**Official Rome Total War Thread **

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Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,666
21
81
Man, I really wish they had a Hurry Production option like Civilization did. Pain in the butt waiting 20 turns to move my army.
 

alm4rr

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
4,390
0
0
process_cq "City"

will build everything in the queue, but can only use it once per RTW load
doesn't work on units, tho
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,666
21
81
Originally posted by: alm4rr
process_cq "City"

will build everything in the queue, but can only use it once per RTW load
doesn't work on units, tho

Yeah, thats a pain in the butt.

Hey, what's your opening strategy? Do you blitz for territory or do you build up your forces and send out diplomats?
 

alm4rr

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
4,390
0
0
Well, my last camp (finished it tonite) was as Brutii - first step is to take garbage cities on the opposite coast from rebels and make a quick war to displace the greeks. After they were pushed out, they had 1 colony in Turkey and rhodes. I quickly took rhodes for the +40% naval trade increase (By the time I ended the camp, they owned half of Turkey!)

I then made peace with them, and worked down the Macedonians, and let Thrace use their resources to take them out, at which point I quickly began a war against them (after lettin them as allies slog itout with Mac's) Next thing I know, I have Dacians pouring out of the north and I have meager defenses (very lightly defended forts in 2 strategic positions) From about 1/3 into the camp to the end, I left them bloody my nose a bunch of times b/c I was focusing on the baltics, so I just kept it adequately stocked...

I then slogged it out with thrace for a while, using a spy with plague to constantly infect their cities and make them consistently lose 8% each turn for a bunch of turns. Killed them off. Now I held a straight line against Dacians and wrapped around all the baltics. I took two armies and just went rampaging through Dacia, always exterminating, always leveling the cities and then in the same round giving them to Sythia (so I don't have annoying retake senate missions) After a few cities, I had loads of cash.

So for a bunch of turns then, I built up 5 Large armies and sent spies into the last 5 greek provinces (from Rhodes and Byzantine) to find the cities with the families in them. Attacked them and since I had siege weapons, took the city in the same round. All Greeks dead, never knowing what hit them, and so then I won the short camp. Other armies took the now Rebel cities. At the end of the camp, I had about 100k in treasury.

Sending diplomats out ASAP for trade rights is very important and gettin the rebel towns. i always try to take Rhodes and Kyndoeria (sp?) - even tho it's a junky place, it makes mad loot and tiny expenses. Get lots of trade from Egypt there, too

Plus, like in Greece, the cities are really close, and so each city has a priority - archers, inf, or cav - so I don't have to waste time on each city building all 3 units and infrastructure....

I never waste money on navy except junkers to ferry troops back and forth. I always exterminate, except for small like-cultured or rebel towns that become enslaved. But enslaved always seems to come back and bite in the ass. I nearly always build temples that give health benefits and almost always build health buildings first after new city growth. Um, that's all I can think of at the moment :)

ps - This was on Vhard/H
 

adlep

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2001
5,287
6
81
Me tags this thread....
Dammit, so many choices, and not enough money :(
And Half-Life is going to be released soon...:(
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,666
21
81
Originally posted by: adlep
Me tags this thread....
Dammit, so many choices, and not enough money :(
And Half-Life is going to be released soon...:(

Nice post! Thanks.

And I know! On top of that, all these great games are coming out during my finals. So Im going to have to wait it out. Erg. But come this winter Ill be glued to my PC screen.
 

Dacalo

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2000
8,778
4
76
Got the game a few days ago but haven't had the time to get into yet. Too much work :(
 

Davegod

Platinum Member
Nov 26, 2001
2,874
0
76
Useful keys for battle:
<> to rotate (in formation) all currently selected units.
SPACE shows where the units will be ending up.
ALT+attack if you want units to use their alternate attack - useful if you want e.g. cavelry who normally throw spears to charge and use their swords.

Always try to manouver troops and manipulate enemy units so you're attacking into the flank or rear of the enemy. Note morale plays a huge part and units are pretty good at figuring out when theyre about to get owned and then legging it off the battlefield. Low morale units seem to be influenced by any unit of equal or greater eliteness who are routing, so if you can get a fairly elite unit to route through the enemy lines their other units may start to waiver and will run if you press the attack before they compose themselves. Your general has a horn to rally troops if your own ones start to do this.

