Thread: Rome Total War Help

Occupy the choke points (bridges, mountain passes etc.)within your territory and fight a defensive battle until you develop a new army.

Once I won a bridge battle against 3 brutii stacks with my half a stack of legionaries near the bridge which lies Northwest of Salona.

When I attacked any heavily fortified city I used to bring along at least 4 onagers/heavy onagers in a single stack. I never build any siege equipments.

Also when using onagers never use flaming ammo, when trying to break down walls or gates. It looks fancy but is highly inaccurate. If you do destroy a portion of a wall or a gate with your onagers don't rush your troops. Let the onagers run out of ammo before you go charging in. These seige weapons can do a serious amount of damage to enemy morale.

I learnt this lesson while playing medieval total war-2. It features the mongol faction, they used to attack my castles and cities with 6 or more catapaults in a single stack!

I have never lost a city siege with this strategy.

All this talk of this great game has forced me to re-install the game.

I will add more updates of my own after I start playing the game.

Originally Posted by 18lama

All this talk of this great game has forced me to re-install the game.

I will add more updates of my own after I start playing the game.

kewl ...... maybe we should open a new thread titled Rome Total war Discussions ?

I use about 2-3 onagers to bring down the towers in the walled cities ..... and then i use sap points to bring down a section of the wall ......

the problem i face is that

1) The enemy rains fire arrows on top of my soldiers when they go near the walls that have been breached ..... how do i chase out the soldiers on top of walls ?? especially archers

2) when i sit back and shoot him with onagers .... he too shoots back .... as i dont have walls protecting me i loose a lot of soldiers ..... especially when he shoots burning boulders ....... it only lands on a target once in a while but it is devastating to any legions ..... generally burns half the soldiers in the legions

Originally Posted by ShAdOwCoN

kewl ...... maybe we should open a new thread titled Rome Total war Discussions ?

I use about 2-3 onagers to bring down the towers in the walled cities ..... and then i use sap points to bring down a section of the wall ......

the problem i face is that

1) The enemy rains fire arrows on top of my soldiers when they go near the walls that have been breached ..... how do i chase out the soldiers on top of walls ?? especially archers

2) when i sit back and shoot him with onagers .... he too shoots back .... as i dont have walls protecting me i loose a lot of soldiers ..... especially when he shoots burning boulders ....... it only lands on a target once in a while but it is devastating to any legions ..... generally burns half the soldiers in the legions

As a thread starter you should ask j4x or smooth to rename this thread, rather than starting a new one.

Use your onagers to bring down only gate and the gate house towers. Leave the other towers as is. Your onagers have a greater range than enemy archers, always remember that. So station your onagers and all the other troops as far as possible in the deployment stage.

Once your troops enter the gates of a city you can order them to capture other buildings (other gate houses and towers) on foot. They will climb the walls from the inside through the existing towers and capture all the other towers one by one. I generally order 2 legion units to capture 70% towers. (towers which I think may be a direct threat). Captured towers won't fire missiles on your troops.

Using your legions to capture the towers will force the archers and other missile units stationed on the walls into a close combat with your legionnaires...your heavy infantry can inflict a massacre of sorts if you play your cards right.

I'll post a screens and a detailed guide if you want to know how this can be executed.

Also looking at your map: Roman empire became great because it captured and controlled the Mediterranean sea. Not upper Germania or Britannia. :|

The empire had Britain and Dacia in the real world

and the Brutii and Scipii are also Romans

see this map .... British islands was in the hands of rome

and when i am finished with Brutii and scipii it should more or less look like this map

BTW i never fought Germania ..... Britons wiped them out ! not me

File:RomanEmpire 117.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

================================================== ===

Walled city sieges

How will you counter this


A walled city . The enemy has Archer Auxilias and Legionary cohorts stationed in the walls . If any of your soldiers go near the walls they ll be shot with fire arrows . If they climb the walls Legionary cohorts will hold them .

