Rome TW and economies,

[Vympel]

For non-stone walls, archers firing arrows into the city causes heaps of casualties to enemy units and chases them away from entry points. For stome walls, onagers are better. Just breach the city with a powerful unit, really. It'll take a few casualties, but the follow-up units can carry on with relatively few. I never siege. Waste of time.

[PeZook]

My typical assault goes like this:

1.Make two or more breaches in the walls.

2. Use archers or onagers to chase away enemy units from the breaches.

3. Move up heavy infantry to one breach, heavy cavalry to the other.

4. Run into the city with your infantry and set up a barricade in the direction of the enemy. Use your best troops (phalangites of various kinds are the best) to block of the street, in both directions if necessary.

5. The enemy will counterattack. If you're unlucky, they will hit you before your infantry reformed their ranks, in which case they will take some casualties. This will tie up most of the enemy force.

6. Enter the city through the second breach with your cavalry and charge engaged enemy units in the back.

7. Advance through the streets with your heaviest, most experienced infantry. Bring fort the archers to soften up enemy defenses in the town square, and then kill them all.

[wautd]

http://twcenter.net/downloads/db/?cat_id=1

and Realisim mod V5 is out.

no shit? I tought 4.0 was the latest (I was even planning to dl it tonight as I still had 2.2)

correction 4.1 is latest i think

[Ace Pace]

http://twcenter.net/downloads/db/?cat_id=1

and Realisim mod V5 is out.

no shit? I tought 4.0 was the latest (I was even planning to dl it tonight as I still had 2.2)

correction 4.1 is latest i think

Personnally, its gone beyond balencing the game (up to 2.2), and now is just adding as many features as possible.

[Stravo]

What exactly does the realism mod add to the game? I don't think I'm going to load it as I'm happy with the game as it is but I'm curious what the modder felt needed to be added to the game.

Currently as the Seluecids just landed on the heel of the boot, taking Tarentum by surprise as the Bruteii were focussed on slogging it out with one of my armies near Appolonnia trying to retake it. Second turn second grand army led by my legendary commander sieges the second Bruteei city on the heel.

Bruteii bring in overseas reinforcements and troops from the North and try to lift the siege. Largest Roman force I've faced yet.

I decide that I need to take personal control of this battle. My grand army is nearly evenly spearmen and cavalry with one archer unit. over 750 men.

The romans come at me alltoegther, the city garrsion sallying forth to help out their reinforcements. I advance my spearmen together, the Silver shields in the center with my uber veteran (gold chevrons)Phalanx spearmen on the flanks. My cavalry supported by the scythe charriots (gained great respect for them in the Greek campaigns.) advance slowly on the flanks waiting for the opening the AI always offers.

I hang out my archers on the right flank and start pepperring the advancing legions. The AI gives me my opening. The General and a supporting cavalry unit are now way out on the right, trying to set themselves up for a charge on my valiant bows of Artemis.

My cavalry on the left feints a charge on the Hastati left flank. The Roman general charges.

Trap snaps shut as my cavalry wheels around from the left and charges across the front of the advancing Romans cutting off the General's path of retreat, cavalry on the right charges the general.

Short fight later he breaks and routes.

At this moment my spearmen crash up against the legions. Intense spear waving and suddenly the veteran Phalanxes dig into the legionnaires flanks. The sight of their general fleeing causes them to waver.

Their auxiliaries start to route as my scythe charriots wheel over to them.

Then the general meets my left flanking cavalry unit that crossed his army and he's killed.

Like a light swicth the ENTIRE ROMAN ARMY ROUTES at once. Men turn and run. I stared in disbelief for a moment wacthing hundreds of Romans turning and running.

I let my cavalry and charriots romp. Sending one unit racing for the edge of teh battlefield to meet and greet those Romans that make it that far. Despite the route and wanton slaughter I simply don't have enough cavalry units and my spearmen god bless em just aren't that fast. A lot of Romans manage to escape.

