QUICK STRATEGY GUIDE
HOUSERULES:
1. For a real challenging Game dont use "Quicksiege" (carrying Wallbreaking stoneballistas to attack the same turn).Instead built your siege equipment and wait 1 turn until its finished. That way the Town/City will gather its forcesand the Garrison pops up. You still can autoresolve if you like but at least you will sustain some casualties which is a lot more realistic.
2. Do not use mo-money cheats. Deal with the ressources you have.
3. Only 1 Legion per number. If you loose an entire legion including eagle do NOT re-recruit it.
4. Keep Army compositions close to historical examples:
Legion: 1 General 1 First Cohort 9 Cohorts 2-4 Cavalry 2-4 Skirmisher/Archer 1-3 Aux/Siege/Mercs 20 Units
5. No use of forced diplomacy to avoid that the AI will take one of your citys. Take setbacks as what they are: A demand to make it better next time. Be patient, its a strategy game...rebuilt your forces and come back once you are prepared.
Tips & Tricks
1. Start developing your citys with quick 1 turn to built economic structures (trade exp,river-port,glass etc. including trade and tax temples)
2. Built oppidums...you need the level 2 Oppidum to be ablet o built Client State to recruit allied troops.
3. Only built the necessarry happiness buildings and focus on economy while making 2-3 citys unitpumpers (military focus + large foundry )...you can retrain somewhere else...Roma and Capua are already prepared so keep pumping
4. Develope your citys economy with all the other economic buildings (including tax and trade temples)
5. Remember you need the oppidum lvl3 + Citizenship + Fortifed City + Supply Army Rations in place to proceed to field of mars and roman fortress for the numbered Legions.
6. Settle Gouvernours and let them grow and obtain more management + influence over time.Influence will not be gained as much by fighting as by Academies and the like. You need to let your Generals rest a while in a well developed city and you will see his influence rise with the right ancilleries
7. Do not try to fight on all borders...your economy will probably not support this.
8. When you go on a campaign gather enough forces or your conquest will fail and possibly you loose your entire expeditionary force.The key is to plan ahead BEFORE an invansion and have your support armies/garrisons in place, this all costs money but thats what you need to do when you invade....Be prepared for counterattacks and casualties !
9. Do not Blitz...apart from being condemned to fail blitzing will not bring you any benefit. Developing citys is crucial to shorten supply (retraining) lines and once the 2nd Rebellion takes place and you end up with underdeveloped citys your campaign is most likely to be a disaster.
10. Before the Reform try to maintain a reserve force somewhwere in a central position and never mass all forces on the front...there will come a moment when you might need these reserves...
11. Built Academys...they will help educating your Governours...good goverment makes a huge difference to income
12. Keep winning battles and maintain overall happiness over 100% this will affect your Leaders traits and positive Leader traits will lead to positive Governour evolution.
13. Have Field of Mars in place in as much Citys as possible before you trigger the Reform. Plan the reform and save some money to train quickly as much numbered Legions as possible. Try to make the transition as short as possible. Remember there wont be Generic Legionarys to fill the gap between Polybians and Numbered. So Evocarti and other Local Auxilia have to do the trick for that period. For those interested in historic gameplay. The Reform was 646 AUC.
14. Pay attention when Legion Ancillarys appear: Hamata Legions with Roman Fortress and Segmentata Legions with the Curia Building. The first Named Character who passes and EndTurn in the Settlement where the Ancillary is obtained will get it.
So place the right General in the Settlement for one turn.Have a look at the discussion thread. There is a list and a map on where to get Legion Ancillarys.
And dont forget you can drag and drop Legion Ancillarys from one character to another when in the same settlement
15.Have a single spy in each of your towns .This will help against -happniness caused by enemy spies and protect your governours from being murdered by enemy assassins.
16. Having a Spy and a Diplomat assigned to an Army will help prevent the Army and the Character being bribed and avoid assassiantion, too