I impulse purchased Rome Total War Today. Looking for some quick tips!

[marceror]

I impulse purchased a $10 Rome package off steam that includes Rome Total War plus the Barbarian Invasion and Alexander expansions. I'm hoping the Rome die-hards can give me some quick tips to lead me to success and glory for my first campaign!


I'm fairly experienced with Total War, having played lots of Medieval 2 + mods, Empire + mods, Napoleon and 3 campaigns in Shogun 2.

• What factions are recommended for a first play through? -- I don't mind going for a more challenging faction to start, as I love getting into the action. I am a bit of a turtler. I don't like to expand too fast as this approach tends to ruin games in the long run.
• Should I go vanilla first, or are there "must have" mods to make the experience enjoyable. I usually try to play unmodded at first, but I'm open to suggestions.
• Are there any quick tips (i.e. make sure to do this, make sure not to do that) that any wish to offer me before embarking?

I was watching a "Let's play" for Rome and decided I needed to add this game to my collection. This is my first time purchasing a game on Steam. I hope I won't regret going this route.

[Grimmy]

I would suggest the bruti to start with. The campaign through Greece means more money more quickly. Makes it easier to play around with army compositions and such when you have coin to cover mistakes.

Oh, and this:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=31

[dacder]

Multiplayer is best......
if not download a mod

[Magic_8_Ball]

Multiplayer is best......

Answer the question.




http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/HowTo:U...ome:_Total_War

This is to unlock all the factions. It'll save you some trouble and let you play the factions that are permanently locked otherwise.

[tudor93]

after playing vanilla you can try XGM

[The_Valiant]

Play vanilla first. Besides historical inauthenticity, vanilla isnt that bad and you can have months of play on it before going to a mod.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Play as the Seleucids. Great fun.
I also suggest the Scythians, Dacians, Thracians, Spain and Armenians. They're great fun, I've got no idea why they aren't playable by default.

[Skull]

Play as the Julii,best Roman infantry,also,play as Thrace,ther barbarian-hellenic culture and units are awsome,espacialy the Bastarne,Falxmen and millita cav.{yes,millita cavalryare not wery good at malle,but they are missle cav,also,cheap and great harrasing,and pursung enemys},the only problem is that they are weak against missiles.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

Carthage is cool.

[paradamed]

I played vanilla and there are some cool features I like like the senate stuff and missions. I would recommend you playing some mods like RSII, EB, LOTR, IB and others.

[marceror]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Not surprisingly, most everyone has a differing view on how best to start -- which is a big part of what makes Total War great in my opinion.

I think I'll most likely start with Brutii, as suggested by Grimmy. I've seen a bit of what they are about in the let's play I watched, and they seem to have promising expansion opportunities.

I think I'll go pure vanilla for the first campaign, as suggested by the The_Valiant. I like the idea of experiencing Rome as it was envisioned by CA. Then I can build on that experience with mods. I'll save EB perhaps for a second campaign.

By all means, though, keep the suggestions coming!

**EDIT**
On another note, does anyone happen to know if the Steam version of this game provides an electronic version of the manual? I checked the entire "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\rome total war gold" directory structure for .pdf, .rtf and .doc files and found a big bagel with each file type. You can't tell me that a Steam download doesn't include any form of manual?

[The_Valiant]

**EDIT**
On another note, does anyone happen to know if the Steam version of this game provides an electronic version of the manual? I checked the entire "c:\program files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\rome total war gold" directory structure for .pdf, .rtf and .doc files and found a big bagel with each file type. You can't tell me that a Steam download doesn't include any form of manual?

I think it on the steam program. You have to go to the games main page and it should be a sidebar.

[Etruscan Warrior]

I wouldnt recomend starting as the brutii as in campaign mode it is easy but for a beginner fighting phalanxes is hard unless you no how especially as the romans have minimal cavalry before the marius reforms so if you want to play as the brutii you must first understand the basics of fighting a phalanx:
1. Always attempt to attack a phalanx at the flanks never head on as they will sustain little to no casualties and you will sustain a whole lot
2. Never attack a phalanx that is defending a bridge this is pretty much certain defeat unless you have a lot of missile units
3. Use as many missile units as you can weaken the enemy phalanx before attacking them
4. Always be prepared to sustain casualties
5. Always try to starve out a settlement (this may be time consuming but you will lose less men)
6. If attacked by a phalanx army wait for them to march to you
7. The phalanx is a cumbersome formation so use your superiority manoeuvrability to beat them
8. Try to position your men behind unpassable terain to break up the phalanx

You will get more money but at high cost in life so you have to decide whether you are willing to pay that price

The scipii are also not that good as you have to defeat carthage which dwarfs you in size and military power so it takes a lot of skill and then if you do beat carthage, you are then ordered to conquer the rest of africa which because of the large distance between settlements is hard to conquer in the limited time that the senate gives you and then if you suceed again you are stuck with a large amount of infertile land with only small towns as settlements and all of your armies very far from rome

So for these reasons i would say that the julii are the best to start with as they dont rely on navy (which the other 2 do) which rome has always been weak in and if you transport your men via sea you will eventually find a carthiginian or greek navy killing your ships along with the army that were on them. with the julii you usually conquer gaul and if the scipii fail parts of africa but you will normally not be ordered to go any further than the fertile coast and if you defeat a few Gallish armies then their lands are easy pickings, the towns are reasonably close together and the land is fertile and being in control of the north you can make sure no other roman faction can get into mainland europe on land without your consent as you can block the alpine passes, this keeps the other romans in and the barbarians out in my experiance being in control of the alps means you wield a lot of power and the last bonus of the julii is that because of your policy about the plebs is that you gain support of the plebs faster so you can invade rome while the other roman factions are still fledgeling states so it is easy to defeat them and then you will soon be able to complete the whole game.

As a last piece of advice i would recomend that you start off with the short campaign option just to get the feel of the game before you go into a proper campaign

I hope i have helped and i think this is the longest post i have ever posted!

[marceror]

I managed to locate it on Steam. Thanks.

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

my campain wont start it goes to the start screen and i click start but it goes to the single player menu i tried to make all the factions playable but now i cant play a campain at all what is wrong

[marceror]

Quick guess... you messed up your data file somehow when you attempted to make all factions playable. Hopefully you backed that file up. If not, and you don't know how to fix the file manually, you may be stuck reinstalling the game to get a clean file.

[XxAndrewxX2525]

EB, get RS II.

[The_Valiant]

EB, get RS II.

EB seems too big... I haven't played RS II, but it seems the right size. I liked RTR Platinum, that was just the right size and enough units. Perfect fit for me.

[Requies]

EB campaign is a lot better than RSII one.

[The_Valiant]

EB campaign is a lot better than RSII one.

I'm sure, I started a Baktria campaign when I downloaded it, and the campaign just seemed to long and the map too big. I just don't have the patience or time to devote to it.