Rome: Total War

[Nav]

There doesn't seem to be a maximum number of units you can get into a fleet though. I put a 1000 strong army into two units of triremes (80 ships). That must be worse than flying on EasyJet!

[I'm Murrin]

I think all armies, cities, and ships have a 20 unit limit. If you've got your unit size turned up, this can be quite a lot of individual soldiers. Mine are on 'normal', but there's also 'small', 'large', and 'huge' (on Huge, for example, Legionary First Cohorts contain 122 men; Urban Cohorts 80, etc).

[Nathan]

Large is twice the size of normal, and huge is twice the size again. So on normal any unit with 40 will have 80 on large and 160 on huge. I like large the best.

[Nav]

Where do you adjust that? My infantry are 80 strong in this game, but in the starter campaign there were only 40 per unit.

I've found the big units handy for repelling sieges though. The other day I fought off a Carthaginian invasion force with only 2 Hastati, 1 lot of velites, 4 town guard regiments and my general. For some reason they battered my gates down, then just stood there and were killed by the velites. I parked one of the town guard units in the gateway and just killed the rest of their attackers as they came over the walls. My general just chilled in the piazza with a cappucino and a biscotti.

What really puzzled me was that they had elephants, cavalry and missle troops and they just hung back and let the time run out. If they'd come through the gates with those elephants I'd have been done for!

[I'm Murrin]

Unit Size is on your game options, in the Options from the main menu (I think it may also be in the advanced options for Custom Battles).

Yeah, the tactics of the AI players aren't particularly intelligent. I can't really say if they do that often - the only sieges I can remember defending were very small, and I fought the enemy outside the gates...

[Nathan]

It's only in the main menu options. Campaigns are stuck with whatever size you had selected when you started the campaign (so you don't build the units on small and then up them to large after you've got them, meaning you could make an 80 man unit from 20 population).

I've nearly cleared the Romans out of Rome now

[Nathan]

The Romans are Booted out! Italy is ruled by the Gauls! Long live Emperor Lugotorix the conqueror!

Now I turn my eye on the Germans and their forests.

[Avatar]

Thanks Nathan, I figured it out when I saw the "merge" cursor while hovering over ships.

Man, I'd love to see the earlier versions, (But especially Shogun) redone to the Rome engine.

Just playing a short campaign for now to get the factions unlocked. Is great though.

--A

[Nathan]

There's people working on mods at the moment Avatar. I reckon it's only a matter of time before someone does a medieval or Shogun mod.

[I'm Murrin]

Aargh! I finally eliminated those Gallic savages, and my game crashed to the desktop! Bah. I will have to repeat the battle.

Edit: Fault corrected. Numantia is mine.

You know, while I like having an update on my game progress visible, the urge to change my avatar is becoming great (I'm used to changing it every couple weeks)...

[I'm Murrin]

Woo. I defeated the Senate in a single battle. Once again, the game crashed on the 'Faction Destroyed' screen, so I'd appreciate it if anyone could tell me if there'd have been any special stuff in the messages in the bottom corner, or if it was just 'faction destroyed', then carry on as normal (I was expecting something a bit more exciting for having captured Rome). The game autosaved this time (they attacked my besieging army, so it did all the 'end turn' stuff before the 'Faction Destroyed' message appeared), but when I resumed I didn't get the messages again like I did last time.

[Nathan]

Yes, I am having irresistable urges to update my avatar far too frequently as well.

So you're in civil war time now then? How goes the battle with the Brutii?

I've never destroyed the Senate as a Roman faction so I'm not sure what other messages it may have had for you.

You could try the forums (under community) at www.totalwar.com to try and find out, there might be something about your crashing at faction destroyed screen too.

Congratulations on destroying the Gauls and the senate, soon all the known world will be under your grasp.

[I'm Murrin]

If you look closely at my av, you'll see I started taking a couple territories in the Turkey area today, waiting for Brutii cities to rebel and grabbing them myself. Didn't get much time to do that though - I got my window on Rome only a couple turns after I started that, but holding Halicarnassus should help in the long run.

[Avatar]

There's people working on mods at the moment Avatar. I reckon it's only a matter of time before someone does a medieval or Shogun mod.

I hope so. Shogun on this engine would be awesome, especially with the massively improved campaign map. Love the way that you never really fight on the same battle map twice.

Also a pity that not all factions are playable, but hell, such a minor complaint that it's barely worth mentioning.

Wonder when the next in the series will be set? I'd like to see a Napoleanic one, but on the other hand, don't like gunpowder. Even in Shogun, I always refused to trade with the Gaijin for it. Preferred to maintain the Way of the Warrior.

I know you're all having as much fun as I am.

--A

[Nav]

Murrin, if you keep having trouble with crashes I'd recommend reinstalling without the 1.1 patch, assuming you've installed it already. I had no end of trouble after installing that, with the game frequently crashing after battles and often refusing to load in the first place, saying that I hadn't inserted the correct CD (lies, all lies!). Haven't had a peep after reverting to the original install.

I'm tempted to install the pre-Polypennesian (spl) era hoplite skin, but I'm concerned that it'll de-stabilize my system too. Oh well, there's always good ol' system restore to fall back on...

[Nathan]

Patch 1.2 is out guys! (finally). There's hundreds of fixes here, including the weak AI, suicidal generals, heaps of bugs, etc. I've been waiting for this for ages!

[I'm Murrin]

I don't see it mentioned on the site...

Edit: it's on the forums.

[Nathan]

It's mentioned on the top right hand page of www.totalwar.com

[I'm Murrin]

Wow, these Firefox people really have to fix that refresh thing.

I'm getting it now, from a mirror which is running considerably faster than the main download server. Of course, there's another Firefox problem where it keeps cutting off my downloads before they're finished...

[Nathan]

I got it from the link in the forum and it took only a few minutes. People have been complaining though, so maybe I got in before the rush started.