Playing Rome in RSII – A Basic Survival Guide

[Dramatic Cat]

Whilst playing SPQR, RTR and the original Vanilla game I noticed that what impacts more on the cultural difference penalties are the Temples. In RTR you can build about twenty temples in a city, so I demolished every temple not belonging to my faction and put one of each kind between the building of more important buildings. This, though, does not work in RSII.

Shame, the only thing to do is to exterminate the popluation.

[Marcus_Vipsanius]

Thanks for clearing that out. 'Hygiene' buildings have a huge positive effect, so I always start with building those + some temples + towns patrol watch.

[Ybbon]

...

Always check to see if there is any unrest in the area when taking a settlement. That could indicate the presence of any enemy spy or assassin. If I see three or more indicators of unrest for more than turn or two, I drop a couple of spies or an assassin into the city for a few turns. Usually that's all that's necessary to flush out the enemy spy/assassin.

~ Dani ~

Definitely! You may of course end up with a nasty spy who you know is there because he pops out of your settlement during the "end-turn" phase and jumps back in when it's over - and then you can't do anything about that. Not had this with RS2 yet but I think it is an RTW thing so probably still exists. You then need to get top level spies, assassins and top mgt/influence governor in and you may flush them out, and you may just have to wait until the foreign spy dies of old age or something.


Also, if any army (including your own) sieged the settlement for any length of time, you'll end up with devastation outside it and as far as I know there is nothing you can do about that, it improves over time unless farming upgrades help.

[Brusilov]

Devasation does clear up after a while. You can also get devastation if an enemy army is within one of your regions and not laying siege to a settlement.

The way to deal with spies and assassins is to have several of each in a settlement. I also recommend the use of spies to see what is happening in a settlement prior to a during a siege. I've not done this sometimes only to find that plague has broken out during the siege...... The result is that I have a nice field army out of action for quite a few turns (and considerably weaker as well).

[Bucle_CT]

Is still possible (in RS2 I mean) to spawn plague into a city by putting an 'infected' spy into it??

I haven't tried this out since I started mi actual campaigns in RS2 and lately I'm not having much time to play and test.

(Sorry if it's a bit off topic)

[Drowsy]

Is still possible (in RS2 I mean) to spawn plague into a city by putting an 'infected' spy into it??

I haven't tried this out since I started mi actual campaigns in RS2 and lately I'm not having much time to play and test.

(Sorry if it's a bit off topic)

Hell yes! Though some might consider it an exploit as the AI goes into passive mode once u start rotating your 15 spies between there 8-10 settlements, and is generally picked apart quick by its neighbors. I only do it vs factions that have betrayed an alliance or Macedon to keep them in check and equal to the power of Dacia.

[Bucle_CT]

[...] I only do it vs factions that have betrayed an alliance ....

...revenge is a dish best served cold....

[The Noble Lord]

One of the best guides ever on playing RS 2.0 mod. Job well done Aristotle .

[toluas]

Thanks for sharing all this with us, AF!

[Aenima]

I killed Hannibal and destroyed his army in the first turn. Playing H/H, unit size large. Attacked with Nepos' army and the AI decided it would hold back after 7 or so of its units, allowing me to carve up its attacking force and the legendary Barca with it. The other units hid in the trees and I have to admit that the rest of it was hard fought, but in the end I emerged victorious, albeit barely.

Hannibal dead on the first turn and the army relatively intact? Result

Only thing that I need to learn now is how the bloody hell all these bonus/ penalty buildings work. I can never tell if making something will give me the bonus or penalty that the brackets go on about!

[Brusilov]

Only thing that I need to learn now is how the bloody hell all these bonus/ penalty buildings work. I can never tell if making something will give me the bonus or penalty that the brackets go on about!

It's quite easy really - if the number has a negative sign before it ('-') then it's a penalty, otherwise it's a bonus.

As an example - in the following there is a 20% penalty to the tax income (shown as -20%) and a 5% bonus to happiness (shown as 5%):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Most temples have a penalty and a bonus.

