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Vympel wrote: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.

In the Greek campaign I played, one general commanded my entire conquest of Sicily and the lower Italian Peninsula, exterminating the Brutii and Scipii both, fighting at least a dozen victorious battles and seizing five cities until he closed on Rome. How good was he? Ten stars. 29 years old.

There was his version of Cannae, enacted but miles from Rome with five units of cavalry (including him), one unit of Samnite mercenaries, and the rest of the army filled with his hardened Hoplites or Armored Hoplites. I arranged the Hoplites in a long, straight line across the face of the enemy, and arrayed all of my cavalry on my right flank. The Senate of Rome, with a army full of hastati, velites, principes, and several units of generals, chose a more traditional formation, echeloning his units in a sort of square. My cavalry gallop off quite wide, so far that they don't even menace his left flank, and my infantry begin to advance.

He advances his infantry and charges with his cavalry, stopping the center of my line, but the experienced hoplites hold him there. The flanks continue to advance, slowly sweeping inwards to envelop his army. A few minutes later, his entire army except for a small hole at the very rear is ringed by phalanxes, and I plug that hole with a charge of my Greek Cavalry. His casualties are already severe, but then panic strikes. The Senate general is brought down by a javelin from my Militia Cavalry, and his army routs as one. But there is nowhere to go. Most of those that slip the net are run down by militia cavalry.

Kill ratio was something like 10:1 in my favor, as I fully liquidated a 1,300+ army while losing only 100 or so. The severity of this defeat, in fact, left Rome herself virtually undefended, and I seized it two turns later. If you can hold your flanks and rear, the Greek cities are a lot of fun to play. Hoplites just completely rule if they're used properly. My favorite moments were when the enemy tried to hurt my experienced armored hoplites with a cavalry charge from the front. Half the cavalry would be dead the moment they hit the formation, the rest would either rout away or die moments later.

Interesting. When I usually attempt a Cannae, (playing as Julii), I put the Hastatii on the sides, and perhaps the Principes or the Town watch in the center. I leave a nice line or two of Velites and Archers a little bit outside of their firing range right behind the center of the line. Then, I let the Principes retreat a little when they first get attacked, have the Hastatii hit from the sides, and then have my cavalry, or war dogs if I have them, take the back. Usually, the archers and Velites start firing just as the net closes, so you get a rout right when they can't escape...

Xenophobe3691 wrote:Interesting. When I usually attempt a Cannae, (playing as Julii), I put the Hastatii on the sides, and perhaps the Principes or the Town watch in the center.

You can do less complex tactics with Hoplite unit types, because if the enemy is unwise enough to allow your phalanxes to engage in a standup fight they'll push through almost anything.

So, how large can you make the armies on a decent, normal, non-super-modified computer?

Also, can you use fear in your conquests? For example, if a city resists you and you torch it and slaughter all the inhabitants, will other cities be more likely to surrender without a fight? And if you massacre *every* city, regardless of whether or not it surrenders, will your enemies always fight to the death?

HemlockGrey wrote:So, how large can you make the armies on a decent, normal, non-super-modified computer?

Also, can you use fear in your conquests? For example, if a city resists you and you torch it and slaughter all the inhabitants, will other cities be more likely to surrender without a fight? And if you massacre *every* city, regardless of whether or not it surrenders, will your enemies always fight to the death?

On my AMD 2600+, 2.0ghz, 1GB RAM, and 128mb FX 5200 I can get maybe 3000 troops before it becomes unplayable. Even with less than a thousand it gets laggy, although I do have the graphics set to medium and anti-aliasing on, which the FX does not handle well.

And no, I haven't really noticed whether or not exterminating the populance affects the way other cities of the same nation act towards you.

HemlockGrey wrote:So, how large can you make the armies on a decent, normal, non-super-modified computer?

Also, can you use fear in your conquests? For example, if a city resists you and you torch it and slaughter all the inhabitants, will other cities be more likely to surrender without a fight? And if you massacre *every* city, regardless of whether or not it surrenders, will your enemies always fight to the death?

Ab-so friggin' lutely. But the problem is, only some lowballed low-moraled troops and ignorant barbarians will fear, and perhaps peasant militia and town watch. The rest of them will be out for your head. you'll get a title too, like, "The Cruel" or "The Heartless" or something akin to that.



To Vympel-
Try this tactic when facing charioteers:

place two columns of velites with a large open space in the middle (Archers will work, too) send a cavalry auxilia to harry the egyptians, then, when they give chase, withdraw through the "tunnel" (Group your columns) and make sure fire at will is fucking off. (I made the mistake of leaving it on and lost most of my auxilia unit.) anyway, then you use the javelineers/archers to decimate their flanks. They will turn to charge one of your missile units, and when they do, go ahead and let the missile units fight to hold them, while they do, bring up your generals heavy cavalry or a unit of principes up to destroy the chariots from behind. This actually works very, VERY well with any unit, and I won a battle where I was outnumbered vastly by an opposing army that way. (They weren't egyptians, only unwashed Gauls, but regardless, their heir lay dead at my feet at the end of the day.





Question:
Is marriage completely random? or can you pick who you marry off?

How far beyond the bounds of the later Roman Empire can you go (I mean, I see that part of Russia, and Arabia are on the maps that come with the game, but how far east can you send your armies?) Also, can you continue playing after you've achieved win conditions?

::is going to try and get a top-of-the-line video card tommorow and then play Rome non-stop for days to come::

Is marriage completely random? or can you pick who you marry off?

For males, its random. For females, you have can reject the groom by clicking on the X.

So, how large can you make the armies on a decent, normal, non-super-modified computer?