In the end - 324 kills 0 losses. I was very proud of myself. The city fell in short order and am now ferrying over my third grand army for the march on Capua then we reform and prepare an assualt on Rome as my Greek armies take the long circutious route north to the Julii who have yet to make an appearance in this war depsite declaring war.

[Captain Cyran]

I had a glorious battle myself recently. Playing as the Scipii, besieging Antioch which is controlled by the Egyptians. I have about 600 men, 3 cavalry units, 5 archer units anding 2 archers of Crete, 2 light auxilia, 1 Ballista, 2 merc. phalanx's, thracian mercs., and 6 early legionary cohort. There are around 300 Egyptians in Antioch, with another 600 on my flank. So of course, they attack. Luckily for my Captain this was a Bridge battle or the massive amount of cavalry they had would have fucked him over big time. (the 600 army had 4 units of cavalry and a chariot. The 300 had 3 chariots)

Battle begins, I place my armies in a perfect set up for a bridge battle, only when we begin, I notice that the 600 person Egyptian army is not infront of me, but behind me. I quickly wheel 2 of my archers, all of my cavalry, a legion, my merc. phalanx's, and my light auxilia to meet the threat.

Luckily for the captain the Egyptians can only have 20 units on the field at a time so the big army was split up as only some of them could come into play early on, most of their phalanxs and half their cavalry come after me.

The other Egyptian army meanwhile is making an attempt at crossing the bridge, they are however, begins slaughtered by my archers and ballista. 4 chariots alone are lost with appropriately placed ballista fire (and they flew off the bridge, and by flew I do mean flew.) The rest of their forces slammed into my thracians and thus began the slaughter at the bridge as chariot after chariot fell.

Meanwhil on the other side the two cavalry units make a charge for my lightly defended archers only to be met by stiff resistance by my cavalry, one is swept up quickly by my combined two units, but the other is tearing into my third unit of cavalry, so I have them retreat to the left getting the enemy cavalry to give chase, allowing my other two cavalry units to smash head first into them and slaughter]

Those were really the highlights of the fight. The rest of it was mainly just taking holding the bridge and then moving my remaining legions to help out my flank which by then sourly needed it as I didn't have the proper troops there to flank the incoming phalanxs. Then after that to just keep cycling through the units to keep them out of the fighting as they lost more and more men and my archers ran out of arrows.

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot. Both sides ended up coming out of that fight with around 200 men. Victory for me.

[wautd]

What exactly does the realism mod add to the game? I don't think I'm going to load it as I'm happy with the game as it is but I'm curious what the modder felt needed to be added to the game.

short version: more realism (more provinces, unrealistic units removed, realistic skins, added units...). Imo its far better than the original game

long version is 26 pages so you might wanna print it out

I got was immediatly hooked on the TR mod. It was more fun because the redicilously high civil unrest was brought down to more normal levels.

I don't think you'll risk much installing it anyway since you can still play "classic" rome (you can choose the TR mod in an apart menu) The skins in classic rome might be altered tough but I havnt tested. They skins look pretty sweet anyway so I dont mind if it did changed

[Ace Pace]

However, some of the changes do detract, like general being a infantry unit IIRC.

[wautd]

However, some of the changes do detract, like general being a infantry unit IIRC.

true for romans (or SPQR at least) but not for all (now playing greeks and they are still mounted)

[Darth Wong]

A few words on taking out Parthia

- lots of Greek Cavalry to chase off horse archers
- lots of archers to kill horse archers
- a unit of scythed chariots to both chase/kill horse archers

Yeah, it's the archers that make a big difference. Until I can build archers, I find myself feeling very vulnerable. Once I can build archers, it seems that I can defend my cities a lot better.

[Darth Wong]

For non-stone walls, archers firing arrows into the city causes heaps of casualties to enemy units and chases them away from entry points. For stome walls, onagers are better. Just breach the city with a powerful unit, really. It'll take a few casualties, but the follow-up units can carry on with relatively few. I never siege. Waste of time.