Be very careful with archers, friendly fire is NASTY and most people on the official forum agree there's a bit of a bug in that archers are overly happy to try to shoot through your own guys when there's enemy so near they dont fire upwards. Before your units get mingling with enemy units, select archer units and turn off fire at will.

In campaign:

You can move retinue among your generals/govenors when the generals are in the same army stack/city. Useful for moving useful retinue off of your rubbish generals (then use the rubbish generals to build watchtowers and other suicidal missions, instead of risking the good ones). Cities with an Acadamy etc will get their govenors good retinue faster, to the point where it can be worth rotating govenors who need a little improving into cities with lots of 'learned' buildings for a few turns.

It's worth regularily checking the family tree and selecting the best general as the heir (esp for influence and management), but be warned that generals you disinherit get 'disinherited' as a trait (big hit to influence) and the guy i disinherited seems to keep getting dodgy traits.

Try to capture Wonders early, especially the +40% sea trade one at Rhodes (iirc).

Temples to gods other than those of your faction add to the culture penalty when taking over cities, so demolish them and build temples to your own gods - but remember the city does still get the benefits from the other god's temples, so only do it when your prepared to take the temporary hit to happiness etc. Law bonuses are as good as happiness bonuses in that respect, but also reduces corruption. Culture penalty is based on the number of buildings built by the previous faction vs. the number you have built there, so reduces over time from normal building upgrading, but you can accelerate it (expensively) by demolishing.

Since you have to choose your temple-building tree from the first temple you build there, it's worthwhile checking the building tree scroll to see what the benefits are from resulting temples. To check between them, put one type of temple in the city's build queue, check the tree, then take it out and do the same with the other ones (the scroll only shows the tree of the temples to the god already being built there).

Keep cities garrisoned with cheap troops (town watch) and as they get bigger you need to increase them -- i add a few archer and cav etc just so they wont be too horrendous if i have to use them -- plus everywhere should be within 1/2 turns reach of one mobile army stack (defence and to remove barbarians, they cause devastation if on your lands for >1 turn and that means less money + unhappiness). The moile stack can also be useful for taking advantage of the occasional rebel uprising in some desirable city - uprisings that can be encouraged by stationing spies in cities (they decrease happiness) and a bit of arson from your assasins (they also damage buildings).

I'm having to exterminate all cities after capturing them, all the ones far from my capital where i dont have a really good govenor with lots of influence anyway.

Dont be put off by the lulls where it seems you're in a bit of a stalemate on the campaign map, a enemy mistake here, a bit of luck or skillful battle-commanding/cities-micromanagement there and you can be back with a vengeance and a wave of momentum in no time.
 

Malladine

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,618
0
71
my tip of the day: hold shift while giving commands in battle to set waypoints

Thanks for the Temple tip (destroying opposing god temples) Dave, didn't know that but it makes a lot of sense.
 

maddogchen

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2004
8,903
2
76
man this game is fun, but sometimes is a bit frustrating. I had the hardest time trying to move troops through the small alleys in cities. I tried moving a light infantry force through an alley that seemed to be able to fit them to flank an enemy leader's position to hit them from the back. But they kept walking back and forth in front of the alleyway. I tried changing formations too to a long two row line that was less than half the width of the alley but no use. They kept walking around and bumbling into each other like idiots. Anyone have a suggestion?
 

Argo

Lifer
Apr 8, 2000
10,045
0
0
How do I get rid of squalor in the city? I have a couple of cities with over 18,000 population and squalor seem to be a huge problem with population growth and happines. On the city information scrool there are over 15 rat icons in each area. I tried building public baths, aquadact, etc but nothing helps.

Also, went fighting Germans (I'm playing as Julii), what's the best way to fight spearmen? Those guys are devastating against my melee troops in hand to hand combat. And you can't charge them either because of those long spears.
 

