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You know, I'm having a blast with this game. I really am. But with Medieval TW, they gave you enough cash in the begining to actually bring up a decent army and a couple importent buildings.

In Rome TW, you start broke, and continue to be broke for quite a while. Its quite infuriating.

Got three games going, one for every major Roman family. The Jullii which I want to play more than anything, just doesn't generate enough cash to be viable. The Gauls are nothing but a bunch of villages. Taking a village doesn't make you shit in money.

The Brutii, have it more or less easy. Just attack the Greeks. Lots of big, money infested cities there. Too bad its hard as shit to make an army capable of toppleing the fuckers.

Scippii? Shit, you're choosen opponent is Charthage. Yeah, tried to take Charthage with over 400 men and they had 100. Who won? Not me. Can't take the walls with a tower or ladders.

Wierd. I didn't have problems annihilating the Greek Cities at all- are you using enough Equites? You need cavalry to ride into the rear of the phalanx while your Hastati pin them.

Hell, I just finished a game as the Seleucid Greeks, which are one of the hardest factions to play at the start of the game, and I still made a lot of money. You need to build more ports.

Knife wrote:You know, I'm having a blast with this game. I really am. But with Medieval TW, they gave you enough cash in the begining to actually bring up a decent army and a couple importent buildings.

In Rome TW, you start broke, and continue to be broke for quite a while. Its quite infuriating.

Got three games going, one for every major Roman family. The Jullii which I want to play more than anything, just doesn't generate enough cash to be viable. The Gauls are nothing but a bunch of villages. Taking a village doesn't make you shit in money.

The Brutii, have it more or less easy. Just attack the Greeks. Lots of big, money infested cities there. Too bad its hard as shit to make an army capable of toppleing the fuckers.

Scippii? Shit, you're choosen opponent is Charthage. Yeah, tried to take Charthage with over 400 men and they had 100. Who won? Not me. Can't take the walls with a tower or ladders.

Julii, I found, really don't have to do much, you can destroy ALL of gaul, spain and Britain w/o trouble. I swear the gauls route faster than should be legal. If you are playing as... well, anyone, TAKE GREECE! Greece is the most valueable place in the game. He who controls greece, will be wealthy indeed.

The only real "problem" is the Macedonian's and their mass cavalry. Endure that while you build up your armies, then steamroll over greece and Macedonia, then you'll have all the income you need.

Roads are my fucking friend, that and mass slaving. I had alot of turns of being broke, scraping cash and coughing up to buy a better road/farm/port, once I got the inferstructure up in Gual and Spain (Always, ALWAYS attack Spain, the power of Ceaser COMPELS YOU!) Production ramed up something scary. Of course I'm only using about 4 of my cities to make offesenive armies. Soon Denmark will be my!

Vympel wrote:Wierd. I didn't have problems annihilating the Greek Cities at all- are you using enough Equites? You need cavalry to ride into the rear of the phalanx while your Hastati pin them.

Hell, I just finished a game as the Seleucid Greeks, which are one of the hardest factions to play at the start of the game, and I still made a lot of money. You need to build more ports.

Oh, thats my SOP with any enemy so far. Well atleast with spearmen. I'll pin them with wardogs though, or mercs while my calvary out manuvers them and gives em a nice surprise up the ass.

One of my games is the Brutii, anyway, I'm bogged down in Greece. I took Sparta and such but the Macedonians are giving me hell. Meh, tis fun though.

I just started a game as the Scippii. Carthage can't be taken by seige towers? Why? Did I miss a scroll somewhere?

I'm finding economy is just holding back from mass ownage of the world, but it chugs along at a slow pace without much trouble. Not sure if it's because I enslave everytown I take and make a core of governed supercities and funnel equipped troops outwards. I concentrate in one training area, ie this city only builds stables, next one barracks etc.

That and I don't follow conventional fighting in a sense, I use mass cavalry and archers/siege, one row of skirmishers ahead of them with a single line 4-6 units strong of infantry. I'm trying to have 6 active generals with full armies spread, but like someone mentioned working up north slows down a ton, the villages stink to rearm/train even basic garrison.

Wierd. I have the opposite problem; even on VH/VH, I've got ludicrous amounts of money, bribe all enemy armies, build shit for no reason, etc. Playing as the Roman (ick) just take out the Greeks as fast as you can, they make piles of money. Fighting the Gauls is largely a waste of time economically, since the game doesn't let you seize loot.

