Tips for Rome: Total War

[SayItWithSlugs]

I think we should start a tips page, as a lot people have questions. Add your own. I know I can learn a lot from everyone else.

- Enslave cities to speed up the development of all your governed cities. Although, you may want to wipe out some bigger barbarian cities. Civs that are unlike yours will not favor enslavement.

- Make money by having a high tax rate + high population. Get all the farming, trade, port upgrades to make more cash. Disband unused military as they go to population.

- You can trade retinues from one general to the other. Once a general hits 60, give all his positive retinues to your best, young, phenom general.

- Take Carthage just to make some early onagers. Use ship convoys to distribute them to your high end forces. The city will lose you money, so milk it and leave it. Let it rebel, then attack it again to get a senate bonus.

- Bribe barbarian generals with your diplomat. Instant general! Then buy all of his mercenary options. You can field a whole task force within a turn by doing this.

 

[SayItWithSlugs]

How to use scythed chariots:

Dont click on your enemies to attack them. Double click BEHIND them so your chariots barrel through them with out stopping. It will rip them apart without giving the enemy a clear shot on them. Also, try strafing accross the front of thier lines. Keep them AWAY from your main force and general. If they run amok, they will kill everyone, including your own men.

- Send out small armies without generals for skirmish battles with small rebel forces. If you can get clean victories, they might be upgradable to generals. I use them to govern some of my distanced cities that do not already have a leader.

- Dont let your daughters marry just anyone. Turn down lame generals, and wait for one with better traits. Also keep an eye on the babies they are popping out, and plan ahead knowing that you have some up and coming generals. I have been swamped with 10 extra generals at my capital that went to waste.

- Build up that navy early! About mid game the seas will be filled with ships and if you dont have a navy, you wont be able to move troops quickly buy way of ship. I have lost faction leaders who were ambushed by merauding fleets. Also, steer clear of allied ships that you can see. There are usually enemies near them who can block your path.

- Complete those senate tasks that give you unique units. One time when starting a new campaign, I took Segesta and was rewarded some War Elephants. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun with those.

 

[black_b[ ]x]

wow, I was just going to start this thread this morning

Peasants are a cheap way to move population around. Got a city with 6% population growth on 12k people? Ship a couple groups of peasants (at 240 people each) to one of your developing cities. I found this useful for getting over that first cap of 2000.

I think I'm pretty terrible at this game so far, playing on easy/easy. The other civs next to me seem to have more advanced cities, I have more money than I know what to do with (40k+, and this is with very low tax in all cities), but I only have 5 cities. How do you guys start out your campaign? I've declined several senate missions which would have put me at war with Gaul, who is the current military power and my neighbor to the north...

 

[iZero]

I'm playing the game completely differently. I'm taking over the continent before bothering to create a navy. Also, I lower the taxes in my cities to encourage growth. This also lets you build higher-end units as the top structures are based on population. I keep my armies small, but I have one or two main ones for handling problems. I'm making money hand over fist using this technique.

I didn't break treaties (except for one, against the Spanish) to complete a Senate mission.

 

[FanZ]

whoa, i never knew you could transfer retinues from one dude to another.. how do you do that?

 

[SayItWithSlugs]

wow, I was just going to start this thread this morning

Peasants are a cheap way to move population around. Got a city with 6% population growth on 12k people? Ship a couple groups of peasants (at 240 people each) to one of your developing cities. I found this useful for getting over that first cap of 2000.

I think I'm pretty terrible at this game so far, playing on easy/easy. The other civs next to me seem to have more advanced cities, I have more money than I know what to do with (40k+, and this is with very low tax in all cities), but I only have 5 cities. How do you guys start out your campaign? I've declined several senate missions which would have put me at war with Gaul, who is the current military power and my neighbor to the north...

Take Segesta first... Then go after the Gauls. They are the Julii's target faction anyway. Dont attack the two cities north of you right away. Get 3 general/armies ready. Besides, you can wait for a senate mission to come up to take them on, since you'll get a bonus with it too. Then move north, and west until you have vanquished the Gauls, the Spanish, the Germans, and the Britons. Dont trust the Brits, as they will turn on you. Use your ships to bring troops to reinforce your forward armies, since you wont be able to produce units there other than peasants and town watch.

