Rome: Total War Gold Edition

[Darkness]

This weekend I bought Rome: Total War Gold Edition for 2,50. Seemed like a nice bargain. I needed a new game to play anyway, now that I have most of the CiV achievements (134/138, and 2 of the remaining ones are bugged anyway)....

Very interesting balance between turn based strategy and "real" battle simulation.

But quite complex too, with the balance between economy and military appearing to be the key component for success in this game.

Now I already got some pointers from Shabba about burning pigs , but I am sure I will run into more issues that I could use pointers on in the future.

I tried the Imperial Campaign as the Julii last night, but when trying to conquer one of the cities in Northern Italy my army literally got sandwiched between two Gallic armies... Ouch...

So obviously that "strategy" didn't work all that well... Does anyone have some tips on how to get a good start to the Imperial Campaign?

[Shabbaman]

You're not on the highest difficulty level I hope?

I have to admit that it's quite some time ago that I tried the Julii. So I did some checking to see if my initial thought was right... The first thing you have to do is to take the two free cities, Segesta and Massilia. Starve Segesta (sieges are boring and the city siege pathfinding is enraging anyway), then rush to Massilia. As a basic pointer, go for any harbor city you can get, since that's where you get the most commerce from.

If you have taken Segesta you can build some forts and then put a token army in it. The zone of control will prevent Gaul movements.



If you have taken Massilia, you've essentially locked the northern italian cities in. This will prevent the Gauls to send in reinforcements. Also: if you just let them do whatever they want, they'd attack you anyway. So you really want to take Massilia to hamper their movement. Before you attack the Gauls you have to build a decent army, something like 8 Hastati, 4 archers, 4 velites, and 8 Principes. Take some cavalry/equites, but don't bother too much with them. If you can't get the principes yet, go with more hastati instead. And unless you're actually trying to get a city through city combat, it's probably smart to put your units into two seperate armies. Don't keep them far apart though.

[Kingreno]

I love this game. Played all civilazations and spend many many hours on it. I do recommend highest diificulty... as it tends to get too easy especially with Romans.

The Julii should get Segesta easily and then build up a few turns to get Mediolanum and Patavium. Go friendly with Britons and/or Germany and wait till they get to war with Gaul and ally with them. Hire some horsemen if they come around, and use your familymembers! Their guardcavalry is great for flanking the huge gaul infantryhordes...

If it takes longer attack the Croat and Dalmatian Rebels, there is gold there and the adriatic is decent for naval trade.

Also, as the Julii, you tend to miss vital trade income; mainly naval trade as that gives very good cash. Keep an eye on either Sardinia and Palma. Carthage usually gets hit by Numidia and the Scipii, so these are easy pickings.

The economy is tricky at the start, use townwatch or peasants as garison for your main towns, they are in no danger of attack at all so need only the MP duty. Focus one city on Infantry and the other on Cav/archers/trade.

[Darkness]

Thanks for the information.

I'm making some small progress (medium level). I conquered Segesta and Medolanium. I am now moving into position to conquer Patavium.

Question: I got a senate misson about blocking some port (Syracuse). I can get a boat there, but I don't see any "blockade" option...?

[akots]

If you point to the port building, the cursor should change into blockade.

With vanilla campaign, it is quite hard going in the beginning. Just take it easy and slow but accurately. Medium difficulty becomes very cheesy quite soon since Roman infantry is way too god both in combat characteristics and in morale when positioned properly and timely moved on battlefield. Just don't get yourself surrounded and you cannot lose even against overwhelming odds on a higher ground with a good general.

With gallic hordes and with most other barbarian hordes, the easiest way is to sandwich them between infantry holding the line (hastati and velites are OK but principes are superb) and hammer them in the back with a couple units of cavalry or hastati. They rout almost instantly and it becomes pure slaughter. Having a good general in command is a must though. In case of several large armies marching in, it is possible to give them a well fortified city with a reasonable garrison to besiege and then attack them from within the city. The AI can be easily lured to the walls and will get slaughtered by the defenses and archers. Barbarians seldom build seige equipment early in the game. Even if your sally cannot win the battle, it is going to be a draw if they don't take the city but they will lose a bunch of troops. Thus reduced army can then be defeated easily in the field with a modest Roman force.

Economy needs trade and the most income comes from port cities. Since naval combat is completely broken in vanilla, it may be not worth to build a lot of ships because they get slaughtered by AI armadas. So, it might be better to pursue the lay of the land and just capture these ports using ships only for transport. At some point it gets tricky but eventually, you can generate so much money that happiness becomes easy to maintain even in remote provinces. Also, income generating buildings and roads are of course top priority.

I don't know what is the best mod now, but I played a lot of Total Realism starting from version 5. It is substantially more complex and fixes a lot of exploits apart from being able to play all civilizations and different larger map(s). IIRC, I played Seleucids, Egypt, and Greek Cities to the end which was a great fun. It is also vey enjoyable visually with high quality graphics and huge variety of units and well thought through tactics.

Also not sure about latests patches. IIRC, community patches from player1fanatic were very comprehensive and fixed most of bugs even in the latest patches.

[Darkness]

Some quick questions:

How important is it to have a governor in all cities? I understand havin 1 in your key cities is essential, but do you really need them in all cities? If I understand it correctly you could also just queue some builds in governer-less cities.

How many peasant army units for garrison duty? If there is no threat of invasion then just 1 unit should be fine, right? As long as public order stays above 70%...

Is it better to have 1 huge army (to completely overpower enemy forces and take minimal losses), or is it also a good option to field 2 (or 3 smaller) armies and advance in multiple directions? For example, my main force is trying to conquer northern Italy, but due to the strength of naval trade, I am also considering generating a second army to conquer Sardegna...

