I would first like to say that I love most of the Total War series. Anyway I was wondering if anyone else noticed this about RTW.

I unlocked the Greek Cities as a playable faction in the Imperial Campaign, (I am playing as the Greeks) and whenever a Roman legion, led by a family member, attacks me, that family member is always killed, without fail (not that I'm complaining, I usually target the general with my best troops anyway). Lately I've chosen to auto fight some of the battles, and the result is still the same. I grant you, I have a large contingent of phalanx in my armies, but I still think cavalry would have a little more effect on them (i.e. maneuverability, get around the front of the phalanx).

Has anyone else noticed this general massacre of enemy family members when playing as the Greeks?

I'm playing as the Greeks right now, and it's not happened yet, despite several skirmishes on Sicily! I was astonished, however, when the Roman cavalry decided that, instead of flanking my Hoplite line (being Greek early-game, I've got sod-all that can hold the flanks and react quickly), it would be better to charge both General units smack into the spears. The generals themselves got away, but both units routed, and dented the morale of the rest of their army, which also swiftly fled the field.

Apparently Rome Total Realism mod makes generals less suicidal. I never really got into Rome Total War until I downloaded the mod pack.

My current game as Bactria has really been fun as I've pushed back the Selucids and have recently taken Antioch and several coastal cities. The fighting was really interesting around Babylon when they kept on sending new full stacks.

I never auto resolve battles as I find it will calculate heavy defeats because of a slight numerical disadvantage even though in reality the battle would be relatively easy to win. Generally the best tactics are to go slightly ahistorical and recruit more archers and cavalry.

The phalanx lock the enemy lines whilst the archers encircle the enemy and cut them down from behind whilst cavalry (especially heavy cavalry) charge into the backs of the engaged enemy and then retreat after the initial charge and then charge again (repeat until victorious).

Best battle was when outnumbered when besieging a city and being attacked. I had 1280, they had 1829 troops. We abandoned the siege equipment and retreated to a slight hill where the left troops managed to hold on just long enough for the far right troops to win, encircle the central enemy troops and then join the fight on the left flank. By this point I was using archers to fight hand to hand to exhaust the enemy and my general and one surviving companion to run down retreating units.

The final statistics left my army with 381 survivors and theirs's with 230. Encirclement is key.

As having completed Greeks on HARD / HARD
Fighting the battles dose become rather tedious. I had not noticed it (you using latest patch) but rarely on auto battles I found myself lossing a key general.

Normally though the enemy general is the last unit to be killed in hes entire calvary block even if he dose conduct a suicidle frontal charge. He dose take some killing. The AI has been boosted somewhat during the patch and generals fight better on the higher difficulties.

AI is rather a joke. Even at this difficulty the battles with greeks phalanx follow a rather predictable fashion.

EDIT: I found out while fighting heavly outnumbered defensive battles, Outnumber more then 2 to one. I anchored my line on a hill with the "exit" boarders on either side. Prevents flanking attacks, repeatedly allowed the enemy to chrage my battlelines and use my calvary on the wings to repeatedly rout units before the phalanxes folded up the entire enemy infantry formations. I ended up doing this no less then three times to win the battle

EDIT: seig warfare AI is so retarded that I avoid fighting it as much as possible only Critical battles will I fight.

I keep my phalanxes in the center of my line, with the general close by for a little boost in morale. Behind them I have my archers firing arrows into the enemy ranks (FYI never put slingers behind any unit unless you want that unit to die), and for my flanks I try to have either cavalry or maybe Thracian mercenaries to quickly pounce on the enemies flanks and surround them. I try as hard as possible not to send my general into a fight, I don't like losing them.

I like sieges on cities with stone walls or epic walls, so I can sap them. My favorite battle so far was against a city like this (I think Syracuse), the enemy stationed archers right above the sap point. They fell to their deaths, while on the other side of the gate I sent Thracian mercenaries to fight.

Thracian mercenaries and Sarmation Knights are my favorite units (Sarmations only because they were in the movie King Arthur). I generally use Thracian mercenaries as gate breakers, after the ram opens the gate, these guys rush through and hold it until heavier units can move in.

Firstly, can someone help me with my queries in the thread below on RTW. One key question I have is: Where can I find a technology tree??!!?!?! There are other that remain unanswered as well.

Also, is the Rome Total Realism Mod any good? is it official? What exactly does it do? I tend never to download mods unless they are official or really good.

RTR is very good from my experiences with it.

www.rometotalrealism.org

I've never had the chance to play the mod, but I've heard a lot of good things about it.

RTR Mod is awesome. You really ought to try it out.

After playing with it for months I cannot go back to "vanilla" RTW again. The mod vastly improves the game. I cannot play RTW without RTR mod installed.

Two battles that followed each other on RTR:

The odd thing is that my general's unit actually managed to increase in size after the second battle. :lol:

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/3968/rb13sr.jpg

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/9668/rb22un.jpg

Hi Dell, great avatar as usual. ;)

It's nothing strange and it happens all the time to me providing you have a surgeon as a retinue of your commanding general.

