World Domination or A Little Place I Like to Call Home

[Fishdawg]

So far I haven't seen a thread about how people actually play their total war games. So here this thread is. Personal most of the time I enjoy capturing 3-4 regions build a large defensive army, sit back and watch the world destroy each other. What about you fellow TW players?? Are you content to sit back capture several regions and call it a night or are you one of those players that will fight till the whole world is red

[The True Roman]

well in most games the AI like to gang up on you and you have no choice but to kill or be killed

[d4g4n]

Expand, expand, expand...

Mostly I start a new game by the time it's clear I am just steamrolling to victory, and am practically unbeatable. Been this way especially because most fights / sieges turn out to be quite repetative, and AI doesn't seem to consider finding a way to conquer or weaken your empire.

I like the starts of TW games; the first x early tearns, because they are the hardest, and thus the most intense and satisfying!

Really hope though, that in Rome II you can get annihalated by the enemies, without them cheating (money and army spawn scripts)

[Darth_Revan]

I like setting a goal before I start playing. For example, if I were to play as athens I'd set a goal to recreate the Delian league, and basically conquer the territories that were part of it, or unify all of Greece and fight invaders.

[Kinjo]

Domination is fun if you are a new player, but it gets old after doing it a few times at least to me it does. No I much rather build up a strong core of 10-15 regions and focus on building my wealth, once I have done that I make some key allies and start to project my power and subjugate factions and make them vassals.

For example if I'm playing Egypt I really don't want to capture Gaul or Germenia I want limit my expansion to something like this:



Then with the wealth that I have accumulated I will prop up my ally Macedonia and back them both financially and my military. I'll use whatever diplomacy options CA gives me to spread my influence into Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula by making a few vassals in the area and trade like crazy. The one diplomacy option I really hope CA brings back so I don't have to play the game like a God damn noob is the option to gift a region to another faction. I want to be able to give land back my ally if I retake it from the faction they lost it to or be able to give land to a vassal so they can control an entire province. So yeah that's how I would like to play, but it will depend on the diplomacy options CA gives us. I could play campaigns like that all day long, but the moment I'm limited to only conquest it gets boring rather fast.

[RGA]

I once played as Shimazu, taking all of Kyushu, placed my superior fleet around the coastline and captured all trade nodes. After just 10 years of peace, my income was over 5000 per season and I could easily field 3 or 4 stacks full of Samurai. At this point, the game just became boring, since there was no way you could lose, even with Divide Realm.

[Heathen Storm]

Well CA mentioned a "cultural victory", I'm not sure what that will encompass but it gives us a break from useless conquering.

[Kinjo]

I once played as Shimazu, taking all of Kyushu, placed my superior fleet around the coastline and captured all trade nodes. After just 10 years of peace, my income was over 5000 per season and I could easily field 3 or 4 stacks full of Samurai. At this point, the game just became boring, since there was no way you could lose, even with Divide Realm.

Yeah but that was because trade nods were a retarded feature and made the player way too wealthy.

[RGA]

Yeah but that was because trade nods were a retarded feature and made the player way too wealthy.

In most TW games, there are always some filthy-rich regions capable of supporting tons of troops. In RTW it was Egypt, in M2TW Italy etc. I won't be surprise if Egypt is OP both economically and militarily (i.e. chariots) in R2TW

[DogSoldierSPQR]

Domination is fun if you are a new player, but it gets old after doing it a few times at least to me it does. No I much rather build up a strong core of 10-15 regions and focus on building my wealth, once I have done that I make some key allies and start to project my power and subjugate factions and make them vassals.

For example if I'm playing Egypt I really don't want to capture Gaul or Germenia I want limit my expansion to something like this:



Then with the wealth that I have accumulated I will prop up my ally Macedonia and back them both financially and my military. I'll use whatever diplomacy options CA gives me to spread my influence into Anatolia and the Arabian Peninsula by making a few vassals in the area and trade like crazy. The one diplomacy option I really hope CA brings back so I don't have to play the game like a God damn noob is the option to gift a region to another faction. I want to be able to give land back my ally if I retake it from the faction they lost it to or be able to give land to a vassal so they can control an entire province. So yeah that's how I would like to play, but it will depend on the diplomacy options CA gives us. I could play campaigns like that all day long, but the moment I'm limited to only conquest it gets boring rather fast.

Making others into your vassals should be easier now. Before, they literally never accepted it...at all.
I kept on asking, refused. Destroyed a massive army of theirs and asked again...refused. Surrounding their capital before the siege, asking again, refused! This time the AI will have a brain but I hope they can use it when it comes to vassals etc.

In reality, countless times there have been territories that have submitted to others before a war even starts. AI should no what they can and can't win.

