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Thread: If anyone needs help

  1. #1
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    Default If anyone needs help

    I know there are already the sticky threads for help with factions. But if anyone is struggling with a particular faction and would like some advice then i will do my best to give it. =]

    I usually play with the Divide Et Impera mod so if anyone else uses that then i will definitely be able to help, even if you play vanilla or use another mod like radious the same strategies may still be effective.

    So, that being said don't hesitate to ask. I have tried out all the factions at least once now, some of them i am more experienced with than others but i may still be able to help any of the factions.

  2. #2

    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    What type of battle strategy is in your opinion best for dacian / ilirian factions?

  3. #3
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    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    Quote Originally Posted by Vitek31 View Post
    What type of battle strategy is in your opinion best for dacian / ilirian factions?
    Well as i said i'm not too sure about in the default game but as for playing with DEI i can help you there.

    With the Odryssian Kingdom and Tylis, the units you get at the start are a bit limited, IIRC mainly just basic Thracian spearmen and basic skirmishers, if you are playing Tylis sometimes you get lucky and the game glitches a bit and your celtic units become avaliable sometimes when you go to recruit even when your culture isn't dominant yet. The best way to go about it is if you have only say spearmen and skirmishers, stick your skirmishers at the front and the spearmen behind, don't move them until their melee units get close. Usually by the time your skirmishers have thrown one or two rounds or javelins the enemy will be closing in, then get them to run behind your spearmen. If you have your spearmen set up in a line formation, use the ones in the middle to engage the enemy then use the ones on the edges to go around and flank the enemy if possible, keep your general safe but close enough to keep morale up and use skills.
    If you have any cavalry then you have a good chance of winning. Cavalry are so handy in battles especially when they are shock cavalry. Always use your cavalry to flank the enemy. Depending on how many units of cavalry you have either split them up and send them around both sides or if you have one then just pick your targets. The first priorty is use your cavalry to take out all the enemy missile units provided they are isolated from any enemy spearmen. Just charge them with a wedge formation and it shouldn't take much to rout them. Once they have been dealt with start charging the units that your spearmen are engaging and help force them to rout too. Don't be afraid to hire mercenaries before a battle either, even if it puts your income in the red zone, just win the battle then you can dismiss them afterwards.

    One thing i normally do is i make my general units cavalry that way i always have at least 1 cavalry unit and i can use my general to flank the enemy. Illyrian/Ardiaei cavalry are pretty good as well as Getae/Dacian cavalry, you will have fun once you can start recruiting them. Just upgrade your barracks to a stable, it provides food and lets you recruit cavalry. Keep in mind though don't get any more than 5-6 cavalry units in one army as the more you have the less advantage you will have in auto-resolves plus it will be difficult if you are in a battle with a greek faction fielding elite hoplites.

    As for the campaign side of it. For Tylis and the Odryssian Kingdom, your main first target will be Macedon/Antigonidai. If you can defeat them then you should have no problems, for Tylis Bithnyia may also declare war but with any luck you can get Galatia to join the war and keep Bithnyia distracted. For The Odryssian Kingdom besides Macedon Triballi and Getae sometimes declare war but again your main threat is Macedon.

    For Getae, take over Dacia ASAP, take out the Biephi first so you can gain a capital then take out the Bastarnae to complete the province. After that you can either push into Sarmatia or go after the Caitoiroi and Scythians. The other option is push into Pannonia where you will fight some celts, Eravisci, Scordiscii and Breuci. Either way you go, once you secure Dacia you should be fine.

    For Ardiaei something similar, take over all of Illyria so you own the province, then take over Pannonia and then after that either go for Dacia or Thracia or even Macedon, if Epirus still lives join the war and take them out then seize all of Greece. As the Ardiaei, you have a good navy so whenever you can use a navy to help take settlements and more so raid trade routes as they get extra income from raiding.

    Hope this helps a bit =]

  4. #4

    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    Thanks for advice!;-)

  5. #5
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    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    No problem, glad to help =]

    Let me know how it goes

  6. #6

    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    This is a great idea for a thread, so thanks in advance.

    I'm not finding any advice for battle tactics as Bactria/Parthia. The specific problem being that they start off with only weak spearmen, so no attacking melee at all.

