I am playing for the first time in a long time

[stupiddk]

I just bought the RTW Gold off of Steam and was preparing to begin my campaigns with RTW again. I am a fan of in game battles that are tactical, slow, and most important of all...Decisive. I need a mod that aims to make the BIG battle, the deciding battle. I am not a fan at all of grinding battle after battle. Is this the mod for me?

[High Chunker Greens]

Yes, but in the install make sure you only put 1 turn recruitment otherwise the AI will steamroll you with too many stacks and it gets really annoying after that happens. Thats just my opinion though

[Tesla]

yes you should definetely check 'one turn' recruitment then

[Brusilov]

To be honest the only way that you can tell if this mod is for you is to play several long campaigns and make up your own mind. There are always many different facets to different mods - it's up to the individual to find out which suits them best.

I'd suggest playing several different factions as well as not all factions play the same. Maybe a Roman campaign, a barbarian campaign and a Greek style campaign?

[Walkers_Shade]

I'd play through Vanilla first and then try this one out so you can really see the improvements.

And am I the ONLY person who likes 0-Turn recruitment? It just seem unrealistic that you can only recruit 60 or so people in half a year. But it is true that the AI pulls out tons of troops early on but it's funner that way with the right faction.

[DoogansQuest]

I'd play through Vanilla first and then try this one out so you can really see the improvements.

And am I the ONLY person who likes 0-Turn recruitment? It just seem unrealistic that you can only recruit 60 or so people in half a year. But it is true that the AI pulls out tons of troops early on but it's funner that way with the right faction.

It seems far, far more unrealistic that every faction can have thousands of troops piling up at your doorstep every six months too. A seemingly unlimited supply of population, arms, and armor. That doesn't reflect the times or the disparities between the nations of the day at all. I guess if we're going to wax the realism argument, the 0-turn probably fails in far more departments than the 1-turn, short of the 6 month thing.

Also, isn't there a way to change from 0 to 1-turn and back after you've installed the mod? If so, that could be a good way for someone new, or tired of playing a certain way to change it up a bit.

[Brusilov]

Also, isn't there a way to change from 0 to 1-turn and back after you've installed the mod? If so, that could be a good way for someone new, or tired of playing a certain way to change it up a bit.

I don't have RS1.6 on this PC (I had it on the newer one that is going back to manufacturer again) but in RS1.5 there was an 'important stuff' folder in the data folder. In it was some bat files that could be run to change from 0-turn to 1-turn or the other way around (one bat file for each direction).

There was also the files that were needed for either and they could simply be copied to the right part in your RS game folder.

I've read somewhere that you can change this mid-campaign. The suggestion was to make sure that there was nothing in your build queues (obviously the AI could have something in their queues). However, if I was going to change I'd start a new campaign.

[stupiddk]

I need to get back in the R:TW campaign and play a couple, your right.

[Brusilov]

I need to get back in the R:TW campaign and play a couple, your right.

No I mean try a few different factions in RS before you decide if it's the mod for you.

I've only played vanilla RTW once since I started to use mods. I've yet to see a mod that didn't improve something in the vanilla game.

With the 0-turn or 1-turn it depends upon your style of gameplay. If you like having lots of battles with multiple armies involved each time then 0-turn is for you. Personally, I've seen the AI take control of my second army and run the archers straight into an opponents phalanx without firing any arrows. So, it's 1-turn for me.

If you do let the AI take control of an army I'd suggest that you make it infantry heavy with some cavalry.....

[Alavaria]

I like it. It's good for some factions that don't know when to give up (etc Romans). That said, I feel like a decisive battle ... well, it's a campaign not a single battle. If it was truly decisive on a campaign, then you're basically going to snowball etc and then the next poor faction will be totally roadrolled etc etc and the campaign gets kinda boring. The opposite isn't so true as the AI hardly ever properly exploits its advantages. And when you grow large enough, losing a stack or two isn't troublesome if you have several settlements all recruiting at the same time ...

If you can break the AI's main stack on a 1-turn, then its vulnerable to simply being blitzed to death before ever putting together anything that could stop you. You best bet is basically to find the biggest faction you can and om nom nom it to death (my usual Strategy in Chiv, which is 1-turn). The AI might have 20 settlements, but recruiting 20 units a turn and putting them into a single stack is beyond it, whereas the player can easily do this.

[cherryfunk]

I just bought the RTW Gold off of Steam and was preparing to begin my campaigns with RTW again. I am a fan of in game battles that are tactical, slow, and most important of all...Decisive. I need a mod that aims to make the BIG battle, the deciding battle. I am not a fan at all of grinding battle after battle. Is this the mod for me?

