Rome Total War Questions

[Superman]

Cool game, but I was wondering a few things.

First, how do I get enough people to govern my cities? It seems like I never have enough commanders or governors. What can I do?

Also, can I make my own settlements or do all cities have to be conquered?

What do I do with cities I conquer that don't seem to produce anything? The advisor just tells me it would be best not to build anything. I just put them on auto manage, but they don't seem to be able to build.

Thanks.

[Beowulf]

Cool game, but I was wondering a few things.

First, how do I get enough people to govern my cities? It seems like I never have enough commanders or governors. What can I do?

Also, can I make my own settlements or do all cities have to be conquered?

What do I do with cities I conquer that don't seem to produce anything? The advisor just tells me it would be best not to build anything. I just put them on auto manage, but they don't seem to be able to build.

Thanks.

Bribe other nation's family members. Can be somewhat expensive for a good one though. All the settlements that will exist, exist at the beginning of the game. IOW, you have to conquer them all.

[Arrow]

The automanage only builds if you have enough money, and if you've setup the spend/save policy in faction management to allow the AI to build something.

Also, you can get more family members through mariage, and through acts of bravery by your captains in the field (if the captain leading army is not a family member, and he kicks a lot of ass, a family member may sponser him for adoption).

[Stark]

You don't need dudes running your cities to be able to control them: just untick the two automanage buttons on the city display. Governors just apply bonuses.

[Knife]

Cool game, but I was wondering a few things.

Hmmm, oddly enough, I came on here just now to babble about this game. It's like crack for strategy and tactics guys.

First, how do I get enough people to govern my cities? It seems like I never have enough commanders or governors. What can I do?

Having an actual character only gives you bonus's. You, as mentioned can un-click the auto build and auto recruit boxes and do it all yourself.

Also, can I make my own settlements or do all cities have to be conquered?

Nope, can't make new ones.

What do I do with cities I conquer that don't seem to produce anything? The advisor just tells me it would be best not to build anything. I just put them on auto manage, but they don't seem to be able to build.

Thanks.

The best strategy, I've found, is to build up enough mid-strength units to defend it while using most of your cash to build economic structures. This builds up the tax revenue and more money to build other things.

You have to balence it out though, with defense and such, keep an eye on the general happiness and if it goes down a bit, cycle over to 'growth'.

[Knife]

Bwahahahah;

BTW, capturing Capula with a bunch of redrobes is one hell of a way to spend a sunday. The damn greeks are hard at first, since your scattered, but oh, so fun once the ball starts rolling.

I had to fend the damn Romans off like 6 times from Syracuse, but as shit goes, it ended up with being one of my most advanced cities. Hell, they were able to build the 'redrobes' Spartan Phalanx first even before Sparta.

Think I'm going to go finish off Rome herself. It's funny, but the computer AI just can't seem to figure out how to outflank my phalanx, I just need a horse unit or two to keep things pinned down but even if the Romans have five or six horse units, they can't seem to flank me.

[Gary Bussey] Bwahahahahahahahahahah [/Garry Bussey]

[Petrosjko]

Oh god damn it, I just got past my addiction.

Must... stay... strong.

Boy, elephants are so fun when they run amok in the midst of the enemy line...

DAMN IT!

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Cool game, but I was wondering a few things.

First, how do I get enough people to govern my cities? It seems like I never have enough commanders or governors. What can I do?

Also, can I make my own settlements or do all cities have to be conquered?

What do I do with cities I conquer that don't seem to produce anything? The advisor just tells me it would be best not to build anything. I just put them on auto manage, but they don't seem to be able to build.

Thanks.

To add to the above suggestions:

For more commanders, just wait until you get into the game a bit more. By midgame or so I usually have more family members than I know what to do with from adoptions and marriages.

To answer your last question, cities can only build certain buildings depending upon their size. A town cannot build urban barracks and Praetorian cohort. There are several distinct population thresholds for each level of city, once you hit the threshold you can upgrade the governor's palace to "level up" the city. It will tell you the population you need on the main city management scroll. Increase population by taking slaves, building specific temples, and improving farmland.

[Superman]

Oh god damn it, I just got past my addiction.

Must... stay... strong.

Boy, elephants are so fun when they run amok in the midst of the enemy line...

DAMN IT!

How and when do I get elephants?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

What faction are you playing? They're largely Carthiginian units, but I think a couple other factions get some.

As a Roman, it's possible to get them as a reward from the Senate as well.

[Superman]

What faction are you playing? They're largely Carthiginian units, but I think a couple other factions get some.

As a Roman, it's possible to get them as a reward from the Senate as well.

When I play Imperial Solo Campaign, Romans are the only ones to play. How do you play other ones?

[Darth Wong]

What faction are you playing? They're largely Carthiginian units, but I think a couple other factions get some.

As a Roman, it's possible to get them as a reward from the Senate as well.

When I play Imperial Solo Campaign, Romans are the only ones to play. How do you play other ones?

