The Art of [Total] War
The Art of Total War, by Spartacus the Irish
A compilation of Rome: Total War tips and strategies by SCC Community Members, compiled and amended by Spartacus the Irish and edited by Penguinraider A battlefield littered with hewn corpses, spears splintered, shield shivered; the earth red run with blood. Your army fleeing for it's life, scattering weapons and armour in it's wake as the pursuing cavalry ride over them. You general's headless corpse lies broken and bloodied upon the earth.
Rome: Total War - it is a yawning chasm of ancient warfare, and it can be too much for even the best of us to handle. Therefore, I have gathered together every last scrap of advice I can muster. Need help against those pesky elephants who are stomping all over your beautiful legions? Having trouble against hordes of hairy barabarians? Or even if you're simply not very good (join the club!); the Art of Total War has the answer!
Probably.
Contents
Elephants
Sieges
Roman Factions
Greek Factions
Diplomacy and Espionage
Phalanxes
Cavalry
Barbarians
Terrain and Deployment
Campaign Tactics
Economy
Battle Tactics
Multiplayer
Cheats
Food!
Credits
Elephants
1. When fighting elephants, defeat them by using peltasts to panic them, or by using phalanxes if your nation has them.
2. Use Flaming arrows against Elephants.
3. Elephants are not very fearsome at all if not used correctly. In charging they are invincible - casualties occur when the fighting gets bogged down. Don't charge too many units at a time unless they're already engaged and target the best enemy troops or a large group of units likely to free (peasants or militia.) War Elephants can charge through anything, so a good strategy is to force the enemy army into a straight line in front of your forces then charge the elephants from one flank to the other (a good time to use this is the Battle of the River Trebia - you can win with very few casualties this way.) Elephants are also the only truly good units at getting through gates - even if the gates are broken, normal soldiers will be held where they can get oil poured on them. Elephants can batter the gate down and then charge through to flatten the force waiting inside, opening it up for your forces to pour in.
4. Throwing enough men at elephants CAN work- not experienced men, but just fodder. Hurt the elephant's morale badly enough, and they will break. After this you can destroy them easily.
5. Follow elephant charges with heavy cavalry then infantry to finish off
6. If you are facing elephants and are a Roman, fire up your pigs and send them at the elephants. This makes them go crazy and especially within their own ranks, causes a lot of harm. While the enemy ranks are unorganized, send in your cavalry for some easy meat.
7. Always use war elephants against tightly packed infantry and heavy cavalry; otherwise you are wasting a resource that could be put to better use. Every second that the unit of elephants is not in combat is a second that is not spent crushing the enemies’ troops.
Sieges
Besieging Force
8. In sieges, be careful about ordering multiple units to charge through one another on the walls. The frenzy may result in hundreds of your men being shoved off the walls by their buddies, and bunching leads to greater missile casualties.
9. During sieges adjust your unit's width to fit the streets of the city to prevent clipping the buildings and slowing down your units. Speed is of the essence when attacking cities.
10. Trap defenders on the wall by using onagers to destroy the wall sections linking the defenders to gate houses and towers with exits.
11. When lots of units are involved in a siege, one entry point for your units is never going to be enough. You need at least two. Three or four are ideal, so either bring onagers with a besieging force or wait until you have sufficient siege engines to break a few holes in the enemy defences. If forced to use one entry point, charge it with your strongest troops. Once inside make a beeline for the gatehouse so you can let your own troops in. Then it's just a matter of capturing towers and taking the square.
12. Gatehouses are horrible bottlenecks and should be ignored unless they're almost completely unguarded (or you have elephants). It's all too easy for the enemy to hold you back whilst you get showered with boiling oil. But if the enemy leaves it unguarded, be ready to make a cavalry charge at a moment’s notice.
13. Always try and swing one of your ladder units out to the side of the main defensive force where they can scurry up their ladders and capture a relatively undefended gatehouse. This will allow you to quickly charge your cavalry into the city without having boiling oil poured on them. From there march your ladder unit across the ramparts and towards the nearest group of defenders who is giving your main assault force trouble. Most of their defence will probably be on the walls and you can then just charge your cavalry at whatever paltry defence they have set up at the town centre. If you capture it you win, if he abandons the walls to reclaim it you still win
14. If in city assaults your enemy has archers, ensure you assault them directly with ladders while sending your siege tower to another area where he has melee units. The archers will burn your tower down before it even reaches them, whereas ladders can reach the wall quicker and introduce melee units right into his archer ranks. The opposing melee units on the other hand, will sit and wait for your men to load up in the tower, therefore causing their own destruction when your mass of troops deploys.
15. Use every stone your siege equipment is carrying before attacking. Target the enemy walls, general, missile troops and elite troops in that order. Just be wary of collateral damage.
16. Only use flaming siege missiles if the city is only strategically important. These are wildly inaccurate and can burn down important buildings.
17. If you plan to defend the city in the next couple of turns, it's a good idea to work out where the barracks are so you don't accidentally destroy them. If money is low and you're making plans to defend it against an approaching army, don't do too much damage to the walls.
18. Make sure you bring some archers!! Any army defending a city will surely not leave the safety of city walls. This means that if you have some archer units you can easily kick back and watch them fire volley after volley up at the defenders on the ramparts. Granted it won't cause as many casualties as if they were in open territory but many will still drop, making it far easier to tackle them once ladders or siege towers are implemented.
19. When you want your units to effectively use the siege tower, select one unit at a time and use the move command onto the wall. Attempting to control multiple units at once or giving them attack orders will result in a lot of your infantry stuck within the siege tower while the rest of your army is losing.
20. When besieging, build mainly siege towers, because normally there is a place on the enemies’ wall where towers can't fire at you due to distance. Then use a unit to begin running across the wall, this will cause the towers to become yours and they will start to fire upon the enemy rather than your own troops. You can also capture the gateway this way, to prevent boiling oil casualties.
Defending Garrison
21. Onagers are terrifying in sieges, particularly when they start knocking down your walls with your soldiers upon them. Don't attack with troops - tell your own siege equipment to attack theirs.
22. In Sieges against good troops, send in light infantry first. Nothing that will be massacred, but things that will slowly, but surely, lose. Once the enemy is fully engaged in combat, send your heavy infantry in. The heavy infantry will cause much more casualties fighting against troops that are already engaged, taking less casualties in turn as they will even out between your heavy infantry and your sword-fodder... er, light infantry.
23. Have your archers use fire arrows against the enemy battering rams. There is a chance that it may catch fire - it is then destroyed.
24. The enemy usually splits his attacking force in a siege, so there could be gaps in between his forces. Use fast cavalry to charge through the gap and make a beeline for the siege equipment. Kill as many as you can then leg it back to the gatehouse.
