ExRM Gameplay Knowledge Sharing Thread

[shadowdrummer46]

This is an attempt to gather a collection of knowledge, tips, explanations, ect., for all levels of experience.

I hope any ExRM players, new or old, will stop by to ask and answer questions, leave advice, and generally share knowledge regarding the game and gameplay. Ultimately making it a better experience for all of us.

This is a pretty new thread so most of the questions are mine (until others submit some), but the answers and tips are provided by others. As you can see, credit is given to the source.

Below Are Previously answered questions.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

What is the reason behind governors gaining negative traits for taxing below a high rate? I Believe I read that somewhere.I find it's hard to keep a population from rebelling with a low rate, but I am expanding quite fast.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In export_desc_traits.txt, if you look in the triggers you'll see how various traits are triggered. Moneywise, the 50K, 100K and 150K thresholds are the biggies for acquiring negative traits. The only bad trait directly linked to low tax rates is BadTaxman, which generates less tax income in return for an insignificant reduction in unrest. "Have you heard about the sucker who's taking over as governor? Brill!".

What is it that determines the outcome of naval battles? Every naval engagement I've ever fought seeems to randomly generate the result. Hence why I don't really use navies very much. I keep a small navy and if someone attacks it then I auto_win.-Caesar Augustus

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Naval battles: CA has admitted that the naval AI gets a non-trivial bonus to all of its fights at all difficulty levels. The bizarre results you're seeing are basically the result of each of the AI's combat "rolls" getting...hmmm...probably +10 or +20. This is hard-coded, so I try to make sure I engage only with overwhelming force whenever possible.

Does leaving foreign buildings such as "Docks" and "Governor's Palace" produce or increase culture penalties?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm pretty sure any foreign building produces a minor culture penalty, but not enough to be worth getting rid of the docks. I'm not positive, though. I never really paid that much attention in-game.

How can I get an enemy army to hold it's battle line and attack my phalanx? I fought a defensive battle the other day and the lion's share of the combat was done by my sparabara and skirmishers on the flanks. -Caesar Augustus

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If you're the enemy army, would you attack the phalanx head on if you had any choice? Take the initiative, and attack in oblique. Pick a flank, and overload your light infantry and cavalry there. Advance that side's phalanx to engage, and echelon the others back, with a lightly held wing on that side. If the enemy don't advance, you get to choose the moment of engagement. If the enemy advances, they're hitting the front of your phalanx. Once the lead phalanx is locked, use your preponderance of flankers to quickly crush that side. Then continue rolling up that flank until you have a distinct advantage in the field and the enemy retreat.

Can young romans(16-20) gain command traits when traveling with a older general and his army, or do they have to wait until they are 20 than join an older general? Also am I correct that a roman under 20 leading an army cannot gain positive command traits until after 20?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As for your Roman general question, young generals can gain command traits but not whilst under the command of a higher power. They can still acquire traits that might affect command though. Whether they increase or decrease command though...

Why are generals so skilled? Alot of my roman youngsters start with 3 command stars at age 16. I have literally at least 5+ 7-10 star generals, and im only up to year 250bc with 3 or 4 legions. Shouldn't great generals be much more rare?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Ah yes. I intend to have a look at this at some point and go through it all. There are a couple of other traits that I might have a look at as well. Sharp/Intelligent/Genius for example - do they merit 1/1/1, 2/2/2 and 3/3/3 Command/Management/Influence?? This will take a while though and might not even make it for 4.0.

What is a decent garrison force? I tend to keep a skirmisher, infanty, and a Family Member where possible. It tends to get expensive as my empire expands. I was wondering if there are other ways, I've read about recruiting only skirmishers, but if a city is besieged skirmishers wont put up much of a fight...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the sout part of the Italy even though as i mentioned before about how technically generals shouldn't serve as "governors" for your Italian cities because of the before-mentioned reasons, i have the wealthiest ones like rhegium,tarentum, and croton all led by my generals, with little to no garrison for happiness.

In central italy Rome is governed by my faction leader and also any students that might be there

as for ancona and paestrum and corfinium,they have no garrisons and i have them on high taxes, the reason why is becuase of the large amount of recruiting i did for the 1st punic war, thy have small populations, and with all the happiness buildings, they r happy and i don't need to waste $$ supporting garrison for a happy settlement.

