Rise of Rome strategy

[Padmewan]

Not bad, it looks like you ended up with almost a historically accurate map there.

I managed to leave the Celts completely alone. Taking out Carthage directly led me to a long, hard slog -- the logistics of transporting troops out of Italy to North Africa is heinous even if you have the Lighthouse. (Next time I will build a city on the tip of the book so I can transport from Italy to N.Africa in one move).

Macedon declared war on me for no reason, and I was forced to take them almost all out. I left them with one city (they were holding the chokepoint with Persia) and then did my best to block all their enemies from attacking. (The problem with AI civ's is that they kinda go nuts when they're really down -- maybe not so inaccurate in real life terms?).

After wiping out Carthage I had 4 armies -- 2 of Legionaries II and 2 of III. Persia was heading down the abyss when I got Domination.

Very fun scenario. Now I'm working on undoing it as the Celts

 

[flashbacck]

Originally posted by chill888
I agree with the previous threads.

Here's how I won on emperor:

3. Use these two cities to get the two wonders that give Barracks...

which wonder is that?

 

[Nihilist]

I thought Statue of Zeus gave barracks in this scenario.

 

[GrandpaCat]

I just can't seem to get ahead in this conquest.

I am playing on regent (normal AI aggression). I had conquered Sicily and Sardinia from the Carthaginians (no razing), but at about the time I got Legionary III's (Republic), all the AI powers had signed a mess of MA's against me--I was at war with everyone. Even the Hellenes to the west broke our MA vs. Carthage to attack me.

I restarted the scenario today on regent but with less AI aggression. I took Sicily immediately but it is being swarmed with galleys who land troops, so I am having trouble keeping up with the logistics of keeping legionaries over there. I'm tooling up to take Sardinia right now. I have also been at war with the Celts since the second or third turn and have since reduced them to only a handful of cities... so far so good overall.

From the replies here it doesn't sound like anyone else had my problem

 

[Padmewan]

What I've done every time is move my troops out of my city in Sicily just outside the Carthaginian city to be able to attack next turn, then ferry Legions over from the Boot. I also saved Caeser for the Legions II (which was the first thing I researched). You also HAVE to keep your neighbors happy (until you're ready to kill them, that is). In fact, I never fought a real war with the Celts, which isn't maybe how it's supposed to go.

Then again, I was playing Regent on moderate aggression.

As others have said -- Lighthouse is essential!

 

[danoh]

Remember Rome has very limited tech needs to win the scenario. At most you need to get to Imperium for the best form of govt. and Engineering for bridges. You have no need for Monotheism, Education, Astronomy or Siegecraft. At minimum you just need Tactics. Yeah, Legion III is better, but Legion II is enough, so theoretically you could research tactics at the start and then shut off all science for the rest of the game and just crank out the legions. Being 2 advances ahead you'll be able to trade with someone like the Greeks for a couple advances, like mathematics for literature and then maybe currency for construction or philosophy. With all the money you will make running no science you can buy additional techs off Greece as they research them. Seen another way, if all nations started with all the tech, Rome would benefit the most since nothing in the game compares with Legion III so trade or buy for every tech you can.

That being said, I usually go for Literature first, then get to philosophy first and take construction for the free advance. Once I get to Imperium and Engineering, all science is irrelevant and under Imperium Rome will rake in the cash to build more Leg. IIIs.

Some speak of waiting until you get Leg. II to build an army with Caesar, but I fill him up with Leg. I at the start, and use this first army to take Sicily/Sardinia and Corsica from Carthage. Then that army stays in Sicily to defend. After building markets and libraries in all the core towns, they then crank out Legions and you should have enough troops to take on the world.

Rome starts with 4 citizens. I use three to build towns in Northern Italy and the 4th out of Neapolis builds NE of that town on the east side of Italy. All these towns are placed on hill squares, which makes their defense stronger when war comes in the north.

The difficult choice I face is whether or not to hit the Celts early and hard, or keep the Carthage offensive going and move the war to North Africa before I expand into France. Conservative play seems to be hitting Carthage early and often, and beat this most formidable opponent down until he's out. I bypass Sardinia/Corsica to get my North African campaign going early. On the other hand, if you take Sicily first (a must) then stop, a rush of legions should be able to remove the Celts from France and give you one less opponent to worry about.

The "must" wonder is Temple of Artemis, followed by the Lighthouse and of course the heroic age wonder. Hadrian's Wall is also nice, but you can get by with just the Temple and the Heroic. On Regent I can usually also reel in the Colossus and the Mausoleum, but they are not necessary.