25. Focus siege weaponry (especially onagers) on heavier equipment such as siege towers. Don't use flaming ammunition. When siege towers are at your walls, they are still good targets for artillery, particularly if you attack them while there are men inside. After the enemy has run out of siege weapons, have a pop at the general.
26. Don't place onagers too close to your town walls or you may help to bring them down.
27. If you are being besieged by multiple enemies then leave the walls alone and set your men up in the town centre. There are only ever a maximum of 4 roads leading to the centre, so block these routes and deploy missile units behind. Use all cavalry in the centre, ready to charge any gap in your men.
28. When you have the luxury of Onagers, especially if you're the attacker or a defender in a siege, don't use flaming missiles to start with. Use normal ones and target the enemy commander. When he's down, switch to flaming missiles and target his best soldiers.
29. In a siege, try and hold the enemy in the gateway as long as possible so that boiling oil can be used over and over - it will make short work of the enemy's best troops due to its ability to bypass armour.
30. When being besieged as a Greco culture in a stone walled city, always plant 1 unit of Phalanx troops just behind the gates, they will stand their ground after the gates are broken while the enemy runs themselves onto their spears and are burned by oil from above.
31. If your enemy is laying siege to one of your important cities and you don't have enough forces to repel him for another turn or two then lay siege to one of his important nearby cities with even a small force and many times he'll break off the siege in order to go defend his town. You may end up losing that unit but it could buy you enough time to build some more units and get some heavier reinforcements in.
32. The most essential part of a siege is keeping the enemy outside the gates for as long as possible. They're at a severe disadvantage, being peppered with missile fire from all directions. As the defender, you have an immense advantage. As soon as the attacker is within your walls you lose that advantage, especially when things such as towers are captured.
33. Have every archer unit available target the battering rams. When the rams reach the walls, they are extremely hard to deal with, so pepper them with flaming arrows and set them ablaze before it's too late.
34. Always have at least two units guarding a unit assailing your walls by ladder. One unit can soon be pushed back, allowing enemy units to pour onto your walls. Two units hold them in place, and mean you can reach the ladders quicker. Fighting the enemy as they ascend the ladders is the optimum - a man falling off will flatten all the comrades below him on the ladder.
35. If the enemy starts capturing towers and your forces are getting forced back from the walls, don't be reluctant to cut your losses and retreat to the centre. Most centres have a road running to them - an elite unit or two on this road should hold them off for your main army to regroup ready to fight again in the centre. Your general can also rally any routing troops to add those to your numbers. This takes away the enemy's advantage and puts you on level ground. It also allows you to concentrate on one area in a do-or-die battle. If you have better troops, this is always a good option as the siege ends with a bloody slog in the centre where it's down to numbers and troop quality.
36. Sallying forth is tricky, and is made much easier if you can entice the enemy into attacking. If the enemy are besieging but not assaulting, it's probably because they know they will lose a direct battle. Use missile cavalry to draw them within range of your towers. If they won't take the bait, pound them with artillery. It's usually quite easy to surprise them and take out their general with an early artillery barrage.
37. When besieged, remember that the central square allows room for manoeuvre – cavalry can really only be used effectively in this square. Using cavalry in the winding city roads usually entails a frontal charge against the enemy, which is wasting one of your most effective arms.
38. When defender in a siege as a barbarian nation, do not try to kill the enemy as they break through the wall. They generally cause breakthroughs in too many places, because you are limited to weak wooden walls. Instead, mass your troops and defend the main square.
39. When being besieged, use heavy infantry at the top of the walls where they are going to ascend (so for instance at the top of the ladder or where the siege tower drawbridge is going to land). On either side of this unit put archers. As the enemy come close they will suffer casualties to your archers, then a weakened unit climbs to meet your heavy infantry.
40. Chariots are not a good idea when playing the defender in a siege. I positioned my Chariots close to my General Bodyguard unit and other cavalry. The Chariots started to run amok when the battle started, my General and most of his units died as well as the other cavalry. This would also be true of elephants.
Roman Factions
41. My tip for House of Julii: Strike early, Strike often. Barbarian nations can build up large armies quickly and overwhelm you if you are sluggish.
42. When you start a Julii campaign, your first Senate mission is to take the town of Segesta. If your difficulty settings are on easy you can assault this settlement with no casualties. The easiest way to take it is to gather your two armies together and attack it head on. Make sure you have your unit of Roman Archers and the two family members with you. When you start the battle there will be enemy units of Barbarian Peasants and a warband. Command your archers to go around them so they are facing the enemy's backs, then fire away! They will take 4-7 deaths a volley! You might run out of arrows but that's okay, just charge the survivors with your two family members!
43. When planning your conquests don't feel limited by Senate missions or history. Go for the sweetest plums right away. Being the Julii doesn't mean you can only take on Gauls and Germans. Sneak an army across the Mediterranean and grab Carthage and Thapsus - they're huge, nicely located cities. While you're at it, try to get southern Greece - there are 3 Wonders of the World down there. Don't leave them for the damned Brutii. Don't worry all that much about Spain and Gaul - nobody else is attacking them so you can get them a bit later. Besides, the Spanish are too far away to be an immediate threat, and the Gauls are sissies.
44. At the beginning of the Julii campaign I send my first two armies in tandem toward Patavium, augmenting the smaller of the two with units from my capital.
45. If you plan to attack a faction, begin the turn by asking the other Roman factions (including the Senate) for funds. They'll all give you some cash to support the attack that you were going to make anyway. Always keep a diplomat in all allied capitals for this reason.
46. If infantry are charging, counter-charging works well. But if you're the Romans, don't use the javelins - hold down the Alt key and attack to charge instead. Nine times out of ten they'll attack before you've thrown the javelins, making it worse.
47. When defending with Roman factions, set your legionnaires to fire at will (if they are able to throw javelins)
48. When playing as Romans, only go to war with who the Senate asks you to attack. The Senate will cause war between you and many nations already; you do not need to make even more enemies by attacking other factions yourself.
49. When fighting barbarian factions with the Romans, choose your location carefully. You may have better troops, but you will almost always be outnumbered. Fight on bridges or from the tops of hills whenever you can.
50. Stay allied to the other Roman Cities for as long as you can.
51. Don't piss off the Senate till the time is right
52. As the Julii, you may not feel you are ready to take on the Gauls, but without taking Northern Italy immediately you will become easily bankrupt, if you hit quickly enough they won't have any full armies in Northern Italy and Northern Italy is much easier to defend than having to defend your first two cities. Double this up with making sure you have plenty of nations to trade with and you'll have so much money within a few years that you can simply bribe your enemy's armies instead of having to fight them. If you have the luxury of Arcani you can use these to hide, wait until the enemy has run past you, then spring out and slice the crews.
