Total War: Rome II

[I'm Murrin]

Today's play:

I hit the Nori, Helvetii and Raeti as planned. Two in one turn, then gathered my army for the third. Result: Two factions destroyed, one retreated into its only other city where it very quickly made peace (even with its ally still under attack). I get a new region.

I also moved my army in Africa to take the settlement between Carthage and Lepsis. I made a military alliance with the Gaetuli (hey, they offered, they're a big faction off in the corner of the map, and allies count toward victory conditions), and I hoped they'd take the last of the Masaesyli cities because I don't want it, but they didn't attack them at all. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet.

After taking Raetia et Noricum, I looked toward the Aestii, which I was at war with after I took the last city in Pannonia. They had territory just next to me in Dacia, then stretching up in a narrow line to the Baltic sea. I decided my best course would be to conquer all of Dacia (including attacking and destroying the Getae), then move north, taking out all of the Aestii and the Budini in Sarmatia. This would then be followed by a push west, through the large Boii faction, until I bordered on the still-friendly Arverni.

Given the lay of the land and that plan, I moved armies into Dacia, and began positioning two more to attack the Boii in Hercynia. Zarmizegetusa in Dacia fell easily, and I took Malva south of there with a field battle. But the plan didn't really survive long. The Aestii had been at war with the Boii for a long time, and when my army reached the Boii-held Istros, the Aestii were attacking. Instead of declaring war on the Boii, I cleared out the attackers.

Eventually I noticed that the Boii had had a pretty good run of luck while I was fighting in Dacia: They had taken the Aestii settlements in the north, leaving only the one city directly north of Dacia.

The new plan, then, would be to attack Hercynia then Silesia, pushing through the Boii to the Baltic before attacking the Budini to complete Sarmatia.

...And just when I was forming that plan is when the civil war broke out.

Pella, my only city in Macedon, turned for the Senate Loyalists, with five stacks of army and four fleets. My armies poised to attack the Boii have rushed south, and the Dacian armies are sitting still in the cities for now. I will try to defeat the Getae and Aestii before I have to send them down to fight the Loyalists.

I have high Imperium now and 30k income, so I may quickly raise a new army to help fight the civial war.

State of the Empire, Turn 92

Cities: 45
Provinces: 13
Allies: Gaetuli
Client States: Sparta
Enemies: Aestii, Getae, Masaesyli, Senate Loyalists

I now have a +95 food surplus, and, thanks to slow research times limiting my building, I'm once again making money faster than I can spend.

[Avatar]

With regards to the DLC...

That and micro-transactions are unfortunately here to stay. TW started doing the unlockable factions with Shogun 2. I even bought a couple. Napoleon had DLC units, but not factions.

It's obnoxious, I'll certainly agree. And at least in Shogun, they weren't factions that were already in the game. The only appeared if you bought them. In Rome II that doesn't appear to be the case.

There's only really one I would want for RII and that's the Scythians, assuming they release it. Although no doubt I'll pick up most of whatever other factions they offer when they come on a steam sale for $0.99 or so, but I probably won't rush to get them.

(Y'know, the internet in general and online commerce in particular really feeds off the culture of instant gratification. I can feel the urge to just buy this already. )

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I was just looking at the achievements for this game and saw:

This Is Total War:
Win the game having declared war on every faction the turn you encountered them, as well as never negotiating a peace treaty.

Sounds... fun.

[I'm Murrin]

The civil war didn't last as long as I expected. Yes, I had to gather up a lot of armies to go down and defeat it, but it only took about 6 turns. Helped immensely by the fact that when I took their only city all their armies (which had run off in fleets) rushed back to try and retake it.

My push north since then has gone so quick I've lost track of where my armies are and which settlements belong to which provinces.

Finally, down in Africa I attacked the Blemmyes to complete the province, then accepted their offer of becoming a Client State.

