Senate Missions

[Straticus]

Sorry, I haven't looked at this in a while but are Senate missions supposed to happen. I thought SPQR was removed as a faction and Senate Missions removed - or am I thinking of another mod.

215 BC Initial setup way too hard even on M/M. Wiped out in the North by Gauls on turn 2. Wiped out in the South by Carthage on turn 2. Messena sacked on turn 2. No money to build/rebuild army. Rome does nothing. I must have been away too long - this mod has become too radical.

[lt1956]

Not really it can be Done but YOU have to FIGHT the battles Autocalc wont work. You have more money at the start than 6.2 I suggest it be used wisely. Also you have 3 legions and some hastatii waiting to be used. This version is for the SPQR players that have been playing for a while and havent gotten soft. ;-)

trust me its possible. Just have to do the right things as Hannibal is a pain. But you get a Birds Idea what Rome went through in 215BC.

Your not a heavy SPQR player if you dont know that the senate has always been in SPQR. ;-) SPQR isnt for your Casual gamer.

[Samariten]

Well it is hard to fight on two fronts....better to focus at one. Hint! Focus on carthage...Its hard to fight Hannibal but he is beatable use two legions to fight in the south and one in the north. You will lose citys in the start that is a fact i lost genua and Arminium though i took back whole southern italy from carthage....

[GaussSoldier]

The fight with Hannibal was intense but I had the terrain on my side. Once the elephants were removed from the battle, my entire right flank rolled up on the Carthaginians and dissolved his army.

I liked how he deployed all of his cavalry (even the pachies) on his left to assault my right. Had to counter by putting all of my Triarii on my right.

All things considered, my most challenging battle yet. Great job Lt.



Also, were there tweaks done to the AI in combat? I ask because their behavior seems more aggressive. The Round shield cavalry kept breaking off from my Triarii to attack my Velites.

[Black Francis]

The fight with Hannibal was intense but I had the terrain on my side. Once the elephants were removed from the battle, my entire right flank rolled up on the Carthaginians and dissolved his army.

I liked how he deployed all of his cavalry (even the pachies) on his left to assault my right. Had to counter by putting all of my Triarii on my right.

All things considered, my most challenging battle yet. Great job Lt.



Also, were there tweaks done to the AI in combat? I ask because their behavior seems more aggressive. The Round shield cavalry kept breaking off from my Triarii to attack my Velites.

Wow, congratulations.

Are you playing battles on M or E?

I find I have to gang up on him with 2 legions... just to be sure...

[Straticus]

Thanks for the tips.

Yeah, I'm an occassional, but are you sure there are supposed to be senate missions? Well, I wish there was some sort of documentation somewhere that explains some of this.

Anyway, I don't have real time for 'long' battles. They seem fairly reptitive for after a while and more of a clickfest than anything else. Sorry, going negative on income only after three turns and having 4 cities sacked right out the gate, just doesn't seem like a whole lot of fun.

I appreciate all the work that went into it but it has obviously been customized for a limited group of players who have a certain experience level with this mod in particular.

Thanks and good gaming.

[Garnier]

The way I dealt with hannibal.. probably wasn't the best. I sent flavius julius with the more experienced legion on ahead, and on carthage's turn, theophanes attacked him, and killed a little less than half of the legion. Then immediately, hannibal attacked...

I formed a defensive circle with my 1700 men agains hannibal, and took down half his elephants and 1000 men before my legion was entirely wiped out (flavius died). Then on my turn, Vibius Julius with the less experienced legion attacked hannibal and killed him and his army, and then went on and sieged their city. In the north, I formed a legion out of 10 units of hastati, 2 velites and the rest mercenaries, to support my main legion. Gaul took genua, but then it revolted and joined me again, and my two armies there held them off until they asked for peace in 208 BC.

[jegui]

Sorry, I haven't looked at this in a while but are Senate missions supposed to happen. I thought SPQR was removed as a faction and Senate Missions removed - or am I thinking of another mod.

