Rome Total War - A deity journal

Hi everyone;
I am a loooong time lurker here who just creat an account recently. Im not very confident with my English so I rarely make posts or comments. However, I really like the community here and decided to share one of my game with you guys as a photojournal. I hope my English is understandable .
As the title suggest, I play Rome with the lattest patch. I just have to find out how broken Rome is with the new change . Here is some of my though on Rome:

Spoiler Rome :

Roman - The Glory of Rome: When you conquer a City, the City retains all valid Buildings and you immediately acquire additional territory around the City. +15% Production towards Buildings present in the Capital.
Rome UA is very useful when playing wide. It makes conquered and secondary cities of Rome very strong when compare to other civs which leads to many benefits. Now with the ability to capture even Nation Wonder, Rome is even stronger.
Legion, replaces Swordsman.
+2 Combat. Can build roads and forts. Starts with the Cover I Promotion.
The Legion is not as attractive as other UUs I must say. But they do have their use. They are good defensive unit and they can build road connect newly conquered cities. The Cover I Promo is actually useful since I can upgrade them to Stalwart Cover II infantry later. The problem with Legion is their tech path. Its normally not a good idea to beeline to get them since you gonna delay your library for too long and end up behind in tech. Its still a good UU though.
Colosseum, replaces Arena.
3 Culture, 3 Production, 2 Tourism.
Gain +5 Great General or Great Admiral points and +5 Golden Age points when you destroy an enemy unit. City connections produce +2% more Gold. +2 Production for Barracks, Forge and Armory. Nearby Perfume provide +2 Culture, and Olives +1 Food and +1 Gold. Reduces Boredom Slightly.
I really like the colosseum because it compliment wide play style of Rome very well. Extra culture, extra hammer, extra gold are all very good for wide empire, but the GG, GA and Golden Age Point on kills are what make the Colosseum very interesting. The last time I play Rome, I have so many GG and GA I dont know what to do with them . My Golden Age is permanent from Renaissance. Really strong UB.

Game Setting

Spoiler Game Setting :

For game setting, I use only basic VP without any other modmod
I play on Standard (8 Civs, 16 CS) Planet Simulator Map, Continents, Strategic Balance, add one more Civ.
Civs are set to random. Ruin, Events, Research Agreement, Tech trade are off, Transparent diplo... other are set to default.
I play on Deity, Epic game pace.

My game plan:

Spoiler My game plan: :

Well, TOTAL WAR and DOMINATION because ROME

My start:

Spoiler My start: :

Here is my start
Its a strong start with alot of production. I think I will be able to get an early wonder or two. I decided to move to the hill so I get extra hammer and I can work the lake tile immediately.
Cool, an extra pathfinder, Its actually the first time I get one. Seem like a very lucky start for me yay.

I will update with more parts soon. Hope you guys enjoy it

 

Your English is just fine, and welcome to the boards

 

I have some turns in, had couple of wars. I could say conquest is much harder than before because of the war weariness. I had to make a truce multiple times now when I finally have the upper hand vs AI. Without careful preparation you could even be forced to make peace before capturing any city. And the new naval promotion cause me a lot of trouble too.

 

This is without the hotfix right? So are you going to update (not sure if it's savegame compatible) or keep going?

 

In vanilla, cities on hills get a free production. In NQ, flat land cities gain an extra food so all cities have base 4 yield. I kinda took it for granted, but I presume VP goes with vanilla?

 

Cities on fresh water get +1 food, cities on hills without fresh water get +1 production, all other cities get +1 gold.

 

I hit renaissance already so I will continue withou the hotfix unfortunately

 

Hot fix is compatible, unless explicitly stated otherwise, though they won't always fix what has already happened in a save.

 

Hills get +1 production regardless of fresh water or not. Only flat cities get +1 food or gold for fresh water or no fresh water, respectively.

 

Part 2 of my photojournal.
I have kinda an interesting game so I too focus to the game and did a very poor job on taking pictures.. Actually, I hardly took any pictures at all, I will be more careful in later parts.

Spoiler My Continent :

Here is some pictures on turn 237. I forgot to take pictures in the early game.
There are Sweden, The Shoshone, Denmark, and Korea on my Continent. Their locations are in the pictures:
I rush to settled 5 cities before Imperium to cover the strategic locations so there is a settler siting in my Capital
Its really important to settle the important land to creat choke points to defend, especially against Denmark and Sweden since those guys are very agressive, the Shoshone is an infamous forward settling civ too.

