Rome Total War Strategy Guide v1.5
for game version 1.0 to 1.5
(for intermediate players)
by: A.H.W. aka Blood Rage
ahwongso@hotmail.com
Original submission made June 7 2005
First update June 17 2005
Second update June 28 2005
Third update October 04 2005
Fourth update 11 August 2006
Fifth update 02 December 2006
Correction for Briton Strategy 04 March 2007
NOTE: (*) at the end of titles denote changes in version 1.2
and above. Basically the combat aspects doesn't change much
from 1.2 onwards. All else are version 1.0.
Table of contents
=================
1.0 Author's note
1.1 Noticeable campaign changes in version 1.2*
1.2 Noticeable campaign changes in version 1.5*
1.0 Author's note
-----------------
This guide is for slightly experienced players in the single
player Imperial campaign. I have no experience playing in
multiplayer. It is not a comprehensive guide detailing
everything you need to know but rather elaborating more on
strategies, rather than game bugs, info, cheats. All the
games here are on 'very hard/very hard'. Therefore, some
mastery of basic commands are recommended.
All this strategies here are exactly from my own play.
I also assume that the readers would be familiar with the
geography and terms of the game.
This strategy guide will be structured according to factions
following the general structure here. I have split the
strategies into 'Basic Strategies' and 'Advanced Strategies'
because Basic Strategies apply in any way that you play the
faction while in Advanced Strategies I explain my own
strategies as an advancement from the basics; usually based
on how I interpret the faction strengths and weaknesses,
their geographical considerations and how, if any extra
tactics I use.
Please read through the general non-faction specific part
before going to the faction specific guide.
Updated 17 June 2005:
I fought against my hatred of using chariots and tried out
the Egyptians and mastered Parthians. Also posted more
strategies like 'offensive fortification' and more of
advanced strategies. Various errors corrected. Grammar
checked.
Updated 28 June 2005:
Added Scipii and also the 'General battle tips against
specific factions', 'Geographical considerations',
'Economy' and 'Questions' sections. Also added diagrams of
Roman and Parthian formations.
Updated 04 October 2005:
Took some time off the game and got a girlfriend. Now back
with version 1.2. There are obvious changes in version 1.2,
the most noticeable so far is the enemy AI in the campaign
map and battle map.
Updated 11 August 2006:
Replayed Carthage and Seleucids with version 1.5. Also
played Greeks but decided to stop after destroying the
Roman factions because they are a very boring faction to
play battle-wise due to lack of unit variety, and haven't
got round to fighting missile cavalry yet. So, I won't
post up the Greek strat as I can't and don't want to
recall how I played it. I had so much cash but was so damn
bored.
Updated 02 December 2006:
Completed Seleucid 103 province capture. Winning primary
objective with Britons. The Light Chariots rule! Most
spelling errors corrected.
Correction for Briton Strategy 04 March 2007:
THe settlement that I meant was Samarobriva but I
mistakenly put in Batavodrum.
1.1 Noticeable campaign changes in version 1.2
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- it cost much more to bribe
- assassins and spies are a bigger pain
- the factions tend to stick more to their historical or
geographical boundaries and some factions are simply less
aggressive as per history
- battle changes are noted in rest of guide
- the AI will use siege weapons in battles more
1.2 Noticeable campaign changes in version 1.5
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- the AI is more crappy with diplomacy that it isn't even
funny any more. I like the part where the Egyptians will
mention that the pharoah decrees that 'All your bases are
belong to us' when they asked for me to become a
protectorate kingdom when I am kicking their behinds.
- phalanx pikes hold off better against elephants and
chariot charges resulting in instant kill irrespective
of the elephants and chariot hit points.
2.0 Basic strategies
--------------------
2.1 Troops
++++++++++
Always a good idea to familiarise yourself with the units,
understand their strengths and weaknesses. Phalanxes are
great for holding a line. Light infantry is easier to
maneuver. Archers kill from afar and are a must for all
factions especially if you meet up against elephants.
Chariots great for breaking lines and kill infantry.
Elephants just run through lines. You must also get a good
feel of the combination of units that you will be comfortable
with. I find that I have to use different combinations for
different factions. But generally I'm a cavalry kind of
player, hit from the back, fast, hard and run down
retreating enemies.
2.2 Commands
++++++++++++
Learn the hotkeys for all the commands. This will help make
commands appear smoother. It gives you no advantage in
single player mode as you can click pause any time. But make
sure you familiarise with all the commands. Manually giving
specific order to units individually is the best. You get less
of a lag in response but takes time to master. The preset
formation orders are terrible and slow to organise. Using
group commands make them slow to react as well.
2.3 Terrain
+++++++++++
Simple basic terrain rules - high ground good, low ground bad.
If you place archers in the rear on a lower ground, they will
shoot into the backs of your front lines. If the archers are
placed on higher ground in the back, they won't kill your own
troops.
Bridges and river crossings are good to defend if the enemy
only come from one side.
Use town/city streets for choke points and cover from flanking.
I find forests the hardest for me to control as the trees
obstruct the view and placement of troops.
Try and place your units in the extremes of the open map during
offensive and defensive battles to avoid getting outflanked.
2.4 Buildings
+++++++++++++
Buildings give bonuses but not all are useful. You need to look
at the building browser at the start of the game and plan what
you are going to aim for early on.
Always aim to get the economy running first by raising all taxes
to very high if you are able. This will hinder population growth
but not to worry because if your population grow too fast, you'll
have problems with keeping them all contented. The growth of a
town/city must be controllable and if done right you can predict
how soon you need to build happiness bonus buildings to keep up.
Happiness is not a big problem early on, but once you are like
holding about 30 cities, it will start to creep up on you.
2.5 Battles
+++++++++++
Trust me, it's better to fight all battles yourself as the
computer is very very dumb. At the start of the game, play all
battles yourself with the target to minimise losses as unit
training at the start is costly.
3.0 Advanced strategy
---------------------
This is where it gets fun. :)
3.1 Targets
+++++++++++
Always have a plan to target certain factions from the start and
aim to disrupt them as much as possible. For example, when I
played Julii, my main aim is the other 2 Roman faction as like
it or not they will turn against me when you grow strong. So my
strategy was to obstruct their growth by securing their growth
targets and surrounding them. Read on later for faction specific
strategies.
3.2 Sieges
++++++++++
I think sieges are a skill itself. Sieges are very fun when you
are the defender. Even with a small army you can beat considerable
odds. And it is always better to keep smaller armies, but don't
depend on weak units. Use archers and units with quite ok defences.
Another tactic is to use wall defences to kill for you. Sally out
during sieges and get the enemy to come closer to your walls for
your towers to kill them. With wooden walls you need to play a
hide & seek tactic to draw their units to the towers. This only
works when they outnumber you.
Attacking in sieges are a good way to expand very fast and make
plenty of cash by massacre-ing. Attacking during a siege is best
done using siege towers for stone walled cities. Use crack infantry
to get up the walls, and then capture all the surrounding towers,
using their arrow towers to then start shooting against them. This
also opens the gate for the rest of your troops. This strategy is
ideal for factios without onagers or if you don't want arrows to
pour onto your invading forces as you march down the streets.
With onagers, see the Julii strategy.
The strategy I love most about sieges is when I siege a city and
they attack my army with another army leading to a battle in open
grounds with the city defenders coming out as reinforcements. If you
kill off all the city defenders and win, you gain the city without
going through a siege battle.
Always remember that defenders have the advantage in sieges. No
defender unit will rout in the town centre. Defenders also get
better morale so even basic peasants will fight better.
Also take note that each region has it's own city layout pattern.
For example the Roman and Greek cities' route to the city centre
is more twisted while the African cities are more direct.
**version 1.2 changes
- the AI is more eager to attack during sieges. My preferred strategy
when defending sieges is to let the enemy have the wall and
concentrate my defences around the city center. I always place my
units to hit from at least 2 directions at choke points. For example,
place your units at 3 sides of a crossroads and let the enemy engage
you.
- the AI is cleverer when you sally forth. They don't stand around to
get killed by my wall defences. Nevertheless, I still sally forth and
win. The key here is to have at least 3 cavalry, 3 archers and some
dependable infantry. I place all but 1 archer on the wall. As soon as
the battle start, I observe for enemy movements. If they move to one
side, I rush my cavalry out and charge at stragglers. Sometimes I win
the sally forth all from the first charge. If the enemy is not broken,
I pull the cavalry back and line up the infantry outside. I then place
the other archers as close on the side of the wall facing the enemy.
I get the archer not on the wall to come out and skirmish the enemy
to draw them near. Everytime they send one unit to chase the archers,
I charge with the cavalry. Even when the enemy charge all out and
overwhelm the infantry, the archers on the wall will make short work
of them.
- when attacking in a siege, the last enemy troop in the town center
will not sit still as you pepper projectiles at it. In fact it will
charge at the projectile unit. Heck, this makes it even easier. I
place infantries at the front and archers behind. After the up to 2
arrow barrages, I order a ceasefire and let the enemy charge into my
infantry while cavalry charge from behind. This will make the unit
rout and lessen your losses.
- siege towers' ballistas are much more effective and can wipe out
more than half the units on the wall. Sometimes I use a few towers
to kill units only and only climb the walls when they are very weak.
3.3 Battle commands
+++++++++++++++++++
In battles, there's a lot of timing involved. The simplest one is to
stop all your archers firing when the enemy units are very close to
your front lines to avoid shooting at your own men. You also need to
experience the perfect timing to move your cavalry out from your
flanks to outflank the enemy troops. Move them out too early and
you'll get their infantry trying to chase them instead of clashing
against your front lines.
Formation is vital to any battlefield success. Place your units too
tightly in a group and it becomes easier for the enemy to outflank
you. A formation must preferable give a strong front, cover for your
projectiles, flank protection and space to deal with any changes you
need to make. Each faction has their own ideal formations based on
units and also terrain. I like to place my onagers right behind the
frontlines in the middle with archers to the sides so that I don't
burn my own frontlines by mistake. My cavalry are all in my rear
until my army gets into position, then they move out to the flanks
in the rear, a charging distance from the front lines to charge at
anyone who attack my flanks.
4.0 Misc strategies
--------------------
4.1 Diplomats
+++++++++++++
Diplomats are fun to use. Make as many trade right deals as possible
to make money. Also if you need cash, use diplomats to 'sell' your map
information for cash. Just offer your map information and ask for
regular tributes and one time payments. The largest sale I gained was
for 5400 cash for 12 turns from the Scipii. The usual deal you get is
about 10,000 cash worth in total.
Make alliances with everyone early on. Doesn't matter who or how long
it lasts as everyone will come for you anyway if you are large.
Alliances are just to buy time.
So far, I only manage to get the Spanish to become my protectorate and
I find it gives me no advantage at all. Might as well take their
cities.
I've gained a few settlements on demand as well but beware as they are
not defended when you receive them and tend to riot. Prefer to conquer
and massacre to control population size.
Bribe! Bribe! Bribe! No army is too expensive to bribe. Keep the
diplomats around your frontline cities in case you have to bribe that
superior army. Very useful early in the game.
**version 1.2 changes
- Bribing cost has increased hugely. Therefore bribing has become less
attractive. Don't be surprised to find bribing crappy rebels to cost
you over 5k denarii.
- Enemy AI has changed in regards to diplomacy. They are more willing
to become protectorates and give out map information.
4.2 Spies
+++++++++
Spies give advanced information. Learn what the enemy units are and you
can counter them. Also good to know what units the enemy keep to defend
their cities so that you can plan your siege.
Keep spies in front so that you don't get ambushed but I don't really
mind this as my expeditionary force can handle anything the ambushing
babarians can throw at me.
**version 1.2 onwards changes
- the AI uses a lot of spies and seed them in any front line cities. So
make sure you have spies for counterspying or you will have a headache
with happiness level
4.3 Assassins
+++++++++++++
**version 1.2 onwards changes
- the AI uses more assasins and are more successful. You can lose your
precious generals this time.
4.4 Navy
++++++++
Don't spend too much on Navy. Their use is limited. Keep up to 3 large
fleets to kill other ships and few small fleets of up to 4 ships for
transport. Why? Navy is costly. It can suck your economy dry. If you
don't concentrate them they are weak as well, especially in Very Hard
mode. I tend to lose naval battles on even strengths. You need to
overwhelm the enemy navy to win.
If you worry that the enemy control the seas, don't panic. The key to
win control of the sea is to capture the land. Dominance of the sea
depends on dominance on land.
**version 1.2 onwards changes
- the AI will not make crazy navies like in 1.0 and will spend more
cash on troops instead.
4.5 Rebels!
+++++++++++
Rebel units tend to pop up here and there... have no fear! They block
roads and reduce trade income.
Using diplomats you can bribe most of them for less than 1300 cash. If
they have a rebel general, you can recruit him for less than 5000 cash.
They best way I've dealt with them is to use generals with bad stats,
get them to hire mercs, then get them to run over rebels. This way they
become conquering heroes (+6 influence) and can be used to placate
unhappy towns with their high influence. It's a win-win situation.
4.6 Mercenaries
+++++++++++++++
Mercs are not great. Most of them have poor morale and break off and run
faster than the rest. The ones I tend to use are Cretan Archers, Samartian
Mercenaries, Rhodian Slingers, Mercenary War Elephant and Bastarnae
Mercenaries. Still, I use them sparingly as I can't retrain them. Avoid
unless they can give you an advantage.
4.7 Happy people = healthy empire
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The toughest part of the game is to avoid rebellions. They are a pain and
tend to happen in your largest cities which also happen to be your richest.
Recapturing them are a pain because I tend to leave weaker cheap troops to
garrison them while the top of my crop go off conquering.
The basics are:
1. keep a suitably sized garrison, preferable cheap maintainance
units like peasants
2. build happiness buildings and counter their grievances
3. maintain a governor with high influence
4. keep appropriate tax level
The advanced strategies are:
1. keep population growth under control
population control is important. You want your cities to
grow fast enough to give you tech but also not too fast
that it will drain your resources to keep on building
happiness buildings. Make sure there's always population
growth until you pass the 24k mark but also make sure
that you have enough time to prevent any rebellions.
