[RS AAR] How I spend My Summer Vacation

[Lost In Transition]

Roma Surrectum!

or

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

*

Some people actually do stuff on their summer vacations. Stuff like, you know, go to Rome. Me, I’m poor. I work for an American University. Since I can’t go to Rome, I’m spending my ten days of vacation playing RTW: Roma Surrectum.

I mean, sure, I’ll be doing some other things, too. Maybe.

Here’s how it works: I have ten days off. I play a couple hours in the morning, post something in the afternoon. It’s kind of a slideshow of how I spent my ten days off, only without all the fat, grinning relatives.

Here we go:

Mods:

Roma Surrectum 1.1 with Hotfix 1.2.

My mods (because my Mom always said I can’t leave stuff alone):

(1) Changed the campaign map interface. Purely cosmetic.

(2) Got rid of the nuclear winter skies. The circling clouds, the bright red and yellow sunsets. If you’ve played the game, you know I’m talking about. I replaced them with the skies from RTR. Purely cosmetic.

(3) Reinstated the blacksmith techno tree. Never really understood why it was disabled. Of course, to make it fair, I raised the price to 4400, 8800, and 17600, with a 4, 5, and 7 year build time. This one’s a bit more substantial.

That’s it.

Rules:

It’s my vacation. We don’t need no stinkin’ rules! Yes, this mean’s I’ll be rushing the Marian Reforms.

Settings:

Read it and weep (or laugh).

That’s it. I’ll be back in a couple of hours with my first post.

NOTE: this mod will probably end ten days from tomorrow when I go back to work.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Good luck with the campaign. Your posts are always invigorating to read. I might say 'inspirational' but I wouldn't want to get slushy now . . .

[Lost In Transition]

The First Night!

Roma Surrectum (RS) starts with a REALLY BIG MAP. Here you see the northern half of my kingdom:

And here's the southern part:

I like big maps; it adds to the sense of territory and gives your cities a much more realistic feeling of remoteness. This map has the additional quality of being beautifully made, with a number of winding passes over mountains and through woods. Without a doubt, it’s my favorite map.

I start the game with seven territories: Roma, Arretium, Ariminum, Asculum, Capua, Apulania, and Neapolis. I also start with seven armies, one stationed in each of these cities. Since these armies will form the basis for my first legions, I immediately move them out of the cites (I literally empty the cities of every unit) and bring them closer to Roma where I can consolidate them. I move the Republican Legion I Army (representing the Senate Army) out of Rome and into a barracks in the nearby country, so I can avoid confusing its units with the garrison units I will recruit for the city later.

Next, I set the tax rate in every city to very high.

Finally, I spent my treasury on garrison units for the now-empty cities: two units of Hastati are assigned to each city. In cities without governors, I buy a governor. This is another feature in RS that I’ve never seen in any other RTW game. Basically, you can recruit governors and generals like your recruit units. Of course, they don’t end up on your family tree and so the good ones don’t deliver good offspring (and the bad ones don’t, either, so maybe that’ s a blessing). But they do acquire retinues, so having several of them around is a good way to increase your chances of building strong family members, especially if you’re willing to micro-manage your characters a bit.

My rule is two generals for each legion and one governor for each city. Naturally, family members can also serve in both capacities.

This ends Turn 1.

At the start of Turn 2, we discover another interesting feature of RS: the zero turn unit creation cycle. If that’s too much of a mouthful, just think of it this way: instant units. Just add water.

Seriously, any unit you cue up at the end of one turn is ready for the next turn. The exception is for generals, governors, spies, assassins (you can only make one per city per turn), and diplomats (which take two turns).
So now all my cities have garrison units and most of them have either recruited governors or family members managing them. I’ve also added 18k to my treasury (the economic system for this mod seems a bit generous), but I’ll be buying some buildings and units later so that’ll go down a bit.

I get insanely lucky with one of my governors: Gaius Figulus is a five-star general! Naturally, I place him at the head of a legion and recruit another governor.