I don't know if you consider my machine super modified, but I can play with up to 5000 soldiers on screen before it gets choppy, and thats in an epic-sized city. I have a 2.8GHz P4 (800MHz FSB), 1GB RAM and a Geforce 6800 GT 256MB video card.

Straha wrote:How far beyond the bounds of the later Roman Empire can you go (I mean, I see that part of Russia, and Arabia are on the maps that come with the game, but how far east can you send your armies?) Also, can you continue playing after you've achieved win conditions?

::is going to try and get a top-of-the-line video card tommorow and then play Rome non-stop for days to come::

Basically the Medieval: Total War map, or from the southernmost point of Sweden to North Africa and the Iberian coast to Iran.

I'm thinking about posting an AAR here as the Greek cities, in the style of the ones they do over on the Paradox forums. I've already played through a few turns and I'm fighting the wars on Sicily and moving up through Greece.

It won't be a turn-by-turn thing, more of a general outline with specificity reserved for the battles.

Ok, now that I've vanquished tycho and chardok in 2vs1 battle as a defender of a beseiged city, I've decided I'm the reigning SDN champion.

*smacks shield with sarissa*

Bull-Fucking-SHIT!!!

My ally bolted with 2/3 of my strength!!! and I still BURNED YOUR GODDAMNED THEATRE TO THE GROUND, BITCH!!!!

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...

One of my adopted sons, Marcellus Tiberius, is not insane but he's definitely "bloody"- he went on and on at length about how much he wanted to slaughter the enemy and bathe in their blood.

The troops fucking loved it. The Carthaginians had a very bad day.

Vympel wrote:

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...

One of my adopted sons, Marcellus Tiberius, is not insane but he's definitely "bloody"- he went on and on at length about how much he wanted to slaughter the enemy and bathe in their blood.

The troops fucking loved it. The Carthaginians had a very bad day.

Oh, yes, I had that too. My general went on and on about how he wanted to bathe in his enemies' blood for a week. The result? Out of an 800+ man Gaul army, not one man survived.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Chardok wrote:FGalkin, you suckzoer, you didn't even destory the Carthaginians!

Actually, I did. I destroyed their last city in the Belearic isles, and thus ened the faction's existence. I also destroyed the Greeks.

I got pwned when I played house Julii,

I didn't, so me>you. Seriously, though, those barabrians are tougher than they appear. The Gauls are easy, but the Spanish and the Germans are not.

Also, playing Brutii is easy. You've get +3 experience troops from the start, and massive amounts of money from trade, once you conquer the Greeks. That, and the Greeks are easy to beat ,and the only good thing the Carthaginians have is the elepahnts.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Definitely- the Brutii are great. The Julii can't possibly get that much cash from the Gauls.

Temple of Mars = pwnage.

Arrow Mk84 wrote: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.

Are you sure it wasn't due to the overwhelming kick-assness of the Seleucids?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Vympel wrote:Definitely- the Brutii are great. The Julii can't possibly get that much cash from the Gauls.

Temple of Mars = pwnage.

*Plays Mars: The Bringer of War.*

Vympel wrote:Definitely- the Brutii are great. The Julii can't possibly get that much cash from the Gauls.

Temple of Mars = pwnage.

But then you lose all bragging rights. Try fighting hordes upon hordes of barbarians, without the benefit of +3 experience troops, while being broke throughout the game. The Julii are arguably the hardest Roman faction to play.

EDIT: Don't forget the fact that the Julii empire is mostly land based. For the Scipii and the Brutii, all you have to do is hop on a ship, and get the troops where needed. For the Julii, you have to walk overland, through areas that are either under barbarian control or were recently under barbarian control. Meaning no roads. Meaning the amies get around slowly. I've had an army watching the Thracian frontier, which I've decided to commit to the civil war. By the time it got from the far edge of Germania to where the fun was, the civil war was almsot over.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

those guys being batted aside by the elephants makes me wonder where on the battlefield was Sauron hanging out at....

Can you construct fortifications around a besieged city, ala Alesia?

HemlockGrey wrote:Can you construct fortifications around a besieged city, ala Alesia?

No, but you can construct siege equipment before a siege. Sieges are rather simplified and compressed in time in order to maintain the fun factor (no one wants to spend 3 hours besieging one city, after all). For example, it takes a few minutes "real" time for sappers to undermine the walls. I guess they are the uber sappers of doom. But sieges are still a lot of fun, however, even though I find them less iteresting that battles.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

HemlockGrey wrote:Can you construct fortifications around a besieged city, ala Alesia?

fgalkin wrote:No, but you can construct siege equipment before a siege. Sieges are rather simplified and compressed in time in order to maintain the fun factor (no one wants to spend 3 hours besieging one city, after all). For example, it takes a few minutes "real" time for sappers to undermine the walls. I guess they are the uber sappers of doom. But sieges are still a lot of fun, however, even though I find them less iteresting that battles.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Ummm ... I'm sure you can. I saw the fort option come up when I was next to an enemy Egyptian city (Salamis) just last night. I'm sure of it. Never had reason to build forts/watchtowers?

Vympel wrote:Ummm ... I'm sure you can. I saw the fort option come up when I was next to an enemy Egyptian city (Salamis) just last night. I'm sure of it. Never had reason to build forts/watchtowers?

You can build field fortifications, yes (I like to plop them down at chokepoints in mountains or on isthmi) but he was asking about lines of circumvallation and countervallation.

Pablo Sanchez wrote:
You can build field fortifications, yes (I like to plop them down at chokepoints in mountains or on isthmi) but he was asking about lines of circumvallation and countervallation.

I know, but I was thinking perhaps that the game uses field forts as de facto siege equipment if you really want to go the Caesar route ... maybe someone wants to see if it works?