Scipii Campaign Strategy

[AbruzzeseCannon]

Hey guys im new to these forums and fairly new to RTW. Currently im at a brick wall in my Scipii campaign. Heres how everythings laid out currently.

I own all of north africa up to the egyptian provinces and all the islands in the med sea besides rhodes, as well as all of sicily.

The julii own just the top of italy and some change. Not too big of a threat.

The brutii own all of greece and macedonia and are expanding into central europe from the balkans. They are expanding into turkey as well. Huge threat in the future.

Heres the problem. Briton controls all of europe almost. They control spain the germanic lands the gaulic lands and parts of eastern russia. They have massive armies and massive territory gains.

The rest of the map is split between dacia/egypt and scythia, scythia owning most of the rest of it. (might be missing a few middle east factions but it doesnt matter because their basically useless at this point)

Factions destroyed:
Macedon
Greece
Pontus
Gaul
Carthage
Germania
Spain
Numidia
maybe a few others i forget

Now heres the problem. Where should i make a move next. I retreated all 3 of my main armies to sicily to try and formulate an attack on britian but they are extremely powerful and have many massive armies all over europe. I actually did earlier move 2 of my main armies into spain (british territory) from n. africa to try and test their might, i managed to take 2 cities then got slaughtered by them and had to pull out. They also have a massive naval force with very experienced ships all of the med sea so naval travel is risky especially with my small naval force.

The logical idea im assuming is to sail into spain, take spain, move into gaul territory, take that, then by that time move into julii territory take them out then go for rome and battle the massive brutii force to the south.

I have 2 armies waiting outside of british lands filled with prea cohort early first and first units. The armies are strictly infantry + 2 generals + legion calvary because im starting to realize brute force is just going to have to beat the brits rather than range/special.

Anyway so whats the best move for me or whats the best strategy to take? Thanks in advance.

[SPARTAN VI]

Have a screenshot of your map?

From the sounds of it, "briton has all of europe" that's where I'd go next.

[AbruzzeseCannon]

there you go =D

thats my main army as well is that an ideal setup for attacking britian?

http://img387.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aake5.jpg

[NobleNick]

Thanks for the snapshot, AbruzzeseCannon; and welcome to the forums!

This is not as bad as it sounds. The English have two big problems:

1.) Their tech tree only goes to level 3; and yours goes to 5 (and you have already taken advantage of that and the Marius reforms).
2.) They have a lot of Romans to fight (not just you).

What you should do (assuming your economy is going gangbusters, which it jolly well should have been for at least the last 50 turns, seeing as how you are 93 turns into the game) :

1.a.) Pump out Gold/Gold LEGIONARY COHORT (LC), not Early LC, not Urban Cohort, not first Cohort, etc.; but LC. make stacks of approximately: 10-12 LC, 2-4 upgraded Legionary Cav, 4 Archer Auxilia, a general, and maybe a specialty unit or two if you desire.

1.b.) Also, start building spies (AT LEAST 10) and get them spread out in Brit territory, mostly in southern-to-mid France and Spain. You want to know exactly where those Briton stacks are. And you also want spies to go into settlements ahead of your armies to open gates for you.

1.c.) You might also want to build some peasants, to follow the stacks about which I am going to talk in points 2 and 4.

2.) While doing 1., take your 3 existing stacks and ship them over to: A.) Besiege and take Massilia; B.) beseige and take the coastal Brit province two doors down (west) from Massilia; and C.) besiege and take the coastal Brit province two doors down from the province in B. In each case, sack small towns and exterminate larger ones, so that your stacks can move on immediately.

3.) While doing 1. and 2., get your Carthage area forces in gear and take those N. African cities which you said you had taken all the way over to Egypt, but which the map shows that you have not. Do NOT take the very last rebel/Numidian settlement between you and Egypt (leave it as a buffer). These provinces are easy pickings, and will add to your economy.

4.) As soon as each army has completed the task assigned in 2., have that army take the coastal Brit province immediately to the west of the one just taken. Peasants (built in 1.c.) which trail behind your fighting stacks, can move in immediately to the first captured cities to free up your fighting stack to take the offensive to the next city.

5.) If you take any settlement, and a situation arises where you are going to be besieged and cannot get the settlement back quickly; raze the settlement (destroy all buildings to get cash) and leave at least one FULL turn before the Brits can get there; so that the cty rebels and the Brits have to fight rebels to get their own destroyed city back. (This is called "scorched earth" policy.)