    In particular, I'm dreading my first siege assault against a walled city. Can you help?

  7. #7
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    I'm a novice Rome II (vanilla) player. Like Yudishtira, I have not tried a siege assault against a walled city and would appreciate any advice.

    I'm trying a campaign as Cimmeria. I thought that a combination of hoplites and slingers might work against the horse archer armies used by my enemies, but the horse archers ride close to my slingers, causing the slingers to run (and stop firing) while the horse archers shoot them. Soon after that, my hoplites are standing in between two groups of horse archers. My poor infantrymen can never catch up with the enemy cavalry and whichever horsemen they're not running towards will shoot them in the back. (I'm becoming convinced that I'm the most inept Rome II commander ever!) Can anyone advise on the best tactics against horse archer armies? Perhaps I should simply turn off skirmish mode for the slingers and keep the hoplites close to them? Presumably the other option would be to use different units. Is there a unit which is ideal for fighting horse archers - maybe citizen cavalry if they can catch them, or perhaps I should make a beeline for the technology which allows me to recruit armoured horse archers.

    [Edit to add] Simply turning off skirmish mode for the slingers (on a battlefield in the countryside) got them massacred when the enemy horse archers ran them down.

    I can consistently beat horse archer armies in cities using the obvious tactics of walling off both ends of a street with hoplites and putting my slingers and archers safely behind the hoplites. When fighting in open countryside, horse archer armies are still beating me when numbers are equal. I could try creating a box with hoplites (or other spearmen) with the ranged units inside - but that would require a lot more melee infantry than I normally have. Is the answer to put the spearmen in thin lines, to create a box with only a few spear units, or to simply recruit huge numbers of spearmen?

    My first siege assault against a walled city was a challenge. I had researched at least a couple of military technologies relating to siege warfare, which seemed to help (I could make siege ladders and 'shields' - shields being a sort of roof-on-wheels, although they didn't seem to protect the soldiers underneath much.) The defensive archer towers killed more of my men than the enemy units, so it's important to watch for them (the towers don't have banners above them like units do). One archer tower seemed to have a little circle underneath it (at least, it appeared when a unit was close to the tower) and it seemed that, when I left a unit in that circle, the tower stopped firing.
    Last edited by Alwyn; November 22, 2015 at 06:30 AM.

  8. #8
    Atlas5515's Avatar Foederatus
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    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    Horse archer stuff first:

    As for the horse archers, it seems that you have skirmishers which can out-range the horse archers, which is good, relatively few spear infantry, and few to no cavalry. I would avoid stretching them thin, since the horse archers will inevitably charge. There are definitely many options available, but I'll show you my first choice. It is almost like a box, but checkerboard style with a wide front (if you put all your skirmishers on top of each other they will get mowed down by arrows, so make sure your guys aren't too tightly packed). The skirmishers have room in the middle, and can push up into the gaps in the infantry if the shape needs to change (if the horse archers break off to each side favoring the flanks, I would switch to a diamond).

    X-------XXXX--------XXXX--------XXXXX
    XSSSS-SSSS-SSSS-SSSS-SSSS-SSSSX
    XSSSS-SSSS-SSSS-SSSS-SSSS-SSSSX
    XXXXX-------XXXX---------XXXX-------X

    or

    X--XXXX-------XXXX-------XXXX--X
    XSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSX
    XSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSX
    X---------XXXX------XXXX---------X

    with a roving general, depending how you like arranging your units. With your skirmishers standing their ground, with the highest defense ones in the gaps.

    The idea is that you won't need to touch your skirmishers during the battle, you can just sit there and let them do their thing. Even if the horse archers circle around you, that's ok, because everyone is facing out. This is assuming you have missile superiority, which will either force them to stand there and rout, or to attack. If they attack, they have two main options. To charge their horse archers into your spears, or into the gaps in between. If they charge at your spears, great. If they charge at the gaps, turn around the spears on the other side and meet them hopefully before they get to your skirmishers, if you can form them up in the gap, and have them braced, perfect but even if you didn't get there in time, you'll still be fine, just pull that one unit of skirmisher back out of the way (after it broke the charge of the horse archers), and you're golden. They'll probably have a couple runs at you, charging in then retreating, then charging back in, but just keep resetting your formation after each attack.

