, but more on that later), but essentially followed the advice of Pezhetairoi to take Memphis first. They were a snap once the Pyramids were in my control. I also owe some credit to Seamus Fermanagh for the idea of simulcasting them. The combination of these approaches was the culmination of divide and conquer. Hats off to these clever chaps!

I thought, in my imperial glee, that I would now be able to begin my blitzkrieg attack on Rome for the win. Thinking I now had more than the required 50 provinces. With the British Isles completly occupied, all of Germania, Greece, Thrace, Dacia, Illyria, Egypt, and half of Gaul under my banner; Syracuse Tarentum, Croton, and Pergamum building large armies for my bid for Italy seemed like a recipe for sucess. Imagine my suprise when Pontus began using many spies and assasins in an attempt to cause rebellion in Petra and Jeruselam. When I assasinated a few of thier agents it must have cancelled the protectorship! Of course this means I am now ten provinces to the poorer, posessing only fortyfive.

To add insult to injury, the Senate ordered me to capture Bostra after it rebelled through Pontus' mismanagement. In order to accomplish the mission, I had to remake an alliance with the cutthroats, as they were also trying to lay siege to the city. When I had the right amount of siege equipment built, Pontus attacked with my forces as reinforcements. Like a fool, I went through most of the work in getting to the city square (well...they did take on the lion's share of enemy forces) only to see the AI award them the city! On the very next turn, the Senate ordered me out of Nabatea so as not to alarm our so called ally of Rome!

So what is the consensus? Should I attack Pontus, or enlist thier aid against the other Roman factions? Personally, I am for crushing the Cappadocian, camel riding, Zoarastrianistic dogs myself.

[Kickius Buttius]

I don't see how you can allow such insolence to go unpunished.

Congrats on beating Egypt. They are always a pain.

[Craterus]

Or you could go for the interesting approach and leave them. There are five provinces on Italy anyway.

[rotorgun]

After considering both of the previous proposals, I shall first start a good war with Pontus, in which I shall attempt to involve my brother Romans in as well. When they are good and committed, I shall attack Sicily, Campania, Ariminium, and Latium simultaneously. My main assault will be against Latium with my two best armies. Once I capture Rome it should be decided, as long as I have the fifty provinces required.

One question remains:
Do I have to move my faction heir to Rome to be declared Imperator to win, or is just capturing the city enough?

[gardibolt]

Just take the city; you can even do it with a mere captain and still win if you have the requisite 50 provinces.