Strategy tips for RTW:BI

[Darth Wong]

And the award for the oldest general/governor ever goes to Gainus the Kind, Pagan governor of the city of Sion, who in 428 AD is still alive and kicking at the ripe old age of 87. Meaning that he's the only man still alive in the Flavian family that was actually alive back when the game started (IIRC).

My spy just had a look at the English channel while he was spying on Aquitania's city- there were 38 pirate ships there, arranged in two full stacks of 19 ships each, all of them with either 3 red chevrons or 1 silver chevron. I've never seen such a thing. I'm thinking about building a fleet of forty (a mix of tris and quins) when I've got money to burn to go out and sink them- just because I can.

I wonder if the Total War games will ever incorporate a naval component.

Yes, there are vast full-stack navies floating around in the English channel and also to the east of there; it's a damned nightmare. I defeated them through sheer attrition, by repeatedly building fleets of quinquiremes and then hurling them into battle (the first battle would always be a victory, but then I would get attacked by fleet after fleet after fleet in a single turn until my fleet was wiped out). I lost track of how many ships and fleets I lost trying to clear those sea lanes, but I eventually did it.

[Vympel]

Oddly enough, I sent a mere five ships (all Quins) against one of their full stack navies (it tried to go through Gibraltar) and I won- their entire stack sunk.

Loyaltly is getting to be a real pain in the arse. Of my four stacks, not a single general in my armies has four loyalty points. The lowest is one loyalty point, then two, then three. I don't get it- what, am I just supposed to cycle through generals for all my armies so they don't get too attached and think about revolting and taking my army with them? Heck, my bloody faction leader has *no* loyalty, which has consigned him to police duty all over the Empire with nothing but mercenaries to keep him company.

(Incidentally, that old fuck just won't die, he's 75 and still alive).

[Fire Fly]

So, finally began my ERE game and am currently about twenty years into the game and Theodosius Flavius is the emperor, leading a valiant defense against large and repeated Sassanid attacks along the Roman/Sassinid boarders. I've been slowly building up forces in Caesarea and Antioch, where the Sassanids have concentrated their attacks the greatest. I have a cavalry contingent roaming the open desert to deal with rebels and with small Sassanid units that dear cross my boarder while I've been slowly building up an army at Alexandria to have it sent to the Antioch front. In Caesarea, I've heavily reinforced the local garrison with elite units, so I'm confident it will withstand any siege save the best that the Sassanids have to offer.

On the European front, the Goths sacked Thesselonica and then proceeded to move through Italy and conquer Burdigala. Following the Goths, the Huns then came in, but fortunately by this time, I've been able to building up a sizeable field army in Thracia and a very strong garrison at Sirmium. As the Goths took Salona, just recently conquered by me, I emptied out the Sirmium garrison and the garrison at Constantinople and formed two field armies, one that is half infantry and half cavalry while the other is more infantry dominated, with various support troops and a smaller cavalry force. I've been fighting the Huns in the mountainous regions of Macedonia and I'm just having a field day with the Huns. I would position myself on the best terrain, typically on the slope of a mountain, and then let the Huns attack me, often resulting in the near annihilation of the Hunnic army. Fighting the barbarians as the ERE is so much easier, thanks to the mountainous terrain.

The situation is slowly stabilizing as I'm forming and strengthening my armies. I haven't really gone on the offense yet, other than Salona and Petra, near Alexandria. Currently, I’m pulling in about 15000 denari, so now I don't have to be so cheap. I've made Christianity the official religion, since most of the Empire already was. The only pagan settlement is Sirmium, where I have the Mithridates temple to pump out some experienced troops.

I'm amazed at the ease of playing as the ERE; I've been able to stabilize the situation early on, forming elite units early on, strengthening my economy, and defeating nomad armies relatively easily thanks to smaller boarders and advantageous terrain. No wonder the West collapsed; it was just too much for them to handle.

[Vympel]

You let the Goths sack Thessalonica? Damn. They didn't come that way in my game.

I took Hatra from the Sassanids early on, so many of their attacks were concentrated on getting it back, they didn't make it close to Antioch. I left Alexandria to basically build up into uber-mode, I figured it was too far away to contribute troops.

[Fire Fly]

I couldn't do anything about the Goths. I had expected an initial barbarian incursion to be targeted at Sirmium, but to my shock, after the Roxalani displaced the Goths in Dacia, they immeadiately formed a horde just oustdie of Thessalonica. Most of my troops were still stationed at Sirmium and what I had would've been slaughtered in an open field engagement.