Greek Factions (including Macedon and Carthage)
53. When playing as the Greeks, control the seas at all costs. The Macedonians aren’t too hard to control with troops, but if you end up fighting the Brutii, Scipii and a bit of Julii all at once as well as the Macedonians. Your troops will be hard pressed to say the least. However, if you get a small fleet in fast, you can blockade the two Brutii ports, and stop them taking Thermon. They're stuck on their peninsula with nowhere to expand and as long as you keep pumping out boats you can hunt down any ships that have men inside. You can also block reinforcements from the Scipii and Julii to Sicily, take over Messina with a certain degree of ease and hold Sicily. With constant upkeep of your fleets you can economically cripple the Scipii and Brutii as well as denying them expansion. All their troops will have been killed at sea; they have no income and will be unable to expand.
54. As the Greeks, train Spartans and try to have two Spartan hoplites in every city to defend the gates; you should try to have several units in each of your armies also as they are troops that can be relied upon.
55. Cretan Archers are readily available to most Greco factions (especially Greece) and work wonders to help defeat the deficiencies of the phalanx system. They are probably the best archers in the game and though it is expensive to upkeep a lot of mercenary archers, they will pay for this tenfold in battle.
56. CARTHAGE-BLOOD-HARVEST. I've heard lots of people complain about the following: "My docks are always under blockade and I can’t afford a navy because my cities are producing negative Denarii! Why I can't make money?!" Here's a great idea: Ignore the ocean! Don't use the Milqart Temple, the +4 to trade bonus doesn't help Carthage early on because of the lack of suitable trading partners & constant blockades by aggressive Egyptian and Roman navies.
57. Instead build Tanit Temples for the +4 farm bonus and upgrade your farms before you upgrade your ports. It might sound counter intuitive to what we knew about historical Carthage, but in the game you don't start with any African or Mediterranean allies (or even neutral trading-partners!) and in many cases you won't make any even after 60 years, Egypt, the Scipii and Spain will all attack you and Numidia is usually so DIRT-POOR that they won't even build ports for the first hundred years making them a very worthless ocean-trading partner. Side note on Numidia: oddly enough if you go the farming route with Carthage and remember to build roads, Numidia's population will explode from all your excess corn and their economy will get kicked into high-gear, making them a good late game trading partner for when you want to switch temples to avoid further population growth after the 24k mark.
58. Another *LAME/COOL* thing about Carthage to remember: They were evil and believed in ritual human blood sacrifice. KEEP UP THE TRADITION! Regularly exterminate your own population for fun and profit without ever worrying about not having enough population to train troops, poor population growth is NOT a problem for Carthage. I remember once after slaughtering Carthage for 23,000 denarii in 240 B.C. the initial growth rate after the slaughter was 8.5%!!! I've never seen it get higher than that with any other faction no matter what I've tried.
59. Put all your cities on auto-Growth but turn off auto-recruiting. Build Farm upgrades first, build Tanit Temples second and then Roads. Your population will SKYROCKET, the cheap excess food will increase city squalor tremendously, the low taxes from growth build policy will mitigate the population's anger until the 20k mark when extreme squalor leads to revolution no matter how low the taxes are, even after a city hits its maximum of 24k the population growth rate will still be 3-4% and it will just keep expanding. I look at my own Carthaginian cities as little farms just waiting to be butchered. Not the most peaceful of solutions, but can definitely be effective. Besides, who cares about peasants?
60. You can make more money off farms and butchering your own people then you can off trade anyway, I say if you want to trade, save it for late game when you can get big ports and a navy that can actually keep them open long enough to make some decent cash.
61. Take Crete – most AI factions leave this island south of Greece alone but with some leadership it becomes very rich and has a large amount of quality mercenaries that spawn every 4-6 turns. They include Balearic Slingers, Cretan Archers, Thracian Mercenaries, and Hoplite Mercenaries. Good for defending if you do not have phalanx units, or are Carthage early in the game.
Diplomacy & Espionage
62. CHECK THE FACTIONS SCROLL BEFORE ALLYING!!! I lost myself all Romans as allies because I got a little too friendly with Carthage. No, not like that...
63. Watch the world politics before choosing who to declare war on. Have spies all over the map, and watch who's losing what war. For example, if you're playing as the Julii, don't go for the obvious choices like the Gauls and Carthage when the Germans are bogged down in a war with the Dacians - especially if you are an ally, as their defences on your borders are probably fairly lax.
64. Send diplomats to other factions to get trade right. It really helps.
65. Because diplomats are generally older when they begin their careers (30-40) they have a fairly short shelf-life. For that reason it's a good idea to send more than 1 if you want to do any extended diplomatic missions. It's a major pain to send a diplomat all the way to Londinium or Syria and then have him drop dead of old age before he can perform his mission. Multiple spies are good too, since they often get killed.
66. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to chop up your allies’ diplomats. If they don't know all the friends they can make, then they'll cling to you like a child to his mother. And that's a very good thing.
67. To raise extra money, send diplomats into the world and sell your map information to other factions (NOT your neighbouring factions) for tribute or cash. If you're doing right, you can earn up to 6000 denarii per turn.
68. Want to soften up an enemy city near your border? Build or move a spy in one of YOUR plague infested cities and have him get infected. Once he's infected, move your plague-ridden spy into the enemy city. Not only does the plague cause unrest, but you spy as well.
69. Always keep a spy with your army. Then you always know what size/type of enemies you’re facing if you're as close as your spy's range of movement. If you have a very good spy, when you set up your army before battle, you can already see them how they've lined up in pre-battle so you can set your units accordingly.
70. When marching to besiege a city, always send a spy up ahead for two reasons. They’ll be able to see ambushing armies and they’ll be able to open up the city gates if you’re lucky enough, making it tons easier to take the city without a lot of casualties from wall defences.
71. Assassins are used most effectively in groups. Small factions can be brought down with assassins. For your target, make sure his empire is quite small, and in the same place. When you have about 2 or 3 assassins above 6 subterfuge this is quite easy. Use spies to locate the enemy family members and bring them down. Use your best assassin to target their faction leader. Beware - when a faction is eliminated in this way large wars usually begin with a scramble for their lands.
72. Never be afraid to backstab an ally, but watch you don't run out of friends or gain a reputation for being untrustworthy. There's easy money to be had early on by asking for money from other nations to fund invasions that never happen, but they'll learn and in the future you'll never see a penny of their cash. If you're going to invade anyway, you may as well get all you can from it. Ask your allies for funding as this always helps. Always have at least one ally you can count on, but don't let them get too strong - you'll almost definitely have to fight them one day. There can only ever be one imperator, so bear that in mind when you make your alliances.