Beat the campaign (hint: use the short campaign and play as either the Brutii or Scipii; the long campaign takes forever and the Julii have trouble getting their economy up and running). Then you can play as other factions, but avoid the Carthaginians. They get elephants late in the game, but their infantry is horrible. Seriously, they're just awful; Carthaginian infantry is the worst of all the major factions. They can't fight their way out of a paper bag, much less hold the line against Roman infantry. When you play as Carthage you have to rely on numerical superiority or cavalry to carry the day, and their less advanced cavalry sucks too.

If you want elephants, play as the Seleucids. They have one of the best armies in the game (maybe the best of all). You can win a lot of battles with the cheap and low-tech levy pikemen, and they get elephants, and they get cataphracts, and they even get their own version of legionary cohort late in the game. The only thing in the game they lack is good archers; their archers are the same as Greek archers, which is to say they are inferior to Egyptian Pharoah's bowmen, Roman archer auxilia, or mercenary Cretan archers. But in general, I'd still say that the Seleucids have the strongest military in the game if you can survive the early going (when no less than 4 different factions will gang up on you if you're playing on Very Hard difficulty).

[weemadando]

Just played a custom battle - Bridge on the Nile, Carthage vs Egypt.

Armoured elephants make for one fucker or a bridgehead unit. 804 kills to the unit that went across first and secured the way for the rest of my army.

[Knife]

As a Roman, it's possible to get them as a reward from the Senate as well.

When I play Imperial Solo Campaign, Romans are the only ones to play. How do you play other ones?

Beat the campaign (hint: use the short campaign and play as either the Brutii or Scipii; the long campaign takes forever and the Julii have trouble getting their economy up and running). Then you can play as other factions, but avoid the Carthaginians.[/quote]

You don't even need to beat the campaign, really. If conquor a faction in the game, they become available to play in another new game.

[wautd]

...or you could always download a mod that unlocks all factions

[Thirdfain]

Carthaginian infantry is horrible. Seriously, they're just awful; Carthaginian infantry is the worst of all the major factions. They can't fight their way out of a paper bag, much less hold the line against Roman infantry. When you play as Carthage you have to rely on numerical superiority or cavalry to carry the day, and their less advanced cavalry sucks too.

There's nothing wrong with Carthaginian infantry. Iberian infantry is really cheap, and Carthaginian Phalangites are pretty darn good. It's a pretty simple matter to tie down the Legions with phalanx, envelope/flank with cheap light infantry, and then hit from the rear with cavalry. I find the Carthaginian army much better early-game than the Seleucid one (Levy Pikemen blow, at least for fighting the horsemen you face in the Seleucid region,) and while not precisely comparable late-game, at least sufficient.

[Petrosjko]

Main problem I had with Carthage is the nightmarish starting placement. You will certainly end up at war with all of Rome almost immediately, and as soon as you're vulnerable from dealing with them, here come the Spaniards and the Numidians, probably soon to be followed by the Egyptians showing up to pass the occasional howdy.

[Arrow]

Main problem I had with Carthage is the nightmarish starting placement. You will certainly end up at war with all of Rome almost immediately, and as soon as you're vulnerable from dealing with them, here come the Spaniards and the Numidians, probably soon to be followed by the Egyptians showing up to pass the occasional howdy.

I've been playing a unified Rome mod that has no Roman interests initially in Sicily. During my game, while I secured Sicily after a long hard fight from the Greeks and Carthage, Carthage was able to crush Numidia and Spain, and are currently taking some of the heat off of me (I have an alliance with them, and we both have boards with Gaul and Eygpt).

[Darth Wong]

Carthaginian infantry is horrible. Seriously, they're just awful; Carthaginian infantry is the worst of all the major factions. They can't fight their way out of a paper bag, much less hold the line against Roman infantry. When you play as Carthage you have to rely on numerical superiority or cavalry to carry the day, and their less advanced cavalry sucks too.

There's nothing wrong with Carthaginian infantry. Iberian infantry is really cheap, and Carthaginian Phalangites are pretty darn good.

The problem is that the only phalanx units they have don't show up until late in the game, and while Iberian infantry is cheap, so is Hastati and Hastati will horribly 0wn Iberian infantry in any kind of straight-up fight.

It's a pretty simple matter to tie down the Legions with phalanx, envelope/flank with cheap light infantry, and then hit from the rear with cavalry.

By the point in the game where you would have your Sacred Band phalanxes, victory is already assured anyway. The tough part is the early game where you're stuck with shitty Iberian infantry or libyan spearmen and the Romans come at you with Hastati and Principes. Not to mention the worthless round shield cavalry that you get early in the game; Carthage simply has shitty early-game units. And in the late game, they improve but other teams still get better stuff.

I find the Carthaginian army much better early-game than the Seleucid one (Levy Pikemen blow, at least for fighting the horsemen you face in the Seleucid region,) and while not precisely comparable late-game, at least sufficient.

I've annihilated large armies with levy pikemen without difficulty, and you get Seleucid phalanx pikemen at the point in the game where you would only have crappy libyan spearmen. Not to mention the fact that the Carthaginians don't even have any archers at all, except for the guys on top of war elephants.