After I conquered the west through Spain, I took Carthage. You can then start producing onagers which will help when you go after the Greek cities. Take Rome when ever you feel ready. But then you'll likely have to face the other Roman houses, so make sure you have some good armies at home. I send out all my good generals to conquer, but bring half of them back when I have to face the rest of Rome.

Hope that helps.

 

[SayItWithSlugs]

whoa, i never knew you could transfer retinues from one dude to another.. how do you do that?

Have both generals in the same town, then you can drag and drop them from one general's sheet, to the other general's card.

Zero - I did that too, but I had a hard time upgrading my legions with the newer units without a navy to transport them. Lowering taxes does actually make you money as you said.

 

[iZero]

Zero - I did that too, but I had a hard time upgrading my legions with the newer units without a navy to transport them. Lowering taxes does actually make you money as you said.

I don't bother trying to get the newest units to my remote cities. They lie near nothing else, and have low populations. Why pay the overhead protecting a city which no one attacks?

 

[black_b[ ]x]

exactly, I have so much trade and farming I don't need high taxes, I don't have enough cities to spend my money as it is. I probably need to start bribing... can you buy a city?

In my current campaign, I've already taken Carthage and the city on the island to the north of it, as well as segesta. I should be able to take the next city to the south of carthage in a couple turns, I already wiped out most of the army (they attacked me), just waiting on some siege equipment. The greeks have a much better navy though, I like the idea of focusing on the home front.

My complaint on naval battles is that theres no way to force them to fight, they always run away after losing 1 ship.

 

[SayItWithSlugs]

I don't bother trying to get the newest units to my remote cities. They lie near nothing else, and have low populations. Why pay the overhead protecting a city which no one attacks?

I dont send then to settlements, although they DO get attacked on the higher difficulties. I want to deliver them to my outlying task forces. If I upgrade my existing armies with some archers and principles.

Zero - I dont have a lot of money so I have to have high taxes. I have so many units on the field, they cost me a fortune.

 

[SUPERFLOP]

I dont send then to settlements, although they DO get attacked on the higher difficulties. I want to deliver them to my outlying task forces. If I upgrade my existing armies with some archers and principles.

Zero - I dont have a lot of money so I have to have high taxes. I have so many units on the field, they cost me a fortune.

Yeah me too, my armiess are pretty huge...dont know how they got htat way, but i have more armies than i can soter in my cities... it was weird though last night, i was playing and i had four cities and four generals with armies plus a roaming army..and then all of a sudden it says your faction has been defeated even though i was owning everyone and everything, I LOVE THIS GAME.. thank god i saved about 5 minutes before that happened... is there any use of defeating the other roman factions before Rome? because unless they have some UBER general i got them and rome beat in both man power and Experienced leaders..


TOO bad i didnt know you could trade retinue i let 3 very very good generals die of old age with ALL their retinue... :cries:

 

[SayItWithSlugs]

Yeah me too, my armiess are pretty huge...dont know how they got htat way, but i have more armies than i can soter in my cities... it was weird though last night, i was playing and i had four cities and four generals with armies plus a roaming army..and then all of a sudden it says your faction has been defeated even though i was owning everyone and everything, I LOVE THIS GAME.. thank god i saved about 5 minutes before that happened... is there any use of defeating the other roman factions before Rome? because unless they have some UBER general i got them and rome beat in both man power and Experienced leaders..


TOO bad i didnt know you could trade retinue i let 3 very very good generals die of old age with ALL their retinue... :cries:

I know what you mean. I have way too many troops. Should you defeat the other Roman factions first? No, but if you attack Rome it is automatically a Roman free-for-all, as the civil war breaks out. So you'll have to deal with them at some point. In my current game, the Brutii have 3 LARGE armies positioned in the middle of my original territory. They havent moved for atleast 10 turns. I guess they are positioned to attack. So as soon as I attack Rome, I assume I will have to deal with them simutaneously.

Fun stuff.

 

[k1pp3r]

well i just got the game and started playing last night, so i still suck haha. Anyway question about sieging a settlement, do you assault it or just wait it out?

