Post your RTR VII Empires here!

[Mausolos of Caria]

That looks like quite the challenge! Diplomacy on the RTW engine can be rather broken at times, there's actually a force diplomacy option if you need it. Typically, out of honour, I only use it if I've completely crushed a faction but dont want to annex it. However, if you're on the verge of losing a campaign then I suppose you could use it, I always see it as an option of last resort though. Its much more fun to try and grind it out in the good old fashioned way.

That looks like a really great campaign though! I cant wait to see how it all wraps up.

I'm not very optimistic about it, though, because I only make just over 10 000 per round.

How does the force_diplomacy- thing work on RTR VII? I would at least do it with the Aitolians because it's quite unrealistic they would betray their allies while being under pressure by Sparta and the Achaians.

[DukeCanada]

Simply open negotiations, and hit the "?" on the side. That should bring the adviser in from the left side of the screen. Then hit the "show me how" button, it is the lowest down button with the green circle.

Then make an offer and they should accept. Be sure to offer 100 drachmas with the deal

[Mausolos of Caria]

Simply open negotiations, and hit the "?" on the side. That should bring the adviser in from the left side of the screen. Then hit the "show me how" button, it is the lowest down button with the green circle.

Then make an offer and they should accept. Be sure to offer 100 drachmas with the deal

Ah thanks, has this been in the last patch or even before?

[Maurits]

I've got an Epirote campaign, too, which runs pretty well. I play on M/M, though.

Conquering Italy is the first big challenge. Key to taking and keeping Sicily is positioning a strong fleet between it and Carthage to hunt on reinforcements. The Romans will be very hard to defeat, you really need good governors and your elites to crush them. Interesting campaign!

[Mausolos of Caria]

I've got an Epirote campaign, too, which runs pretty well. I play on M/M, though.

Conquering Italy is the first big challenge. Key to taking and keeping Sicily is positioning a strong fleet between it and Carthage to hunt on reinforcements. The Romans will be very hard to defeat, you really need good governors and your elites to crush them. Interesting campaign!

I think this is H/M because I like to have ''realistic'' battles in which the enemy soldiers don't get those silly bonuses. And on the campaign map ''very hard'' makes everyone attack you immediately, which isn't very historical, too

Yeah I don't have that much problems with the Romans actually, crushed 1000 Romans with 500 Greeks only losing 25 men today. But thanks for the advice for the fleet to blockade reinforcement from Carthago, I forgot that Although I did the same on RTR 6 with the Romans.

[demagogos nicator]

Interesing campaign Mausoslos, do not give up
I wanted to post screenshots of mine campagin but print screen button in my new laptop seems to not working as I was used to in my old computer, so I do not know how to do it.
I am playing on H/H and I am trying to play in the style as the real Pyrrhos did (quick expansion, do not bother much with securing my positions and retraining etc.). I do not care if I lose, my goal is to recreate the adventurous nature of Pyrrhos as accurate as possible and have fun.
After victory at Heraclea I moved north and crushed another large roman army consisiting of survivors from Heraclea (those triarii were immortal) and local Italic mercaneries near Grumentum. Than I conquered the city and spent there winter. Next year I moved northwards conquering Venusia and Cannnae. In 278 BC I met another large Roman force (consisting of Etruscans and Oscans) near ARPI and affter bloody battle I gained Pyrrhic victory. I avoided besieging Arpi because it has strong garison (including survivers from the battle) and moved Westwards and now (summer 277BC) I am besieging Beneventum instead. Then I want to conquere Cumae and sail Pyrrhos with his army to Sicily.
I did also send a small force under command of Aegon to capture Rhegion but he was defeated and must retreat, now I reinforced his army and send him capture Paestrum.

On Sicily I destroyed rebel armies, conquered Agyrion and than Carthaginians attacked me (they managed to destroy Numidians first). I am succesfuly defending my positions with Hieros army but the largest Carthaginian force (the Magos army who defeated Hicetas) is still wandering meaningless between Pannormus and Messana.

Home in Epeiros was everithing calm (Illyrians are still my alies probably thanks to my strong garrisons in border settlements) until the last turn when Aitolians attacked my border reagions. However, they seems to be no real threat, If they are too annoying I would probably take them Thermon and give it to Achaeans

Economicaly, I am trying to keep my treasury between 40.000 and 50.000 but with opening a new front in Greece it seems the things are going to be more complicated for my economy.

Btw. I tried to play some RSII recently and I really like their Sarrissa model. I think would be really great to see some more detailed sarrissas also in RTR

[Maurits]

There's been a long and friendly relation between our teams, I'm pretty sure that we could use their sarissa when we'd ask for it. Could you try to make a screen to show the difference?

[Mausolos of Caria]

@ Demagogos

That's a very interesting idea for your campaign! I know what you mean about the Carthaginians on Sicily, they never use their largest army As for the economy: Are you building anything? And are you recruiting new soldiers?

For screenshots there's a lot of different software, just google it and you should find enough

[demagogos nicator]

@Maurits
Here are some screenshots from RSII Ptolemaic preview:


As you can see RS sarissas are thicker than ones used in RTR, they have leaf shaped head and special shaped butt-spike. I do not know how they would look with RTR pikemen model but in RS they looks quite impresive and I also quess that they are also more accurate.
here is the link if you want to see the whole preview:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=210379

@Mausolos

I spent my money rather carefully. I slowly build my infrastucture and avoiding building expensive building.till now I have builded basic roads in all my regions, now I am slowly building marketplaces in my MiRs.
I train new units (mainly plsoi and ektodromoi )only in the places when I need them as garison troops for border settlements or the new conquered ones. I do not train any new attack armies I only reinforce my main army with mercaneries when it is necesary.