They have heavy infantry and cavalry (all their crack troops) stationed near the gate . A bottle neck which they can defend easily .
Their troops will hold back your soldiers at the gate while their archers shoot at at them from atop the walls .total massacre

They have 1 0r 2 onagers which will fire at your soldiers from the inside as you do not have any walls to protect you ... you will face high casualties

The enemy soldiers/archers will be protected from both your arrows and Onagers , thanks to their walls

Originally Posted by ShAdOwCoN

The empire had Britain and Dacia in the real world

and the Brutii and Scipii are also Romans

see this map .... British islands was in the hands of rome

and when i am finished with Brutii and scipii it should more or less look like this map

BTW i never fought Germania ..... Britons wiped them out ! not me

File:RomanEmpire 117.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

================================================== ===

Brutii and scipii might be Romans...but lol you are the player, they are only an AI faction.

I know Roman history...I studied the entire thing in my college.

They captured Britain in ~50BC and Germany in ~150AD. Before that they had captured all the territories which touched the Mediterranean sea that included, France, Spain, Morocco, North Africa(Carthage), Egypt, Judea (israel), Turkey and Greece.

I will post a detailed tutorial when I come across a tough city siege battle.

OK here it is:

Some pics from my campaign:

The Spaniards decided to attack my army on a bridge. I knew it would end in tears for them...

It was a bad move as you will see next:





The aftermath:

Their entire stack was decimated by my 3 legionary cohorts and a single unit of Roman cavalry.


The stats for battle:


Look at the one sided battle stats :lol: Stupid AI...it never learns!

Detailed stats:

Nice battle !

why are you using only one archer unit ?

you would have suffered many causalities if your infantry had not been more superior to theirs ....

Early legionary cohort vs Iberian infantry is a no contest !

I generally station 2-4 archer units on either side of the bridge ..... one unit of velites behind the infantry blocking the bridge ....

for this i station a unit of infantry on the bridge just at the beginning (not at the mouth) .....this way they get massacred even as they are fighting and i am able to hold the bridge with just 2-3 infantry units max ......As u know i went into Spain much earlier than you ...... and all my Spanish wars were won by just using Hastati and very few units of Principes

Originally Posted by ShAdOwCoN

Nice battle !

why are you using only one archer unit ?

one archer but 4 onagers do the job well, besides this was a city siege stack.

you would have suffered many causalities if your infantry had not been more superior to theirs ....

Early legionary cohort vs Iberian infantry is a no contest !

They were using heavier versions of their infantry but superior tactics won the battle not numbers.

One of the reason they routed was due to a couple of well placed shots from the 4 onagers.

I generally station 2-4 archer units on either side of the bridge ..... one unit of velites behind the infantry blocking the bridge ....

As you can see I never use velites or light auxilia.


I will post my civil war pics some time later or tomorrow...wait and see the epic scale of the battles....

Originally Posted by 18lama

one archer but 4 onagers do the job well, besides this was a city siege stack.

even in a city siege stack archers are useful ......i am guessing you have nt upgraded your archery range in many cities ?

They were using heavier versions of their infantry but superior tactics won the battle not numbers.

????

Iberian infantry is a light infantry unit ......there are no heavy versions of Iberian infantry

iberian_infantry_info.jpg

and also the Round/Long shield cavalry are light cav ..... Spanish have some of the weakest units in the game ....... i just love to fight them .... they rout so easily ..... you can make hordes and hordes rout and then run them down as they flee

round_shield_cavalry_info.jpg

According to your screenshot stats .... you had 1236 men and he had 1009+155 ..... you had more men , who were of better quality ! .......

One of the reason they routed was due to a couple of well placed shots from the 4 onagers.

Hmmmm

There was a delay didnt play for 2 days

Dacia destroyed . One single brutal battle ! got a "Heroic Victory" . Took my 448 men and fought 1 full stack with the faction leader .... turned east to face a 3/4th stack and a 155 men stack all in one battle ! ....... and then moved into the city with one single warband unit defending it .... Dacia destroyed

building my army for the civil war .... preparing to land an army in Sicily and Sardinia as well as Greece ... 3 armies defending my borders with Brutii while another army waiting to take Italy

Can u post your map ...... curious to see how Brutii are situated ?

Wrong...they had bull warriors and heavy cavalry, who have stats very similar to the legionary cohorts and roman cavalry respectively.



you have posted pics of Carthaginian units not the spanish ones...lol

I have the highest level of upgrades in all my military infrastructure...how else would I be able to build onagers??