73. Let assassins destroy buildings and move spies in cities before you attack, especially if it is a large heavily fortified city
74. Don't backstab Gaul. They remember. Don't make alliances with them; the Senate is more important to you (as the Romans).
Phalanxes
75. The phalanx is almost unassailable from the front. To defeat a phalanx, you'll need Speed, Manoeuvrability or Numbers. Without one of these you'll be smashed.
76. Phalanxes can be attacked almost freely from behind or the flank. Whilst cavalry are best for this (be sure to withdraw before they can turn and fight) any unit will do, even archers. Use alt-click to engage the phalanx from behind or the flank to make things much easier.
77. When fighting Greek-style armies, phalanxes are normally positioned in one straight line. The only way to defeat them is to outflank them, so when the two armies clash, you can go around the side and envelop them. This is easy if you outnumber the enemy, but if it isn't, your best approach is to pile your best troops on one flank to work round the enemy or to ignore the middle and attack the flanks only.
78. Never meet a phalanx-heavy army head on, even with first cohort legionaries. Missile cavalry are excellent for drawing them away. It sounds stupid, but cavalry are essential to defeating phalanxes. Make sure you always outnumber a phalanx and attack it from two or three sides. Try and draw phalanx units away from the main army and fight them one at a time. Use your main soldiers to hold the phalanxes and use your best soldiers to crush them one by one by attacking the flanks.
79. Split the battle into segments - never engage a phalanx-heavy army in its entirety. Lure them away or smash the middle = separate them and engage them one unit at a time.
80. The phalanx is very often abused. Don't be too reluctant to move out of phalanx formation, and don't bank on your phalanx units to win the day. When using phalanxes, it's essential to remain as one army - use your phalanxes to hold the enemy and use the rest for flanking attacks. Your formation must always be wider than the enemy's - but not so shallow that you are easily outflanked. An extra unit of phalanxes behind each side works wonders. Don't send your phalanxes off individually and make sure they are heavier at the flanks.
81. Cavalry archers and skirmishers are great against phalanxes. From the front they're useless, but on the flanks and rear they do wonders. Pick the flank you want to collapse and then run the missile cavalry behind it, set them to skirmish and put them in a Cantabrian circle. They'll tear the phalanx apart and draw it out of position, thereby shortening the enemy line. Besides that, they kill enemy morale and can be used to charge an engaged phalanx when they run out of missiles and to kill routers and prevent rallies.
82. Watching a unit of heavy enemy chariots running into a phalanx head-on is one of the most beautiful things ever, always try and make them do this, you'll have just made the Egyptians waste 2k and a unit slot.
83. With the possible exception of Roman families, it’s always a good idea to have a couple of phalanx units in your army, especially to form the core of your battle lines. They can often carry the battle and form a solid core to work your tactics around, as they have an ability to hold well against both cavalry and infantry.
84. With phalanxes, always receive the charge. If you order your men to attack, they may pull the old "Kill the birds!" technique, and raise their spears at the most inopportune moment. After receiving the charge, a wedge attack in between two of your units: phalanxes from behind and your OWN cavalry can break the enemy morale.
85. The best place for phalanxes to be is on the forest edge. The trees will block arrows and give you a nice combat bonus. Not too thickly in the trees, though, or your shining spear wall may have gaping holes in it.
86. Phalanxes work great as swordsmen, I always get them to charge in as swordsmen, this disrupts the enemies’ formation, and then I immediately put them back in phalanx formation.
87. If you have phalanxes, be sure to have missile cavalry as well so you can do that little trick. Line up to meet them head on with your phalanxes then rip up a flank with cavalry and turn and roll them up with your own phalanxes. Attack two or three phalanxes at once and watch the enemy line melt away.
Cavalry
88. A nice Cantabrian circle of Cavalry Auxilia in the rear on a hoplite formation can do massive damage and quickly cause an enemy flank to collapse and rout. Plus, when they run out of javelins, they can be sent in to attack the routing unit, or can be ordered to charge the rear of the next phalanx in the enemy line.
89. Cavalry - Make sure you're stationary when they charge to brace yourself. To weaken cavalry charges, use spears if possible. If they aren't available, make sure you engage them in close combat, make sure you outnumber them, and don't let them repeatedly charge you.
90. If you have two family members in your army (Especially a most cavalry army) Split it in half and send the other half around to the other side of the enemy. When the battle starts you'll have your enemy completely outflanked.
91. The cavalry’s strengths are its moral damaging charge and the charge itself. To use this to best effect DON'T let them get charged and if you have no choice, try to charge a weak unit, sustained combat is not a real option.
92. Dealing with Horse Archers: If you're headed east in search of new lands to conquer, be sure to go with some light cavalry, at least. Mercenary missile cavalry are even better. You can't send an army of foot soldiers, or you'll be routed by the smallest group of horse-archers. Be especially careful while fighting the Armenians because of their cataphract archers. Don't gamble your cavalry away - you know what happened to Crassus.
93. Using Horse Archers: Horse Archers are incredibly effective tools to be used in battle. If you can eliminate the enemy cavalry early and you have a large amount of horse archers, the battle is as good as won. Try to lure the enemy horsemen into a trap - this leaves your horse archers free to bombard the enemy infantry with arrows. Unlike foot archers, you need not worry about direct attack - you can easily outrun a foot soldier. Use horse archers to create gaps in flanks by using the Cantabrian circle. You can also make hit-and-run attacks on the enemy general this way.
94. Missile cavalry are a godsend. You can not only use these fast moving death machines for ambushes from the forest but also to lure enemies into your hiding infantry line. Also whenever infantry lines are engaged you can quickly manoeuvre these guys around and behind the enemy lines where their javelins will demolish the unprepared enemy infantry. Is there a group of archers out peppering your lines during this? Alt-left click those bastards and watch them charge into the missile lines. These guys are quite simply just too damn versatile to ignore.
95. Battles are often won or lost on one click of the mouse. Nine times out of ten it's a cavalry charge. When both sides are engaged, hacking each other to bits, one cavalry charge into the enemy flank can end the game. Battles are often won and lost because of one point in the game where one side gets the upper hand. Cavalry charges on already-engaged units are excellent ways to start routs and gain that upper hand.
96. Don't commit cavalry units at the start - always make sure you have more cavalry than the enemy and your victory is assured. Do something about his cavalry, and then yours are free to roam the map. Cavalry can easily outnumber the enemy, so as long as you don't charge them head-first into spearmen they can change the outcome of the battle.
97. Archers are expendable, skirmishers can be done without, and siege engines can be built on the battlefield. Other than infantry, there's only one other indispensable unit: CAVALRY. If you're outnumbered by cavalry you're sure to lose. You won't win any battles with eastern sides without mountains of cavalry - their horse archers, chariots, and cataphracts will smash your greatest units and you won't be able to get close.
