I'm at war with the world...

[Starship Trooper]

Thats the way it must be
I'll fight while I can
To put an end to this misery

That was for any old timers like me who might remember way back when Foreigner released their first album, 1977, sheez I'm getting old!

Anyway I haven' t played a SPQR campaign since 6.4, I'm a ways into 7.0 campaign and I'm really wondering if I have the energy to finish it. Gaul and Germania seem to be able generate endless armies that keep my Northern provinces under constant attack. It was fun for a while but it's beginning to feel like Space Invaders at this point.

Since the game is set to be at war with everyone from the outset I'm assuming diplomacy is worthless? I realize that diplomacy has always been a weak spot in the game but it did work occasionally. I remember a few cease fires that saved me from the brink of disaster, it was like winning a heroic victory. I enjoyed the intrigue and setting up trade with neighboring empires. Now it's just wave after wave of bad guys. I realize this is supposed to be a challenging mod, but the natural ebb and flow of the campaign is missing and for me seems to take away from the enjoyment.

I enjoyed the epic battles of 6.4 but I also enjoyed the other facets, 7.0 seems to have really the changed the flavor of the game for me. I realize that mods can't be all things to all people but just thought I'd put it out there FWIW (not much I know).

Cheers,

Mike

[lt1956]

The Barbarians should be a neverending wave of flesh until conquered. This was the case for Rome, they NEVER could rest until those regions were conquered. The way to do those campaigns is exactly how Rome did, Send in 3-6 legions with Auxilia Legions and start a campaign to TAKE ALL of the provinces, yes it will take some time and you may need to hold other areas just like Rome, but in the end it will work, if you sit back and do nothing they will continue to attack. One way to get a break is have ENOUGH legions on the borders, basically if you only have 2-3 legions they AI will consider you weak and keep attacking you. Although it looks like ENDLESS waves its not, the AI can only build SO many armies before not being able to build more because of money. This will allow a sorta peace to form "IF" You keep a strong border just like Rome did. this is why ROME could not send 12 legions to Parthia etc. They couldnt PULL them from the Frontiers, and is the reason they used auxilia and mercs.

Adjust your play style and read the threads on advice and tactics, you will find the game will be more challenging, IF you still dont TAKE A BREAK, let a few weeks pass, you will find when you come back your ready for MORE and what is great about this is you are still working on your campaign. Sometimes because of the level of play required to advance, player suffer burnout, just like soldiers for battle fatigue. Sometimes its best to take a break, only the children hav short attention spans which require the 1:15 hour movies you see today. ;-)

[czePowerslave]

Yup, I just checked today, my savegame is from 22.2 this year but im prepping to play again!
And wee wee, it aint endless, just neverending There are many posts regarding this, read tactics, read the guides, if you want, there is a force diplomacy script, its not really a fair thing, but I think it can save some ppl from crying

[Ejergard]

I also notice that since I've started conquering a few of the towns bordering me, they are all out of population!
This is one side of it aswell, even though your enemies have money (Greeks in my campaign have close to 2 million), there is a limited amount of population to recruit soldiers from.
When I took Salona from the greeks, it had a mere population of 400, even though I only enslaved it when conquering! This will give you a few turns of peace inbetween...

[68 Powers]

get some mg42s and mow em down. thats what i do.

[Starship Trooper]

I don't think it's so much as a matter of my tactics. The plan was always to recruit legions to push North and West and take some heat off my "core" cities. The problem is Genua, Medialolanum and Patavium need constant protection, in some cases there's a siege every turn so there's not even a chance to retrain the garrison. This causes me to divert legions that I had earmarked for offensive actions to keeping these cities out of barbarian hands. After a 3 or 4 turns of constant defensive battles my legions need to be sent to the rear for retraining so I'm stuck in a vicious cycle. I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably only an average player though, on some occassions I'm able to destroy 2000 man barbarian armies with fairly light losses (100-200) but sometimes I take a beating and after a few turns you find yourself at 1/2 strength which for me is a disaster if I get attacked by more than one stack.

Anyway, the post was not meant to be whining or crying, just an observation that for me the character of the game has changed from 6.4 to 7.0. Still a great mod but maybe not for the one for me anymore.

[Raglan]

you need to reinforce the boaders if you have 3 legions and are getting constantly attacked try placing 4 or 5 on the borders and you should notice the difference

on the other hand if you prefer 6.4 then go and play 6.4, the download is included in the 'storage room' (sticky)
i know that several people play 6.4 still - either because they prefer it or they got into their campaign and didn't want to start again (cze are you still 6.4?)