2. use games and races
this will cost you but are very effective, making the
Romans ideal for total domination. If you are not Roman
you might want to let them live a bit longer and build
arenas for you before you capture their cities,
especially the Scipii in North Africa and Egypt.
3. plague your own cities
smaller population = happier population. Great for places
where population can grow over 30,000 like Carthage,
Alexandria, Memphis, Corduba, etc.. **I don't do this
any more as I have managed to fine tune the population
control to avoid resorting to plagues and massacres to
control happiness levels.
4. ideal governor
must have high influence and management. possible to have
management and influence both up to 10 for Romans. High
management give high income giving some happiness boost.
Remove grain merchant and overseer from governors as
they boost population growth; good for income but you
don't want a rich unhappy city.
5. culture penalty
culture penalty depends on what structure you have in the
city of a different culture compared to your culture.
Therefore to reduce it, you need to replace or rebuild
buildings from different cultures. Nevertheless, you can
still escape without culture penalty even if you have 1
or 2 buildings from a different culture. Razing different
culture buildings as soon as capturing the city is not
always required. Just take your time and replace the
buildings and youc an actually keep a few happiness bonus
buildings in the process without sustaining any culture
penalty. In version 1.5, having the pyramids eliminates
Egyptian culture penalties.
4.8 Capital
+++++++++++
Always try to move your capital towards the centre of large cities. Rome
and the cities around it is good. This keep the big cities happier and the
distance to capital will lessen with a city in the centre of your empire.
4.9 'Offensive Fortification'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A fort has wooden walls, cost 500 denarii, can be build at most
places, and very much worth the money! If you fight against factions that
have strong infantry which can break your lines in a strong charge, and
your advancing army uses archers and onagers, try building forts at the
end of your movement. This way when the marauding enemy decide to siege
your fort, sally forth and your onagers can rain fireballs and your
archers will shower arrows in safety behind your walls. So you don't
have to worry about elephants, pikemen, axemen, falxmen, etc..
4.10 Watchtowers
++++++++++++++++
Watchtowers are very useful as advanced warning and also to light up areas
along the roads where rebel units can appear and block the roads affecting
trade. To get maximum view from towers, build them in higher elevations.
No use building it in the middle of the forest.
4.11 Massacre vs. Enslave
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
After trying out these two options after capturing a city, I personally
would still choose either depending on the campaign need. In the early
game, where the town population are low, enslaving is better to boost
population growth while not causing the captured city to rebel. But when
I captured large cities and huge cities, massacre seems to be the better
option to quell rebellions early on. The denarii made from massacre is
also a good incentive, even in version 1.2. Once I have plenty huge
cities to provide the tech, I simply massacre any city above 10k
population as I don't need population boost any more and could better
use the cash.
4.12 What I think of Protectorates
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Crap. If they are weak enough to accept protectorate, might as well
eradicate them and tax the cities dry.
5.0 Factions for this FAQ (very hard/very hard)
-----------------------------------------------
A. Julii*
B. Brutii
C. Carthagians*
D. Seleucids*
E. Gaul
F. Germans
G. Egypt
H. Parthians
I. Scipii
J. Britons*
A1.0 Author's note
------------------
Julii have the advantage of starting with 2 onagers which is a great
bonus as it usually takes some time into the game before you are able
to build them. With catapults, it make attacking walled settlements easy.
Their Roman units are easy to get into. Easiest to start with as you
start off with free good units.
Version 1.2 is more challenging as the Brutii and Scipii expend much
faster. Not being able to bribe much due to exorbitant cost makes for
more battles.
A2.0 Basic Strategies
---------------------
A2.1 Troops
+++++++++++
Infantry to fight infantry and hold enemy cavalry, cavalry to do what
cavalries are good at, onagers to burn units and break walls, strong navy
and long ranged archer auxillia.
Most of their infantry can throw spears before a charge, so make sure you
make use of this for example, throw your spears at enemy lines before you
engage or get your troops facing into gaps in the wall and spear the
defenders within with full confidence that the defenders won't leave the
city walls.
The gladiators look formidable but in truth they are superseded by cavalry
as shock troops. As infantry they are useless in holding the line.
My combo for a typical Roman expeditionary force is to have 3-4
onagers/heavy onagers, 3-4 archer auxillia, 3-4 heavy cavalry and the rest
made up of heavy infantry i.e legionary cohorts and above.
**version 1.2 changes
- The Marius changes comes later in the game, had mine at 202 BC. Therefore
you have to put up with short ranged archers, equites and precipes much
longer. Suffered heavy losses to the high tech chosen axemen, chosen
swordmen and chosen archers. Be wary that equites is light cavalry and will
die against heavy cavalry in a straight charge.
A2.2 Commands
+++++++++++++
Use the fire at will command sparingly. Plenty of times I've killed my own
troops with the pilums, onagers and archers. Manual projectile target
selection is best but you have to keep tabs on it because you might lose
track on who's shooting at who. Grouping projectile units sometimes confuse
the game and make a mess of controlling the units. The best way to keep
control is to give commands to units individually and use the grouping
option for mass commands like maneuvering without losing formation of
ordering all units to stop.
A2.3 Terrain
++++++++++++
When fighting on bridges, make sure you have more archers than the enemy.
This works both attacker and defender. Use archers to push defenders back
or weaken then so that your troops can easily engage them.
Onagers cannot enter forests, so best to play in open terrain.
A2.4 Buildings
++++++++++++++
Keeping your population happy is the main priority. The Italian
peninsula and Greek peninsula has one of the highest income so cash
should not be a problem. Aim for early basic archers and heavy infantry
with the basic cavalry equites. In the early game the equites can
outflank the Gauls. Precipes are dependable. The Romans are the best
designed faction for total domination in the game as they have the Arena
and Hippodrome to help keep happiness in check.
A3.0 Advanced Strategies
------------------------
A3.1 Targets
++++++++++++
My target for Julii is to make money and more money. For that you will
need to secure the Italian peninsula and Greece. Use your alliances
with the other Roman factions for trade and for them to protect the
sea.
Head straight for the cities of Northern Italy and advance to Massila
in the West. Defend Massila. Massila also has bridges which are ideal
for defensive play with archers and onagers at the back of your troops.
Then aim to secure the Western coast of the Greek peninsula at Appolonia,
Salona, Thermon.
Appolonia ans Salona are loyal cities which are easy to keep happy and
therefore don't need a large army presence, which can go on to grab
Thermon. Your second expeditionary force should quickly land in Sicily
and capture Lilybeaum and/or Syracuse before the Scipii. You do not
need onagers here, just plenty of precipes and hastati and wait the
siege out.
In the early game, your units do not perform well against solid walled
cities. Once you have all these cities, spread out in 3 directions up
to France, the rest of Greece and Carthage. Using this strategy, you
enlarge in a circle which keeps your unhappiness from distance to
capital manageable. This also weakens the other Roman factions so that
by the time they turn on you, they will be easy meat.
Remember that all the Roman factions will turn on you. It is best if
you turn on them first before the Senate demand the suicide of your
leader every few turns. That means keep reserve onagers and troops
in one of your main cities. Capture the Italian peninsula ASAP and
then it'll be easy to defend. If you have a city in Sicily, quickly
grab the rest. They are usually poorly defended by the Scipii. No
need to rush on Rome as they are the least dangerous of the Romans.
The Brutii and Scipii can mass units very fast. I normally defend
from the Brutii at Patavium while the Scipii will try to land in
Sicily.
My aim for Julii is to make plenty of money and suppress the ambitions
of the other roman faction. The other Roman faction AI are more
aggressive and they will capture cities faster. So, the Scipii and
Brutii grow very fast as they attack during sieges. Therefore you must
be faster than them. As usual, I ignore the Senate missions unless it
befits my overall strategy.
(My rationale to avoid invading France and Gaul first is
because they are poorer low tech provinces. It's slow progress
through forests and not economically viable. That's why I
always aim for Greece and Sicily against the senate orders. I
also avoid meeting the aggressive Britons early by keeping
the Gauls in France.)
My first aim was to capture Segesta ASAP and then quickly capture
Patavium and Medialonum from the Gauls. This is a little tricky as I
was preparing an army to capture Lilybeaum at the same time. So I
had to hire mercenaries. I refrain from training units in my two main
roman cities as I want them to grow faster to get tech. So I did
enslaving all the way. My most precious units was the lone archer unit
which I protected all the way as it's the only unit giving you the
slight advantage in missile fire when sieging towns. (The lone archer
unit never dies and lasted till the Marius changes with a gold
chevron.)
After capturing northern Italy and Lilybeaum, the Brutii was expanding
quickly through the Greece. I had to stop them and hastily sent a small
army with lots of mercenaries to get a foothold in Greece. I quickly
captured Corinth and Larissa. The Brutii attacked the siege at Athens
before my siege engines were ready.
While invading Greece, my army in Lilybeaum was preparing to invade
Carthage and the initial northern Italy army was boarded into a ship
heading to Masilla. Masilla is vital to the plan. The northern Italy
army was weak with a few hastatis but had 2 velites and 1 archer and
remnants of the triarii. The plan was to quickly capture Masilla while
it wasn't heavily garrisoned and then fill it up with peasants.
Captured Masilla in 2 turns (needed rams) and sent as many troops as
available (while keeping the population happy with a large enough
garrison) to defend at the bridge north of the town. As long as I held
the bridge, the gaulish threat is extinguished. Once my forces were
more secure, I then moved this army to the second bridge northwest of
Masilla and again defended there. Had 5 big battles which I won. This
effectively castrated the Gauls. They take too long to recover and
drain all their resources making all their settlements never able to
grow above 6k population (by the time I removed the Gauls from France,
there were still 3 cities not expended over 2k population). Holding the
bridges near Massila also prevent me from warring the Spainish, Germans
and British, while using only a weak army.
From Lilybeaum I captured Carthage before the Scipii. The Scipii made
a big blunder by getting the Numidians to become their protectorate
whereby halting all Scipii expansion. The Scipii had only Messana,
Capua, Syracuse, Thapsus and Caralis. Carthage is the more
strategically important city compared to Thapsus as you will see later.
In Greece, my army grew stronger as the greek cities are better
developed providing my first onager at Larissa. I held Larissa, Rhodes,
Corinth, Sparta and Kydonia while keeping my alliance with Thrace.
In Italy my cities were training up an army with onagers to capture
Rome.
Thrace broke the alliance and I quickly captured Byzantium,
Thessalonica and Tylis while the Brutii captured Bylazora.
By now I was preparing to defeat the other Romans. I placed an army on
a bridge to the northwest of Bylazora cutting off Brutii route back to
Italy. I prepared 2 armies in Greece to capture the poorly defended
Athens and Thermon to make a path up to Apppolonia, Salona and
Segestica. Bylazora is less important as it can be easily cut off and
be captured at leisure.
In north Africa, I placed an army on the bridge southwest of Carthage
to hold off the large Scipii armies in Africa. I also made sure I
controlled the seas around Siciliy.
In Italy, I had 2 armies prepared with onagers to sweep onto Rome,
one from the north and the other from the east. In France, I added
Lugdunum and Narbo Martius and then pulled the main army back to
invade Caralis.
Now, the fight for Rome...
My north of Rome army attacked a small SPQR army forcing it to
withdraw next to Rome, to the east. My east army then attacked
this same small army to force a battle outside of the city killing
off almost all the city defenders and leaving Rome empty for the
north army to capture. Rome captured in same move.
I won 6 big battles at the bridge near Carthage against Scipii
armies eqiupped with onagers, ballistas and scorpions. I also won
8 big battles at the bridge northwest of Bylazora against hordes
of Brutii armies equipped with similar artillery, making my
general a legendary defender and legendary commader and earning
the title the Great. The Brutii were unable to reinforce their
capital as I stopped them near Bylazora and at Patavium.
I leisurely destroyed the other Roman factions while avoiding
conflict with the Spanish and Egyptians and stayed away from
Asia Minor as I depend on them for trade. The Germans are weak
and did not threaten from the north as I avoid warring them. I
could win at 50 provinces... but chose to let Rome fall to rebels
to continue capturing the rest of the map.
A3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
Attacking in sieges you need onagers; 3 is ok, 4 is nice, 5 ideal
against big walls and 6 overkill. If wooden walls, you don't need to
build any other siege engines. Against stone walls, build either siege
towers or sap points. Use the onagers to destroy wall defences like
towers and gatehouses before you advance to minimise losses. Another
way is to capture towers with infantry. Fire bombing the defenders
is only practical when they have low wooden walls. For this, you need
to line up your onagers to face the street where the enemy will mass,
straight ahead to maximise the spread. No point if they can run
sideways as your onager shots seem to spread in a more longitudinal
way.
Archers auxilla are great to give the finishing blow. They are great
against enemies cowering behind wooden walls. Don't waste too many of
their arrows against defenders on the walls as your kill ratio is
less.
Take your time with and plan the sieges. Don't rush. You will notice
the defenders are more powerful than usual behind walls and most
powerful around their flag. Once you break the walls, chase the
enemy away from the walls, march towards their centre and use your
infantry to block the road. Use your archers to finish off the units
around the flag first followed by the cavalry. Minimal losses.
Defending from sieges you will need archers and some heavy infantry
to block roads. Cavalry is optional if you wanna run down their
retreating soldiers. Archer auxilla are the best. Sally out to
attack ASAP. Let them all stand on the wall and shoot the enemy until
you run out of ammo. Then quit battle and repeat process in same
turn until the enemy retreats. Do not send any troops out of the
walls. This is a very good way for archers to gain experience
chevrons.
If you don't have archers and you are outnumbered, which is usually
the case in the early game, use the arrow towers to do the job for you.
The computer AI will chase your troops round the walls if you send
them out. So, just place infantry units at all the gates and send one
out at a time and see the enemy chase after them and get shot down by
the arrow towers. Do this until time runs out and repeat in same turn
until your forces are almost equal which by then the computer AI won't
send the troops chasing after you. But with your troops in full
strength, send them out from a side gate and arrange them like in
usual attacking in open plains. Of course your units have to be of
reasonable quality. You can't expect peasants to take out barbarian
warbands on equal numbers. Precipes in early game is adequate, even
against phalanxes if you can maneuver your troops to outflank them.