State of the Empire, Turn 104

Settlements: 55
Provinces: 17
Allies: Gaetuli
Client States: Sparta, Blemmyes
Enemies: Boii (one city remaining)

I have over 300,000 talents, with 30-40k income each turn. Still can't spend it all because of slow research to unlock things.

Magna Graecia is going to rebel in about 4 turns because I can't find a way to quickly fix its public order.

[Avatar]

Oh, WRT the mods...I see there's already a few out, including some conversion ones. No doubt they will have prevented the unlocking of factions, but otherwise I'm seeing the usual run of things. Including allowing other factions in custom battles IIRC.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Actually, I'm guessing the "culture pack" DLC probably contains things like the tech tree, building chains, and things like that - stuff that's not packaged in the game to be unlocked. Rather than just unlocking the playability.

[Avatar]

Definitely agreed.

(Oh, you seen a unit guide around anywhere? Looking for info on the Egyptian units.)

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Not something I've ever really looked into, no. I just tend to buy the highest level of whatever's available.

[I'm Murrin]

The latest beta-version patch is out, and does a big overhaul of AI, should make them smarter about what armies they field and how they manage their cities.

[I'm Murrin]

State of the Empire, Turn 117

It's no longer possible to fit the whole empire in one screen (just barely).

Settlements: 63
Provinces: 20
Allies: Arverni, Athens, Gaetuli
Client States: Sparta, Blemmyes, Nervii
Enemies: Cherusci (one unit soon to die), Garamantia

I pushed hard through all of Germania with 5 or 6 armies. Stopped at Belgica, making the Nervii into a Client State rather than occupying - I'm just not interested in fighting the Arverni, which means not attacking the Pictones, which means not trying to get all of Belgica. So I let the Nervii live.

Got pulled into war with Garamantia in Africa by my ally the Gaetuli. The Gaetuli don't seem to actually be attacking, but I'm now under attack.

Preparing armies to hit the middle east once I'm done in Africa. Start in Nabataea, then north to Syria which will put me in conflict with the Seleucids. (Edit, wait, nope. Looks like the Nasamones have destroyed most of the Seleucids and left Syria ripe for the picking.) Might then push into Ponto-Caspia to the north.


Edit: I forgot to mention, I had one pretty ridiculous battle yesterday. I was sieging a city when another army came along and attacked my besieging army. On the field, I put my troops near the back of the deployment area, both to make the enemy walk to me through missile fire, and to take advantage of some tree cover. My reinforcements arrived a few seconds into the battle right beside my original force... and then the enemy's reinforcements arrived just to the other side of my army. They immediately rushed my flank, threw my whole line into chaos. Somehow I still managed to win.

[I'm Murrin]

Starting to burn out on this campaign a little. 126 turns in, I have only about half the number of settlements required to win.

[I'm Murrin]

State of the Empire, Turn 138
(Everything that's cut off the top of the screen is mine, except for Britain.)

Settlements: 85
Provinces: 26
Allies: Athens, Gaetuli, Axum
Client States: Sparta, Nervii
Enemies: Pictones, Nasamones

Pushed through Ponto-Caspia and the Bosphorus, which took a long time with sitting around waiting on public order.

Took Nabataea very very easily, ditto Syria - haven't gone after Seleucids yet, so not completed the region. My allies got involved in wars with Blemmyes and Nasamones, so I broke my Client State agreement with Blemmyes captured all of Egypt from them and the Nasamones.

I'm using the "war target" setting to encourage Athens to expand. It kind of worked, except they sailed all their armies away from Cyrene to attack the next target and let it rebel.

I raised two new armies and attacked Arverni (they cancelled the allience early) and Pictones. The Arverni are now destroyed, partly by an invasion from the Demetae from Britain. Pictones about to fall to either Demetae or Nervii. I'm moving my armies around the Demetae to attack the other one in Britain, then I'll turn on them.