 

[SayItWithSlugs]

I have never waited it out. I always assault assuming I only get the experience if I do so.

 

[Nyx]

This game is incredibly easy at medium difficulty. The first time you play thorugh it, it is fairly easy. I have beaten the game once and it probably only took me around under 20 hours of play time, but that is just a rough guesstimation. I am playing through it a second time as Brutii, and I would have beaten it in about 12 hours but i find myself wanting to conquer more of the continent before I take Rome. In the game i am currently playing I have around 32 provinces and i have 300k and am making positive profit every turn. I have also conqured the far away egyptian cities, which can be a pain. My navy spans across the sea to every corner of the Mediterranean... there are no enemy ships in the sea because they can't produce them because I kill them as soon as they do. Most ports of a lot of nations are blockaded. anyway:

Some tips I have are take as much cities as fast as you can... there is no better way to earn money. Aslo recruit your troops wisely... always recruit the best unless you are just puting troops in your city to quell disorder... I just use Town Watch units for that because they are the cheapest and work the same amount in quelling disorder as your most expensive unit would. Also, always complete a Senate mission, even if it means declaring war with another country, this is an integral part of the game!! Also even if you decalre war with more than one faction you will usually only end up fighting one faction at a time because the other Roman factions usually keep the others busy while you concentrate on one.... so just because you are declared war on 5 factions you are usually only fighting one or two because they are too busy with other stuff.

Taking more cities and using concentrated groups of good units that are put to use, rather than having a lot of units you aren't using taking up your funds is the best way to play the game. I always recruit just infintry units and cavalry... and then sometimes two units of archers for an army. I never reqruit velites or anything like that because they just don't really get the job done, your infantry and cavalry used in conjunction will beat any army. At first I use equitates, and I don't ever really bother with missile cavalry. When better cavalry becomes available I always make sure my army has at least four of those units, and a whol elot of infantry, and one high ranking general. Supplementing the army with a couple archer units will help also later on and a few units of seige equipment will be great for quickly assaulting cities with walls and moving your armies in. We will touch on combat later.

When you take over a city the best way to determine what you are going to do with it depends on its distance from your capital first and foremost, its population, and then its culture. The cities around where you start out in the game and any of the original Roman cities you can always just occupy the settlement because there will be very little or no cultural difference to lower the public order. However... as you venture out and take over cities not even very far from your capital you will begin needing to enslave the populace so that there wont be as much cultural difference that will hurt your public order. If you are taking over a city and just can't seem to keep it, and the rebels keep kicking you out, first try to keep a large amount of peacekeeping troops in the city (Town Watch) or if you have the governers put in a governer that has a lot of influence. If all else fails THEN exterminate the populace and you should really have no problem. Remember that the city details button (that little white scroll in the city view) has lots of good information to show you what is contributing and taking away from your public order and is very useful. Also take into note the population of the city of course before you decide what to do with it, because high population cities are the cities that drive your army by providing higher end troops, however cities gain population pretty quickly even if you have them taxed highly. On a personal note, Corduba has always seemed to be a trouble city for me every time.

Now what about taxes? And what about city management? I used to tax cities as much as possible until they were on the edge of disorder, however I realize that strategy is not so good. When you higher taxes the growth rate also lowers, and in any city and in especially large cities where you are producing troops (which DOES take from your population when you create a unit) a fast growing population is a must because you need to maintain that influx of new high end troops. Make sure you are able to produce those late end buildings that make the best troops in your big cities... you just need population. Circus Maximus, Urban Barracks, etc. What I find best to do, so that you don't over kill your self with micromanagement, is to put governers in your largest cities or important cities where you plan to produce your troops (preferably around your capital and by your docks where you can produce ships to quickly ship them around), and then set any cities you don't really plan on using for troops to automanagement... but only let the computer manage construction, not recruitment (so they don't produce troops you don't need), and set the build policy to a financial build policy. (Note that is set the option to manage all my cities in the game options first so that I could also manage all cities that don't have a governer.) The AI will usually do a good job of managing your city and building buildings that add to your taxes, and you don't even need to bother about worrying about those cities anyway because you will never really use them, just be happy that there is some AI there making sure you are getting some profit from that city, and it helps.

