Planning an AAR

[Confederate Jeb]

Hi, it's me again. I finally got everything to work right, so I'm now playing RS! And it is awsome. I was planning on doing an AAR with a faction, and since almost all of the factions look great (from what I've seen), I've decided to probably do Carthage. I have some questions before I start, but first let me tell you how I lay:

- I usually try to build buildings in every city I can each turn (at least in R:TW I do), but if I need to I will build troops first
- I play on 1 turn recruitment
- I will usually take my time to spread out, but if the chance (or need) arrises, I will blitz
- I prefer infantry over everything, with a good support in archers and some cavalry my favorite choice

Now here are my questions. Some just deal with the thinking behind some of the things in the game:

- How come everything can move a lot farther in this mod? I know the map is bigger, but just wanted to check.
- Should I still use my build buildings first policy? So far it looks like 1 turn recruitment gets me very little money each turn.
- What buildings and troops are must haves for Carthage?
- Who should my first target be? The Romans, Syracuse, or Spain? Or all three?
- I know taking pictures without Fraps involves pressing the Print Screen key, but what do you do after you press that?
- How do you make units go into phalanx? Because the units that the info says they can don't have the special move anymore...
- What does AOR mean?

Thanks!

[Worm]

- Who should my first target be? The Romans, Syracuse, or Spain? Or all three?

I think syracuse should be first since the Iberians don't have to conquer(sp) in your dirrection(sp). But for the AAR it would be best to attack Rome with Hannibal ( located in Spain with Hasdrubal if you didn't know), it should provide some intressting battles.

- How come everything can move a lot farther in this mod? I know the map is bigger, but just wanted to check.

It's realistic, i mean Hannibal walked from spain to Italy in a very short time ( don't know exactly how short ) so yeah it's realistic.

- What buildings and troops are must haves for Carthage?

The Elite African Infantry is great, so they are a must have for the carthaginian armies. And of course Sacred Band.

- I know taking pictures without Fraps involves pressing the Print Screen key, but what do you do after you press that?

The pictures end up in the Fraps folder then you should open the picture and save as JPG. Or you can just make Fraps save images in JPG format. Then upload them to a site like photobucket, imageshack or another site. Then you copy the code to forums and voila, your done.

what does AOR mean

Area Of Recruitment. You can recruit certain units in certain areas.

Welcome to the RS family btw!

[traxx91]

- I would say first take Sicily and then Spain. Let Rome develop a bit so that you have a challange!
- If you open Frapsand click 'Screenshots', you can choose the folder where the pics will be saved.
- When a unit does not have the special button, it can not forme phalanx anymore.
- AOR means Area of Recruitment

Edit: too late

[El Crumb]

Hello there Confederate Jeb and congratulations on your decision to begin a Carthaginian AAR. You won't be disappointed!

Spys and diplomats can move a lot further now, thankfully. I guess this is to make travelling over a period of six months (one turn) more realistic.

This is good news for you as Carthage has a far flung empire to begin with. I would highly advise putting together a strong fleet early on. This not only aids you in transporting troops over the vast distance of your territories but also protects your ports from attack by other factions. It has to be a strong fleet remember, pirates are plentiful in the western mediteranian.

Stick to your build first policy. Once your roads, market places and ports are in place you'll have money pouring in. Trade agreements should be sought early on too.

As for targets; the east coast of Iberia (Spain) is ripe for conquest. Two rebel settlements and two or three rebel armies to test your strength against. Once captured these settlements will prove to be very lucrative when you have built up their mining potential.

The coast of Africa can also be brought into the Carthaginian sphere after a few battles too. Icosium is a small village which can be captured easily. Tingi, the furthest west point of Africa will be the center of resistance to your armies.

I normally leave Syracuse to it's own devices while i build up the cities of Lilybaeum and Panormus in order to be able to wage war on the Syracusans when they eventually attack you. This makes the war for Sicily much more of a challenge.

Liby-Phoenicians (early and late) are your phalanx units.