During this turn I consolidate my armies into four legions. The first legion, the green units, are the Republican Legion I (Republican I) units, or the Roman Senate Legions. These represent all units recruited in Rome. The second group, or red units, representing all units recruited in mainland Italy, are the Republican Legion II (Republican II) armies. Over the next few turns I will consolidate my initial units into one Republican I legion and three Republican II legions.

Examples of Republican Legion I and II Units

At the end of this turn, I get a visit from a diplomat for the Epeiros, asking for an end to our current hostilities. I agree to his cease-fire, while extracting a trade agreement and some map information from him. I don’t press for an alliance because I don’t think I’ll get it and, frankly, I’ll need to attack the Epeiros later when I make my move to unite the Italian peninsula.

In my effort to build legions and garrisons, I build practice ranges in almost every city for my first building. This allows the recruiting of Velites. Once these are built, I recruit two units of Velites in each city to join the two units of Hastati already garrisoned there. So each city has a garrison of: 1 governor, 2 Hastati and 2 Velites.

In addition, I fill a couple of governorships I overlooked and I begin recruiting generals. As I said before, I play two generals to a legion. Since I don’t use my Roman generals to break up lines, it’s not really a huge tactical advantage, and having the extra general is handy in the event one them does die (of whatever). It’s also a great way to train up young generals.
My generals are the best I have and include family members. My initial legions are:

Legio I:

Legio I’s Generals:

Legio II:

Legio II’s Generals:

Legio III:

Legio III’s Generals:

Legio IV:

Legio VI’s Generals:

Note that each legion contains: 2 generals, 5 Hastati, 5 Principes, 2 Triarii, 2 Equites, and 4 Velites. This will be the general template for my pre-Marian legions.

I deploy all four legions on my northern border, anticipating my invasion of the "Free People."

Another fun anomaly of RS is how the game replaces the RTW Rebels with a faction called the "Free People." I always thought it was odd how we, as Romans, let all these Rebels build cities and develop technology BEFORE we set out to crush them. The idea of "free people" suggests that these are not runaway slaves, but independent, autonomous cities that have avoided falling under the yoke of some imperialistic, totalitarian empire. Kinda makes you feel bad about killing them and taking all their lands. Well, for a few moments anyway.

Once my legions are deployed on my northern border, I recruit some spies (I refer to them as "scouts") to flush out any hidden enemy units.

And, yeah, there’s a few. [Sigh] There are eight full stacks of units awaiting my invasion. Faced with these kind of odds, I decide to take a moment and create Legio V:

Legio V’s Generals:

This unit also deploys to my northern border.

Meanwhile, my scouts to the south report back that the "Free People" are tied up fighting the Epeiros. Counting my blessings, I focus my attention back on the north.

Understand this: there’s a method to my maddness. In RS, you can trigger the Marian Reforms by building an Imperial Palace in one of five cities (no, one of these cities is NOT Roma). Since my goal is to trigger the Reforms ASAP, I’m focusing on Bononia, which IS one of these cites and has the advantage of being right across my northern border.

It’s now the winter of 277 B.C. (we’re six turns into the game), and it’s time to invade the Northlands. I move my new legion, Legio V, up to a position to block an attack from the two armies on my flank, and secure them in a fort. I move Legio III up there next to them for added security.

Then I attack Bononia with one of my five star generals and family member, Amulius Maxentius, the commander of Legio II. (As an aside, I’ll note that the Italian climate must be hard on women since one of the most common traits a character can have in this game is a sickly, but intelligent, wife.)

I lay siege, building a couple of rams, and end this turn.

The Free People respond by immediately sending up an army from the south (apparently the Epeiros aren’t keeping them as busy as I thought).

Not wishing to loose my momentum, I decide to prosecute my siege first.

My legion has almost two thousand men; the enemy has a little over fifteen hundred in the city. One mistake I made is not sending a scout into the city first, but here’s what I can discern about the garrisoned army. Note that we won’t be fighting untrained rebel rabble here. Some of these units have two chevrons and weapon upgrades.