98. Never leave missile cavalry to their own devices. They may be staying well away from those infantry, but if your opponent wipes out some fresh cavalry and goes after your archers, the life span of your horseman plummets drastically.
99. Place your main cavalry flanking force on your left flank. They will hit the weaker right flank of the enemy
100. Move horse archers behind the enemy line. Their reserve cavalry will chase them. If it is a general, the enemy will break faster with the general far away
101. If fighting enemy with little or no cavalry, and if you have a decent amount of cavalry, put all of you infantry in a single line and you cavalry on the flanks. Tell each of your infantry to charge at a single unit of enemy infantry. If the enemy infantry is strong, don’t be afraid to use multiple units. Your infantry is mainly for keeping the enemy infantry engaged whilst your cavalry goes around the flanks, kills enemy cavalry and totally flanks the enemy, causing instant routs and mass slaughter, leaving little or no enemies alive. I use this tactic against the Gauls and Romans in my Carthaginian campaign.
102. The Cavalry Swarm. Have anywhere from 4-12 Light Cavalry units. In troop deployment mass them on one side of the formation. Next move them in a line on the flank of the enemy. Usually the enemy will break off about 3-4 units to deal with your massed cavalry. Charge all cavalry units at one or two of the enemy units headed your way, those will route quickly. Then just roll up the rest of the enemy and you'll end up with many times a Heroic Victory. I've been using this with Macedon's Light Lancers against pretty much everybody I've faced; Romans, Greeks, Thrace, Dacia, Pontus and slaughtering them wonderfully.
103. If your men are getting charged by cavalry then put them in loose formation and when the cavalry hits, push the tight formation. This traps the cavalry inside of your men and they can’t charge.
Barbarians
104. When playing as one of the Northern Factions (Briton, German, Scythia, etc.) or in a game with HUGE unit sizes; low population and slow population growth will doom you in mid game. Build Farms, Markets and Temples early for a population bonus.
105. Germania is one of the best barbarian factions – much of this being due to their phalanx style spear warband. My advice: build two of them in border cites at minimum. Even at late game they make good meat grinders. Three units of them held off an entire British army.
106. Barbarian battle tip. Use warcry just before entering the fray, or if defensive, a few seconds before the oncoming charge hits. This allows for your units to stand firm longer than normal and may be the deciding factor for morale.
107. When fighting against barbarians, target druids if they have them first. These can sway a battle with their chanting, so get rid of them as fast as possible. Also watch out for the Briton head hurlers - these have a similar effect so use your cavalry early.
108. I don't think enough people know just how awesome wardogs are. These units are a great morale breaker in any battle, they kill plenty of guys once they close into combat and once released they will continue to hunt down the nearest enemy unit when they're done with the last one! Not only that but they can take down cavalry like nobody's business, are great to kill missile units, taking them out of the battle and if you manage to hide them in a forest and attack from behind or flanks with them they will almost assuredly cause a unit to rout.
109. When a Barbarian faction, use Warcry/Screech before a fight as it increases the chances of winning the fight.
110. Don't underestimate the power of barbarian warbands. They are pretty weak, but in the early game can destroy cavalry quite effectively.
111. Wardogs: Hide them in trees, and let the enemy main force stroll by. When they're far enough away, release the hounds and then move you handlers back into hiding immediately. If you're going after a general in a chariot and he's unprotected yet too fast, wardogs are perfect for bringing him down.
Terrain & Deployment
112. When defending against an enemy charge, try and get some sparse forest in front of your line - this will take the sting out of both cavalry and infantry charges.
113. When being attacked by a much bigger army try deploying your infantry in a semi circle formation with missile troops inside the circle and a couple of spare infantry behind in reserve ready to stop determined flank attacks behind a part of your line. Sit tight and wait for them to come to you. This is very effective when using phalanxes. This makes it difficult for the enemy to flank you and allows your missile troops to pepper them from perfect safety as they approach. Once their main force is engaged anywhere along the circle you can swing the wings around to engage their flanks. If you have the luxury of some forest then try hiding some cavalry or spare infantry somewhere nearby ready to come in from behind once the main force is engaged. If the enemy stays in a defensive position, edge the whole lot forward till your missile troops can pound them and provoke them into attacking you!
114. An enemy preparing to defend a hill would be extremely reluctant to come down, but this can be used to your advantage. Use every missile you have, focus on his missile troops, his elite troops and his general in that order. Feigned routs are useful, but make sure your general is nearby in case it goes disastrously wrong.
115. When attacking or defending anywhere near woods always hide as many of your infantry units as possible within the woods. Place your general directly behind your main line squarely in the centre. Send a group of archers or cavalry auxilia will also work out in front without cover. Make sure to plant some cavalry or missile units off to the side and a little further ahead of your main battle line in the woods. The missile unit you sent out will harass the enemy and since they see no one else but your general will give chase. Keep firing while keeping them at a good distance but make your way back to the main line. Once they've committed just run the missile unit behind the line and fire away. The enemy will charge into a waiting line of infantry and the missile unit or cavalry you had on the side will have open flanks to demolish. Your enemy will rout pretty quickly. Also if you go with the missile unit on the side keep ‘fire at will’ turned off until they get close to the main battle line, or they will fire beforehand and give away their position and possibly become the next target.
Campaign Tactics
116. If you're marching a large army through territory where you feel that you could get ambushed, (e.g. Germanic forests), march a single cheap, expendable, unit in just in front of your main army. This way, the enemy will ambush those and reveal their position rather than ambush your main army.
117. Keep squalor to a minimum or you will have revolts and slow pop growth. You would rather be fighting the enemy without, rather than the enemy within – it ties up troops that should be securing/expanding your border.
118. Tell a faction to give you a province, or else you will attack - sometimes they will offer money for certain amount of turns. So you can either attack a couple of turns later or at the end of them paying you. (It won't work all the time)
119. If a few towns are getting too much population causing dissention and squalor, create some peasant units from each. Transfer them to smaller settlements and disband them for quick population.
120. Taking and holding a city that houses a Wonder garnishes nice bonuses. For instance - The Statue of Zeus gives a 15% happiness increase in all cities...
121. If you have squalor out of control, raise the taxes to the highest and move your army out of the city, so the city goes rebellion. Before you do this, make sure you have some siege weapons close by or with the army you moved out. Go and siege the town, exterminate the population, fix whatever damaged. Voila! Squalor/ overpopulation solved.
122. I don't know if everybody knows this, but if you check your town's population/money/trading sheet, if you see that your trade signs (those cartwheels) are flashing, then it's either a dark spot on your map where you don't see an enemy or a rebel unit blocking the traffic (or a boat on sea) OR your town is capable for better trading, but it doesn't have all the trading routes it could.