**version 1.2 changes
- the AI is more eager to attack during sieges. My preferred strategy
when defending sieges is to let the enemy have the wall and
concentrate my defences around the city center. I always place my
units to hit from at least 2 directions at choke points. For example,
place your units at 3 sides of a crossroads and let the enemy engage
you.
- the AI is cleverer when I sally forth. They don't stand around to
get killed by my wall defences. Nevertheless, I still sally forth and
win. The key here is to have at least 3 cavalry, 3 archers and some
dependable infantry. I place all but 1 archer on the wall. As soon as
the battle start, I observe for enemy movements. If they move to one
side, I rush my cavalry out and charge at stragglers. Sometimes I win
the sally forth all from the first charge. If the enemy is not broken,
I pull the cavalry back and line up the infantry outside. I then place
the other archers as close on the side of the wall facing the enemy.
I get the archer not on the wall to come out and skirmish the enemy
to draw them near. Everytime they send one unit to chase the archers,
I charge with the cavalry. Even when the enemy charge all out and
overwhelm the infantry, the archers on the wall will make short work
of them.
- when attacking in a siege, the last enemy troop in the town center
will not sit still as you pepper projectiles at it. In fact it will
charge at the projectile unit. Heck, this makes it even easier. I
place infantries at the front and archers behind. After the up to 2
arrow barrages, I order a ceasefire and let the enemy charge into my
infantry while cavalry charge from behind. This will make the unit
rout and lessen your losses.
A3.3 Battle Commands
++++++++++++++++++++
Make sure you keep your frontline troops near the onagers if you are
using fire projectiles. Fire arrows can make elephants amok but won't
kill them. Onagers can kill elephants and I always like to look out
for burnt elephants in battle. Use cavalry to kill retreating
elephants.
Outflank all phalanxes with cavalry. Let chariots run at your
infantry and hit them from the sides or behind with cavalry. Be wary
that chariots can easily kill your cavalry if faced head on.
Against Egyptians you must not be overwhelemed by the size and speed
of their army. Axemen are trouble so you have to trim them down with
arrows and onagers. Axemen will break from flank attacks. Pharoah's
Bowmen are a pain but again is no big deal once you dispatch their
infantry. Do not send your cavalry on a solo mission to attack them
as they may win the fight and rout your cavalry. The chariots are
irritating as they can cut down cavalry easily but to counter, use
your infantry to get them into a protracted fight and they will fall
like flies. What the AI usually do is send the chariots to the flanks
to pepper arrows on my troops. I counter that by sending boulders at
them without fire and you'll spare the lives of your cavalry and
infantry from their charges.
Against phalanxes, most of them do not have long range archers. So,
use up all arrows and fire boulders, then get close and throw spears
at them. Do not engage head on but just keep your troops close facing
them while you try to get some infantry to their flanks. Legionary
cohorts can hold against pikemen for a short while and you have to
take this time to sweep from their flanks. A single heavy cavalry
charge from behind usually break them straight away and repeat this
on every phalanx.
The formation I normally use for all Roman factions is:
FRONT
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
|H Inf| |H Inf| |H Inf| |H Inf| |H Inf| |H INf| |H INf| |H Inf|
------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- ------- -------
----- ----- -----
--------- --------- |Ona| |Ona| |Ona| --------- ---------
| Arc | | Arc | ----- ----- ----- | Arc | | Arc |
--------- --------- ----- --------- ---------
------- ------- |Gen| ------- -------
| H | | H | | | | H | | H |
| Cal | | Cal | ----- | Cal | | Cal |
------- ------- ------- -------
REAR
H Inf = Heavy Infantry
Ona = Onager
Arc = Archer Auxilla
Gen = General
H Cal = Heavy Cavalry
*Note: putting onager closely behind your front line gives you extra
range and you won't burn your own troops.
Once in position, the Heavy Cavalries will spread out to the sides,
either facing forwards slightly behind the archer rear line, or
faced 45 degrees angle away from the front again slightly behind
the archer rear line in anticipation of the enemy attempt for my
flanks.
B. Brutii
=========
B1.0 Author's note
------------------
Brutii is one of the easiest factions to play. You start off rich. What
more do you need? In the height of my power, Terentum was making a
profit of 9000 cash per turn while Croton made 8000 with these 2 cities
being huge where they actually pay most of my military wages as well
(wages are spread out to all cities with higher population cities paying
a larger share). The other rich cities and Mesanna, Lilybeaum, Syracuse,
Antioch, Sparta, Athens, Corinth, Sidon. I managed to capture ALL
settlements with the Brutii thanks to their economic superiority and the
Roman ability to use races and games (did this by capturing Rome and
then abandoning it to the rebels once I hold 48 cities, and then capture
everything else with Rome last).
B2.0 Basic Strategies
---------------------
Pease see Julii
B3.0 Advanced strategies
------------------------
B3.1 Targets
++++++++++++
Aim for Northern Italy first before the Julii. The computer AI takes time
with the sieges but for yourself capture the city of North Italy from the
Gauls with 2 turns each. Use 3 battering rams standard. Use precipes and
hastati to throw spears through the gaps. Rush in with precipes followed
by the general units to make a breach and from there slowly ride up to
the town centre. Next target is the island of Sicily to block the Scipii.
Once you have Sicily, aim for Greece and expand similarly as the Julii
strategy. And remember the Romans will turn against you as well.
B3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
Please see Julii
B3.3 Battle commands
++++++++++++++++++++
Please see Julii
C. Carthage
===========
C1.0 Author's note
------------------
Carthage is a challenging faction to play. Your cities are far apart
which makes it a pain to reinforce them. Corduba is more troublesome than
it is worth but I keep it out of pride more than anything else. Carthage
and Thapsus are rich. My gripe with Carthage is that the population grows
too fast from extra harvest and gives me a headache to keep the population
happy. Therefore my best units tend to be trained in Thapsus as I don't
have to rush build happiness buildings all the time.
I tried to capture all settlements but I got bored at 75 provinces as it's
very very difficult to keep the population happy. Corduba, Dimidi and the
Egyptian cities are a nightmare.
C2.0 Basic Strategies
---------------------
C2.1 Troops
+++++++++++
Their early troops are bad. Iberian infantry are easy to control but are
weak, so are the round shield cavalry. Don't even bother mentioning
peltasts. The aim is to play by numbers early on and rally around your
elephant unit in Sicily. Aim to train up elephants early with some
reasonable infantry. Libyan infantry is ok. Their best is the Sacred
Band pikemen which are dependable and powerful in defence. Their cavalry
is not great until you get the Sacred Band Cavalry. Their archers are
useless in later stages due to their short range. You can offset this
by recruiting Cretan archers.
My usual combo for the expeditionary force is 4-6 onagers, 2 war
elepants and above, 4 heavy cavalry, 2 archers and the rest pikemen.
*version 1.5 game
- I can't train up archers! So, I ended up short on the projectile side
and needed to use war/armoured elephants to provide arrows. I don't see
how you can get archers on the beasts and not on the ground!
C2.2 Commands
+++++++++++++
Commanding pikemen is a skill. Beginners will have difficulties with this
because in phalanx mode, they move very slowly and the pikemen are slow
to react to attacks from a different direction. This greatly reduce their
usefulness to relieve weaker parts of your line. Plus you have to keep
pikemen in a nice line to make them effective.
The key is to practice pikemen movements switching between standard mode
and phalanx mode. Also learn to form solid lines of at least 4 ranks deep.
As long as there are enemies coming at you, do not break the formation.
Take multiple steps to move the phalanx into the position you want.
Elephants are easy to control. Only drawback is them running amok with
fire. Avoid fire arrows but do not fear archers as arrows can't seem to
kill any elephants.
C2.3 Terrain
++++++++++++
Elepants on bridges is not easy. They can push your other units off the
bridge. Keep them behind at the start as you don't want them to come
under fire arrows too soon. Once you decide to rush across the bridge,
always send the elephants alone first followed by cavalry.
Trees disrupt phalanx line and chariot mobility, best to keep on open
areas.
C2.4 Buildings
++++++++++++++
Aim for early archer build as you will be defending early in the game.
Transport the archers across the Mediterranean to defend Caralis and
Lilybeaum. Lilybeaum can defend itself early with the elephant sallying
out of the city from the side gate. Then aim for early elephant build.
C3.0 Advanced Strategies
------------------------
C3.1 Tragets
++++++++++++
Firstly... DEFEND. Don't lose Caralis or Lilybeaum. Caralis is good
to distract some of the Romans, usually Julii and Scipii. Hold it by
using the strategy of using your arrow towers to kill the enemy. This
works very well early in the game. Make sure you build town walls
early at Caralis, but not stone walls unless you can train archers
which is much higher up the tech tree. You need ships to transport
reinforcements. I had to send my lone elephant unit to Caralis to
break a large siege and then back to Sicily to break a large Scipii
army. Send elephants from North Africa.
If you manage to send an elephant early to Caralis, then you can
easily defend it. The first target is to secure is Sicily (that's
why you must not lose Lilybeaum). Forget North Africa as the distance
required to travel will not make it worth the effort. Plus the
settlements are not loyal. From Sicily aim straight to capture
all Italy. Use the elephants to defend Carthage and Thapsus. From
Italy, the world is your oyster...
...or so you thought. Fighting the barbarian armies in the forests
are some of the toughest batlles for this faction.
********************
**version 1.5 game**
********************
I started the game on a more aggressive stance as sallying forth
without cavalry will not work. Again, I decided early on I cannot
lose Corduba, Lilybeaum and Caralis at the start as these 3 are
vital cities to prevent the slow destruction of Carthage. Losing
Corduba will make you lose your foothold in Spain. Losing Lilybeaum
will result in a platform for the Romans to invade North Africa.
Caralis' role is as a decoy. Losing Caralis will result in the
Romans able to concentrate invading Sicily and subsequently Africa.
Again their starting units are crappy and no match against the
Romans who are the main enemy from the word go. The only infantry
able to hold well enough against the Roman infantry is the Sacred
Band. Peoni infantry can sometimes rout from a frontal charge
after taking pilas. The Libyan and Iberian infantry get killed
easily by the precipes. Nevertheless, there is hope against the
Romans with the long shield cavalry and the elephants. Oh, did I
mention there are on archers? Projectiles are provided by the
elephants.
From the start, I had to go into military build in all the front
line cities. This is because of the multiple frontlines at Corduba,
Carthage, Caralis and Lilybeaum. Thankfully, you can have good
income from the start and can delay economic build for a bit until
defences are ready. Carthage and Thapsus are designated as unit
training cities with Carthage providing cavalry while Thapsus
providing infantry. I didn't even build roads at Carthage for
quite a while as the military is of greater priority to ship them
to Sicily.
Okay, from the start the army under Hanno in Sicily has elephants
and this particular army needs to kill the Scipii army in Sicily
first. Just hang close to Messana and they will come. After I
killed this army, I sieged Messana and captured it on the same
turn as I used the elephants as rams to take down walls. This is
to prevent delays as Scipii reinforcements can be tough and I
don't have time to hang around while the Greeks plot something.
This time the Greeks refused to ally with me from the start and
I never trusted them anyway. My key units are the elephants and
Balearic slingers. The sole elephant unit and infantry support
with mercs manage to defeat the Greek army on Sicily and then I
laid siege to Syracuse ad this time I waited it out as my units
can't face the pikes in narrow city streets. Thankfully they
still mostly on the level of militia hoplites which fall easily
to cavalry.
Control of the sea around Sicily is not necessary but preferable.
This is because as long as you can avoid getting attacked by the
enemy ships by ending turns in ports, you can easily move troops
about. The only problem would be in getting troops to Caralis.
Therefore I stacked up a fleet specifically for Caralis transport
while around Sicily I manage to avoid enemy ships.
Once Sicily is secure then it's time for the countless Roman
invasion of Sicily by not only the Scipii but the Brutii and
Julii. Caralis is always under threat from the start but I managed
to get some Balearic slingers there to give me projectile advantage
for when I sally forth. In Spain, I ally with the Spanish and they
didn't bother me much. Nevertheless, I hired loads of Balearic
Slingers from there and also some Spanish mercs as my infantry
are no match for the Spanish infantry.
From Sicily to Italy is easy as I had War elephants by then. Still
no onagers but I can easily defeat Roman units with elephants and
Balearic slingers with Libyan infantry and long shield cavalry
support. I managed to kill off the Romans with the Julii only
able to capture Segesta. All their units are sent to Sicily and
Caralis from the start and thus prevented their expansion.
The next pain is from the Greeks whose armoured hoplites are tough
to beat even with Sacred Bands. By then I had onagers and always
try to attack rather than defend against the Greeks. That way their
hoplites will line up in a line for my onagers to burn before the
melee. The Spanish are easy to defeat at Corduba. Due to them
delaying their attack to later, I had onagers in Corduba and never
upgraded the walls from wooden walls which resulted in sallying
forths and burning them with onagers. Same as the Gauls and Britons
when I defended at Massila. Had up to 6 onagers defending a city
at one time. The Numidians are annoying but easily beaten back
with the use of cavalries and phalanx when I sally forth. My
attention was pulled instead to Greece.
After Greece is captured, I finally set out from Carthage my first
African expeditionary force and defeated the Numidians. From
Corduba, I train up loads of onagers and sent out an army with 4
onagers and loads of Balearic slingers and Spanish mercs to
capture Spain. The Egyptians managed to capture Lepcis Magna from
the Numidians and I managed to march into Egypt with the aid of
armoured elephants and Sacred Bands. The Egyptians suck in
cavalry. I ended the game when I reach 50 provinces as I was bored
with the Carthage limited units and was eager to play Seleucids
again (needed to complete one non-Roman faction to enable all
playable faction as I don't change game codes).
C3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
As I said above, use the arrow tower trick for early defending. This
does not work if you have stone walls... so try to refrain from
building stone walls. The differnce in attacking is that you have
elephants which can steamroll into the center of the town easily.