I'm not giong to outright conqueor the Sassanids just yet, I really want to make them a client state. The idea of looming over a smaller kindgdom appeals to me.

My immeadiate goals as of right now are to displace the Huns from the Balkans and to reorganize and strengthen my armies. I generally like to build up before I go on the offense.

[Vympel]

The Sassanids in my game refuse to become a Protectorate- I took all their original territory and they have one shitty little village with nagative income in Tribus Alanni. I'm sending an army to kill them one day.

[Darth Wong]

Oddly enough, I sent a mere five ships (all Quins) against one of their full stack navies (it tried to go through Gibraltar) and I won- their entire stack sunk.

You're playing on Medium, not VH/VH. Also, you didn't try going east, where you will encounter a whole bunch of those full-stack navies together. Clearing out that region is a nightmare.

Loyaltly is getting to be a real pain in the arse. Of my four stacks, not a single general in my armies has four loyalty points. The lowest is one loyalty point, then two, then three. I don't get it- what, am I just supposed to cycle through generals for all my armies so they don't get too attached and think about revolting and taking my army with them?

Why not?

By the way, I just tried an ERE campaign and it's amazingly easy compared to WRE. The only real headache came from the western end, where the Goths marched four full-stack armies up to Constantinople and laid siege to it. But after playing WRE, you get kind of accustomed to these giant barbarian hordes. I completely annihilated three of the four armies, killing all three generals. The fourth army beat a hasty retreat northwards after seeing the first three get obliterated.

[Vympel]

You're playing on Medium, not VH/VH. Also, you didn't try going east, where you will encounter a whole bunch of those full-stack navies together. Clearing out that region is a nightmare.

Yeah, my fleet turned around (it copped heavy casualties from that fight) though my spy had seen more fleets like that off the Gallic coast. I didn't think that Medium difficulty would make a difference in that respect though.

Why not?

It's just damn inconvenient I suppose- I scatter my generals as governors to all the most profitable cities (Alexandria maxed out and with high taxes nets me 7000 a turn in profit) and have a few field generals, and when I have to cycle one out it creates two problems and one annoyance- firstly I've got to move a governor away or build another general (and at the distance my armies are, they're both very time inefficient), secondly the general is not suitable for any city because he may well take an entire province with him in a rebellion, and third there's the fact that if this just keeps happening then you can never get any really good generals like you could in the old R:TW days.

Not to mention when this loyalty stuff is happening to your Faction Heir and Faction Leader respectively- the two people it should never happen to. My FL is 75 years old now and the FH is 51- I noticed that my FH had lost his one command star but still had a star of loyalty. Checking his stats, he'd become "unusual"- something about a conspiracy of spiders against him or some such. I decided he was too old and unsuitable to be FL, so I disinherited him and gave the FH to a 19 year old. He lost all loyalty then and I sent him off on police duty with a minor mercenary army, just like the FL.

By the way, I just tried an ERE campaign and it's amazingly easy compared to WRE. The only real headache came from the western end, where the Goths marched four full-stack armies up to Constantinople and laid siege to it. But after playing WRE, you get kind of accustomed to these giant barbarian hordes. I completely annihilated three of the four armies, killing all three generals. The fourth army beat a hasty retreat northwards after seeing the first three get obliterated.

They had some balls- I think Medium difficulty reflects the ERE situation better than VH/VH in that respect- the barbarians tended to find the prospect of taking Constantinople intimidating and shrunk back from trying to take it by storm- though the Huns did exact tribute.

[Fire Fly]

What really irritates me about Rome: Total War in general is how crappy the diplomatic system is. I really, really want to help out the West because they're just getting trampled over by the Goths and Vandals in Southern Gaul and by the Roxalani in their north eastern provinces. I've got two full stack legions near Sirmium, a near full stack at Alexandria, two full stack at Antioch, and another legion in the works at Sidon. I'm pulling in about 15000 denari a turn and don't really have any desires at the moment to expand beyond the Danube or into Sassanid territory; constant fighting with the Sassanids have produced several triple silver and even gold chevron cavalry units.

Historically, the West was begging the East for help; why can't it be like that in BI? Prior to the release, CA news outlets were telling you it was important to, if you were the Romans, to help each other you; well how the hell are you supposed to do that? You can't even maintain relations with the West very long before they break it off because you try to trade maps with them and then suddenly, your alliance has been broken...because you wanted to trade maps???

In future Total War series, I would hope the diplomacy is much improved, that or get working on a multiplayer campaign! I want a challenge damn it, not some crappy predictable AI. I want the unexpected, I want sudden reversals, I want a workable diplomatic system above all.