First Impressions

**TheBromgrev** · February 10, 2010, 11:24 PM

I've played R:TR for quite some time now, and a recent hard drive crash allowed me the chance to try R:TRER. Let me first say that I love the additions you guys have made. The map is much more detailed (not to mention "even" when it comes to terrain features), and the units perform more like I expected them to. For once, eastern Persia looks the way it really should (a desert), instead of the disjointed textures from R:TR. I also like your choice of farm textures, as opposed to the green "fuzz" from before.

FYI, my experiences are based on my current VH/M game as Parthia. First, I'm currently at the summer of 263, and finally finished off Bactria, as well as conquered Pakistan and eastern Persia, as well as started an offensive against Samartia. So far, Pontus is dead, Galatia started off well but is now a Greek Vassal, Macedonia is almost gone, Epirus died to Greece, and the Seleucids are dominating the Egyptians. Carthage took over Numidia's capital, but Numidia has 3 full stacks heading towards Carthage itself. Illyria has 2 settlements left (Greece and Gaul attacked them), and it seems like Rome and the Germans are doing the best, aside from the Seleucids.

Overall, the Egyptians and Macedonians are perhaps too weak, while Armenia (ranked #4 overall in my game) is too strong.

A question I have is what is considered a "balanced" Roman stack in this mod? In the past, my Roman stacks consisted of 4 Hastati and Principe, 3 Triarii and Velite, 1 general, 2 Equite, 1 long-range unit (siege weapon or slinger) and 2 local auxiliaries. Since this mod favors smaller stacks, what is considered a "balanced" army?

**Quinn Inuit** · February 11, 2010, 07:56 PM

I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. I spent hours fixing up the eastern end of the map, and the tiles are Marcus Camillus's personal mix.

It's interesting that the Egyptians are too weak in your game. They're usually pretty tough.

Macedon is an interesting case, and I should probably document this better in the game. The reason they're so weak is that they start with only Antigonas's possessions in the south. When the game starts, Ptolemy Keraunos controls Macedon proper. The Macedonian faction needs to reconquer that area. The next version will replicate the situation a little better by dropping a Galatian horde on Macedonia, too, which will weaken PK's rebel forces and make it easier for the Macs to reconquer the area.

I think the problem with Armenia is that I've overdeveloped it. (Caligula Caesar thinks it should only start with one region, but I really think that area's large enough that it needs two.) I think I'll scale back the development of Van and see if that slows them down.

I recommend reading the Guide to Conduct Becoming a True Roman, which is included in the Docs section. It has a lot of info on how to play Rome historically. To quickly answer your question, though, here's what I would use to put together a single Polybian legion:
1 velite
1 Italic skirmisher
1 hastati
1 Etruscan spearmen, Samnite LI, or Marsi spearmen
1 principes
1 Etruscan or Picene hoplite, Marsi heavy spearmen, or Samnite HI
1 triarii
1 general with "legate" status
1 equites, Italic cavalry, or general with "tribune" status

**TheBromgrev** · February 13, 2010, 05:35 PM

Thanks for the reply and +rep to yourself and Marcus Camillus. Your effort on the eastern portion of the map shows, as it is much better than the previous version.

The Egyptians normally are pretty tough, but what I think happened during this particular game is that the Galatians took over all of western Anatolia before being beaten back by the Greeks. Perhaps the loss of those provinces happened to hurt the Egyptians too much. Right now they've been pushed back to Gaza and have about 2 full-stacks around there to the Seleucids 4 (which explains why they let me roam around the eastern part of the map). Egypt also has a half-stack in Crete and has lost Cyprus. I'll start a few more games to see what happens. It's only a problem if the results are consistent.

As for Armenia, I was surprised at how well they're doing, considering in R:TR and vanilla they normally just sit around doing nothing. They've taken all of their surrounding settlements and then wiped out Pontus. Perhaps adding a larger garrison to their surrounding settlements or beefing up Pontus slightly (add an extra starting market or farm) would slow them down?

That makes sense about Macedon. I'm used to trying to spam full-stacks every turn as Rome in order to compete with them and was a little surprised at how poorly they fared. Now it turns out that my issue was due to my experiences of how they are portrayed in vanilla and R:TR.

One thing I noticed was how fertile the eastern portion of the map is. It seems like every farm-able desert tile is High Fertility. Should that be set to low? I also noticed that the Karakum Desert regions are covered by farms. Should this area be more desolate?

**Quinn Inuit** · February 14, 2010, 05:02 PM