Barbarian Invasion Expansion Pack

[Neato]

May be a stupid question, but I found the BI Expansion Pack's manual to be poorly written, so maybe someone could clarify for me: If I install BI, can I still play the R:TW's core game?

I haven't actually played Rome yet, so I want to know if installing BI will either improve the core game (which would be excellent) or replace it with the new expansion game (forcing me to reinstall the whole thing - I felt this is what the manual was implying).

Thanks in advance!

[Ajidica]

You can play each independantly. The only change is updating Rome to version 1.3. I don't know what was changed though.

[Stuck in Pi]

Nor do I. But you can play each individually.

[Backwards Logic]

Manual probably doesn't tell you this, but if you see a horde coming toward you, there's a pretty good chance you're next to get attacked by them...

[civverguy]

The manual implies that if you uninstall BI, you have to reinstall the whole thing because then RTW won't work.

[Stuck in Pi]

Not true, I had to uninstall BI to make room for newer games and RTW still works.

[Neato]

Thanks guys. I just started the game and am very impressed - an anxious, strategic kind of fun. I guess I can install BI now too. I really didn't want to have to reinstall everything again; this was an "ask just in case" thread.

Backwards Logic - I didn't think of that. I kept wondering how people were taking my cities so fast all the time. I think it may have something to do with these hordes that keep walking into them. Is there some way I cans fight them? How does I build armies?

[Backwards Logic]

Well, against hordes, you really don't have much of a chance in open field combat. They travel together so tightly that usually they reinforce each other if you try and preemptive strike them. Sometimes, I can meet them before they reach a city and strategically attack them so they don't reinforce but rather retreat, but it's a bit difficult. As for when they attack cities, the best you can hope for is that they screw up their attack plans and funnel all of their troops to one spot in your walls. I've battled hordes before when they've funneled into one spot (a lot of fun) and when they've attacked me from 3 sides (not so much). You probably won't hold the city (especially early game, when the economies can't support a large garrison), but you might be able to take a bunch down with you.

As for building armies...First off, what faction are you playing as? For recruitment, you'll have to go to the city summary window (I think that's what it's called, its been a while) and click on the recruitment tab. Here, you can build units by queuing them. What units you are allowed to make depend on what military buildings you have in the town/city and how big it is. Good Luck!

[Stuck in Pi]

My suggestion: Don't play BI, play RTW as Egypt (when you unlock it)! Much more fun having the best phalanxes (other than Spartans) and archers in the game, and you don't have to deal with hordes!!

[Traitorfish]

Originally Posted by Neato

Backwards Logic - I didn't think of that. I kept wondering how people were taking my cities so fast all the time. I think it may have something to do with these hordes that keep walking into them. Is there some way I cans fight them? How does I build armies?

No offence, but I think you really need to try the tutorial mode...

[civverguy]

Originally Posted by Stuck in Pi

My suggestion: Don't play BI, play RTW as Egypt (when you unlock it)! Much more fun having the best phalanxes (other than Spartans) and archers in the game, and you don't have to deal with hordes!!

Why don't you just unlock all the faction by yourself or play a mod which has all the faction? I don't get why people just do that instead of trying to unlock it.
And Egypt does not have the best archers in the game. That's Scythia. The Seleucid and Macedonians probably have better phalanxes too.

[Stuck in Pi]

Apparently you've never seen pharoah's bowman starting out with 3 armor and xp, and 2 attack upgrades. They cut down even roman legions pretty well. And I've never seen Scythia's archers, they're normally dead before I get anywhere near there. Parthia has the best horse archers. Also, the Seleucids do have some of the best units in the game (I forgot about their phalanxes), but in Single Player, everybody declares war on them. The only time I've seen them do well is when they evacuated to three islands and stayed there until they invaded Greece.

[Neato]

Backwards Logic - Hey thanks for the response. My questions were actually supposed to be jokes, because I thought you were joking with me in your first post - I guess I thought that the bad grammar would give me away! In any case, thanks for the advice, I wouldn't have known that about hordes, so I did learn something.

I'm finding the game very engaging, but very difficult. Economy keeps wavering and it's hard to make certain cities grow. I'm also trying to figure out how to defend certain cities and provide other ones with generals/gov'ners (who's traits are almost all for the most part questionable). Civilizations are all over the place forming and breaking alliances like they're cheap glass (very confusing coming from a Civ background). My gf feels like she's lost me to this puzzle, but I refuse to give up before I figure some of this out, wow.

