How can you realistically win a campaign?

[Dr Crasier Frane]

Ok so i've been playing RTR platinum, as Rome, and for the most part love it, i have one major complaint though, after you've taken over a settlement why are you expected to wait in excess of 25 turns building 'auxilia' buildings, ok so i get it you're trying to make it historically accurate yada yada, but it's just not feasible to complete a campaign with this imposed upon you, i've managed to take over sicily, south France and Greece, but my armies are largely composed of mercenaries. Im locked in a war of attrition with Macedonia, and none of the settlements i own there can recruit units, now how am i expected to deal with the 6+ stacks that macedon has if i can't even recruit units? It's not realistic, in situations such as the one i'm in at the moment, forced conscription would've been imposed.

[Arkaeyn]

It depends on how you define "realism." Allowing the player to steamroll opposition as they recruit immediately after conquering a region would allow any competent player to take over the world in 50 years. That's not really "realism."

[Clearchus of Sparta]

Ok so i've been playing RTR platinum, as Rome, and for the most part love it, i have one major complaint though, after you've taken over a settlement why are you expected to wait in excess of 25 turns building 'auxilia' buildings, ok so i get it you're trying to make it historically accurate yada yada, but it's just not feasible to complete a campaign with this imposed upon you, i've managed to take over sicily, south France and Greece, but my armies are largely composed of mercenaries. Im locked in a war of attrition with Macedonia, and none of the settlements i own there can recruit units, now how am i expected to deal with the 6+ stacks that macedon has if i can't even recruit units? It's not realistic, in situations such as the one i'm in at the moment, forced conscription would've been imposed.

Its always been a difficult decision when substituting realism for gameplay.
There are many things which could be made more realistic, but that would lead to gameplay limitations.
Rome never conquored as far east as the map allows, so should that be prevented.... imo no. There has to be a tade off. If the construction times were reduced, the game would most likely run out of buildings to construct. You are welcome to experiment though and it is simple enough to do.

Make a copy of your edb (for safe keeping) Its in your RTRPE/Data Folder
Open the export descr building.txt (edb) file with a text editor such as notepad.
Locate the auxillia building.
Change the construction time from 25 to whatever you require.
Locate and delete the map.rwm file
Start your game.

Note: Im not sure if this is save game compatable so you may have to start a new campaign
Good Luck and welcome to the forums

[Carados]

Or you could try a newer mod or one that is still being worked on. Like... ExRM?

[DarthLazy]

I conquered till Sidon as Carthage with only 7 cities able to recruit decent troops. Its not that hard if you know how to keep your reinforcements rolling on the other side of the world. And as rome its fairly easy since all settlements can recruit troops. It just takes some time which is realistically represented since Rome didnt exactly go alexander on the known world

[Dr Crasier Frane]

So, i've been playing a bit more, managed to cleanse Greece, i mass recruited assassins (being the only thing i could recruit) destroyed most of their family tree, this coupled with some unknown Macendonian war being waged to the north drew most of their forces away.
Now to deal with the very annoying Illyrians and Iberians.

[FlaviusVictor]

what i did was i made my own versions of legions. they were like this - 5 hastati, 5 principe, 2 triarii and 2 equites. I mostly excluded velites and funditores because when fighting phalanxes, they just dont seem to pack the punch i want unless on a hill. Keep the Roman Legion in a triple line formation, separated (this reduces effectiveness of phalanxes, as if you take them straight on its pretty much a solid wall of spears you need to be mobile). Use the hastati to engage the phalanxes, and when they start doing a ) curve inwards use the backup principes to hit them from their exposed sides. Keep your triarii back incase of hetaroi flanks or to take out an exposed general or as a backup like they historically were. Use your equites and (if you feel its safe) praetoria to move around the side of the main fight and kill any skirmishers, cretans, or slingers (important because i noticed macedon and carthage ai especially love to spam the heck out the them) because they deal immense damage if allowed to just unload. once thats done, charge into the rear of the pikeman to route them and chase them down (before doing this try and get their hetaroi general to make this easier and take less horse casualties). ALWAYS RUN DOWN THE ENEMY AND KILL AS MANY AS POSSIBLE - TRY NOT TO LET A UNIT OF MORE THAN 13 MEN LIVE. THIS WILL MAKE THE ENEMY UNABLE TO RETRAIN THEM AND IT WILL TAKE THEM TIME TO REMAKE ARMIES! Destroying or routing armies completely is the key to winning in Greece, and honestly just micro your troops to make it through. Have a few units of hastati, principes and triarri and equite closeby in safety to replenish ranks and keep moving. Always destroy foreign auxiliarys and barracks, and never auto resolve a battle it causes unnecessary losses. And i always have 3 legions to each front, so if you do have a large loss you can return to italy and resupply without risking your conqured land.