As we all know our lord and god Lt posted houserules in order to play this wonderfull game in the way he does. but as we all know we probebly don' t stick to these rules for a fully 100% and we probebly made some of our own.
so i was wondering whish rules did you call in to life when you play your game? If you want to chare your "houserules" pleas post them here. it is always nice to enlarge the amount of houserules.
some rules of mine :
1) all famelie members of the house of julia must have been in military service.
2) no more then 4 legions to defent italie against its invaders. (gauls and greeks)
3) no more then 6 legions to invade other lands (iberia, africa,...)
2,4,5 I do the same basically, but one invasions my definition of Legions is 1 legion plus auxilia so if that inclueded them OK if not It depends, I usually dont use more than a few legions anyway I can NEVER afford too many to invade and KEEP the PAX within my Empire. I know some try to conquer with just 2 legions, I still dont see how they do that as SPQR is really tough without support. Legions are the Important thing in SPQR to guard your empire and to take new lands, hence why so much money, I know some who played SPQR would treat it like how much mony I can make instead of using the money like it should. lol my only consulation is most who do that never finsih the campaign, as the game gets harder as you progress.
On Mercs I only added them as Filling when a general needed them, a person shouldnt make a Merc army to begin with, I feel it takes the challenge out of the game, and the Spartans were there for fun, I live it to the player NOT to abuse them. I dont FORCE people to play a certain like some other mods do, I would LIKE people to play the right way, but I wont force them. Just dont brag how wonderful you are doing if you make all MERC armies or 20 Praetorians per legion. lol
Sometimes its wise to use more than 3 legion groups then, see by limited your legions causes Excess amounts of money which seems to be the problem for people who dont create enough legions. Basically House rules are for people that WISH to play SPQR according to the creator of it. Its not houserules that people do for themselves. SPQR was a mod made toward my tastes and therefore for the people who Want to play like me I give them an Idea of how I play. I dont think a fan based houserules is needed.
From here. It's an old post, but all the rules I still use, plus more.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Here are my additions worked into the houserules. Blue means my changes. This is just how I play the game, for people who would like to know.
1. Build Premarius Legions like so: 5 Hastatii, 5 Princepes, 3 Triarii, 2 Velites, 2 Missile units, 2 cavalry units, 1 General
2. Build PostMarius Legions like so: 1 1st Cohort, 9 Imperial Cohorts, 2 Javelinmen, 2 Archers, 2 Cavalry, 1 General, Allowing for 2-3 Auxillia Spearmen. 1 Auxilia spearmen unit can be replaced with ballistae or scorpions if you prefer. Use onagers ONLY for attacking cities, NOT in the field, and NEVER use siege weapons flaming ammo. Fire arrows CAN be used, but not flaming siege weapon ammo. Also assign one spy to every named legion, to act as a scout. It is useful for knowing what's up ahead. But don't use him to open gates for you.
One Praetorian legion can be recruited in rome. It consists of 10 praetorian cohorts, and the rest auxilia just like normal legions.
3. Auxilia Swordsman, Never add them to full legions that have 9 cohorts and 1 1st cohort. Only use Auxilia Spearmen.
4. Auxilia Swordsmen can be used to Replace lost Imperial Cohorts since they have a Pila throw. Hence the Purpose I added them for my Mod.
5. You can build Alae or Auxilia style Legions. I usually follow the same setup of 10 Auxilia Swordsmen, and then Same missile, Javelinmen, etc. These are used on Borders to help Support the Legions!
6. Never replenish Cohorts when they start to get depleted, Only do so after 20 Turns(5 years). In the meantime use Auxilia to fill in thinning Ranks. (Never replenish cohorts ONLY applies to the numbered legionaries. The supporting auxilia can be replenished at will!)
7. If NOT using the Garrison Script NEVER Blitz and Rush the AI, allow the AI to build up to provide a Good Challenge. With the Garrison script on you really can’t blitz anyway.
8. Always play SPQR:TW on M/M settings, unless too easy then play harder, but it shouldn't be too easy if you don’t blitz or use the Garrison script.
9. ALWAYS play SPQR:TW with the Garrison Script and 4tpy Activated.
10. Never Camp in the Town Square when defending Walls, always try to hold the walls and then fall back.
11. When you take a City ALWAYS Destroy ALL the NON ROMAN buildings.
12. When you build forts don't build a wall of forts, just have a fort or two warning etc. The AI can only do so much.
13. When fighting a Battle NEVER try to destroy the General First so the army Routs Faster, after all More generals were added to make battle more fun! NEVER order missile units to fire at a generals unit!
