The Glorious Battle of the Bridge!

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-15 11:21am

Chardok wrote:Ha1 I figgured out why I was losing! MY general was a drunkard and a coward! I got pissed and sent his bodyguard unit solo up against another generals..wel.....army. He was slaughtered and my army bolted. then his son took over and he's like a completely hardcore badass. I got him some good experience by laying siege to a city.

I placed my siege engines outside and used greek fire, burning the city to the ground around the enemy army (Not the whole city, but I took out the governors mansion just to demoralize them, and left the walls standing. then, after I burned it to the ground, I withdrew my army and came back the next day, using archers, siege engines and javelin-tossers to rake their army. Most of them were decimated before I even walked into the city. then I killed every last one of them and exterminated the populace upon my victory (In retalliation for killing my first general.) The day is won.

Why would you damage the city, when yo're the one who's almost the owner. You then have to spend money on rebuilding it. That's too wasteful, IMO. What I always do is fire my artillery at the enemy army. it demoralizes the enemy, it takes soem of them out before the real combat begins (thus minimizing your casualties), and, best of all, if you're lucky, you get to nail the enemy general. The "Burning Alive" general's death video is the best, btw.

Of course, onagers have crappy aim, so expect buildings around the enemy army to be damaged.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2004-10-15 11:27am

I got into onager vs onager combat in a custom battle (siege). Between total of 16 to 18 onagers involved in this battle, my army and the enemy's army were reduced to almost half strength and half the enemy's city was burnt to the ground. And having a fireball land right on top of troops engaged in hand-to-hand fighting on the city's walls was funny as hell - some of those poor guys flew across the street!

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-10-15 11:28am

fgalkin wrote:Why would you damage the city, when yo're the one who's almost the owner. You then have to spend money on rebuilding it. That's too wasteful, IMO. What I always do is fire my artillery at the enemy army. it demoralizes the enemy, it takes soem of them out before the real combat begins (thus minimizing your casualties), and, best of all, if you're lucky, you get to nail the enemy general. The "Burning Alive" general's death video is the best, btw.

Of course, onagers have crappy aim, so expect buildings around the enemy army to be damaged.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

I'm Roleplaying! For Jupiter's sake they killed Gaius Valpernicus! death to them all! They shall learn Rome does not defeat easily. I fell that if I gain a reputation as a cruel and ruthless, heartless general, then heathen hoardes will cower in fear at the very mention of my name! They will Readily give up their cities so that they might be spared my mighty wrath!! Besides, Danarii are easy to recover, Generals not so much. Oh, I don't demoolish EVERY city I come across, Just some of them. Plus, I enjoy rebuilding from nothing, It instills LOYALTY in the populace when they see their destroyed city rebuilt bigger, beter and badder than it was before by the might of their benevolent ruler!

and stuff.

Now, I just need to work on my tactics.

Mental note: triarii are not invincible....dammit.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-15 11:36am

Exterminating the population is good enough for me. In fact, this is what I'm currently doing to every city I capture, so it doesn't revolt for quite some time. I look forward to the day when I will massacre the population of Rome, and forcing the survivors to serve in my armies.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2004-10-15 11:38am

fgalkin wrote:Exterminating the population is good enough for me. In fact, this is what I'm currently doing to every city I capture, so it doesn't revolt for quite some time. I look forward to the day when I will massacre the population of Rome, and forcing the survivors to serve in my armies.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Damnit I want this game. Just so I can completely raze some random village to the ground for opposing me.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-10-15 11:45am

Captain_Cyran wrote:Damnit I want this game. Just so I can completely raze some random village to the ground for opposing me.

Oh, you don't just Raze the village, you can raze it, subjugate the population, kill 3/4 of the population in one stroke, and when razing, you can actually WATCH the ENTIRE FUCKING CITY BURN. THE ROOF, THE ROOF, THE ROOF IS ON FIRE!!!! WE DON'T NEED NO WATER, LET THE MOTHER FUCKER BURN!!! BURN MOTHERFUCKER!!! BURN!!!! Also, cavalry charges into peasant militias are FUCKING AWESOME. Watch em close up, too. the cav will simply plow into them, bowling TONS of them over, ride through to the other side, then turn around and ride through the formation again, killing all who survived the first ride! WEWT!!!

