Favorite Unit in Rome: Total War

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-03-16 08:45am

Having just finished Caesar's account of the Civil War between himself and Pompey (as well as the Alexandrian, African, and Spanish War continuations) I just had to fire up R:TW again, this time playing the Roman faction I never did: the Brutii.

I've now discovered my favorite unit: Cretan Archers. These guys are fucking awesome. Huge range, huge numbers of arrows, tons of damage and a never-ending hail of death raining down upon your enemies. Great for breaking up phalanx formations.

Also, fun against the AI, who likes to bunch up its units around its gates during a siege.

Oh, and I like their hats.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-03-16 09:09am

Urban cohort. Mmmm. A shame my screens of some of them came out as nothing but black background; I had one unit that fought on some city battlements with a 10:1 kill ratio - 250 kills or thereabouts with only 25 or so casualties (on normal unit size settings, mind you - at max strength the cohort is only 42 men).

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-03-16 09:54am

Armored hoplites.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2005-03-16 10:29am

Spartan Hoplites - those beautiful bastards. One unit of Spartan hoplites once held off 5 successive assualts by Macedonian spearmen and cavalry while my meager army held on to the center of Corinth and waited out the timer, otherwise I would have lost. They were down to 6 men when the battle was one and never once wavered.

Assassin X · Post by **Assassin X** » 2005-03-16 12:28pm

I love the SPQR archers....cant remember names....the more expensive ones in skirmish mode. I love flaming arrows.

Then again i love getting mre then 1FPS when 1800 Flaming arrows go across the screen.

What i love doing is making a skirmish on a Bridge map at night with me as SPQR with the boxed filled with nothing Archers and their all maxed out with the Sword and Shield stats and i have them guard the bridge and i have one "random unit" guard it then on the other side i choose any side then give them all any unti and fill all their boxes (by now it tells me my pc cant hande this) then i start teh game.

Now i setup my archers as close to the bridge as possible and turn on flaming arrows, and start the game.

Then the fun begins watching thousands of arrows fly across the screen as my pc dies.

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2005-03-16 12:34pm

Spartan Hoplites, or any sort of Cataphract.

I have a "pretty mod" for the Spartans so they aren't in that stupid "red robe and pointy hat" uniform. Badass fucking looking units.

Post by **Vympel** » 2005-03-16 08:29pm

Would the "pretty mod" be the version used in the History Channel show?

My favorite unit: Companion Cavalry.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2005-03-19 11:14pm

Anyone have a use for Arcani? I just got given a unit of them by the Senate and they seem, well, pretty useless if their special power is "Hide". A unit of horsemen would give greater hitting power, flexibility, and resiliency.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-03-20 12:04am

Nothing makes the barbarians turn tail and run like war elephants

In my Juilii campaign the senate very graciously gave me a unit of war elephants (second teir kind) for blockading a port somewhere. I never really found much use for them, since the barbarians simply die no matter what I use against them. However there was a particularly interesting battle, I was ferrying a large number of artillary pieces (I love Onagers!) to an army far north, to ease the taking of one of these barbarian cities, it had a few units of soldiers, a lot of artillary and my unit of war elephants in it, hardly any actual soldiers. A full barbarian army of what I'm sure was over 1000 men attacked while I was enroute to my northern armies, 2 or 3 units of actual soliders, I had a total of perhaps 200 men, maybe 300, hard to recall, many of them were artillary engineers. It was a brutal slaughter as my troops tried to defend my artillary pieces, which were innacurately sending forth firey death. The AI, amazingly enough, was trying to flank my artillary, I had only 1 unit no engaged in bloody combat, or raining death from artillary pieces, my war elephants (who I'd learned, generally killed more of my men than the enemy), they made a perfect charge and three or four enemy units died/routed instantly. Just in time to see the my infantry breaking, so... my elephants charge into what was the vast majority of their army. They all broke, and ran... I let them, giving my artillary a chance to whither their numbers. They came back once or twice only to get trampled by my elephants. I did lose an elephant though, an onager aimed low.. very low and hit one of them squarely, poor thing

Assassin X wrote:Then again i love getting mre then 1FPS when 1800 Flaming arrows go across the screen.

What mod are you using? I don't think I've ever been able to cram 1800 men into a single army before...

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-03-20 12:06am

I've figured out the favorite unit of the eastern nations: It's the Scythed Chariot. I HATE the fucking scythed chariot. One unit of fully armor-and-weapons upgraded chariots with 8 experience is hell.

Or was, until I figured out that putting infantry in "loose formation" will mince up the chariots pretty quick.

Thirdfain · Post by **Thirdfain** » 2005-03-20 12:48am

The Germanic tribes field Night Raiders. They have ridiculously high attack skill and defense, they are cheap, and they cause a hell of a lot of fear. I love them.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2005-03-20 01:42am

Ranged units: Egyptian Pharoah's bowmen. These elite Egyptian archers are expensive and take 2 turns to recruit in the campaign game, but they fucking rule. Heavy damage, ridiculously long range, good armour. They're the best archers in the game.