Are spies always this slow? I sent a spy to open the gates of Medolanium, and he didnt do it (only 40% chance of success anyway), so I built a battering ram. Next turn I have the ram and attack the city, only to see the gates opened by the spy. But then the light infantry unit holding the battering ram couldn't get rid of the stupid thing and I had to enter the city with fewer men, cause they couldn't get through the gate.

Should I conquer provinces to block the advance of the other 2 Roman families (Brutii and Scipii) (so conquer the Balkan and attempt to cross to north Africa) or is it more functional/economical to rush north ASAP with my main army?

[Kingreno]

A governor does a few things. mainly: if you enslave a city, slaves get distributed to cities with a gov (great way to increase citysize quickly -> important for better buildings and taxes). Secondly he has a happyness bonus and publicorder and trade bonus. This is good. Also, a governor provides you with at least one decent unit for defence. You do NOT need a gov in smaller cities.

Garison works as under civ 3 in Monarchy. The more the happier. It does not matter which unit it is.

1 Huge army is not my best bet. Especially Rebel states are easily beaten with a small army. so Split up 70-30. One for your main enemy, one for getting cities quickly.

Spies: I do not get your comment. If a spy has 40% oddds you only know if he succeeds if you open the attack screen. Spies are great, and not so slow IMO.

A unit CAN drop the ram, just select it and click abandon siege eq.

You roman "allies" will become your enemies but in the spirit of teh game I do let them do their part. I have notices that mainly the scipii AI is horrible and cannot beat Carthage... IMO: Julii should get everything between Gibraltar and Russia.

[Shabbaman]

Originally Posted by Darkness

How important is it to have a governor in all cities? I understand havin 1 in your key cities is essential, but do you really need them in all cities? If I understand it correctly you could also just queue some builds in governer-less cities.

You don't need a governor, but most of the time a governor has some benificial effect (as specified in his text box). I'm sure you like the micromanagement aspect of it

Originally Posted by Darkness

How many peasant army units for garrison duty? If there is no threat of invasion then just 1 unit should be fine, right? As long as public order stays above 70%...

Hm, I'm not sure how many units have a positive aspect on happiness, but you're correct if you say it's at least 1.

Originally Posted by Darkness

Is it better to have 1 huge army (to completely overpower enemy forces and take minimal losses), or is it also a good option to field 2 (or 3 smaller) armies and advance in multiple directions?

Build as many armies as you have generals to spare. It's even a good idea to split your army if you're advancing in the same direction.

Originally Posted by Darkness

Are spies always this slow? I sent a spy to open the gates of Medolanium, and he didnt do it (only 40% chance of success anyway), so I built a battering ram. Next turn I have the ram and attack the city, only to see the gates opened by the spy. But then the light infantry unit holding the battering ram couldn't get rid of the stupid thing and I had to enter the city with fewer men, cause they couldn't get through the gate.

You can drop siege weaponry. Somehow. At least, in some versions of Total War

Originally Posted by Darkness

Should I conquer provinces to block the advance of the other 2 Roman families (Brutii and Scipii) (so conquer the Balkan and attempt to cross to north Africa) or is it more functional/economical to rush north ASAP with my main army?

Well, it depends on what you want. My personal preference is to optimise my tax income. The easy way is to conquer mediterranean ports. But having pissed Gauls at your border is not much fun either, so I'd at least dedicate some part of your army to cleaning up Gaul. And there's usually coming some trouble from Spain, so you could get those ports as well At some point you'll want to eliminate the Brutii and Scipii anyway. As long as they're not getting the big cities in the east you might want to let them do their thing and focus on pacifying your own lands so that that won't tie your hands when you're backstabbing your roman friends. Keep an eye out on their garrisons in Italy. Also, keep farming assassins until they're good enough to pick off their generals.

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Kingreno

Spies: I do not get your comment. If a spy has 40% oddds you only know if he succeeds if you open the attack screen. Spies are great, and not so slow IMO.

A unit CAN drop the ram, just select it and click abandon siege eq.

I completely missed the 40%...
It worked much better the second time against Patavium. Those gates opened immediately. Found the "drop ram" button too, thanks!


I played a little last night. I've got 6 cities now. The five in Northern Italy and I conquered Caralis for the Senate. Which should also help the naval trade department, so that was a pretty nice Senate suggestion.

My primary army is now on it's way to Palma, to conquer another Mediteranean island. Should work fine, I sent the spy out ahead of the army. After that I will land the army on the southern coast of France to take the war to the Gauls. I am building a second army (got a decent (3-star) general who once was governor of Segesta) in the North of Italy, so they can cross to France too. But right now I can only build Hastati, so all I have is infantry in that second army. Which should be the backbone of the army anyway, but it's be nice to have some diversity.

I could hire some mercenary cavalry, but is that worth the costs? (about 1200 for a cavalry unit, I think)

Do Rebels keep spawning the entire game? I've already had three armies of rebels spawn just east of Rome, south of my second city. Which gave my secondary army some seasoning, but it's going to be quite annoying if I have to keep some army there the entire time...

[Shabbaman]

Originally Posted by Darkness

I could hire some mercenary cavalry, but is that worth the costs? (about 1200 for a cavalry unit, I think)

Mercenaries can be awesome. IIRC slingers from Crete are the best missile unit in the game, it's worth it to go to Greece only for them. Every region has different mercenaries available, be sure to check out their stats. Basically it doesn't really matter how good your cavalry is, as you'll be using them as shock troops mainly. It's like KR wrote: just get your cavalry in their back while you push in the front, and any cavarly will do the trick. Keep some spears on your wings to prevent their cavalry from flanking you.