RTW Help

[irishScott]

Playing as Julii

So I've beaten the crap out of the Gauls (their heavy calvary could be a bitch but other than that they fell quickly) and naturally I've moved on to the Spanish. However, the little fuckers simply refuse to die.

I've spent about 20 turns going back and forth with them, and I've just taken Osca... which they have now besieged with 2 full armies.

WTF are they getting their resources? I blockaded all of their ports 10 turns ago.

The only annoyance is that the Gaulic villages were pathetically underdeveloped when I captured them, and due the state of near constant sieging/head butting I've been unable to build up any decent forward infrastructure. Thus I have to transport everything in from Italy.

I tried a few coastal landings with full armies, but somehow a massive Spanish force is always waiting for me. WTF.

Any ideas? Right now I'm in the process of building up yet another army to help Osca, and I know I'll eventually win, but the Britains have already taken most of Northern Europe, so it's going to be a battle of superpowers now as opposed to scattered barbarian tribes. Argh.

 

[FP]

Dragons... Definitely use dragons.

 

[ITPaladin]

You might want to try the RTW forums.

 

[effee]

Have you taken Carthage? I'd focus on that piece of land first and slowly move on to conquer the Egyptian lands.

 

[Oceandevi]

Originally posted by: binister
Dragons... Definitely use dragons.

So true.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
You might want to try the RTW forums.

yeah, nice, offer no help.

I guess he figured with all the total war rage and craze going on, he'd ask for help.

OP, I'll say this right, but DONT go after cheats, it will ruin the ENTIRE experience, no joke. Just...don't.

Now, for suppressing the Spanish, you're running into problems that the Roman Generals themselves sought answers to.

I'd suggest first eliminating the besiegers.


It seems your trouble is when the armies land and there's a full stack waiting for them. Do you fight these battles out on the Real Time map? That's what I'd do.

If you need help with generalship, here's what I'd do: I'd deploy my forces so that my spearmen are guarding my flanks (end of right and left) and deploy the archers in the center, behind the Swordsmen (Hastati and the Principii. Always hold reserves, even if you have a small force. Place your general behind your archers as the back up charging force, he'll be useful to turn the tide. Be sure not to commit your general.
Have the Hastati and Principii fire at will (they're swordsmen, but they toss javelins too) and yeah.

This formation should work. If the Spearmen (Triarii) beat off the flanking cavalry (because Celtiberians always flanked with cav) have them now flank the enemy and charge into the already engaged enemy, fighting with your Hastatii and Principii.



I'd suggest committing yourself to the battles, instead of doing an autoresolve. Sometimes, the autoresolve goes berserk. I have had numerous times when I engage an enemy force and the ratio tells me I'm going to get my ass kicked, and I turn the engagement into a heroic victory!

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: TehMac

Originally posted by: ITPaladin
You might want to try the RTW forums.

yeah, nice, offer no help.

I guess he figured with all the total war rage and craze going on, he'd ask for help.

OP, I'll say this right, but DONT go after cheats, it will ruin the ENTIRE experience, no joke. Just...don't.

Now, for suppressing the Spanish, you're running into problems that the Roman Generals themselves sought answers to.

I'd suggest first eliminating the besiegers.


It seems your trouble is when the armies land and there's a full stack waiting for them. Do you fight these battles out on the Real Time map? That's what I'd do.

If you need help with generalship, here's what I'd do: I'd deploy my forces so that my spearmen are guarding my flanks (end of right and left) and deploy the archers in the center, behind the Swordsmen (Hastati and the Principii. Always hold reserves, even if you have a small force. Place your general behind your archers as the back up charging force, he'll be useful to turn the tide. Be sure not to commit your general.
Have the Hastati and Principii fire at will (they're swordsmen, but they toss javelins too) and yeah.

This formation should work. If the Spearmen (Triarii) beat off the flanking cavalry (because Celtiberians always flanked with cav) have them now flank the enemy and charge into the already engaged enemy, fighting with your Hastatii and Principii.



I'd suggest committing yourself to the battles, instead of doing an autoresolve. Sometimes, the autoresolve goes berserk. I have had numerous times when I engage an enemy force and the ratio tells me I'm going to get my ass kicked, and I turn the engagement into a heroic victory!

