Rome Total War- Battle strategies

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

Medium I believe. I rarely play on the hardest or easiest settings. I'll have to take a look here in a few and see what I set it to (if you can look after the fact). It's been a few weeks now since I started my newest Roman campaign.

[M. Demetrius]

You can change it, even, during a campaign, by leaving the game, and going to options, making your new selection and reloading your game...I think. So I suppose when you come to that hump where practically all your towns go red, usually after you have 40 or so, and your balance drops alarmingly below zero, you could change to an easier level to get past that. I've never done that. On the hardest setting, it's just silly hard, because all the enemies seem to have endless money, and it appears that all their soldiers are taking performance-enhancing drugs. Yikes!

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

Yeah, rarely am I fond of the hardest level in a game (with the exception of shooter games where the AI is just way too unintelligent and you need the higher difficulty to compensate). But my towns/cities do fairly well. I'm down to the 200bc timeframe of the Total Realism mod and only lost one location (gave it over to the Carthaginians after it was the last surviving Gaul position). Now I'll be hammering into the Macedonians and the Carthaginians and press outward a bit more. I've spent WAY too much time consolidating and building up my core instead of branching out.

This game is great in the overall scheme... I just wish I had unlimited time and a means to control more specific elements of the game. It annoys me when I try to save an Empire (I did with the Gauls only for a sake of my core building) by giving them a truce and then the next turn they attack me. One would think it should last longer.

Everytime I play the game it becomes a "who can push more forces across more land faster". I completely and utterly enjoy decimating other forces, but I don't like CONSTANTLY fighting a battle every turn.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Yep. In my ultimate R2TW the diplomatic and commercial aspects would be deeper, with more options and more last effects. Perhaps certain actions could give you bad or good karma, making other factions less or more likely to treat with you. Likewise, other factions would acrue their own bad and good karma based upon their actions - their "trustworthiness." Other things like marrying off your daughters to cement alliances would make them more durable, etc. I'd also like naval battles where instead of battalions of men, you command squadrons of ships.

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

Yep. In my ultimate R2TW the diplomatic and commercial aspects would be deeper, with more options and more last effects. Perhaps certain actions could give you bad or good karma, making other factions less or more likely to treat with you. Likewise, other factions would acrue their own bad and good karma based upon their actions - their "trustworthiness." Other things like marrying off your daughters to cement alliances would make them more durable, etc. I'd also like naval battles where instead of battalions of men, you command squadrons of ships.

Agreed! I remember the first time I played Rome when I was on deployment (I was on a ship heading for the Med). I played it on a laptop that crashed if I had more than 600 or so guys on the field. It ended up being a LOT of auto resolving of battles. But the one thing I thought was rather half a**ed was the naval battles. It was always an auto resolve. You never got to see the action.

It's my understanding that the Greek and Roman ships of the time mostly rammed one another in battle more than boarded and battled. So I guess it wouldn't be too exciting... but would be nice to see them in action.

If they ever do a remake... I hope they don't sacrifice gameplay for graphics like they did for Medieval:TW2 and then for Empire:TW. Just keep it simple... I can handle slightly outdated graphics for superior overall gameplay. Hence why I still play Rome and enjoy games like Mount and Blade (which is unbelievably fun at the expense of graphics).

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I've been playing RS most recently, but it was not a case of losing, just the game crashing out... :evil:
Very frustrating.......and the Roman Gods were smiling.....just ol' Mr Microsoft and Intel not co-operating possibly, or a bug in the mod?

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

I've picked up RS too and love it. It definitely adds a lot of new elements to an already fantastic game.

[Epictetus]

I started a new game over the weekend, playing as the Greeks for the first time. I'm having a lot of problems.

Exactly what sort of battle strategy should one use with hoplites in phalanxes(sp?) ? The only way I've had any luck is to make sure I have overwhelming calvary superiority to take the flanks. (And Greek calvary stinks - at least so far.)

I started on medium difficulty but was getting so roundly thrashed that I restarted in easy.

[Titus Juventius Tertius]

I've played as Greeks before... I expanded the Phalanx (so they're not as deep as they are across) and have enough of them that I can sweep a few around the edges. I basically frontline their troops and flank with more troops. I hit them from behind and it tightens the noose. They seem to lose morale that way. I've done that with a few factions and it's worked out.