123. Missile units on the flanks of your army can do a good job firing into the flanks of the enemy, assuming you can protect them. Ditto for scorpions, ballistae; but especially for repeating ballistae. Using missile and artillery units on the flanks works really well against Greeks, since they'll often have an all-phalanx army; this is a meat grinder when fighting head-on, but slow and inflexible enough to be very vulnerable to an army with a large number of missile and artillery units. Just be sure you have enough combat units to destroy these missile weakened enemy units. Missile units never won a battle on their own; they merely support your other troops. Fire from the flanks and rear does much more damage than from the front.
124. The pause button is every general's friend - it lets you pull off all kinds of intricate feints and manoeuvres that would be almost impossible to do in real-time. Of course, if you get too used to using the pause button in battle you'll get your ass kicked online. Such is life...
125. Watch your generals and if they're getting old transfer their retinues to younger people. Generals die, but retinues are immortal - unless the general dies before you make the transfer, in which case the retinue members are lost. Retinue members are like the virtues (from MTW) on steroids - they're potent, plus you can mix and match them to make perfect generals and governors.
126. Wardogs! Lots of generals send cavalry into break up archer units – save them for later and use a pack of wardogs instead – (attack from side or rear) They are relentless, and usually after they chew through one unit they are behind your enemy and return to tear up the next group of unlucky warriors from the rear.
127. If you need to take a few more regions to complete the imperial campaign, simply buy another faction. Offer most of your treasury in exchange for that nation's provinces and hey presto - you win. Just make sure you buy enough of the factions’ provinces to complete the map. This is what I did with the Brutii when I needed nine more provinces to unlock all nations.
128. If you are against a strong opponent- push past a few of their cities and take a couple deeper into their territory, not only does this cut their revenue, but it gives you a strategic bonus to send armies out from both directions.
129. What to do with a captured province: The settlement should only be occupied if you are retaking it from the enemy and it has been yours for a long time. This is important because keeping the population allows you to advance the technology tree faster, so you can get your better soldiers to the front lines quicker. Otherwise, the populace should be enslaved. When capturing an enemy town, enslave the populace. If they rebel, retake the settlement and exterminate. Always exterminate rebels. Do not exterminate simply because you need the money - there are other ways of getting it. Extortion is good.
130. What to build in a province: You should assign cities different types of units to do. If you have an island city, use it to create the best ships. Have one or two provinces charge through the technology tree creating the best foot troops, and one for horses and archers. The rest should just be your standard soldiers, making money as well.
131. When invading another’s territory, strike hard and strike fast. Have no less than three armies as strong as you can manage. Four is an ideal number, as two can move to capture towns and the other two can intercept enemy armies and hold key points such as bridges and mountain passes.
132. If you see an opportunity be ready to take it. If a neutral city is left unguarded and you have the chance to take it - do so! This is a good way to edge forward and a good tactic in invasions. Charge your force deep into enemy territory and capture a town. Then all you have to do is defend it against the enemies’ onslaughts. They'll leave the territory in between your new city and your original cities - making the job far easier for your other armies. If you don't have many men, take a couple of cities then defend - when it's time, take a couple more and defend, and move outwards so you don't leave many places available for the enemy to invade.
133. At the beginning of the game, there are many independent rebel cities. Move in to capture them immediately, because you can attack without committing lots of forces to a long and drawn-out war. If you get the chance, deploy a force and capture one overseas - this allows you to extend your empire much further and helps if you face a daunting enemy on one front, you can turn to this front. Or just use it for making money.
134. Generals are the greatest tools in the game and they'll get better as things go on, so as you get new family members, make sure your important cities have governors then send the rest to the frontlines and train them up.
135. Some ancillary characters are useless as generals but great for governors, and visa-versa. Be sure to move them around so you have the most effective mix.
136. Buffer zones are your friends. If you fear the Egyptians, then you can save your Pontus nation by allying the Seleucids. Then, when the Egyptians are wiping the sweat from their foreheads and scraping the East Beast off the walls, you can launch your own attack.
137. While you sit there, breaking the backs of random advisers, cursing the names of all those agile, quick-hitter nations, say to yourself, "Why fight like they want to?" Sneak armies into their nation’s one at a time and siege all their cities (or at least the strong ones) at once. Peltasts aren't so good at defending walls from Bastarnae.
138. If your pockets are full, but the enemy's ranks aren't, then hire all the mercenaries you can the second you enter their region. More men for you to waste, less men for them to use in desperate, heroic defences.
139. Another note on Mercenaries- if you're lacking in a certain category, then mercenary units of that type can give you an edge against your opponents, or at least even the field. Especially if they're elephant mercenaries, or if your hoplites need some Cretan wood to show those phalanx imposters who's boss.
140. Your capital should move for two reasons. The first is if your empire is small enough, it can bring vital heavy cavalry to the front, fast. The second is that if your empire is huge, you need your capital to be more central, for greater public order.
141. When you conquer a city, always tear down their temple and make your own. Less of their culture, more of yours.
142. When fighting overseas, and planning a strike on their homeland, let them land THEIR army first. Your forces will be waiting, and can easily outnumber and crush their expeditionary force. With their home guard depleted, only the old men and boys are left to guard home.
143. In campaigns let enemies fight each other. They'll be weakened so you'll have a better chance of taking their cities
144. It isn’t bad to hit the end turn button without having done much except managing cities -sometimes you need to build up your treasury.
145. Push your invasions to rivers or mountain chains. Then fortify bridges and passes. Defensible barriers equal defensible borders.
146. Combating unrest/rebellion: It's best applied on small/medium-sized towns (2 000 - 5 000 people) you conquer. If you don't slave or slaughter the population to be able to build some decent infrastructure to produce troops and to support your invasion, you may notice to your dislike that you don't have enough troops to control unrest (even with low taxes) or that you need them somewhere else. In that case there is an interesting solution: queue as much peasants as you can! As the population is discounted at the moment you order the unit and not when it is built, by ordering many units with a lot of soldiers on them you immediately reduce the population. This has two positive effects on morale, it reduces squalor and it increases the ration between your military force on the city and the total population. You can change to a great extent the morale of the city, making it stable enough with a few troops. The next turn you would also have a unit of 120 peasants (depends on configuration) and as the military presence on the city only takes into account the number of soldiers, not their strength, you will have a more quiet town and you would be able to un-queue some of the units ordered to allow the town to grow and allow you better structures to build. If you can later bring more troops to the city or improve their temples you can disband again the peasants to continue growing. On bigger cities the effect of a handful of peasants doesn't have such a great effect on the total population, so it usually would be less effective.
