Share your handy campaign tricks

[shibbieNIS]

use this thread to post about your tricks and hints on the campaign map, I'm interested to hear your ones.

here are mine (can't think of many for some reason)

1. if you see a massive enemy army coming towards you build a fort and put 1 unit of peasants in it (or low-level pikemen if you have cheap access) en-route to your settlement, they will either directly attack the fort or take a ridiculously long route round to try to attack the city they wish.

2. take javelin men to africa (elephants, obvously)

3. take the islands along the central belt as they are very infrequently attacked and can be used for good trade and/or shipping high end specific units to around your empire

4. get cretan archers, seriously

more should come when i can think properly. Please, share yours

ShibbieNIS

[Mikey]

I tend to play in leaps of taking an entire faction's land in consecutive turns, rather than wars of attrition.

I find the best method of moving through territory which is relatively teched up (ie you can use captured cities to retrain your troops) is to take two full stacks. (In my case two identical legions.) This way you can use Stack A to take a city. When the city is taken, Stack A can sit in the city, retrain and you can build a small garrison without fear of the city being retaken. Meanwhile, Stack B can move on to the next city, meaning the enemy is constantly under pressure. By the time Stack B has taken the next city, Stack A is ready to move on once more... etc!

Using this method I absolutely crushed Greece/Macedon/Epirus in Terrae Expugnandae.

[^Gr8^Xander]

To defeat a big army with few casualties:

1: Get some armies full of javelin armed horsemen.
2: Recruit a big army on your own choice.
3: Use the cavalry auxilia forces (for example) to weaken the enemy army without losing any or few friendly forces. (I usualy get 800/1000 kills when attacking a 3000/4000 strong army)
4: Once the enemy is weakened by these attacks, you can attack them with your main army. It will be easy to kill them.

[GaussSoldier]

Here's some of my handy dandy campaign tips!

1. When moving into Scythia or the middle-Middle East, I always bring an army of ranged or heavy cavalry
2. When moving more than one army, keep them together (in groups if possible) to overwhelm the enemy
3. A couple spies scouting in front of your armies wouldn't hurt
4. Keep track of the growth of nearby countries by constantly asking for map info (also helps if your enemy is fighting a two front war)

[Vlade the Impaler]

If there is an enemy agent (spy, diplomat, assassin) or a friendly agent that worries you, bring an army out to him, and surround him with one unit each on all 8 sides (it may be less if he is next to mountains, coast, or forest of course). Then take another unit/the rest of the army and move it on the same tile as the agent. The agent will have nowhere to go and will die.

I don't want to start a debate on this. I realize it is pretty much an exploit as the AI does not do this, but all I am saying is it works. Nobody should reply to my post directly to flame/argue this strategy's validity.

[Roshak]

Roshak's Top 10

1. USE Spies. They are cheap and greatly effective at finding enemy weak points and finding enemy armies near your borders. I recommend you have at least 1 spy per front.

2. If you see a diplomat continually use the diplomacy animation that faction is likely going to attack you soon.

3. Check your Settlement Details prior to building structures to find out how much it will REALLY affect the settlement.

4. Balance your armies with your settlements. If your finding your cities in the negative 1000s your army is too large, so either start disbanding, conquer more territory or wipe out your enemy armies.

5. Make alliances with other factions if possible. Particularly those that are far away and have little to no influence on you.

6. Use your Generals on a regular basis. If you haven't used one for 10 turns, put him to work somewhere else is possible.

7. Develop a fleet only when you need it or have to. Otherwise spend your money elsewhere.

8. If one of your generals or characters has a retinue that would be better for someone else, put them in the same settlement and drag that retinue to the other character. Not all retinue are transferable. Traits can NEVER be transferred.

9. For more of a challenge make the odds equal or less in favor for yourself when attacking an enemy.

10. Use your general to run down and kill enemies that he can easily beat without injury. He will gain experience and be better in combat. Once he reaches Gold or 3 Silver he's pretty much able to get in the heaviest of combat without worry.

[Mathius]

1. Play as Macedonia.
2. Frankly that should be enough.
3. Divide and conquer - most barbarian armies will break ranks if thrown a unit of peltasts, and are then easy to mop up.
4. Hypaspitai are a legendary pain in the rear. Keep them busy with some cannon fodder units while you break the remainder of the army, then swamp them. Don't waste cavalry on them.
5. Leave Sarmatia/Scythia well alone until you are seriously bored - a poor return for a lot of hassle.