Hope this helps

[Confederate Jeb]

Thanks guys, this helps. I'm glad my building policies will help. Should I begin by building the temples though? There are a lot of them (espicially for the Greek factions O_o), so it looked to painful to look at the result for all of them.

Also, the question about taking pictures was about how to do it without Fraps. I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to download it or not, so until then I was going to go on without it.

I'll probably play a little bit of a Carthage campaign until I get the hang of it.

On another note (I know this is a long post), I forgot to mention another habit of mine. I tend to build units in groups of two, except for generals and other special units (like Arcanii and druids in the vanilla). It really makes training periods a lot longer, but I'm a guy who likes even numbers.

I did see Hannibal, BTW. He looks amazing for 16. I think I'll change history this time though. Hannibal won't be dying until Rome is defeated!

When a unit does not have the special button, it can not forme phalanx anymore.

I went into a battle as Syracuse, and it said militia hoplites and some other starting Syracusian units had it as well. But none of them had the special button. Weird.

[El Crumb]

The gods of Carthage are wise and strong. Temples of Astarte and Baal are good early on as their bonuses cancel out the effects of corruption and add to public happiness. And if those greasy handed money swindlers persist, add an execution square and get a chopping.

[Confederate Jeb]

I'm now debating if I should change from 1 turn to 0 turn recruitment. 1 turn will probably be the best for me, but with the stacks the rebels have early on, and I'm only making 2k a turn, I think 0 turn recruitment would be the best for a RS AAR. It'll make playing RS even more different from the vanilla too...

[El Crumb]

0 turn all the way my amigo. Why anyone will wait three or four game years to put together a halfway decent force is beyond me.

i play on H/H levels with Carthage and usually after tweeking my tax rates and disbanding some of my city forces i'm bringing in 20,000 denarii a turn. As a rough guide i put taxes in cities at high, large towns at normal and towns and villages at low.

[Jingles]

Yes, I'd advise switching to 0-turn. I actually prefer mods with 1-turn or with a combination of both, but I quickly found that RS is way more suited to 0-turn in terms of your economy, casualty rates, ect.

I think I made a thread like this for myself a while back, but then exams hit me like a freight train...and All my free time just disappeared A carthaginian AAR would be excellent, and I'd love to read one.

[El Crumb]

For carthaginian AAR's check out hotseat campaign. It's stalled just recently but will be be back on track in no time i'm sure.

[Confederate Jeb]

Ok, I switched to 0-turn, and it fits perfectly with RS. I still like 1 turn better, but for RS 0 turn is best. At first you do make 20,000 a turn, so that really helps. The reason I was going to play on M/M is just because with all the stacks people have, I'd hate to see what it looks like on Hard or Very Hard. I've seen pictures of Gaul and Seleucid that would give me nightmares! But I'm not sure if my lower level of playing will make people want to read it...

Right now I'm just playing my own Carthage file to see how things work, and I recreated Hannibal's march through the Alps. Rome won't know what hit it. They even asked for a ceasefire after I destroyed one of it's navies! Guess that's the difference between medium and hard.

[MarcusTullius]

But I'm not sure if my lower level of playing will make people want to read it...

Its not about the difficulty level, its about how the AAR is constructed so go ahead and give us a great story!

[El Crumb]

Good luck with your Carthage campaign confederate. Look forward to hearing how it goes.

If you're marching Hannibal to Roma remember to learn from the few mistakes he made. Keep supplies of fresh troops coming in and try and get his brothers to Italia to reinforce him. Winning the war at sea could be almost as important as winning the war on land in terms of keeping resupplied.

[Confederate Jeb]

On my current file, I made sure to have a couple of stacks with him, plus mercs (some of those barbarian mercs will be good), and since I usually build a navy, I'll just build it earlier. Rome won't know what hit it.

All I have to do now is get Fraps and figure out how it works....but since I'm going out of town, at best I'll be starting the AAR sometime next week.

[Jingles]

Just finished reading the Pontic expedition and I desperately want to do a RS AAR, but must revise for GCSE's instead..... *weeps*