Awesome

[Belthazaar]

Hi there people, i've just started playing Total War again after abandoning the game for 4-5 years (busy busy student life =p), man o man i forgot how awesome TW series are, reinstalled Rome Total War yesterday and found out bout RTR, EB etc, good god the mods are awesome. Love RTRPE modswith 1.9, been playing it since yesterday til now LoL. Played as the Greek City States on hard campaign, hard battle...and almost get killed by the endless armies sent by Macedon XD but somehow survived tooth n nail LoL....

anyway, just want to say goodjobs on the mods =D oh n btw, can someone give me link for downloading the Fate of Empire? cant seem to find it...CHEERS!!

[Pat89]

Welcome to the forum!
I'm glad you like the mod so much

Here's the link:
RTRVII: Fate of Empires 1.3 - Download Mirrors and Installation Guide

[Belthazaar]

Hi, thanks for the welcome and the link

do i need Barbarian Invasion to install FOE? and I'm trying to change the skin for the Spartan (no offense to the mods, but they look like wearing a red dress ), but it keeps saying something like errors in pathways when i tried to change the files. As the Macedon keeps attacking Athens n Sparta, it pains my eyes to see my elite units in their skins fighting a defensive battle again n again LoL. So how do i change the skin? Thanks for the helps

[Belthazaar]

HELPPP!! i took Corinth and Elis and marching towards Northern Greece (finally!!) but now the Illyrians are attacking me, n i'm pretty sure Rome are going to declare war soon as well (saw them organizing n marching army around Paestum )... I'm busy eliminating the Macedon, I dont think I can face 3 fronts at the same time, and im only able to support at most 2 full-stacked army (which right now are marching towards the Macedonians)... i frequently ask for ceasefire with the Illyrians but they keep saying "it is not time yet".... uwaaa... should I abandon my foothold in Italy? and focus on mainland Greece?

p/s Areus of Sparta is a bad a** LoL

[DukeCanada]

Well its not all that tough to face the Illyrians, so perhaps it might be wise to keep defensive on the Macedonian front and take down the Illyrians in a pitched battle. Once the Illyrians are done you can head back to Macedon and push the offensive on that front.

[Belthazaar]

Well I did exactly the opposite, I hold the Illyrian at Antigonea, placing my army at the mountain pass (good defensive position for my hoplitai), n won a couple easy defensive battles with only 5 hoplitai, 2 toxote, 2 prodromoi (sp?) and a mix of couple of mercs (so true the Illyrians really are easy to beat, their army suck so bad). Aratus of Sicyon took Larissa n lost like 70% of his troops LoL, but worth it because Areus of Sparta took down Antigonus (who try to intercept my army marching towards Thessalonica with an almost fullstack meany army LoL) and then with the remaining survivor of that battle Areus took Thessalonica (who got reinforcement from Pella). Right now i'm retraining troops in Larissa and Thessalonica (too bad i can't retrain the Spartan hoplite =( they are the only reason i think i am able to go toe to toe with the Macedonian army). The plan is to take down Pella first with both troops n then Areus alone will march to Philippi to finish off the Macedonian hehehehe...Good news is Rome hasn't attack Tarentum yet, which means i can concentrate my resources on securing Greece... oooh i hope this goes well =))))...

[MasterOfThessus]

Sounds like you are having fun Good luck!

[Belthazaar]

thanks MasterOfThessus, yeah i'm really having so much fun...finished off the Macedonians in Bylazora just now...one questions though, i thought the Chalkipides (sp?) n Pezhetaroi (sp?) with their long pikes or sarissas are supposed to be unbeatable (i mean hard to fight head on), but during couple of siege battle on the streets of their cities i find it easier to kill them charging head on with my Hoplites and Spartiates where i only lost like 10-20 men out of 30-60... is this normal?...and i do think the Spartiates is a tad bit overpowered with 2 hitpoint n weps n shield upgrade, but hey i aint complaining lol

n yeah what is up with the Germans? they are expandling like crazy in Europe n almost near the Thracians now...

[Belthazaar]

woot woot the Ptolemy, Seleucid, Carthage and Rome are all attacking me LOL...the Seleucid and Ptolemy even form an alliance. I lost Byzantion to the Seleucids and Kydonia to the Ptolemy. And the Romans seems to be really interested with Tarentum, they keep sieging it and I don't think I can churn out enough troops (nor do I have resources) to defend it much longer. I'm not so worry about Syracuse as I have a good garrison there, so I'm welcoming any Carthaginian force to try and take it (I'm gonna strike and secure Messana if they do). But the most hurtful is that I can't cope with the naval blockades by the Romans, Ptolemy and Carthage!! Economy is not so good at the moment. These AIs really need to chill out a bit, I can't seem to take a breather nor pimping up my cities.

And I think my family is impotence Areus have no male heir making Aratus the only possible (and qualified) faction heir at the moment and Aratus is the only one seems to be producing offspring, but they are all girls!... adoption is the only option.