[Samariten]

Me myself is a defensive player i like to build build and build and stack up legions and plan my invasions carefully and take alot of time to plan. But in 7.0 you really have to focus alot on the gaulish invasion and push them back and take their regions early on ingame. As i notice its only the first turns that contain really nice mix of barbarians with choosen swordsmen and so on. After beating them their other newly created stacks mostly contain regular spearmen which are easy defeated and they often mass route. With the gaulish threat taken care of you gain more air to breathe which i like so i can continue to ummm build...

[Raglan]

no after a while they build the buildings needed to invade with decent troops - in my last campaign i got to about 190BC and whenever they decided to attack i could garentee that there would be a few chosen swordsmen, heavy spear and at least two units of noble cavalry, all backed up by forester warbands - quite tough once your legion starts getting depleated

[Starship Trooper]

no after a while they build the buildings needed to invade with decent troops - in my last campaign i got to about 190BC and whenever they decided to attack i could garentee that there would be a few chosen swordsmen, heavy spear and at least two units of noble cavalry, all backed up by forester warbands - quite tough once your legion starts getting depleated

That's exactly what I'm suffering from. Their armies are now composed of primarily of high quality troops. I finally managed to build a stone wall in Mediolanum and had a garrison of 1500 Hastati and Town Watch. I thought this would slow them down, not even close. Pretty much just shrugged off the defenders on the walls (which is the first time I've seen an attacking force man handle defenders on a wall like this).

I only managed to retain the city due to the cheesy tactic of my General running around the town square, which I hate to do but didn't want to lose the city. All for naught though I think, since it's under siege again and the garrison did not have time to be fully retrained.

At this point amassing any offensive force to push into Gallic lands seems unlikely since they're now travelling down further South to take a stab at Arretium and Arrimiunium. I've tried to do it on a few occasions but inevitably my Legions wind up doing garrison duty or parked near cities to help stave off sieges.

[GaussSoldier]

It sounds to me like you're still in the starting years of the campaign. Those years were full of defensive actions for me. Every turn I faced huge stacks coming from the north. Battle after bloody battle of heavy casualties. To stem the tide I had to rotate fresh legions in while the previous force retreated to recoup. It wasn't until I made enough money to double my legion count and pinpoint the Gauls' routes of attack that I was able to actually push farther north to the Alps where I blocked off every road north with two legions each. Genua, Darantasia, Medionlanum, and Patavium were my border cities and 3 of them still are. As I moved to Sicily and Spain, those borders were still being attacked on a constant basis. And now, as I plan for the invasion of Carthage, stacks of Gauls and Germans are flooding the borders like rivers. I see it to be the case for a long while.

What I'm trying to say is, it's going to be rough like this for a while. You have to hunker down and let your armies and economy build. Devote your legions to defense for the moment and let them take the beating. The more legions you have on the borders, the less likely you're to be attacked so frequently as the enemy will have to build up their forces to where they're confident enough to take you on. Once you've gotten to the point that expansion won't kill you, you then have a choice to make. Which is the bigger threat: The need to invade Spain for those juicy mines? Big bad barbarians coming down to smash your face in? or is it the Greeks with their crazy expansionist ways?

SPQR has always been a defensive game for me. Patience and planning will win the day.

[sobrien]

I basically mastered the opening 10 turns or so I generally capture sicily in less than 15 turns afterwords I turn to the gallic threat and plan to invade spain

[Raglan]

taking sicily in 15 turns is quite quick, you must of focused on military thus leaving your economy a little lacking

take a few turns breathing space to build your roads and traders, then use that money to supply reinforcements to the north, once you do that you should notice a slowing down of attacks (every other turn rather than every turn - lol)

[sobrien]

well what I do is defeat hannibal and the other guy then retrain the hastati then take the 2 legions and immediately invade sicily defeat the greek's spartans take the northern greek city then take the southern greek city, then retrain my principes and triarii and principes the fight carthage. Afterwards I take the 2 legions to the north to fight the gauls. So I really dont have to spend that much on military to do it.

[Starship Trooper]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'm at about 186 BC at the moment, I haven't given up yet. Looking back in retrospect I think I should have taken Sicily immediately, that would have provided a somewhat safe haven for economics and troop building. Carthage and Greece have been beating each other up there pretty good so I think it's do-able to take it right now, assuming I can get some breathing room on the Northern frontier.

[czePowerslave]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I'm at about 186 BC at the moment, I haven't given up yet. Looking back in retrospect I think I should have taken Sicily immediately, that would have provided a somewhat safe haven for economics and troop building. Carthage and Greece have been beating each other up there pretty good so I think it's do-able to take it right now, assuming I can get some breathing room on the Northern frontier.

Be happy taht they do beat each other. In my campaign, everybody is beating me.

[Samariten]

Dont worry you dont really have to take Sicily in the start to get by i always loose my settlement there and generally focus on the north with a strong economy..