That's werid Stark my postion of most powerful Roman faction is based on the back of Gaul and Spainish conquest. Slaving the Gauls let me build a good core of cities from which I launched the armies that conqeared the British empire, by the way does anyone else keep seeing the Brits expand into Germania? The actual German tribs in my game got kicked all the way into Russia.

Well dammit, you took out the Gauls

don't you know it's the civic duty of the Brits to invade france?

LOL well the faction the player uses will always be the most powerful; but noone should underestimate the value of mediterranean trade. Bribe your way to victory!

I'm loving this fucking game thanks to all the positive buzz you guys have had for it. I was afraid that the big massed battles would freese my computer up or that it would have too steep of a learning curve for me. This game is fantastic!! But I'm having the same trouble as Knife. My treasury goes from "YOur treasury is the envy of all patricians" to having my production freeze up for turns at a time as I try to climb out of negative money.

I'm pretty sure part of my problem is I tend to create these massive armies and try to upgrade the towns as quickly as possible.

Still take it from a guy who thought he would spend his time lost in the details of this gem - it's fanfuckingtastic.

One thing you can try to do is build up some ships early on and grab an island or two. If you can nab just one good city very early, such as Syracuse or Patavium, that gives you a leg up (and enemy resistance doesn't stiffen up too quickly).

Stravo wrote:I'm loving this fucking game thanks to all the positive buzz you guys have had for it. I was afraid that the big massed battles would freese my computer up or that it would have too steep of a learning curve for me. This game is fantastic!! But I'm having the same trouble as Knife. My treasury goes from "YOur treasury is the envy of all patricians" to having my production freeze up for turns at a time as I try to climb out of negative money.

I'm pretty sure part of my problem is I tend to create these massive armies and try to upgrade the towns as quickly as possible.

Still take it from a guy who thought he would spend his time lost in the details of this gem - it's fanfuckingtastic.

The strategy game is truely head and shoulders better than MTW, but the battles are still the draw for me. I can't get enough of out manuvering enemy troops and watching my guys smash into a flank or rear.

I love watching an enemy army fall apart in panic... Makes my day watching those formations crumble apart at the edges becoming a flood of digital humanity with no chance of survival before my legions.

Die Barb.

frigidmagi wrote:I love watching an enemy army fall apart in panic... Makes my day watching those formations crumble apart at the edges becoming a flood of digital humanity with no chance of survival before my legions.

Die Barb.

I love that you can actually see bodies flying when calvary charges ram the enemy. The Guals and the Germanic tribes more so.

The house of Scipii is key. I've got something like 190,000 denari. I own Greece, Byzantium, the Turkish coast of the Med, Everything down to Sidon, Carthage, Sicily and Southern Spain.

Arcana and Murmillo Gladiators are a beautiful thing, believe me.

I find the Seleucid Greeks are my favorite faction to play. I just finished a game with them, having conquered a shitload (well, the 50 provinces it allowed me)- EARLIER than I won with the Brutii- so early, in fact, that my faction leader at 16, Cleitos, was still alive when I finished it- at the age of 55, IIRC- one of the most legendary commanders ever. Half the fun is ordering my hordes of elite Silver Shield Pikemen to go to phalanx formation just before the battle is joined. Watching those pikes go down gives me the shivers

The only thing that pissed me off was that I won so quickly that I didn't have enough time to get all the cool units- I got Cataphracts, but I didn't get Armored Elephants, Silver Shield Legions, or the vaunted Companion Cavalry. So I'm playing again to get them

I have a HUGE amount of dinarii as the Seleucids at the moment, somewhere around 300,000. This is even with constantly building armies (I've got 8 in Greece alone, another 3 in Egypt, and 2 more being built.) Another thing, so far I haven't had a lot of problems with cities rioting, sure the occasional city will cause trouble, but not for the most part. I must agree with Vympel that the Seleucids are fun to play, though the lack of non-phalanx units is kind of annoying.

EDIT: Oh, and I must say. For dealing with cavalry, the scythed chariot is possibly the greatest tool ever... Ever.

I love it, and though I don't really care about the money(I'm not in this game for the manegment), but watching gual armies shatter as they get pincered between 1200 troops on each side is golden.

Best city attack yet... Enemy 2000 troops, 1200 of mine each side, both 4 star generals. total ownage.


I am having serious problems with running the center of my empire and having enough generals, any idea for less girls more boys? since I rarly get marrige chances.

Economic woes do not exist in the East. Just finished a campaign as the Brutii and Greece is a motherlode of money and it just keeps getting better as you move east into Asia Minor. I rarely ever ran in the red even during a single turn and had far more money than I knew what to do with.