What about siege towers? I tend to attack stone walls by finding a spot between defensive towers and sending a siege tower at it, along with two or three units of my toughest close-fighting infantry units (Rome has the best of these, so this tactic is geared toward Rome; it may not work very well with other nations). Once I kill his defenders on the walls, I take the towers and gatehouses, which then start firing inward toward the defenders' troops. That's a double bonus since the rest of my army doesn't have to worry about being harried by defensive fire as they approach the city walls, and the enemy will have more trouble attacking my forces as they enter the city through the main gateway. If they should start overwhelming my attackers on the ground despite the fire from the towers and end up pushing them back out of the gateway, his men will get nailed with the burning oil.

[Ace Pace]

Also, after my first stone tower assault, how the heck is the gateway taken, sometimes it just gives me notice that the gate is taken, sometimes the towers continue firing through the entire attack.

[Darth Wong]

In the end - 324 kills 0 losses. I was very proud of myself. The city fell in short order and am now ferrying over my third grand army for the march on Capua then we reform and prepare an assualt on Rome as my Greek armies take the long circutious route north to the Julii who have yet to make an appearance in this war depsite declaring war.

Those battles where you take zero losses are always amusing. Sometimes the AI is just incomprehensibly stupid though; a typical example involved me sallying out to attack a besieging army whereupon his vastly larger force pretty much ass-raped mine, forcing me to retreat back into the city. He gave chase, but stopped when the gatehouse doors slammed shut in his face. And then, he just sat there, in range of the defensive fire from the gatehouse (my archers had already spent their ammunition). He sat there, taking casualties, staring at a closed gatehouse door, until most of his force was annihilated. When the battle ended on the timeout (a draw, since I could not break the siege but he could not enter the city), I simply attacked him again, and this time when I sallied forth, his devastated army ran away immediately. A victory, and an efficient one, but hardly due to my great skills of generalship.

[Ace Pace]

*snip*

Which reminds me, we need a tourney, a real one, of RTW.

[Stravo]

Those battles where you take zero losses are always amusing. Sometimes the AI is just incomprehensibly stupid though; a typical example involved me sallying out to attack a besieging army whereupon his vastly larger force pretty much ass-raped mine, forcing me to retreat back into the city. He gave chase, but stopped when the gatehouse doors slammed shut in his face. And then, he just sat there, in range of the defensive fire from the gatehouse (my archers had already spent their ammunition). He sat there, taking casualties, staring at a closed gatehouse door, until most of his force was annihilated. When the battle ended on the timeout (a draw, since I could not break the siege but he could not enter the city), I simply attacked him again, and this time when I sallied forth, his devastated army ran away immediately. A victory, and an efficient one, but hardly due to my great skills of generalship.

That's why when there are important battles to fight or when I want to make sure I completely annhilate an enemy force (the AI almost never kills them all or stops them from escaping) I like to take control. The auto run battles almost always involve heavy casulaties on my side, or even worse I lose my general (there's no excuse for that when I outnumber an enemy nearly three to one as one auto battle ended with the loss of a promising young general - whom I bribed away from the Parthians)

The AI is also ridiculously easy to fool or goad. My Bows of Artemis - the poor bastards - are routinely left hanging out on my flank somewhere and almost always the AI general leads a charge against them. They are the perfect bait. I love em though - they've been with me since Alexandria, did the Greek campaign and now sit in Italy getting ready for the assault on Rome. *rubs hands eagerly looking forward to the three maxed out army assault on the SPQR forces. They will shit their pants*

[Darth Wong]

Also, after my first stone tower assault, how the heck is the gateway taken, sometimes it just gives me notice that the gate is taken, sometimes the towers continue firing through the entire attack.

