impossibly hard

[elite_commando]

why is spqr so difficult? i know that it was designed to as challenging to the player as possible but come on, this is ridiculous. every time when i play as romans on m/m, i always have the same problems in campaign; the gauls send as many stacks as humanely possible (and STILL have a rising population and can invade spain), the carthaginians arent so much a problem in italy cause i usually beat them most of the time. the greeks always attack messana with spartans and send their full stacks to sicily as well as the carthaginians. i cant pull out of messana cause then the greeks and carths are gonna sned their stacks to italy and i cant have that, or if not italy then they will ally with a neighbour and send their stacks through their territories on top of their allies. rome is always at war with everyone minus the senate, and no one else is at war with each other (8 factions are actually allied to each other in my game). at this point, i simply give up and just start auto_win the battles, cause i cant win every match and if i lose then it will kill me later on, and now i spend each turn auto_winning battles that are impossible to win just so i can keep my empire together. theres no point to creating a navy cause everyone else has ships that are 5 chevron triremes that are cheaper and have more men than ur biremes and quinquiremes respectively. and whats with the romans starting off with low lvl cities when gauls already have cities that are max to close to max? i just dont understand the reasoning behind this

[Gauliez]

Auto-winning the battles ?? Then, you're missing the whole point of the game.....

My advice ? Leave Messana to the Greeks at the very beginning. Once Messana is taken, Greece and Carthago will fight fight each other over Sicilia, and you will only have to care for the Gauls for a good while.

Then, learn how to win against the Gauls, they are one of the easiest ennemy to begin with. Try different tactics, learn how to flank an army, learn the right timing to do it, learn how to use infantry, and not rely too much on cavalry as in other mods,...

And if you do so, you will see you can win all these battles, against the Gauls with a ratio around 1:10 kills, and get a even greater feeling of satisfaction out of it, cause you know it has been truly challenging.

And once the Gauls are under control, you can try to see what Greeks, Carthaginians, or Iberians are made of....

Few links if you try to follow these advices :
Hesus guide on how to survive the first 15 turns
Strategic tips against the Gauls
Another thread about tactics

[czePowerslave]

Or sadly to say, do not play such hard Mod. Once you get used to it and employ tactics, youll see that it is not even remotely as hard as you thought.

[elite_commando]

funny thing is, i want to keep playing this mod. something about it keeps pulling me back, dk what but all i know is that is the only reason why i keep trying to beat the mod. ill prob start another campaign and follow the 15 turn guide, hopefully it will be easier

[KittySN]

It's so much better to capture Sicily though. You can do it!

[lt1956]

elite_commando,

You need to read the threads to help you get a sense of HOW to play SPQR mod. Its not like other mods, if you play them like RTR, EB you will find you will lose real fast. SPQR is more of a simulation than a game, it allows the player Tactics on the battlefield as well as Logistics how to support your Legions etc.

SPQR once you LEARN how to play will be easier, you will still lose from time to time, but just like a REAL General you need to learn how to fight first. Once you learn you will be experienced and be confident against any Faction that will attack you. Many here fight 2-3 Armies with one legion and though they lose alot of men they when the Battle! This is all because of Tactics and Experience fighting different Factions, some fight alike, but other fight different. Once you learn how you will Prevail.

When the going gets tough, the Tough get going!

[elite_commando]

it1956, while u are here, whats the difference between 7.0 and 8.0? i read the readme that was in the files but much of the stuff that was in there wasnt true. the stuff about the romans being at war with gauls, germania, carthage and i think greek cities at the beginnning of the game. 1 more thing, can u create a 8.0 first 15 turns thread or get someone to make it cause the 15 turns thread thats posted is out of date and the campaign map differs from the examples posted, i followed it but only so much until i eventually got the hang of it

[Nano_Magnus]

Elite, don´t worry about that, you only need some practice, i can't remember how manny times i restarted my campaigns, but at the end I developed my own tactics and my figthing skills are good enought to deal with all the enemys of Rome. Actually I never left messana and it's really hard to Fight on 3 fronts at the beginning, but it's possible (I think it would be more difficult to deffend Messana on 8.0)

Sorry for my poor english...

[Gauliez]

As far as I can tell, in 8.0 :
- you have more units available than in 7.0, mercenaries and Roman as well as some for your ennemies
- this version is the most stable ever, not even a small CTD for me so far
- a new map, more detailled and with some pretty battle map
- Theophanes army seemed much more difficult to me than in 7.0 (but maybe is it just a feeling ??)
- some minor fixes were added, making this version very stable
- some visual indicators were removed, such as happiness icon, or loyalty measure, making the game even more challenging...

[elite_commando]

looks like im gonna change my position on spqr from impossibly hard to challenging enough that u have to keep a sharp mind on the battlefield. i took the advice of leaving messana and after a while the greeks stopped their expansion and sent 1 stack of militia units after which i defeated them and havent heard from them since. they have been at war with carthage over sicily and carthage eventually defeated them and controlled sicily, then they left a handful of garrison troops and removed all their full stacks. ill probably plan an invasion of sicily to retake the cities after im done with the gauls, speaking of which, i secured my northern borders and pushed into nicaea and massilia with about 2 legions, i have 2 more on the way, with the 2 frontline legions i pushed into tolosa and defeated all the gaul armies in the area and captured tolosa due to lack of garrison, however whenever i did capture it, the game CTD'd from the occupy/enslave/exterminate bug, so now im left with trying to figure out a way to capture tolosa without CTD

[saienga]

Slightly on topic: I love (and sometimes hate) that the way this mod is designed, you're often forced to make strategic decisions about what to save and what to abandon. So many off-the-shelf games are so have-your-cake-and-eat-it that it encourages the cheap thrill of easy victory and denies the pleasure of a challenge.

Not to say that I don't like a cheap thrill now and again...