Just make sure you follow up with infantry and cavalry.
C3.3 Battle commands
++++++++++++++++++++
In battles my tactics are based around the elephants as line breakers.
On the attack, advance all units together with elephants slightly
behind. Set all your infantry in standard mode. Once your front
lines are under enemy archer fire, run your elephants from both
sides into their lines followed by one infantry unit each as follow
up. The elephants are meant to break the line, with your infantry
mopping up the rest. Do not let your elephants linger. Run through
the line and then turn around and run along the flank to the other
side using both elephant units wrecking havoc all along the enemy
line while your infantry should be facing up to their lines. Once
the enemy lines are broken use your infantry to charge at their
infantry.
Keep your cavalry in the flanks and use them to break resistent
infantry but more importantly, their role is to take out enemy
cavalry first. Also be wary of War elepants and Armoured elephants'
archers. They do tend to shoot at your own troops. Once your troops
mingle with the enemy, disable fire at will.
Most of the Carthagian infantry are pansies and tend to break
after they get soften by enemy archers. If you control elephants
well, your elephants take the brunt of archer fire and spare your
infantry. Just get the elephants moving all the time so that the
arrows miss and they don't go amok. I have not experienced getting
attacked by the fiery pigs. The AI just don't use them when it
could make a difference. I end up killing loads of pigs after they
rout.
Phalanx control required. It's not that you don't know what to do
with the phalanxes, but rather how to make it happen that 's the
problem with using phalanxes. Practice needed.
D1.0 Author's note
------------------
Seleucids is one of my favourites. It's challenging from the word
go. The egyptians are the biggest threat. Pontus just irritates.
The lands around Antioch take quite a distance to get to so it's
offensively slow. Nevertheless their saving grace are their vast
variety of units like no other. The combination for success is many.
That's why I like this faction. Some of the best high tech units
here.
D2.0 Basic strategies
---------------------
D2.1 Troops
+++++++++++
The early troops are BAD. The mid game units are one of the best.
Elephants, scythe chariots, cataphracts and extra long pike
infantry. With the longer pikes, you can defeat almost all other
pikemen. Scythe chariots are medium tanks breaking infantry lines
easily. They also have extra hit points and are difficult to kill.
Cataphracts are heavy tanks breaking lines and killing them as well.
Elephants are like super-tanks! You can even use elephants to rush
straight into phalanxes but that is not advisable as they are
costly to replace.
Their projectile units are much to be desired though but you can
always make this up with Cretan Archers.
The weakness of a phalanx army is mobility and maneuverbility. Any
change in formation in battle takes a long time and will leave you
vulnerable.
My typical troop line up is 4 onagers, 2 archers, 1 elephants with
2 scythe chariots or three elephants, 4 heavy cavalry and the rest
phalanx pikemen or silver shield pikemen.
D2.2 Commands
+++++++++++++
Please see Carthage on phalanx and elephant commands.
Chariots are not easy to use. Ordering them to attack just one unit
is bad as they tend to linger around that unit making them easy prey.
The way to use them is to run them right through the enemy and then
turn up to 90 degrees at a time and run through the next and the next
non-stop. Just with 2 scythe chariots you can make all the enemy
infantry line break and run. The chariots are bad at close combat as
they are not precision killers. This makes them useless for killing
retreating troops. Phalanx and elephant use are explained in Carthage
strategies. Also note that the scythe chariot tend to disrupt your
own lines and therefore should be used for away from the rest of your
troops.
D2.3 Terrain
++++++++++++
Scythe chariots are bad on bridges. They tend to fall off bridges
themselves.
Trees disrupt phalanx line and chariot mobility, best to keep on open
areas.
D2.4 Buildings
++++++++++++++
Aim for early elephants. Money is a problem as troop maintainance is
costly. Fear not as Antioch is one of the richest cities.
D3.0 Advanced Strategies
------------------------
D3.1 Targets
++++++++++++
Start off needing to buy time and build up your economy. Capture all
nearby rebel provinces, make alliances everywhere. Build up stone walls
and train up archers to stand on them. The Egyptians will come no
matter what. Defend all the way against them first and once you have
onagers then only can you take the fight to them. Sally out and shoot
them all before they start training Pharoah Archers and by then you
should have War elephants and Scythe Chariots that will kill them easy.
You will need to attack during sieges. This is because they have large
marauding armies but their cities tend to be poorly defended. You will
need to take each city quickly using Onagers. If you try to wait out a
siege, don't be surprised to find yourself getting attacked more than
once. Another quick way to gain the city is to siege it and hope for
them to attack you and during that battle you must aim to kill off all
the reinforcements from the city with your cavalry so that you gain
the city without fighting a siege. The key point is that every delay
only makes the Egyptians stronger. You need speed on the offensive.
Once you capture all the Egyptian cities, then you can aim for Pontus
and then Greece.
Against Romans is easy with your superb mid to late game units.
********************
**version 1.5 game**
********************
This is the most fun campaign yet! Never time to rest and
always getting me planning. Very challenging compared to version
1.0. The old trick of defending with sallying forth don't work
any more and I had to come out with a better sallying forth strat.
Anyway, I start with 3000 denarii and many factions allied with
me including Egypt and Parthia. I was making like 10,000 per turn
with all the trade routes until the Parthians and Egyptians
attacked one after another. The units available to me are mostly
militia hoplites. I had some elephants but not enough to deal
with threats from 2 fronts. The Parthians has a stack with
cataphracts and horse archers and this is the one dangerous stack
which must be dealt with early on and I had to use elephants and
generals to kill this stack and then captured Susa.
The Egyptians sieged Antioch a few times only to be beaten by
sallying forth with elephants, militia hoplites and cavalries.
Again the Egyptians suck in cavalry. As long as they don't have
loads of generals or chariot archers, then they are easily beaten.
Their heavy chariots are just lame as they don't know how to use
them and charge into the pikes. I relaxed a bit after I got Levy
pikemen because they don't rout as easily as militia hoplites.
The Armenians of all factions sieged Hattra instead of kicking
the Parthians in the north. They came with their starting best
units (cappadocian cavalry) but I managed to defend the siege
in Hattra with loads of militia hoplites and 1 general by
defending at the town center. No point defending behind the
wooden walls as they had my gates open with a spy and have 9
rams. After the Armenians, Pontus sieged Hattra which was
beaten back as well. My main army was making its way south
after capturing Sidon and Jurusalem. My army that captured
Susa was moving north for Arsakia (had to disable Parthia
fast before they get Persian cavalry and cataphracts).
Thankfully the Armenian and Pontic infantry are crappy and I
manage to create a third army of militia and levy hoplites
to attack them in the open rather than wait in a city, but
only did this after the powerful Armenian and Pontic starting
cavalries were defeated at Hattra.
The Egyptians are easy to beat using Levy and Phalanx Pikemen.
I didn't even have onagers yet until I could train them in
Memphis. I always attack during siege for the Egyptians as the
pikes are just so good at killing Egyptian units and I needed
the cash from massacres since all my neighbours declared war
on me (the Egyptians, Pontus and Greeks demanded I became their
protectorates and oh, demanded I give back their cities as a
side clause as well).
My first army (with basic elephants) went from Antioch to Sidon,
Jurusalem, Alexandria (which was under rebel control as they
rebelled from the sad Egyptian control), Memphis and Thebes.
Then back up to Petra and Palmyra and lastly Bostra (took
Bostra later than Palmyra because there was a plague in Bostra
earlier). Then this army went to Salamis then back to Antioch
for refitting with higher tech units.
My Second army (no elephants here) was created in Seleusia and
captured Susa, Arsakia, Phraaspa, Artaxarta, Kotais and then
Sinope before refitting for battle with the Greeks.
Sardis is the main Cretan Archer and Rhodian Slingers recruiter
and I managed to send a few to join the first army. The
defensive garrison in Susa of Levy pikemen with 2 archers waited
the siege out in Dumatha. A small detachment from Sardis
captured Helicarnassus which was defended by 2 rebel units. I
trained up an army made up of onagers, Scythe Chariots, Silver
Shields and Cataphracts in Memphis and Thebes in preparation to
fight my allies the Numidians which never happened because the
Scipii got them first. This would be my strongest army.
The second phase of the campaign started with the defeat of the
Egyptians, Parthians, Armenians and Pontus, and consolidating
the provinces in the southeast corner. I call it the second
phase because now I needed better tech to fight against the
Greek Armoured Hoplites and post-Marius Roman units. I needed
all expeditionary armies to be refitted and crappy infantry
units like militia hoplites and levy pikemen to be disbanded.
Greek cavalry will be put into support role and the cataphracts
elevated to main cavalry. All expeditionary armies will need a
terror unit either elephants or scythe chariots (the scythe
chariots actually make a better choice as they are as effective
as the elephants and can be retrained in almost all cities).
By this time of the campaign, I had the most provinces, but
the most powerful armies was the Greeks which have defeated the
Macedons and held off the Romans in Greece. The Scipii is the
next most powerful with loads of stacks in Africa. In military
sense I was weaker as I depended on lower tech units earlier on
and I was only able to support 2 main stacks (1 in Asia Minor
and another in Egypt) plus 2 support armies (made up of mostly
Levy Pikemen) in Asia Minor.
Nevertheless, I captured Pergamum from the Greeks after their
big stack got killed while sieging Sardis leaving Pergamum
weak enough for the Sardis units to capture using Levy Pikemen.
Nicomedia was next with my support army that captured Ancyra
earlier. My refitted first army sailed from Antioch to capture
Rhodes. I attacked a roaming full stack silver chevron
pre-Marian Scipii army that was within my Egyptian borders
signalling the war with Rome.
The Greeks and the Romans quickly strike back. The Greeks
landed a total of 6 stacks around Nicomedia (got my first
famous battle site of the campaign outside Nicomedia attacking
2 stacks of Greek armies). I then lost nicomedia to the greeks
who waited out the siege (the first settlement I lost in this
campaign after all the tense defence against Egypt and Parthia
as I only had a few Levy Pikemen and merc hoplites defending
and would die from the attack anyway). But my first army from
Rhodes came with a vengeance and killed 6 Greek stacks and 3
and a half Thracian stacks that dared land in Asia Minor, all
in the vicinity of Nicomedia which I promptly recaptured
burning the town with onager fires. The reason why they can
easily land in Asia Minor is because my navy is made up of
6 triremes from Antioch which eventually got boosted to
10 ships (cash was a problem) and defended the Bosphorus Strait
preventing further Greek and Thracian landings.
The real fun only begins once I set foot on the main continent
and fighting the Scipii from Egypt westwards. I captured
Byzantium easily as they only had wooden walls. Pergamum
provided me with Silver Shields (trust the Greeks to upgrade
barracks). Then it was Thessalonica which let me train up
better units again. I had 2 famous battle sites outside
Thessalonica and another to the western mountains towards
Appolonia against the Brutii. At Thessalonica I faced large
stacks of Brutii and Greeks and had to bide my time and chase
them off. Luckily I had a 10 star ruler there beating and
wearing them off.
In Northern Africa my general gained stars killing Scipii units
and earned a total of 8 famous battle sites (all under 1
general who became the conqueror, then the mighty and lastly
the attacker). It's so easy to kill Romans once you have onagers
and Scythe Chariots. Urban cohorts can't face the chariots while
praetorian cavalry fall to cataphracts. The Romans tend to go
into testudo after a hit by onager fire but I love the sound of
the fireball hitting the testudo as well. The Scipii just
produce stacks and stacks of armies that I have to have a
reinforcement army trailing my Egypt army to replenish troops.
After wearing down the Greeks, I finally defeated them and I
added Bylazora and Tylis from the Thracian leaving Campus Getae
as a buffer from the Scythians. I captured Appolonia from the
Brutii after quite a while of maneuvering due to the Brutii
having up to 5 big stacks in the vicinity and had to wear them
down bit by bit.
Then from Greece to Italy by boat. My Africa army then went up
to Carthage and into boats for Sicily. I trained up another
stack in Carthage and Thapsus to capture the rest of Africa.
From Italy, I had like 4 fully equipped expeditionary stacks
which went to Spain and up to Britain and Germany capturing
everything along the way. The last 2 factions I faced were
Thrace (at their single buffer city), and Scythia that
controlled the Northeast corner of the map. Finished the
campaign with every settlement captured. I did not face any
giant elepants but did kill amazon chariots.
Playing the Seleucid with version 1.5 is very different from
version 1.0 in the intensity and difficulty. In 1.0 I can cheaply
bribe enemy armies and elephants are so much more powerful. This
is the reason why I invested more into Scythe Chariots and
truthfully they are awesome, performing even better than war
elephants. My typical starting formation that easily beat Roman
stacks in Africa is as follows:
I normally use up my onager ammo first then I ungroup the onagers
and send them far behind to wait. Then I advance the remaining
towards the enemy and ungroup the cavalry and chariots as I get
them into their attack positions. The chariots and cataphracts
move out to the flanks when I prepare to go into melee or to take
out enemy flankers. I ungroup the archers once they are into
firing range. The Greek cavalry is used to mop up routing or near
routing enemy units and avoid fighting organised units. The silver
shields will get as close as possible to the enemy front running
while under enemy archer, ballista and onager fire. I only go into
phalanx mode when I am close or when the enemy charge at my
troops. I disengage phalanx mode when not in immediate danger.
My most memorable battle was attacking 2.5k Brutii units equipped
with 2 onagers, 2 ballistas and about 15-20 cavalry units led by
their 4 star faction leader with my 1.5k troop army which had 1
war elephant, 1 scythe chariot, 2 cretan archers 8 silver shields,
2 cataphracts, 1 greek cavalry and a 8 star general at the
mountains between Thessaolina and Appolonia. It wasn't overly
massive but I enjoyed the battle as it was intense with lots of
fast moving enemy cavalries and a few urban + praetorian cohorts,
and I had to rush the same army to capture Appolonia before any
more Brutii stack arrive. It was a breakthrough battle after
waiting and wearing down up to 8 stacks of Brutii armies around
Appolonia (I fought one battle and then pull back to recharge
troops by sending relief from Thessalonica while sending some
units back to retrain). I had to move my units a lot. I had to
push my onagers forwards to take out the enemy onagers in their
back lines. Then I target their rear units of archer auxilla
with onager fires providing constant fire into their second
lines while my cretan archers target their cavalry auxillas
(up to like 8 of them) which harrassed my flanks. The silver
shields absorbed 2 massive infantry charges and 2 flank charges.