I have surgeons as retinues for all my fighting generals. At the end of a battle he "cures" those who would have died otherwise.

Yeah I know about that, however I thought that occurred immediately at the end of the battle. Maybe one of the mercenary cavalry joined my general. ;)

I also posted to show my amazing tactical ability. ;)

Killing 2780 ish troops whilst losing around 100 isn't bad. The slight slope did help. So did having 5 sets of archers to hit them whilst they were coming up the hill and having massive cavalry superiority.

I agree Dell: Massed cavalry is a beautiful thing.

The best cavalry to mass is the Armenian Cataphract Archers...
they´re the heaviest archers in the game, yet they can stand and fight, or even charge

the best cavalry in the game hands down is most certainly praetorian cavalry. They eat catrphracts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Head Hunters :D

Head Hunters? Don't you mean head hurlers? They aren't very good...

Also, is the Rome Total Realism Mod any good? is it official? What exactly does it do? I tend never to download mods unless they are official or really good.I've been playing total realism for a while now and really like it. There are many more unit types and buildings. construction times and costs are higher. In addition when you capture a city, you have to build "cultural items" to unlock the ability to build combat units there so converting a new city can take years and lots of gold. They added many more cities and provinces and expanded the map. Rome is just one faction and not three (very nice change). There are new factions and some of the old ones are gone (Britain). It is an A+ mod and worth playing. I don't expect to go back to plain old Rome at all.

I've been playing total realism for a while now and really like it. There are many more unit types and buildings. construction times and costs are higher. In addition when you capture a city, you have to build "cultural items" to unlock the ability to build combat units there so converting a new city can take years and lots of gold. They added many more cities and provinces and expanded the map. Rome is just one faction and not three (very nice change). There are new factions and some of the old ones are gone (Britain). It is an A+ mod and worth playing. I don't expect to go back to plain old Rome at all.
hmmm I'm a bit skeptical...

the best cavalry in the game hands down is most certainly praetorian cavalry. They eat catrphracts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That's what the kata-tank alt-attack is for. :)

That's what the kata-tank alt-attack is for. :)
??????????

hmmm I'm a bit skeptical...
Skeptical of what? That it is any good? Better than vanilla? This mod makes the game more complex within the old framework.

??????????

Most heavy cavalry have an alternate attack, the way that archers have an alternate attack. The difference is that since both weapons are melee weapons, the attack icon stays the same. Usually, the primary weapon is a spear and the secondary is a sword.

If you alt-attack something with cavalry, they'll charge with their lances, and automatically switch to the secondary weapon. The reason why kata-tanks are so good is because their secondary weapon is an armour piercing mace, and they're the only heavy cav to have this.

Head Hunters? Don't you mean head hurlers? They aren't very good...
Head hunting maideans (scythia)

Yeah I know about that, however I thought that occurred immediately at the end of the battle. Maybe one of the mercenary cavalry joined my general. ;)

Maybe he gained some influence? I think that increases the size of a general's bodyguard.

Head hunting maideans (scythia)
Are they in Rome total war? Or Barb invasion?

The scythians are in RTW, haven´t you noticed them?

Are they in Rome total war? Or Barb invasion?

the first one. The orange nation near Thrace. Two archers on the flag...

I haven't noticed them before.

They´re so far up the north/east that they won´t be noticeable if you´re Scipii, Julii, or any other Eastern Nation. You can conquer them if you play Armenia.

They´re so far up the north/east that they won´t be noticeable if you´re Scipii, Julii, or any other Eastern Nation. You can conquer them if you play Armenia.
Who aren't unlockable.

Who aren't unlockable.

You can change game files so you can play as any nation....don't ask me now, though

It's not that hard at all in regular Rome. There's some file where you move a faction's name from under "unplayable" to "playable." The only problem factions are rebels and Senate (causes crashes). In BI it works much the same way, but it causes more problems for the emergent factions. Those take some serious modding.

EDIT: the file is called descr_strat.txt, and the path is Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\des cr_strat.txt

When you finish, it should look like this:


campaign imperial_campaign
playable
romans_julii
romans_brutii
romans_scipii
macedon
pontus
armenia
dacia
numidia
scythia
spain
thrace
egypt
seleucid
carthage
parthia
gauls
germans
britons
greek_cities
end
unlockable

end
nonplayable
romans_senate
slave
end


This is right at the beginning of the file.

i am there but I can't change the factions from one area to the other. How do I do this?

Just cut and paste.

yeah i tried that and now it works - cheers. Do the factions work properly? Do they have an intro movie? Do the units respond when you select them? (generals on the game map?)

yeah i tried that and now it works - cheers. Do the factions work properly? Do they have an intro movie? Do the units respond when you select them? (generals on the game map?)

Yes. No. Yes.

They won't have some of the frills--none (but Macedon perhaps? I think they have the greek one) have intro movies, and none (but again Macedon, IIRC) have descriptions in the campaign select screen. But functionally they work just as well as any other faction.

Ok cool thanks.