Spoiler Early game :

Im very sorry but I dont have any pictures in the early game at all...
Since I have Tea Monopoly, and a good production start, AND 2 pathfinders which is very helpful. I decided to tech potery first and grab Stonehenge. Its a good wonder overall and its come with a free council too. Build order is monument => 1 turn of farming for the tech to finish => Stonehenge. In the mean time I use 2 pathfinders to steal 2 workers, one from Shoshone and one from Denmark. The debuff will wear off right at the time I have Calender so I can Improve my Tea.
For Pantheon, I took Goddess of Springtime for extra food/growth and gold for my army. After Calendar, I tech straight to Writing for Market and Library. Get those markets asap in my cities is very important if I was able to found a religion or not. In my capital, after Stonehenge, I just spam settler then time the shrine to finish just before Trade so I get a Market, then continue to build settler to writing and then build a Library. There are some unmeet civ who are extreme fast with early tech, one got into Classical right at the time I finish Calendar (possible because city states quest). So im not very confident on getting Great Library.I buy several Archers thanks to the gold from Plantations and early markets to fight Barbs mostly. As Policies, I go Authority and then Dominance for science, then Discipline for Happiness and cultures since I delicate my cities to building in the early game so I have many unimproved tile, no road until Legion so happiness will be a problem.
Build order in secondary cities are monument => shrine => market => library cause I really need faith and science. After that I get wall for my coastal cities asap because Sweden WILL attack me soon, im their only target. Then barrack, forge and colloseum.

Spoiler First War :

My first war was with Korea.
Because of that one more Worker
I keep fighting between these moutains for sometimes to farm their units and then Korea settle a new city.
I have a quest to conquer Pyongyang so why not. I move my very modest army toward it. There were all purchased units because my capital is busy produce building and settler.
The war dragged for quite sometimes, Korea it putting a very good fight but I manage to kill a lot of their unit for culture and science.
After Writing, I tech straight to LEGION, and when I get my first legion
It was one melee hit of the legion to the city . However...
Yeah those sneaky bastards. But little did they know all my cities now have walls and archers stationed 24/7 AND LEGION ARE COMING FOR YOU. I saw this .

That will be it for now, I will update later. Thank you guys for watching

 

How big is anti-warmonger score?
Also can you post more info, how AI research techs\policies. Good job anyway.

 

Part 3 is coming:
I could say that in this patch, Conquest go much slower than before. War weariness go up a lot faster than previous patch it force player to make peace. Its a real problem since I aim for Domination Victory and there are some run away in the game, if im not conquer fast enough I will not make it.

Spoiler PYONGYANG Falls :

Soon After my First Legio came, Pyongyang fall to the might of my soldier. It has a market, granary, monument and shrine, notthing special. I will take this for now since its extra building anyway, the shrine will shorten my prophet by a turn or two. I annex Pyongyang to queue a Walls and a Barracks because I need unit supply. I cleaned Korea leftover troops near PyongYang and make a peace treaty with some gold and 2 lux with them. I left my legion and an archer here, legion will build road when archers being the garrison.

Spoiler Got my religion :

I found my Religion on turn 156. I got the last religion but suprisingly I have the only religion on my continent. However, not many belief is available. I picked Way of Transcendence because I will be able to spread to my continent, and Veneration for extra faith. I have gold from pantheon and from conquest so I can buy unit, extra xp at this stage of the game is just 1 promotion so I dont care much. I also need roads and iprovement in my cities because I have negative Happiness already so I buy a few workers. Masonry is about to finish just in time for some bigger war so I build Colloseum in all of my cities right after that.

Spoiler Unmet player becomes a problem :

Yes an unmet Civ has entered Medieval when I was still researching Engineering. I highly doubt that a religious civ who picked Coucil of Elder because they will get alot of science from spreading and its not a good sight. Fortunately I managed to found and pick way of transcendence which is strong too and I will be able to spread my continent so I will be able to catch up. On my continent, The Shoshone who went Progress (and already unlocked Artistry...) have both the tech and culture lead, Korea went Authority... and falling behind greatly. Denmark and Sweden booth went Authoriy and have about the same techs count as me. I check tech cost and none of my met civs have engineering yet so I though I will get a shot on greet wall. Its a nice wonder but the main reason why I want it is I dont want Shoshone to get it. It will be very troublesome. Meanwhile, Im moving my troop toward Sweden.