 

[Global Nexus]

Okay, this is all well and good, but does anyone have any strategies for winning the scenario AS CARTHAGE? I've tried, but I'm not overly good when it comes to dealing with pre-established infrastructure and military, you see. I'm a builder, so with the building part of the game dissipated really, and I'm thrust into a position I find...uhm...difficult. And, from what I gather, Carthage is one of the harder civilizations to play. So...uhm...help on strategies for beating back Rome and making Carthage dominate all? oo;

 

[The Economist]

I've recently beaten it on Emperor as Rome.

Its harder as Carthage. Being a builder and conquering a lot aren't usually very compatible. I myself have had to try very hard to be more "dynamic". That's my word for building the buildings you need in the cities you need them in, and the military units you need and moving them to the places you need them to do what you need them to do.

As Carthage, you've got a big disadvantage in terms of the UU strength. Eventually the legions get to be 6/5, and your elephants are only 4/2. But, they're less expensive, and they're faster. You need to hold on to Siscily if possible, let Corsica and the other one be overrun. Its inevitable, just accept that you can't have those two for now. The *critical* thing to defeating Rome is knocking out Roma and the other big powerhouse cities. Burn them if you can't hold them.

Remember that Rome's advantage in military means that it might have a tendancy to bite off more than it can chew. Use this to your advantage, and aggresively seek to ally with other countries against Rome. Don't let them land any galleys on your mainland and/or Sicily.

You'll need to build many war elephants to be successful. Do not- I repeat, do not make those 5/2/2 horsemen calvary type units. Your war elephants have an extra hitpoint, which more than offsets their slightly lower attack value. The AI is idiotic and always stops making the war elephants ASAP, which screws it over a lot.

You should build up some Numidian Mercenaries for defense in cities where you think you might need it. Anything near Rome definitely needs to be protected. If you lose Scisily, you MUST garrison Carthigo heavily, as the Romans will certainly be knocking at your door shortly after.

I recommend an aggressive military campaign to secure Sicily, control the seas, then take Italy by storm. Meanwhile, have a few less productive cities pump settlers and expand eastward towards Egypt. The land sucks, but that doesn't matter. You just want the higher land % and population. Expand in Spain and start to creep towards France. Get the Celts and the Macedonians against the Romans and you should be able to pull it off if you do all that at the same time.

As for wonders, you really really really really really want the Lighthouse. The one that adds temples is the most important one though. It makes the Conquest go MUCH more smoothly. The other wonders shouldn't be worried about, except perhaps the one that adds all the walls. Trust me, its useful to have to defend your little cities.

Finally, go to war and obliterate the Egyptians once you're near enough to do that. They're pushovers because they don't have any good units, just spearmen, archers, warriors and the like.

Good luck!

 

[rabies]

I just beat this one the other day on DemiGod as Rome. Not too tough at all - the Romans have huge advantages. Legion 3 armies (I had 8 of them by the end) are insanely powerful. The only wonder I built was Artemis, which I would consider crucial at the higher levels. Lighthouse would have been nice, but It didn't prevent me from winning. Besides, at the difficulty level I was playing, Carthage and Macedon had huge navies - I was never a threat to them at sea.

I'll go back to this one and try from another Civs start. The key there, I think, would simply be to get everybody else against Rome, and focus yourself on taking easier targets (Egypt for example if you are carthage, than Persia) - and simply hold Rome off. This would probably mean giving up your cities in Spain and maybe the islands. That would force Rome to launch invasions by sea...and we all now how badly the AI does that.

 

[Arathorn]

Might I suggest reading some games of people who are playing all 4 main positions in deity-difficulty level Succession Games? There are some discussions of strategy and some good gameplay in these.

Carthage: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68811
Persia: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68841 (already won)
Rome: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=68918
Macedonia: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70382

Persia has already won and Macedonia is in a great position. Rome's doing very well and Carthage is struggling a bit, but is also doing very well. It's quite possible all four will end with domination victories. You might learn a lot from these.

Arathorn

 

[Global Nexus]

Thank you very much for the advice The Economist. ^_^ And an equal thanks to Arathorn, as I'm sure I'll find the link to the Carthage game useful. ^_^

 

[Sukenis]

Personally, I hated this conquest. I played Rome and took out Carthage with little trouble. Trying to micro manage the civ to get the 20% land and 50% pop was a killer. Easy to do, but boring and time consuming.

Fall of Rome is much more enjoyable though

 

[danoh]

Arathorn's suggestion to read the diety-level succesion game threads was VERY helpful. Viewing success at this level has taught me

1) how irrelevant wonder-building can be. Yeah, it's nice to have Artemis, but even w/o that you can win.

2) the importance of micro-management. It's tedious but greatly increases your produtivity.

3) the enormous profits one can rake in by trading intelligently with the AI.

4) how truly incompetent the AI is, especially militarily.

Since I find micro-management boring and have too much fun building wonders, I'll stick with Regent, but there is a lot to be learned by reading through those 4 games.