The Glorious Battle of the Bridge!

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-10-10 04:40pm

209 BC

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2004-10-10 05:18pm

Here's the end of my Brutii Game:

Map:

Gold and Date:

Also, some other cools shots:

Storming an Egyptian City:

And ancient tanks in action:

The elephants just torn apart Pontus infantry and cavalry, without loss to themselves. They also knocked down the gate!

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-10 06:06pm

So, has anyone chosen which non-Roman faction you're going to try out first? Personally, I'm going for the Seleucids. Their army is the very definition of "uberwank". I mean, come on, cataphracts, companion cavalry, elephants, one of the best phalanxes in the game, an exact replica of the Roman cohort, and the best chariots in the game. Remeber how the phalanx is vulnerable at the flanks? Not when you have Legionaries, cataphracts, chariots and elephants screening them.

Seriously, I've tried their army out in the custom battle, and it was fucking insane!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2004-10-10 06:24pm

I'm thinking about trying a game as the Parthians or the Egyptians.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2004-10-10 06:27pm

fgalkin wrote:So, has anyone chosen which non-Roman faction you're going to try out first? Personally, I'm going for the Seleucids. Their army is the very definition of "uberwank". I mean, come on, cataphracts, companion cavalry, elephants, one of the best phalanxes in the game, an exact replica of the Roman cohort, and the best chariots in the game. Remeber how the phalanx is vulnerable at the flanks? Not when you have Legionaries, cataphracts, chariots and elephants screening them.

Seriously, I've tried their army out in the custom battle, and it was fucking insane!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

The Greek cities have a very nice intro "video" IMO. Its also quite challenging since the only infantry you have (aside from skirmishers and archers) is hoplites (of various types). It quite challenging to keep yourself from being flanked (espically on hard/very hard), but if you manage it you plow under the opposition like a bull-doser.

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-10-10 08:23pm

fgalkin wrote:Not when you have Legionaries, cataphracts, chariots and elephants screening them.

They start out in a horrible position, though. Their provinces are so underdeveloped that all you can build are militia hoplites, their cities are strung out along a line from Sardis to Damascus, and they're threatened by the Parthians and the Egyptians. If you can survive you'll get very strong, though.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-10-10 10:10pm

Muhahahaha, slamming the Gauls hard at every turn with a combo of hastati and equites. They charge, I flank and wipe them out. I had a fun bridge battle, too, where the enemy general cav charged first and nearly broke through my hastati line. I used two equite wedges to pinch it while the hastati held and he fled and died.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-10-11 01:00am

downloaded the demo. Can beat the demo battle at medium right now. Hannibal's 800 versus a Roman army of 1500. Romans were decimated to 350 at the end. Need to get a new computer...

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-11 01:46am

I finaly got around to wiping out the last Greek city, Rhodes in around 230BC or whatever it was. I had ignored it for a while because I didn't have an Army nearby, then I realized what an obscene amount of money I had (40,000 dinari per turn) and just built up fresh ones and fleets, arrived at Rhodes, and crushed it. So when I finish this Brutii game I can play as the Greek Cities.

I was depserate to play as the Selucid Greeks too, but someone else wiped them out long before I was in the area, unfortunately.

One hilarious thing that happened was that the Thracian faction leader rode right up to Campus Gestae(?), alone, where my Army of the late Amulius Augustus (he was renamed Augustus after his last victory before his death), who died at the ripe old age of 63, was camped. They had no general, since all my family members were off elsewhere (I was experiencing a dearth at the time).

This Thracian faction leader had 8 stars. And it was just him. I rode out with three units of Equites and kileld him. The captain of that small cavalry squadron became a 3 star general and I adopted him into the family. Cool.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-10-11 03:53am

YES! I _finally_ have it.

And its even better than I could even hope.

The rush you get when one of your fireballs falls in the mids of an enemy palanx formation

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-10-11 04:04am

fgalkin wrote:So, has anyone chosen which non-Roman faction you're going to try out first?

Dunno, can you play as the Belgicae (Gauls)? It will probably be as tough as nails but I'd like to play with my ancestors

By the way, who got a tough enough computer to play a costum battle vs 7 computer players with nothing but peasants? I could at very very low fps but it was still cool to watch tough. My small elite force got slaughtered but i took thousands of farmers with me

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-11 05:27am

The Marian reforms took place in 209 BC. All hail the mighty Legionary Cohort. Dependant on Princeps I am no more.

wautd: Yes, you can play as the Gauls. But judging from how easily I conquered Gaul, I'd have to say its going to be really hard.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-10-11 05:54am

Boy even defeats can be great in this game.

I was attacking a german town with 2 of those catapults and 3 hoplite formations. I was horribly outnumbered but I had descent soldiers to pull it off.

