Topic: Rome: Total War mod Total Realism 6.0 Preview Posted: 27-Sep-2005 at 02:27
Thanks again, I worked it out and am loving the game play. Started off
on easy with Iberians before getting bored and putting it on harder
with Macedon. Simply stunning.
They get missile cavalry, but mostly its the balence of Greek Phalanx
type infantry and cavalry, plus their geographic location (in the
Southern Balkans, but not split up and spread out like the Greek
cities), that make them an intresting game to play.
The Macedonians? They get awesome cavalry. It doesn't match the raw
power of the Seleucid cavalry force, but they're easier to get and, as
a rule, cheaper. Not to mention they're sitting on top of a proverbial
gold mine that is Greek trade.
Your first move is to build up a modest force, using very little
cavalry at the start. They'll bleed your treasury dry. Focus on the
phalangites, and take out the Ptolemaic city east of Pella. Then, if
that army is still strong, take Byzantion from the Greeks to secure
your east. Thrace is entirely up to you, but I recommend getting it so
the Thracians don't.
Move your second army, which you should have started with, against
Eprius or the city north-east of it. The mountain passes are hard to
use cavalry in, so you won't want to bog your force down there. Take
that city, and then turn your sights to Athens. She's important.
From Elis and Corinth, rally an army to attack Athens. Ignore Sparta
for the moment. She only has about two Spartan units, and she can't
storm a city in less than three turns -- plenty of time to take Athens
and build up troops in Corinth, or ships in Elis.
Once you've got Athens and Epirus, bring your troops in from Byzantion
(they should have long since arrived if you didn't go for Thrace), and
attack that city north of Corinth. Once you have them, if you've got
sea supremacy, turn your forces to boats and attack Crete and Lesbos,
the island south of Pergamon. Take them both (Crete has two cities, one
Greek and Ptolemaic, which start with three phalanx units and a cavalry
unit, roughly).
Ignore Sicily. You don't want to be slugging it out with Carthage right
now. You can help the Greeks against the Romans, or you can kill the
Illyrians. I suggest the Illyrians if the Greeks aren't being bled dry,
which they probably are. If they are, land at Ancona and smash into
Rome's soft interior. Don't go for Rome yet -- she's heavily fortified
and you don't want a pitched battle against the Legios yet, especially
not with them defending.
Hopefully you've gotten cavalry now, so you can bring in troops to
attack any northern cities Rome captured, which is probably only two at
this point (unless they're fighting Gaul, which you should play off).
Don't go into Rome's southern land, as the Greeks are liable to attack
you. Don't go for a treaty with them. Focus on decapitating Rome, then
turn to the south and smash them both. With Italy and Greece, you'll
want to solidify your holdings. Cyprus, for reasons I've never figured
out, has three towns -- take them. They'll be more difficult to keep
than the Italian cities, but the Ptolemaics will neglect their navy
after they lose their overseas stuff. I suggest a hasty alliance with
the Seleucids, as they'll need every bit of help they can get. If you
can keep the Seleucids afloat, you're going to have an easy time.
Turn your attention to Thrace and Illyria. Don't bother allying them,
just crush them. Both are miserably weak. The Illyrians are a bit more
stubborn, though. Keep an eye out for that. Once you're done there,
don't even think about attacking Sarmatia, you can't afford to extend
your troops that far. Besides, I've never seen her expand.
Once you've done that, you can either turn your attention to the
Ptolemaic cities in southern Turkey (Side, Halicarnassus*, something
else), or go for Pontus. If you can, which you should be able to by
now, go for both. The Ptolemaics will give up the three towns without
much of a fight, and the Kingdom of Pontus has never had a decent army.
Armenia should be your next target. Annex her. I suggest going for them
because of the cultural penalty -- deal with it early.
Once you've got them, you can go for Egypt herself, Sicily, or
Seleucia. I suggest Egypt, then Seleucia. Without any enemies except
Parthia or Bactria, Seleucia will turn on your, especially if you've
taken out their enemies. Carthage might pick a fight with you, but
she's probably busy in Iberia or, as I've seen one, Gaul at this point.