My standard battle plan in attacking a settlement is to divide legion into two groups, giving a general the command of each group. Each group has a ram and half the army. I deploy in a basic formation with Velites in front (so they can hurl over the walls — and not in the Friday night sense of the phrase). Behind them come the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii in that order. Behind the infantry, I deploy my general and Equites. I do not waste Equites in city fighting. For the most part, they just get eaten up by enemy spearmen and those little horses are expensive.

My two attack groups line up facing a gate, like thus:

Meanwhile, on the other side of the walls, the Free People are yelling, cheering, and chanting a bunch of silly democratic slogans.

Their enthusiasm for all things democratic begins to waver once my Velites let loose a volley of javelins.

The enemy orders all units to protect the gates and, of course, they come running.

I have a standard plan for seizing gateways. I pelt the enemy with javelins from my Velites until they retreat. Then I rush a unit of Hastati through the gates and across the open area, like this:

The goal is to get them up into the street and behind the enemy units that inevitably rush out to protect the gateway. Then I hit the enemy from the front with a unit of Principes.

But this time my Hastati don’t make it up the street and we end up blocked at both gates. But that’s not my biggest problem. My biggest problem is:

Free Noble Cavalry. Yep. An entire unit of heavy cavalry, which charges into the crowd fighting at the gate. Despite the fact that I’ve reinforced my with a unit of Principes, they make short work of my Hastati.

Back at the other gate, my Hastati are engaged by the fearsome Red-Headed League, who apparently fled London after their encounter with Sherlock Holmes.

The fighting goes on for a bit and now we have an opportunity to admire what a great job the developers did on the units.

Okay, enough rubbernecking. Shifting back to the gate one, I’ve bring up my Ttriarii and they do away with the Noble Cavalry. Again you get a nice shot of these beautiful units.

And there’s a standard bearer, hanging back, avoiding trouble, hoping no one notices that he’s not actually fighting.

Now the enemy commits all but a very small reserve to the fighting at the gates. This image gives an idea of the hordes I'm facing. No half stacks here, just masses of barbarian spearmen, one after another.

And cavalry. This is a the other gate, where units of spearmen and Free Light Cavalry have managed to push my Hastati back outside the gates.

But hope is on the way, as I reinforce with a unit of Principes . . .

. . . and a unit of triarii.

We push through the gate, driving back the cavalry. Here we encounter some more angry members of the Red-Headed League . . .

. . . another unit of Free Light cavalry, but I hit them with my triarii and principes.

And now we strike gold!

The fighting proceeds to the square where the last of the Red-Headed League die beneath the swords of my Principes.

And the battle of Bononia ends with a clear victory.

One anomaly: take note of that unit of Hastati that healed 111 men. Surely the Gods favor them! No one else was so lucky.

My commander, Amulius Maxentius gets a Decorated Hero and Trait Increase to Good Commander.

Afterwards, I exterminate the population, because I need the money for a sixth legion . . .

. . . and Bononia is mine. Time to start building towards the Marian Reforms.

Now I turn my attention to the invading force near Capua. I bring my faction leader down from Roma and a scout over to take a look. This is what I see:

Holy Milky Way, Batman! "Good commander" is an understatement that doesn’t begin to describe the threat this guy poses. Since his army is much larger and better trained than mine, I decide to let the army lay siege to my city. Unfortunately, when I end my turn, the army simply disappears. They vanish into the hills and my scout can’t find them anywhere.

I end the turn by building a temple (I always build a temple after a victory).

Coming up next! The Battle for the Northlands!

[pseudocaesar]

awesome AAR! you should continue after your vacation anyway!

[MCM]

Definitely a breath of fresh air!

cheers

[piko]

Very nicely written! I'll try this mod out later.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

This is good stuff - I like the droll tone of your writing. I am looking forward to the next installment (and wondering on what happened to that Greek army?).

