Is my Rome campaign still able to be saved from total defeat?

[DatwasbullXX]

I am about 150 turns in, H/H. Marian reforms done, Praetorian reforms done, still awaiting the next level of legionnaire (Only segmentata unit is Late Praetorian) At war with Boii, Carthage, Arverni, and Gallaeci. Gallaeci and Arverni making repeated attacks on Massalia. Every battle is a clear victory or heroic victory. But that is aside from the point. I control all of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corisca, and much of what Carthage starts with in Africa. They have one settlement left in Africa and are on a steady decline. But my problem is the Boii and Arverni. I have two full armies of Late Praetorian Cohorts and Praetorian Cavalry, with Praetorian Prefects for generals. These Praetorian armies are very effective, but need to be retrained constantly. And I don't have the time or money to do so (Having them is putting me into an economic recession.) to retrain them. I am gradually losing Northern Italy. I control Massalia, Genoa, and the rest of Italy, all of Carthaginian Africa except for that one settlement that is very close to the Iberian. I need drastic help on what to do though...The Celtic reskins seem to be infinite, and my denarii stockpile is not.

[Alavaria]

Could've taken most of the world in 150 turns... I would guess the AI has at this point built top-tier barracks in all its settlements and is now relentlessly training and throwing stacks with tons of elite units at you.

What missile units (not javelin-based) do you have access to?
Any way to get your hands on pikemen?
Do you have siege engines that can take down stone walls (or at least wooden walls)?

[DatwasbullXX]

I had more holdings previously, but the damned rebels messed that up. Missle units, well the usual Auxilla units that come from the Curia Hostilia when playing as Rome. For pikes, I am afraid not if for the most part. Just mercenaries. And I forgot that my scale was one turn=1 year so I am only about 70 turns in. Siege engines, yes. I make use of a Large Lithoblos on any city that has stone walls. That is the best siege engine in RSII. Did I mention I was using RSII?

[DatwasbullXX]

And I have the best barracks available in Genoa, Massalia, Cathargo, Roma, and Syracuse.

[DatwasbullXX]

I just need some advice on where I should move my troops. Map info suggests that the Arverni control most of modern France, with the Gallaeci controlling anything they don't in the south of Gaul. The Gallaeci control about 35% of the Iberian, with Carthage laying claim to the remainder. The Boii control most of anything under Germania, above the Alps, east of Gaul, and west of modern Hungary or so. They and the Spartans have carved up Dacia between themselves. If I could get a ceasefire with one of them, I could easily destroy the other. But the Boii want what they once owned in northern Italy. And I have those settlements both heavily Romanized and developed economically for the most part, so I don't think it will be a good idea to let them go.

[Alavaria]

Using your siege engines you can probably do well to start running through greece taking it all. It's mostly a matter of knowing how to use ranged units to kill the enemy with minimal losses in a siege assault.

A "trap fort" does a similar thing; letting you use ranged units. That will let you hold against the Boii etc with a cheap stack, though you might as well just start taking everything to the west/east using a stack each (equipped with artillery)

[Pathfinder]

From my experience, it sounds like you haven't done as well building up your economy from the start of the game as you could have - I recall having about 6 full legions with little more than modern Italy to support them.

Some things I might suggest:

Give one enemy all the northern settlements that border a different enemy. You'll probably only have to deal with one attacker from the north after that - it will be worth the loss. If you can, find a sole 'choke-point' province to be your new border, and dig in with half a stack + local garrisons for backup.

Send everything else to blitz Africa - one front wars are a must for Roma Surrectum.

Furthermore, don't focus too much on unit upgrades. Pre-marian vs later unit stats are not as important as getting armies recruited and retrained ASAP.