Do whatever the hell you want.
That's how Macedonia's meant to be played. Or, at least, that's what
Caius, the former project leader, thinks. I happen to agree with him.
Joined: 08-Jun-2005
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Posted: 28-Sep-2005 at 01:44
I'm taking over all of Europe with the Gauls. I played the Gauls
because I thought it would be the hardest faction to win with. I found
it quite easy however.
I never played the Gauls with the vanillia version. I think im taking
advantage of some of the flaws in 6.0. I use the Gauls as the true
barbarians they are. I have no economy, I only make money by
exterminating entire populations, then tearing down their buildings for
money. I attack them from every direction taking out towns with small
garisons and burning them to the ground. I dont bother leaving one
single man behind to defend it unless it makes a profit over a few
hundred.
Im fighting on three fronts without any problems. Im fighting the
Romans, the Germans and the Iberians and the Carthaginians. And
winning, I think it's the cheap mercenary armies that are always there
for hire that makes this tactic work so well. And the idiotic AI
responce to you're movements. Although sometimes they do intelligents
things, I assume it's just by chance however.
Im looking forward to the expansion pack, 6.0 is just to easy. I've won with the Carthaginians now the Gauls, way to easily.
I just dont enjoy zipping through and taking 50 provinces. I enjoy savoring my game. 6.0 itself can be easy, but you can obtain a better game by editing file stats to work against you in a campaign or establishing some house rules and disciplining yourself to stick to them no matter what.
With the Macedonians I basically concerted my attack into a number of
thrusts. Antigonus Gonatus starts out south with some units, joins my
Pelop units and takes Athens and Sparta before making a crescent shaped
trek to take Crete, Rhodes and end up in Southeast Asia minor. Another
army goes west, taking the Greek cities before crossing to Italy.
Another army swings west, taking Byzantion and crossing to tackle the
Seleucids. A second western army takes the Egyptian city before
swinging north to take thrace.
For the Macas, i'd recomend attacking the Greek cities on turn one.
Don't worry about the Ptolies of the Gauls, they are a minor pain in
the ankle at most, you can finish them off later. Greek cities are
culturaly the same as yours, so you can assimilate them effortlessly
and cheaply (though you still have to build new barracks for some
reason).
Oh, and i build one or two cavalry units very early, missile cavalry is
always very usefull, both to chase the emenies general unit, and to mop
up any fleeing troops.
Once you've taken all the Greek cities in mainland Greece (and built up
a small navy to attack the Greek ships that are harrassing your ports,
as well as blockading their ports in Byzantam and the other place there
in what is now Romania sort of to supress their develoment there), you
can turn your attention elsewhere, to the Egyptian and Greek Islands to
the East and South of you, and to the Gauls/Egyptians/Greeks north of
you.
By now the Thracians and/or the Ilyrians will have attacked you, so you
can look into chosing a nice border in teh Balkans to the north of you,
i'm using th Danube myself (even if it leaves some of my Northern
Provinces to the dogs as it were), plug the main crossings small
garrisons, and have one good army in the middle to march to where ever
there is trouble (give this armys general a movement bonus retinue).
Now your attention should focus to Asia, eventualy as you expand into
Anatolia, you might want to move your capital to a more central
location from Pella.
Oh yes, and use spies and diplomats to find enemy generals, find out
what traits and retinues they have, and bribe them if they look good.
Theres nothing quire like having a surgeon (or was it the doctor?) AND
a healing preistess to bring back those soldiers from the dead.
Thats the one, it gives +15 or +25 or something.
The Doctor gives a smaller amount, but also improves the fertility of the general. But you can't have both.
One of them isn't compatable with the barbarian ones though, but if you
do it right, you can have three, one is like a witch doctor, one is a
priestess, and of course either the Doctor or the Churgeon, and stacks
up nicely, very good for armies that will be out in teh field with few
oportunities to recharge in a well developed city (like say, an
overseas campain).
Maybe you're thinking of the Priest of... Jupiter, was it? Minor bonus to morale or something like that. Or you're thinking of the Magician, which is +1 morale/command/diplomacy. Or you're thinking Oracle, which is +1 morale/command/diplomacy/influence.
