Rome Total War

[Longasc]

Personally I think that the MP part of the TW series is as much a mere addition without polish as that of Civ3.

I would not bother with that. It would be shorter than a Quickie. You might find some players at www.totalwar.org.

(If you know Shogun/MTW/Viking Invasion, you can guess that RTW will be worse for Multiplayer due to sheer speed)

 

[dgfred]

Great screenshots guys . Keep 'em coming .

 

[nonconformist]

Tip: NEVER EVER try to fight with over 2000 soldiers!

 

[Longasc]

sorry, I like to play with AA on, and as I said, Screenshots work only with AA off for some reason.

But I am confident you will soon see a dead body-littered battlefield, too...

Just get it...

 

[Longasc]

The End of the Long Campaign. As you can see, the same as in Rise of Rome: I did not mess with the Greeks, hardly with the Britons and I was for hundred years at peace with the Germans.

The most savage Battles were in the East and against Macedon, the last Faction to fall: CAVALRY units really rule in this game, and Macedon Light Lancers and Scythian Missile Archers are the only greater nuisance I encountered.

Note that the Brutii survived, with SPQR and Scipii long gone. I envy them, they were in every turn richer than me.

The following Factions got unlocked for play:

Julii, Brutii, Scipii (Standard)

Egypt (alive)
Seleucids (alive)
Parthia (alive)
Germania (alive)
Britannia (alive)

Carthage (deceased)
Gauls (the first to go...)
Greek Cities (deceased, got the leader, became Rebel Cities)

Unplayable?

Macedon (deceased in the moment of Victory - perhaps this is why they are not unlocked?)
Spain (deceased, known to be unplayable)
Thrace (deceased)
Dacia (deceased)
Numidia (deceased)

Alive:
Pontus
Armenia
Scythia

 

[Constantine]

Can you keep playing past the victory screen?

 

[Akka]

Nope by default.
But you can trick the game by using a savegame of the turn you won ^^

Longasc : Macedon is NOT playable by default (I was surprised also).
But it's VERY easy to make all the factions playable without a single problem (except for the SPQR, which is very unstable). There is a mod somewhere for this.


Cavalry is indeed strong, but not THAT much, especially when you play Rome and its uber-infantry. Were you playing in hard/expert by any chance ?

 

[Longasc]

Hard / Hard.

There is no Expert Setting, Akka, only VERY HARD.

Medium was too easy, but the AI does not get smarter, it just gets some unknown morale/fighting boni.

Cavalry Charges are still devastating. I think I already posted some pics what Cavalry did to Roman uber-Infantry. It would require Legionary Cohorts to stop such charges perhaps.

Cavalry is strongest if you CHARGE and immediatly run through, just repeat charging. Requires some MM, but is well worth it. The initial charge is for free, just encircle waiting defenders. You will probably have noticed, too, that the victims ehem enemies in the first village you attack (The Scipii have the hardest nut to crack) for the Julii and Brutii do not even react when your Archers and Velites fire at them.

Well, Akka, I will now try what I can do with Elephants to the AI.

And again, I insist that Cavalry is way to go! I wonder how Cavalry will do in WOODS, this could be their weakness.(And at least one feature that made it working into RTW)

 

[Akka]

Ah well, I used "expert" to means "very hard", MTW habit ^^

And cavalry is very powerful, it's true, but a front charge against phalanx is still a sure way to die ^^


Anyway, here are some new pics to continue with the publicity for the game ^^

Greeks besiegers slamming down the wooden wall of a town with rams.

During the assault of Carthage (under the Numidian rule at the time), my greek troops have assaulted the walls in several points, and are taking into pincers the poor defenders, who are getting slaughtered.

After conquering the walls, the phalanx march into the streets, toward the city square. Their phalanx formation is especially deadly in streets, as they can't be flanked.

A view of the strategic map of the center of my empire. You can see the crowded trade routes, bringing uncountable wealth to my mighty rule

A big battle against Numidians. Their desert infantry is waiting while the wall of hoplites is approaching.

The armies have taken position, and the greek archers are raining death upon their enemies before charging.

The same situation, but viewed from the side of the receivers.
The air is thicks with arrows, while the soldiers protect themselves with their shields.


Phalanxes advancing into streets, again.

An army of the Senate is attacking me. The lines are marchin toward each others, ready to crash into their enemies..

The Romans have charged, trying to break into melee distance, but the hoplite keep them at bay with their famous spear wall.

 

[Longasc]

Akka, you can frontally charge a Phalanx with light cavalry and the Phalanx dies.

YEAH, just set up a custom battle! You will not believe me until you have seen it!

