Campaign Tactics

**jasperee** · February 20, 2015, 12:44 PM

Hi there,

Been playing for a bit now, with several different factions. Enjoying the game, with some great factions. My campaign openings tend to be alright, with it being fun trying to overcome large rebel armies to expand your territories. Trying to play as Rome for a longer period and capture large amounts of territory, as it seems others can manage, but find myself constantly having to bring armies back to re train them and my progress is painfully slow. My methods are clearly terrible and I was wondering what other players tactics involve. I dislike sending armies with low numbers in to attack and I was wondering how people get around this, if at all.

It is a great game, but the logistical challenge is hard, especially as it takes so long to build the required structures to retrain the hallowed legions, especially when fighting those stinking barbarian hordes of the Gallaeci and the Belgae!

**tungri_centurio** · February 20, 2015, 04:53 PM

a good supply line of troops is the key,don't go get the troops,bring them to your army's that need extra manpower.put them in forts near the border where you are fighting but in some safe spots.i try to take a couple of settlements in a region at the same time with multiple army's.than defend them untill they are happy and my army's are full legions again thanks to to the men in the forts.

also try to look where you place your military settlements,as close as possible to the current borders you have.when playing 0turn 1per 6 settlements is enough.
when playing 1turn go for at least 4.
build up these centers so that when you hit the reforms you only need to build the last ones in the building line.

**dvk901** · February 20, 2015, 05:28 PM

What he said.

I generally make sure several of my big cities have a whopping population growth, and build the heck out them before I go off to war anywhere. Then I use these cities to provide my new recruits, as tungri_centurio says, and put them up in forts behind the lines, or in towns close by. One I 'refresh' my Legions, I run the depleted units back to the nearest cities I can retrain them in...and so on. I generally set it up so I can get good cavalry here, archers there, infantry over there...not necessarily all in one place, and I almost never...0.000009% of the time, use mercenaries. Just don't like the thought of commanding some money-grubbing unit that isn't worth the bottom of a sandal on one of my own Roman soldiers.

I also 'turtle', as they say, for a good long time, and avoid war at all costs. I like to let the AI get a good grip on things, and it gives me time to build up my cities and make sure I have a strong economy and good training facilities before I go off knocking heads in the north or south. And, contrary to what many say, I play 0-turn all the time, and find it far more enjoyable than 1-turn. But that's me. I enjoy the battles and lots of them. I play slow and deliberately. My one army against several AI armies, or several battles in a row are too me just 'one' battle that stretches over several days or weeks. And I have always believed the AI is much more aggressive when it can freely recruit units without the waiting. The AI is no where near as smart as a human when it comes to divvying up unit recruitment in 1-turn...ie, spreading it out over several cities, and there is always a delay before the AI will combine armies to create full stacks. The human player, on the other hand, can spread recruitment of the same unit over several cities, and quickly combine them even in 1-turn. Too me, this is an unfair advantage.

But again, that's just my opinion. I know I'll get feedback for it.

**Alavaria** · February 20, 2015, 10:08 PM

(On 1-turn or 0-turn you can do this).

You can make use of the sea to quickly transport units. Historical? Yeah. The big problem is when you advance far inland... that is when you start to have to plan ahead and have backups.

Even on 1-turn I only need a few cities, thanks to retraining mechanics, but also planning ahead and having them training non-stop. On 0-turn it is much easier if you use the units that are 0-turn, stacks on demand. But they still must travel to the front, so don't skip that sort of preparation.

**ur-Lord Tedric** · February 21, 2015, 06:37 AM

Note 1: The problem is the title - Campaign Strategy (incl Logistics) - Battle Tactics.

I say that with no hint (well, maybe just a little

) of pedanticism, but mostly because it requires a different approach.

Note 2: This Mod (all the Roman-era games really and not just RTW/R2) start in the 'City State' era. You raised the army for a campaign, went on it, and returned. New army for next time (perhaps containing experienced troops from last time). Polybius, et al, the Roman legion Consular pairs are all like this (as indeed are all the Greeks and their near adherents, in some respect all the Barbarian tribes are the same). Effectively, game wise, bring your men home and retrain them - no player, I suspect, and unless playing 0turn (

) does this. Even the Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Crassus, Ceasar period is similar.