Cavalry generally is crap (I've noticed on RS and the same on RTR) and use mostly infantry for the tasks. Cavalry for me is a good quick push to move their skirmishers back, or run down fleeing troops. Now that I got my Imperial Reforms on my Roman saved game, I can have the heavier mounted troops. But I don't hit any spear lines with them even if from behind.

[Epictetus]

So basically you need numerical superiority? And how do you "expand" a phalanx?

The first thing I did when I started is to make nice with the Romans. One turn after I made an alliace with the Scipii and Brutti they attacked in Sicily. :roll: They kept pumping more and more armies into Sicily and Greece so I literally peppered both shores of Italy with fleets so it is impossible to sail without running into my ships. And they are still popping up. How do they get out of a port when you have it blockaded? :evil: It's so frustrating, like trying to catch a greased pig. They are constantly slipping through my grasp.

[M. Demetrius]

To expand a phalanx, or any unit, click the "loose formation" button in the battle screen.

Remember, the Roman factions take orders from the Senate, and Sicily is one of the Scipii's objectives. It's not productive as a Roman to fail to obey Senate instructions repeatedly. Better to stay in their favor as much as possible.

Here's the picture of the formation screen:

[Mythos_Ruler]

So basically you need numerical superiority? And how do you "expand" a phalanx?

The first thing I did when I started is to make nice with the Romans. One turn after I made an alliace with the Scipii and Brutti they attacked in Sicily. :roll: They kept pumping more and more armies into Sicily and Greece so I literally peppered both shores of Italy with fleets so it is impossible to sail without running into my ships. And they are still popping up. How do they get out of a port when you have it blockaded? :evil: It's so frustrating, like trying to catch a greased pig. They are constantly slipping through my grasp.

Can't they cross into Sicily via the "toe" of Italy, or is that just in RTR?

I've played as Greeks before... I expanded the Phalanx (so they're not as deep as they are across) and have enough of them that I can sweep a few around the edges. I basically frontline their troops and flank with more troops. I hit them from behind and it tightens the noose. They seem to lose morale that way. I've done that with a few factions and it's worked out.

Cavalry generally is crap (I've noticed on RS and the same on RTR) and use mostly infantry for the tasks. Cavalry for me is a good quick push to move their skirmishers back, or run down fleeing troops. Now that I got my Imperial Reforms on my Roman saved game, I can have the heavier mounted troops. But I don't hit any spear lines with them even if from behind.

Hmm... Me I keep my phalanx fairly deep. Their one purpose is to fix the enemy soldiers in place for my cavalry to strike. Cavalry aren't "crap" IMHO. A well placed hammer n' anvil strike and the whole enemy line can collapse. Put the cavalry into wedge formation for a hammer strike, but keep them in box formation otherwise. Online it seems like everybody starts the battle with an archer duel. what I like to do is don't even bother with archers and rush the enemy line quickly with my troops so I can cause their archers to scatter and to also fix their enemy infantry ASAP. That way they can't use their archers on me without at least causing some friendly fire casualties in their own ranks. I can then use my cavalry to win the wings, slaughter their archers with impunity, then turn on the rear of their main battle line, causing their entire force to rout.

[Epictetus]

No, they need a fleet to move from the toe of Italy into Sicily. And I'm having the best luck doing the same thing you mentioned with the calvary.

I eventually gave up trying to contain the Romans in Italy and went ahead and invaded. Every single round three new fleets were trying to make a break for it. It was a never-ending supply of ships just to keep them contained. I guess it was better to go ahead and engage quickly instead of waiting until they started pumping out urban cohorts.

[Titvs Statilivs Castvs]

Yes, against phalanxes just use hammer and anvil. Pin them down with your own infantry, send your cavalry around the wings to attack their archers and then charge the phalanxes in the flanks or in the rear. In the rear might cost you some more casualties. Once the charge is over, retreat your cavalry from the heat of battle and repeat. 8)

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Or you can lure them on a song and dance until exhausted, and then hammer them, they usually break first time...
Depends on the tactical situation mind you....