[wvswem]

Do you already know when the next update for the first 10 years will be? I am anxious to read more of your guide.

[Aristotle's Folly]

Do you already know when the next update for the first 10 years will be? I am anxious to read more of your guide.

Sorry for the delay. I'm right now sitting in class - a very boring class. I have three more hours here on campus and a bit of homework today, so probably tomorrow.

I've just been busy.

~ Dani ~

[CliffBarney]

Thanks a million Dani! After a few false starts on the Roman campaign, I finally managed to get going pretty good; the last time I played -- a couple of weeks ago -- I held 85 regions and was building up my legions in preparation for the big 2nd rebellion. Then it seemed to get too tedious, and I guess I lost interest.

I managed to defeat Hannibal nearly every time -- not knowing that I was cheating by avoiding the ambush. Thanks a lot Apple!

I guess that, if I were to gather the energy to try the whole campaign again from the beginning, I would definitely use your building-quie tactic. I did spend a LOT of time & effort building the economy, and was rather dismayed to find that much of my hard-earned money (above about 200K denairi) was being skimmed off by the scripting, and that my governors were picking up undesirable traits by living with too much luxury. I usually ended each turn with over 50K, and sometimes with over 150K, even though I was building something in each and every one of my cities.

One of my main economy-enhancing tactics has been to maximize the population. I've posted this a couple of times on other threads, but it seems that nobody else shares my enthusiasm. My largest city is Carthage, with a population of about 136K and still growing, and an income of 25-30K or thereabouts.

-- Cliff in Virginia

[apple]

Not exactly cheating, more making much easier for yourself. I myself always go for the ambush option, seems far more realistic.

[CliffBarney]

See the Carthaginian navy? I need to keep my navy moving and DO NOT fight them. If I fight them, I lose. I don't move my navy, they attack me and I lose. Every time. Since I can't afford to lose those armies, I keep moving these boats every turn.

Dani, I just keep wondering why you're so overly concerned with your little navy. I did the exact thing you recommend -- i.e., use my navy to evacuate the army from Emporeia(sp?) so that my best general and his army can fight Hannibal, & later the rebels, in Italy. But I built up my navy a little bit at the get-go. After all, ships are cheap to buy and cheap to maintain; I think I built 3-4 new triremes and joined them to my navy. Then I didn't have to worry about the Carthagenian fleet any more -- in fact, I went hunting for them! I don't think I ever lost a sea battle.

Shame, the only thing to do is to exterminate the popluation.

I guess I can never get anyone else to believe this, but population = wealth. You should never depopulate a city you've just conquered; you basically just want to reduce the population in that place 'til the unrest from your conquest dies out, right? So you enslave the population instead, and all those thousands of people get scattered around to all your other cities. I can't remember having more than one turn of rioting in a new city, and that rarely. I never lost a city to rebellion because I couldn't control the rioting. If you destroy the unhappy buildings (tax buildings, certain military buildings mainly) and then build a 1-turn 5% happiness building (such as a shrine) that usually does the trick. It does help a lot to have a 4+ wreath governor ready to take charge.

My two cents worth.

-- Cliff in Virginia

[DarthLazy]

How much money do you need????? I make it a habit to exterminate anything showing a blue or red face at the time of conquest and found the penalty to be minimal.

[rory o'kane]

I generally only exterminate where the Romans REALLY did a number on a place - Carthage and Corinth (both in 146 BC - not a good year for non-Romans) spring to mind immediately. Jerusalem as well - everything else gets occupied/enslaved as I see fit (generally, civilized places get occupied, barbarians get enslaved (as a rule of thumb)).

[Aristotle's Folly]

First, I apologize for being away these last two days. The semester is wrapping down and my class work is catching up with me. As I noted in an earlier post, I worked a lot of hours recently (and played RSII a bit ) which put me behind on some of my work. I have class in twenty minutes and again early this afternoon. After that, I have the weekend off.