My elephants and scythe chariots worked overtime in the enemy
lines supported by my cavalries while my general held back as
reinforcement. The silver Shields charge out close to the end
to wrap it up. My losses was half of my cavalry and scythe
chariots (which went amok) while my war elephants only lost
9 men and didn't go amok. The silver shields were mostly
intact except for the flanks which lost 2/3 of their numbers.
The same army then went to siege and capture Appolonia on
the same turn.
D3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
Get in there to kill Egyptians and Parthians ASAP. I wait a siege
out when sieging Greeks. With Romans it depends on their units in
the city as they can beat the phalanx in narrow street melee after
pila.
D3.3 Battle commands
++++++++++++++++++++
In battles my tactics are based around the elephants and scythe
chariots as line breakers. Most of the Seleucid infantry are pansies
and tend to break after they get soften by enemy archers. Get the
elephants moving all the time so that the arrows miss and they don't
go amok. I have not experienced getting attacked by the fiery pigs.
The AI just don't train them in version 1.0. In version 1.5, the
fiery pigs go amok instead when i launch fire arrows at them
causing a drop in morale of their own troops.
Practice Scythe chariot controls. The smaller the turns the better.
Again use similar tactics with elephants to break lines by attacking
from both flanks and run across to the other flank.
E1.0 Author's note
------------------
Gaul is rather easy to play. Their units are easy to pick up. Their
infantry behave like how an infantry is suppossed to behave. Their
cavalry is what a straight forward cavalry should be, powerful on the
charge compared to the early cavalries of the Romans and Carthage.
Their Forrester Warband is one of the best archer units you'll find.
Only gripe is that it's the most expensive archer unit and it takes
2 turns to train.
Their later units are all dependable and easy to use. So, hit hard
with large armies, had up to 5 expeditionary forces attacking all
a once, 2 in Italy, 1 against Scythia, 1 into England and 1 into Spain.
Somehow I like War Dogs. I enjoy seeing the dogs chasing after
retreating enemy units.
E2.0 Basic Strategies
---------------------
E2.1 Troops
+++++++++++
Easy to learn and use. Basic units are weak and later units are
better. Forrester Warband is a must have. My whole strategy
depends on them. Noble cavalry is great too. They take out most
cavalries. Chosen Swordmen are alright in itself. The biggest
problem with them is morale. If one unit rout, you can easily
expect all to rout.
Typical expeditionary force consists 5-6 cavalry, 4-5 forrester
warbands, 1 war dog, 1 druid and the rest chosen swordmen.
E2.2 Commands
+++++++++++++
Warcry. Practice the timing for a warcry so that your troops finish
the warcry right before the enemy lands upon them. Druid chanting
is interesting but I can't see for myself if it makes any difference.
You will need to master the command of the forrester warband.
They are the most prized units and difficult to replace due to the
2 turn training time.
E2.3 Terrain
++++++++++++
The Gauls are easy to use in all terrains.
E2.4 Buildings
++++++++++++++
Simple and straightforward, not many to build. Aim for archery
range.
E3.0 Advanced Strategies
------------------------
E3.1 Targets
++++++++++++
The first priority is to neutralise the Britons and German while
attacking the Romans. It is vital that you do not lose the 2 cities
in Northern Italy. These 2 cities are your richest and fastest
growing. It is here that you will get to train forrester warband
first. The rest of the towns are slow growing.
Use Swordmen and Barbarian Cavalry to gain mastery in Northern
France and Germany. Cross into England at earliest oppurtunity
as the Britons can amass a large army quickly with their towns
close to each other on the island.
The Germans are poor and their attacks are sporadic. You will
need to command your swordmen to outflank their phalanx spearmen.
Cavalry is a big help. Attacking their towns without archers
is slow going if they defend the flag with a spearmen unit in
phalanx mode. You will have to atatck it from multiple directions.
Before you kill off the Britons and Germans you should be able to
take at least 1 Italian city of the Julii. You might want to take
your own time taking the rest of the Romans as I prefer them to
build up their cities first while my Forrester Warband picks up
experience chevrons while sallying during sieges. Waiting also
make the looting bigger as you can gain up to 30,000 from looting
a huge city.
Once you have taken over the Italian peninsula, Sicily, England
and most of Germania, the game becomes routine for a win. You
don't get much problem with happiness as your cities tend to be
of low population in France, Spain and Germany. Lastly, you must
not lose Numantia. If you do, the Spaniards will attack into
Southern France earlier. I've defended Numantia with Forrester
Warbands easily due to Spanish lack of archers.
E3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
No onagers, therefore depend on battering rams for wooden walls
and siege towers for stone walls.
The swordmen are very good in fighting on walls. Once you sieze
the wall, capture surrounding towers to use them against the
enemy below, capture the gate and clearing a safe zone for the
rest of your troops. Use Forrester Warbands to kill of remaining
enemy in the centre of the city.
E3.3 Battle Commands
++++++++++++++++++++
Command the Forrester Warbands and cavalry well and you will
easily win. Use infantry to hold lines and charge en masse when
the enemy is about to break. In cities, use swordmen to block
the road and place the archers in rows behind making sure you
space each unit well before you order them to fire. Can win
the game even before meeting any elephants or Egyptians.
F1.0 Author's note
------------------
Germans are fun to play. Even though they are said to depend
on axemen, my strategy depends on their basic spear warband,
which has the phalanx ability. All the other barbarian type
factions like Britainia, Gauls, Spain, Dacia and Scythia are
no match for the pikes. Use the spearmen well, as the chosen
archers and the heavy cavalries will finish everything off.
The biggest problem with the Germans is poor economy and growth
rate. Their lands are poor and their towns grow so slow that
you'll have trouble reaching a minor city to train chosen
archers quickly. If you notice, the AI always cream off the
Germans early, usually by the Britons due to these problems.
F2.0 Basic Strategies
---------------------
F2.1 Troops
+++++++++++
Spear Warband is great considering how early and how cheaply
you get them. I've matched them against Spartan Hoplites and
they won (well, after I pepper the hoplites with arrows). They
can go against cavalry and chariots. They defend towns easily
just by holding up in roads and circling around the flag (units
will not rout around the flag). Chosen Archer Warband is the
second best archers I've come across as they are quick to train
up. You can have a horde of them fast. Gothic cavalry is a
tougher version of the noble cavalry. Chosen Axemen, Night
Raiders and beserkers are strong too and can break most
infantry. I love the banshee-like scream of the screechers.
Lack of onagers.
Typical expeditionary force consists 4-6 cavalry, 4-5 chosen
archers, 2 night raiders or berserkers and the rest spear
warbands. 1 spear warband (120 men) make a long defence line
and only using 8 will make a line long enough to make is
difficult for anyone to outflank you, risking dividing their
army too far apart to reinforce each other.
F2.2 Commands
+++++++++++++
Must be adapt in phalanx control and warcry.
F2.3 Terrain
++++++++++++
Easy to use in all terrains.
F2.4 Buildings
++++++++++++++
Simple and straightforward, not many to build. Aim for
archery range and income boosting buildings. Shrines giving
troop experience gives an early boost.
F3.0 Advanced Strategies
------------------------
F3.1 Targets
++++++++++++
You have to start the game hungry for money. Make alliances
everywhere and concentrate on money. You don't need to build
town walls as your spear warband can defend towns easily.
This also prevent prolonged sieges which will make you lose
cash. Wish I could tear down all the other town walls.
Train sparingly and don't expect to gain a large army fast
as it will cost you to spend too much on maintainance and
doesn't spare any for buildings. I typically make 1400 to
2000 denarii per turn without tributes. I had to sell map
information till all the way to Egypt to earn cash too.
Quickly kick the Britons out of France and capture Alesia
then head south capturing all the way to Massila and then
turn west to Narbo Martius and finish off north from there.
This way you don't need large armies. Only one large army
will do and the rest just sit tight and defend in towns.
After that capture England.
Don't worry about the east as Dacia and Scythia are not as
fast in attacking you as the Britons and Gauls. After
capturing France, England and Ireland, aim for Italy. Your
forces at Massila should hold off all Roman attacks with
chosen archers as Massila is the fastest growing town. You
can boost population growth with building Shrine to Freyja
but I prefer to keep Shrine of Woden for +3 experience. My
Screechers never die and don't need replenishing as they
usually stand behind.
Hold off the Spaniards at Narbo Martius and the Brutii from
Greece at Patavium. Slowly conquer the Dacians and fend off
the Thracians and Scythian ambition (they usually fight among
themselves first). Falxmen, axemen, bastarnea infantry and
thracian infantry fall like flies to spear warband and
cavalry combo. Only later Scythian chosen archers and noble
cavalry archers will cause problems.
Once Italy and Sicily is yours, you're just doing the
formalities to win the game.
F3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
No Onagers. Similar to Gauls. Quickly send in the Spearmen to
form a phalanx once you make a breach and watch infantry and
cavalry all die to your pikes as they rush at you. Remember
that the pikes only protect one direction. Then march 1 spear
warband and block the road. Let the chosen archers finish
everyone around the flag.
F3.3 Battle Commands
++++++++++++++++++++
Phalanx is the key. Work your units around them. Even against
the greek phalanxes, you can get your cavalry and axemen
around them. Make sure you don't commit your cavalry and axemen
too early or else you will face difficulty in trying to get
your spear warband to assist due to slow mobility in phalanx
mode and poor defence and morale in standard mode. Can win the
game even before meeting any elephants or Egyptians.
Most memorable battle with them killing off 2700+ Roman
legionaires with my 1300 at the vicinity of Rome. Losses at 400
plus. Big thanks to 8 spear warbands that never broke and
tireless heavy cavalry.
G1.0 Author's note
------------------
Egyptians are rather easy to play. They are very rich. Their
income can reach 30,000 denarii profit per turn. I had
450,000 denarii lying about and I can't spend it all. Their
units are not the easiest to use though. Prepare to suffer
heavy losses as their units do not have high defence points.
Plus, I don't like using chariots as I think they are
clumsy.
G2.0 Basic Strategies
---------------------
G2.1 Troops
+++++++++++
The Egyptian units are made up of chariots, onagers, infantry,
archers and light cavalry. They are fast in open areas. The
Pharoah's Bowmen and Pharoah's Guard are the best infantry to
train up as they take a beating before they rout. Pharoah's
Bowmen is one of the best archer unit as they can fight well
in melee and don't rout easily.
Large early archer unit, 120 men which you need less and can
have more space for other units.
The chariots require some practice as they are clumsy to use
in inexperienced hands. Chariots frighten infantry and can be
relied on to rout enemy infantry, though they are not precision
killers and need other units to mop up the retreating units.
Do not depend on Egyptian phalanx to hold the line for long.
Only the Pharoah's Guard are trustworthy enough to stay put.
The only heavy infantry is the desert axemen which just won't
stay dead. Desert axemen fall like flies in battle but more
than once I had full unit recovery. Can't explain the times
when all 80 of the axemen fell from 'fighting till death',
the casualties healed after the fight was 80.
For a leading power their naval strength is much to be desired.
Their strongest naval unit is a trireme.
My typical expeditionary army consists of 3 onagers, 4 cavalry
(nile cavalry, nubian cavalry or samartian mercenaries), 4
Pharoah's Bowmen, 2 desert axemen and the rest phalanx,
preferably Pharoah's Guards.
Also note that the Egyptians have some of the costliest
maintainance cost per unit if you wonder where all your denarii
have gone to. All the units are cheap to train though.
G2.2 Commands
+++++++++++++
Plenty of opportunities to use phalanx. Chariots are powerful if
you can control them easily. Be alert for the archers killing
own men.
If you have mastered barbarian mass charging style of play, you
won't have a problem here with axemen.
G2.3 Terrain
++++++++++++
Most of the units have bonuses in fighting in desert terrain.
A disadvantage for chariots in forests as they get confused
between trees.
Beware of sending your chariots rushing across narrow bridges as
they can fall off themselves. Chariots also get confused between
trees.
G2.4 Buildings
++++++++++++++
The Egyptian population grows very very fast and therefore
unhappiness is always on a rise. You should aim to concentrate on
money generating buildings while keeping the people happy. There
is no hurry to get the best units as your mid-range units are good
enough to win battles. Try to avoid building sanitation, upgrading
farms or temples giving population growth bonus, and you will find
that you can keep your unhappiness to a manageable level. Train
loads cheap mass troops in every settlement to keep happiness in
good shape.
G3.0 Advanced Strategies
------------------------
G3.1 Targets
++++++++++++
You can start on the offensive from the start. You are given a small
standing army near the capital under the general Kiya. Get his army
plus some from your nearby cities into your ships and send them all
the way to Sidon and quickly attack Antioch. Avoid traning any units
until you capture Antioch as you will earn roughly 3500 denarii per
turn this way to develop cities. Once you have Antioch, quickly
attack Tarsus and defend Tarsus with at least 2 Bowmen with 1 or 2
spearmen. Tarsus will be your defence line against the Asia Minor.
Then you can slowly capture surrounding areas. I bribed Siwa
including the defending general and then I bribed Cyrene. Notice that
I can bribe cities due to the high income. Send an attack force to
capture the rest of the Seleucid land in the East. You will face
their elephant corp but I easily took care of them with fire arrows
from Bowmen. By now, the Parthians should begin to become
irritating, so kick them out of their lands in the Middle-east and
Asia Minor. Time will completely destroy them as their Northern lands
are poor.
Now is a good time to send a landing force to Rhodes and spread out
from there. Attacking by land from Tarsus will take too long and it
will bog you down as the important cities are closer to the vicinity
of Rhodes.
Beware of the powerful navies of the Greeks, Thrace and the Romans.