Spoiler My capital :

My Capital has quite a few nice tiles with productions. With the road being built and improvement connected, my happiness slowly get into possitive. I send my trade route to City States to complete quests for now. I can complete great wall in just 10 turn, I have the spare gold so I invest to make it even shorter. I teching to Philosophy to be able to build Courthouse in my newly conquered cities. I work all the specialist slot with science because I already behind and my capital starting to have notthing to build.

Spoiler Taking Zurich :

Zurich in on the way to both Sweden and Denmark so I decided to take it. Denmark sign a peace treaty after feeding some of their units to my Legion and I dont mind to take some gold and lux. I forgot to take pictures though. Sweden still being sturborn so I will punish them by taking their Capital. My invading army is not very impressive, just 3 archers and 3 legions but they fight very effectively. I get Medic 2 on one of my archer, an other aim for Logistic and the last one go for Range. My Legion got Cover II ASAP and go for Stalwart. They are extremely tanky and I can occasionally actacking city with them then heal up with Medic. I slowly build my navy in my two coastal cities. With the desert and lack of land space, I doubt that I can take Sweden cities without winning at sea.

Spoiler Zurich Falls :

Zurich is no match to the might of my legion, the city soon fall under my conquest. I complete a quest for conquering Zurich too so its all good. Zurich have quite a few building, It also have the Palace which supprised me. I was very far into the game before the hotfix so I think I will keep playing and complete as it is. And I have wall on my conquered city too, that is very cool, very powerful in my opinion. It reduce the risk of AI retaking city greatly. Very useful. Now I have Zurich, its time to give Sweden some punishment.

Spoiler Advance to Stockholm :

Im moving my little Army to Stockholm, newly trained Legions are building road, My Fleet is coming in the play and I killed quite a few Sweden ship who were harashing my cities. AI in VP is very smart with Fog and visibility, I have to give my admiration to the maker of this mod, AI fight so much better compared to Vanila. As you can see in the picture, there are only few spearman and archer and just 2 Dromon which I can see, but in the fog I know they are hiding several Horseman, more Archer and Catapult and Trireme and more Dromon at sea. So I advance with caution, I dont want to lose units.

Spoiler The naval battle :

While my Army was advancing slowly, I tried to push using my navy. However, It seem much harder than I though. The reason is the new promotion. You can see in the picture, My trireme was hit by 2 different Boarded trireme of Sweden and I have zero movement left. I cannot withdraw and I cannot possition my Dromon to get an attack. I lost 2 triremes because of that but I still kill more. But I know they still have many left. I made some progress, I was winning but slowly and I dont fell very good about that. Meanwhile, I tech to Chilvary to get into Medieval, I want to build Alhambra since Authority and Knight will be great.

Spoiler Enhance My Religion :

I spend faith for missionary to convert first, and got enhancement on the turn I hit medieval because of Way of the Transcendence. Again, not much is available, I pick Diligence and Zealotry because really nothing more useful is available. I can faith buy some units and the production will help my infrastructure I guess.

Spoiler Denmark Being Nice :

Yeah, so nice of them. They declared right at the turn I enter Medieval and berserkers just poped out from no where, almost killed my legions who was building road. Look like someone is looking for a punishment. I dont mind giving those sadistic bastards another spanking though.

This is it. Thanks guys for wasting your time reading .

 

Nice to see the updated UA and the Boarding Party promotions in action.

How is the UB and the Legion? Rome is the best civ at Citadel/Great Wall strats-you fortify a legion in/next to a Citadel and combine the -30 damage from a citadel with the -10 damage (stacking) of the Pilum. Legions are the tankiest early UU, and have a good lifespan. Colosseums can provide Generals for Citadels.

What policy tree did you go (or are planning to go) after Authority?

I often wonder whether it's better to go Progress or Authority as Rome. Rome is a slow-moving, grindy, infrastructure civ that I think is suited well to Progress. Plus the fort/road building during wartime is sped up by Progress (could try to go for Pyramids as Rome!).

However hardcore warmongering goes better as Authority. I think it's a matter of who you have as neighbours for the most part.