OK, now for combat. This is simply how i win every game, usually against great odds. I line up all my infantry in a huge front line that is hard to flank, usually only three men thick with some support infantry units behind it. Then I place my cavalry just as they usually are when you start out, to the sides so that i can flank the enemy, then i place my general directly behind in the center, because the general is absolutely integral in maintaining morale. The general's presence can make or break a battle... and he doesn't even need to do anything really, just sit there. I also never use my general in battle unless an enemy unit is routing or wavering... and i sure as hell never ever use it against spearmen unless they are routing. also never use ANY cavalry on spearmen unless they are routing... or the hoplites if they have their spears up and you are attacking them from behind.

When defending: Before the battle starts I set any infantry that can throw pila or spears to "Fire at Will"... that way when the enemy advances to my lines they will get a huge blow in morale when all of a sudden all my infantry units begin hurling pila at them... cuz thats a lot of pila! When the enemy charges i let them get entangled with my first thin line... then send the line behind them charging at them... that sometimes makes them route. However if that hasn't worked I just flank them with my cavalry and charge up behind them... that always sends them running.

When attacking: I again set my units to fire at will.. then i move my lines up next to theirs and let them hurl all their pilas at them... then I simultaeneously make all my units charge their line.. man for man... and if you have a second line they charge any hotspots.... then i again flank and go around to the rear of their units... and charge... then charge again... and again... and usually after the first time they are done for anyway.

Remember that winning a battle is not about a man to man matchup of might, its all about morale and breaking theirs.

Anyway I love this game, there are some of my tips.

 

[GaleForce]

If a city rebels and retakes the city from me I recapture it and slaughter the bitches. Thats just because I'm playing as I would handle the situation.

 

[Shepx2]

Don't underestimate the value of archers!!! Especially in out-of-city battles. I got attacked and was outnumbered almost 2-1, and their general was a 5 star to my 3, and I DESTROYED their army because of my archers. They were coming uphill toward me, and tried to flank my left side with 3 groups of light cavalry. While they were chasing my men around, my 4 groups of archers wiped out the first force without ANY of my infantry engaging. After that, I used my archers to pick off their cavalry till they fled back to the main force. By this time they were winded, and I charged downhill to end it. My missle-cavalry enclosed on the sides behind my regular cavalry, and I ended up losing less than 40 men in the battle. (they had over 950 to my 400+ )

Remember, unless the enemy has shields and are using them to defend, you can take a VERY good size force out with experienced archers.

 

[AMDXP]

This is helpful... my cities keep rioting in spain and I don't know why...

 

[AMDXP]

Shoot, I have plaguge in two cities... how do I get rid of it!!!!!!

 

[Bobsaysthis]

well i just got the game and started playing last night, so i still suck haha. Anyway question about sieging a settlement, do you assault it or just wait it out?

If you wait it out, there is a big chance enemy re-enforcements are going to come and attack you, then youll be fighting two armies, this dosent happen everytime, but for it its happend prolly 3-4/5 times ive tried waiting it out.

Awesome thread, awesome game, keep the tips comin!

 

[m4rine]

Make sure you watch your generals age, at around age 60 make sure you give his retinue to a younger general, give the command bonuses to a general with some stars, and make him a new general, while giving the management bonuses to your governors.

Build your navy up quickly, I didn't see the point so early, but expecially if your the Brutii and you take the Greeks first, their navy locked my army on a continent for 10 turns or so.

 

[Talz]

Build aqueducts/sewers etc to reduce plague chances, as plague is a headache. I found if I make it about the 3rd upgrade (at each city size) to a city the chances of plague are very low. Also I found it generally beneficial to destroy non standard temples in large cities I take and build temple of jupiter. IF you can spare a family member to govern then some of them are nice, like a temple of artemis can make a nice archer factory.

And enslavement is very nice to grow city size early on and I tended use this tactic on any city over 1000-2000 population, but it really seems more practical to exterminate most large (especially 8000 citizens+) cities in a region.

 

[Talz]

Thought I would add a bit on armies, I found archers very effective and tried to have at least half as many archers as infantry, generally preferring a bit higher archer percentage. Mercenary archers and even slingers can be a good way to boost your numbers here when needed.