You know who sucks, though? Those goddamned...what the hell...the spear-chucking horsemen...cavalry auxillary? Christ...I mean the're fast but a waste they throw like 3 fucking spears and their done, then they're just battlefield decorations. Fucking Auxillary. I can't wait until I can get me a couple hundred of those uber-long spear guys. I wanna see some dead horses....lots of em.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-15 11:54am

Chardok wrote:
Captain_Cyran wrote:Damnit I want this game. Just so I can completely raze some random village to the ground for opposing me.
Oh, you don't just Raze the village, you can raze it, subjugate the population, kill 3/4 of the population in one stroke, and when razing, you can actually WATCH the ENTIRE FUCKING CITY BURN. THE ROOF, THE ROOF, THE ROOF IS ON FIRE!!!! WE DON'T NEED NO WATER, LET THE MOTHER FUCKER BURN!!! BURN MOTHERFUCKER!!! BURN!!!! Also, cavalry charges into peasant militias are FUCKING AWESOME. Watch em close up, too. the cav will simply plow into them, bowling TONS of them over, ride through to the other side, then turn around and ride through the formation again, killing all who survived the first ride! WEWT!!!

You know who sucks, though? Those goddamned...what the hell...the spear-chucking horsemen...cavalry auxillary? Christ...I mean the're fast but a waste they throw like 3 fucking spears and their done, then they're just battlefield decorations. Fucking Auxillary. I can't wait until I can get me a couple hundred of those uber-long spear guys. I wanna see some dead horses....lots of em.

NEVER discount missile cavalry. With sufficient numbers, it will pwn infantry any day. Especially phalanxes. I've played custom battles with the Parthians, who have what, 3 or 4 infantry units (all of whom suck compared to Hastati, much less anyone more serious). The rest is glorious cavlary. Various types of horse archers, camel archers, light cavalry, medium cavlary, cataphracts, cataphract camels, and cataphract elephants. Even without the elephants, I would take on a Roman army any day (Carrhae, anyone?). The phalanx? Even simpler.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-10-15 02:33pm

How the hell do you get burning catapults? Do you have to conquer the greeks?

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-10-15 02:37pm

MKSheppard wrote:How the hell do you get burning catapults? Do you have to conquer the greeks?

dude....your normal cat...onagers in their little panel on the lower right side. Their special ability is flaming rocks (OF PWNING DOOM™). Just click on the little circle that looks like a smokey thing. you'll hear the platoon sgt yell USE FI-YURRRRRR!!! and *poof* Flaming Freddie Mercury Rocks of Infinitie Burninating (+3 Vs. Straight guys).

EDIT________________

Don't you play tutorials? You can also do the same thing with Archers, and ballistae. Sheesh, sheppers.

EDIT AGAIN________________

It just occurred to me that I am a fucking prick. Most of the tutorial is oral with a little bubble in the upper left side of the screen, so I can completely see how you might miss the one little blurb they give about Flaming Freddie Mercury Rocks of Infinite Burninating (+3 Vs. Straight Guys) Especially since they don't bother to tell you about it until you are actually in a siege.

EDIT A- FUCKING-GAIN__________________________

Of course, you COULD have read the manual, too.....But who does that anymore?

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-15 04:40pm

MKSheppard wrote:How the hell do you get burning catapults? Do you have to conquer the greeks?

Select an onager and press "F"

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2004-10-15 06:12pm

Demo shots!

This charge was a perfect rear attack, they never saw it coming. About 6 seconds after this shot. A group of 101 men was reduced to 11.

Because nothing says hello like Elephants, and the flaming arrows being fired don't help them either.

This was by far my best game, loosing only 94. And they only had 230 or so out of a group of nearly 1600.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-15 08:25pm

VICTOLY!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-10-15 08:26pm

Where might one go about acquiring the demo? I'd like to try this before I invest in buying it.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-10-15 08:34pm

fgalkin wrote:
VICTOLY!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Bah, you conquered all the lame barbarians. And Egypt hasn't been touched.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-15 08:43pm

Well, duh. I'm the house of Julii, fighing barbarians is in my job description.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-16 12:03am

First battle of a brand new campaign. If Parthia doesn't do anything, Egypt will get assraped. Then, I'll move on to Parthia, Carthage, the Greeks, etc.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Captain Cyran · Post by **Captain Cyran** » 2004-10-16 01:43am

Rogue 9 wrote:Where might one go about acquiring the demo? I'd like to try this before I invest in buying it.

