Rome: Total War Gold Edition

[ProPain]

I just forgot to put a smiley at the end of my last post. Wasn't serious remark. Funny you can do that however.

[Furiey]

I think it's the version I managed to do though first time the plague appeared...

[akots]

Originally Posted by ProPain

That doesn't sound very usefull to me

It might be useful if you run into a heavy happiness problem to decrease the population and reduce unhappiness.

[akots]

Originally Posted by Darkness

... Quick question: how old do family members get? I lost my faction leader to old age when he was 62 or 63....

That might be the only death of old age you experience. It is random and with some good luck you can make it to around 70. Usually, they get assassinated (it is a good idea always have a spy attached to your best generals) or die in battle. You can most likely win the game before your heir dies of old age.

[akots]

Originally Posted by Kingreno

... On highest difficulty the Roman Infantry is tweaked down a lot. Thet will likely NOT live out a one-on-one with several other infantry units, especialy the Germanic tribes elite spearmen, but also greek hoplites or Carth Sacred bands. This makes the game so much harder and a true challenge.

Not really. IMO, if you can maintain the formation to avoid flanking and have enough veteran units (silver chevron principes), they can hold on although the losses will be large and will take long time to replenish. It just takes more time to move forward with conquests. On higher difficulties, AI is given large boost to morale to they don't rout too easily getting eliminated almost completely instead but their combat stats and numbers remain the same. AI is not building more troops on VH/VH especially early in the game but tends to invest in economy and improvements in my experience. It is nice because when you capture a province, it might be well improved.

Germans are indeed somewhat painful to fight early on. Although they do not maintain a steady line and are easy to flank. Cavalry strikes in the rear followed by rapid retreat immediately after the charge are also possible. Although, it is a bit risky since sometimes the cavalry can get stuck.

[Shabbaman]

I never manage a proper rapid retreat with my cavalry in any version of TW

[akots]

It is not that tricky IMO. Just charge (double click) in a narrow deep formation (at least 5-6 rows deep) and almost immediately upon contact click back some distance in the direction of where your cavalry came from. Then rinse and repeat, sometimes 4-5 times. If some individual cavalry gets stuck, just click again on retreat destination and they will either disengage or die. When the melee cursor appears on cavalry, it becomes harder to disengage because they are moving slowly and more soldiers eventually get stuck. If you are engaging with only the first row, a part of this row will go down and the rest should be able to retreat. Every time you do that, there are some casualties of the defenders and morale goes down. In case of hoplites or sacred band, you have to come almost directly from the rear and not from a side since they have some designated flank soldiers although they are fighting only with swords and not with pikes. In case of German spearmen and other assorted infantry flanking works pretty well. Also, keep in mind that the main idea is not to completely annihilate the enemy but to break their formation so that your holding infantry can wrap it up and then cavalry can just pursue the routers and get one or two extra chevrons.

In the very beginning when I started to play it was also kind of hard, so I exercised a bit with simple battles against rebels with 4-5 enemy infantry units (typical rebellion size) against one Roman light cavalry and 2 hastati and it worked pretty well. You can do it with just one hastati and a good general. As long as there is no melee icon appearing on your cavalry, the general is in no real danger. To make the enemy spread out and get separated into blocks of 2-3 units you can lure a couple to the side of the map with general which they will almost always pursue, and then run back to save the engage hastati. By the time these distracted units reach the hastati (positioned at the endge of the map on a hill, the first wave of attackers should be defeated and routing. The second wave will be winded and tired (penalty to morale) and they break almost instantly. Killing captain also helps. For larger battles, it is essentially similar. Infantry stays in the corner on a hill in deep ranks and cavalry runs around luring, flanking and rearing the attackers. Just need to pay attention.

IMO, in RTW it is substantially easier to defend (similar to Shogun TW 1) on vH/vH since you will naturally have smaller armies than AI due to difficulty bonuses. Roman light cavalry is very fast and general bodyguards are nearly invincible. Archers suck though the issue is remedied by capturing Crete and Rhodes and regularly harvesting mercenaries there. The goal of maneuvering is mainly to hurt enemy morale (another AI bonus) as much as possible prior to engagement. If they march twice across the map lured by your general, their morale will be awful and they will be exhausted especially if the last part of battlefield they are running up the hill slope while being stuffed with Cretan arrowheads.

[ProPain]

Thinking I should play RTW again and try this all out. I;m more of head butting battle type

[Darkness]

What's the best way to use your family members in this game?

I kind of get the feeling that they're more useful on the battlefield than as governors... A general's bodyguard is the best unit on the battlefield, so it can make a big difference in winning or losing a battle.

Even 2 family members in the same army is great. One can stay with the infantry to plug any gaps that the enemy may create, and the other one can lead the cavalry charge at the rear and the flanks of the enemy units once they're engaged with your infantry units...

[Furiey]

RTW is available for £2.50 on D2D UK at the moment.

http://www.direct2drive.co.uk/4/3119...ition-Download