14. NEVER leave a legion on a bridge at the end of a turn, and never attack enemy units on a bridge. To still use the bridges as choke points, put your legion in FRONT of the bridge, so the AI can attack it but can't get past without attacking it. NEVER build forts blocking bridges.
15. If you accidentally do a bridge battle deploy your legion as normal but far back from the bridge so the enemy can deploy properly on your side without being exploited on the bridge. don’t station several Scorpions and artillery on the bridge, or more than 5 missiles or 5 Javelinmen. Lets be fair Bridges are already an advantage to the player.
16. NEVER, NEVER Modify SPQR to make the game 1 turn recruitment, or make the game easier or to add better stats to units. Like adding Legionary Cavalry which Rome didn’t use Back then, their cavalry was bad hence why the used Mercs a lot for cavalry.
17. Do NOT recruit more than 1 Legion Name of Each name. So two 1st Legio would be a NO NO.
18. Only Recruit 28 Legions Never more, and only Use Imperial 1st Cohorts with Imperial Cohorts and Republican with Republican, do not mix and match. There is no Limit for Auxilia Legions. Every named legion must have one auxilia legion attached to it. When on campaign, this auxilia legion supplies replacement auxilia troops to the named legion, while the named legion does the fighting. Try to put the auxilia legion in a city or fort nearby. A named legion must never be separated from its auxilia legion. If the auxilia legion is destroyed (either bribed, rebelled, or destroyed in battle) the named legion must wait in a fort for a fresh auxilia legion to come to its aid. If you don't want to leave it on the frontlines unsupported like that, it must be sent back to its home city to be refitted and then a new auxilia legion attached. EXTRA auxilia legions can be recruited of course, and can be sent on campaign with the named legions, or used to defend borders.
19. If you build Imitation Legions, build like the Romans with 10 Cohorts then Auxilia. Imitation Legions do not need an attached auxilia legion.
20. NEVER assassinate AI Generals, the whole point is a harder game, Use assassins for Diplomats and Other Assassins.
21. NEVER, NEVER sink a ship that has an Enemy Army on it to prevent it from landing and threatening you, after all challenge is what we want and in real life you would never know what was in that ship until it was too late. It’s nice to see the AI do invasions, why cheat and stop him?
22. Never Reload a saved Game because you Made a MISTAKE or LOST a Battle. In Real life there are no saved games. Saved games should be used when you quit playing or If there is a CTD.
23. NEVER use ANY of the Console CHEATS in your SPQR:TW campaign game, except in the special case of upgrading republican legions to imperial legions. (rule 46)
24. Always use Killsheet to record your Losses. For the winner's losses, subtract the remaining troops from the starting troops to count them (use a calculator). For the loser's losses, the amount the winner killed is used. This is most times accurate as far as I've seen. Bridge Battle losses should be counted and not gone by the Total Lost that the game says, Its most of the time inaccurate since Friendly Fire is not counted on the Losses, even though you really lose those men, the game doesn’t add them to the list. Use the legion information killsheet to track legions even further, recording all previous generals etc. I also have a function included that tells me when each legion has spent more than 5 years in the field and can be refitted.
25. Never AUTOCALC battles unless it’s a small Rebel Army that popped up.
26. Never use exploitive AI cheats, like moving your archers BEHIND the AI army to destroy them because the AI isn’t smart enough to know the danger. Allow the AI some slack to provide a MORE challenging Game.
27. Try to use REAL tactics on the battlefield, SPQR is balanced in Battles to allow LONG realistic battles with plenty of Time to maneuver.
28. Never compose armies of Siege weapons etc. This is assumed because of how legions are formed.
29. You can form cavalry Armies for scouting and harassing the Enemy, but not Praetorians, etc. I form them like so:
4 equites or roman cavalry, 2 cavalry auxilia, 2 local mercenary cavalry.
30. Build only 1 Praetorian Legion, and Never Mix Praetorian units with Regular Legions. 10 Praetorian Cohorts and 2 Praetorian Cavalry, the rest Auxillia as per normal legion composition.
31. Don’t try to trick the Senate Armies away as you take Rome really Quick. Better to Fight them for the challenge. Also Its better to play with the script and it Spawns a Praetorian Garrison.
32. Never Exploit the AI Flaws etc. There are many ways too many to mention, but you know if you are tricking the AI most likely its an exploit. Lol Try to play in the AI’s world.