But here comes northern Italy as well as south of the Padus, this is where i keep large garrison ,not only because south of the Padus, Bononia and another settlement ,starts with a J, have a barbarian culture,but because they are on my Border, and thus they have to be.

so if your settlements are in a place that doesn't require protection and they are happy, no point in being garrisoned,but if they are on your border,hell even if they are happy, they should be brimming, you never know whose going to besiege you (ales you have fog of war off ) hehe

oops i forgot to directly answer, sorry

with border garrisons its best to have strong infantry and some calvary, if your playing as Rome, have a roman legion and alae legion, and you should be able to kick anyone's butt

If I leave, lets say, a greek recruitment building intact upon capturing a city can I recruit those greek units?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

nope, you can only recruit your AOR units through your own Auxillia buildings, but ,this is my advise, don't know about anyone else, but feel free to destroy it to get some denari out of it, and if for whatever reason the faction whose recruitment building that was,manages to take the city back,well they no longer have that recruitment building ^^ so bonus!

Can anyone point me to a guide/site/document to explain the Roman ranks (i.e. Legate, Tribune) better and how they work in-game. I get kind of confused when I read the in-game tooltip, as well as being generally interested in learning. It would probably help me run my empire better as well. Also, What determines who commands the Roman Consular Legions? Is it just oldest family member currently serving in the Roman army?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Go you your RTW folder, go into the EXRM folder, there will be a folder named Docs, go into that,you'll see a folder named Extended Realism,go into that and there you will find read me's and JPG files that will explain how the leadership mod works, the requirements,etc.

** You should take a careful look at the Ultimate Guide PDF file, it'll show you how to play "Historically" or at least orient you on how to best play, at least if you want to adhere to it, i personally sometimes bend the rules, for example I ALWAYS
EXTERMINATE Syracuse and the other cities in Sicily,because they have huge populations and make them harder to manage

Does the "Superior" trait make the Italic Calvalry better than Equites? I ask because from the stats on the unit cards the Equites seem better, yet they perform far worse in battle.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The unit trait system is in a bit of a shambles at the moment. Some of the units still retain their manual bonuses that people in RTRPE and earlier put in. The abilities at the top are a general description of the stats of the unit.

Examples
Anything with armour of 0 gains "vulnerable to missiles"
Anything with a morale value of less than 3* has "poor morale"
Anything with morale greater than 8* has "good morale"
Anything with a morale greater than 12* has "excellent morale"
Anything with a positive value for fighting in snow gets "combat bonus fighting in snow"
Note: * = a value around this number, not sure what the exact values are at the top of my head.

Can't remember what superior is associated with. Regardless, in 4.0 you'll find the equites to be fairly strong cavalry on an individual basis - they'll just be low in number on a literal basis and because of their high cost.

Below are tips provided by ExRM players

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

More information on unit traits, shrines*, and temples:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There are two groups of traits on the unit card. One of them is generated from the stats in export_desc_units.txt, and is an accurate reflection of the unit's capability. This includes stuff like morale, hardiness, powerful charge, etc. The other group is just flavour text from export_units.txt, and doesn't affect gameplay. This includes stuff like uses longbow. Can form phalanx can appear in either group, a remnant of the time when RTR hoplites were still able to use the phalanx formation (which has now been removed except for phalangites, due to how they worked gameplay-wise).

Minor shrines don't affect traits, but offer a chance of giving ancillaries. Major temples at temple level (level 2) and above offer a chance of affecting traits, as grouped below. Roman versions named.

Farming (Ceres): Good Farmer (+0.5 growth per level)
Trade (Mercury): Assorted nasties, plus GoodTrader
Fun (Bacchus): Assorted nasties, no goodies
War (Mars): None
? (Jupiter): Various governor traits, plus Trusting which is bad
? (Saturn): Sobriety

When multiple characters are in an army, the faction leader, if present, will be the commanding general, and only stats and bonuses he has will apply to the army. If the faction leader isn't in the stack, the characer with the highest command stars will be the commander, and IIRC will be the character named on the campaign map.

*Additional Shrine advice by St Naffatun Here

They'll all get looked at [Before 4.0], don't worry

[JaNuZ99]

Im sure most of this has been asked before. I appologize

Since this is a realism mod, would it be more realistic to manage all settlements or only manage the ones with family members or generals as governors? I also read in the forums you can turn off tower fire. I was wondering if it would be more realistic with them on or off?