6.) Pour your stacks and spies from step 1 into the eastern, southern and western (yes, I said western) French and Spanish coasts. Land a stack on the British isles if you are feeling especially evil. Put the spies where the enemy is and the stacks where the enemy is not. Take settlements. Keep them or raze them. Never, never allow the enemy to take them back in as good a condition as you found them.

If you see a Brit stack (or stacks) coming at you, get to a bridge and stand on it (in the campaign map). With the army composition I have given you, and the right set-up, you should be able to easily hold off the enemy when outnumbered 3:1 or more.

Try not to get sucked into a slug fest with your enemy: instead, take his cities and (if necessary) run. However, do not underestimate your gold sword / gold shield LC. These are, denarii-for-denarii the toughest, meanest, most loathesome hombres in the game. Stacks built around 10-12 LC, as I have suggested, will stand up to double their number of conventional mix Barbarian stacks. Your archers can take out chariot archers (try it and see!); and your LC can butcher Brit heavy chariots and heavy infantry. In fact your LC will butcher anything that gets within arm's reach!

Happy hunting.

[Entropy Judge]

NobleNick seems to have covered pretty much everything, so I'll just toss my two cents in.

First: Are the other Romans at war with the Britons? They should be - if they aren't, get them to start fighting! If nothing else, the Brutii should be slowed down a bit.

I'd suggest ignoring Massilia for now, and instead take Spain first - send at least five armies in the first go - three should match NobleNick's setup, but the other two should be slightly heavier in Archers (6 Archers, 10-12 LC, General). What those two armies are going to do is block the two passes through the Pyrenees so the Britons can't get down send stack after stack at your city-taking armies that will be clearing Spain. I would land the two blockers at the neck of the peninsula, and the three city-takers at the three coastal cities on the eastern and southern sides, then march them inland/along the coast to take the remaining cities.

Africa tends not to be worth it (in my games, at least), so I'd say to ignore what you don't already own. Depending on what forces you have in Africa, you might be able to ship them along the west coast of Spain to speed up its conquest or to strike at the Island or Gaul.

Once you've taken Spain, I'd suggest striking north into Gaul - you can do it earlier, but I'd be leery of Briton stacks coming south to chew on your peasants if you get held up somewhere. Take southern Gaul (including Massilia), then take stock of your situation:

*By my count, you should have at least 18 regions (by the way: take Rhodes. You should already be rolling in money, but more never hurt anyone). This probably won't be enough to start the Civil War, but it might be getting close - you'll want to start moving armies into Greece and the Brutii's Italic cities, as well as shoring up Capua's defenses.

*If the CW is looming, try to make peace with the Britons; it probably won't last, but if you can get a bit of breathing room to fortify your cities in Gaul, the army shuffle will go a bit more smoothly. If it isn't, feel free to kick them off the continent, or at least the parts you're interested in. Note that doing that will almost certainly kick you into the CW, so you might want to step up recruitment.

*Remember, win-con is 50 regions including Rome; if you start with 18, taking Italy will boost you to 25, and taking Greece and the Illyrian Coast will take you to 33. That's if you don't take any more of Gaul than the southern area, and it also ignores the Balkans and Cisalpine Gaul. Really, once the CW starts and you can steamroll Italy and Greece, you shouldn't have any difficulty.

[AbruzzeseCannon]

thanks for the replies guys =D

a couple things

a played for a little bit tonight and made some huge expansions in spain/gaul i got lucky and there was only 2 major experienced britian stacks when i landed and i took something like 5 or 6 or 7 cities in that region. i think out of the 5 or 6 main stack fights i only lost 1 i think, i got lucky i guess their legions are elsewhere fighting the julii.

and i did have all of north africa up to egypt but they were taken back by rebels and a small numidian force and i just let them go for now because im making enough money with the rest of my settlements ill deal with them later.

also i dont have those gold late game units yet, i still have the mid game units. is there another event that happens so you can get late game legions?

anyway taking most of spain and part of gaul took a few hours and i managed to form 2 heavy stacks to take the rest of the eastern british offensive but im not going to start that until tommorow. im assuming once i finish off the gaul/germanic lands, or at least most of it, and the rest of north africa, the civil war will start? im not sure how this civil war thing works will the other 2 families be going for rome too or is it just me and then they attack me? and i dont see myself landing in greece whoever said that, brutii literally outnumber my men like 10:1 lol

new ss

http://img266.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aaauu5.jpg

[Entropy Judge]

also i dont have those gold late game units yet, i still have the mid game units. is there another event that happens so you can get late game legions?