I smash the gate, get my men trough and kill the few defenders at the wall. When my 3 hoplite units got in the computer trows nearly anything he has at my wall of pikes. Kickass battle follows. Huge battle ensues and I'm inflicting horrendus casualties on the jerries but they keep pushing. Eventually one of my flanks is even treatened to buckle (=very bad). I take a HUGE risk by targetting the german mass with my catapults. After a few misses a fireball fall right in the densely packed enemy horde. I dunno how much I killed by that direct hit but it must have been a hundred if not more. Immediatly all tribesman panick and run away.

Slowly i keep advancing towards the centre of the city, I encouter futile small suicide attacks on my spear wall of DOOM (tm) when suddenly an enemy archer gets lucky and kills my general. Not a disaster I tough at first. Wrong! moral suddenly got very bad. At the next enemy charge 1 of 3 formations panicks and runs away but eventually they route. However, at the2nd enemy charge it was suddenly over. All my men panick and run away only to be stabbed in the back. They even couldn't get out of the town anymore

I love this game. Good thing i just finished dawn of war because as good as DOW is, R:TW is just better

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-11 09:05am

Playable Factions:

Julii-

Brutii-

Scipii-

Egyptians-

Seuclids-

Carthage-

Parthians-

Gauls-

Germans-

Greeks-

Britons-

I have a lot of defeating to do. I will certainly destroy Carthage and Egypt in my current game, since the Scipii are so incompetent with regards to Carthage.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2004-10-11 09:08am

Vympel wrote:DOW has near infinite replay value- just think, you need to defeat all the factions yourself to discover which non-Roman ones are playable

Okay Vympel, that's enough Saturnalias for you...put your toga back on and let's have a little trip to the vomitorium.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-11 09:15am

Curse you! You defeated my edit sk1llZ!

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-10-11 10:16am

Quick question: how do you turn units without moving them?

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-10-11 11:40am

wautd wrote:Quick question: how do you turn units without moving them?

Click to deploy and hold, and you should be able to drag them into your desired direction (and thickness).

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2004-10-11 11:41am

You can also use the , and . keys.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-11 05:17pm

Vympel wrote:Playable Factions:

I have a lot of defeating to do. I will certainly destroy Carthage and Egypt in my current game, since the Scipii are so incompetent with regards to Carthage.

or, you can simply win the game. All factions are unlocked then.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-10-11 08:58pm

I have had to reogranize my Armies around much different lines
since meeting the Germans.

They are very tough in hand to hand fighting, so I've halved the
infantry strength of my Legions from 1,000~ average to just 500-600
and backed up with Archer auxilarii, catapults, and ballista. I keep
a steady rain of bombardment on them, to shatter their ranks with
my archers, Ballista, and catapults, and then close in with infantry to
shatter what remains. It works like a charm

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-11 09:13pm

Sounds like Gladiator. I don't think as the Brutii I'll have much reason to fight in Germania- right now I'm crushing Pontus, then Egypt and finally Carthage, before turning my attention to Rome- at least, that's the plan. You have to be careful about distance from your capital, after all, and right now Egypt is only a target because of the loyalty effects the Pyramids have on Egyptians. Carthage will be easy because it's close to my capital, across the sea (Tarentum being the Brutii capital of course)

I've only just recently started enslaving enemy settlements, since the cities on the actual Italian landmass were a bit low population wise in comparison to the Greek ones, which are building up all my forces (espcially my beloved Triarii)

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-11 10:13pm

Also, what unit size does everyone play at? Currently I'm at Normal because of original performance concerns, which means that even a big army is only around 600-700 men ... I'm thinking of jacking it up next time round, since the performance is fine with unit detail on highest and a few tweaks hear and there are 1024x768 32-bit.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-11 11:33pm

I haven't tweaked the unit settings, so I'm playing with whatever unit size comes standard.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-12 01:29am

MKSheppard wrote:I have had to reogranize my Armies around much different lines
since meeting the Germans.

They are very tough in hand to hand fighting, so I've halved the
infantry strength of my Legions from 1,000~ average to just 500-600
and backed up with Archer auxilarii, catapults, and ballista. I keep
a steady rain of bombardment on them, to shatter their ranks with
my archers, Ballista, and catapults, and then close in with infantry to
shatter what remains. It works like a charm

Really? I wouldn't know, since all the German armies I've met were so insignificant compared to mine, I didn't bother actually figthing them, and let the computer resolve it.

That siad, I'm about to embark on a massive reorganizing of my armies, replacing the old pre-marian troops with Legionary Cohorts. That needs money, though, and I'm desperately in need of that.

Shep, how's your financial situation?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin