Anyway to Stop the Onslaught?

[EmperorJulian]

Alright gentlemen, considering the M2TW patch is not quite ready I decided to reboot RTW and try my hand at a Pontic campaign on 1.5 (Hard/Hard). In any event I'm playing my usual slow paced game 22 territories by 170 BC and I'm being driven insane by the constant siege mentality of my AI neighbors. Over the past century I've won no less than 250 engagements against Armenia, The Bruti, Egypt and Thrace. With my legions of Phalanx Pikemen clogging the streets these factions have no chance of ever carrying one of my cities by a general assault. Yet they keep trying. Routinely 4-5 of my cities are under siege by these factions at any one time.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, in SOME context, but I'm really at my wits end here. Nothing seems to stop these guys from attacking, not hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers, or the nearly monotonous string of defeats they have had to endure. Bribes don't work either, ceasefires are of course out of the question. Each turn of mine can take 2 hours as I deal with the doomed hordes of the enemy. Over time I have managed to break the Bruti in Greece and to reduce their military effectiveness greatly, but that only solves part of the problem.

Since I'm not a blitzkrieg style player I've been searching for alternative courses of action for dealing with this intractable foes. The first solution I found was assassination. Though the AI can respawn generals at will there is a certain level of pleasure in doing away with a General as he's sieging one of my cities. In addition to this I've used bribery extensively to detach cities from my enemies, Chiefly Armenia and Egypt and hand them over to other neutral or allied factions, i.e. Spain, Macedonia (my only ally) and Briton. I've also used Bribery to detach generals from my opponents, again Chiefly Armenia and in this case Thrace, though that is only a short term solution. Of course there's always conquest, and I've certainly used that to humble the Roman House to my West.

I've also noticed that AI factions will not attack each other so long as they're attacking me. Therefore I've found that bribed settlements are in no danger of being taken back so long as they're in the hands of some faction other than my own. For example, I've detached Alexandria, Sidon, and Seleucia from Egypt and handed them over to Macedon, the Ptolemies must not have cared since they never bothered to retake those provinces. Of course Macedon also wont attack Egypt but that's another story entirely.

A friend of mine told me that RTW (and for that matter M2TW) are not Empire Building games. Instead, he believes (rightly so, I should think) that the Total War experience is more geared towards an entirely ahistorical mega blitzkrieg in which the player character wins by 220 BC. In any event, I'm just wondering if I've missed something here, all these endless victories are, simply put, boring. Are there any strategies I might employ to ensure I don't have to fight on 4 fronts at once perpetually, or is my Pontic Empire so powerful, with 150K Dinarii in the bank and mastery of the high seas simply immune from peace?

[The Good]

A friend of mine told me that RTW (and for that matter M2TW) are not Empire Building games. Instead, he believes (rightly so, I should think) that the Total War experience is more geared towards an entirely ahistorical mega blitzkrieg in which the player character wins by 220 BC. In any event, I'm just wondering if I've missed something here, all these endless victories are, simply put, boring. Are there any strategies I might employ to ensure I don't have to fight on 4 fronts at once perpetually, or is my Pontic Empire so powerful, with 150K Dinarii in the bank and mastery of the high seas simply immune from peace?

Well, I think CA intended the game to be an "Empire Builder", but also a action packed "Battle game", if you get what I mean. It is unfortunate how often the AI attacks you, however, you have to consider how warlike Nations were back then, it wasn't relatively peaceful like nowadays. I think that it is annoying to try to play a slow campaign, then the AI constantly besieges your settlements, so I know how it feels. I tried to play as Illyrians in the Rome: Total Realism mod, and I was constantly attacked non-stop by the Macedonians, who sent full stack after full stack....

I wish you the best of luck in your campaign however, and God bless ye.

[EmperorJulian]

Well thanks for the reply Lucius Julius, it seems my observations are not unusual. I do prefer my campaigns slow, but this is getting to be just plain stupid. You would think that these factions would chose an easier opponent to attack, or at least do something other than send countless thousands of men to die at my gates.