Brutii are almost crushed I have their 3 cities under siege...waiting for surrender in a couple of turns and some scattered 1/2 or 1/3 stacks near Eastern Europe/Hungary won't need to be dealt with once I capture the cities.

I had captured all the cities in greece and stifling the brutii progress severly. They could only capture small towns from Dacia and one or two cities from the Macedon initially in the game.

Originally Posted by 18lama

Wrong...they had bull warriors and heavy cavalry, who have stats very similar to the legionary cohorts and roman cavalry respectively.

I have defeated the Spainiards ... so know all their units !

By Iberian infantry i did not mean Spanish infantry ..... Iberian infantry is a unit like Hastati ..... When i said Iberian infantry dont have heavy versions .... i did not mean Spanish units dont have heavy versions ...... i meant that particular unit doesnt have heavy version ..... I know the Spainiards use both Bull warriors and naked fanatics .....
But Iberian infantry is always light infantry

you have posted pics of Carthaginian units not the spanish ones...lol

about as much difference as Brutii and Julii Hastati or Gaulish , British and Dacian warband

I have the highest level of upgrades in all my military infrastructure...how else would I be able to build onagers??

point

Originally Posted by ShAdOwCoN

I have defeated the Spainiards ... so know all their units !

Yeah but you defeated them before the marian reforms...so how can you know all of them???

Originally Posted by 18lama

Yeah but you defeated them before the marian reforms...so how can you know all of them???

Marian reforms effects only the Roman factions !

They were still using all the units like Scutarii , slingers , warhounds apart from the above mentioned units

The only thing they did not use were the siege units

Originally Posted by ShAdOwCoN

Marian reforms effects only the Roman factions !

They were still using all the units like Scutarii , slingers , warhounds apart from the above mentioned units

The only thing they did not use were the siege

units

You are absolutely positively wrong!!!:angry:

In order for the game to be balanced all units of all factions are upgraded at the time of Marian reforms.

Otherwise the game would become highly imbalanced...

AI uses all the old units because it has spammed those units, but if you look at factions which are far away from you...in your case Egypt or Pontus they have already upgraded lots of their units to match the post marian Roman units.

Originally Posted by 18lama

You are absolutely positively wrong!!!:angry:

In order for the game to be balanced all units of all factions are upgraded at the time of Marian reforms.

You are absolutely Positively wrong too !!

after doing some research i found out that Marian reforms effects

pontus,armenia,egypt,seleucids and macedon
they can start building imitation legionaries


they do not effect any of the Barbarian factions ....

so no reforms for Gaul , Spanish , Dacia , Briton etc etc

As i never came across them (the factions effected by the reforms) i was not aware of it
And Marian reforms come into effect when an Imperial palace is built inside Italy ............... it does not have a specific time

Wrong again...Brits and Gauls are able to build heavy swordsman and heavy chariots once the reforms get going.

Spanish can build heavy cavalry and Bull warriors post reforms...

wrong again

I personally encountered all these units before the Marian reforms

Look at Post No 7 here ...... Marian reforms were implemented on 223 BC for me

By 217 BC (6 years later) i had destroyed first the Spanish and then the Gaulish faction ........ which means i destroyed Spanish before the reforms


and i told u i have already encountered the Bull warriors , scutarii etc etc

Another thing is that all Post Marius infantry units are legionaries (roman) and imitation legionary for other faction ....... none of the barbarian heavy infantry fall under this category (legionary like)


If u r still are nt convinced then check this discussion


Marian Reform question... - Total War Center Forums

I win !

you win the debate...but I win the game!!!

First a city siege battle:

The city: Carthage
Faction: Scipii

They have placed all their units on or near the wall.

I have not brought any siege machines like ladders and such. I have 2 onagers with me.




First used the onagers to break the gates and after that try and break the walls on either sides of the gate house.



This tactic can destroy the walls and bury the troops standing nearby in the rubble.

My onagers eventually destroyed 2 units of legionary cohorts standing on the walls.