On topic though: When I'm playing as the Romans, I don't want to officially expand past the Alps up north, but will make sure the entire Italian peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia and that other island are all mine. From that point onwards, I will be launching raiding parties into Germania and Gaul, but at the same time, I will have a tribe in each of those regions I will be supporting financially and military as long as the AI is "long term" thinker and not short term thinker who'll backstab you just because one poor settlement of yours was left unguarded.
At one random point, I will sack Athens, raid the place and rob everything and destroy all the buildings!

[Stoopisaurus]

I like to capture a region with good perks, preferably an island, and build a good economy from that point. For example, in Fall of the Samurai i always take a fertile region with a blacksmith, and build devestating troops to defend, and later to attack. I allready set my mind on Sardinia

[Splatterfox]

Expand, expand, expand...

Mostly I start a new game by the time it's clear I am just steamrolling to victory, and am practically unbeatable. Been this way especially because most fights / sieges turn out to be quite repetative, and AI doesn't seem to consider finding a way to conquer or weaken your empire.

I like the starts of TW games; the first x early tearns, because they are the hardest, and thus the most intense and satisfying!

Really hope though, that in Rome II you can get annihalated by the enemies, without them cheating (money and army spawn scripts)

This!

I'm totally into expanding, but from time to time I play lots of turns only for building, recruiting and providing stability, I don't want to get affected by extreme "activeness-pressure" all the time.

The reason why big empires become nearly unbeatable is, because all soldiers (as long as enemies don't bribe them) are under your direct control and in contrary to your civil population your army is 100% "loyal". If the Roman Empire would have been under absolute control of one person or family with tactical skill and reasonnable behaviour, it would have been able to become a world conqueror, too.
I hope in Rome other nations become worried when you expand enormously strong (especially by military actions) and plan intrigues, secret allies and advantageous ambushes (not like attacking a 200.000 soldier empire with a rest-stack of 1000 men) to weaken you, making world domination still possible, but very hard.

[General Grievous]

Most of the time,i secure some goods territories, never let my capital have a frontier with another nation.
I put my armies in criticals defensive points, i develop my economy.
I let the other nations to kill themeselves. playing diplomacy...

I usually have one or two good allies and help them during this period.

After that i play like the "police of the world", but it depends of the TW game.
Anyway, i am not a expander. I just take some strategical territories far away from my capital (like an isle, with a strategic port) and make some military operations from my bases

[Splatterfox]

Yeah it really depends on the game. In Empire I play Prussia and conquered anything from Netherlands to Russia, South Bavaria/Austria-Ungary to Denmark and going for whole Scandinavia, containing 48 regions.
In Rome the A.I. seems much more agressive, long national borders are way more dangerous (and I'm far from being a hardcore-gamer).

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

I create a army of 20 stack.I believe no body will beat me with that and I try to take out my nearest enemy.
I always like to be building something in every Town I own.
I will trade with anybody for cash.I am a whore for money as money is something you need in war.
I try to send spys out to see where everybody on the map is.
I also try to capture the wonders of the world that give me a bonus like the Babylon Gardens etc.
I keep a assassin near my home base and will kill any general I see near my lands.So if they attack my Capital they will not have a general.Usually a attacking army will suffer if they try to take a walled City with no general.

[joey6131986]

I agree. When I play, I usually role-play to a certain degree. For instance: in Rome II, I plan on taking over Greece and Illyricum with Athens, and perhaps western Turkey (which was more or less Greek). That's all. And with the Arverni, I'll take Gaul, Italy, North Africa, and Spain (so I'd have control over the western Mediterranean). My dad, on the other hand, takes anything and everything. When he's done playing, he'll have the whole damned map painted with his faction's color.

Just different play styles I suppose.

[Darth_Revan]

Also the inclusion of families within the factions will add more depth into the role-playing as well. You could have prospects on a specific region then civil war breaks out and it hampers your ability to expand etc.

[oppaiO_O]

I tend to capture the surrounding lands and then try to just have one border open to other nations for possible attack and then focus on building and getting the monies then I repeat, capture more land, stop and defend, build,

capture, defend, build...so on, at the end my goal always is to control the whole world though most of the time I stop and drop a campaign when I'm overly
powerful and start a new one since the end game in Total War kinda sucks and the starting is the more awesome experience you get

[the count]

For me it depends on the faction I am playing. Usually I don't capture everything, I like to create an empire and then defend and intervene in other faction's wars. Therefore I really like the system of returning faction which we have? since Empire

[General Grievous]

Unfortunatly, the more you have lands, the more power you have and it's too easy to play.
The most difficult in a TW game is the beginning. Well, i must admit that one or two late battles scared me a lot, (particulary in ETW) but there was no danger for my survival.

I think that TW games miss some challange in late part of a campain game.
In general, you become the strongest faction whereas a lot of powerless faction fight each other. There is no other faction that counter player's power. It's sad!