Thanks a million Dani! After a few false starts on the Roman campaign, I finally managed to get going pretty good; the last time I played -- a couple of weeks ago -- I held 85 regions and was building up my legions in preparation for the big 2nd rebellion. Then it seemed to get too tedious, and I guess I lost interest.

I managed to defeat Hannibal nearly every time -- not knowing that I was cheating by avoiding the ambush. Thanks a lot Apple!

I guess that, if I were to gather the energy to try the whole campaign again from the beginning, I would definitely use your building-quie tactic. I did spend a LOT of time & effort building the economy, and was rather dismayed to find that much of my hard-earned money (above about 200K denairi) was being skimmed off by the scripting, and that my governors were picking up undesirable traits by living with too much luxury. I usually ended each turn with over 50K, and sometimes with over 150K, even though I was building something in each and every one of my cities.

One of my main economy-enhancing tactics has been to maximize the population. I've posted this a couple of times on other threads, but it seems that nobody else shares my enthusiasm. My largest city is Carthage, with a population of about 136K and still growing, and an income of 25-30K or thereabouts.

-- Cliff in Virginia

Cliff: Thanks for your kind words.

I hope I never gave anyone the impression I thought they were cheating by avoiding the fight with Hannibal. I probably would have done the same thing but for Tone pointing out the history involved in this moment. I have a rather unique approach to roleplay: some history, some personal preference, some basic craziness.

Think of it as a credit to the versatility of RSII.

Not exactly cheating, more making much easier for yourself. I myself always go for the ambush option, seems far more realistic.

There's actually an argument - one I made to DVK back in my early playtesting days - that fighting the battle with Hannibal actually makes the game easier, because the player so weakens Hannibal's army that the ultimate defeat becomes easier. Of course, how easy it is depends upon what you do afterwards, but there is that possibility.

I was on the train the other morning when a thought occurred to me that demonstrates what I'm trying to say. Growing up, my brother became very, very interested in chess. He bought books on the game, read up on "tactics" and moves, etc. For about a year, he drug me to the chessboard every chance he got. One thing I remember clearly from all those afternoons was how your opening moves defined the game - for good or bad. What works in one situation, fails miserably in another - which is one reason why a simple black and white checkerboard square and 32 colored pieces still makes for one of the most popular games in the world.

Dani, I just keep wondering why you're so overly concerned with your little navy. I did the exact thing you recommend -- i.e., use my navy to evacuate the army from Emporeia(sp?) so that my best general and his army can fight Hannibal, & later the rebels, in Italy. But I built up my navy a little bit at the get-go. After all, ships are cheap to buy and cheap to maintain; I think I built 3-4 new triremes and joined them to my navy. Then I didn't have to worry about the Carthagenian fleet any more -- in fact, I went hunting for them! I don't think I ever lost a sea battle.

I guess I can never get anyone else to believe this, but population = wealth. You should never depopulate a city you've just conquered; you basically just want to reduce the population in that place 'til the unrest from your conquest dies out, right? So you enslave the population instead, and all those thousands of people get scattered around to all your other cities. I can't remember having more than one turn of rioting in a new city, and that rarely. I never lost a city to rebellion because I couldn't control the rioting. If you destroy the unhappy buildings (tax buildings, certain military buildings mainly) and then build a 1-turn 5% happiness building (such as a shrine) that usually does the trick. It does help a lot to have a 4+ wreath governor ready to take charge.

My two cents worth.

-- Cliff in Virginia

Well, playing on H/H, I've lost that naval battle - and others. Mathematically, it's impossible to say "I've won every naval battle." A more correct statement would be: "I've strategically planned to ensure I don't lose naval battles. I build my navies up, I make sure they have experience, and so on." You cannot sail two Briremes (the small ships) into a large naval battle with a Carthaginian navy and hope to win ten times in ten.

The reason I'm concerned about it is I've lost that battle and others, and I go after the units in Emporia in the first move - so I have no time to build up my navy (or money, for that matter, since it's being used to recruit legions). As the second post indicates, I do recruit a navy when I have the money, but navies cost money and buildings make money. Buildings, in my planning scheme, come first.