Playing as the Macedonians with the Realism mod, from the Thracians i
got a Herbalist (+1 fertiluity, +10 recovery, same as a Macedonian
doctor), and a Priestess of Bendis (+1 public health, +20 recovery).
I'd imagine most Barb factions have herbalist, and some priest or
priestess od healing or other. The Macedonians from what i gather, only
ger Dorctors and Chirugeons.
Speaking of which, the Chirugeons give +15 recovery, stack them with a
herbalist and a Priestess of Bendis (bot not a doctor, for whatever
reason you can't have a doctor and a Herbalist or a Chirugen in the
same stack), and you get +45 recovery.
Now, i don't think it gives full recovery everytime, but i have had
cases where units of Maca hoplites (60, on my present graphics
settings) in an army with that general will lose as much as half their
number in combat, and regain as much as 20 of them when the battle is
over. Which is pretty damn good you have to admit.
But i think there are limits, as mentioned about with the
Doctor/Herbalist/Chirougeon clash, you probably can't have multiple
healing prietesses, maybe there is an Eastern healer that could be
squeezed in, but i think thats the max.
The bonus is probably the percent per man, or something. So 45% would leave you at just shy of half recovery, barring other factors, like the army being surrounded and cut to ribbons.
I prefer not to lose men, though. Makes it easier.
I prefer not to lose men, though. Makes it easier.
Same here, but its sometimes hard if you are outnumbered.
Generaly i don't mind losing some of my front line infanty, infact
putting them in hardcore situations where they lose a few troops beefs
up their expereience.
Its the missile troops in the rear that i swear to never lose, and
consider it a failing if i lose even one of them, especialy a cretan
mercenary archer, lose one ot two of the, and i start kicking myself.
The archers aren't so bad. You can hire Cretans anywhere in the Greek
world, really. Or at least the Ptolemaic, Antigonoid, Greek, and
western Seleucid lands.
If you want to talk about preservering troops, try to keep your cavalry
alive. They cost so damn much. Italian Cavalry in 6.1 is like 1,200 to
buy, 700 for upkeep. It's insane. Elephants are even worse.
I do try to keep archers alive, though, simply because I always build
infantry stuff first. Of course, peltasts die pretty easy, but they can
help hold a line, so I'm not too concerned about them.
Who do you play as? I really like Macedon, and the challenge from
Seleucia is great, but I probably prefer Sarmatae and Carthago.
The archers aren't so bad. You can hire Cretans anywhere in the Greek
world, really. Or at least the Ptolemaic, Antigonoid, Greek, and
western Seleucid lands.
But the ones from Crete ship with +3 experience.
Cavalry is indeed expensive, but as the macas you are not short in cash
(i'm actualy trying to decrease income so that i don't have too much
cash as that encoruages bad management traits AFAIK, not sure if thats
changed in RTR though), and i don't depend on them too much (especialy
in the part of the world where hoplites are the backbone of the
infantry.
They are there as a sort of reserve, shock cavalry to hit from the
back, misslile cavalry to harass and provoke, and of course, light
cavalry to hunt down and kill those troops fleeing the battle
(especialy enemy generals). Infact, i think i only use the general
units and the greek missile cavalry (can form that circle thing), and
the odd unit of Thracian cavalry that i picked up (i keep the small
depleted ones in cities to 'recharge' the full ones that take on
casualties).
It depends on your fighting style i guess, for me, the Macas are about
walls of infantry, with archers behind them, maybe a few expendable
peltast type units on the flank (to deter any flanking manourvers by
the faster barbarian spearman units, and to protect the archers), and
cavalry on the rear flanks.
Later on, if its a town attacker stack, i'll throw in some Balistas
(though they can be a liability on standard out in the open battles,
even if they do rape ememy infantry formations).
For a cavalry game i play as the Armenians. Never tried the Samaratans,
been meaning too, but am put off by the sheer size of the provinces,
knowing that i'll spend much time and effort hunting down rebels.
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