Gamespy or whatever the hell it's called that is something similar to that has it.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2004-10-16 01:52am

Alright, this is embarassing. I've just lost my general and his entire bodyguard to archers in h2h combat. And not pharaoh's bowmen, either, but regular brigand archers.

How did that happen? I've sent my general to take them out, as they were doing many evil things to my crappy hoplite militia phalanxes. Next thing I know, I see my general get killed.

Is Greek cavalry that bad? With the Romans, 20+ genral's bodyguard could take out 100+ archers in no time.

I can't wait till I get cataphracts.

In other news, my war with Egypt is going well. I've taken my first city, and I intend to continue expanding as soon as I build up my strength.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-10-16 02:00am

Captain_Cyran wrote:
Rogue 9 wrote:Where might one go about acquiring the demo? I'd like to try this before I invest in buying it.
Gamespy or whatever the hell it's called that is something similar to that has it.

Gamespot? Cool, already got an account there. Thanks.

Edit:

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CURSES!

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2004-10-16 02:13am

Rogue, you can get the demo at http://www.totalwar.com, right on the front page.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-10-16 10:04am

FGalkin, you suckzoer, you didn't even destory the Carthaginians! I got pwned when I played house Julii, But I played Brutii, and for some reason, I kicked ass all over the old world. First empire I crushed was Carthage. And I mean I crushed it so thouroughly that it wasn't any fun. I grew so fast I had not enough governors, and I had to disband many a units in my inner empire, to keep profits up, and to have enough dinarii to quickly build up my newly conquered cities. Besides the stupid AI always wants to build fucking pole-tossers. Chode smokers.

Anyway, Victoria told me that since I had a foothold on Sicily at the beginning of the game, that I should take the whole island. So I did. This entailed attacking a carthaginian settlement, so I was at war. I decimated the settlement so soundly that a diplomat almost immediately called for a ceasfire, but I told him to kiss my hairless roman arse. Then I hopped my happy Army On board a Bireme and ski9pped across the mediterranean to Carthage and stomped their capital in a mere 4 days. With a strong port foothold in africa, my reinforcements streamed in from Syracuse, Manassas (Or whatever the fuck that name is.) and Livyianium(or whatever THAT name is.) End result of my blitzkrieg (so far) Is an army of devastating power. Velites, and Hastatis form the backbone of my troops, with Equites on the flanks and rear, with a century of Archers for support. (and one kickass general)

I also keep a spy with my main army. I'll report more later. I do not like the drudgery of keeping up with an empire. but building up for war is the FUN. Also, the little war saying loading screens are great! HEre's some gems:

In peace sons bury their fathers. In War Fathers bury their sons.

What good can a soldier do when he charges out of breath?

Also, the speeches before the battle are great, I listen to them every time, but I have yet to hear a general say the braveheart thing. Unwashed barbarians....Hairy beyond belief INDEED

The Cleric · Post by **The Cleric** » 2004-10-16 01:25pm

I've nearly abandoned archers. They shoot themselves too much. Heavy infantry and light cavalry is the way to go.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-16 01:31pm

You know who sucks, though? Those goddamned...what the hell...the spear-chucking horsemen...cavalry auxillary? Christ...I mean the're fast but a waste they throw like 3 fucking spears and their done, then they're just battlefield decorations. Fucking Auxillary. I can't wait until I can get me a couple hundred of those uber-long spear guys. I wanna see some dead horses....lots of em.

You know you can still use them to chase down routing enemy troops once the battle has gone your way- you just won't have enough Equites to ride them all down. Cavalry Auxilia are an essential part of all my campaign armies- their javelins are great for killed massed, slow moving heavy infantry.

Update:

Egypt attacked me, the morons. I have four fleets loaded with four fully equipped armies heading straight for Alexandria and Memphis, while another two armies are working down from my most far out province (Tarsus) down through Israel and the Middle East, which is mostly Egyptian, Parthian and Rebel territory.

