Rise of Rome Conquest

I've tried the Rise of Rome Conquest about 10 times. I come close to the 20/50 area/pop needed to win but always fall a bit short.

Any stratagies about taking land or where to build? Is it easy to settle Spain or clear out Celts?

Keeping Macedonia as an ally is fairly easy but always possible.

Also to reach 50% pop how can you get cities to 12, especially those with river, if you dont get wonders like Oracle or Temple of Artemis?

Thanks

Funny you ask that, since I just finished that one at Monarch level, won it on the very last turn. Basically, build citizens as often as possible to settle all the empty land you can, take out the Celts and maybe the other barbarian tribes. You might as well keep after Carthage too, as peace is impossible on that front. Build The Great Lighthouse and Bacchanalia in Rome, and join all workers to cities in the last few turns. Last of all, help the Macedonians(ROP, technology, money, troops to help them defend) or Persia might beat you. It takes work, and alot!

I once came very close to winning the game while I was Carthage (I can't be Rome, I cant bring myself to kill Hannibal even if it is a game)

I landed at Rome and took the Capital with Hannibal and his Elephants. I cut Rome into two parts and took them quickly, all of Rome was under my control about 20 turns after the first landing.

After Rome's tragic fall, I turned my War Machine towards Macedon. At this part ole Alexander was closing in on Persian who really only had 3 of his original cities and 1/3 of Egypt.

I landed at Sparta, captured it and set up my Base of Operations. I could have landed at Athens but I felt that with Sparta they could only atatck me by marching down into S. Greece because I had control of the seas. If I could bottleneck them in an area I could hold out.

My plan worked and not many turns later I was at Athens. I took all of Greece and only made peace once I captured Byzantuim.

Now I had quite a few choices to make:
-Continue war with the Macedons who were barely holding off Persia at this point.
-Attack Persia and try to balance the front so that Persia doesn't become to strong, just strong enough to stalemate with Macedon.
-Attack Egypt who really only had their capital and a few other cities left.
-Take my pick at the barbarian tribes and work from there.

Instead, I chose to colonize all of Spain, fortify my borbers and wait for my options to change.

of course, at this point time was running low and I really didn't want to lose. So i decided to turn my War Machine towards the Celts who had a big ass empire. I declared war and plunged myself into West and Central Europe (told you it was big) After a couple turns I was getting the upperhand. I lured the Celts into attacking 5 Numidian Mercenaries fortified in a fortress in a mountain. The Gallic Swordmen were slaughters (about 20!) my Armies of War Elephants (5 in all) were tearing apart the enemy empire and victory against the Celts was inevitable.

But, the time ran out and I didn't really get the victory I wanted.

Still, it was a fun and rather impressive game.

As Carthage I like to form an alliance with Greece against Persia and Rome.
This keeps Rome a little busy with Greece too, and you can go after Persia
when needed to keep them from getting too big.

As Rome I like to build cities at every opportunity, expand and attack everything you can. Build the Lighthouse and lay the down.

As Rome I'd keep on Carthage at least until you clear them out of Spain. It doesn't really matter if you don't invade Africa, but it's never fun to be fighting Alexander and then have a big army of War Elephants show up on your western doorstep from their Spanish base - and they'll keep doing that if you don't take Spain.

Quintillus said:

As Rome I'd keep on Carthage at least until you clear them out of Spain. It doesn't really matter if you don't invade Africa, but it's never fun to be fighting Alexander and then have a big army of War Elephants show up on your western doorstep from their Spanish base - and they'll keep doing that if you don't take Spain.

Click to expand...

Reminds me of the game I just finished...

After uniting Sicily, the Egyptians declared war on me... So I marched across land and invaded their ass! It wasn't even a really well thought out invasion... I just sent over War Elephants as they popped out. I took all of Egypt with the exception of Gaza which the Persians helped themselfs to.

Then, I landed a big ass army at Sparta, made up of Hannibal and about 20 Elephants. I took S. Greece. Persia took the North.

Now, all this while I'be been gathering Elephants in the Alps. As I land Hannibal and 20 Elephants at S. Rome I march the Alp Elephants into the North and just crush Rome.

Currently, Im nearing the end of a 100 turn war with the Persians.

There is no bigger pain then Heavy Cavalry...

For about 80 Turns it was a stalemate. I just dont know how the AI can produce so quickly and get its men to the feild. Every turn we both would lose about 20 Horses and yet 50 take their place.

It was WWI. You dont gain any ground, you just try and hold it.

Painfully, I kicked the Persians outta Macedon. I've almost united Turkey and all of Isreal is mine.

I´ve played this a gazillion times as Carthage and Rome, havent tryied out Macedon and Persia.


Carth:

Just expand like mad on the North Afrika coast and Spain.

The trick to fast growing cities on North Afrika is placing a city on a hill just south of Carthage to allow the irrigations of the entire southeast coast along Leptis Magna and interior.

Build only veteran spears early on and keep those workers ready to connect the ivory as soon as you have a fairly number of spears to upgrade.

Divide the empire in three: setler/woker factories (inner afrika cities), Spear/Num Mercs (Core) and Veteran Galleys (Islands and coastal cities).

Never stop growing and settling. Get the Celts and Goths at your side An alliance with Macedon even better. Kill Egypt in mid-game and get it puping out workers to build a garden of eden across afrika.

Naval Blokade Rome and there u won.

Rome:

Take Sicily, Corsica and Sardenha asap.
Build Harbors
Build Citizens
Allie with Celts and Goths
Take Leptis Magna and cut Carthage Afrika in half keeping them from the ivory.
Make Garrisons, Legions and Galleys
Build Wonders on Rome

Your rich (800 gold!) ou can do whatever you want

Answers to your questions:

Any stratagies about taking land or where to build? Is it easy to settle Spain or clear out Celts?

Take land with Wheat and Cows always! Irrigate all, and build harbors. This is the mediterranean.

Keeping Macedonia as an ally is fairly easy but always possible.

Also to reach 50% pop how can you get cities to 12, especially those with river, if you dont get wonders like Oracle or Temple of Artemis?

Cities with river must have a lot of irrigations, a granarie for fast growing, temples and a harbor also helps, keep them with some space between them to maximize their tiles usage.

I believe you´ll find wonders like The Great Lighthouse excell in this scenario. You dont need any wonders to make cities level 1 just play with the luxury bar on F1, 20-30% usually does the trick for a couple 12 level cities in the core.

Playing as Carthage on Warlord level

With 80 turns left I am ahead in points and Have 11% of land and 42% of population, Persia has 9% of land. I have all of Spain and Africa settled along with all the big med islands apart from Corisca,

I am two turns away from Imperlism, should I switch to it when i get it? Not sure if the anarchy turns are worth it.

Have just traded maps with most of AI civ's, and realised how huge the map is with loads of unsettled land to the north of Perisa as well as lots of infill space.

Next step I think is is to clear out the celts from France and settle there, picking off the few Rome cities that are in france as well. I have helped the Macadonins with trades that should help them hold off Perisa.

So I think my main questions are should I switch to Imperlism? and will Africa, Spain and France be enough to get we over the 20% considering how huge the map is?

thanks