147. As the game move on and you start expanding your boarders your starting cities will become pretty safe from enemy invaders so no longer require anything better than peasants or town militia/watch. Start replacing, disbanding or relocating better troops to reduce your wage bill.
Economy
148. When starting out, concentrate on getting ports quickly, they seem to provide good bang for your buck.
149. In a similar vein be careful with farm upgrades, they are a good money maker but this must be balanced against the increase in growth, which can increase squalor if it gets out of control.
150. Don't build armies too fast, or you'll grow broke. Units all cost to upkeep.
151. Blockading ports vastly kills the enemy's ability to not only transport troops, but earn money to make those troops.
152. Later in the game, if your war chest is depleted - use one of your best generals and create a full army, and take a city by rampaging - massacre everybody and stay for just the one turn to retrain the troops. Next turn, destroy every building possible and move on- this generates quite a bit of money, and still weakens the enemy because only peasants appear in the city during a revolt. (This strategy is best used away from your borders, or there will be several large garrisons in the revolted cities, admittedly peasants, but nevertheless plentiful.) This also helps get whoever your warring with to ease up on besieging your outward towns because they tend to divert the armies back to protect the cities you're taking.
Battle Tactics
153. If you continue the battle (when it prompts you that you've won), then it's a chance for your generals to ramp up their attributes and command, by using the cavalry to run down your fleeing enemies. Keep it up and you'll get command and morale bonuses for your army. But, do it too much and your general will get a vice that says his men fear him and your morale will take a hit.
154. Legionnaires on defend will hold their ground against 95% of the units in the game. If you have your general behind the line, to the centre, they'll hold out against everything but elephants and repeated cavalry charges.
155. If you're attacked and you have an army of legionnaires and you can gain any high ground at all (especially at the very back of your deployment zone -- to wear-out the attackers as much as possible) you can hold off at least at a five-to-one army and watch as they rout. I've done this several times, very handy.
156. Retinue training cost reductions (from mercenary captains, master smiths, etc.) are stackable. Put a mercenary captain, a smith, and a drillmaster in your best troop production centre for a 30% discount on troops. All other retinue bonuses stack, too. So put traders in trade cities, doctors/herbalists with armies, etc.
157. Retinue members can be switched between family members. Keep one useless family member (that idiot your niece married, for example) and use him to transfer retinue guys. Load him up with people you want to move, and pick up/drop off various retinue folks as you travel through your territory. (It's a good idea to give the fool an escort so you don't lose all the retinue people if attacked.)
158. Hire two mercenary units and that general will pick up a mercenary captain for a 10% training cost decrease. So as soon as you get a general buy a couple of cheap mercenaries and you'll have the bonus for his whole life. It more than pays for itself.
159. Keep a small army of light cavalry - 3-5 units - and use them to snap up isolated enemy troops and petty rebellions. The AI always has a few isolated units wandering around and killing them before they can link up to form real armies takes a lot of pressure off of you. If you use all cavalry then they can't get away if you attack, you can always escape if they somehow get reinforced. (BTW this works well against any unit except maybe other cavalry if you face a unit or two of isolated hoplites just spread out and charge from several different directions. Stop the unit that the hoplites are facing before they make contact and the rest will smash them from the rear and flanks before they can react.)
160. One army of 1000 troops is usually better than five armies of 200. With 1000 men you can outnumber the enemy and advance settlement by settlement.
161. If the enemy has a lot of peasants, target them first rather than his elite units. Large numbers of peasants fleeing do nothing for the enemy's morale.
162. NEVER trust the computer with one of your precious armies, the AI cannot match a human mind (well, there may be a few exceptions), and tends to do stupid things with your most expensive troops. Such as charge phalanxes with your elephants, or stand your urban cohort near a Cretan archer unit for the whole battle... I once had a huge battle where I was controlling my general and my reinforcements were controlled by my faction heir. The computer charged my faction heir into the middle of our engaged lines where he was quickly surrounded and cut down. 7 star general and heir out the window...
163. If you want more than a single line of troops (and you should), then deploy your reserves behind the flanks rather than behind the centre. The flanks are more likely to buckle and are more dangerous to you when they do.
164. When the enemy has reinforcements, there's no time to waste with skirmishing or waiting for them to attack - destroy the enemy armies one by one. If they're bringing in reinforcements it's probably because the army itself is much weaker. Charge them and obliterate them before the reinforcements to get there - sometimes the reinforcements withdraw, but if they don't get ready to fight them as well. Waiting will get you pinned between them, which is never good.
165. When the enemy is pinned, or refusing to move and the timer is still brimming with sand, give your men a breather. Exhausted troops fight like they are old men with arthritis; rest your troops and they will fight all the more ferociously.
166. To a skilled commander, sandstorms are a good friend. When the enemies run about like headless chickens, you can locate, concentrate and annihilate.
167. Remember the difficulties in getting units to do exactly what you want? When you’ve made the impact on one unit and want to move to the next, use a move order and not an attack. If you tell it to attack the other unit normally then they will carry on killing the closest one to them whereas if you use a move order they follow your commands better and move to exactly where you want them, then tell them to attack. This gives you better control over what your units do and also works with retreating units that have done their job or are about to get destroyed. Tell them to move to a point directly backwards from where they charged, then after they’ve got out of the way; tell them to run back behind your lines through the safest route possible. If you just click on the end destination they might try and find a way out directly through the enemy and end up getting slaughtered.
168. The Throw-Away-Army. Try this for MASSIVE & CHEAP damage to an enemy with elite units. Train 10 Peasants and 10 Peltasts (javelin-men of any kind). Move in [shift-6] formation with peasants directly in front. Run your men at the enemy as fast as possible, tire them out all the way, it doesn't matter; just engage the enemy line as fast as you can with your peasants, as soon as they're fully engaged with the enemy start bombarding with javelins. You will cause MASSIVE casualties to their elite units, for whatever reason (possibly realism) when enemies are engaged in melee, they get killed by javelin fire easily. You will lose the front line of peasants in every single battle, but you can almost ALWAYS run your Peltasts off the map before any can get killed. Add a few cheap new units of Peasants RINSE and REPEAT. I've been able to attack an army of Legionaries or Armoured hoplites. Inflict nearly a thousand casualties without losing anything more than worthless peasantry. Peltasts are always cheap and every faction has them – therefore this is a universal strategy.
169. Its rather obvious, but you can see the upgrades of enemy units in battle. Each small square flag represents an upgrade. Noticing that the unit of Spartan hoplites you are about to engage has golden weapon upgrades may make you think twice about getting cut to pieces by them in combat and instead bring up a missile unit to shoot them to death instead.