Anyone wanna give me a tip or hint on how to deal with all these situations? I have the whole of mainland Greece under my control. I'm losing my foothold in Italy to the Romans and Carthaginians. Not so worried about the Seleucids at the moment, since they took Byzantion, I can be sure they'll be having a hard time taking down Philippi as it is well garrisoned. the Ptolemy are oceans apart, but their navy is killing me (economically). I allied myself with the Thracians, and at the moment holding off the Illyrians at bay. I've decided to put a halt on my idea of conquering the Illyrians at the moment. Anyone wanna give me a tip or hint on how to deal with all these situations?

[Arkaeyn]

Finding chokepoints on the map is one of the best ways to deal with overwhelming enemies. Find a bridge, or a land bridge, a mountain pass, or a city that the enemy never bypasses, and build up your defenses there while you go on the attack in areas that don't have those kinds of defenses.

If you encounter an enemy that seems to have a particularly easy time of building massive stacks and attacking you with them, go and besiege their ports with a navy. This can be annoying to maintain, but also occasionally extremely effective in the middle east and between Greece/Anatolia.

[Belthazaar]

I find Greece and Macedonian regions are quite easy to defend and replenishing ranks is not a problem, like the Illyrians I choked them at the mountain passes north of Antigonea or the Seleucids near Philippi. My main problems are the foothold in Italy where going on an offensive-defence battle is not an option as I only have Tarentum and everytime I churn out enough troops to break the siege, I only have time to prepare enough troops for another one (plus I don't see any good chokepoints around there. Currently I'm raising enough troops in Greece to transport them to Tarentum and finish them off before they get too powerful (plus I hope the Gauls will join me in this one). The Carthiginians have 2 almost full stacked army near Syracuse (don't know why they haven't attack yet) and even with that their cities nearby are well garrisoned.

But it is quite hard to raise a good navy at the moment as my incomes are limited (due to blockades) as well as the numerical superiority of all my enemies navies.

So I'm left with the 2 options put all my coffer to raise army to take Italy and Sicily or to focus on improving my naval superiority. Please advise.

p/s Pyrrhus died during siege of Tarentum, some Italian dude with a spear got a lucky hit when I flanked a unit of Italian spearmen (i know i know i shouldn't flank that unit with general cavalry, :wub: happens)

[Arkaeyn]

I am not a fan of naval invasions, so I would suggest letting Italy go until you can march your army around through Illyria. However, if you're committed to it, then try to exploit the AI. As a general rule, the strategic AI in RTW picks target cities, and attacks them constantly. So use an aggressive flypaper strategy. Make sure that city can defend itself if anyone tries to attack the walls, and let the enemy besiege it. That takes up time. Take your other armies and attack enemy cities behind their lines. Also, use land blockades (have a unit stand on their port). This will cut off their finances, and possibly get you a city or two. When the enemy siege seems like it might succeed, drop an army of reinforcements in to break the siege.

In terms of your navy, if the enemy is blockading your ports regularly, build up a stack of ships that does nothing but clean up blockades. Usually three ships will do the trick, as long as you retrain them constantly. The amount of money you'll make in trade makes up for the initial cost of ships.

[Carados]

I'd drop Italy and Sicily and focus on the Balkans. If you can, ship the troops over. They'll help you expand/defend.

[Belthazaar]

To Arkaeyn and Carados, thanks for the suggestions =)

I've built up my navies, I have 2 main fleet with 5 triremes in each plus 3 (iirc) triremes running around transporting troops or in docks waiting to be stacked with new ships. I agree with Arkaeyn, the enemies fleet usually consist of 1 or 2 triremes in a stack so they're easily to dealt with once I have my navies running.

I've transported 4 Spartiates, 4 Hoplite, 4 Prodromoi and lots of Hopllite Levy and Peltasts near Croton (Romans') under command of Alexander. Took down Croton and now marching towards Paestum eliminating anyone in their path. The Romans still holding Tarentum under siege but I think my garrison should be able to deal with them if they try to take the city. The Carthiginians tried to take Syracuse twice but failed (btw elephants can attack walls?never knew that lol).

Everything is running well at the moment.

btw Carados, the Extended Realism mod, if I download and install it, will it overwrite my RTRPE or save game and campaign etc? Cheers mate.

[Carados]

btw Carados, the Extended Realism mod, if I download and install it, will it overwrite my RTRPE or save game and campaign etc? Cheers mate.

It's completely seperate, though platinum was used as the base. You'll have to start a brand new campaign for ExRM, but you'll retain everything for RTRPE i.e. you can start up platinum and play, or you can start up ExRM and play that instead.

I think.
If you install it and have any problems just post a S.O.S in our forums

[Belthazaar]

Wootz... Just finished off the Illyrians, drive out the Carthaginians out of Sicily... the major powers right now are the Seleucids, Thracians, Germans, Gauls, Ptolemy and me... The biggest factions (land area) are the Seleucids and Germans... the Romans are busy with the Gauls at the moment, and all my resources are going into fending off the Seleucids and Ptolemy + pimping up my cities... an epic triple threat between me, the Seleucids and the Ptolemy are taking place in the area of modern day Turkey...

RTRPE is a beast!! Been a long time since i'm this occupied by any game =)