[DatwasbullXX]

A scorched Earth campaign has crippled the Boii. I took four of their seven settlements (Including that one that starts as their capital that starts with an E. Ebruonum I think) So they are down for some time. I am now the wealthiest faction in the game as a result of all of the exterminations and destroying of every destroy-able building in settlements I capture. But the Boii have made progress in Northern Italy. I am creating a new legion to respond to this. But the Arverni are still the biggest threat. The Boii may be crippled, but that is even more of a reason for their Gallic brethren to take those lands. But you were right about those barracks, as every settlement had a hall of heroes in it. So you think I should take Greece? What army composition should I use? I noticed my Praetorian cavalry did some damage earlier, as the Spartans (The masters of Greece and much of the Balkans currently) are fond of using average morale troops. I just got a cease fire with them maybe eight turns ago. But however, I have some spies I moved into Iberia and it seems that Carthage is close to defeat as is, and Iberia is ripe for the taking. The Gallaeci and Carthaginians have no idea how to operate efficiently, and neither one seems content to expand. I think that could give me the money and strategic position (I could launch a 2 front invasion on the Arverni) to beat them.

[DatwasbullXX]

Early game was a bit rough. I had my only ever major naval invasion coming from Carthage, so that's why my economy is probably so fed up. I never really built on it. I was getting 40 k a turn or so for a profit, so I didn't think too much about late game.

[Alavaria]

If the AI retakes it's treasury city, it gets back the uberincome. Doesn't matter if the settlement now has only 400 people in it.

Show us what your map looks like, or better yet, upload a save so we can play it give more appropriate advice.

Early game was a bit rough. I had my only ever major naval invasion coming from Carthage, so that's why my economy is probably so fed up. I never really built on it. I was getting 40 k a turn or so for a profit, so I didn't think too much about late game.

Are all the settlements at High taxes with a governor (or if no Governor, Very High taxes)?

[Ownager]

Alavaria, let the Roman expert handle this.

Get atleast one seige engine per army. This is very important. Abandon northern Italy or any failing provinces. Defend them if you can with those elite praetorians. Use your other legions to launch quick assaults into the enemy homeland. At one point in my roman campaign, the Arverni took Massalia and marched into the province of Iberia. Using seige engines, I was able to take Gergovia and Lemonum, and then pretty much shredded the Arverni. Dacia invaded me continuously as well at Greece, and I simply sacked Sarmizegetheusa and burned it to the ground. Attack the Boii at their weakest points. Use a strong force of cavalry. You can annihilate entire enemy infantry lines with a few units of cavalry. Gergovia is very vulnerable if you hold Massalia, use seige engines to flatten it. Launch attacks deep into Gaul. If you have atleast three legions, you can annihilate the entire faction within 4 years. I'm really surprised that at 150 turns, you're so plagued with problems. Once the Marian reforms arrived, I used nearly 30 turns to just make legions. I also suggest an alliance with the Cimbri and/or the Dacians.

[Alavaria]

Roman expert

Use a strong force of cavalry.

[Ownager]

Hey. Roman expert is not the same as "roman historical army composition expert". I had a huge argument over using ahistorical unit compositions over at the EB forum. In fact, a person who does not use the most effective combinations of roman troops is in fact no roman expert.

BTW- I'm sure the Spartans didn't use Ekdromoi Hoplites as their main line infantry.

[Alavaria]

I never claimed to be an expert.

For some period of history, most hoplites did not use armor besides the helmet, as noted in some of the unit descriptions. Unlike RS2 this apparently did not lead to everyone dying to archers.

[Iskandar]

A bit off-topic - are the war machines any use in open (non-siege) battle? I'm in a Seleucid campaign atm and I'm contemplating adding some of those to my armies to use when defending river crossings and trap forts (I've finally pushed my eastern borders to where I intend to keep them until the campaign end, so I'm gonna have to repulse Parthians and Sarmatians at choke points).

Basically, what are the differences between the ballista, scorpion and siege ballista in terms of range, damage, ammo capacity and accuracy? Which is best against people? Do they slow campaign map movement?

[DatwasbullXX]

Alavaria, let the Roman expert handle this.