[Backwards Logic]

What faction are you playing as? Generally, regardless of who I'm playing as, the first few builds in all of my cities are economy related (markets, ports, roads, farms (farms are VERY good. They give you a bonus in income and in growth)). Once they get built, the rest of the game falls in line for me. As for the governors, well, I don't worry too much about who should govern where. As you said, most of them are bad early, but academies are nice to help start boosting their traits. I typically use them as generals in my armies, hoping they become somewhat decent through battle.
Yea, alliances aren't to be trusted at all. It's more of a temporary nap than anything else. Regardless of who you pick as a 'friend,' chances are they'll invade you at some point.

[Neato]

I'm playing as the Brutii - taking advantage of the temples to Mercury and Mars. That and I like the color green. Like in Civ, I was building for the long term, especially for economy, so I always start by building roads, farms, and ports. My main cities are starting to take off, so Academies will follow, but some smaller cities are crawling along. I think at this point I have three "main armies" doing my dirty work, most of my other gen/gov'ners are in cities - I only have a couple cities that don't have a gov'ner. My gov'ners are getting better at managing and influence, but most of them have picked up some rather unsavory traits as well, neutralizing some, if not all, of the good ones (I guess they're 'that' kind of family). We're doing fairly well in terms of the senate (got a few offices) and we're getting there with the people. I like the big boosts you get after conquering a city and enslaving people - it's a rush.

Does breaking an alliance by going to war with an allied cause you to look bad/untrustworthy in the rest of the world's eyes or just the ex-ally? Also, in these beginning to mid stages, in what regard should I be paying attention to the other roman families and senate? Finally, diplomats - is there a lot of time when they really have nothing to do (also, doesn't kind of suck when you forget where you placed a diplomat or spy or when you just completely forget them because the game doesn't cycle through them?)?

Thanks for the unexpected advice!

[Traitorfish]

Originally Posted by Neato

Also, in these beginning to mid stages, in what regard should I be paying attention to the other roman families and senate?

Not too much- at this point, it's basically a rush to see who can grab the most territory from non-Roman factions. All you need to watch them for is the chance that they could steal potential conquests, e.g. watch for the Julii moving into the northern Balkans.
They don't actually become a direct threat until the late game, when you become powerful enough to start a civil war.

[demokratickid]

Being a vetern of the Total war series, I have one piece of advice to give, whilst dealing with hordes. Whatever you do, DO NOT attack them in the open field. In RTW, Barbarian Invasion, I was playing as the Visigoths, and held off the Ostrogoth hordes and the Vandal horeds in a mere 20 turns, while losing no cities. Perhaps it was luck, or a recent build up of troops to attack the Eastern Roman Empire, I'm not sure. But, never attack in the open field, because 9 times out of 10, they will kill you with horrific loses...

As for the Brutii, Your main enemies are the Julii. The Scipii normally don't balloon into as much space as the Julii. When you, as you inevitably will, conquer Greece, make this area your 'richpot' as I call it. Make this area the best, because it will serve you well in the latter Civil wars. As Tratorfish said, the normal moves for the Julii are into the Balkans. First, however, they focus more on Gaul. If this is the case, I would advise taking as much of the Balkans as possible in thee shortest time possibe, but not before Greece is annexed into your realm. I hope my advice is good! Let me knw if you can use any of it!

[Stuck in Pi]

Once, while playing as the Julii, the Brutti and Scippi both failed at getting their first targets and got stuck to their starting two cities. I wiped out the barbs to the north, then Greece, then conquered Rome.

[Backwards Logic]

Breaking an alliance makes you look bad with everybody. The other Roman factions won't attack you unless you attack them or the Senate. Typically, I just wait for my other alliances to break it with me, then I attack them. Usually, you can tell when it is going to happen. I always keep spies in border territories and when I see either 1 or 2 big armies heading my way or a bunch of little ones, I know I better raise the armies. And what demokratickid said is absolutely correct: Grab as much of Greece as possible. I usually start at Thermon or Larrissa, then work my way South towards Sparta. This cuts the Greeks in half, so when they try to reinforce their southern cities, they have to go through armies in the newly captured ones. Sometimes if I have an army to spare, I'll send i north along the coastline towards Salona and Segestica to see if I can steal them from the Julii (while the cities are still rebel of course). Then later, I'll have a few different options for attacking during the civil war.

[Stuck in Pi]

On Medium (what I play at), BL is right, you can tell when you will be attacked by a CPU. One bad thing about the Julii is that the cities you capture from gaul and germania are all Minor Cities at best and hurts your retraining. Also, the Brutti have to go through phalanxes of Greece and Macedon, which at any level higher than militia can be a PAIN.