There's a whole big mess of alliances in the Anatolia/Armenia/Caucasia/Mesopotamia area that I'm kinda wary to stir up. Seleucids are allied with Pontus, who are allied to Bythenia, who are allied to Pergamon, who are at war with Sardes, who are a Satrapy (client state) of Seleucids. Pontus are also allied with Ardhan in Caucasia, and to my own ally Athens. Seleucids have three other Satrapies in Mesopotamia and Persis.

I have no idea who'll take what sides if I attack one of them.

I need Armenia for the victory condition. But I also need to control 140 settlements, so I'm a way off. Going to grab Trapezos and the two rebel settlements in Armenia, while my other armies hit the Aorsoi in Scythia.

[I'm Murrin]

Didn't play for long yesterday. Attacked the Aorsoi in Scythia, taking the northeasternmost settlement, then attacked them in the one settlement in Caucasia (which they'd just taken from another faction, so it had no garrison).

The army heading for Trapezos took the city easily, and will move into Armenia soon.

Two armies moved after the Qidri in their one city in Arabia, and another headed for a rebel settlement in Mesopotamia, taking both. I fought my tenth real-time battle out of 140 turns!

I was planning to hit the Masqat next, but while I was doing those other things they expanded quickly to fill most of Mesopotamia, while their ally keeps getting bigger just to the east. The effect of the improved patch 4 AI, I guess.

As it is, I need to attack another one-city faction in Caucasia (already at war, they were allied to Aorsoi), and take the rebel cities in Armenia - this will actually connect the northeast and southeast parts of my empire through the Caucassus.

I'm still not touching the mess of alliances in Anatolia, but Athens is expanding nicely and Sparta even got into a war with Knossos after sitting in two cities for almost 100 turns.

[Avatar]

Sounds like they're improving it rapidly. Must resist...

What are your load times and turn times like?

--A

[I'm Murrin]

End Turn took a long time early in the game - there are a helluva lot of small one-city factions - but it's not too bad now. Maybe 60 seconds? Load times I think are a little shorter than when I first started, still maybe 30-45 seconds. I end up checking twitter or doing other things while I wait.

Re: Improvements, the AI does seem to be getting more aggressive in places. But there are other odd things - they made factions more eager to agree to trade (apparently this was an issue? I never had much trouble), and it's led to one odd effect: Garamantia, who I had been at war with and my ally had destroyed, reappeared after a rebellion, and still hates me. Every turn, I propose trade and they very eagerly accept. Every End Turn, they cancel the trade agreement because they don't like me.

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Stop offering them trade.

Sounds good, and they're on patch 4 already I think.

Quite looking forward to this one.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

So I just had the stupidest experience of the game so far. I was finally forced to fight a city siege when a small enemy army attacked an undefended city. I expected a bit of a fight to hold it.

The enemy lined up and walked to just outside of arrow range of the towers. They sent one unit forward to throw torches and burn the gates. My missile units and arrow towers completely detroyed this unit after they dealt 11% damage. The enemy then... retreated, lined themselves up back where they had started, and sat around doing nothing.

I had to put the game on fast forward and wait five minutes for the battle to end: Heroic Victory because I lost no men. I am now very glad I had reduced the battle time limit to 20mins.

To a certain extent I can understand the logic: They only way for them to break my gates ws to send men into range of missile fire, and they probably would hve lost too many men just trying to get in. But damn, that was annoying.

[I'm Murrin]

Small update: Turn 150, I've been making a lot of small gains in the east, and have the two southernmost cities in Britannia.

The thing that's puzzling me right now, though, is that in the last two turns both Macedon and Epirus have spontaneously "re-emerged" in cities that belonged to Sparta and Athens the turn before. So both my allies just lost cities out of nowhere to factions that haven't existed for a hundred years.

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Were the cities in rebellion?

As for the post before...hahaha, maybe I should play with the time limit. I never have, although there have been times I wished I had.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

Haven't played for about a week now. While I wasn't playing, patch 5 has launched along with the unlocking of the Seleucid as a playable faction for all players (free, not paid DLC).