As for infantry units romans are quite strong with the hastati, principes etc and these should be your core, though it can be useful to have auxilia or some other unit spread 2 deep in a front line to give them time to throw the spears before engaging. I generally found mercenary infantry not especially useful aside from the obvious times troops were just needed quickly.

On spear throwing skirmisher units I really don't like them, if you have them they can be useful if place in front of hastati etc, they will throw the spears then automatically retreat behind the front lines when an enemy approaches (they are especially vulnerable to fast moving cavalry troops though), and also they can obviously be placed just behind your main infantry for some fire support.

On all ranged units, be careful not to have another unit standing in the same area or to close in front of units shooting/throwing pointy objects. They will cut your own men down and it really sucks to shoot your own troops in the back. Also try to be careful with shooting into melees, there are times it helps but it's obviously better to shoot at other troops towards the rear lines if possible. Phalanx units generally stink due to extreme slowness, but I did find limited use for them defending city chokepoints, or for pushing into said chokepoints.

Then don't forget cavalry, they can wreak absoloute havoc. Even though toughest infantry are vulnerable from the flanks or backside. Especially great is catching the ranged unitse like archers unprotected. Do be careful with frontal charges, they can work nicely buIt will take a little time to setup, but if your cavalry can hit the enemies rear as your infantry engage it's just devestating. I tried to keep 25-35% cavalry in my large armies. Just make sure you are careful when the enemy has large numbers of cavalry as they can and will do the same thing to you. The CPU will not hesitate to hit a thin spot with a frontal cavalry charge to make a hole, you can make this costly if you are ready with your general or even a few infantry units in reserve to smash anything that tries breaking through. Rarely will the CPU have large numbers of horsemen though so you should be able to contain them. Chariots are bit more troublesome, but the same basic tactics seem best with even stronger front lines being advisable. Elephants I really didn't have to deal with much in europe, and won't say much except they are nasty.

On sieges, Onagers rock and a set should be provided to every large city taking army when possible and are very efficient at quickly taking out towers and walls. I never found much use for any other siege. Stone walls are a pain, use 1-2 sets of onagers if you can, combined with sappers and siege towers. Really I grew to prefer trying to get them to surrender or attack my siegers rather than take stone walled cities. Rams are plenty for wooden walls, just realize you can ram downt he walls as well as the gates, 2-3 holes are much better than 1 hole in a well defended town.

And lastly on the navies, I really don't like how they abstract everything and it's terribly hard to actually destroy enemy navies. Also I really hated how I would be told the admiral of this one ship navy would not join my main navy, even in port. Really the navy system stinks, any stupid admiral not following orders should just be executed. For this reason I concentrated on simply taking over europe and tried to build my road system up to help move around troops quickly. I did build up a relatively small navy for moving troops around, but really just disliked the naval game.

 

[iZero]

I find the spear-only units mostly useless as well. I do use archers quite a bit. They are great for taking down enemies before the main battle. They work especially well on the enemy generals and other calvary. I use onagers a lot. Also for weakening the enemy from a distance beforehand.

Calvary? I had a bad general in my capital city. This guy had zero in everything and a bunch of bad attributes lowering him even more. After having his sit outside one of my cities for a while (I didn't want him to ruin them with his presence), I had him attack an obviously larger rebel unit. A way to get rid of him and maybe cause a few losses. It was 300 some infantry vs. the 24 people with the general. I accidentally hit the wrong button, so I ended up fighting on the battlefield instead of simulating. So I tried out the rush/retreat tactic, and low-and-behold I defeated all the intantry. My general was down to 15 troops, but with over 300 kills, that was pretty good. So the guy lives for now...

 

[black_b[ ]x]

how do you decrease the squalor!!?? My cities are losing tons of population growth and public order because of this. I already have all the sewer/aquaduct upgrades that are available for the given size of the city, but is there anything else I can do? move troops around? are there any other upgrades I should have done? A lot of my cities don't have walls if that makes a difference.

I currently have 3 main cities that are specialized for creating troops. Each one only has one type of unit, either ranged, cavalry, or infantry.