It's going to be fun to see the UA pre-hotfix.

You delayed the Colosseum an awful lot apparently, what I roughly try to do (adjust for Pantheon etc.) is go (Shrine)--->Monument --> Barracks ---> Colosseum (if I unlock Masonry and I'm still building a Barracks, I switch to Colosseum). The Colosseum provides Culture/Production, the two yields which are probably the most important early on. I always rush Masonry after grabbing maybe grabbing Calendar (for Pyramids), Bronze Working and/or Trapping (if I have a Furs/Ivory start) and then go for Iron Working.

I frequently pick God of All Creation as Rome.

 

Thanks for your reply. In this game, I decided to go for writing because I feel I need science, there are alot of quick science civ around not to mention a run away who advanced era like crazy. Library and a scientist slot in 5 of my core cities helps alot with science. Its the shortest rout to get into classic given I go calendar for lux too.
I aim for Domination so Authority is obvious choice. I pick authority since Sweden, Denmark an Shoshone are all tough opponent too. Ive yet to try Progress Rome but I think it will be interesting.
After writing, I must get to Legion first because warring time has come. And I will be in bad shape if I didnt do so. See the Sweden and Denmark both declared war at me in the same turn. I got my legion just the right time.
IMO legions are very good, even better with fort and citadel. I hold off hordes of berserker with a lower tier unit.
I go to Masonry asap after Legion and imediately build Coloseum in all of my cities, use gold to rush if possible because its a very good building. The more cities you have the better because of GG, GA and Golden Age point. I have a lot of Great Genenal and Great Admiral so I will be able to build quite a few citadels and have a few more lux as well.
My pantheon choice works with my situation, more gold helped a lot since I can buy units, rush production and its make plantation a very good tile to work on, its also help more in founding a religion vs GoAC. I can priotising shrine and market in my cities, market is a good building to have in all situation thou.
My second tree should be Fealty. I have the only religion on my continent, I plan to go very wide and fealty compliment that.

 

Yeah, looking at your start you do have a fair number of plantations so I can see why Springtime appealed.

Going hardcore domination tends to be hard in my experience when you have Sweden/Denmark as a neighbour, won't be capturing many of their cities, so not much Science/Culture from Imperium on that front but on the other hand, you've got plenty of units to grind for Authority yields on kills. I can see arguments either way here.

Maybe I'm just a bad player but I have difficulty making Authority Rome work vs. Authority Songhai/Zulu etc. Guess I'll see how you pull it off.

I like to pick Inspiration as Rome (with the Golden Ages from Colosseum that means +20% on that culture as well). Though I haven't tried it since it's been nerfed to 1 per 3 lately.

Not sure why exactly you picked Veneration since you can't really spread to someone you've declared war on, and you haven't spread to Sweden or Denmark.

Those walls in Zurich are really handy now eh

 

Yep I play Rome both ways. They are a much more "builder" type of warring civ than many of the hard core war civs are.

On those boarding promotions. Were they knocking your movement to 1 or 0? I believe its supposed to be no less than 1 which is why I am checking.

 

I play the patch unhotfix. In this version my trireme lost all movement poitn when boarded by 2 enemy triremes, mean 4-2-2=0.
I picked veneration because I found last and there were notthing else more useful T_T

 

So far, I'm definitely enjoying to see the new changes for Rome. The slower conquest does seem to make things interesting as the AI usually has so many units to defend before you can attack their cities. Feels like holding back until you thin their ranks isn't as viable if you want to take more cities. Curious to see how the game will develop.

 

Today is weekend and I have free time so I will post another part of my photojournal. Here it is:
From this part onward, there will be warring non-stop, as I need to quickly conquer my continent so I can have time to invade other continents. Im in medieval already and I just conquered 2 cities in total, which was slow. The upside is these 2 cities were very strong, they were not a drag at all.
When I look back at my photos, I realize I miss a lot of photos on many of events happen in my games. Maybe I was too focused on the game because the war with Denmark was very intense. Berserkers are crazy strong and Denmark have A LOT OF them not to mention their HUGE navy and my navy in post war with Sweden cant make it to the front because they cannot cross ocean yet. Im in somewhat dire situation.
However this is time where my UB shine. With all of them built in my cities, each time I killed an unit, I have a lot of bonus GG and GA points. Now im already have 4 GG (1 from Great Wall) and 3 GA. The ability to build fort with Legion is a huge deal too. I contruct a fort with 2 legions, when one take too much damage I withdraw him and replace with the other, then I creat a citadel next to it and put one of my strongest Legion inside. Two legion one in Fort and one in Citadel tank all the **** throw at me and come out on top it just ridiculous while my Composite Bow, Heavy Skirmish, Knight keep killing the enemy. Sorry no picture...