215 BC Initial setup way too hard even on M/M. Wiped out in the North by Gauls on turn 2. Wiped out in the South by Carthage on turn 2. Messena sacked on turn 2. No money to build/rebuild army. Rome does nothing. I must have been away too long - this mod has become too radical.

don't give up... if you play M/M it should be alright... move one legion north and camp in the middle of the three northern Italian cities. Move the other 2 legions south to meet Carthaginian armies and immediatelly build wooden city walls in your 2 most southern Italian cities so that Hannibal does't take them.

With you northern legion confront the invading gaul army before it reaches your city and only attack the other ones when they siege your cities... use hastatii to fill the gaps or mercenary units if you have money

In the south just confront the smaller carthaginian army first... the one with no ellies... chase Hannibals army with your other legion but do not go into battle... just sit your legion in their path so that they can't come back and support the smaller army... once you take that smaller army... siege the carthaginian city and take it straight away... time is essence

With a bit of luck Hannibal will sail out of Italy and land in Sicily where the Greeks are more of a menace and where probably you'll already have lost your city to the greeks... you can than move your 2 legions from the south to meet the gauls in the north... you should build up Italy before expanding anymore

[Samariten]

Well on the screenie he is at a hill what it looks like, so some advantage but still nice work if playing on m/m to have so low losses.

[lt1956]

Straticus I am sorry to see you go and gvie up so early. Rome didnt give up and won. It all a matter a giving it another shot. there isnt much time wasted early in the game if you lose to start over? I had setbacks also. This is Life, it happens. I lost legions and was sick over it, but it can be done.

Jegui, Kinda defeats the purpose of the Army in italy if you just sack the city to send Hannibal Home? The whole Idea is to defeat him and then send him home if alive. lol Taking the city in the hopes of him leaving is an exploit at best and IMO is against house rules in this case. I thought we want challenge? ;-)

Glad most are doing good, I was a little worried. Before there were no extra hastatii and small 4 unit garrsions, plus only 1000 denarii. lol I aded the extra to help a bit.

Lt

[Alatar]

Straticus I am sorry to see you go and gvie up so early. Rome didnt give up and won. It all a matter a giving it another shot. there isnt much time wasted early in the game if you lose to start over? I had setbacks also. This is Life, it happens. I lost legions and was sick over it, but it can be done.

Jegui, Kinda defeats the purpose of the Army in italy if you just sack the city to send Hannibal Home? The whole Idea is to defeat him and then send him home if alive. lol Taking the city in the hopes of him leaving is an exploit at best and IMO is against house rules in this case. I thought we want challenge? ;-)

Glad most are doing good, I was a little worried. Before there were no extra hastatii and small 4 unit garrsions, plus only 1000 denarii. lol I aded the extra to help a bit.

Lt

Right, I lost 1,000 men in the two southern legions, but Hanibal is now on his own with a weaker legion at his rear.
4,000 against 5,000 and he's surrounded.

Game on.

[jegui]

Jegui, Kinda defeats the purpose of the Army in italy if you just sack the city to send Hannibal Home? The whole Idea is to defeat him and then send him home if alive. lol Taking the city in the hopes of him leaving is an exploit at best and IMO is against house rules in this case. I thought we want challenge? ;-)

Lt

yeah your right... I was just play testing at the time and I wanted to carry on the campaign you can be sure that I will give them hell when I start my campaign in two days

[lt1956]

Some tips, basically the AI works like this. IT DOESNT KNOW your Reputation or HOW many armies it has lost to you. Its purely stupid like some of the guys at C& oops wrong group. Basically the AI looks at Current strength of your Armies. The MORE armies you have the more likely for peace it will sue for. Basically on VH levels why its so rare is the AI is rich and builds so many armies it isnt funny.