33. And NEVER NEVER poke your sword through the Monitor after a losing Battle, you’ll regret it later.
34. Do Not use AutoManage or Auto Recruit for Cities, Control your Empire, not just fight.
35. NEVERDo Not take the generals or characters you dont like and kill them by placing them in a ship to be sunk, you have to take the good with the bad, its part of the game. If you have generals that have become disloyal, send them to your capitol until they die or you decide to put them back in command of a legion again. If you have agents you don't want, send them on hopeless missions until they die, but don't sink them in ships.
36. When you lose a Legionary Eagle UNTILUNLESS you recapture it, that Legion number is NOTNEVER recruited again.
37. When a Legion Revolts, you CANNOT make a new Legion with the same name, you must either Bribe or Destroy the legion to use the Legion Number again.
38. No Plague ships or Spreading Plague to the enemy cities, it wasnt really done back then, Romans prefered to Conquer their enemies by force or bribe.
39. All independant Armies MUSTshould have a GENERAL or family member assigned to them. In SPQR there is plenty of Money for supporting armies with Generals. Troop transports do not need generals, but all Cavalry, Merc, Auxillary, and Legionary Armies need a GENERAL to be used in the field. To clarify, a GENERAL is the named character you RECRUIT in a city. Family members can NOT command legions, after 210 BC (at first you have no generals, only family members. Try to get generals in their place as quick as possible.) The three family members at the start of the game who are in command of legions qualify as generals.
40. FAMILY MEMBERS in your family tree are used as governors. NEVER have generals permanently assigned as governors. If a general gets adopted to your family tree, HE can still command a legion, but his descendants must govern cities like any other family member.
41. Do NOT trigger marian reforms until after 175 BC (160 turns at least). This means start your first imperial palace anytime after 180 BC. Do not build ANY imperial legionary barracks' until after 140 BC. When you do build imperial barracks, send the legions home one at a time to their home city, when you reach the home city, disband the republican legionaries and recruit the imperials. Then send the legion back to its place. Dont disband the legionaries immediately and recruit a new legion. Its supposed to be the same troops, just with new equipment!
42. Play with UNLIMITED MEN ON BATTLEFIELD = TRUE! And NEVER let the AI control your reinforcements.
43. Never form mercenary legions. Mercenaries are only used in special roleplaying cases, or when legions take heavy losses in battle and there are no auxilia nearby. Never replace the normal cavalry with barbarian noble cavalry for instance.
44. If the AI sallies out of a city or fort, form your legion away from the walls, and let the AI form their army before attacking. Don't block the gate and pour missiles in.
45. NEVER change the capitol from Arretium until you take Rome, then make it Rome permamently.
46. When upgrading republican legions to imperial legions, here is how you do it:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
The purpose of this, is to change your republican legionaries into Imperial legionaries, while keeping the experience they've gained as republicans. This method does use console commands (considered cheats because thats how they are normally used). BUT this method is not what I'd consider cheating. It does help the player in a way, but it is intended to be used with my(Garnier's) houserules(most importantly with no academy experience bonus).
Here is the step by step method: 1. Choose the republican legion you intend to upgrade to imperial equipment. 2. Disband any auxilia swordsmen in the legion. (since these will be replaced with imperial legionaries, just like normal when you refit a legion) 3. Move the legion to their home city:
4. Write down or remember the experience level for each cohort. In this case:
1st Cohort: 5
4 Cohorts: 5
2 Cohorts: 4
1 Cohort: 3
1 Cohort: 1
1 Cohort: 0 5. Disband all cohorts. 6. Push your tilde (~) key to bring up the console. 7. Type create_unit <cityname> "<unitname>" <numberofunits>,<experience>
To find <cityname>, find your regions.txt file (in Rome Total War>data>world>campaign>maps>base)
Push ctrl-F or click find:
In the game, right click on the land next to the city, to find the region name. In the find text box, enter the region name exactly as you see it in game. Hit enter, and it will take you to the region information. The word below the region name, is the city name. In this case, segesta. So <cityname> = Segesta.
<unitname> is roman legion # for 1st cohorts, and roman legionary cohort # for normal cohorts, where # is the legion's number, in this case 13. So in this case for my 1st cohort <unitname> = roman legion 13.
<numberofunits> is the amount of units you want to create at the time. For my 1st cohort, this would be 1, for my four cohorts with 5 experience, this would be 4.
<experience> is the experience number. For my four cohorts with 5 experience, this would be 5.
8. In the console, type add_population <cityname> -1710 9. In the console, type add_money -4100
If you don't understand something, save your game and experiment to get it to work. I did this myself so I know it works.
I also have made some changes myself to make the game harder.
I made the surgeon/physician/priestess of juno ancillaries half as common, and they don't have as much effect (so I will lose more men).
