A couple of questions...

[Coxy]

Hi guys

Just started playing RTW after a few years away...and strugglying!

Playing as the romans each time I fight a Phalanx my infantry get annihalted. They simply can't get past the long spears. Am I doing something wrong? Any tips against phalanx is appreciated

Also... I'm having real problems with happiness in my 6 cities. I have to have low taxes in all of my cities to keep everyone happy - only in my capital (playing as scipii) can I have normal taxes. Ideally I'd like high!
Again... any tips with something I'm doing wrong? I have 3 garrison units and a governor in each city...and built all the bonus type buildings... so what more can I do?

Cheers

[Fireright]

Might be an idea to avoid a full frontal on a phalanx and instead pincer em from the sides and send some stuff in round the back to whack em hard. Phalanxes usually move slowly so plenty of time to manouvre your guys into position.
Whittle em down with archers and stuff too so theres less of em to clobber.

maybe you got enemy spies in your settlements causing unhappiness and all that?

[Hopit]

click behind those phalanx guys, so they run true them and attack them

[Magic_8_Ball]

click behind those phalanx guys, so they run true them and attack them

This. if you find yourself in a situation where you are attacking them head on, the run through works wonders. Just click past them for a second or two and then attack them again. It allows some of your soldiers to slip to the back of the phalanx and surround it.

[Lucarius]

you can easly defeat phalanx formation by attacking them in the sides or back,
when you man are dealing with the phalanx you can send other infantry (i should use velites or town watch because risking cavalry is always a last option)
to flank them.
about the happiness problem is really weird.
build temples, sewers, baths, arena's and then they should be very happy

[Coxy]

thanks for the advice re phalanx guys. I guessed it was to exploit the flanks - but just thought it was odd that these guys have such long spears and how do you fight them face to face?! Will definitely hit the flanks now though.

As for the happiness... yep I have the temples and sewers etc. Not built arena's yet as I believe they cost me money from memory? (each year) but I can't see how the arena's will make a massive difference to allow me to move high taxes. I did receive a message to say something like the people don't like me anymore - but I presumed this was the plebs - senate floor etc.... (coz I haven't conqeured much yet)

[Lucarius]

thanks for the advice re phalanx guys. I guessed it was to exploit the flanks - but just thought it was odd that these guys have such long spears and how do you fight them face to face?! Will definitely hit the flanks now though.

As for the happiness... yep I have the temples and sewers etc. Not built arena's yet as I believe they cost me money from memory? (each year) but I can't see how the arena's will make a massive difference to allow me to move high taxes. I did receive a message to say something like the people don't like me anymore - but I presumed this was the plebs - senate floor etc.... (coz I haven't conqeured much yet)

You can fight phalanx troops face to face but then you need to use pikeman
like Macedon, pontus like 2 more factions have.

and playing as the roman factions you need to keep the people of Rome happy (+ the senate)
that is your way to a nice empire.
you should do what the senate says and then the people will become happy again.
(like caesar did, he did everything what the senate did but when the people loved him he attacked roma and started a civil war. caesar promised a lot of things to his people and soldiers but they never received it.)
or you just start a Campaign with the Senate and take the families out

[nhinhonhinho]

Run through the phalanx pike is very costly however especially you use light infantry (hastati...) or your enemy is good phalanx (phalanx pikeman,armor hoplite...).I prefer to flank them on both side or more so they can't turn their pike around.If you have to run through their pike try to use your heaviest infantry.The other way to deal with phalanx is use missile to weaken them from afar.Phalanx move very slow then you have more time

[Magic_8_Ball]

Run through the phalanx pike is very costly however especially you use light infantry (hastati...) or your enemy is good phalanx (phalanx pikeman,armor hoplite...).I prefer to flank them on both side or more so they can't turn their pike around.If you have to run through their pike try to use your heaviest infantry.The other way to deal with phalanx is use missile to weaken them from afar.Phalanx move very slow then you have more time

That's a very good point. Premarian troops tend to break easier, so it'd be best for you to wait until you can recruit Legionary Cohorts or better. With higher defense units, they take less casualties while running through.

Phalanxes on RTW by themselves aren't slow. It's just that the AI doesn't know when to put the pikes up or down.

[Plant]

Playing as the romans each time I fight a Phalanx my infantry get annihalted. They simply can't get past the long spears. Am I doing something wrong? Any tips against phalanx is appreciated

Use some cavalry.

[Coxy]

cheers for the help guys. All working well now re phalanx.

The only other thing I've noticed is my men hardly ever gain experience even with hundreds of kills. I'm playing on medium (battles) and hard (campaign). Do my men not gain experience because the difficulty is set easier??

Cheers

[nhinhonhinho]

cheers for the help guys. All working well now re phalanx.

The only other thing I've noticed is my men hardly ever gain experience even with hundreds of kills. I'm playing on medium (battles) and hard (campaign). Do my men not gain experience because the difficulty is set easier??

Cheers

Of course hoplite merc is very important for the "non-phalanx" faction like Roman.I always try to get them and all Greek merc if i have enough money.

About experience the more your men kill and the more they lose the more experience.

The other thing is troop just get experience in melee combat so missile units won't gain experience if they use their missile! (i'm not sure about that though)

[Imperator Romani]

Troops don't just gain experience from killing enemy troops, they gain equal experience from losing troops. So if you want your men to gain experience, then send them into some tough battles.

[Imperator Romani]

No, hastasti can gain exp from throwing pila, at least I am almost sure they do.

[Genius of the Restoration]

Missile units do gain experience. See a discussion on it here.

[Magic_8_Ball]

o.0 Soooo much info Genius. Mind condensing it a bit so that a feeble mind like mine could grasp it?

From personal experience, XP is gained through losing men and at the same time fighting it out. In an archer war, I find that just before a unit dies out, it often gains an xp.

However, archers firing without being hurt back seems to do nothing to their xp. For example, I played this 2v2 15k CWB Rules game against two newbies. They brought virtually no archers, so my archers were firing non stop while hardly being damaged at all back. Even though they emptied out their quivers, they gained no XP.

(Names censored because I don't have permission from all the participants)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Genius of the Restoration]

o.0 Soooo much info Genius. Mind condensing it a bit so that a feeble mind like mine could grasp it?

There's a degree of randomness but there is some pattern to it that nobody's really figured out. Archers are used in one of the tests as they cause casualties and take none and they gain experience, so missile attacks must be able to gain a unit experience. I just started writing a guide to war in RTW. Got one part done now. I'll work at it over the week and see if I can finish it off. Everyone get excited

[HERO_331]

Here's a tip for decreasing culture penalties. Try to destroy or upgrade buildings that were made by another culture. For example, if you move your cursor over a militia barracks and it says "Militia Barracks (Greek)", that means that building is causing a culture penalty. Hope that helps.