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Thread: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

  1. #1
    bigdaddy1204's Avatar Campidoctor
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    Default Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I've just started my first campaign as the Eastern Roman Empire… and I am being destroyed! This campaign is really difficult. The problem is, the barbarians have two large armies inside your territory on turn 1 (near Thessalonica). You have two small, weak armies and not much money. My first move was to try to combine my two armies in Europe, hoping they might then have a chance. But as soon as I ended the first turn, the barbarians attacked me. I was outnumbered 1700 against 2800 men, and my troops were completely useless. They were slaughtered. Despite supposedly being heavy infantry, it was less of a battle and more of a massacre. Their performance was EXTREMELY poor. Basically, they all died almost immediately, while they inflicted negligible damage on the enemy.

    Horrified, I decided to reload and try the battle again. Despite re-arranging my troops, the result was exactly the same: my entire army destroyed within a matter of moments, with very low casualties to the enemy (Despite that they were attacking with low-quality units and my men are supposed to be heavy infantry). I came to the unavoidable conclusion that ERE units simply suck.

    To make matters worse, the Sassanids immediately invaded me from the east, and their army was 3x larger than my starting forces. My frontier garrisons were overwhelmed and destroyed. Defeat swiftly followed defeat. I was then invaded from the southwest by barbarians from the African desert, and I did not have enough money to even begin to think about fielding an army against them.

    So to summarise, within the first 3 turns, I had been invaded from 3 different fronts, and had no chance whatsoever of a successful defence on any of them. Worse still, I couldn’t even recruit units quickly as ERE heavy infantry take 2 turns to train, and along the eastern provinces you couldn’t even recruit them as you have to built the necessary barracks first (but you can’t afford to do that, because you have no money).

    I just had to allow my settlements in the Balkans and in the East to be sacked and destroyed by the enemy at will, since it was impossible to field an army against them. I did soldier on for about ten turns or so, and gradually I managed to build up a reasonably powerful army in Constantinople, construct a cavalry training building there, and also build up my economy by constructing farms, industry and trade in the Anatolian provinces. After a few turns of this, my income is now going up and I finally have about 5k profits each turn, which is enough to start thinking about raising some armies to defend the east.

    But the situation is dire. I am being invaded from both the east and the west in Egypt by two separate armies, and I am also being invaded in Syria by the Sassanids, plus I need to defend Constantinople against the Huns who are sweeping down into Europe from the north, while simultaneously trying to protect and rebuild my Balkan lands. I estimate that to deal with all of these different threats, I would need at least 5 large armies. At present, I have only one large army. It’s going to be a race against time to see if I can turn the situation around.

    I am looking forward to getting home from work tonight, so I can continue my campaign. So, does anyone have any tips/stories to share about the Eastern Roman Empire?

  2. #2
    Sharpe's Avatar Praeses
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    It's extremely difficult.

    I'm at turn 15 (After like 8 hours of play ahah) and have managed to hold Thrace with only one devastated province. The thing that gets me is the Sassinids and their puppet states, I've got two full stacks in the east and they are barely holding.

    I find that it becomes a case of quality and fighting good battles - you have to deal with the fact that you have to be able to beat two stacks with one stack on a regular basis, so experienced troops (at least silver chevrons) are a necessity. Put all your money into foot troops and cav mercenaries and take the fight to the enemy and sack their lands, with this cash you can build your infrastructure.

    Expansion is extremely slow if not impossible, at least it seems that way at turn 15, just weather the storm.



    It does make for a very difficult but satisfying campaign.

  3. #3
    Darios's Avatar Ex Oriente Lux
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    We spent two years complaining that Rome 2 was watered down and too easy, CA is having their sweet revenge.

    I understand you though. I actually had a pretty easy time dealing with the barbarian hordes along the Danube. The key is to fight every single battle (no autoresolving) and slowly but surely wear down their numbers. They lack a base of operations so every loss that they take is a huge deal. After a few battles like that, hit them with your field army and you SHOULD be able to defeat them. I destroyed the Visigoths early in my campaign and forced the Huns to sue for peace.

    A problem came when the Garamantians declared war on me and started hitting my positions in Libya. I made the decision to simply let the province go and razed the region. I built up an army in Egypt and managed to finally inflict enough causalities upon them to the point where they sued for peace.