I also removed the experience bonus that the academy gives for the romans (the AI still gets it) which means my legionaries start with 0 experience. This makes battles harder. Playing on hard difficulty gives outright +'s for the AI in battle, which I don't care for.
Last edited by Garnier; November 29, 2008 at 06:40 PM.
Retired moderator of TWC | Under the patronage of Atterdag
Now see I disagree with that, basically a LEGION dies, men of the old retire and the NEW legion is never to the strength or experience the old was. I think this is a BAD cheat and I wouldnt do it. it saves the cost of money and also explains why people find the battles too easy. Houserules for me are no Console Commands used in the campaign.
This is why one reason I dont like other peoples methods posted as houserules. Thats not a realistic or good thing IMO. Caesars tenth legion was not the same legion as the tenth that sieged masada. Therefore this is more like a cheat the whole idea of having republican was to replace them with imperials and start over on experience. I am disappointed on this type of exploit.
I understand what you mean, but as I never retrain legionaries with experience, every man that has it gained it during combat, I merge my low-strength high-experience cohorts together, and recruit fresh zero-experience cohorts to fill the holes in the legion. I wouldn't get very far with experience if I had to start over at 0 when I switched to imperials. Especially as I use republicans for a long time usually. If I had to start at 0 I would want to skip using republicans at all so I wouldn't have to delete my veterans.
If it was possible to have legions lose experience occasionally over time, to represent older guys dying and being replaced, it would be nice, but simulating that by a single sudden loss of all experience doesn't make sense to me.
I don't actually save any money through this method, and on average my battles aren't easier because I removed the 3 experience bonus that roman troops get recruited with.
Anyway, this is a fairly minor aspect of the game.
Retired moderator of TWC | Under the patronage of Atterdag
See that loses the Point I bet ROME wished they could keep their vertrans forever but in real life people Die or Retire. Starting a New legion with the same number represents these problems of real life. I can see why you get such a High kill score if you are running around with Elite Legions. That isnt how SPQR was made or to be played. sorry its just how I see it. you claim you want challenge then you do that? lol
See that loses the Point I bet ROME wished they could keep their vertrans forever but in real life people Die or Retire. Starting a New legion with the same number represents these problems of real life. I can see why you get such a High kill score if you are running around with Elite Legions. That isnt how SPQR was made or to be played. sorry its just how I see it. you claim you want challenge then you do that? lol
Actually I've only ever had two high-veteran legions, most of them have less than three chevrons even really late in the game.
But I don't intend to impress people with my score, it's not even high compared to a lot of people.
Retired moderator of TWC | Under the patronage of Atterdag
1. Winter seasons:
Never attack during WInter seasons if it's not absolutely neccessary! Try to avoid fighting in the winter season. Armies cannot move out of the province in which they are stationed by then. Put them into a fort anywhere in the province.
Usually the romans did not fight during the winter if it was not necessary.
2. Every Post-Marian Legion has at least 2 auxilia armies and if necessary 1 extra auxilliary army including siege weapons etc.
3. Use family members as governors, generals as tribuns.
Doesnt matter its not important life is short and we might as well enjoy the mod while we can, we never know when things will change in real life, true? :-)
I do the same thing I avoid winter but for good reasons! lol and I use family for Governors, some may go an fight if needed but most will sit back and run the city. BTW later in your campaigns if you get a civil war let me know it can be very bloody I am curious because its random and you never know what province can go, and monitoring your provinces wont do you any good. ;-)
You dont destroy them in battle, you destroy them by selecting the city after you've taken it, right clicking each building and clicking the "destroy building" button in the corner.
Retired moderator of TWC | Under the patronage of Atterdag
lol i really didnt know that that was possible. i played RTW and SPQRTW for a long time but i never understood why i couldnt destroy those needless buildings.
tnx allot Garnier!
I usually prefer to use the pre-marian armies because its a challenge in itself with the crappy Hastati and Principles. The Velites kill more than the Hastati.
To be honest i dont follow the house rules strictly
what i do is, i read them, and i follow some of them. Really most of them come naturally to me anyway, but i dont have a poster with them on my wall to remind me
People will believe a lie because they want it to be true; or they're afraid it's true.
Given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe its true, or because they're afraid it might be true. Peoples' heads are full of knowledge, facts and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.
Lt as you may know, I have a challenging VH/VH game going. I can't seem to get the money or troops together to invade Carthage. They will kill me on the beaches and I have insane Gaul armies attacking every other turn. What do I do?
the houserules of the people.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by lt1956
