Help a Rome: TW newbie

[Keroro]

The Extended Greek Mod is very good if you want more flavour to the Greek factions. It is also updated with simply amazing frequency, more and more features are getting packed in to the mod every release. The creator has put in some Provincial campaigns too, where you can control a single city state and try to build up a nation from there. I just completed a campaign as Epirus, and have played as Syracuse before as well. I'm thinking of taking on a Massilia campaign next.

EDIT - Oh, and as a mod that's still in active development, the mod supports both the BI and Alexander .exe versions. The Alexander AI is significantly tougher in my experience, YMMV.

 

[NoMSG1140]

the big problem with TR is that it is based on the 1.2 or 1.3 patch and it ain´t compatible with BI... Roma Surrectum is, and you can play both night fights and swim across rivers... yes, I also thought it was a good mod, but in comparison it´s out of date...


of course, I haven´t looked for updates for a while, because there hadn´t come any for a loong time when the RS appeared...

Total Realism is now fully updated to R:TW 1.5 and the platinum edition is based on BI 1.6, look them up on the Total War Center Forums, They are working on their latest version of the Mod and introducing mini campaigns until they have finished.

 

[Atticus]

My question doesn't warrant it's own thread, so I'll just ask it here:
Are only Roman factions playable in vanilla RTW?

Also, I suppose Bruti are harder than Julii and Scipios harder than Brutii, am I right?

 

[Keroro]

My question doesn't warrant it's own thread, so I'll just ask it here:
Are only Roman factions playable in vanilla RTW?

Also, I suppose Bruti are harder than Julii and Scipios harder than Brutii, am I right?

No, there are a number of other factions available - Macedon, Greeks, Carthage, Ptolomies, Seleukids and a number of barbarian factions. Some are available from the start, some can be unlocked following a sucessful campaign.

As for the ease of play - to be honest it will all depend on you style of play. I always found the Scipii (or Scipiones) to be easiest, but most people seem to prefer the Julii. My favourites are the Seleukids though.

 

[Atticus]

Ok, I haven't yet finished my game with Julii, and therefore not really put effort in finding the way to play other factions, but what should I choose from the menu then? Imperial campaign is just the Romans, right?

 

[Keroro]

It's a very long time ago since I went through this myself. IIRC you need to finish a Roman campaign, and then you should get the options for other factions on the Imperial Campaign screen. The Imp Campaign is not just Romans - it relates to any faction.

 

[Atticus]

Ok. Thanks!

 

[Icaria909]

Seeing as this is a thread for newbie players, i just want to ask my own newbie question. In all my total war games i hit economic depressions. I do what everyone has said, build roads, ports, markets, etc.., but there reaches a point anyways where i run a huge deficit and the only way to jump start my economy is to declare a massive war against another huge faction and conquer their best cities to pay for my over expensive ones. I know it's the classic roman tactic for solving economic problems, but i want to know if there is anything else i can do to keep my economy running consistantly smoothly without being trapped in a huge war?

 

[LightSpectra]

Seeing as this is a thread for newbie players, i just want to ask my own newbie question. In all my total war games i hit economic depressions. I do what everyone has said, build roads, ports, markets, etc.., but there reaches a point anyways where i run a huge deficit and the only way to jump start my economy is to declare a massive war against another huge faction and conquer their best cities to pay for my over expensive ones. I know it's the classic roman tactic for solving economic problems, but i want to know if there is anything else i can do to keep my economy running consistantly smoothly without being trapped in a huge war?

If "manage every settlement" isn't on, turn it on.

Whenever an economic building is available (roads, ports, markets, mines), build them. Build them first. If you get desperate in R:TW, smash all of your temples that don't provide a trade bonus, and then build the temples that give a trade bonus.

Tax every city as high as you possibly can (i.e. until the faces hit red). If you've already built every other economic building, build happiness-inducing buildings so that you can tax more.

In the cities in the middle of your empire (i.e. not under any danger of attack), you only need two or three garrison troops.

Try selling your map information. On the same line of thought, send a diplomat on journeys and get trade rights from every single faction. Selling your trade rights and map information can get up to 1500 denarii in Rome and 2000 gold in Medieval II.

In Medieval II, transform all of the settlements that aren't in the line of fire into cities. The only settlements that need to be castles are (a) the ones on your borders with factions likely to go to war with you, and (b) tiny islands that get invaded often.

Also, in Medieval II, if you're in a civilization that's in the desert, put your merchants on every gold resource. You get can get 1000 gold from each merchant every turn if you leave them there.

 

[Traitorfish]

Tax every city as high as you possibly can (i.e. until the faces hit red).

Not always a good idea. This can heavily impact the growth of your settlements, especially in the early game before you have a chance to build up farmlands, and limit their economic potential. You just have to get the knack of balancing your income against desired growth. Make sure you have enough to support your armies a with a bit left over for construction, but don't just try and squeeze your cities for all their worth. You'll never get to the larger settlement types of you keep your settlements with 4-figure populations.