    I was lucky and managed to last until 405 (giving me time to build up the Balkans) before the Sassanids declared war on me. I immediately sent my armies east and razed a few Persian cities but the number of Sassanid vassals is a serious issue and there's no real way you can take the field against them because they will always outnumber you. I'm slowly trying to wear down their strength by fighting every battle, but I'm on the retreat and I'm falling back towards Antioch. My superior heavy infantry is saving my ass....

    I think that CA will need to do some balancing in this regard. The Sassanids need more enemies to threaten them in the east, because as it stands they can put EVERYTHING they have into fighting an already overstretched and economically drained ERE.
    Last edited by Darios; February 20, 2015 at 10:32 AM.
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  4. #4

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I am really sick of posts about this game being too hard after someone plays it... ONCE. ANd the post heading is "too hard" but if you paid attention to yourself you wrote you were challenged and excited and actually enjoyed the game... ugh!

    You didn't: Diplomatically keep yourself afloat by appeasing the Sassanids and keeping them off your back. Pulling your armies BACK on the first turn and waiting until your eastern armies joined you to combine into a decent stack to face the huns.

    In response, no it is not too hard- 10 years into my ERE campaign my empire has expanded and lost nothing. We kicked the Huns out very early in the game and they went on to mess with the WRE. You failed to go intimidate the africans before that army left into thinking they should leave you alone. THEN and only then do you go face the huns.

    FIVE large armies?? Uh... what!? I did it twice so far with one large army, and a medium sized one in the East just to keep the peace between the Sassies and ERE alive long enough for me to build up there for real too. I will need maybe four for the second wave of Huns, however.

    What is the phrase: Strategy without tactics is the slowest way to victory, but tactics without strategy is a bunch of doomoed noise. You played this way: "I rearranged my troops." Come ON dude, get a clue. "I just allowed both the balkans and the east to fall..." really? Both fronts? SMH.

    Oh and by the way, you sorta suck at tactics too if you're worried about getting HEAVY infantry early on in the game to fight with... the huns ride HORSES. Try some spear men who can turtle and hold chokepoints on the map and bottleneck them. They die in swarms.

    This, after the RTW2 debacle is FINALLY a strategy game again which requires some thinking...

    Oh and Sassanid vassals? You ought to be intermarrying daughters into those beasts so their heart to go to wear with you is nil, and you turn them upon their "masters."

    Come on people, think a bit strategically.

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  5. #5

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    If by hard you mean playing the same repetetive siege battles over and over again, then yes.
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  6. #6

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Darios View Post
    We spent two years complaining that Rome 2 was watered down and too easy, CA is having their sweet revenge.

    I understand you though. I actually had a pretty easy time dealing with the barbarian hordes along the Danube. The key is to fight every single battle (no autoresolving) and slowly but surely wear down their numbers. They lack a base of operations so every loss that they take is a huge deal. After a few battles like that, hit them with your field army and you SHOULD be able to defeat them. I destroyed the Visigoths early in my campaign and forced the Huns to sue for peace.

    A problem came when the Garamantians declared war on me and started hitting my positions in Libya. I made the decision to simply let the province go and razed the region. I built up an army in Egypt and managed to finally inflict enough causalities upon them to the point where they sued for peace.

    I was lucky and managed to last until 405 (giving me time to build up the Balkans) before the Sassanids declared war on me. I immediately sent my armies east and razed a few Persian cities but the number of Sassanid vassals is a serious issue and there's no real way you can take the field against them because they will always outnumber you. I'm slowly trying to wear down their strength by fighting every battle, but I'm on the retreat and I'm falling back towards Antioch. My superior heavy infantry is saving my ass....

    I think that CA will need to do some balancing in this regard. The Sassanids need more enemies to threaten them in the east, because as it stands they can put EVERYTHING they have into fighting an already overstretched and economically drained ERE.
    I agree about the Sassanid part, I find the game way too easy as the Sassanids, we need a mod where the vast majority of your satraps are very unfriendly or almost hostile. this will create a fun dynamic for the Sassanid similar to the Seleucids.

  7. #7
    bigdaddy1204's Avatar Campidoctor
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    Update

    I have started again, and things are now going much better. I think the first couple of turns are critical. I always play very hard/very hard. I have discovered a few things - I learned that it's best to support the Western Empire by declaring war on its enemies whenever you are requested to do so, because if your alliance with them fails, the Sassanids will invade and so will everyone else. Also, it's a good idea to build a fleet at Constantinople, because otherwise the Alans will sail down and land in the Black Sea region of Anatolia, causing you to lose. On turn 1, I raised new troops in the Balkans and also raced armies to the Libyan frontier and the south of Egypt, as well as the border with the Sassanids. This worked and I had a few turns to build up the economy.