[Parky]

1. if you're in control of the whole iberian peninsula / spain OR you want to keep the spaniards out of europe. place a full stack army inbetween the mountains. its the only way they can get through and plus when you deploy place your army at the slopes of the mountain, (even better if you have phalanx troops)
2. playing as a faction which is next to italy makes the game alot easier for you later on in the campaign if you wipe out the romans first before they become superior. Even if your not next to the romans.. a seabourne invasion on The senate should mess things up a bit for them.

[Turk]

Destroy the Romans if you have a full stacked army and if you are the neighbour of them
Destroy the Barbarians after the Romans
If you make battles with Macedonians,then recruit loads of Hoplites

[Gary88]

Sure you know this but simple tactics like attacking an enemy from both sides (even if your two armies together only equals or is slightly less than the enemy) its great fun to watch them **** themselves working out what to do, invariably they try and split 50/50 but if they just rush one of your armies then use the second one to take them from behind.

[Domitius]

Here are some tips:
1. Have 2 generals, and 2 armies. This makes it possible to have 2 forntiers or retraining one of the armies as I read above.
2. Build academies. Academies gives your governor retinues and lowers the corruption.
3. Try to get into defensive positions, for example by laying siege on a town with an enemy army nearby, or by standing in enemy territory at a bridge. Try to always be the one to choose terrain.
4. Don't use high level units against barbarians. You will have a hard time retraining them up there, and many of the towns are to small to support retraining.

[Gleemonex]

Some good advice up there. Of the already-mentionned tips, I use these:

3. take the islands along the central belt
4. get cretan archers, seriously

2-army leapfrogging

3. Check your Settlement Details prior to building
6. Use your Generals on a regular basis.

1. Have 2 generals, and 2 armies.
2. Build academies.
3. Try to get into defensive positions

Here are my 2 bits:

1) Use mercenaries. They can be pricier and more of a motley crew than recruited units, but the time and effort saved in construction queueing and transportation are worth it. They're also great for padding out an army that's being thinned by a long campaign. I've been able to expand my frontiers about twice as fast since I learned to love mercs.

2) Naval superiority. If you're playing as the Scipii, build Deceres as soon and as fast as you can. Once you have a free run of the Mediterranean, you can fight a two- or three-front war with little worries.

3) Always try to keep (or be in the process of building up) at least one well-rounded full stack with an assassin, a spy and a diplomat. Assign a fleet to it with two deceres, a trireme and a bireme. This versatile army should be kept near a port/coast at all times, and can be shuttled to any trouble spot along your borders thanks to the naval superiority you established in point number 2.

4) Once your major cities all have academies, don't bother shuffling retinue about. It's a waste of time, as the academies will provide good retinue for you. Not only that, but the retinue gained from hiring mercenaries (the merc captain) and from constant battle (veteran centurion, faction turncoat, etc) will fill out the retinue roster quite rapidly.

5) Whenever you have cash left over at the end of a round, and you're not saving up for a special treat, spend everything you can on money-making construction (ports, markets, roads, farms) or entertainment buildings (hippodrome/colisseum/temples) to keep happiness, and hence taxes, high. The earlier you invest in money-making structures, the quicker your cash flow will increase.

6) Related to above: try to always have something being built in every city you own. You're not collecting interest when you let your money sit there -- you're only collecting dust.

Wow, that ended up being preachy Anyways, there's my contribution.

-Glee

[Teodosio]

I have read many useful suggestions. Let me contribute with a simple trick that I always use with profit.

Put your faction leader and faction heir at the head of your 2 most active armies. There is a small risk of them getting killed but you get 2 big benefits:
1- They tend to have a much larger bodyguard than other generals, that increases with usage. My faction leader's bodyguard is now 4 times larger than that of an average general. The bodyguards are a very powerful cavalry force that retrains for free. They are increased by traits/retinues that provide +1 public security, too.
2- They seem to develop faster and to get better traits; for example, the faction leader gets some particular bonuses when you employ spies and assassins (one of these is the ancillary Spymaster: +1 command, 20% discount training costs).

[The_Killian]

Emergncy Income!

If you ever need some emergency funds,give a town to another faction as a gift(or sell it if they'll accept).On the same turn take the empty town back and exterminate.
It's not a great solution and could have some bad side effets but it's worth a shot.

Or if you want to try a less violent approach sell your map information.Factions pay a lot of money for it.Try sell it to factions far away that are no threat to you.

[c lionheart]

this is more of a necessity than a trick, but is greatly missed, espiecaly by new players. always get trade rights with as many fractions as possible stright away. this in turn also uncovers the whole map and generates lots of income

[Gleemonex]

Good additions lads. Here are some that I forgot last night:

7) When you have generals to spare, put two in one army. You will have one to hold the line, and another to support the assault. In a pinch, you can use both your generals to charge the enemy general and kill him off quickly, causing a mass rout. When you conquer a city, you can leave one general there to keep the peace if needed, and charge on with the other.