I've crushed large family member-led Egyptian armies on three seperate occasions, so much so that I now have two characters called "the Mighty"- my faction leader (the heir of the dead Amulius Augustus) and one of my adopted family members.

There's a 'side-war' going on in North Africa- though the Scipii had succeeded in taking Carthage, for some reason they weren't stopping the Numidians from taking the new Carthaginian capital of Thapsus first, so I sent an Army raised in Italy proper (it had previously taken Syracuse, which was a Rebel City) to take it, which I promptly did. The plan now is to work my way East and meet my victorious four grand armies at the nile.

Oh, here's my idea of a pre-Marian fully equipped army:

- 3x Hastati
- 3x Princeps
- 2x Triarii
- 2x Velites
- 2x Equites*
- 2x Cavalry Auxilia
- 2x Roman Archers
- 1x Roman General
- 2x Onager
- 1x Velite Gladiators

* I only just recently started building Hippodromes, because like an idiot I didn't know that "Legionary Cavalry" are actually available pre-Marian, so pretty soon I'll be replacing the weak Equites with proper professional heavy cavlary.

Also, exterminating the populace is IMO unwise. It takes too long for the city to grow, enslaving is the best tradeoff- you want the city to be capable of building the units/buildings to support/retrain your army so that you don't have to rely on your more well-established cities to mount an effective camapign or defence.

I'm about to hit a huge crop of my faction sons coming of age, and I don't have armies waiting for all of them like I used to- my main troop building cities (Temple of Mars/Armourer/Blacksmith = pwnage) are working flat-out producing the quality expensive units (Triarii, Onagers, Velite Gladiators) while the slightly smaller cities build all the supporting troops.

My faction leader Oppius is only ... 45 and is already "the Mighty" with 8 command stars, so I figure there's a good chance he'll become Oppius Augustus. His heir is actually over 10 years his senior, so I need to pick a suitable one close to when Oppius dies- preferably someone really young, 16-20 years of age- probably a grandson, and only a Brutus. No children of any adopted sons will ever lead the Brutii.

Currently have 26 regions under my control. Only 24 to go, then I can take Rome.

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-10-16 01:34pm

StormtrooperOfDeath wrote:I've nearly abandoned archers. They shoot themselves too much. Heavy infantry and light cavalry is the way to go.

Archers are invaluable when you're sallying forth from a city your enemy has besieged- put them up on the walls, enemy moseys in range, slaughtered. I defeated an entire Egyptian army that way.

Speaking of the Egyptians, their chariots aren't driving me crazy as much as they used to, they still appear to wreak havoc, but I find the trick is to just crush all the other units and the chariots soon break and run straight off the battlefield- unfortunately they're very hard to chase down.

Arrow · Post by **Arrow** » 2004-10-16 02:51pm

Ok, my campaign as the Egyptians didn't go so well. First of all, their army is made up of girlie-men. As soon as they get a little cut, they turn and route; they are no where near as tough as the Greeks or Romans. Hell, the Seculed (sp) Greeks wiped my ass on two seperate occasions, and gave me heavy losses in three successful sieges. Second, all of my family members were corrupt, greedy bastards. I was *very* tempted to assassinate my own children. The only one that was worth a damn was an adopted son. Fucking make-up wearing bastards.

So, now I'm back playing as the Julii. I want to take over Brition and Dacia, which is something I haven't done yet. My campaign has gone very well, and I control ten provinces in only a handful of turns. The gauls fear me and Carthage has learned to not attack my islands or my navy. I have suffered a couple of set backs. My original faction leader was surrounded by a superior force of gauls, "zerg-rushed" and slaughtered like a pig, along with almost his entire army. His son tracked and annihilated the general and army responsible, and then crucified the residents of a nearby town.

Also, I have a family member that is 100%, tea-totally fucking pyschotic! This dude has major problems. "Mad" doesn't even begin to describe it. He hoots like an owl and thinks wine presses are out to kill him. He loves the sight of blood. And he keeps babbling about how our "pointy-things" are "much sharper" than the enemy's! He just ain't right in the head! But... He also happens to be my best general. I sent him on a sucide mission - and he won!!!! He decimated an far superior army when he should had been slaughtered. And he only lost a fraction of his men doing it! And he's also sponsered the adoptions of an excellent governor and a kick-ass general. This guy could probably take on the legions of Hell and win...