ROME total war - thoughts ?

[Anonymous]

OK the game has been out in the UK for over a week, so what are your thoughts ?<br>
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Is anybody planning any battle reinactments ?<br>
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<p>< <img src="http://www.shadesmtw.com/SWsigy1.gif" style="border:0;"/>< </p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

I love the game, but one question. Why is the armies limited in number. i can only get about 500-600 men max. I always see these armies in the thousands on the net. and other sources? <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Set the unit size to 'large' or 'huge' in video options before starting a game ... yes I know this option belongs on the start new game screen but ... well why make things too obvious for us poor players eh? <p></p><i></i>

[Thiudareiks Flavius]

I've been playing it for the last two weeks and am very happy with it so far. Bits of it are very silly (eg the war dogs and the burning pigs - what the ...?) and some of the armour is wrong (eg Republican legionaries with Imperial period scuta and segmentata), but the fun of seeing cavalry at full gallop, with clouds of dust rising behind them, chasing down fleeing infantry makes up for all this.<br>
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I'm playing the Scipii in the campaign game and currently control Sicily, most of North Africa (except Numida and Egypt), all of Greece, Thrace, Moesia etc, and Spain. I'm about to invade Gaul and link it via Germania to the Ukraine. Then I'll turn on Pontius, Syria and Egypt with the hope of taking them before the Brutii and Julii turn on me with the Senate's backing.<br>
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I've played most of the historical battles, with mixed results. I won Gergovia and the Teutoburgerwald, though I think the latter would be a lot more fun if it were closer to history. Having the bulk of Varus' army intact and within a brisk sprint of Aliso was a bit silly.<br>
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I played Caharre last night and found why poor Crassus had such a hard time - those mobile horse archers are a pain in the butt! I locked my legionaries into testudos to fend off the archers and used my heavy cavalry to destroy the Parthian cataphracts. Then I drove off the horse archers.<br>
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So far, so good. But every time I tried to run them down they headed for the hills, drawing my cavalry away and letting their mates close on my infantry again and pepper them with arrows. Eventually I used a small infantry unit as bait, drew the archers close enough to my cavalry and then hit them as hard as I could before they scurried away again.<br>
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This was a pretty clumsy tactic though, and resulted in lots of dead infantry for every dead Parthian archer. I won in the end, but at the cost of thousands of casualties.<br>
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I've learned how useful those horse archers are though, and have been having fun with some custom battles between the Scythians and the Germanics. Shades of the Huns vs Goths circa 376 AD.<br>
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All in all, it's a great game. I buy about one game a year and this one is worth every penny.<br>
Cheers,<br>
<p>Tim O'Neill / Thiudareiks Flavius<br>
<br>
Visit 'Clades Variana' - Home of the Varus Film Project<br>
<br>
Help create the film of Publius Quinctilius Varus' lost legions.<br>
<br>
Come to my [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/member/Gunthigg/Thiudareiks" target="top]Stathigg[/url] in [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/City/23413" target="top]Germania[/url] at the [url=http://www.ancientworlds.net/" target="top]Ancient Worlds[/url] community.</p><i></i>

[L C Cinna]

I love the game. I played for the Scipiones (or Scipii as they call them) and for the Julii, playing for the Seleucids at the moment. Battles are fun although the AI is really stupid and spoils the fun sometimes. (you prepare for a big fight, just to see the enemy AI charge with their general first who gets slaughtered and his army runs grrrr)<br>
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Talking about archers. I had my personal Carrhae when I met the 1st aegyptian army in the game. One of my armies was attacked by 2 aegyptian armies. I decided to quickly destroy the first enemy army before the 2nd reaches me as they outnumbered me. over 4000 aegyptians vs my 2000 Romans. I managed to drive the infantry out of the field but then found out that this had put me into a bad position.<br>
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My army consisting mainly of legionaries with only 4 units of equites and Roman cavalry stood in the middle of the map when the 1st army fled and the 2nd enemy army arrived. My problem was that they had only archers, cavalry and many many chariots. Whenever my cavalry got too far away from the main army to drive the archers away, they were attacked by their cavalry, while it was impossible for me to stop their charriot archers from firing at my infantry. I decided to make a slow, covered retreat. The guys covering my retreat were slaughtered by arrows and when weakened the aegyptians overran them with their chariots and cav but I managed to get half of my army out in the end, lol. <p></p><i></i>

[Los456]

One thing I try and do is keep a mobile reserve force, normally cavalry, near my main army, so when attacked or when in action they come in as reinforcements from the rear or the flank. It's a great game, very deep, some quirks and ahistorical stuff, but given the deep reach, whadaya expect?<br>
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Los <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

There was a promised battle editor - and that is what I am waiting for as I think the historical battles provided are pretty ahistorical on the whole - and they don't grant you the option to deploy for some reason. I just don't feel I have much (enough) control over the situation when I hit "Start Battle" and the enemy comes screaming down on my forces.<br>
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SP campaign play is lots of fun and addictive - especially w/ the following mods in place;<br>
- Reduced marching speed mod<br>
- Reduced kill speed mod<br>
- Roman centurion mod<br>
- Unit flags set to NO<br>
- Green arrow markers set to NO<br>
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Barkhorn. <p></p><i></i>