170. If a fleet goes into the Straits of Corinth and is attacked and defeated it will be destroyed (since it can't retreat). If you keep a powerful fleet close to Corinth you can smash smaller fleets when they blunder into the straight, then slip away so nobody can trap you there.
171. If you're getting you backside kicked on the sea, shelter your small navies beside larger allies’ navies.
172. Navies are forces unto themselves, by a clever manoeuvre with combined armies and navies you can bring a vastly superior foe to his knees.
Multiplayer
173. If you play defensive, (as in not charging the enemy straight away, this is best with phalanxes of course) it could be a good to have a couple of onagers. Not only do they cause casualties, but force the enemy into charging you – and as you are playing defensive, this is what you want the enemy to do.
174. Remember the differences between the AI and a human, a human can only do one thing at a time and see one place at a time, think where he has his camera and attention focussed, get his attention to that point, then work around where he is not looking, many people can fail to see cavalry units moving right around the edge of the map behind them, because instead of looking at the edge of the map they’re focusing on what you are doing, for example, detaching some missile troops on flank to fire at his general. If they do notice what you are planning then you again know where their camera is. This would be the time to unleash that cavalry unit you have hidden behind those missile units and cut down his general. He may have defeated your cavalry flanking manoeuvre, but the rest of his army is now fleeing. But also be acutely aware that you only have one camera – he could be doing the exact same to you.
175. If you are in a game with allies don’t be afraid to help them if you have any spare units and the enemy is not doing anything, such as charging you. If you can defeat one of your opponents in detail by combining your forces before the other enemy opponent can engage you, then you have just massively increased your odds of winning. Armies that fight together are victorious together. An army that fights alone dies alone.
Cheats
176. This is more a trick than a tip, but you can use it if you want.
Every time you save the internal random variables the game uses seems to change. So if you face some important random event, such a naval battle or an assassination attempt you can do the following: Quick save before the event and try what happens. If you don't like the result load again and then quick save again and try the event again. You can repeat as much as you want until you get a correct result. If you quick save every time, the random event will change when you try it again. Take into account that miracles don't usually happen, no matter the number of times you try.
Don't abuse this trick, it could make the game less challenging and fun, but can be handy on critical situations or after some nonsense events, such as when your 10 ship fleet is beaten by only one small ship or your faction leader dies from old age when he is 32.
177. Remove the Phalanx Gap
If you haven't gotten a chance to edit the formations.txt file you really should, especially for the chance to see a whole army form a solid-line phalanx. The little gaps really screw up everything, plus it’s historically accurate to form a solid wall of spears.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, there's a spot in the formations text file under each formation (you know the shift-1,2,3,4 formations?) and it says something like initial unit spacing 2.0 and that stands for 2 paces away. Change it to 0.0 and that 61st guy has to hold up an entire row himself if that's the kind of unit it is (some are 60 or 40 without that 61st or 41st guy holding the flag in which case you want a 0.0 there) change it to -1.0 for groups with a 61st flagman and the phalanx rows touch with him inside of the next row, but with spear lines perfectly touching. Change it to -2.0 and each phalanx shares one line of men inside their formation, at -3.0 they share 2 lines of men and so on and so forth.
It doesn't affect everything, just those units that you group and then select shift-# formation on, so you could do what I did and make 0.0 and-1.0 formations for shift-1 and shift-2 respectively for when you're dealing with groups that have an annoying flagman. Makes setting up those SQUARE phalanx formations really easy as you can stretch multiple groups at once to make the sides without leaving any gaps. I don’t know how I lived before fixing the gap.
178. With a unit highlighted:
Press Control + to instantly promote him
Press shift ] to increase his strength by 0.2
While in the city screen:
Press Shift + and your population will increase by one
Press Ctrl + to add 10 culture to your city
Press + to finish whatever you’re constructing
With nothing highlighted:
Ctrl 4 increase gold by 1000
Ctrl + shift + left mouse button creates a city where-ever you mouse is pointing
Press + instantly research tech
Other cheats commands which can be used by pressing "~" and typing the following in the command box:
(The actual command is in italics)
Display all console window command lines - help
Rebuild city indicated number of times - Profile.rebuildCity [x coordinate=""] [y coordinate=""] [integer]
Rebuild plot indicated number of times - Profile.rebuildPlot [x coordinate=""] [y coordinate=""] [integer]
Replot Goodies - Map.generateGoodies
Replot Bonuses - Map.generateBonuses
Replot Features - Map.generateFeatures
Replot Rivers - Map.generateRivers
Erase Rivers, Features, Bonuses and Goodies - Map.eraseGameElements
Replace Rivers, Features, Bonuses and Goodies - Map.replaceGameElements
Change the active landscape info - Map.setActiveLandscapeID [landscape number=""]
Erase all plots - Map.erasePlots
Change players gold. (0 is active player) - Player.changeGold [player number=""] [value]
Set players gold (0 is active player) - Player.setGold [player number=""] [value]
Food
179. When playing a campaign on RTW for a long amount of time remember to eat regularly, every five hours or so. Not exactly a trick, but you concentration wanders when you're hungry. Then you just may not notice those units of Companion cavalry sneaking around your flank.
Plus it's healthier! As long as said food isn't a microwave burrito...
Credits
My utmost thanks to the creators of this fountain of forbidden knowledge...
Amirsan, Quillo, Marcus Aurelius, Tyven, Marathon101, Hateful Emperor, Deadcell87, King Oroles, THARN, Yamainu, GC1CEO, Claudio, Bthizle1, Leuk, Horsearcher, Lord Kal, Razor1952, Stevesb52, TigerVX, Corporal Hicks, MattyB2, Legionnaire, Therussian, UhohOreoSeleucid, Achilles, Cemendur, Dedeee, Shadowcrawler, Violent Tuesday, Bigguss dickuss, DavetheBrave, ZZR Puig, Seleucus I Nicator, Captain of Osgiliath, AngryPo, Jake, BrokenChild, Balbor, jamie16uk, Laurence of Arabia, ModderWannabe, The-General, King-Arthur2, TheBladeRoden, Spartacus the slightly bemused, Comrade, Evil_Maniac From Mars, Breetai, Matticus_maximus, Quietus, Fatsheep, Lodr Bob, Eeksharks, Harmony, Legion Commander, CNSW, You Know Who, Maximus Velascus, Venusius, JoMo.
A special thanks to Penguinraider for fixing countless horrific and obscure grammatical atrocities as well as multitudes of various spelling evils. And having such a cool nom de guerre.
And of course myself, Spartacus the Irish, for gathering the whole mess together from the (now-defunct) SCC Forums and throwing it on a single page.
Enjoy responsibly. Knowledge is power...
Originally Posted by irelandeb
Reply With Quote