Melee units: Roman Urban cohort. The elite close-fighting combat units in the game, bar none. And yes, as mentioned in a different thread, they'll defeat Spartan hoplites even in crowded city streets. And unlike hoplites, they can actually maneuver and react at a decent rate.

Cavalry units: Cathagianian or Selucian Armoured Elephants. Expensive but extremely difficult to kill. However, their extreme cost makes them problematic to use in many situations, as an equivalent dollar amount of infantry will usually kill them off.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2005-03-20 02:11am

Sometimes you just gotta go with those damned woad+chariot one-two....

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-03-20 02:55am

I'll say this about legionares, testudo is very fun when your enemy has loads of archers, I've found that despite their slow speed, they take far fewer casualties. Sadly because of that 30 minute time limit there's never any time to use it.

GuppyShark · Post by **GuppyShark** » 2005-03-20 04:43am

Good old v1.2 saved this game for me.

2000AD · Post by **2000AD** » 2005-03-20 06:53am

It's either the head hurlers or those weird ninja-like guys.

i never got the ninjas but my brother did and i watched a battle where they just took apart unit after unit!

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-03-20 08:52am

2000AD wrote:It's either the head hurlers or those weird ninja-like guys.

i never got the ninjas but my brother did and i watched a battle where they just took apart unit after unit!

Arcani? They are pretty brutal, used properly.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-03-20 09:30am

Man, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE chariots. Goddamn ahistorical pharoniac Egyptians, with their native troops (WTF?) and their GODDAMN CHARIOTS.

Is anyone else kinda disappointed in Triarii? It takes forever to get them, and they don't seem to be much better than some principes...they just have spears, so it's a bit of a boost fighting cavalry (but you have mercenary hoplites for that).

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-03-20 02:20pm

HemlockGrey wrote:Man, I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE chariots. Goddamn ahistorical pharoniac Egyptians, with their native troops (WTF?) and their GODDAMN CHARIOTS.

Is anyone else kinda disappointed in Triarii? It takes forever to get them, and they don't seem to be much better than some principes...they just have spears, so it's a bit of a boost fighting cavalry (but you have mercenary hoplites for that).

Yep. I for one was hoping to have more fun with Republic legions.

LeftWingExtremist · Post by **LeftWingExtremist** » 2005-03-20 07:31pm

i don't know possibly british light chariots. i managed to destory hundreds of warband an swordsmen in small skirmishes. and when cavalry try to charge you you can simply charge right into them and kill them easily. 1 barbarian warlord + 2 light chariots = carnage to infantry based armies.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2005-03-20 07:37pm

For some reason I love auxilia. Yes, other units can hand them asses, but nothing ruins a cavalry charge like well placed auxilia. And they're pretty decent in a melee.

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2005-03-20 07:41pm

For Infantry: Silver Shield Phalanx.

Few things are greater in life then having a few of these tough bastards around when your on the defensive for a bridge battle. You place your guys on the bridge, then just sit and watch as the enemies ranks get absolutely ruined as they charge the bridge.

Cavalry: Torn between Cataphracts, Scythed Chariots and Armoured Elephants

Cataphracts are a damn good cavalry unit, they can take a beating. And they cost less then elephants. But elephants are just fuggin' evil and unstoppable when used properly, as are Sytched Chariots, I hate going against those things.

Archers: Pharoah's Chosan, never had a chance to use these guys in a fight, but I've had to face them, and I've seen the starting stats, they are evil.

Mercenary: This is a tough one, Bastaernae are good for taking lots of punishment, and Mercenary hoplites are always a welcome addition, especially to the spear lacking Roman troops. And Barbarian Mercenaries are just good cannon fodder.

Brother-Captain Gaius · Post by **Brother-Captain Gaius** » 2005-03-20 07:53pm

I say bah to Pharoah's Bowmen. The last 5-10 territories of my main Julii campaign were Egyptian, so I went up against plenty of them. They were a threat, certainly, but I hardly paid them any mind, particularly when I had their chariots to worry about. Bowmen just got steamrolled by Praetorian Cavalry and Generals whilst my infantry were elsewhere.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-03-21 03:45am

Elephants are nice, but fire arrows will route them pretty quick, and if it makes the elephant unhappy, you've got real trouble. Cataphracts on the other hand don't care much about your silly little bows and arrows, as they'll take on an elephant charge any day of the week

How do you guys like battlefield artillary? I love the stuff once I can start fielding it my tactics for "real" fights are often designed around giving my artillary enough time to bombard the enemy army out of existance. A single flamed up oanger rock willl destory an entire squad pretty much. Six of them is pretty much ideal, it's enough firepower, but only takes up 3 regular unit places, so you don't have to gimp your army too much. The bolt artillary is pretty good, the straight firing one, the non-ballista type, I forget it's name, is very deadly, you put those things in front of your troops, have them light up, they'll do wonders, and I find they use a better arc so a single shot will, very often, take out large swaths of infantry.

Love battlefield artillary!

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2005-03-21 03:48am

Usually by 200 I'm ready to conquer Rome (earlier if it's the Brutii) or I've nearly won the game so onagers are usually only available to me for the last bit, but they are cool. Especially fun to try them out against one of the hoplite or phalangite nations.