Because of the way the game is played, you seriously need to consider transitioning (from the very start, really) into the 'modern' (and what the Romans started after Augustus) is the 'professional standing army' approach. And in that, what you do, is raise 'replacements' at home and send them forward.

A 'legion' has a legion 'base' where a selection of 'cohorts' of the legion's particular make-up are in reserve/replacement mode. Legion on campaign maintains itself from those reserves (and thus why I almost never end a turn without my legions being back to full strength). When the base troops get low, new recruits are raised (wherever they can be raised) and sent forward. All units are maintained at strength with trickle replacements.

'Re-training' as the game does it, is in fact a bit 'gamey' - just like healing packs and free ammo and unlimited carriage are in all the 'fun entertainment but not remotely realistic 'packages'' are

.

In all seriousness, try and run your army a bit like they all were really and you'll do well. A bit of military strategy and logistics study is always worthwhile - when you have such a game as RSII can be.

**tungri_centurio** · February 21, 2015, 04:54 PM

a good book to study the logistics part is: the logistics of the roman army at war. by jonathan p. roth

http://www.realtechsupport.org/temp/...rmy_at_War.pdf

**Alavaria** · February 21, 2015, 10:54 PM

The expected response. Thankfully, if you are 1-turning it, the AI is so hampered by these mechanics you can overrun it easily. A city for each unit type you want will do just fine. Yes, you can really just rely on one city to provide all the hoplites your Roman empire needs. Even more if you are playing slowly, you will train faster than enemy can kill them unless you are bad at using them.

On 0-turn the logistics are harder, as it were, because travel time is very important due to AI ability to constantly keep pressure on you. On 1-turn, you should be able to deal with a few stacks before feeling any pinch, and at that point the AI is in a vise and will not be able to escape.

(Oh yeah, I did fill Pella and Thessalonike with pikemen/hoplite/slinger units but didn't need to use them as I take losses so slowly. Pikemen/Hoplites work very well against the main threats you face in RS2. Little swordsmen are somewhat less effective.)

EDIT: Oh wait, on my Rome1-turn cash was so easy that I actually switched from hoplites to using Allied Triarii as my non-pike infantry. Still no swordsmen though.
EDIT2: Actually I was intending to switch. While I have many units of Triarii outside Pella, my armies haven't lost enough hoplites, so I am using hoplites still (could disband, but why bother when the stack might as well keep fighting).

I must say, I could get overly-used to shield wall. It's an excellent ability, as horsemen can basically never catch your men un-braced (which happens all the time with spearmen etc). Instead, if you see enemy horse charging your triarii, just start marching towards them to ensure you get full defense stats and the braced spear bonus.

**jasperee** · February 22, 2015, 02:28 AM

[QUOTE=ur-Lord Tedric;14376664]Note 1: The problem is the title - Campaign Strategy (incl Logistics) - Battle Tactics.

Thank you very much for the correction

Did have a think about it and clearly got it wrong!

Also thanks for the advice. Standing army seems to be the way then, although I always disliked merging units together as I always felt it impacted on unit experience much more than retraining (not sure of that is actually true or not though...)

On a side note just started a short campaign as Armenia, some of that infantry is beast! Been tearing through Seleucid levy pikemen with ease!!

**ur-Lord Tedric** · February 23, 2015, 02:49 AM

Originally Posted by jasperee

................

Also thanks for the advice. Standing army seems to be the way then, although I always disliked merging units together as I always felt it impacted on unit experience much more than retraining (not sure of that is actually true or not though...)...............

Well, it does, sadly - and this is a fundamental element of the way RTW works and the Mod cannot affect it. Re-training units rather than, even trickle, merging will indeed result in units becoming much more experienced way faster. There is thus a real incentive for those players who like their shiny gold bars.

Because of the boosts and abilities that players have, however, there is a reason that AI units get a significant boost of +3 to their experience on recruitment - and that is to level that playing-(battle-)field. When a player has lots of very experienced units then that actually trivializes the battles more - which is definitely sad.

By choosing to send replacements and merge and keeping experience growth down, however, there are some other benefits to be had. Whilst battles then become more meaningful and the 'boost' that the AI receives is somewhat then preserved, I find that I then care much more about the fewer units I have that are that much 'better'. Merging can, indeed, be done more carefully too, by having currently experienced units merge first, before then bringing in the 'raw recruits'. This can indeed result in a legion of cohorts 'organised' just like Vegetius describes.