Rome Total War Tips.
 

Just started RTW again, unmodded, fully patched.

Starting from the very beginning ie the Prologue.

Any tips?
I have at the moment 2 towns I have them both on automanage.
When is the best time to automanage? When you have lots of towns or do it straight away?

How often to do the senates bidding? Given I don't start out very large I need to build up my forces, but on the other hand don't want to be left behind.

I never automanage my cities. As for the economy, you want to build roads, ports, farms and market places. That will give you a huge boost to economy. :up:

I remember reading somewhere that if you start from the prologue (ie... tutorial), that you could not proceed very far into the long campaign. Perhaps this has been fixed in subsequent patches, but its something to think about.

I never automanage the towns. I like being able to set the tax rate to whatever I want, even if there is no governor in the town. Also automanage will automatically retrain your garrison there even if you don't want it to. Why should my peasant garrison have gold upgrades? You will have to start a new campaign if you left this option unchecked in campaign setup screen.

I typically did the senate missions if it was....

1. Something I was going to do anyway

2. It is acheivable without too much headache, and in the number of turns alotted by the senate. Some missions are impossible.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over senate missions though. Your popularity with the people of rome is more important then the senate. You can raise that by gaining provinces and keeping taxes within reason.

Train at least 4 diplomats right away and send them to the 4 corners of the map, getting Trade Rights and Map Information from every single nation. Sometimes you can sell your own map info for a small profit.

Which roman faction are you playing?

Archers cause massive casualties to barbarians. (lack of armor). Find some archer mercanaries ASAP. Remember to keep them safe though, as they are a pain in the butt to find more or retrain them. Withdraw them from the battle if need be. By the time they reach 1 silver chevron they are super dangerous to your foes. But you need to keep them at or near full strength.

Triarii are good for basically one thing. Killing cavalry. If fighting infantry send either the Hastati or Pricipes in.

Aren't Principes superior to Hastati in almost every way?

Yes they are. But more expensive, and you need a higher tech building to train them.

In the early game Hastati make a good meat sheild, while your Pricipes, assuming you have any, do the flanking.

Principes also have a higher morale, so they are good to send into a failing line. Or for holding a line in a desperate battle.

Basically, Good in the role they had in the Historical Maniple, as the 2nd line ready to reinforce the Hastati if it was required...?

Nice stuff here, just got this the other day :yep:


RDP

Well i've never been too good at knowing my history. Especially ancient history.

But I do know that typically armies were setup in to 2 rows. The first being Hastati, and the second being Pricipes. With the Pricipes ready to rush forward if needed.

In game ,however, I don't think this is really the best way. The AI seems to always go for your flanks. Therefore, you never really end up having a big melee in the center of your line. This is assuming the AI attacks you, rather than just sitting in one spot. Which it does sometimes.

I tend to leave my center a little bit weak, and build up strength on both flanks instead. If it gets too heavy in the center I can usually send reinforcements from which ever flank is in better shape. If I cant pull troops from the flanks then I send in a reserve, if I have one, or my General. If even that doesn't work then the battle really isn't going my way and it's probably a lost cause anyway.

There is a way to trick the AI into attacking your center. Set up a unit of skirmishers right in front of your center line. Then as the enemy is charging them pull the skirmishers back through your ranks. The AI really likes to go after skirmishers big time. Also your general right in the middle makes for some good bait aswell.

Almost, the Pre-Marian Reform Formation was set up into 3 basic lines, the Hastati at the front, the Principes after them, and finally the Triarii (Each line had consequentally more experienced troops, with the Triarii being the most experienced in the legion), this is where the term "ad triarios rediisse" ("Falling on the Triarii) came from, as the Roman commander would have to be desperate to send them into battle, there was also a group of Velites during the 2nd Century BC (Mostly), that was composed of the earlier Rorarii and Accensi, and we're used as skirmishers before the battle begun (Much like your tactic for drawing the enemy to the center, they would throw javelins and then retreat)

I usually try to engage in a line and then use my Cavalry to crush demoralized units (This is my "regular" tactic, I use others when the conditions doesn't allow it)

Interesting, thanks for sharing. Its good to learn something new.

I can't help but feel, however, that such a formation is rather wasteful. (Refering to the historical formation, not your in game method). I mean there you are in a battle, but you've got 2 whole lines of troops doing absolutely nothing, except waiting for the first line to eventually crumble. Poor buggers up front. Perhaps I'm missing some line of reasoning here?

The way I figure, you've committed yourself to battle, you may aswell commit everything you've got. Excluding a small reserve. That way you have more weapons killing more enemies, from more directions.

If you have superior numbers it should be easy to envelope and destroy.

If you have inferior numbers it becomes a game of local number superiority, and Hammer and Anvil. Accomplished by using fast moving troops, with no intention of engaging, to draw off as many of the enemy as possible from the area of true confrontation.


Oh my..... Now I'm Popeye. Where's me spinach at?

Yes, It does seem a rather flawed concept, This system ended with the Marian Reforms in 107 BC (Probably because every Roman Legionnery was supplied his own Armor and Weapons, so there was no distinction between the 3 classes, But I'm not sure why exactly the method was retracted)

Good tips. Keep them coming, I got it some time ago but now want to really have a crack at it.

I did the prologue but you only get 50 years.

I am now starting the imperial campaign set on easy and I can control everything should I need to.

I fough gauls on teh battlefield and was outnumbered.

I put my Hastati in the front. The velites behind backed by war dogs. Cavalry was set to the flanks. I did sent a group of Hastati foward and that did draw the Gauls in and then I unleased my Velite on them and then the rest of my Hastati. When they got involved I threw my cavalry in. I won.

Good show.

Managing all your cities can be a pain, once they start getting numerous. I find its easier to shuffle through them using the settlements scroll rather than searching all over the entire map.

Cavalry seems to work the best using hit and run tactics. If you just order them to attack an infantry unit then just leave them there they tend to get beaten up. Better to order an attack, let them charge, then pull them back again and set up for another charge. It can be a little overwhelming micromanaging them and keeping an eye on the rest of the battle, but hey..... Thats what the pause button is for.

Sounds like you're playing Julii. You'll probably be killing lots of barbarians then. By the time i took care of the Gauls, Britons and Spanish the reforms had come, and it was time for the civil war.

Good Luck.

Another tip with the cavalry, attack units when they are moving.
this causes some extra casualties for them and will easy flee from the battlefield, like the Advisor says try to create a snowball effect by making multiple units flee, and if they flee in mass numbers chase them with cavalry to make sure they wont regroup.

also defending with the Hastati, Principes there is a tip for you,
enable Guard mode and Fire at will mode.
as soon they get too close the Hastati/Principes will throw their javalines to them this will cause some good damage in their charge. I always use this tactic and it proved to be very deadly.

HunterICX

I can't tell you how many units I've lost because I order them to attack, then forget about them.

They end up running across the battlefield to get slaughtered, and I'm like WTF?

there's a tip for what not to do:D