Spoiler Tunsberg Falls :

Eventually, I was able to push back Denmark Army and took Tunsberg. But it was when my war weariness skyrocket. I killed a lot of Denmark unit with a rate of 3 land and 1 naval unit every turn, I didnt lose any unit in this war. The new change which add damage dealt to enemy as 50% of my own war weariness is really big. In previous patch my WW should be unnoticable at this stage of the war. I still want to take Kaupang and make a move on their Capital since I put a lot of effort in clearing their units previously. A Runestone in Tunsberg. Now I will have to remember to raze those improvemnet DENMARK STYLE .
I creat another Citadel to cut off land connection between Kaupang and Copenhagen and this spot will be useful when I attack Copenhagen as well, I earn some unit supply in the process to combat against my war wearines. However, as I killed more Denmark units, my WW continue to increase, so I was forced to sign a peace treaty. I dont dare to take a decrease of 20% growth and production in all of my Cities... In the mean time, I researched straight to compass and upgrade one of my trireme to caravel and set it to auto explore because im lazy . I repositioned my army and prepare and attack on Sweden.

Spoiler This time, I bring it to you :

Hello Sweden, its time for you to pay for your sin. This time with a much bigger army and navy so you better prepare. Shoshone was taking the opportunities to attack Denmark as I already weakened them, what a smart ass, we will be friend for now. Oh and Denmark declared on me right after Peace Treaty expired. Dont know why they do it (maybe because of the gold and lux they must pay me for peace ) but one Legion and one Heavy Skirmisher is enough to dealt with them and I dont care much. Poor little Korea who went Authority was still behind in everything .

Spoiler Reformation Belief :

I picked Crusade Spirit for obvious reasons.

Spoiler Bluetooth is a chicken? :

Very funny, we didnt have much of a fight, he occasionally send 1 or 2 Berserkers to attack my Legion in Citadel and I killed them. I still focus on the war with Sweden so I just take the gold and lux, For Now.

Spoiler Stockholm Falls :

I have much better preparation this time, Stockholm was soon fallen to the might of Rome. Second School of Philosophy on my empire and Status of Zeus which will be very useful.

Spoiler Forgot to take many pictures... :

My Tech order was Compass for Caravel, then Guilds for Galeass, then I go Astronomy ASAP to get Chicken but Shoshone got it before me (so its basically mine, I purposely let him build it for me ). Latter I grab Chemistry to go for Tower of Pisa (I got it) because no other civ have the tech (checking cost) and Grocer to buff my Tea. Then Banking because I want Bank and Constabulary, I was begin to get ahead in tech so I expected lots of spies in my capital. I send my spy as Diplomat in Shoshone capital just to earn some level and he will sit in my capital all game. Then I go straight to Navigation for Frigate and later I will try to get Cruiser as soon as possible because Navy is very important playing on continents map.

Spoiler Now you get your spanking :

Helsinki is now a part of the Holy Roman Empire. Yay for the Circus Maximus, My Colloseums now are even stronger. Very funny Sweden decide to build back another School of Philosophy in 10 turns, very nice, I dont mind taking another.

Ive met all civs in the game, the other 4 civs are: America, Spain, Ethiopia, Austria all on a same continent. Globally Ethiopia is the tech leader but they just have 2 techs ahead of me so its not a big dealt. Its also explained the unmet civ who advance era very fast, must be Ethiopia with the free tech and fast religion thou. What I really worry about now is Spain who pick defender of Faith as Reform. With the ability to faith buy naval she will have a very trong navy. Out of the four capital, there is only Madrid of Spain is coastal so its probably my first target. But I dont know that yet. My top priority now is still conquer my continent, and Im slowly steady doing that.

 

Yeah the war weariness is really hitting me hard. Its an exciting change thou. Its will force the player who want Domination to make multiple fronts conquest since you literally cannot take AI cities without killing their units.