Move your men through a tower; that will put it in your position. In order to take the gateway, move your men from one side of the gateway to the other; the gateway will generally come under your control when you have more men in the centre section of the gateway than the enemy does.

[Ace Pace]

Also, after my first stone tower assault, how the heck is the gateway taken, sometimes it just gives me notice that the gate is taken, sometimes the towers continue firing through the entire attack.

Move your men through a tower; that will put it in your position. In order to take the gateway, move your men from one side of the gateway to the other; the gateway will generally come under your control when you have more men in the centre section of the gateway than the enemy does.

There usually arn't any enemies there after my Hastati\Legions break through, yet it still fires arrows :S and boiling oil.

[Captain Cyran]

Here is a question, the seige towers supposedly are capable of shooting arrows at the enemy. I have yet to see this so I assume this isn't supposed to be automatic. How do I get it to do that?

[Ace Pace]

Here is a question, the seige towers supposedly are capable of shooting arrows at the enemy. I have yet to see this so I assume this isn't supposed to be automatic. How do I get it to do that?

It actully is automatic, or atleast my Auxilia displayed great magic skills in magicing arrows out.

[Darth Wong]

Also, after my first stone tower assault, how the heck is the gateway taken, sometimes it just gives me notice that the gate is taken, sometimes the towers continue firing through the entire attack.

Move your men through a tower; that will put it in your position. In order to take the gateway, move your men from one side of the gateway to the other; the gateway will generally come under your control when you have more men in the centre section of the gateway than the enemy does.

There usually arn't any enemies there after my Hastati\Legions break through, yet it still fires arrows :S and boiling oil.

That's very strange; the gateway always comes under my control (with a message indicating this) the minute my troops move onto the centre section.

[Ace Pace]

That's very strange; the gateway always comes under my control (with a message indicating this) the minute my troops move onto the centre section.

Sometimes it does, sometimes it dosn't, and the translated manual is worth less then the pages of 'registration' cards.

[Stark]

Stravo, if you're getting 300-0 battles on hard or very hard, you NEED the realism mod. If you know anything about history, you NEED the realism mod. Its that simple

Ironically I'm not sure there's a concise feature description. Suffice to say that I have never even considered playing vanilla after installing it. Install it, play it, you'll never look back. People playing vanilla are really missing out.

[Ace Pace]

Stravo, if you're getting 300-0 battles on hard or very hard, you NEED the realism mod. If you know anything about history, you NEED the realism mod. Its that simple

Ironically I'm not sure there's a concise feature description. Suffice to say that I have never even considered playing vanilla after installing it. Install it, play it, you'll never look back. People playing vanilla are really missing out.

Including that silly Zone of recruit thing? or cutting out the war dogs?

Realisim is fun and all, but what happens to FUN?

[Stravo]

Has anyone played one of the barbarian factions like the Britons, Gauls or Germania? I wonder if that faction can actually win? I've been toying with the idea of hordes of barbarian warriors sweeping down on Rome but my own ass rapings of these same hordes as Rome gives me pause.

What about Egypt? Some pretty well developed cities down there and interesting units.

The Greeks would be a challeneg since you essentially have Rome attacking you within a few turns.

[Captain Cyran]

Has anyone played one of the barbarian factions like the Britons, Gauls or Germania? I wonder if that faction can actually win? I've been toying with the idea of hordes of barbarian warriors sweeping down on Rome but my own ass rapings of these same hordes as Rome gives me pause.

What about Egypt? Some pretty well developed cities down there and interesting units.

The Greeks would be a challeneg since you essentially have Rome attacking you within a few turns.

My next game I'm going to play as probably the Germanics as they have more troops to choose from than the Gauls, they aren't on Rome's border, and they don't start in the Boondocks like the Britons.

Egypt I think some people have tried and found them to be pussies.

And I'd say The Greeks are about as hard as the Carthaginians to play. As both have the same basic problems of being spread out and get immediately assaulted by Rome.