Where should Rome go?

[CiusFortius]

So after my migration campaign failed due to CTD's I figured I'd finally try play the game as Rome. I have finished the game with many factions but never the Romans in Platinum/Gold.

Its Platinum RTR VH/VH. I have secured Sicily and Italy as well as the islands West of Italy and Malta and with a secure back have started pushing a little North into Gaulish territory. I've only gone as far as Patavium so far and am now trying to plot my next move.

What do you guys normally do with Rome?

I'm torn between a few options, namely:

1. Launch a strike on Southern Greece to try cut off the blasted Mac's before they becomes even more powerful as they are already steamrolling Northwards

2. Take out Gaul and then Spain perhaps

3. Take Africa from Carthage and then conintue into Spain/Gaul

4. Sit tight and see what happens next.

I hate having too many boarders with other factions so I try to take territory that can eventually be defended at a few choke points. Hence taking Africa, followed by Spain and Western Europe appeals to me as it leaves you strong unassailable land to your rear and a small border. If I do that however the Macedonians will be free to expand at will and probably will become highly irritating once they do share a border with me. On the other hand if I take them out I will be opening borders with all kinds of people creating multi fronted wars everywhere. Decisions decisions. If the Macedonians where not so predisposed to greatness the decision might have been easier but the last game I left them alone (I was Bactria) by the time I got to them I got sick of fighting 3-7 black stacks a turn. I guess another option is to just take Southern Greece from the Macs which should hamstring their economy and hold the choke point into there???

[despot_of_rhodes]

Trigger the Marian Reform asap and fight them then with professional legionaries. If you need financial boost go for Carthage City and North Africa - the trade and the population support for your troops can be quite usefull.

[fourganger]

You could always just attack Greece, destroy every building you get your hands on, and withdraw. Hurts Macedon, gives you tonnes of cash, and doesn't leave you with any messy borders. You can out that cash into a nice new army for invading Africa.

[CiusFortius]

Good point. In the end I have decided that I really want Africa, but can't leave Macedon alone. With that in mind I will do something about macedon immediately regardless.

I am thinking of invading Greece and holding the Southern richer parts, or sending in plagued spies or something to keep a perpetual dearth going on there. I will not move too far north to avoid getting a TSE border.

Second question. I am really finding it almost impossible to establish Naval dominance. On VH/VH I spend many turns building up a fleet consisting of 2-3 Quindremes, and perhaps 5-6 Triremes. I give them silver armour in Rome where I have a foundry and then have tiny but more experienced navies of Gaul and Carthage either defeat me or hand me a phyric victory every time I engage despite me outnumbering them by far. Is there a trick to this that I am not aware of? What do your fleets normally look like and how do you train them up as every engagement I find myself loosing 4 ships for every ship I sink.

[despot_of_rhodes]

From my experience you can use two "tricks" to hunt the rebells successfully:

1. Let them attack you, instead of attacking them.

2. If you attack, try to attack only fleets wich have depleted their movement points allready.

[CiusFortius]

Well, I am slowly moving Westward into Gaul and have taken 5 cities in Africa. When I sacked Carthage 30 000 where put to the sword! Did not know cities got that big. I was largely unopposed in Africa at first which I found odd but I now see that they had all their stacks in Spain I think as they have just killed the Spanish and are walking them back slowly. I sent a spy Westward in Africa and suddenly found 7 full stacks moving in. That resulted in a rapid recruiting spree in Italy to bring in re-enforcements. The Marian reforms happened the year I laid siege to Carthage itself so no retraining is possible of most of my men and I am slowly bringing in the Legions and merging all the old roman units. I am hoping to continue my expansion into Gaul and then Spain from my Northern campaign and am mostly sitting tight on Africa trying to hang on to what I have taken there against the massive waves of re-enforcements coming in. I am building towards provincial barracks in all those cities as fast as possible but in the meantime I can at least hire Numidian cavalry and Libyean spearmen to get some units. Many faction are dead including Illyria, Thrace, Iberia, and Numidia. There are others that are almost there as well. Macedon from the faction power chart is skyrocketing. I have a city with plague in Africa though so I am going to recruit as many spies as I can there and ship them over the Greece to create a second black death to slop down the Macs. There is no way that I could afford a war with Macedon right now with my hands being full with Gaul and Carthage.

One thing I noticed is that Legionaries are expensive! I made a full stack of them but that was about all I could afford! I am thinking of making mixed stacks instead that may have only 4-6 legionary units with plenty auxilla units to bolster numbers. Libyan phalanx spearmen hold a line nicely and with Legionaries to flank and plug gaps and Numidian javelin cavalry to flank with I suspect I can field more full stacks that way which will be more effective in the long run.

The naval battle is swinging my way slowly now. Once I learned that for the purposes of the engine only the first 4-5 boats are counted anyways offensively I just made smaller navies and attacked big and little ones. Sometimes I win, sometimes I loose, but in the end I am at least dominating slightly now in the areas I care about.