Get atleast one seige engine per army. This is very important. Abandon northern Italy or any failing provinces. Defend them if you can with those elite praetorians. Use your other legions to launch quick assaults into the enemy homeland. At one point in my roman campaign, the Arverni took Massalia and marched into the province of Iberia. Using seige engines, I was able to take Gergovia and Lemonum, and then pretty much shredded the Arverni. Dacia invaded me continuously as well at Greece, and I simply sacked Sarmizegetheusa and burned it to the ground. Attack the Boii at their weakest points. Use a strong force of cavalry. You can annihilate entire enemy infantry lines with a few units of cavalry. Gergovia is very vulnerable if you hold Massalia, use seige engines to flatten it. Launch attacks deep into Gaul. If you have atleast three legions, you can annihilate the entire faction within 4 years. I'm really surprised that at 150 turns, you're so plagued with problems. Once the Marian reforms arrived, I used nearly 30 turns to just make legions. I also suggest an alliance with the Cimbri and/or the Dacians.

I crippled the Boii with my scorched Earth Policy. I have 2 full Praetorian Legions. I just can't deal with the fact that I have 2 factions constantly sending full stacks of cheap units and hitting areas with little to no garrison. I am only about 80 turns in, I just forgot that 1 turn=1 year. I have been playing a fair bit of M2TW lately, so I was just used to the scale I had of .5 years=1 turn.

[Ownager]

Ummmm, RS2 also has 1 turn, 0.5 years. Is this 0-turn recruitment?
Simple solution. Hit em back with stronger forces. Send a praetorian legion deep into Gaul. Flatten the nearest cities. Remember, siege engines are tremendously important. I'm sure you are good enough to take on the cheap stacks they may or may not have guarding Gaul. And trust me, the enemy will either hightail back to Gaul, or just wait and watch while their rear falls.
Remember, the best form of defense is attack.

[Ownager]

I never claimed to be an expert.

For some period of history, most hoplites did not use armor besides the helmet, as noted in some of the unit descriptions. Unlike RS2 this apparently did not lead to everyone dying to archers.

If no armor except a helmet meant that archers completely annihilated hoplites, then everyone would use them and history would have been a constant archer war.

[Ownager]

A bit off-topic - are the war machines any use in open (non-siege) battle? I'm in a Seleucid campaign atm and I'm contemplating adding some of those to my armies to use when defending river crossings and trap forts (I've finally pushed my eastern borders to where I intend to keep them until the campaign end, so I'm gonna have to repulse Parthians and Sarmatians at choke points).

Basically, what are the differences between the ballista, scorpion and siege ballista in terms of range, damage, ammo capacity and accuracy? Which is best against people? Do they slow campaign map movement?

Siege ballista of course. Although I rarely delve into the statistics of all the units I use, I know from experience that they can be devastating. However, not against horse archer armies. If you are defending a bridge, I would suggest using ballistas at the bridge point and shooting me up, then pulling back. But, since you are facing horse archers, they would swarm me too quickly. Siege engines are pretty poor against horse archer armies, since the enemy is usually in loose formation. If using Siege ballistas, which are probably the best of the siege engines, either turn off fire at will, aim at the enemy general and use regular rocks to kill him, or use firepots and aim at the largest clump of enemy heavy cavalry.

[DatwasbullXX]

Ummmm, RS2 also has 1 turn, 0.5 years. Is this 0-turn recruitment?
Simple solution. Hit em back with stronger forces. Send a praetorian legion deep into Gaul. Flatten the nearest cities. Remember, siege engines are tremendously important. I'm sure you are good enough to take on the cheap stacks they may or may not have guarding Gaul. And trust me, the enemy will either hightail back to Gaul, or just wait and watch while their rear falls.
Remember, the best form of defense is attack.

Are you sure? I don't feel like I am 150 turns in yet, but I am about 70 years in. I still have a few thousand more years to go however, as I set my game to have 8000 turns. On a side note, I don't quite get how to efficiently develop settlements. Can you explain the economic system to me? And yes, I have 0 turn recruitment. 1 turn seems too slowly paced for me.