I saw you post in the militia/police thread so i guess you might already know whats in the works, though personally i do use generals with high management skill to govern my settlements, and i hire the cheapest units for garrison troops if i have to. Till 4.0 i suggest thats what you should do.

On a side note, if I leave, lets say, a greek recruitment building intact upon capturing a city can I recruit those greek units?

nope, you can only recruit your AOR units through your own Auxillia buildings, but ,this is my advise, don't know about anyone else, but feel free to destroy it to get some denari out of it, and if for whatever reason the faction whose recruitment building that was,manages to take the city back,well they no longer have that recruitment building ^^ so bonus!

Can anyone point me to a guide/site/document to explain the Roman ranks (i.e. Legate, Tribune) better and how they work in-game. I get kind of confused when I read the in-game tooltip, as well as being generally interested in learning. It would probably help me run my empire better as well.

Also, What determines who commands the Roman Consular Legions? Is it just oldest family member currently serving in the Roman army?

Go you your RTW folder, go into the EXRM folder, there will be a folder named Docs, go into that,you'll see a folder named Extended Realism,go into that and there you will find read me's and JPG files that will explain how the leadership mod works, the requirements,etc

** You should take a careful look at the Ultimate Guide PDF file, it'll show you how to play "Historically" or at least orient you on how to best play, at least if you want to adhere to it, i personally sometimes bend the rules, for example I ALWAYS
EXTERMINATE Syracuse and the other cities in Sicily,because they have huge populations and make them harder to manage.

Does the "Superior" trait make the Italic Calvalry better than Equites? I ask because from the stats on the unit cards the Equites seem better, yet they perform far worse in battle. Also can Italic skirmishers able to hold a line in melee, being almost a light infantry?

This may not be the right forum for this question, But is there any faction info videos for RTRPE or ExRM?
Thanks in advance!

I'm not too clear on that trait myself but personally i find that italic calvary and equities both suck!! (i'm an infantry lover) but what i do know is this basic concept regarding hidden resources:

Italics (your Italian troops) are Conscripted , they will route faster and will NOT fight to the last man,

Romans fight FOR GLORY OF ROME!! and are more likely to fight to the last man and NOT route as fast as your italics,mercs, or other AOR units.


** i said LAST Man ,which is not the same as fighting to the death. Fighting to the last man is more like the unit has sutained heavy casulties to the poiunt of almost being decimated, yet they have not routed and will continue to follow order (i.e attack, withstand an attack,etc) but don't push it cause they still might route. Fighting to the death just means the unit was going to route,but is completely surrounded so they are just going to fight it out.

*** if a unit fighting to the death beat off the enemy off enough to route they WILL run for it (and most likely get stabbed in the back, which serves the coward right

[shadowdrummer46]

...personally i do use generals with high management skill to govern my settlements, and i hire the cheapest units for garrison troops if i have to. Till 4.0 i suggest thats what you should do.

I was wondering if i should check the "Manage All Settlements" button or not, which would be more realistic.


Thanks for the Replies guys!

[JaNuZ99]

I was wondering if i should check the "Manage All Settlements" button or not, which would be more realistic.


Thanks for the Replies guys!

I suggest you check it

With mange all settlements checked you can manually manage every little thing.

for example I always have it checked, that way i can choose the units to recruit, set the tax rate and chose which building to build. and i dont need a governor to be present to do it

But if you don't check to manage all settlements you'll end up having to set POLICY (economic,military,building,etc), meaning you wont be able to HANDPICK what units to recruit, and you wont be able to set tax rate, ales you have a general present.


Its best to check it, that way even if you don't have a governor present at the settlement you still get to manage everything.

oh and it not about realism more about making it easier for the player to build,recruit,tax, that sort of thing, so it just an option you might like to micromanage, which sometimes can be tedious,but it worth it

[shadowdrummer46]

Yea I always play with it on, but I wasnt sure if the Romans had control over governors, especially non-family members.

I read the files in the "Doc" folder and it answered a ton of questions thanks again!

[JaNuZ99]

yeah if its left unchecked you just wouldn't be able to manage the settlement manually w/o a governor thats all

glad to be of help

[Carados]

The unit trait system is in a bit of a shambles at the moment. Some of the units still retain their manual bonuses that people in RTRPE and earlier put in. The abilities at the top are a general description of the stats of the unit.