The triremes are no match for the qiunquireme. I made a quick 1 turn
dash assault over the sea to targets like from Helicarnassus to
Athens or Appolonia to Terantum or Carthage to Lilybeaum. Get the
army waiting on the port and build a trireme in one turn. Once the
trireme is ready, get the army to board and test it's mobility and
make sure you can land. Sometimes other ships block the most direct
path and you can hit land in one turn. If unable, disembark army back
onto port and try next turn. The army must be on the port to maximise
mobility. Once you capture the Greek cities then hopefully you can
build quinquireme.
Once the Numidians are dying to the Scipii, send an expeditionary
force to the western border of Siwa and wait in a fort for the Scipii
to attack. I had 3 famous battle sites in that area. Once you blunt
their eastern ambition, send your army to capture westwards.
For the end game, 4 armies in Greece and into Italy. Land route to
Rome from Greece is too long and too many powerful cities in between.
1 army from Siwa to Carthage to Lilybeaum.
With the ridiculous amount of cash you earn, you can bribe everything
that can be bribed, even a large Roman city with a general for 65,000
denarii. Cheap. Not enough generals at the front? Bribe. Any enemy
army crossing your boder and you don't have the troops to deal with
it? Bribe.
G3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
Use Onagers and siege towers. Beware that chariots don't do well in
narrow streets. The light cavalry is only of limited help as they
don't have the shock power of heavy cavalry when trying to break
through defenders in narrow streets. Depend a lot on axemen and
pharoah's guards.
G3.3 Battle Commands
++++++++++++++++++++
The key to Egyptian military prowess is number and mass frontal
charges. The units are not designed for defence. The infantry can't
hold a line long, even the best Pharoah's Guards. The cavalry is
build for flank attacks and not direct charges. Chariots can rush
in straight but gets stuck in the muddle.
Once I get into position for the offence, I normally use up
pharoah's bowmen or onagers fireballs to soften the enemy and then
followed by a steady march of the phalanx line and quick flanking
cavalry attacks. The enemy usually run away after the arrows and
fireballs though.
For defence, I use the oangers and arrows first and when their units
are near, I stop all projectiles. I let my phalanx take a charge and
then I charge the axemen from the flanks followed by cavalry deeper
in their flanks. If any of my phalanx looks like breaking, I get the
Pharoah's Bowmen into the fray just to hold on a bit longer for the
cavalry to outflank them all. If I have a chariot, it'll be used
to outflank the enemy. Once the enemy rout, I get ALL the units to
chase them down. Even used onager men to help hold the center. I love
to hear all my units shout 'charge' all at once. Desert Axemen make
good shock troops but if they fail to rout the enemy, then they very
likely will rout themselves as they can't hold on for long, so keep
a close eye on them. Keep them in the flanks as they are nimble enough
to outflank the enemy.
Be wary of other factions with powerful infantry like falxmen, axemen,
and swordsmen as they beat your infantry easy. Use 'offensive
fortication' when advancing in the forest regions.
My most memorable battle is the siege of Rome, with very bloody melee
in the streets using everything including onager men.
H1.0 Author's note:
-------------------
If you think the Egyptians are rich, wait till you play the
Parthians! With their silk roads, all your settlements make
lots and LOTS of cash. I found playing this faction difficult
initially until I got a better understanding of making money
after playing the Brutii (good income from start till end),
Germans (bad early income but steady income midgame onwards)
and Egyptians (good early income but need to watch out for
unhappiness).
The drawback for the Parthians is that their units are not
superb. All their unit types are superseded by their neighbours.
Their infantry is rubbish and cannot be depended to hold a line.
Their cavalry are good but their best cataphracts will be
superseded by faster moving heavy cavalry like praetorian
cavalry, companion cavalry and macedonian cavalry. The best
elephant unit you can have is only the War Elephant which is
great but the seleucids and carthagians have armoured
elephants. The archers are short ranged. As for camels, it's
too high up in the tech tree for an average looking unit.
So, we have a strong mid-game army and very rich faction...
is that all? No, sir... the trump to this faction is that you
can have all the best units of this faction quite fast as
all you need is a large city (12,000 population) to get them.
Plus they don't have sanitation which slows down population
growth like barbarian standards. This means unhappiness is
not so much of a problem later in the game.
H2.0 Basic Strategies
---------------------
H2.1 Troops
+++++++++++
The units are discussed above. The strength of the Parthians
is speedy cavalry. Persian cavalry is one of the most useful
unit for this faction for both offence and defence. They are
very useful to flank your enemies. Though their infantry is
much to be desired, you will still need to train them to use
siege engines.
My typical expeditionary force consists of: 4 onagers, 3
hillmen, 2 archers or cretan archers, 6 persian cavalry or
8 persian cavalries depending if I use any archers, 2 war
elephants and 2 cataphracts.
H2.2 Commands
+++++++++++++
Having lots of cavalry archers is not the easiest to command.
I strongly recommend you disable the skirmish mode most of the
time. Skirmish mode just makes them run about madly in evasive
action when the enemy approaches. Which means your line of
cavalry can be here one minute, gone the next. Skirmish mode
is good only against a smaller army with slower units, which
usually happen only early in the game.
You must also keep track of the free at will command so that
you can avoid shooting into the backs of your charging
cavalry. Yes, they do still fire when you order them to charge
the enemy.
H2.3 Terrain
++++++++++++
The Parthians are easy to use in most terrains.
H2.4 Buildings
++++++++++++++
Aim for trade buildings. The trade routes, Spice Road and Silk
Road just make you very rich indeed. Farming takes second place.
You can train an effective army without going too high up the
tech tree.
H3.0 Advanced Strategies
-----------------------
H3.1 Targets
++++++++++++
The starting period of this faction is one of the most
challenging as your units are bad and you are spread out too
far. So, like most factions that are spread out, you need to
defend a lot from the start. With their good income, make sure
you have diplomats near all your frontier cities to bribe the
enemy armies.
From the start aim for the closest rich weakly defended city...
Seleucia. The Seleucids are spread too thinly at the start
compared to the Armenians, so you should take advantage of this.
Then it's time for defence. Be warned that war with the Seleucids
can drag a long time while the Armenians will irritate you.
So, after capturing Seleucia and Dumatha, I rushed the main army
all the way back up to capture Phraaspa from the Armenians and
head straight to kill them off. All this time I've been defending
Arsakia with only 1 general unit and 1 slinger unit. The Seleucids
and Egyptians will siege Seleucia a few times while the Egyptians
will also siege Dumatha (which was the main reason to capture this
town early to spread the Egyptian armies). Killed the Seleucid
elephants with sheer stubborness, using up plenty of infantry
and cavalry. Sad to see my cavalry dying by getting trampled by
falling elephants. Be prepared to lose up to two-thirds of your
cavalry. Best thing is to End the battle as soon as you're able
to avoid having to kill the elephants.
Bribing the Armenian army and local rebels has double benefits
because if they have the same units that you can train, you can
bribe them to join your forces. This is also a cheaper way to get
units and they don't take up your population which I try to get to
large city ASAP for elephants.
From Kotias, avoid war with Pontus and Scythia and rush your main
army back down to capture Hattra, Antioch and Tarsus. From here on,
simply invade the Egyptians up till Siwa to protect the Western
front. The Egyptians are easy meat as their cities are usually
very underdefended. Train up lots of Quinquireme for future naval
supremacy plan. Take Salamis and then land drop into Rhodes or
Helicarnassus. From here on, it's similar to Egyptian expansion
with exception of another front from the north into the Scythian
lands.
Your navies will rule the sea as well with Quinquireme builders
at the safe harbours of Salamis, Sidon, Jurusalem, Tarsus and
Alexandria. Antioch is the main elephant training city.
H3.2 Sieges
+++++++++++
Considering that the Parthian units are poor defensively but strong
offensively, breaking down gates and walls and let your elephants
lead the charge is a better option than waiting for enemy
reinforcements to relieve the siege. Elephants rule in the narrow
streets. Most of the time the siege can be won with the elephants
ahead followed by cataphracts and persian cavalry.
Defending in the early game is eay with your fast cavalry archers.
Lure the enemy towards your wall defences and run around your outer
perimeter. The main aim is to kill off all the enemy archers first
with repeated luring techniques. Once the don't have archers, you
can send out your cavalry archers from the front gate and shoot at
them and run when they come near. You will force the enemy to quit
the siege.
H3.3 Battle Commands
++++++++++++++++++++
The strength of the Parthian army is speed and shock. Trying to
play defensively is out of the question against a similar strength
enemy. Always try to keep the battle in the open as short as
possible. Therefore my battle strategies rely mainly on elephants
and persian cavalries.
I place my onagers in the center guard by hillmen or mercenary
hoplites with archers at both sides. Then followed by 3 persian
cavalry (or 4 if I don't use archers) and war elephants at both
ends. 1 cataphracts each behind the war elephants. It is weak
defensively all around except for the elephants in the flanks.
Now, in almost all battles, place your units within onager range
to the enemy before you start. Once battle begins, the onagers
will rain fire. This will force the enemy army to quickly close
in. Once they reduce the distance by two-thirds, move the elephants
and cataphracts forwards in the flanks followed by the persian
cavalries spreading out to the flanks. Once the elephants and
cataphracts are in the middle of their column, stop ALL projectiles
from ALL units and then charge the elephants into their flanks
followed slightly later by the cataphracts. The main role of the
cataphracts is to kill enemy heavy cavalry and general units.
Once the enemy is disorganised, charge all the Persian Cavalry,
infantry and archers from the front.
If the enemy has missile cavalry, just let your elephants face
them and exchange fire because without fire arrows, normal arrows
can't seem to kill war elephants. Perfect for Scythian Noble
Archers and Cavalry Auxilla.
In the rout, spare your cataphracts to charge into units which
are regrouping while your Persian Cavalry mop everything up.
Therefore most of the battles are fast and furious, one mis-time
and your front will collapse with all your infantry running away.
You can still win then as your cavalries can be redirected to hit
the enemy from behind. Don't be shy to use the Pause button a lot
to keep up with the battle. Last note: keep your elephants away
from fire arrows at all cost!
My most memorable battle is the Greek relief of Rhodes. My units
faced an uphill terrain with armoured hoplites rushing down with
5 archer support behind them. My front broke and ran, 1 elephant
went amok, half my cavalries routed but still won with repeated
charges into the hoplites.
Typical formation
FRONT
----- ----- ----- ----- ------ ------ ------ ----- ----- ----- -----
| P | | P | | P | | P | |Inf | |Inf | |Inf | | P | | P | | P | | P |
|Cal| |Cal| |Cal| |Cal| ------ ------ ------ |Cal| |Cal| |Cal| |Cal|
----- ----- ----- ----- -------------------- ----- ----- ----- -----
---------- |Ona||Ona||Ona||Ona| ----------
|Elephant| -------------------- |Elephant|
---------- ----- ----------
------ |Gen| ------
|Cata| | | |Cata|
| | ----- | |
------ ------
REAR
Inf = Infantry
P Cal = Persian Cavalry
Ona = Onager
Gen = General
Elephant = War Elephant
Cata = Cataphract
*Note the line can expand very wide which prevent enemy from
outflanking but making the need to advance the elephants closer
before you are fully ready to engage.
Once I've moved into position, both Elephants move to the side
along the same line as the Persian Cavalry with the Cataphracts
behind them. In defensive mode, you can place the elephants in
the wings before the fight. Another improvision is to substitute
the 3 infantry with archers. It works just as well, but I got
tired of always needing to replenish archers as they die much
faster when charging the front than using infantry and they
can't take any charge.
I. Scipii
=========
I1.0 Author's Note:
+++++++++++++++++++
The Scipii is an exciting faction to play, but preferably played
after the Julii or Brutii. It's slightly more complex than the
other Roman factions because the neighbours are tougher and a long
drawn war in Northern Africa can bankrupt beginners. You will have
to plan your expansion more wisely, taking into account the economic
prize and also the logistics involved. The Scipii has the best naval
unit in the game, the Decere. It is costly, 3 turns to build and
also redundant because using corvus quinquiremes or quinquiremes is
enough to control the seas. Like all Roman factions, you have a good
stable economy but I feel that Brutii makes more money with the
richer cities of Tarentum, Croton and their Greek expansions.
The key for a Scipii win is naval power and relentless expansion.
I2.0 Basic Strategies
+++++++++++++++++++++
I2.1 Troops
-----------
Like other Roman units, the Scipii has strong reliable units. At
the start of the game, your cities of Messana and Capua is all
that you got and seperated by sea. Your initial army is bad, with
the strongest non general unit the archer. Don't look down at the
archer as it is extremely powerful in the very early game. If you
use the single archer unit well, you can easily defeat early Greek
and Carthage armies.
Best naval units in the game.
My usual expeditionary force is made up of 4 onagers, 4 heavy
cavalry, 1 general unit, 4 archer auxilla and the rest is made up
of heavy infantry to hold the line.
I2.2 Commands
-------------
Please see Julii
I2.3 Terrain
------------
Please see Julii
I2.4 Buildings
--------------
Please see Julii
Another bonus is that all Pantheons give weapon and armour bonus.
Therefore every city has potential to train gold weapon and
armoured units.
I3.0 Advanced Strategies
++++++++++++++++++++++++
H3.1 Targets
------------
Fron the start the Scipii army is divided at Sicily and the Italian
peninsula. My first move is to send all available troops to Sicily
and capture Syracuse. I just waited out the siege as it was suicidal
to try and send hastati over the stone wall and facing the Greek
phalanxes in narrow streets. The Julii by then would distract the
Carthagians at Caralis and by the time I broke the wooden walls of
Lilybeaum, I didn't face a single elephant unit.
From Sicily, I faced a big decision of either to continue into North
Africa (where the Senate was pushing for) or quickly rush to get a
foothold in Northern Italy and the Greek cities (for riches) in the
east, knowing full well that I need to prevent the other Roman
factions from becoming too strong. So what I did was pull my army
from Sicily and captured Athens (the Brutii has expanded down from
Salona, Appolonia into Thermon and was sieging Larissa). While this
was going on, I sent a general with 2 hashati up to northern Italy
recruting Samnite mercenaries, barbarian cavalry mercenaries and
barbarian mercenaries and quickly captured Patavium knowing from
experience that this is one of the most important cities to capture
for mastery of the whole Italian peninsula. From there that
mercenary based army captured all the way to Massila which is the
key city into Italy from the West. This practically made me master
of Italy though the other Roman factions have not realised this
yet.
