Rome Total War

[Longasc]

Amenhotep: Some tipps how to beat Teutoburg Forest:

1. March fast, get out of the bottleneck
2. Make sure to secure positions uphill in the woods and rush out of them, use Charge as much as possible.
3. Break through at one side with force and sacrifice units on one to soon have a "1 front" war.

4. dirty trick: interlock your legions.

put two a bit shifted together in one square. They do not get a crowded penalty as in MTW, but they get double the fighting power.

so make two long lines of interlocked legionaries and make sure they have no enemies in their backs:

XYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYXYX
YXYX...

Y is one unit, X is one unit. Such small lines field incredible fighting power.

I played Teutoburg, but not yet Thermopylae!

 

[-0blivion-]

Finally got the game - only 9 days after it was released in the UK !

Amazing is my only word for it. I am playing as the Brutii and the Macedonians are some really tough cookies !

I am really loving the Hastati, Principe, etc, Pilum throw. Hold a phalanx at the front with some Hastati, hit him with pilums and then finish it off with a well placed cavalry charge.

 

[Longasc]

oblivion, build some stables, cavalry will help you greatly to flank the slow hoplites and counter their light lancers.

edit: sorry, you already got that. but i am a bit obsessed by cav charges.

 

[Amenhotep7]

You can't play Thermopylae in the Historical Battles, Longasc.

 

[nonconformist]

Is Teutoburg forest the same as Teutoberger Wald?
And is that the battle at the start of Gladiator?

Has anyone noticed the Romans have Australian accents, so in some pre-battle speeches, it sounds like Russell Crowe in Gladiator?

 

[Dr. Yoshi]

I'm kinda disgruntled with the look of the Spartan Hoplites. Spartans wore a red cape, not a red toga (togas aren't good to wear in battle), they had a lambda on their shields, and hada Corihnthian helmet, not an upside-down salad bowl. If anybody has seen the Decisive Battles episode "Thermopylae", you'll know what I'm talking about, and know why I'm slightly disappointed...

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=11050

Here's a mod that might suit your needs.

Also, have you guys played the credits yet? They have really good music for it.

 

[Longasc]

Amenhotep7:

I could play Thermopylae, but I am not interested in the heroic death of some fanatic soldiers at all.

 

[Amenhotep7]

No, I mean The Battle of Thermopylae isn't on the Historical Battles menu. Do you unlock it or something?

 

[Longasc]

Hu, you are right!

Strange, some things like the "Siege of Sparta" and stuff are in, but not:

- Cannae (one could say, it resembles the battle of Trebia, but why not Cannae instead of that Trebia River thing?)
- Thermopylae

The selection of historical battles is also quite limited.

 

[Amenhotep7]

lol. And you didn't know that?

Actually, it'd be really cool if you could unlock some secret battles...

 

[-0blivion-]

@Longasc

Yeah, i just got Legionary Cavalry since Tarentum and Croton are big enough for Hippondromes now. Managed to break through and take Athens.

Had some epic sieges, the Macedonians seem hell bent on taking Larissa. Its pretty fun holding it with 80 archers, 160 principes and a general's cavalry unit and killing 800 odd enemies.

 

[AceChilla]

*bump*

I'm also new to the series I played trough the prologue and am currently starting out a campaign as the Julii faction. I think this game is great.

But how can you change your unit formation? I haven't picked it up in the prologue but I'm sure there must be a way to change the formations. Can someone please tell me how?

 

[LLXerxes]

Your advisor will tell you when you seige a city. THere's a button near teh bottom left.

I'm gonna have to reinstall due to the fact I tried the fog of war cheat

 

[storealex]

Longasc, what is interlocked legions? Please post a pic to explain. Btw, Im getting quite good at winning multiplayer with Egypt and Scythia.

 

[Thrawn]

To alter a units formation, just hold down the right mouse button and move it around, you'll see an outline of what the formation will look like.

For multiple units, just organise them in the formation you want, and then group by pressing G. If you then do the same thing as for individual units (press and hold right-mouse button), you'll see an outline of the entire formation and which direction they'll be facing. I do this all the time.

I have also decided that ai controlled reinforcements are bloody useless. I had 2 armies of about 500 troops that were besieging a Dacian held city when the 1300 troops inside sallied out. By the time the reinforcements got to where I was, my general was dead, a unit of roman cavalry had routed, and one of the 4 legionary cohort units completely destroyed. I had caused the dacian army to retreat back into the city and sent what I had left through. During this time, the reinforcements had sat where I started for a few minutes, then proceeded to wander past the open gate around to another one. I sent some troops over there to open it (the dacians were charging and then retreating before reaching my troops heh), and they just sat there. Even if they had of only sent the 2 cavalry units it had at the beginning until the rest arrived, I would've taken far less losses.

*curses stupid ai*

 

[Dell19]

Longasc, what is interlocked legions? Please post a pic to explain. Btw, Im getting quite good at winning multiplayer with Egypt and Scythia.

I assume you place one legion facing in one direction and then drag the second legion across the same space but probably facing the other direction so essentially both units are occupying the same space.

The AI really does suck when you let it fight battles. I thought it would be easy for the AI to will a battle against Rebels but it lost whilst when I took over it was a comfortable victory even though I didn't time the attack quite correctly.

 

[Gogf]

This was against an army of about half Phalanxes, and half Peltasts:

Never underestimate the value of cavalry rushing a phalanx from behind, while it is in battle at the front .

 

[LLXerxes]

This was against an army of about half Phalanxes, and half Peltasts:

Never underestimate the value of cavalry rushing a phalanx from behind, while it is in battle at the front .

amazing..
*writes it down*
cavalry from behind, ok, done

 

[Gogf]

Well, I saw it on Decisive Battles (sort of).

A phalanx is a bunch of guys with extremely long pikes between them. They can't just turn around because of these pikes, they have to raise them, turn around, and then lower them again. This is impossible when being attacked from the side you want to lower them on, so in essence, you break the phalanx, as they're smart enough to drop their pikes (in RTW they just disappear), and fight with swords. Now, add in the momentum of the cavalry charge, the fact that they are now surrounded and possible outnumber, and they'll be slaughted. Easy to impliment if you can outmaneuver the enemy, especially if you catch they're phalanxes in a street.

 

[Longasc]

Just play the historical battle of Carrhae and see what Parthian Cataphracts and Horse Archers, the most powerful Cavalry ingame, can do head-on to Roman Legions.

Still, you can win this battle as the Romans. Try to make the Horse Archers run permanently and encircle the Cav while it is fighting the Cohorts in the first line.