Examples
Anything with armour of 0 gains "vulnerable to missiles"
Anything with a morale value of less than 3* has "poor morale"
Anything with morale greater than 8* has "good morale"
Anything with a morale greater than 12* has "excellent morale"
Anything with a positive value for fighting in snow gets "combat bonus fighting in snow"
Note: * = a value around this number, not sure what the exact values are at the top of my head.

Can't remember what superior is associated with. Regardless, in 4.0 you'll find the equites to be fairly strong cavalry on an individual basis - they'll just be low in number on a literal basis and because of their high cost.

[Quinn Inuit]

Yeah, I really need to go through and remove a lot of those traits from unit descriptions. They're just not accurate anymore.

In the next version, we intend to have a much more complicated governmental system for all factions to simulate the client kingdom vs. conquest control strategies.

[Carados]

Yeah, I really need to go through and remove a lot of those traits from unit descriptions. They're just not accurate anymore.

I think I've had a little stab at that already, just to investigate what those traits actually were. Speaking of traits, I recall noticing that some of our elite infantry don't quite reach "Excellent morale" for the abilities at a glance. It isn't an essential thing and can be done far later down the line, but do you think it worthwhile to have a review of the current stats and how the unit description portrays them so that players can make a (slightly) more informed decision about their units? At the moment some units don't quite have a summary worthy of their relative ability.

[shadowdrummer46]

New Question- What is a decent garrison force? I tend to keep a skirmisher, infanty, and a generals where possible. It tends to get expensive as my empire expands. I was wondering if there are other ways, I've read about recruiting only skirmishers, but if a city is besieged skirmishers wont put up much of a fight...

[Irenaeus]

I personally put in one general and maybe 2 units of the cheapest troops available (skirmishers), although bear in mind that skirmishers may have less men per unit, and it's the number of men in a city which determines the garrison strength effect on city happiness - so you may be better off getting a slightly more expensive unit that has 240 men, for instance. I then have a few really big proper armies wandering round to sort out enemies. This is probably not historical, but it's how I play.

[JaNuZ99]

New Question- What is a decent garrison force? I tend to keep a skirmisher, infanty, and a generals where possible. It tends to get expensive as my empire expands. I was wondering if there are other ways, I've read about recruiting only skirmishers, but if a city is besieged skirmishers wont put up much of a fight...

Depends on the city's location

In the sout part of the Italy even though as i mentioned before about how technically generals shouldn't serve as "governors" for your Italian cities because of the before-mentioned reasons, i have the wealthiest ones like rhegium,tarentum, and croton all led by my generals, with little to no garrison for happiness.

In central italy Rome is governed by my faction leader and also any students that might be there

as for ancona and paestrum and corfinium,they have no garrisons and i have them on high taxes, the reason why is becuase of the large amount of recruiting i did for the 1st punic war, thy have small populations, and with all the happiness buildings, they r happy and i don't need to waste $$ supporting garrison for a happy settlement.

But here comes northern Italy as well as south of the Padus, this is where i keep large garrison ,not only because south of the Padus, Bononia and another settlement ,starts with a J, have a barbarian culture,but because they are on my Border, and thus they have to be.

so if your settlements are in a place that doesn't require protection and they are happy, no point in being garrisoned,but if they are on your border,hell even if they are happy, they should be brimming, you never know whose going to besiege you (ales you have fog of war off ) hehe

oops i forgot to directly answer, sorry

with border garrisons its best to have strong infantry and some calvary, if your playing as Rome, have a roman legion and alae legion, and you should be able to kick anyone's butt

[shadowdrummer46]

Thanks for all the help guys, especially JaNuZ99 for continuing to check the thread.

I should probably clarify, I'm not sticting strictly to the Realism guide, but alot of the pieces from the guide I do use. I start campaigning in the south and I dont use a general under 30 to lead an army, unless he starts with 3 stars, I try to use younger generals with an older ones to pick up usefull traits. and i try to keep recruitment centered around Roma and Capua.

I do however retrain units if i dont have my other half depleted units around. I also dont stick to correct composition. In my battle with Pyrrhus I used 6 or 7 Italic Skirmishers (lol). The phalanx and elephants stood no chance.

[JaNuZ99]

Thanks for all the help guys, especially JaNuZ99 for continuing to check the thread.