From Athens, I watch with amusement the repeated failed sieges of the
Brutii at Larissa. So I bribed a large Brutii army (don't have time
to train up that many. I love to bribe Brutii armies as they have high
experience) and came along 1000 strong to siege Larissa only to face
2000 strong Macedon (800 from the city and 1200 from the army trying
to relief the city) which I defeated with 6 equites, 1 archer, 2
velites, 1 precipes and the rest hastati. Needless to say the battle
was bloody but with one fell swoop I broke the strength of the
powerful Macedon army which never recovered. After that it's
Thessalonica. I added Corinth after the Senate promised to give me
priority to get posts, followed by Sparta which is the vital guardian
to the Eastern side of the Mediterranian.
I let Carthage live a bit longer against the Senate's 'urgings' as
from previous experience I know that once you set foot into Carthage,
it's like a bottomless pit as it will cost you a fortune to develop
Carthage and Thapsus just to keep them happy. So when I got down to
capture Carthage, with the foolish Carthagian army stuck at Lepcis
Magna (which is another deep pit), it was already a huge city and
the Carthagians have developed it so much provided me with my first
onagers and legionary cavalries (before Marius reforms). Still,
Carthage proved to be a deep pit as it took me years of traning up
peasants to keep it fully happy before I moved on to Cirta and Tingi.
Carthage aside, the main western army moved from Massila (now with
proper Roman troops and less of mercenaries) to Narbo Martius, then
to Lugdunum, upwards to Alesia, then to the west to Lemonun and
finally stop at Condate Redonum. This avoids war with the British and
kill off the Gauls in France. Capturing Massila and Narbo Martius
earlier forced the Julii to capture Osca.
All this goes on while I trained up my corvus quinquireme and
quinquireme fleet. Had 3 full fleets. Almost brankrupt me paying
fleet maintaince when I went to war with the other Roman factions.
Going to war ASAP with the Romans is the course I took as I want to
secure my center. Having rivals in the center is like the Sword of
Damocles. By the time I went to war with the other Roman factions,
I had 27 provinces (added a few in Asia Minor) while the Brutii had
6, Julii had 5 and SPQR their usual 1. It also happens that when I
warred the Romans, the Egyptians and Brittania broke their alliances
with me and sieged my cities at the same turn. I defended at my key
cities of Patavium (Brutii army trying to get back to Tarentum),
Narbo Martius (Julii from Osca), Sardis (Egyptian attacks; though
in truth I would have preferred to hold at Ancyra or at Tarsus which
are better placed strategically) and Alesia with Condate Redonum
(from the British). Struck Croton, Thermon and Segesta with 3
armies specially called back from the fronts for surprise attacks,
leaving one army in Asia Minor to defend as I took away the Onagers.
From here on, you can play any way you want. Simple Roman might.
I3.2 Sieges
-----------
Please see Julii
I3.3 Battle Commands
--------------------
If you have mastered most of the other Roman factions' battle
style, stick to your tried and tested ways. After all, the
combinations are vast and their units are powerful in all sense.
J. Britons
==========
J1.0 Author's Note
++++++++++++++++++
The Britons are very very easy to play... IF you have some
charioting skills. If you are crap with chariots, then you
won't enjoy playing britons. 3 reasons Britons are so easy
to play:
1. secure rear
2. great income
3. chariots rule over all her neighbours
With the Britons I have never expended my empire so fast
in so many directions. Maybe because Creative Assembly is
an English company.
J2.0 Basic Strategies
+++++++++++++++++++++
J2.1 Troops
-----------
You don't get much choices for troops. There's light to
heavy infantry, slingers, wardogs and chariots. You also
get other unique units from temples such as druids, head
hurlers, and woad warriors. In truth, all you need are
chosen swordmen, light chariots, and wardogs. woad warriors
have high attack but die easily from low defences and they
are superseeded by chosen swordmen which takes shorter
time to train.
Swordmen are decent and take easily beat all early units,
including hastati but will be at 50-50 against precipes.
J2.2 Commands
-------------
I disabled skirmish modes for the light chariots and I had
to manually control their skirmishes. This is because you
can't control the direction of the skirmish mode which
sucks.
Light chariots have great charge and attack points. Against
non-phalanx units, I simply order them to charge straight
into the unit as there are more space for the chariots to
run around. I try to only charge from the sides or rear plus,
the infantry unit have to be preferably in a situation where
they just stopped from a running march as this is when their
unit is not as tightly packed. Light chariots own cavalry,
even general units. Charging with 2 light chariots, with one
into flanks or rear will easily beat the general unit. I
usually use the chariots as assassination units in battles.
J2.3 Terrain
------------
I strongly advise fighting on wide open spaces for the
chariots to run around. Deserts and open plains are great.
Bridges or river crossings on the other hand, need a
rethink. I had better results with setting up my lines far
back from the crossing/bridge and let the chariots skirmish
their units that attempted to cross, than to actually place
my lines close to the bridge. This is because the infantry
though said to be strong are no match to general units, pila,
and any other shock troops.
Forests can be tricky as it can slow down your chariots
greatly allowing enemy light cavalry to catch up and charge
into your rear.
J2.4 Buildings
--------------
There's not many buildings to build so you save a lot of
money on buildings. The temple of brigantia is great if
you want to boost population up with their public health
bonus, but i prefer to build shrine of brittania at all
coastal cities as the provide more cash from their extra
tradeable goods. I strongly recommend getting blacksmith
early for chariots and then aim for the infantry building.
Stables are a bonus for wardogs. Don't bother building
archery range unless you like to use slingers. My original
single slinger unit is still around even after capturing
54 cities as it seldom see direct combat due to the short
range.
J3.0 Advanced Strategies
++++++++++++++++++++++++
J3.1 Targets
------------
From the start you have a large available army if you take
all available units from Deva, Eburacum and Londinum (you
can even just leave your faction leader alone as garrison
in Londinum). You also have a strong stack around
Batavodrum.
My first aim was to beat the Gauls and quickly occupy
Northern Italy before the Romans get too strong. I
intended to stay at peace with the Germans as long as
possible because the Germans would take a long time before
it could become a threat but the Gauls had Patavium which
would give them higher tech much sooner. So, I allied with
the Germans.
So, straight off, I combined the troops around Samarobriva
with the troops from Londinum plus every merc i can hire
and I captured Alesia attacking during siege. Lugdunum was
still rebel controlled was next, followed by Massila. The
troops from the Deva and Eburacum plus mercs from England
went west to capture all the Gaul cities southwards till
Narbo Martius. Gaul resistance was weak all the way. It
was the stack that captured Massila that captured Narbo
Martius then pulled back to Massila to head towards
Mediolanum and Patavium, capturing both without pause.
By the time I attack Northern Italy the Gauls had better
swordmen while I was mainly spear warband but it didn't
matter much as I had chariots.
The second army then went into Spain from Narbo Martius.
Spain proved no resistance at Osca and Carthago Nova
though their scutarii was proving a problem for the
spear warband, so the advance slowed down at Carthago
Nova where I hired Spanish mercs and Balearic slingers.
Next was Numantia and the remaining Spanish cities.
I enslave all captured settlements in early game.
All this time, I only train troops at Alesia and Londinum
while leaving governors at Alesia, Londinum and Samarobriva
to get all 3 cities to tech up. I will definitely need at
least swordmen and more chariots to fight the germans.
The Germans broke the alliance by sieging Alesia but I was
prepared by sallying forth with light chariots which made
easy work of the german spearmen. With more swordmen from
Londinum, chariots from Samarobriva and wardogs from Alesia,
a third stack went on into German lands taking town after
town, though I had to wait out the siege many times when
they have a big stack inside as phalanx will just beat my
infantry in the streets. In the open field, I easily beat
the Germans with skirmishing light chariots tactics.
A fourth stack from Londinum with my first few chosen
swordmen added with light chariots from Deva and
Eburacum captured Tara. Then it landed back near Samarobriva
and went northeastwards to capture more German cities.
Overall the Germans were easy meat.
By around turn 15, I have beaten the Gauls (which only had
1 town left at Salona), captured all Spain except Corduba,
captured about half of the German towns, and was ready to
attack the Romans. I waited a bit to replace spear warbands
with swordmen trained at Patavium and Mediolanum. Spear
Warband don't stand much of a chance against precipes. None
of the Julii cities hit 12k pop yet and Ariminium was below
6k.
Once I had like 6 swordmen, I went straight to attack the
large Julii stack and after that sieged Arretium. I waited
the siege out but the Julii came with reinforcements, I won
the battle, killed all reinforcements from Arretium and
captured the city. I sent a smaller stack which made up of
more swordmen from Patavium and Mediolanum to capture
Ariminium. The army from Arretium then quickly captured
Segesta and then pulled back to attack Rome. The large
SPQR stack had 5 generals in it and it attacked me while I
was on a river crossing. I played my troops far back and
harass their crossing units with light chariots. Then the
light chariots assassinated their 8 star ruler. After that,
a massive charge of swordmen and 4 chosen swordmen (trained
at Arretium) crushed the remaining troops. I sieged Rome
and waited the siege out as even chosen swordmen can't do
much against general units in narrow streets. The second
stack in Italy then went to capture Capua. It was a tough
battle for Capua as the Scipii attacked twice in a turn
with full 2 stacks. After capturing Capua and Rome, I then
went on for Tarentum and Croton. Again, I waited the siege
out. Around this time, I captured Corduba upon seeing that
they filled the city up (20 units) with crappy iberian
infantry and peltasts which were no match against swordmen.
Dacia then declared war by sieging Patavium which I quickly
beat them by sallying forth with 3 light chariots.
I was training top tech units at Arretium, Ariminium and
Patavium soon enough and a new 14 unit stack went on to
capture Segestica, Salona and then into Greece. The troops
at southern Italy them went into Greece and Sicily by
boats (by then I rule the seas with two 6 large boat stacks
each on either side of the Italian peninsula. I also sent
the force that captured Corduba across to Africa while a
minor stack captured Palma. The Brutii had only 2 cities
in the east at Appolonia and Thessalonica. Most of the
Greek cities were owned by Scipii. Scipii completely owned
Sicily. The Numidians held Thapsus and Carthage while
Carthage only held Lepcis Magna.
I reach 50 settlements after killing the Germans, Dacia,
capturing from Tingi eastwards to Carthage, capturing
whole of Sicily and all of Greece. The Romans never reached
the Marius Reforms, nor do they have any large cities.
I'm trying to capture all 103 provinces to see if I can
manage a barbarian faction controlling so many cities
without much unhappiness problems.
J3.2 Sieges
-----------
The Light Chariots are powerful units when I sally forth
repelling loads of invaders, including Dacia, Thrace,
Gauls, Spain, Romans and Scythia.
The Britons are rather crap in attacking during siege.
Even the Chosen Swordmen can't stand a head on charge by
any general unit, routing quickly. The best way to kill
the general units is to hit it from two sides in the
narrow streets but I do not get that chance 100% of the
time. I would wait out the siege if the defenders have
decent units as the chariots are not great in the
streets. Wardogs are cool if you get them to chase
routing units back into the city. The ai often sally forth
on the last turn on the siege and often I just win the
battle with wardogs killing every unit behind the walls
making me not having to break the gate or walls.
J3.3 Battle Commands
--------------------
It's chariots or bust. I recommend you manually control
the skirmish tactics.
It can get frustrating as the game controls are not very
instinctive, so I end up pausing just to click on the
correct chariot unit as it can become one messed up mess.
Most memorable battle was the sally forth of Thermon
where two 20 stack Scipii force combined and waited
uphill. All my units routed (including my general),
except the lone cretan archer unit on the wall, when I
sent my chosen swordmen and swordmen charging uphill. I
caused the romans to mass rout at first but their extra
troops in the back then charged down and routed my
troops. I managed to win the battle when I got my 3
remaining light chariots and general out again and did
skirmishing tactics to win. My 1100 troops left 360
while I killed 2200 out of 2400 enemy troops. Tough win.
6.0 General battle tips against specific factions
-------------------------------------------------
General difficulty rating based on my battle experiences:
A = bloody
B = challenging
C = occasional toughie
D = minnows
6A. Julli, Brutii, Scipii and SPQR
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rating B, due to having most experience fighting them compared
to any other faction. You just learn to get used to them.
The Roman factions have a well balanced army; reliable infantry,
long range archers, strong cavalry and siege weapons. I find
killing Romans among the most fun battles, and surprisingly much
less bloody than expected. This is because even though they are
great killers, their killing rate is slow, and by then, they are
beginning to rout. Don't ever let them get into pilum position
so charge your infantry at them head on. Always have cavalry in
hand to outflank them. My favourite strat is to burn them all
with onager because of their column formation. All I need to do
is to aim the onager at the center and the spread of fire will
do all the damage.
6B. Carthage and Seleucids
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rating B.
Always have an archer unit in hand to shoot fire arrows to get
rid of the elephants. Even a single volley may be all that you
need. Fire arrows work as well against Scythe Chariots. Don't
ever let them attack you in a siege as facing elephants in narrow
streets is simply suicidal unless you have phalanx. Always sally
forth. Heart thumping action against elephants.
6C. Egyptian
++++++++++++
Rating A, so many of the bloodiest battles ever. Facing them
in the desert only makes thing worse as their units don't fatigue
as fast.
Try to avoid getting overwhelmed by their axemen. Keep cavalries
handy at all times to hit their flanks. Archer fire is not very
useful against charging axemen as they can move very fast. Get
your archers to take out the pesky chariot archers which they
always place in your flanks quite a distant away from their main
group to prevent shooting into your own men. No point sending
cavalry after the chariots. Concentrate first on the main attack
group from the front. Once you dispatch the main part of the
army, then you can turn your attention to the chariot archers.
Pharoah Guards and Pharoah Bowmen usually regroup after routing,
so beware when you send a small force to chase after them as they
can bite back hard, even against your best units.