[pseudocaesar]

This is good stuff - I like the droll tone of your writing. I am looking forward to the next installment (and wondering on what happened to that Greek army?).

im sure you would find it hiding in the trees. he will stumble across it again soon.

[SeniorBatavianHorse]

Let's hope he can spot its trail from the massive devastation left by old Pyrrhus' elephants!

[Roshak]

Nice work keep it up.

[Brusilov]

Nice AAR - keep up the effort.

Hopefully, you are doing something other than playing this on your holiday!

[Lost In Transition]

Everyone:

Thanks for the kind words. There is more coming and the AAR will have to be extended, because of two, eh, reasons (I was going to say problems).

The first was the game locked up on me. It took me awhile to figure it out, but it had to do with some changes I made in the weather files. Got it fixed, but the fix required a clean install and in removing the game I thoughtlessly deleted my saved game.

This is the solution. I have images for most of the time, so here's what I'm going to do. Finish up with the images I have and then pick up at the Marain Reforms (in 246 B.C.). Hey, I said I was going to rush them.

I'm working with a friend to learn how to spead up the image creation a bit. Right now, it took almost five hours just to crop, resize, border, and upload the 59 images for the first entry. I'm going to try to speed that up a bit without losing any quality. We'll see how that goes.

Finally, I'm out of my home right now. I had originally planned to spend my time playing this mod. My wife, however, insisted that we go somewhere so now I'm actually on vacation. Boooring. But I'll be back home tomorrow night and we should be able to pick up with things then.

Regards

[cherryfunk]

Meanwhile, on the other side of the walls, the Free People are yelling, cheering, and chanting a bunch of silly democratic slogans.

Great AAR -- any chance we can get this posted over in the RS forum as well?

[dvk901]

Thank you very much for this wonderful AAR. I'm really enjoying it. Since I get to PLAY so little, it's really nice to have someone document things and point out the good as well the...hmmm, 'Red Headed League'. LOL. Couldn't help but chuckle at that.

[Tankbuster]

Great AAR. + rep for that!
Couldn't help notice that your tactics are very similar to mine... those free people are tough, huh?

My favorite quote:

Holy Milky Way, Batman!

[bomberboy]

Great job. Once I get a new copy of windows I'll get this mod.

[Exekutor]

Great AAR! But you took a hell of a beating taking Bononia. But trying to take a city with a fullstack garrison and only two rams will get you bloody nose.

BTW how do you make the borders around the screens?

[Tankbuster]

That's not a beating yet... In Roma Surrectum, that's called an easy victory

[Exekutor]

I haven't played the newest RS yet, but I played with Patch 8 and I could crush anyone with barely a scratch (less than 10% casualties). Has it changed that much?

[Tankbuster]

I haven't played the newest RS yet, but I played with Patch 8 and I could crush anyone with barely a scratch (less than 10% casualties). Has it changed that much?

I can assure you, it has. Before 1.10 you could sweep everyone away, but now, Angel (Roma Surrectum stat editor) has completely changed the battle system, edited all the stats and now I'm actually suffering my first lost battles in months (playing Darthmod and EB). And even if you win, you'll still get punched in the nose (25%-33% losses are certainly no exception when you're fighting big armies).
Fighting a battle against a good and balanced army (and they're a lot of those) on open ground is strategic suicide. You'll probably win, but with 50% casualties, as I've experienced many times in 1.10. The only way to get below 25% casualties is either: standing on a mountain, standing at a bridge, both quite lame, and USING EVERYTHING YOU POSSIBLY CAN TO YOUR UTMOST ADVANTAGE. I'm talking about laying multiple ambushes, luring, baiting, keeping reserves. Rushing your enemy will get you kicked around, so you should only fight on your odds.
I find myself constantly laying ambushes in battle, not just one, but 2 or more, just to trap a few enemies into them, for a little morale hit.
It is now WAY harder than SPQR, Darthmod, anything you've seen before. And now Angel is claiming to improve the AI even further You should really try the mod, if you're looking for a amusing game with lots of challenges