Malladine

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,618
0
71
Originally posted by: Argo
How do I get rid of squalor in the city? I have a couple of cities with over 18,000 population and squalor seem to be a huge problem with population growth and happines. On the city information scrool there over 15 rat icons in each area. I tried building public baths, aquadact, etc but nothing helps.
Ship peasants away to less populated cities for a temporary reprieve. Just hire several groups of peasant militia, the bottom end military units, take em to another city and disband there.

maddogchen: seem as though managing armies in the close quarters of a city is difficult at the best of times. If you're defending, try placing your units where you need them during deployment and making choke points that way. Forget flanking in the larger cities imo.
 

Argo

Lifer
Apr 8, 2000
10,045
0
0
Originally posted by: Malladine
Originally posted by: Argo
How do I get rid of squalor in the city? I have a couple of cities with over 18,000 population and squalor seem to be a huge problem with population growth and happines. On the city information scrool there over 15 rat icons in each area. I tried building public baths, aquadact, etc but nothing helps.
Ship peasants away to less populated cities for a temporary reprieve. Just hire several groups of peasant militia, the bottom end military units, take em to another city and disband there.

maddogchen: seem as though managing armies in the close quarters of a city is difficult at the best of times. If you're defending, try placing your units where you need them during deployment and making choke points that way. Forget flanking in the larger cities imo.

But the thing is I want to grow my cities to 24,000 so that I can build more advanced buildings.
 

Malladine

Diamond Member
Mar 31, 2003
4,618
0
71
Originally posted by: Argo
Originally posted by: Malladine
Originally posted by: Argo
How do I get rid of squalor in the city? I have a couple of cities with over 18,000 population and squalor seem to be a huge problem with population growth and happines. On the city information scrool there over 15 rat icons in each area. I tried building public baths, aquadact, etc but nothing helps.
Ship peasants away to less populated cities for a temporary reprieve. Just hire several groups of peasant militia, the bottom end military units, take em to another city and disband there.

maddogchen: seem as though managing armies in the close quarters of a city is difficult at the best of times. If you're defending, try placing your units where you need them during deployment and making choke points that way. Forget flanking in the larger cities imo.

But the thing is I want to grow my cities to 24,000 so that I can build more advanced buildings.
Maybe you chose the wrong temples or are a race without serious +happy gods?

 

alm4rr

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
4,390
0
0
whatever you do don't lower the tax rate to make them happy - it will just increase population growth and make it worse
After 24k pop, I let it go rebel and then exterminate and make some nice cash... i also don't build farming upgrades until the last lil things... After foundry, I may destroy a few forums based on trade income at the settlement

squalor is the biggest pita so you're not alone

it helps to only build the health bonus shrines and health buildings first when cities go for upgrade

extermination is the #1 thing to keep cities happy

how's that for historic gameply :)
 

Davegod

Platinum Member
Nov 26, 2001
2,874
0
76
Squalor - its mostly a case of just keeping it down enough until the next 'govenors villa' building (which you get to build when it hits the next population level). Until then, build aqueducts and whatnot, and try to counter the squalor unhappiness with happiness buildings. If you set taxrates low all the time, your govenor starts getting 'useless assessor' traits, aslong as the happiness is >85%/90% dont bother lowering taxes. Some govenors may have traits that -1 squalor, try finding those guys and moving them to cities if it becomes a major problem.

When cities are at their maximum building-level, and are still increasing population and making squalor bad, start shipping peasant militia to anywhere that can take them.

Moving armies out so cities rebel and then moving in to exterminate should only be done if you really cba with that city, it will not make you money (the financial number on the city icon is next to meaningless because it includes a cost for military which is allocated to coties based on their population), actuall yit will mean a lot less money for your coffers in the medium-long run - look at the settlement details scroll.
 

alm4rr

Diamond Member
Dec 21, 2000
4,390
0
0
boy is the save battle/replay function all buggered up

Custom battle with me vs carthage (defending Rome)

In the real battle I destroyed all siege equip and they don't get to walls and all Carth. leave map I kill 800 and I lose maybe 50
In the replay, Carthage got all siege equip to walls and unload 1/2 army, rest comes through gate.

Replay ended in the middle of fictional battle and I was kind of disappointed. Since it was basically an entirely new battle, I was wondering how it was going to end!! Only the first 4 mins of the replay were correct - after that it basically just invented everything else...