8) When you have two armies going into battle, try to set up the secondary one as follows:

-expendable. Remember how dumb the AI is sometimes; your second army might likely get routed
-two or three unit types, all medium- to high-quality. If they rout on contact, they'll do far more harm than good. And keep in mind that AI cavalry is pretty dumb sometimes, so they're a risky choice for an AI ally.

When you go into battle, hold position or fall back so that you and your supporting army make contact at the same time，tying up as much of the enemy as possible. An exception is if your support is far away and the enemy detaches -- then assault as soon as possible.

Sometimes I set up a sacrifice army (5 archers 2 auxilla) to sucker the enemy cavalry. This frees my missiles to fire unimpeded, and it allows my melee fighters to advance without fear of being flanked by enemy cavalry. Oftentimes, I will rout the army so quickly that my cavalry can blast right through and charge into the enemy cavalry's backs before they've reached my AI allies.

9) When you're outnumbered or facing high-quality troops, Set all your missiles to pound away on one of the flanks, or on the units in front of the enemy general (usually the centre). Take your pick based on terrain or enemy formation. If attacking a flank, this allows you to rout that side quickly and collapse the whole line.

If attacking the general (which is riskier), this allows you to swamp him and kill him off. The trick is to kill him before your own army gets routed by the superior enemy. I usually do this if my enemy has a very long line that would take too long for me to collapse from flank to flank.

HTH!

-Glee

[Gleemonex]

get trade rights with as many fractions as possible

I've never really bothered -- I let other factions come to me. The reason I don't bother is that I don't know how to find who has trade rights with me Also, I'm busy enough constantly expanding that I forget my diplomats. Combine that with not really knowing where all the factions are in the first place, and it's too much hassle. Not ideal, perhaps, but I find the trade-off worth it for my style of play. And I end up with quite afew diplomats at my door after 10 turns anyways.

-Glee

[Tornadoli]

What do trade rights do anyway?

[Amaranth]

First 10 that came in my mind;

1. Use Intelligence, Spies can be used to rebel cities and open gates, well trained Assassins can be very useful against strong factions. Kill their Familiy members, prevent them having good commanders against you.

2. If playing a faction close to Coasts, make lots of trade rights agreement. Build a Navy, not just a bunch of them, build a navy that would defy Poseidon himself. You'll see, that controlling the sea is a very vital way to world domination.

3. When a Family Member with good stats born, Train him. Give him a buch of soldiers and send to fight rebels around, minor settlements and such. The younger he gets good stats, the better chance he'll get good stats later.

4. "An alliance with the powerful is never to be trusted." Do not be allied with factions that can be a rival to you. You'll only make them stronger. Either YOU will rule, or be ruled. Decide.

5. Make protectorates. Keep them strong and order them to assault your enemies. Keep your enemies busy while you gather a strong army.

6. "Harsh times requires hars measures" War is Hell. And even you don't want to, Extermination comes as a necessity after a while. Extermination = Feeding the Army. War demands large military forces, and large military forces demands large amounts of money to keep them. In order to keep your treasury filled with shiny yellow metals, you need to do what ethically wrong, but necessary. History is filled with Great Men who did the same thing. Unfortunately..

7. Enslave large populations that are away from your capital, or cultures that may rebel under your rule. Either Enslave, or Exterminate. You call. Occupying only means trouble.

8. "Keep your friends close..." Gift small cashes to your allies, support their fights if they're fighting wiht one of your enemies. But keep in touch with them. If they begin to send spies on your settlements, that means your friendship is about to end. Be prepared, and let them wage war on you first. If you brake an alliance, other factions will not trust you on this manner.

9. Don't start a war unless necessary. Don't go to the end of the world and conquer a place that is far too away from your lands. Focus on expanding your lands in a route, choose a path and always keep your lands connected to one other. if you start war with a faction, don't stop until they're done. If a settlement not necessary, constantly rebelling, attacked by other faction, gift or sell it to another faction. Let it be their problem.

10. Never train unnecessary units. Units needs upkeep, and upkeep means money. save your money to train stronger units. Always build Blacksmiths, keep your army strong. If you're done with mercenaries, Disband them!

[siege king]

5. Make protectorates. Keep them strong and order them to assault your enemies. Keep your enemies busy while you gather a strong army.

Ummm... how do you get protectorates? They always say no for me. Unless they have almost no armies and one city left, but then they are almost useless.