[Mausolos of Caria]

@Mausolos

I spent my money rather carefully. I slowly build my infrastucture and avoiding building expensive building.till now I have builded basic roads in all my regions, now I am slowly building marketplaces in my MiRs.
I train new units (mainly plsoi and ektodromoi )only in the places when I need them as garison troops for border settlements or the new conquered ones. I do not train any new attack armies I only reinforce my main army with mercaneries when it is necesary.

Ah okay, that sounds right when you want to do it as realistic as possible. One more reason to get screenshots!

[Caligula Caesar]

Don't expect improvements like this, though. Tony was in the process of putting in RSII spears, but we haven't had anyone to take over that since.

[Maurits]

Don't expect improvements like this, though. Tony was in the process of putting in RSII spears, but we haven't had anyone to take over that since.

Maybe it would be a good idea to try to find someone with modelling skills? There are quite some jobs left to do for VII

[Pat89]

You know that that always has been kinda the issue, right?

[Maurits]

Yes, I do.

But maybe we should try a little harder to find someone?

[Caligula Caesar]

You have a job, then

[Mausolos of Caria]

If I may go on with pics Just a few screenshots I found in my order from various RTR VII campaigns who seemed interesting to me

Taking the Aquila to Herakleia after the battle in the afore mentioned campaign:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A nice temple in Calabria during another victorious battle for the Greeks:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Carthaginians defending against a superior Contestani army in Eastern Spain at a burnt down homestead:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The battle of Ilipa played as a custom battle- Scipio showing off his tactical genius, even against elephants:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[DukeCanada]

Looks like you're having fun! So you're currently running two campaigns?

Here's a quick update on my campaign

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

By 216 all of Italy is under Macedonian control. I can currently boast 8 armies on campaign in Italy. Two are on the border with Averni Cisalpine Gaul, one is returning to Italy after a small campaign against the Illyrians, and the other 5 are collecting in southern Italy. I plan to invade Sicily and crush the Romans at long last. This was has been ongoing for 25 years, and it needs to come to an end.

Of the 6 armies going to Sicily, 2 are elite (Almost all units have gold, or atleast 2 silver chevrons), 2 are veteran (most units have silver chevrons, some may have multiple bronze), and two are relatively new, but not fresh (most units have multiple bronze chevrons, but there are a few silver experience units in the stack). Between these 6 armies I'm fielding 3 units of Asian elephants.

I'm still managing to make about 35 000 - 40 000 drachmas a turn, so I'm not doing too bad. Capturing Italy was a pain, the Romans were relentless. It took quite a while to finish the government buildings, but now that they're done I can use Italy as a second zone of recruitment for my armies. Not to mention re-training and all those other military related actions.

I'm not sure what to do after I defeat the Romans. Intuition tells me that I should campaign against the Averni who have been attacking me in Northern Italy. The only problem is that I'm just finishing a very long war against the Romans, and I would like to avoid going on a new one for a short while. I may consider second 3 or 4 armies to Iberia to help the Carthaginians against the Celtiberians. Perhaps if Carthage takes Iberia they will be able to pressure the Averni from the West.

[Mausolos of Caria]

Looks like you're having fun! So you're currently running two campaigns?

Here's a quick update on my campaign

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

By 216 all of Italy is under Macedonian control. I can currently boast 8 armies on campaign in Italy. Two are on the border with Averni Cisalpine Gaul, one is returning to Italy after a small campaign against the Illyrians, and the other 5 are collecting in southern Italy. I plan to invade Sicily and crush the Romans at long last. This was has been ongoing for 25 years, and it needs to come to an end.

Of the 6 armies going to Sicily, 2 are elite (Almost all units have gold, or atleast 2 silver chevrons), 2 are veteran (most units have silver chevrons, some may have multiple bronze), and two are relatively new, but not fresh (most units have multiple bronze chevrons, but there are a few silver experience units in the stack). Between these 6 armies I'm fielding 3 units of Asian elephants.

I'm still managing to make about 35 000 - 40 000 drachmas a turn, so I'm not doing too bad. Capturing Italy was a pain, the Romans were relentless. It took quite a while to finish the government buildings, but now that they're done I can use Italy as a second zone of recruitment for my armies. Not to mention re-training and all those other military related actions.

I'm not sure what to do after I defeat the Romans. Intuition tells me that I should campaign against the Averni who have been attacking me in Northern Italy. The only problem is that I'm just finishing a very long war against the Romans, and I would like to avoid going on a new one for a short while. I may consider second 3 or 4 armies to Iberia to help the Carthaginians against the Celtiberians. Perhaps if Carthage takes Iberia they will be able to pressure the Averni from the West.

Congratulations to your success! Taking Italy must have been a hell of work, I rarely get that far in my TW campaigns
As for the last part of your post- are you allied with Carthago then?

Yeah I'm always running more than one campaign, but I'm mainly playing the Epiros one at the moment, when I have the time.

[Visarion]

Macedon has nice colors!

[DukeCanada]

Kinda, I think the worst of it was trying to secure southern and central Italy. Once Tarentum could retrain and recruit units it became much easier.

Im not allied to Carthago, although I was at some point. Still, I guess my enemies' enemy is my friend. The Averni have a presence in Iberia, I imagine that if the Carthaginians managed to take Celtiberian Iberia they would be forced into conflict with the Averni in the North.