Rome: Total War

[hierachy]

Haha, I started playing this game recently... good stuff.

[Warmark]

I just re-read this thread, i'm re starting my campaign as soon as i get home for summer.

[Avatar]

No time limit? But I'd actually start losing cities, then!

That's what happens in war.

--A

[Nav]

I like the time limit, both for defending and attacking. It's possible to neutralize an enemy's ability to breach your walls and wait them out that way, even if you don't have the manpower to defeat the whole army. It probably shouldn't break the siege if you successfully defend like that though.

One thing I've never understood is the way the AI defends cities. They always leave a big unit of infantry together with their general in the town square. I've never even comtemplated doing that, as IMO a battle that reaches the square is likely already lost. I have everyone ready to meet them head on; on the walls, at the breaches or at the gates. The only time I'll use the square is if I'm being assualted on all sides, when I'll keep some cavalry there to reinforce whichever side needs help.

[Avatar]

If it didn't break the siege, I'd agree with you.

--A

[Nav]

Yeah, that's never made sense to me. Sure, 200 cavalry might not be able to knock a hole in your city walls, but when it comes to intercepting anything trying to get in or out they'd be devastatingly effective.

[I'm Murrin]

Yeah. I've thought before that any siege battle that doesn't end in victory for the attacker or complete destruction/routing of attacking forces should really come up as a draw, not a victory for the defenders.

[Marv]

Yeah, I've been playing this for a while. Great game. I usually just play ridiculously huge set-piece battles. I take a small force of grade-a troops and defend a city against 3 or 4 marauding armies. Loads of fun!

I've had a couple of cracks at the campaign mode but I've not achieved much. I played as the Roman red faction (Brutii?). I got Greece and got Carthage and the surrounds but I can't get very far against the pesky Egyptians. They seem to have an unlimited supply of troops.

Btw has anyone EVER completed the battle of Tuterborg(sp.) Forest on the historical battles section? I've tried it about 7 times and been utterly routed every time.

[Nav]

The Egyptians spread themselves too thinly, I brought all my roman cavalry out of the East gate and swept round behind them, swamping their diversionary force on the way. I chose not to defend the walls as I didn't have enough troops, so when they took them they opened the gates and their cavalry charged straight for the city. Their timing was unbelievably awful though, as it allowed me to split my cavalry and have some hit the missile troops and the rest to spear into the side of their charging cavalry. I killed their General and it was game over!

So that's Alexandria saved for now, Memphis might be slightly easier as the infantry I have their is beefier (too many arcani in the force at Alexandria).

[Avatar]

Congrats.

--A

[Nav]

Hmm, my Egyptian campaign has degenerated into a war of attrition. It's far too easy for them to strike at both Alexandria and Memphis and keeping them is taking up just about all of my resources. The good news is that an attack by Greece seems to have taken the edge off of their warmaking capacity and the armies that are now coming down aren't quite so frighteningly large.

The real struggle now is keeping Alexandria sweet, as it's rioting almost every turn and is becoming a real dinarii pit, despite have even a highly competent Governor. The sieges really don't help, as i can't build anything new to appease the people and the people don't help because when I do get a free turn it's spent repairing the damage from all the riots!

I have a boat full of heavy-duty infantry, cavalry and family members who are either promising generals or too bonkers to be considered for governership. I'm going to pick up some artillery and a couple more units from Alexandria and hit the Egyptians somwhere else. I think Petra might relieve some of the pressure on Alexandria, but will be tricky to get too. The senate want Jerusalem but I think it would be hard to take and even harder to keep. Stupid senate.

[Avatar]

The real struggle now is keeping Alexandria sweet, as it's rioting almost every turn and is becoming a real dinarii pit, despite have even a highly competent Governor. The sieges really don't help, as i can't build anything new to appease the people and the people don't help because when I do get a free turn it's spent repairing the damage from all the riots!

Pull all troops out, leave a couple of spies. Let the city rebel, then attack and massacre the population. That'll keep them quiet for a long time. (Assuming it's as big as a city can be...otherwise, the next upgrade will take forever.)

--A

[Marv]

Is there a way to come out of the game to Windows without having to quit? I press the Windows/menu button on my keyboard and nothing happens.

[I'm Murrin]

Have you tried Alt+Tab?

[Marv]

Have you tried Alt+Tab?

No, I'll try it next time I'm in the game.

I just played a custom battle. 3 units of max'd out Spartan hoplites against thousands of cavalry and foot soldiers (no archers, cos that'd be cheating!!) on the Nile Bridge. I put a unit at the front, a unit in the middle and a unit at the end of the bridge. WHAT A ROUT!!! One of the Spartan units had these stats...casualties sustained 0...casualties inflicted 1022!!!!!

MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Oh yeah, and y'know when you hold the mouse over a unit it tells you how they're feeling about things etc...that unit, after inflicting 1022 casualties before breakfast, claimed to be merely 'warmed up'!!! I love it!!

[Warmark]

I've done that before as well, Spartans are just too good in those kind of situations.

[exnihilo]

The real struggle now is keeping Alexandria sweet, as it's rioting almost every turn and is becoming a real dinarii pit, despite have even a highly competent Governor. The sieges really don't help, as i can't build anything new to appease the people and the people don't help because when I do get a free turn it's spent repairing the damage from all the riots!

Pull all troops out, leave a couple of spies. Let the city rebel, then attack and massacre the population. That'll keep them quiet for a long time. (Assuming it's as big as a city can be...otherwise, the next upgrade will take forever.)

--A

Assuming you hold Memphis (Great Pyramid helps tremendously with Egyptian unrest) and Corinth (Temple of Zeus = +4 levels of happines for all cities), have you built the hippodrome / arena entertainment complex and a Roman pantheon? In any city with a robust population growth rate, I never build farming developments until I've more or less maxed out the sanitation / entertainment side of city building, because you can find yourself in a runaway cycle: you have to lower tax rates to prevent a rebellion, which increases population faster, which raises unrest. Particularly in endgame I always put the population to the sword when taking the city. Allowing the city to rebel and reconquering should be a last resort.

A lot of times when I have problem cities I notice that usually I've forgotten to demolish the endemic lower-level Temple and replace it with my own. Some cities (Jerusalem, Tarsus for instance) are inherently unruly with a base unrest of 30%. And of course the proximity to your capital is a factor as well.

[Avatar]

I don't play the Romans, so I don't get the hippodrome buildings IIRC. Agree about the farming etc. though. I only rebel/reconquer/massacre cities when they reach the maximum size.

--A

[Avatar]

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

Ha!

Shogun 2 Total War Announced.



--A

[Avatar]

And, it's out. Finally. 6 years after I first hoped for it on this forum.

--A