6D. Gauls
+++++++++
Rating C. Tough in early game but with better units they
become pushovers.
Beware of their mass frontal charge. All you need to do is to
keep holding the line during their initial charge. When they
fail to break you, their low morale will make them break instead.
But don't depend for that to happen without using some crafty
cavalry work and using archers to back up your infantry. Get
your cavalry to charge from their rear and then pull out to deal
with the next one. You need to be very quick with this. Using
reliable phalanx makes things so much easier.
6E. Germania
++++++++++++
Rating C.
Again, beware of charging axemen. Treat similar to Gauls. With
their spearmen, use outflanking maneuvers. Generally easier to
deal than the Gauls or British as spear warband have slow
mobility. Their biggest weakness is their economy preventing
them from reaching their full military potential.
6F. Brittania
+++++++++++++
Rating C.
Strong infantry similar to Gauls. Only difference is chariots.
Their chariots are a pain because they like to use it to charge.
The chariots kill cavalry by the dozens. Try to get the chariots
to fight a protracted fight with your infantry. Best way is to
let the chariots charge at your phalanx.
6E. Dacia
+++++++++
Rating B.
The falxmen are a pain. I've lost many battles to charging
falxmen. The rest of their units are so-so. So, try to kill
off all falxmen first before dealing with the rest. Always
suffer heavy losses against falxmen, even when using heavy
infantry. Weak against phalanx.
6F. Thrace
++++++++++
Rating B. Not a real power but very irritating.
Again there's falxmen, this time supported by phalanx! A
troublesome combination and more difficult than fighting Dacia.
Use archers to lower phalanx morale and cavalry to dispatch
falxmen from the flanks. Can turn into a bloody and desperate
fight even with your highest tech units. Yup, the falxmen
killed a few war elephants too. But easily beaten if you use
phalanx.
6G. Macedon
+++++++++++
Rating A because I tend to meet them early or not at all.
Rating will likely drop if I use higher tech units.
Never never never fight against the Macedon facing uphill.
Their cavalry charge can break almost anything, even phalanx.
Their cavalry is so fast that it's a headache to look out for
them. But look out for them is what you must do. They always
send their cavalries ahead and mass at your flanks. When their
phalanx are in position, then they charge en masse. You must
always pay extra attention to your own flanks against the
Macedon. Lots of heartstopping action. Thank goodness they
don't last very long in all the campaigns I've played.
Everyone just love their lands.
6H. Greek Cities
++++++++++++++++
Rating B solely due to Armoured Phalanx which are tough to
beat. Phalanx is a pain to kill. Armoured phalanx is almost
immune against arrow fire from the front. Must always have
cavalry, preferably heavy ones as are armoured phalanx are
tough. The key is flank, rear and flank.
6I. Parthians and Armenia
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Rating C.
Both factions have weak infantry, short range archers and
plenty of cavalry archers. The difficulty will be in pinning
their cavalry into a melee. One easy way is to lure their
cavalry by recalling any units you have used in a charge. By
showing your backs, the cavalry archers tend to pursue your
unit, making easy target for your own cavalry from the flank.
Their cataphracts can break almost all infantry in a charge
but they themselves fall easy to my heavy cavalry. I've never
ever lost to them in battle in the campaigns, but they do
reduce my troops dearly with skirmisher tactics.
6J. Scythians
+++++++++++++
Rating A/B.
Once they have their max tech, the Scythians are one of the
hardest faction to fight against. You just can't pin down
their archers. Add long range Chosen Archers and it becomes
a nightmare. I had to use onagers to kill off their cavalry
archers while my infantry close in their infantry and my
cavalry on their toes to protect my infantry from a flank
charge. A real headache as the Scythians are simply too fast.
Experts at skirmishing. One tactic they like to use is to rain
arrows from 3 directions. Had one of the most desperate
battles in the snow against them using a full army with
preatorian cohorts and preatorian cavalry but still lost
about 70% of my troops in a long fight. Just can't pin
down their Scythian Noble Archers. Even though I won, it
effectively crippled my invading army.
6K. Spain
+++++++++
Rating D.
You think they are a pushovers? Well, maybe half right. Their
infantry (Scutarii and Bull Warriors) are superb, just like
the best Roman infantry. But they have weaknesses aplenty. So,
don't engage their infantry head on. Otherwise very easy to
beat them with cavalry, archers and onagers.
6L. Numidia
+++++++++++
Rating B, as they can often throw a few surprises.
Beware when fighting them in the open desert. With their
desert bonus, they are powerful on the charge, and they tend
to charge en masse. Their infantry is quite alright too. Use
forts on the advance and you'll do fine. Numidian cavalry is
another irritating unit.
6M. Pontus
++++++++++
Rating C. Easy. Rubbish infantry and short range archers.
Potential to have strong cavalry armies. Almost similar to
Armenians and less irritating than Parthain cavalry archers.
Never loss to them in battles.
7.0 Geographical considerations
-------------------------------
I add this section to briefly explain about a few interesting
places on the campaign map.
7.1 Money pits
++++++++++++++
Having more settlements does not guarantee more income. What you
need is rich cities. Almost all rich cities have a port. Yup,
trade makes rich, not farm income. Rich cities have more products
to export. The richest cities are located in Italy, Greece,
western Asia Minor, Salamis, and at the coastal belt from Antioch
southwards to Alexandria. These are the cities to aim for from
the start to get a strong economic foothold.
7.2 Trouble spots
+++++++++++++++++
These are the cities which are difficult to hold due to
unhappiness.
The cities that grow very fast are the hardest to maintain the
happiness level. Look for cities with extra grain harvests such
as Alexandria, Memphis and Carthage. They are a pain to manage
but they do give you tech very fast if you can afford to build
them. These cities sometimes can drain your economy trying to
develop them and also hold your army back for years to keep the
people happy. I call these 'bottomless pits' and to only capture
them when I have a good general (with high influence) and cash
to spare to build up and train peasants so that my army can go
on to attack other cities. One way around this problem to let
the enemy develop them and then capture them later. It's always
good to capture Alexandria with an intact Secret Police HQ.
The other trouble spots are cities at the extremity of the map.
These either tend to have a big cultural difference or just
plain unhappiness from distance to capital. Capture these places
last if you intend to at all. Or else, just let them be and you'll
be surprised to find how less of a headache not holding them is.
Also see logistic nightmare.
7.3 Strategic cities
++++++++++++++++++++
Some cities are strategically placed to defend or to launch an
offensive, while others can be a logistical nightmare to capture
and defend.
Cities like Campus Scythii, Tarsus, Antioch, Jurusalem, Patavium,
Narbo Martius, Osca, Massila and Siwa are good strategic locations
to hold. They control the entry-way into regions on the map. When
conquesting, always prepare your armies to capture all the way
and only stop after controlling a strategic location. This way
you can secure your conquest. Sending an inadequate army through
the desert eastwards from Carthage to Siwa and then barely able
to capture Alexandria will leave your standing armies at
Alexandria and Siwa open to attacks. Better to hold at Siwa. To
quickly capture the three main Egyptian cities, you need at least
2 expeditionary force, one taking Thebes and Memphis while the
other go for Alexandria and hold at Jurusalem.
Spring-board cities are cities with the potential to capture a
region. These cities develop fast and usually sit at the entrance
to a region. A good example is Patavium into Italy or Greece,
Antioch into Egyptian lands or northwards to Asia Minor, and
Sicily into North Africa or Italy. Capturing these cities prevent
the enemy from using it against your empire and also set your
armies up for the eventual invasion. Other spring-boards are cities
perfectly set to start a naval invasion like Appolonia to Tarentum,
Athens to Helicarnassus or Byzantium to Nicomedia.
Naval choke points are narrow places where ship need to pass such
as the straits of Gibraltar, the narrow straits between Sicily and
Italy, and the narrow straits into the Black Sea. Controlling
cities near them ensures that your ships can fight, repair and run
to when your odds are low. Another important aspect of naval
location are cities situated at capes whereby ships need to pass
the tip, such as Sparta and Tarentum. Again holding these cities
are like having gate keepers.
7.4 Logistic nightmare
++++++++++++++++++++++
Cities at the extremes of the map are a logistical nightmare.
There take a long time to get to from one city to the other.
There is no short cut to capturing them but to slog on through
the desert, forest or icy wastes. Attempting to capture these
cities require lots of preparation, mainly making sure the region
you're sending your army from is secure. So, don't try to destroy
the Scythians from Italy before taking care of the Dacians. The
best solution to this is to leave them alone. The harder for you
to get at them, it's also as hard for them to get at you.
Examples are the Saharan cities, Lepcis Magna, Armenian cities
from Asia Minor the Scythian cities, Germanic forest cities and
the Spanish cities. Also take note that these factions almost
never seem to be able to escape from their geographical prisons
and tend to be wiped out by others. The key is patience and
proper preparation.
7.5 Blind spots
+++++++++++++++
Forests and mountanious regions are blind spots due to the fog of
war. You may not know that an army is heading your way or get set
upon by an ambush. These areas just add to the vagaries of war.
Nevertheless, if you use scout units like spies or diplomats and
place watchtowers well, you should be able to see through all
routes.
In conclusion, pay careful attention to the geography of the map
and you will reap the benefits. Planning for an invasion differs
from region to region. Planning the mode of transport is a big
factor in how fast you can capture a region and also to hit from
where they are weakly defended.
8.0 Economy
-----------
I've played this game for months before I finally got a better
understanding of how it all works. There's 2 main ways of
obtaining income from taxes; TRADE and NON-TRADE. Simple, eh?
Well, I'm not going to give numbers here; I'm a world conqueror,
not a damn mathemathician! I say let those who enjoy bread eat
their bread, while I'll have the baker's daughter. ;)
Well, I'll start with non-trade. The most basic way to make
money in good old pre-Christ days was from farming. Each
piece of land has it's own base farm tax. Upgrading the farms
means more food is produced hence more to tax from.
Then there's the mines. If your land is lucky enough to have
something worth mining, well, lucky you.
Now we get to the big money stuff... Trade. Yup, to be able to
keep your legions going and political leverage, you need trade.
It makes so much more cash than farming. Heck, you don't even
need to upgrade farms at all in some instances i.e. the
Parthians.
Most provinces has something to sell and creating trade routes
(you see those little carts on the roads?) is most vital.
Upgrade your markets, certain temples and trade routes for more
more cash. So, protect your trade routes. Don't let rebels sit
on your routes. Remove all port blockades.
Now that you have your base income from taxes. Nevertheless,
there are more modifiers involved before you get your total
lump sum.
Governors with management skills or tax income bonuses add to
taxes.
So, make sure you plan well and look up the income information
in each city to get a good understanding of it.
9.0 Questions
-------------
This is my first question from an e-mail. The gist of it is:
'I read in the Gamefaqs guide that you post some strats
of the Roman factions and factions like Macedon. Can you
tell me how to play factions like Macedon?'
My gist of my answer:
Dude, you got the wrong guy. I don't do Macedon in my
guide. Dunno how and maybe never will, though I would
love to play Macedon with their cavalry.
Next question!
Elephants don't stand up to pikes!
Answer: yes, they can against low tech phalanx in version 1.0.
but in version 1.5, not a chance if you go head on. my advise
has always been to use elephants to charge into the sides
irregardless of phalanx or not.
City management is a pain!
Answer: it still is but you got to learn it the hard way.
There is no one formula that works in all cities. You got to
manage each city individually to optimise income and happiness
at the same time. If you are bored with it, how'd you expect
to run a large empire? The best way to learn is by learning
the basics, read up the settlement details and working around
these concepts.
Thank myself for all the months spent playing this wonderful
life absorbing game. I even dream about it in my sleep. Yes,
thank you very much to the makers and producers of this game
which totally disrupt my social life. I love love love this
game.
Thanks to GameFAQs for all the other games where I'm too
lazy to figure things out myself.
Thanks to Sun Tzu who brought us that strategies that can be
formally learned.
No lifeforms were hurt or killed during this production.
Recommended reading: Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
By the way, I had Conan the Conqueror once. Managed to get
a few the Greats due to selecting specific generals to
boost (you need some intrinsic command bonus traits and
then work up to legendary commander to achieve it).
This guide omits the Greeks. Played the Greeks and did not
bother to complete it and can't be bothered to describe it
as it was the most tedious/boring faction to play. I can't
recall most of the stuff as I took out so much time in
between the campaign. I was rich but... BORED. Killed the
Macedons and Thracian easily. Killed the Romans after
battles of atrition due to their high numbers and manage
to kill them off before they get the Marius Reforms. Would
gladly play Seleucids and Parthia again as they are very
fun to play.
I am still refining my phalanx games and I must say that I
am now more effective in using them in the campaigns after
refining phalanx control while playing Rome Total War:
Alexander. This made my replay of Carthage and Seleucids
so much easier as I never liked phalanx to start with.
This is an original work. In no way whatsoever have I picked
up any contribution from anyone to post here, though I have
picked up certain suggestions to improve my game, which I
cannot particularly credit to anyone as they are not really
'original' stratagies per se. I also cannot say my strategies
are 100% original. You may find me occasionally in Gamefaqs'
Rome Total War forums in short spurts of heightened game
interest.
I don't play any mods or change game codes. I already spend
so much time on it as it is and don't need anything else to
make it any better/worse for now.
Most of the basic strats are based on previous experience
with Shogun Total War, Medieval Total War and the wonderful
translated illustrated abridged version of Sun Tzu's Art of
War by Asiapac (my first strategy guide for all the strategy
games played so far). A guide I would recommend to read is
one by MarekBrutus concerning city build management which
details all you need to know about city management. It
should answer all basic questions you will ever have about
developing a city in the game. If any similarities are
found, please e-mail me at ahwongso@hotmail.com.
E-mail me if there is any further queries.
Therefore this is my work and any reproduction besides for
personal playing use will require permission from myself.
It may not be publicly displayed or distributed without
prior permission.
I have given permission to some other sites to display this
guide but please contact me again to gain updated versions.
These sites are Neoseeker.com and Supercheats.com.
Peace!
A H Wongso
ahwongso@hotmail.com
Updated December 02 2006