You'll have no problem getting me to believe that population=money via taxes. The question, rather, is what's the best way to make money. I use trade and income from my buildings to reach the Roman income cap: around 200 to 250k that Tone has put in the script. In fact, too much money is a bad thing (generals develop some ugly traits). So I try to hover around 100k and even better around 50k. I don't care if I make 200k a turn, if I have something to spend it on. This does get to a problem once all your building queues are full and you have one of every named legion you can recruit, and your recruiting auxilia legions AND you're still making 100k a turn.

So, yeah, I see your point, but I've never needed that money that comes with the grief of having to control an overpopulated city. In fact, two cities that I ALWAYS exterminate/slave are Carthage and Athens (there are others, too).

How much money do you need????? I make it a habit to exterminate anything showing a blue or red face at the time of conquest and found the penalty to be minimal.

Agreed.

I generally only exterminate where the Romans REALLY did a number on a place - Carthage and Corinth (both in 146 BC - not a good year for non-Romans) spring to mind immediately. Jerusalem as well - everything else gets occupied/enslaved as I see fit (generally, civilized places get occupied, barbarians get enslaved (as a rule of thumb)).

And this demonstrates an understanding of history that I simply don't have. I credit you for knowing it, but at this stage of my life and my education, I simply wouldn't know what those cities were.

But thanks for sharing the info. Next time I take Carthage, it's to the guillotine! (Wait, wrong war.)

Off to class ... late.

~ Dani ~

[Town Watch]

phew, played some of my Roman campaign at H/H. Had some really hard battles, even though I killed Hannibal and destroyed his army in Italy. I took control of Cisalpine Gaul. In the beginning I decided to abandon the Spanish province, because in a previous attempt at a M/M campaign, MY PROVINCE GOT BRIBED, needless to say I was pretty flabbergasted, so I decided to abandon the province so that I wouldn't lose my army as well as the province!

I get attacked by some pretty substantial armies from Macedon as well in Greece. I wonder how I'm going to deal with them. In any case it's definitely so that I have to fight every battle personally, otherwise I get really creamed. I'm so used to auto-resolve against rebels, pretty much always, that now I got a hard time adjusting to this because indeed the free peoples rebels are honestly quite formidable.

I remember taking Genoa and the province from that to the north. I moved a full stack Polybian army to defend a river crossing, I believe I had: General, 4 velites, 4 triarii, 8 cohorts, 3 cavalry units. I fought a full stack free peoples army at the river crossing, killed them to the last man when they finally routed, suffered 60% casualties in the army. I remember one of my front-line cohorts suffered like 180 casualties while causing something like 30 against some kind of Gallic cavalry unit in sustained melee nonetheless, my dudes didn't rout though! Truly gone are the days of easy river defense battles! Even so my infantry does remain pretty inexperienced despite all the battles I've won, it's probably due to the fact that that they're not killing very many enemies in battle and are suffering pretty big casualties in line fighting, and only get substantial kills when catching routers.

I had to recruit a few allied cohorts and bolster my army there, but the free peoples brought another full stack which was decimated at great cost as well. From the third attack I had to retreat! I also attacked Carthage with 2 similar full stacks (silver/silver upgrades) I took exterminated Carthage but that didn't break their back at all. They brought more armies and re-took the city.

The mod is really hard though which is a good thing ! I wonder though if you get a little bit less armies when playing 1-turn recruitment campaigns? Playing is starting to feel like a bit of a chore since at the moment I feel like I have to fight literally every battle against massive stacks to conquer stuff and retain my territory.

I might have been a bit too impetuous I admit, in invading Carthage in a revenge attack since my troops there died, I certainly wasn't at my peak per turn income at that point, so I probably should have waited until I gained more troops, still I consider the price worth it, Carthage was humbled despite a loss of some troops on the field. I probably should have attacked Macedon first though!