Campaign Strategy advice needed

[Total Roach]

As some of you may know already I'm a fairly slow player when it comes to the campaign map. I have a problem now in my current Rome campaign in that because it has taken me so long to advance to a certain point my nearest rivals have also developed larger empires. It seems to take me forever to build a stack take a city hold it then advance onto the next one. Money seems to be a huge problem as I try to keep all the towns happy and financially sound, it's not that I'm not making any, it's just that it never goes far enough. On top of that I'm always having to recruit extra units to counter an attack by an enemy instead of recruiting to advance myself.


So how do my fellow players that manage to get close to their victory conditions within 100 years do it? Do you have lots of small stacks running around? Do you not build certain things so you have more money to recruit? How do you go about securing towns and moving onto the next one so quickly, especially ones of a different culture?

[DimeBagHo]

If you prefer to play slow, then reduced AI bonuses is a good idea, if you aren't using it already.

In the early stages of a Roman campaign it's important to go where the money is. It's very easy to get drawn into long wars with the barbarians in the north, but that doesn't pay well. A good path is something like: Southern Italy > Northern Italy/Cisalpine Gaul > Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily > Carthage/North Africa > Greece. If you get a chance it's well worth picking off the other islands on the way. Capture the Balearic Islands before invading North Africa, and capture Crete before invading Greece, for example.

After that you should be set for money.

[Total Roach]

I have not got involved in Greece this time for 2 reasons; 1 the Indie Greeks are huge and have take over most of the area and it's taken me ages to subdue them in Emporion and Massila for which I also had to secure Spain and the Indie Gauls in Northern Italy. Here is the current situation, both Germania and Thrace are at war with me:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I am wondering whether I should be sending out armies with captains. The fact that I am reluctant to do so means I take too long to move off I'm sure. I have lost stacks to bribing before and which is why I never fight without a family member. Also subduing a conquered city is a lot harder without one.

Have finally got a ceasefire with IGCS, have legions nearly built so will be on the move soon.

Oh, and yeah I have the AI bonuses off for that very reason, I think a snail would beat me in a race

[DimeBagHo]

I would definitely go for Greece next, starting with Crete and then working up from south to north. You will find that the Greek regions are not that hard to convert and develop, and they are very profitable.

[Sextus Molestus]

If you're willing to break that ceasefire that you seem happy to have gotten, I'd suggest moving through Cyrene and into Egypt, because those lands are pretty rich. You shouldn't have a problem with culture penalty in those lands, if you take the pyramids, and they're Western Civilized so you don't have to worry about colonies either.

I personally play pretty quickly, but that's because I play with AI Bonuses off on E/E. But unless I'm mistaken, difficulty doesn't affect public order (does it?). What I normally do when I take a settlement is leave the capturing army in for usually just one turn while I recruit Vigiles/Doryphoroi to garrison it the next turn. After one unit is recruited, I will send the army out and leave the garrison unit in, and if public order is still horrendous, I'll leave the army in and wait for the second/third garrison unit to be trained. Moving armies out immediately can be dangerous in some cases, especially on higher difficulties where the enemy is more aggressive, but as long as you keep your invasions one-front invasions, it shouldn't be that much of a problem because the leaving army will be in the way of any enemies planning to take the undefended settlement (if that makes sense).

[Total Roach]

as long as you keep your invasions one-front invasions, it shouldn't be that much of a problem because the leaving army will be in the way of any enemies planning to take the undefended settlement (if that makes sense).

That's halve the problem, I do plan to only have 1 front invasions, but the AI always has other ideas and I also end up fighting on 3 or even 4

[Vae victis]

Wow, awesome screenshot. I love the minimap. I have not seen that much expansion by the inde greeks in any of the campaigns that I have played. Even thrace expanded pretty well.

In the campaigns I have played, money was also a problem. It helped me to have stacks placed where they could be used defensivly along a front, and then retrained quickly, before fighting any more battles. If you dont have the money for that, it looks like your in a good position to do some pre-emptive strikes on your neighbors. Get in, exterminate, garrison, and get out, without taking too many loses and without worrying about riots. I have held cities with only 20% public order. Go from city to city doing this and try to avoid fighting pitched battles and taking loses. Let the enemy armies chase you around as you capture their cities. Destroy the enemy barracks from the cities you take. If you get kicked out or besieged, at least you destroyed the barracks and prevented the enemy from recruiting. Hopefully this strategy can help you gain some cash, time, and maybe a few cities.

[Total Roach]

Wow, awesome screenshot. I love the minimap. I have not seen that much expansion by the inde greeks in any of the campaigns that I have played. Even thrace expanded pretty well.

In the campaigns I have played, money was also a problem. It helped me to have stacks placed where they could be used defensivly along a front, and then retrained quickly, before fighting any more battles. If you dont have the money for that, it looks like your in a good position to do some pre-emptive strikes on your neighbors. Get in, exterminate, garrison, and get out, without taking too many loses and without worrying about riots. I have held cities with only 20% public order. Go from city to city doing this and try to avoid fighting pitched battles and taking loses. Let the enemy armies chase you around as you capture their cities. Destroy the enemy barracks from the cities you take. If you get kicked out or besieged, at least you destroyed the barracks and prevented the enemy from recruiting. Hopefully this strategy can help you gain some cash, time, and maybe a few cities.

Good stuff, that's pretty much what I try and do. The main problem is how do you manage to get this done early game. It normally takes me 100 years or so of building up the economy and slow expansion so I can secure my borders and advance. Looking at some of the AARs and "how's your Empire" screens some players just seem to expand so fast and are on their way to victory before I'm even out of the starting block

[Vae victis]

I don't know how bad the raids from Germania have been, but from your screenshot, it looks like you could eliminate 3 of the 4 stacks that you have up by the alps. Put a half a stack with decent troops in both Mediolanium and Patavium. If Germania attacks one, counter-attack their siege with troops from the other. Then, after the battle, put the troops that moved, into the city they rescued, and move the troops from the rescued city into the empty city. Then retrain both stacks and repeat the process. If you switch the garrisons back and forth like this, you can free up stacks, or money, to be used in other areas.

[ImperatorHawk]

I like the Thrakian empire on mine they did that but the the Mac. went nuts and conquered the whole section from crete to the baltic

How do you take screenshots as I'v had RTW ages but i'm just getting into the mods etc.

[LucretiusTC]

How do you take screenshots as I'v had RTW ages but i'm just getting into the mods etc.

I think you could download this free program called Fraps 2.9.8 for the screenshots: http://www.fraps.com/download.php


Otherwise as a campaign strategy advice to this thread, I prefer to use just minimal garrisons e.g. a good Governor with two or three Vigiles should be enough, and if there are some yellow faces, it is not a problem yet. Instead of big garrisons, it is better to maintain kind of mobile field armies that take care of occasional local Rebels and defend the external borders.

Luc.

[Roman Warlord]

Love the indi greek expansion!

I would finish of the GCS quickly to get a good hold/easly defensible/money making position in greece.

Thrace will normally only attack one area at a time so you should be able to advance against them quickly without too much effort at times.