Also the factions continue to treat me like they can defeat me even after they've been crushed into insignificance. The Bruti have 4 provinces I have 22 yet they continue to act as though they can "win the war" I am going to see if I can secure a protectorate or two for a consideration, say 100,000 dinarii, though I doubt that will help any. Granted such uber-defenses are not really possible without a supply of Pikemen, so perhaps I should try a faction that lacks them, might be more of a motivation to expand early and often.

In any event I am looking to maximize the enjoyment of the campaign, while also keeping it going at a leisurely pace. Surely there must be SOME middle ground to be had.

[kenny0_3]

To get a better experience when defending cities you are not supposed to use phalanx's blocking the streets, its impossible not to lose and it is just abusing very stupid AI in sieges

Why not play Rome Total Realism or Europa Barberandum (can't remember the spelling ?)

You can't really Blitzkrieg in this game or you will win in about 50 turns, so you have to allow the AI to build up.

Can't remember exactly about Rome but in M2Tw there are certain provinces that the AI will desperately go for and you are guaranteed to get into a war, so sometimes it can be advantagous to give them to the Papacy / Senate.

[EmperorJulian]

Exploit or not, I'm going to use the units I have to my fullest advantage. I will admit one thing however, that using phalanxes makes it much easier, perhaps too easy to play the game at a slow pace. It seems by my strategy I've simply amplified the inerrant defects in the AI. Defects which may not be obvious if you run the table with your opponents in 50 turns. By playing slowly and developing a strong economy first it seems I've exposed myself to almost unlimited attacks by my faction neighbors as they've had as much time to develop as I have.

I suppose my possession of a centrally located Empire between Europe and Asia doesn't' help situations either. In any case I'm thinking I might be better off with more rapid early expansion so as to neutralize at least some of my opponents one either front. That might make things more enjoyable in the long run. As far as exploits go, those phalanxes are the only thing standing between me and being wiped out. Against the Bruti I can't imagine I would get very far trying to defend my cities with Eastern Infantry and Hillmen. Especially since I'm facing armies composed of, in large part, Urban, Praetorian and Legionary Cohorts. If I'm exploiting anything, it's the AI's inability to know when to stop attacking.

Anyway I'm going to check out some past saves and see what I could have done earlier, cheers.

[Severous]

Hail Emporor Julian

Might I recommend spies and assassins to incite riots and rebellion in enemy cities.

Spies infesting cities will cause 5% unrest for every 'eye' or skill. Up to a max of 50% unrest for multiple spies (or one very skilled spy).

Follow that up with an assassin sabotaging religions and public order structures and you have the potential to cause a city to riot...keep it up and it will rebel. It will revert to rebel control or to the previous faction owning it.

This will cause the target faction to have a new enemy to fight..often a town full of troops. AI has to mobilise to fight for its town back. Weakens the enemy and distracts him from you.

Plague infested spies. Decimate the enemy economy for scores of years. Never let it die out. Plague the population back to the stone age. Against Brutii in particular it can cripple its economy and could end up with an army too expensive to support. Faction goes bankrupt.

I fondly remember doing this in a 270year German campaign. Influenced the fighting going on between Egypt and Scipii with spies and assasins active hundreds of miles from the fatherland.

Another campaign goal to consider. Capture a region or eliminate a certain faction in the life time of your faction leader. Makes you more careful about using him in battle, protecting him from assassins, and puts a constraint on you of achieving the objective by a date you cant be sure of.

[EmperorJulian]

Severous, interesting points you bring up. Though I've made heavy use of assassinations, I was hesitant to do it too much as A) I don't want every faction leader I have to be known as "the Killer" and B) I hadn't really considered putting to scientific use as you've pointed out. While bribing and reallocating cities can provide suitable neutral buffer states, it would be even more advantageous to cause cities to rebel through the proper use of spies and assassins.

As an aside, I've found out that one can't produce children from bribed generals in RTW 1.5, that's really too bad. Cheers!