Bombard the left and the right side of the gate house to isolate the units protecting the gates. This way the AI can't quickly reinforce the under fire units. Which makes it easy for your attackers to find a way through.



Use Testudo when attacking enemy stationed near the gatehouse, this way your units become invulnerable to velite and archer fire.







Once you capture the gates you can send more attackers on to despatch the enemy who are holed up on the walls.

You can also place an archer unit of your own once you capture the gate house, they will use their new high position quite well to soften up the troops on the wall.

Or you can remove them the old fashioned way!!...contd....

After I captured Carthage the AI attacked me with its stack o' doom and an epic battle began.










The end result:





The last city I captured was west of Carthage:





****The end****

I will post more updates when I start the barbarian invasion campaign in a few days.

Not playing as any other faction ?

you can play the shorter version of the campaign as another faction .... u ll have to capture 15 provinces


Report

Captured most of Italy just one more Brutii town remaining ...... captured Sardinia .... was defeated when i tried taking over the Scipii capital in Sicily with a mini army .... did nt expect him to have so many Praetorian cohorts


both Brutii and scipii have spammed many Praetorian cohorts and Urban cohorts ...... i dont have a single such unit

Originally Posted by ShAdOwCoN

both Brutii and scipii have spammed many Praetorian cohorts and Urban cohorts ...... i don't have a single such unit

It will be a tough long slog to capture their cities.

After a Brutal campaign against Brutii and scipii its over finally ! ...... i captured all the islands from scipii and managed to capture large chunks of Greece from the Brutii ....... letting Brutii grow was one of the major reasons for my late victory ...... i have no idea how they managed to spam so many elite units (including naval) especially ones which require 2 turns

i spent bulk of the time just readying for the battle by building stacks of elite units and shipping them to Greece and the other islands . Also ended up Bribing and assassinating some of the Brutii Generals .

Final battle :

Place : Bylazora (Brutii capital)

Type : Walled settlement . Heavily fortified walls with arrow towers that can shoot multiple arrows and pour boiling oil .

Troops
Enemy : 1/2 a stack of elite units - Praetorian , Urban cohorts and Velite Gladiators ..... 1 praetorian cavalry and an armored General cavalry lead by the faction leader .... No missile troops

Me : 2/3 stack with No general ....2 Legionary cavalry ..... 2 Onagers .... 2 Praetorian and the rest Legionary and first legionary cohorts

captured the walls without much problem ....... the rest were ganged up in the town center ..... lured out the faction leader and surrounded him with all my troops killing him ..... finally took the others in the town center by surrounding them

Divide and conquer !

Long campaign complete

RTW.jpg

Factions i destroyed :

Gaul , Spain, Dacia , senate , Scythia

PS : repped u

favour returned...now get Medieval TW2 and waste even more hours trying to conquer Europe once again....

Played the short campaign as the Gauls ..... finished it in a few hours ......

Goals : capture 15 provinces and eliminate the 2 factions (Senate and Julii)

took me 13 ingame years

Strategy : Build a large army ..... lay siege to the Julii capital ..... Senate army will come to its rescue .... dont attack , lift the siege and march to Rome , avoiding the senate army ... quickly lay siege and take over the ill defended Rome thus eliminating the senate without fighting its army !
After that just finish of Julii .... and then the Spanish .... thats it !

Special units :
Barbarian Warhounds (Heavy) - more efficient than Roman wardogs

Forester warband - Best pre-Legionary archers .....Uses bow as well as spear ... thus effective against cavalry too

Warband very effective against cavalry

Unit strength comparison

Town Watch<Warband<Hastati<Swordsmen<Principe<Chosen Swordsmen

When somebody builds an Imperial palace inside Italy the Marius Reforms will occur .... so chuck out the Romans from Italy as quickly as possible .... if thats done Reforms will never occur ... so no legionaries for any faction !

RTWG.jpg

you have to get Medieval total war 2...it has so much more depth than RTW, absolutely the best strategy game after the Civilization games.

not true...in one of my other games...The Egyptians built the Pharaoh's palace in Alexandria and that triggered the reforms in 211BC. I was playing the julii with a new strategy and trying to delay the reforms for as late as possible...but this was un-expected.