I agree completely, and luckily dvk has always made sure there's a 1-turn recruitment version of Roma Surrectum -- even though he's one of those twitchy 0-turn players himself .

[dvk901]

I agree completely, and luckily dvk has always made sure there's a 1-turn recruitment version of Roma Surrectum -- even though he's one of those twitchy 0-turn players himself .

Twitchy? At least I'm AWAKE when I'm playing. LOL

But seriously, to the guy who started this thread, and everyone else.....like Brusilov says, play it and then make up your mind. With the easy ability to have multiple installs of RTW and as many mods as your hard drive can hold, it's a shame not to try a lot of mods and experience the ideas and concepts of everyone on this great site. I'm pretty sure that at one time or another, I've tried every mod here. They range from relatively easy to incredibly hard. They are all creative and interesting in some way. And most of all, some ONE or a team of someone's put a lot of work and thought into them. There are few games you can buy, and have so many different 'interpretations' of it to play all for free.

So the question isn't: "Should I try this mod (or another)?"
It's, "Why haven't you tried them all?"

[Alavaria]

Still little point, as no matter what the AI seems to want to run everyone to the enemy regardless, and will screw you up.

I just rely on the one stack, and if necessary allow the reinforcements to trickle in or regroup. If the AI is coming at me, then I generally position myself near where the reinforcements come in, and that's good enough.

[Alavaria]

Actually, the thing is that after Cannae, Rome was able to raise 2 legions in two weeks or something by levying them. Those guys were hardcore.

However, ideally we'd like the production of stacks to be somewhat staggered. However, 1-turn means it'll be slow to make anything, ie: no more "levy" mechanic. 0-turn means you can forever be "levying" until you literally run out of people (from a city like Rome or Syracuse, that'll take a while ...).

That, combined with RS1.6's "unit-you-can-recruit-anywhere" mechanic means that human wave tactics are really very effective, as long as you continually take settlements, since the moment you do so, all those people can fuel another stack or two.

Its only made worse by the fact you can't have 1/3-turn, ie: only recruit 3 a turn. It's either 1-a-turn or 9-a-turn. Even the Romans will crumble if you can afford to throw away 9 units of militia hoplites at them a turn. Its worse if your commander has stacked BattleSurgery, as you can lose 9 units but get back enough men to reconstitute 5 of them in healing.

I should note though, that even in 1turn, you can still have 9 units of hoplites per turn, if you have 9 settlements and constantly stream units to the front - such that you have 9 streams each with a unit arriving per turn. That said, imagine what you can do on 0-turn with say 3 settlements ... 27 units per turn. Of course the costs are high, but if you have an economy that can handle it (compare to the cost of some of the larger buildings, it isn't so massive really, 12150 a turn).

I have literally pulled down a roman stack in a settlement by having a "regular" full stack and two reinforcement stacks full of nothing but militia hoplites. Each roman killed like 1.5 hoplites on average, but I healed back so many ... (I also was abusing archer tricks, though). I only used up about a stack worth (half a stack of militia is in my "regular" army - though I "lost" about 1.5 stacks. Remember, you can only make full use of BattleSurgery if people die >__>

[DoogansQuest]

Actually, the thing is that after Cannae, Rome was able to raise 2 legions in two weeks or something by levying them. Those guys were hardcore.

However, ideally we'd like the production of stacks to be somewhat staggered. However, 1-turn means it'll be slow to make anything, ie: no more "levy" mechanic. 0-turn means you can forever be "levying" until you literally run out of people (from a city like Rome or Syracuse, that'll take a while ...).

That, combined with RS1.6's "unit-you-can-recruit-anywhere" mechanic means that human wave tactics are really very effective, as long as you continually take settlements, since the moment you do so, all those people can fuel another stack or two.

Its only made worse by the fact you can't have 1/3-turn, ie: only recruit 3 a turn. It's either 1-a-turn or 9-a-turn. Even the Romans will crumble if you can afford to throw away 9 units of militia hoplites at them a turn. Its worse if your commander has stacked BattleSurgery, as you can lose 9 units but get back enough men to reconstitute 5 of them in healing.

I should note though, that even in 1turn, you can still have 9 units of hoplites per turn, if you have 9 settlements and constantly stream units to the front - such that you have 9 streams each with a unit arriving per turn. That said, imagine what you can do on 0-turn with say 3 settlements ... 27 units per turn. Of course the costs are high, but if you have an economy that can handle it (compare to the cost of some of the larger buildings, it isn't so massive really) ...

Yeah...that.

If only CA would let the RS team crack the hard coded elements. *sigh*

[Alavaria]

If only it could take fractions, eh? Like if you had a unit that needed 0.33 turns, you could recruit 3 a turn, but no more. I suppose they wanted a simple "count down 1 a turn" and couldn't be bothered to make it robust to decimals/fractions.