One thing I noticed, you can turn off recruitment in cities that are automanaged, so they're not making low-level units. What do you guys use for defending towns?

I've had really good luck with the wardogs. They absolutely tear apart infantry, and they're really fun to watch as they take down fleeing armies. However, they seem to be a one use item, I can only choose their first target, and after that they run amok (but don't seem to attack my armies).

 

[Bobsaysthis]

Ive got a question, whats the best way to deal with war Elephants? After taking Carthage and losing, the next time I try and re-take it theyve been re-enforced with hella Elephants that tear my infantry to friggin shreds! Im talking like 30 guys per elephant dying!

 

[k1pp3r]

Ive got a question, whats the best way to deal with war Elephants? After taking Carthage and losing, the next time I try and re-take it theyve been re-enforced with hella Elephants that tear my infantry to friggin shreds! Im talking like 30 guys per elephant dying!

in real life i think horse blood does the trick, but i don't think they factored that into the game

 

[black_b[ ]x]

i think the incendiary pigs are supposed to scare elephants. I'm playing the Julii and they're an option.

 

[conscript]

how do you decrease the squalor!!?? My cities are losing tons of population growth and public order because of this. I already have all the sewer/aquaduct upgrades that are available for the given size of the city, but is there anything else I can do? move troops around? are there any other upgrades I should have done? A lot of my cities don't have walls if that makes a difference.

i would love to know the answer to this, as ultimately all my cities seem to be getting wrecked from squalor after I've upgraded every enhancement....

 

[black_b[ ]x]

I was thinking about adding some peasants and just having them sit there in the city? Maybe they'll put themselves to work and clean it up?

How do you get these other military items? like elephants and chariots? are they culture specific? If the elephants were, say, egyptian only, and I exterminated all the egyptians, does that mean i can never build elephants? or are the unit types and build options tied to the town?

 

[FanZ]

after you max out the structures, and population in a city... i think the only viable way to decrease squalor would be to add a governor. If it still riots.. meh.

 

[TrueBuckeye]

Anyone see any benefit to holding Senate offices? I have not seen any reason to work for this...it seems cool to have, but how does it help you?

As far as battles, this is a copy/past of my tactics as I was talking to a friend in email:

I usually play the Romans, so rather than the kickass hoplites I sometimes have triarii or more likely light/regular auxillia.

% - Heavy Infantry
# - missile troops
@ - auxillia/triarii/histasi
^ - cavalry
? - special


? ?

%%%% %%%% %%%%

@@ %% ####### %% @@

^^ ^^ ^^



That is the starting formation. Immediately the cav on both wings will go wide to look for flanking opportunities. My general's cav will stay back for the o'shit moments.

Up front I have my special troops, something like wardogs or scorpions to soften up troops. Wardogs can kick the shit out of most light infantry, so I will often charge them right off the back to open up an avenue for my cav. Scorpions and ballistas can shred a formation of heavy infantry or cav, so I target those. As soon as we are within bowshot, I withdraw these behind my lines.

Soften up as much as possible with my archers before my heavy infantry is engaged, while light infantry guard the flanks. I always try to keep a reserve or two of heavy infantry that I can run into the thickest fighting. Overall the goal is to tie the enemy fighters up with my heavy infantry until my cav gets position to charge them from the flanks or rear. The cav is the hammer, the infantry is the anvil.

Obviously this has to be quite fluid since I can't guarantee what troops I have to bring to battle. But in general I try to outmaneuver and fight with my cav while everything else is mostly defensive.

 

[Iratus]

For Tackling Elephants
Use a phlanx unit to halt the elephents, use Triarii or Auxilia to come in from the side and finish them off.

Failing that use the pigs. Pigs are good, as long as they don't go amongst your own troops

For Using Elephants
Don't charge head on into people, use a holding force in front to engage the enemy, run your elephents sideways the enemy soldiers (not from the back or you'll kill your own as well) Don't engage units just click beyond where you want to run. This will pull the enemy of of formation and your holding force will slaughter them.

Controlling Squalor
Build the domestic upgrades as soon as possible, once you have squalor you cannot get rid of it without letting the city rebel and exterminating them (Harsh but fair) so make sure as soon as you jump over a growth threshold upgrade the palace then get the upgrades that improve the quality of life.