Yes you do; "Gold" refers to Weapon and Armor upgrades, and since you have Gold/Gold Urban (Praetorian?) Cohorts and Early Legion (in your most recent screen: Urban (or Praetorian) is the second unit (22 men); Early Legions are the 5th and 6th units (75 and 76). You shouldn't be training those guys. The Legionary Cohorts you should be training are the ones in the 18th slot on your first screenshot. Most cost-effective unit in the game, and since you're the Scipii, you have a Smithy temple, meaning you can get Gold Weapons and Armor upgrades.

im not sure how this civil war thing works will the other 2 families be going for rome too or is it just me and then they attack me? and i dont see myself landing in greece whoever said that, brutii literally outnumber my men like 10:1 lol

Once you hit a certain point (it varies, but factors include the size of your faction, how much the Senate hates you, and how much the people love you), you'll get a message saying you can sieze power (if you wait long enough, the Senate starts ordering you to assassinate your own Faction Leader - don't do that), and you'll be able to Declare War on the other Romans. At the beginning, it will be a 3-on-1, but the alliances are no longer locked, so you can make peace with the Julii or Brutii (if you want to) and go for Rome.

About taking Greece: that's why I suggested moving troops in now; you're still allied with them, so they can't attack you. Move several large armies in, and take strategic positions (the isthmus by Corinth, south/east of Athens, south of Sparta) so that when you can attack them, you'll be able to do so with minimal fuss and maximum gain.

[NobleNick]

Heh, heh, heh... This time Entropy Judge got in an excellent post, first; not leaving me much to say, except:

oh i forgot to mention im playing on VH/VH lol

EXCELLENT!!

...played for a little bit tonight and made some huge expansions in spain/gaul i got lucky and there was only 2 major experienced britian stacks when i landed and i took something like 5 or 6 or 7 cities in that region. i think out of the 5 or 6 main stack fights i only lost 1 i think, i got lucky i guess their legions are elsewhere fighting the julii.

You were not lucky. You have some awesome (and spendy) troops in the stack pictures I saw.

...also i dont have those gold late game units yet, i still have the mid game units. is there another event that happens so you can get late game legions?

Entropy Judge answered you well: You do have primo late game infantry available. You are already making better infantry than you need (and you are paying a premium for them). Build gold/gold LC.

...im not sure how this civil war thing works will the other 2 families be going for rome too or is it just me and then they attack me? and i dont see myself landing in greece whoever said that, brutii literally outnumber my men like 10:1 lol

Here is how it will probably come about: You capture more and more cities, and you should get a message 'event' that your popularity with the people is very high. At that point you could attack Rome if you wanted. (But do not do it, until you have your quota of cities. Instead, ready some extra stacks to take Rome, but do not attack). As you take more territory, you will finally be given a senate mission for your faction leader to commit suicide. If you fail to accept the mission, Rome will declare war on you. Hopefully, by this time, you have all cities needed to meet the "number of cities held" part of the victory conditions. THEN attack Rome, before any of your former Roman allies can intervene. As soon as you march into the city, you will get the victory screen that same turn.

[Kátz]

brutii literally outnumber my men like 10:1 lol

if the brutii guys don't get lots of experience troops then you should challenge them with that stack your picture got. try attacking in bridges and keep defending until they got tired and let you just go for an easy day taking their cities. that way not only you'll take lots of their cities, but you'll also get chevron guys troops too!! two birds with one stone eh?

[AbruzzeseCannon]

oh i forgot to mention im playing on VH/VH lol

[aznflea]

what you need to do is to try and block off brutii or blitz through africa and try and gain egypt. make use of the autoresolve with lots of high stat legions to do so. with egypt, carthage and sicilyu you should have almost infinite money. BUY regions off brutii. e.g athens, corinth and thebes. that should put a dent in their economy.

the britains arent your problem so dont get caught up in a war that does not concern you. the brutii will go help the julii but because youre a human player and more intellgent, you can just keep expanding to richer regions.

[Lord Thesaurian]

Your in quite the pickle. I don't like the Scipii because they start in a position which forces them to deal with Carthage, Numidia, and Egypt, three very powerful factions for a young developing faction to deal with. That's beside the point, however. Now that your in the position your in, you have two foreseeable options: 1) ally with Egypt and pray to the gods that some great calamity should befall Britain and the Brutii. 2) devote all possible resources not necessary for the defense of the Scipian domain to the race to the Middle East. Your only hope is to get a large share of the Middle East before the Brutii gobble it up, and to orchestrate the creation of a global alliance that can crush Brtitain before its too late (of course then there's the chance that the Brutii and Britons will fight and tear each other apart. I don't know your diplomatic situation, but the chances of this happenning seem slim to none). Whatever you do, it'll be tough as hell without a crapload of cheats.