I should probably clarify, I'm not sticting strictly to the Realism guide, but alot of the pieces from the guide I do use. I start campaigning in the south and I dont use a general under 30 to lead an army, unless he starts with 3 stars, I try to use younger generals with an older ones to pick up usefull traits. and i try to keep recruitment centered around Roma and Capua.

I do however retrain units if i dont have my other half depleted units around. I also dont stick to correct composition. In my battle with Pyhrrus I used 6 or 7 Italic Skirmishers (lol). the phalanx and elephants stood no chance.

1. thnx for the recognition

2. hey, while house rules usually make the game more fun and challenging, its still up to the player and whats you think its covinient, i for example tend to follow most of the rules in the guide,except when it comes to Sicily,because of the big population i just exterminate every city in Sicily, in my mind i write the deaths off as "suicides" on the part of wealthy Carthaginians that rather die than be ruled by me.

3. Hey how did you deal with Pyrrhus's calvary?

[shadowdrummer46]

In between the Pila from my Hastai/Principes, my 3 units of Italic Cavalry, and my Italic Skirmishers who were out of ammo (I dont usually use them for melee but the battle with Pyrrhus is pretty deperate); His few units of horse and one of elephants had almost no impact on the battle. His mounted skirmishers were almost depleted before my first wave skirmishers ran out of ammo.

Not to mention I managed to manuever my formation on the top of a hill with the Pyrrhus' army at the bottom.

[pannonian]

There are two groups of traits on the unit card. One of them is generated from the stats in export_desc_units.txt, and is an accurate reflection of the unit's capability. This includes stuff like morale, hardiness, powerful charge, etc. The other group is just flavour text from export_units.txt, and doesn't affect gameplay. This includes stuff like uses longbow. Can form phalanx can appear in either group, a remnant of the time when RTR hoplites were still able to use the phalanx formation (which has now been removed except for phalangites, due to how they worked gameplay-wise).

Minor shrines don't affect traits, but offer a chance of giving ancillaries. Major temples at temple level (level 2) and above offer a chance of affecting traits, as grouped below. Roman versions named.

Farming (Ceres): Good Farmer (+0.5 growth per level)
Trade (Mercury): Assorted nasties, plus GoodTrader
Fun (Bacchus): Assorted nasties, no goodies
War (Mars): None
? (Jupiter): Various governor traits, plus Trusting which is bad
? (Saturn): Sobriety

When multiple characters are in an army, the faction leader, if present, will be the commanding general, and only stats and bonuses he has will apply to the army. If the faction leader isn't in the stack, the characer with the highest command stars will be the commander, and IIRC will be the character named on the campaign map.

[shadowdrummer46]

Thanks alot for sharing your knowledge with us guys!

Keep it coming and I will update the original post as much as possible.

New Questions:

Can young romans(16-20) gain command traits when traveling with a older general and his army, or do they have to wait until they are 20 than join an older general? Also am I correct that a roman under 20 leading an army cannot gain positive command traits until after 20?

On a related subject, why are generals so skilled? Alot of my roman youngsters start with 3 command stars at age 16. I have literally at least 5+ 7-10 star generals, and im only up to year 250bc with 3 or 4 legions. Shouldn't great generals be much more rare?

I am playing on H/M difficulty if it matters.

[Carados]

On a related subject, why are generals so skilled? Alot of my roman youngsters start with 3 command stars at age 16. I have literally at least 5+ 7-10 star generals, and im only up to year 250bc with 3 or 4 legions. Shouldn't great generals be much more rare?

Ah yes. I intend to have a look at this at some point and go through it all. There are a couple of other traits that I might have a look at as well. Sharp/Intelligent/Genius for example - do they merit 1/1/1, 2/2/2 and 3/3/3 Command/Management/Influence?? This will take a while though and might not even make it for 4.0.

[Caesar Augustus]

I think the Sharp / Intelligent / Genius line of traits should probably give them superior management skills, but I don't know about command. I would also be inclined to have genius give -1 influence or similar to represent the difficulties other people can have when dealing with those of a "superior" nature. Thoughts?

The high amount of skilled generals could also be linked to the Takes After His Father traits?

[shadowdrummer46]

Accually most if not all of my great generals have "Does Not Take After His Father" trait and I dont have too many geniuses either. Just alot of "good commander" and priests of mars and jupiter