    Anyway, hope this is helpful. I wish I could give advice on ideal army composition, but I usually don't fight horse archers, since the battles take so long. Usually it's just making do with what I have if autoresolve wants to kill off all my troops.




    As for the problem of weak offensive starter units in a siege, keep in mind that you are also fighting equally weak infantry, although it is a significant problem. Your two main options are numerical superiority and starving them out. Early in the game the times are a lot shorter for starving a city, and it is certainly a lot slower than just rushing the walls, but against a non-trivial army, I always lose complete units (I'm also not that good against cities). The good thing is that early on, most cities wont have walls, except for the main ones, so if you clean out the other settlements first, then you can siege at your leisure. If you do decide to attack though, it is often good to wait an extra turn for 4 more ladders.

  9. #9
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    Thank you, Atlas5515, yes that's exactly my situation (skirmishers who can out-range the horse archers, relatively few spear infantry and few to no cavalry). I'll experiment with your checkerboard idea, it looks good.

    For walled cities, your advice looks good too. It sounds like clearing out the other settlements and then either starving out the defenders of the walled city or waiting an extra turn for more ladders (and bringing lots of soldiers) is the thing to do.

  10. #10
    Miria's Avatar Foederatus
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    Default Re: If anyone needs help

    I may be late to the party but i suppose it's better to show up late then not show up at all ;]

    From my experience, whether you play vanilla Rome 2 or use mods this should be somewhat helpful.

    Cavalry are by far, the best unit type in the game.....provided you know how to use them. Therefore factions that have access to a lot of cavalry such as Parthia, Armenia and the Nomads as well as the Gauls. You can become unstoppable on the battlefield. Of course, if they outnumber your forces especially if they have elite troops then cavalry won't exactly help too much (usually best to retreat if possible when faced with impossible odds in auto-resolve or battle).

    Assuming you get to play a battle that is somewhat evenly matched or even if they have a slightly bigger army, cavalry can make a big difference. The strategy is more or less the purpose for which cavalry units exist....charging. A cavalry unit charging from the rear, not the flanks but from the rear will nearly always cause a lot of damage to any unit it charges into with the exception of maybe elephants.
    The Gauls get pretty good cavalry for charging even early on, Epatha Scammos i believe they are called, the normal celt/gaul cavalry unit is pretty good for charges and they are easy to gain access to and they are a little cheaper compared to more elite cavalry. Even cavalry archers or other ranged cavalry can charge an enemy, they just wont do as much damage and will be in trouble if the enemy has melee cavalry or spear units that can counterattack.

    The best strategy though, have your ranged units at the front, have your fodder next in line (levy spears or any other slightly weaker/basic units) they will be the distraction or the decoy. Keep your elite units behind those and if possible have your flanks covered too. So when the enemy rushes in, run your ranged units behind all your melee units. With any luck your ranged units will get a couple of shots off before they need to retreat. Once they are safe try and use them to take out the enemy's ranged units or any cavalry they have. While your weak units are keeping the enemy occupied, run your elite units around either side to flank them if possible and also if you have any left keep some as backup incase your fodder line crumbles. Then for the final nail in the coffin, run some cavalry behind their forces and then charge into the bulk of their forces provided they are not spear units facing your way. You can also use your cavalry to chase down their ranged units to cut off their ability to use ranged attacks.

    That strategy works for me as any faction, the conditions have to be right (ally/enemy unit numbers, unit types, location ect) but more or less that strategy should help win you any battle. Just observe the battlefield and the enemy force composition. Prioritize units as well, like when using your cavalry, before going for a charge take out any isolated ranged units first or perhaps some isolated melee units who are in a position to be flanked from 2 sides. Targetting their general is also a good idea, once their general flees or even better, is dead, the enemy units will lose a lot of morale, once this happens rush all your infantry into battle if all of them are not currently fighting, rush the enemy with numbers including your ranged units even if they have ammo left, then charge from the rear with your cavalry. This should cause the enemy units to become 'shaken' as they are being mobbed from all sides and sooner or later there will be a mass routing of enemy units.....victory. =]
    Last edited by Miria; January 28, 2016 at 07:54 AM. Reason: incompleted reply

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