Rome: Total War

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I found a new reason not to do the battles myself. I am really bad at them.

I had 2 units of Praetorian Legionaries, a unit of Early Legionaries and a unit of Legionary Cavalry against two of the early Roman infantry (begins with H) and a unit of archers. I managed to lose.

Mainly because some of the infantry ran away and were faster than my heavily armoured people. My horsemen were taking lots of casualties so I made them flee the battle, not realising I wouldn't get them back afterwards. The enemy just kept running away until the time ran out.

Now the AI fights the battles for me again.

 

Joacqin, you mean to tell me that you bribed two whole armies and they changed to your side completely intact ?

Whenever i bribe off an army that's too much for me too handle at the moment, they simply disband and vanish off the map. Only the generals join my side, the rest of the army is gone.

Am i doing something wrong then ?

 

If you bribe an army which has the same type of units with your faction, these units will not be disbanded and they will join you.

 

Cool, i didn't know that, basically because i mainly charge the battlefield. Gonna give it a try next time, it might be cheaper than creating them yourself.

 

To keep the money flowing in, concentrate on trade, not on keeping your people happy then taxing them to oblivioin. To keep people happy, manouver your capital to the more 'centre' of your empire rather than keep it in its default location next to Rome.

 

How do you change location of your capital? I think a capital in the south of Gaul would be ideal for my current empire.

 

IIRC: Select the city you want to be your new captical, click the expanded city info button (or some such) then there should be a 'make capital' type button. Costs nothing for some reason and then it's your capital. It will also be where all your governers emerge from marriage, sponsorship and coming of age.

 

Ooh, sponsorship? Is that something you can influence? The women in my family insists on marrying 50 year old farts with scant few years remaining of life and I have started to reject their proposals and would need a new way to get more family members. Even if I at the moment have quite a few of them, they seem to come in waves and then die out. It is also a bother to transport them.

 

Sponsorship occurs occasionally and I think the chance is higher if your capital has a 'university' type building. Simply put: one of your family members notices a certain colleague shows good 'Roman' traits and puts them up for adoption.

Heh, with those 50 year old farts I just shove them out on the battle-line and use their general unit to good effect (I have the 'Improved Generals Mod' which simply makes generals some of the most powerful units in the game) sometimes using only one unit to put down a rebellion of 3-5 slave units (and it works surprisingly enough).

 

Wohoo! Civil war has broken out, the senate and the Brutii are crushed. Despite the Greeks being severly weakened they control the seas together with the Scipii as I have more or less neglected my fleet this making a transport to Sicily a bit problematic.

Are those expensive black elite masked units any good? They look cool but I am not sure how to use them.

50 provinces are a lot, I need 15 more I think and I have no idea where to get them. I have just allied with Germany so they are not a good target. Dacia? Take out the remaining Greeks in Turkey? Thrace? I dislike logistics and my armies are in Italy so close by would be best.

 

The Arcani are not very good. They are too expensive and too few to be of any real use. Good at anti-infantry but not very good at much else. Stick to legionaries.

Best place to start would be the itallian cities, by now they should be rather well built up and ripe for the plucking. If not: the greek cities have some good trade and they are close to home so the distance from your capital shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

The Egyptian lands are easy pickings too, all large cities.

 

I was kinda short on cash so I have put all of the Italian cities under the sword, including Rome itself. Which I kinda regred now but I didnt feel like handling civil disorder and all of that.

I guess I will finish of the Greeks after Sicily has fallen so it is about time I build meself a proper fleet.

 

But are hardly worth it, unless you fancy moving your capital to Thebes and having all your gallic provinces revolt.

 

I just moved my capital to Rome both cause it is proper and because it is most central and I had Greek cities with no gain frmo at all before the move.

I still have to learn how to use infantry in battles, I have got a lot better but I tend to just have my infantry as an "anchor" in the centre of the battle and then have my cavalry running around like crazy charging enemy formations, preferably in the back, and then running away. This tend to decide the battles in my favour and my fancy Praetorian legionaires have just stood on the field looking impressive.

 

You can't really use infantry for anything more than absorbing damage - since they do it so well! But make sure you always have a few (about 1/3 of the infantry) as auxilla infantry to counter cavalry. They're cheap and fairly good light infantry anyway. When you eventually get Urban Cohorts nothing will be able to stop your infantry. I've had Urban Cohorts take on about 3x their number in germanic axemen without even suffering half casualties. Those bastards don't pull no punches.

 

I took my 50th province before I had built my first urban barrack so I never got to try out the Urban Cohorts. My next run will be on normal as things were, as expected, a wee bit easy on easy.

In my experience the AI dont use much cavalry, and the cavalry they use I tend to be able to counter with my own cavalry.

I am wondering if there is anyone who enjoys urban fighting and sieges and the like? I think they are horrendously boring and you cant really do much as everything just turn into chaos when you pour through breaches or run up ladders and whatnots. The towers doesnt seem to work as they should either. The only battles I have found I enjoy, and those I enjoy immensly are those on the open field where you can manuveur and get a decent view on things. Fought one battle in the forest against some rebels and it sucked, couldnt see a thing.

I see what you mean with absorbing damage, my tactics are just to march the legions forward to hold the centre and then have my cavalry running around like crazy riding down archers and skirmishers and flanking the enemy infantry intent on my centre. I have also found much enjoyment in onagers, great for softening up an enemy and those heavy hoplites fly funny when a flaming ball lands in their midst. Would be nice with better aim though, as soon as my troops get anywhere near the enemy it is best to tell the artillery to back off or I would feel the taste of one of those flaming balls myself.

 

My worst misfire was when the shot fell VERY short and landed right in the middle of my urban cohort wiping out about a fourth of them. Yeah, the accuracy really pisses me off.

The sieges do get boring rather quickly, urban fighting is fun but bringing down walls and the pointlessless of wooden walls rides on me. If you can't see much in forests that's because you're not supposed to It's a forest, man! The things aren't made of glass

You should feel lucky that you're not operating in Carthage as the Julii because elephants will cause serious damage to your infantry ranks. If the enemy uses cavalry against you it is best to use auxilla against them since auxilla are cheap and effective - don't use your own cavalry because cavalry are more expensive. If you get Praetorian cavalry you'll find that they can charge pretty much ANYTHING and still win.

 

I know you arent supposed to see anything, still doesnt make it enjoyable to fight, too chaotic. I like nice steady battle where I am in controlled all the time.

I was operating in Carthage, I met elephants once but took them down pretty quickly. Probably cause I was playing on easy and because elephants have been nerfed in the patch. Even so they performed awesome for me in the two battles I got to use them.

Seeing as I was swimming in money I never had any room for cheap units in my armies. They were all filled up with legionary/roman cavalry and preatorian/legionary cohorts.

As for sieges it is actually the urban fighting I dislikes the most. For me it always degenerates into an all out melee where every unit is mixed together in a great mish mash of soldiers. Results have always come down to numbers and quality for me.

 

In case the Egyptians are my opponents, i'd much rather fight within their citywalls. When i face them out in the open field, i always find myself chasing those bloody chariot archers, who keep running away all the time and totally exhaust my cavalry. One time i completely destroyed an Egyptian army, except for 5 chariots, who kept running around the map in circles, but refused to leave the battlefield. I couldn't catch up with them, and eventually time expired, resulting the battle to end in a draw. Can you believe that ? Their entire army annihilated, except for 5 fleeing chariots, and they call it a draw.

I got really pissed with the game that time.

At least when such a thing would happen in an urban battle, they don't have all the room to flee whereever my troops aren't, because i could easily encircle them in the streets.