 

[LightSpectra]

Population only becomes a problem when you start facing enormous wars, which I try to avoid in the first ~10 rounds of the game.

 

[Icaria909]

Thanks for the suggestions, but also how do i balance growth with taxes. For instance, when i play as the julii in R:TW, i conquer Gual and then spain (and sometimes Britain) and i am left with a lot of worthless territory (because of the little populations there), but by the time I have all this territory my core cities (cities that used to provide for my financial and militaristic needs) become unbearably expensive and to keep my empire afloat i tax the small villages until there is almost no growth. Eventually, my empire is in stagnation because there is no growth, decreasing taxes and my core cities keep getting more and more expensive to maintain (haven't tried the temple thing yet though...). How do i manage keeping up pop growth in newly conquered territory while keeping my finances in order? BTW, is there a way to keep my city expences down in the later part of the game?

 

[LightSpectra]

Territories with no buildings and only 300 pop, set to low taxes. Build farms as they become available.

 

[Traitorfish]

...my core cities (cities that used to provide for my financial and militaristic needs) become unbearably expensive... BTW, is there a way to keep my city expences down in the later part of the game?

I think you may suffer from a slight misconception here. The cities do not generate costs themselves, at least not if you discount the "corruption" loss based on distance from capital. The "costs" shown represent army upkeep and wages for officers and agents. For some reason, CA felt it necessary to implement a system which attempted to distribute these costs based on settlement population, but all this did was create the misleading impression that larger cities were somehow expensive, rather than economically productive, as well as ruining the possibility of at-a-glance economic evaluation. Happily, they amended this in Medieval 2, but for Rome players it's still a nuisance.

Just make sure that your cities are as large and prosperous as you can get, building farms, economic and public order-improving buildings, leaving military production to a core of larger cities. Remember that larger cities, especially when away from your capital, need strong "police force" garrisons. Basic units- Town Watch, Militia Hoplites, etc. are generally preferable, as the effect of a garrison on public order is based purely on numbers, and they represent a cheap unit that can still be expected to serve some use if called to fight, unlike the practically useless peasants, who, at best, can be used to cheaply bulk the garrison of a particularly awkward city.
The corruption loss is unavoidable, but you can minimise it's effect by shifting your capital around a bit to attain the most favourable results. A central position helps, but so can keeping reasonably close to your "core" cities which have more to lose.

 

[WumpusCivName]

My question doesn't warrant it's own thread, so I'll just ask it here:
Are only Roman factions playable in vanilla RTW?

QUOTE]

The answer, noble Atticus, is NO and YES. No, because there are plentiful other factions to play in Rome:TW; Yes because you have to complete a Roman faction's campaign first, before you unlock other ones. This is the biggest reason why I continue to play R:TW, even if there are now Medieval2:TW and very soon (Feb) there will be Empire:Total War--because I have a wide choice of factions to play and because there is a vast field of expansions and mods which can offer even more factions than vanilla R:TW, such as the Barbarian Invasion and Alexander expansions, plus the mods Extended Greek Mod, Europa Barbarorum (now in version 1.2), etc. Me, personally, I prefer to play Greek because my style of play is defensive and somewhat static, and I prefer to use spies and assassins nearly as often as my phallanxes to conquer the world. All in all, it's fun that I get. Have fun too.

 

[Keroro]

For a good economy, it's important to keep your lands free from barbarian stacks. You know those little groups of rebels that spawn occasionally and block your roads - well they block trade too, so make sure that you kill them off quickly. Try to keep you cities at around 100% happiness; any lower and you'll end up with more rebels spawning and your income dropping. Take a good look at the Governors that you have in your bigger cities; if you have characters with good traits then they can make several thousand denarii per turn. Finally, if you have a lot of coastal cities then make sure you have ports and markets built up as high as you can and sign trade rights with the other factions with coastal territories - your ports can be a massive source of income.

As Traitorfish says, don't be fooled by the figures you see on the main campaign screen. To find out which settlements are really productive you need to go into the advanced details screen from the settlement display - that's where you can see the city's income balanced against your military costs. Other than that it sounds like you know what you're doing.

 

[Atticus]

Thanks to you too, WumpusCivName!

It seems I'm going to take quite a while with this game too, since the campaigns last so long (all the better). Much more fun to play old game which runs smoothly than new which your computer can't handle anyway.

 

[kibbles]

Hmmm, reminds me of a game I once played as Macedon, Athens made nearly 6000+ a turn, even though it was my largest city. But yes, port cities and naval trade in general is the secret to wealth. Be careful of becoming to rich though, apparently 50,000 or greater denarii will give your mayors negative traits. To prevent this I usually just train more units, whether it be a new massive navy or another conquering army.

 

[Stuck in Pi]

so that's why in my seleucid game where I have 1 million plus denarii and all my generals are corrupt...

That explains so much...

 

[kibbles]

so that's why in my seleucid game where I have 1 million plus denarii and all my generals are corrupt...

That explains so much...

I actually did't know that until relatively recently as well!