Thanks, and yes I do fight them in real-time (no fun otherwise). My strategy thus far has been to have Hastati on the flanks, Pincipes in the center, velites behind with light calvary + general on the flanks. I generally march them out straight at the opposing forces, engage my calvary + general to theirs (if they have them. If not, I set up to flank them), and let the velites skirmish with the infantry until they charge. I currently don't have the ability to produce spearmen, so that's all I've got until Marius comes along.

In any case, this strategy has worked every time. However, the Spaniards seem to have 2 armies to my one, so the other one finishes me off unless the army is in range of a city. In which case the city is soon besieged. :|

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: effee
Have you taken Carthage? I'd focus on that piece of land first and slowly move on to conquer the Egyptian lands.

I'm Julii. The Scipii are beating the crap out of the carthaginians right now.

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: irishScottThanks, and yes I do fight them in real-time (no fun otherwise). My strategy thus far has been to have Hastati on the flanks, Pincipes in the center, velites behind with light calvary + general on the flanks. I generally march them out straight at the opposing forces, engage my calvary + general to theirs (if they have them. If not, I set up to flank them), and let the velites skirmish with the infantry until they charge. I currently don't have the ability to produce spearmen, so that's all I've got until Marius comes along.

In any case, this strategy has worked every time. However, the Spaniards seem to have 2 armies to my one, so the other one finishes me off unless the army is in range of a city. In which case the city is soon besieged. :|

You can produce triarrii, which are spearmen, depending on the advanced status of the settlement (the most advanced city/barracks can train them--they're l'corps d'elite). I can definitely see issues with the setup you had. Your velites should be used to harass the enemy, luring them into your defensive formation, then, you can place them behind friendly lines and have them act as a decent substitute for archers.
Your general should be placed reasonably behind the main force, and used to reinforce with his charging, a particular area, should it need it. But yeah, soon as you can, train some Triarii, pre-maurian reforms, they're l33t, and excellent spearmen.

The key to these battles is remaining on the defensive, maintaining formation, and luring the enemy to attack, unless you are superior in numbers.

You do know you able to set formations more efficiently by holding down the left mouse button and stretching the unit formation ("dots" appear, each one representing the units in the battalion--and the arrow points to which way they'll be at the ready) right?

I have found that crucial, especially when I want to reform the line, like bring the velites from harrassing, back to the friendly lines, and forming em up behind the center.

Good center will be Principes, then Hastati, flanks, preferably Principes, but Hastatii works, Spearmen even better, but you're going to need ship them

 

[theprodigalrebel]

I finished the full campaign multiple times - R:TW was my crack back in the day. I haven't played the game in ages so I'm finding it hard to remember anything of substance.

I do remember things always got ultra-messy once I had captured ~40 settlements - I had the same issues. All my well-developed cities were around Italy and the Gauls (and other territories to the North) had shitty villages that took forever to develop. The only places for me to go where Spain and Egypt. Things were always pretty smooth during the 30-40 phase - once I'd hit 40 settlements, I'd have half-a-dozen (major) cities under siege. :| I'd have to forget about expansion and try not to loose my major centers. Trying to balance defense+offense would seriously get on my nerves but since RTW was my crack of choice, I marched on!

I'd try to ship huge consignments of troops halfway across the map to Spain but they would always get raped by enemy naval fleets that popped out of nowhere. Somehow, I would land two full armies on Spain's coast and would constantly get ambushed. That's when I'd get sick of tactics, well-trained troops, generals and all that jazz and simply go for brute force.

Train all the Hastati/Velites/Town Guards/Whatnots you can, outnumber the enemy 2.5-to-1 and praise the Lord. That's pretty much the only way to get those last few territories while your real troops lay down their lives defending your main life-and-blood recruiting/economic centers on the other side of the map.

The cool thing about Rome is the amazing satisfying feel you get when you beat an army three times your size. Train those archers - you are gonna love them!

 

[TehMac]

Always remember, just don't use cheats. Ever. It's a total game ruining experience. I have been trying to get off of using them, but they're so...addicting.