Taking on large enemies
If you can take one of their key territories and then hole your army up in there. They will siege you and usually attack if outnumbering (which they will) just let them come. With enough archers you have to be a bit of a dullard to lose and the enemy will keep coming. I beat Macedonia by just having them keep throw their army against Corinth's walls.

City Sieges
Make sure you take out the towers if you can, either destroy them with Onagers or failing that use 2 siege towers and have your men go either side of the gate, doing this will mean you capture the towers and start using them.

If the enemy is using phlanx use cavalry in the streets, bring them round the back and you will slaughter the enemy units. My general got 705 kills on a single siege doing this.

Cheeky
Bribe the other Roman armies, they will join you and save you a ton of money, you will also get their General. As Scipii my best general is Julii (10 Influence, 10 Command, 6 Management)

General Stuff
Make sure you start fighting with a general straight away, I've had generals have 7 stars in command by the time they are 22 before, 48 years use out of them is nice.

Manage their retinues giving the command people to armies, management to governors.

Make sure you take spare generals with you when taking enemy territory, you will need spare governors.

Take the Greeks as soon as possible, their Wonders make a huge difference.

Stay away from the Britons and Egyptians as long as possible, their chariots are horrible. (Tip: Testudo)

Take Crete, leave a crap general there and make sure you buy up all the Cretian Archers their range is massively greater than the romans and they are much more accurate. The cretian pirates are also excellent units that seem roughly equivelent to the Gladiators.

If you are Scipii make sure you leave a force on Sicily. You'll know why when the event happens.

Get a foundry and Vulcan temple (or equiv)in a territory as soon as possible, you can retrain all soldiers there to give you gold armor and weapons. Makes a big difference.

Make sure you have the highest Academy you can get in your capital, your generals will be much better.

That's about all I can think of now.

 

[black_b[ ]x]

has anyone noticed bugs in the game? I see the Roman Cavalry listed as Light on their info screen, but Heavy when they're on the map in battle. Similar thing with the screeching women of Germania.

 

[Bobsaysthis]

Stay away from the Britons and Egyptians as long as possible, their chariots are horrible. (Tip: Testudo).

Boy, did I find that out the hard way

 

[andypnb]

it was weird though last night, i was playing and i had four cities and four generals with armies plus a roaming army..and then all of a sudden it says your faction has been defeated even though i was owning everyone and everything

maybe your faction leader and your heir died. or maybe you did not have a faction heir set, and your leader died. then your empire is essentially leaderless, and its game over.

 

[Wondernerd]

Is there a way to decline a mission?

I'm tired of negiotating peace talks, and trade rights just to have the very next mission be to attack them.

Or to get spread so thin between keeping settlements and the missions they keep giving me. I tried ignoring them and my faction leader had to commit suicide to appease them.

 

[andypnb]

Is there a way to decline a mission?

I'm tired of negiotating peace talks, and trade rights just to have the very next mission be to attack them.

Or to get spread so thin between keeping settlements and the missions they keep giving me. I tried ignoring them and my faction leader had to commit suicide to appease them.

i just ignored them, and when they asked for suicide i refused, and they attacked, and i slaughtered rome in a matter of a few turns. The other families however, they lasted all the way to the end of the campaign.

 

[FanZ]

Anyone see any benefit to holding Senate offices? I have not seen any reason to work for this...it seems cool to have, but how does it help you?

Well, a bit later in the game the Senate will start hating your House, and so their mission would become "Take what what whatever", "If you fail: The <whichever office dude> will investigate your family" .

Something like that. If the one in office thats doing the investigation is in your house, then it wouldnt matter if you do/dont do the senate mission.

 

[SayItWithSlugs]

Squalor: It does not matter what upgrades you have, there is squalor because your population is too big. To counter this, create a bunch of peasants, and disband them in smaller settlements. You'll take care of squalor, and help other towns at the same time.

Elephants: Follow your elephants into the line with fast infantry. They'll pick off the disorganized enemies that the elephants disrupted.

Artillary is overrated: Showering the enemy with a barrage of arrows is far more efficient.