Favorite battle was my cavalry heavy army just owning the phalanx after my archers and ballistas forced them to break and run. Run 'em down,rinse and repeat.

Next is the Scipia and see what I can do there though I doubt Carthage and North Africa have the kind of cash that Greece and Asis Minor have.

BTW Some folks have mentioned playing as the Selucids. Any idea how to do thta? The factions I get to choose from don't include them but do include the Britons(?!)

Phalanx are easy as hell to beat. Stall with infantry, and flank with calvary. You can take on a lot of phalanxes if you have the right combination of troops.

Stravo wrote: BTW Some folks have mentioned playing as the Selucids. Any idea how to do thta? The factions I get to choose from don't include them but do include the Britons(?!)

If you've finished a campaign as the Brutii (or any of the three Roman factions) then all the playable factions get unlocked, which includes the Seleucid Greeks- are you sure you can't choose them? Look for the grey helmet symbol- if you have finished a campaign and still can't choose them, go to gamefaqs.com or some other website and get the file that makes the necessary alternation (a .txt of some kind), it must be a bug.

When you do play them, get accustomed to phalanx warfare. The Seleucid Greeks don't use hoplites like the Greek Cities, they use phalangites, like Macedon, but the principle is largely the same. Also get some cities on the fast track to getting Elite Cavalry Stables and Royal Cavalry Stables- Cataphracts and Companion cavalry are indispensible heavy hitters; though you'll be surprised how far you can go with just your phalangites (especially when you get the elite Silver Shields) and the stock standard Greek Cavalry to clean up routing foes. In my game, I never made it to Silver Shield Legionaries before I conquered 50 provinces, which is why I'm playing as the Seleucids again- I wish you could keep playing past victory, I would've loved to take my army and try them out on Gaul/Germany etc.

Silver Shield legionaires aren't worth the bother IMO. They take 2 turns to build, like Roman Praetorian cohort or Urban cohort, but in an even-numbers situation they get totally 0wned by either. In fact, I tried some unit comparisons by using two computers in a LAN battle, and found that a regular Roman legionary cohort will easily defeat Saleucid silver shield legionaires despite the greater cost and build time of the silver shield legionaires. If you were to put two fully optioned-out huge cities together, one Roman and one Seleucid, and let the two go at it, I honestly don't see how the Seleucid city could avoid being ass-raped by the Romans in short order.

Have they even fixed the damn squalor bugs?

MKSheppard wrote:Have they even fixed the damn squalor bugs?

Dude, it's not that bad.

Silver Shield legionaires aren't worth the bother IMO. They take 2 turns to build, like Roman Praetorian cohort or Urban cohort, but in an even-numbers situation they get totally 0wned by either. In fact, I tried some unit comparisons by using two computers in a LAN battle, and found that a regular Roman legionary cohort will easily defeat Saleucid silver shield legionaires despite the greater cost and build time of the silver shield legionaires. If you were to put two fully optioned-out huge cities together, one Roman and one Seleucid, and let the two go at it, I honestly don't see how the Seleucid city could avoid being ass-raped by the Romans in short order.

Yeah, that's to be expected I guess- the Silver Shield Legionaries are only equivalent to post-Marian standard legionary cohorts, even though they require Royal Barracks to build, so the buck is a bit too much for the bang.

What I really wanted in my army was some increased tactical flexibility that my Pikemen just couldn't offer- in my previous Seleucid game, I almost always relied on mercenary infantry (some sort of fast infantry- Eastern Mercenaries in the East, Thracian mercenaries in the Balkans, etc) to guard the flanks of my phalangites against faster enemy units, either to pin them in place to bring the phalanx to bear, or to hold the enemy for a cavalry charge into their rear with Cataphracts (or Companions, in the really late game). Sometimes, when mercenaries weren't available, the phalanx just had to cope by wheeling about and taking a few casualties from an annoying flanking attack in the meantime. Especially troubling in Thrace, with their mean arse falxmen.

At best, I would've had my Army equipped with two or three of them to displace the mercenary units (partly because they're more reliable and partly because a shining silver legionary cohort looks cool), but never would've gone toe to toe with a post-Marian Roman Army with them making up the backbone. The Seleucids in the late game rely on their cavalry much as Alexander's army did- both pre and post Marian legions have really inadequate defence from elite cavalry- so sweeping them off the battlefield time and again with cavalry attacks as they tried to penetrate the pike phalanx was simple