It would be kind of simple, eg: check

Unit 1 -> 0.33
Unit 2 -> 0.66 (adds up to I mean)
Unit 3 -> 0.99
Unit 4 -> 1.00 + 0.32

As a result, you'd have 3 units and be 1/33 done on the fourth.

But I guess they just wanted nice integer counters.

[SimpleCourage47]

I just bought the RTW Gold off of Steam and was preparing to begin my campaigns with RTW again. I am a fan of in game battles that are tactical, slow, and most important of all...Decisive. I need a mod that aims to make the BIG battle, the deciding battle. I am not a fan at all of grinding battle after battle. Is this the mod for me?

Definitely try RS for this, also try Europa Barbarorum, its a lot slower pace campaign wise and alot harder battle wise. In EB battles are decisive due to the fact its so expensive to create a large army you will have to make the most of it. EB is historical and very good. RS is also historical in general but faster paced and focused on large scale battles so depends on what your looking for Also try SPQR.

[dvk901]

Technically, the mechanics of 0-turn and 1-turn play are basically, IMHO, a mindset derived from how you perceive the times, what the challenge is for you (and whether it's enough), and how good your imagination is....as well as, of course, what you feel comfortable playing.

For some players, they 'imagine' their army to be massively larger than it is, facing a massively like army than it really is, in a battle that has great significance because if you lose...you just lost a considerable part of your military. (1-turn)

For others, the whole game is just a battle...they don't care much about anything as long as they have money and units. They want 'take over stuff', kill their enemies, and win. Probably more of a 0-turn player.

For still others, the 0-turn feature offers a more numerically accurate simulation of war, and a kind of 'fight to the death' mentality that is very intense and often nearly overwhelming. You get a sense in such a style that maybe you are going to lose because your enemies are just so numerous! In RS1.5, I once had a campaign where I fought 4 or 5 battles in a row with full stack Germanic armies. This was no less a 'key' battle than it would've been in 1-turn play, because the Legion I had there was the ONLY one guarding that area, and several 'nude' settlements that would've been up for grabs. Even with 0-turn, it would've been hard to defend them against such an overwhelming invasion of the Germans. But you see, I saw this a ONE battle, not 5 of them. So what I'm saying is that 0-turn just takes the numbers and the intensity to a different level. There is no difference in the conclusions.

For RS2, I'll readily admit we are trying hard to create a 0-turn mod that plays a little less hectic than RS1.6 does. Thus, a lot of work on economics to limit what you (and the AI) can do. But, we're making a 1-turn option as well. So we'll have the bases covered.

I myself am kind of a 'hybrid' 0-turn player. I like to micro-manage, ponder situations, think through my moves, expand carefully and slowly....and I tend to play very defensively. And I don't really 'use' 0-turn play to the advantage that some people do.....unless I'm being swamped by an attacker. I just like the 'opportunity', when it's necessary, to be able to recruit a crapload of units in a hurry if I have to, and I love the challenge of fighting off numerically superior forces.

[stupiddk]

I have the Steam RTW Gold. Is it possible to have multiple mods on one game? Excuse my ignorance

[Alavaria]

I myself am kind of a 'hybrid' 0-turn player. I like to micro-manage, ponder situations, think through my moves, expand carefully and slowly....and I tend to play very defensively. And I don't really 'use' 0-turn play to the advantage that some people do.....unless I'm being swamped by an attacker. I just like the 'opportunity', when it's necessary, to be able to recruit a crapload of units in a hurry if I have to, and I love the challenge of fighting off numerically superior forces.

I do all of those except expand slowly & play defensively. I expand carefully in terms of leaving forts/watchtowers and being sure that the AI isn't going to slip behind my spearhead ... though actually if it does it will run back to engage my main force and die.

Oddly enough, I never "hit" on the idea of doing so until 0-turn, but if you have a unit recruitable in many settlements at the same time (usually this would be some form of militia/levied unit) you can still use wave tactics. Because, yes, you can only recruit 1 unit per settlement per turn instead of 9. But the AI does too, and it finds is hard to organize 9 units from different settlements. As a result, you're more effective since you only need to "wave" once at their first few armies until they've exhausted their main forces. I tried to do this in Chiv before with armored spearmen. However, they're not good at killing at the heavy elites the AI was using, and they were not widely recruitable. I hadn't developed good tactics with ranged units, either - probably a decisive factor. It would probably work now with simple militia.

Yeah, 0-turn is really rather more representative of the "faction's last gasp" efforts. Seeing the last settlement of the AI train one unit of armored spearmen as my full stack comes down to crush it isn't as awesome as it putting together 9 units of men to try and hold that settlement.