What MOST players do is only have a few or couple legions and keep fighting wave after wave. This is WRONG, if you want a stable game without fighting 50 battles every turn build Many legions and Auxilia legions. This will make the AI think twice about attacking you. I have had alot of nations at war at leave me alone for about 30 turns because of my armies in the area. but again THIS is important. while the AI can tell over all strength is DOES look for Armies in the area, if you PULL a Legion or two away from an area watch the AI flood in that area and attack.

Just like Rome had to do, so do you. Place Legions and auxilia around your borders in striking distance and you will find the AI can leave you alone for a while until it builds up more than you OR you attack them. Either way there are ways to make the campaign play out more realistically with House rules and knowledge of the AI limitations.

Lt

[Straticus]

Gave it another shot but had a strange thing happen. Attacked a superior Gaul army. OK, decided to fight on the battle map. They had the mountain top. My army was stuck on a lower slope. I couldn't get them to charge me. I sent an equite unit about halfway to get them to chase him. Nothing. I noticed the Gaul leader was out in front of his lines with his bodyguard so I said what the heck and charged him, thinking I would get a reaction out of him or his army. Nothing. I slaugtered him and his unit right in front of his lines. Not an enemy unit budged or fired a missile or anything. Retreated back to my lines and waited. Nothing. So we marched up the slope and engaged but they were too numerous and we were routed anyway.



Ah, what happen to morale? Enemy leader is dead so morale drops and enemy army routs easier. Nope. Didn't see this happen.

[lt1956]

Its happens. Basically I noticed you have an elite legions of Silver chevrons, and you attacked the gaul army SOMETIMES they will sit and let you come to them to attack, and sometimes they will attack you. BUt MOST of the time the Gauls and others will attack with larger armies.

This is a fluke, I have had it happen once or twice. but usually I can pick a fight by send Skirmishers after them, they like to charge them. Next Time send your skirmishers on them.

Also turn off the battle timer as that will be come a pain later on in the campaign as battles depending on size and take longer than the timer and who wants to lose because of the clock? The timer only helps in sieges for the defender. lol

ALSO keep in Mind that in SPQR the AI will not just turn and run just because the leader died, they take a Morale hit, but you still need to Flank and attack etc. BTW your legion should have been able to kill them with NO problem, its standard in SPQR to take a huge gaul armies with the Legion you have in the screen.

try another Battle. One battle is enough to flip out over. lol For some reason the AI felt the need to dig in which actual was good in this case since they won. ;-)

[Samariten]

If you are the attacker, not always but often the enemie army waits for you to march against them and attack.....

[Black Francis]

You need to really make sure that you have the terrain advantage. When going in for attack or placing an army in defence (far preferable to attacking) make sure you hold the high ground (squint at the world map).

Try to make them come to you, Roman legions are awesome in defence with their heavy Pila.

[Alatar]

I once had a battle against a elite gaulist prince. I surrounded his army and was destroying him, but they still fought on. Then the prince died and a chain rout happend.

[Straticus]

Guys, it was the only mountain top around and they had it.

Anyway, what happen to the banners? Once the battle engaged, I could make out my units from enemy units and I could tell if they were routing or what. Once I had another reinforcing army join on the battle map and they marched right through my formation and off to the left. I still couldn't tell who was who after a while.

Of course the fact that I don't meet the suggested PC requirements made things worse. Choppy screen refreshes. Unless there is a was to play on less than huge, I am going to have to pass on this mod. Maybe realistic but just not easy to deal with.

[GaussSoldier]

You may have to sacrifice graphics for performance. Playing on huge isn't a problem if the trees look like crap, there's no grass on the ground, effects suck, no AA, and no unit shaders.

That might help. Experiment with the graphics as playing with huge setting is one of the things that makes this mod great.

And about the battle, I found that sometimes the Gallic army doesn't like to be near mine. When I position my army (and I do that a lot) closer to the enemy army's flank, it will reposition, normally, farther from me and facing my army. Therefore, everytime I move closer, it moves farther away, allowing me to take the high ground without any fighting. You could try that too when this happens again.