    In my new campaign I was able to defeat the Visigoths and save the Balkans because they divided their two armies, allowing me to destroy one and causing the other to flee. I also defeated Hun attacks on my towns. In the east I kept peace with the Sassanids for the first few turns. In Egypt I was attacked by Garamantes, but although they sacked a few towns they didnt capture any territory. I managed to gather an army and inflict a crushing defeat on them at Oxyrhincus in Egypt, destroying their entire army.

    I now finally have those five armies I mentioned that I would need in my first post. Three armies are fighting the Sassanids in the east, one is protecting the Balkans from the Huns and the other is in Egypt, preparing to drive the Garamantes out of Libya.

    Great game, I'm enjoying the challenge. It is pretty exhausting, fighting off siege attacks every turn but it's rewarding. I'm working toward getting Cataphract cavalry and preparing to take the fight to the enemy.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I started an ERE campaign and up until now I am doing pretty well. I defeated one Visigoth stack and the other fled to Italy. My garrisons weared down the enemy so my small army in Constantinople was able to defeat the Visigoth army under Ataulf. I broke all my treaties including trade with WRE on first turn. The Huns began to like me and now I am the defensive ally. It's still 398ad. So hope to get the Huns to fight the sassanids for me. The sassanids declared we on me in 397 ad. Armenia broke its treaty with sassanids and joined me instead. My war with WRE meant that the garamantians and gaetulians finally like me. This has allows me to leave Africa undefended as I am surrounded by allies all around. The sassanids have already started pouring into my lands but I dealt them an early blow by defeating a full stack using just the garrison and the small army stationed in amida. So things look pretty good. A cavalry corral or higher cavalry recruitment is a mud against sassanid shock cav and horse archers. My war with WRE stabilized Europe and my alliance with the Huns makes barbarians think twice before declaring war on me. This was on hard difficulty.

  9. #9
    Daneboy's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    It´s extremely important to never autoresolve sieges when attacked.

    Put your troops in testudo in front of the Towers and watch the barabarian hordes beeing destroyed by archery fire. When the time is right, send in your scout equeties and try to score a rear attack. In my experience, do not withdraw them for a second attack. They will pile up kills after having been in meele after a Little while. The initial charge is less effective.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    My campaign (VH/H) as the ERE began by deciding which provinces to abandon. I abandoned everything south of Antioch and for the first 50-100 turns I just had to survive. I was fortunate in 2 aspects:

    1. The Sassanids sent most of their stacks to Egypt
    2. Various rebel factions emerged on my Eastern frontiers - Judea, Oriens, and some rebels

    I also gave gifts to the White Huns, who were roaming through the distant Eastern provinces. So what happened was I fought, subdued, fought again and then razed the Armenians and the Caucasus-folks, while the Persian ruler was at the "holy lands" and the White Huns were annihilating the far East. Meanwhile, Macedonia and the Insulae Orientales were getting sacked and raided by various barbarians. Eventually the White Huns got destroyed. Finally, at around turn 85, I subdued the Sassanids. It took two invasions of Armenia, and at least two attacks deep into Mesopotamia, with 1+ legion.



    My impression is that this game is not so much about conquest as it is about survival. Unlike previous Total War-s, here I saw the barbarians destroy each other and flee from their lands in the North without me doing anything about it. Soon I will take back Egypt and we will embark on a great "Restitutio Imperii"

  11. #11

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I am having a great campaign with ERE. Really tough. About 60 turns in, have finally lost Greece and everything west of constantinople after commiting so much to defeat the Sassanids and they're allies. Now sending the legions back to retake my fallen lands after the Middle East is now mostly secure. Has been a hard grind. Made a mistake about 20 turns in when I thought I was doing well so sent 2 legions and a fleet to help out WRE. Ended up disbanding them when the going for tough.. almost lost it for me.

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  12. #12

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I just found it strange the ERE cannot make garrisons despite having one or so at the start. It has to play as a defensive faction, which makes the lack of it weird. I always enable it via a mod. Against that I also enable a mod which makes it likely the ai will take a province rather than just devastate it.