Charge 1 Round Shield Cav or Equites, whatever, not even the strongest, in a Phalanx. Repeat till the Phalanx is dead. Frontally - not from the side, only rule.

If you want to read a bit about playing with Carthage, take a look at the .org. It is more rewarding than playing the Romans.

I will now charge Cav into a Phalanx and take a screenshot, too.

 

[Longasc]

OK Akka - I did a test.

1.) They are obviously better than Spearman in defending against Cav

2.) This test was performed by Frontal Charge - run away - Charge again cycles. No Attacks from the side

3.) See the results:

First Pic

Second Pic

Third Pic

4th Pic

5th Pic

6th Pic

7th Pic


Well, the initial assault was down a slope -> might have been a draw or a defeat the other way round!

Good, I admit, they are quite good upfront. But they should be even deadlier.

Because

1.) once their formation is disrupted --- krrrrrrrrk...

2.) it is easy to hit them from the flanks and from behind. They turn like turtles.

3.) The best way for a Phalanx to protect is to have 4 - 5 and build a circle

4.) One Word: Numidian Horse Archers.


But I must admit, I thought the phalanx would suck as the spearmen did, but they are really better, Akka. Thanks for pointing this out, even if I insisted otherwise.

 

[Akka]

Well, the main thing is that, if you play hard and higher, the enemy has morale and attack/defense bonuses.
So it gives the cavalry the edge needed to break a phalanx line.

In a medium setting (ie : all the troops at their default strenght), even MILITIA hoplites are able to inflict decent damage in front, and I had experienced and upgraded militia hoplites (thanks to the Nike temple and armourer) able to kill right on spot a light cavalry charge.

Battle-hardened heavy hoplite are, simply put, a meatgrinder able to slaughter Principes by the dozens, and Spartan hoplite are simply so strong they are not funny (I had a battle where they cut down two entire cavalry units charging up front, and a good chunk of three spearmen units, and they DID NOT LOOSE A SINGLE MAN ; okay, they were upgraded and good veterans, but still ^^).

 

[Longasc]

Well, the main thing is that, if you play hard and higher, the enemy has morale and attack/defense bonuses.
So it gives the cavalry the edge needed to break a phalanx line.

But if you play on HARD, the AI gets the bonus, not my Cavalry.

Your love for the Phalanx really demands an Alexander the Great - Add On.

I agree, the Armored Phalanx and Spartans probably kick ass. Their Defence Rating it hard to beat.


How about trying something like that with them:

Try this: 4 oft the best Phalanx you can get, no weapons or experience bonus

My Choice are

4 Parthian Cataphracts vs. a full Army of Romans, consisting of 8 Urban Cohorts (Praetorian Guard) and 8 Praetorian Cavalries.

254 vs 1080 men, both top quality.

The Cataphracts own them -> 136 Survivors, 43 Romans escaped.

This is 117 to 1037 kills -> 8,86x Kill Ratio.

 

[Little Raven]

Much like the initial release of Civ, there are some things that don't seem to be working. Spear bonuses are right at the top of the list.

But CA has already put out a multiplayer patch, so it sounds like they're back at work. Hopefully we'll see some of these issues cleared up soon.

 

[Amenhotep7]

Best. Game. Ever!

But for some reason the videos skip, like a bad CD player. It'll freeze for a split second, then resum, then a secand later it does it again...Anyone know how to fix this?

 

[Longasc]

Amenhotep, perhaps fragmented harddrive and poor reading performance due to that. You might also want to check if you installed the Media Thingie for DirectX you were prompted to install during the RTW installation process.

I would first defragment the harddisk and then fiddle around with DirectX. It might be an incompatibility with something of your system, but I am confident you can solve this problem easily.

 

[Amenhotep7]

I did install the DirectX. I'll try defragging the system. Thax, Longasc.

 

[LLXerxes]

Best. Game. Ever!

But for some reason the videos skip, like a bad CD player. It'll freeze for a split second, then resum, then a secand later it does it again...Anyone know how to fix this?

Me too...
I'll try that Longasc

 

[storealex]

Which factions are playable and which ones are not? I just killed the Macedonians because I wanted to play them, but I cant!

Also, why does my legionaires sometimes "walk in a kind of loose turtle formation towards the enemy in sieges" and why wont they charge/run when I ask them to?

 

[Akka]

Playable factions :
The three Roman Houses (Julii, Scipii, Brutii), Greek Cities, Seleucids, Egypt, Carthage, Gauls, Britons, Germania, Parthans.

All the others aren't playable. But there is a very easy and very reliable way to make them playable, without (except for the SPQR and perhaps Armenia) any known glitches or bugs, by simply modifying a text file.