    I found that once I defeat the Gothic armies near Constantinople, I put all my effort into supporting as many armies close to the Sassanid border as possible. It appears to delay the declaration of war, and I can built whatever barracks can allow balanced armies.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I am on my first Eastern Roman Empire Campaign and I think I am doing well. (Nice tip about intermarrying Vassals.) I firstly defended against the Gothic forces by turtling into cities and towns. I lost one town but I was able to pick off weak armies. I eventually defeated, utterly the Goths. Additionally, I broke my alliance with the Western Romans and made them pay me to join wars against their enemies. I then paid off a couple smaller hordes to fight each other.

    The Sassanids and I have had peace. I have kept my armies in the East and In Egypt. I sent at least a small gift to the Sassanids every single turn. They declared war on me once but I paid 10,000 for a ceasefire. Now we are yellow and have trade agreements. I'm monitoring the Eastern situation-the Western Romans are having a go of it. I have two full stacks Fortified along the Danube. I have begun building an army for the war in the East. I have two full stacks built up and plan three years and three more full stacks before I begin war.

    Great tip on marrying princesses to vassals. I will start the anti-vassal intrigues right away. This campaign is difficult, and I have had to destroy and rebuild buildings several times until I figured out the appropriate combinations for success. Each turn takes me, without a battle, roughly two hours haha

  14. #14
    antaeus's Avatar Cool and normal
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    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I find ERE to be quite rewarding.

    The first thing I do is sightly lower the tax rate to reduce the rebellion pressure...

    You really need two - three full stacks in Europe pretty quickly. Two stacks can double up on each of the migrant tribes individual stacks as they get strung out. I pro actively kill off wandering armies as they cross the border to prevent issues down the track.

    I break my alliances with the Western empire early, but keep trade in place. It really helps rebalance with the states who take over the west as it falls apart.

    I make sure I focus on sanitation and food in my cities to get the economy going. Making do with recruiting most of my armies in Thrace which I upgrade.

    My first goal is always to butter up the Sassanids. Even to the degree of slowing economic growth to buy them gifts every turn. I'll also cast aside the Ghassanids. In my current campaign I've married off a princess and great relations with them. This really frees you up to do other things. So I've been free to deal with the Huns and expand into Italy. I'm setting up for an invasion of Africa now.

    It's helpful to close off weak and difficult to defend areas like across the Danube by setting up client states who will defend it for you, allowing you advance west as the western empire falls...
    Last edited by antaeus; August 23, 2017 at 09:28 PM.
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  15. #15

    Default Re: Eastern Roman Empire campaign too hard?

    I started this campaign on Legendary. I played very defensively.
    The initial threat by the Visigoths and other hordes you can manage by winning defensive battles in your towns and then counterattacking when you gathered enough troops.
    ERE are an economic powerhouse and I managed to stabilize and upgrade the provinces with even some frontier cities in Greece and Thrace having tier 4 main settlement to gain a wall.
    Meanwhile the WRE was being destroyed. I was to busy with defending my provinces to really expand.

    Now unfortunately at about 405 AD when Rome fell the Sassanids DOWed on me.
    Now I am being attacked by about 10 stacks from the west (Langobards and fing Britons from Italy) and about 10 stacks from the east from Sassanids and all their puppets. With still the occasional 2-3 stack hordes from the north.
    I did a dozen of insane defensive battles with 2k against 5k and minimum casualties.

    The big problem is that I get chain assaulted in the main defensive settlements. So the settlement gets attacked or sieged EVERY turn three turns and more in a row. No chance to recruit troops or replenish garrison + army.
    I guess you can really only win this if you give tens of thousands of gold to the Sassanids or do some kinky stuff like LegendOfTotalwar where he deleted all his provinces except Egypt for money.
    I don't like the Diplomacy in TW and suck at it so I don't really want to do the Sassanid appeasement thing.
    Anyone has some other advice how you can win this on Legendary? I feel I need to restart this campaign. Probably need to kill Sassanids early maybe by abandoning everything west of Constantinoples. No idea if this is manageable at all. Anyone has a better suggestion?

    Kudos to CA though I play all their games on Legendary and usually its too easy so I guess thanks for Attila skipped this game originally and just recently got it.

    EDIT: started a WRE campaign on legendary now to get accustomed to Attila first. Its way easier so I'll probably try ERE after it. WRE has way better garrisons and frontier and safe hinterlands.
    Last edited by CyberianK; September 11, 2017 at 11:29 PM.

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