Starting

[adailton_jr]

Hi guys! I'm new here also in the game!! Wonderful Game!!! I'm Brazilian so you don't care about my typping errors ...
I'm starting to play RTW and I wish to now if you can help me to became a Great Emperor.
rsrsrsr!!
Fighting and Management tatics...

Thanks!!!!

[Surlethe]

Rome: Total War in a Nutshell

Brought to you by Surlethe

Warfare: fight only when you will win.
Management: build your economy while keeping your civilians healthy.

Essentially, stay at peace until you're sure you're going to win; be sure you're aware of your enemy's troop movements, composition, and locations; and constrict his ability to wage warfare by blockading ports and cutting down trade.

[Cha0sMarin3]

Fighting tactics :Fully depends on what nation you are about to play.
Management: Build ports! Ports! Ports! Ports! They give alot of money to pay your soldiers.

[Hannibal Barca]

Build temples and farms early on and put taxes on very high (or as high as possible). Build ports and mines too, they generate a very good income. Also build roads if you have other cities nearby, this will generate more trade.

I always build economic buildings first. I will produce the best troops from my capital (starts with better barracks) and build more military buildings there. If you get your economy sorted out early, you can crush your enemies after a short while as you can field much greater armies.

While you are building a good economy, defend. Allow an army to siege and then attack it with another army. Retrain this army. Delay enemies with forts containing one unit of peasants. Keep a unit or 2 of peasants as garrisons in each city and have an army of good quality soldiers to protect all of your cities.

[adailton_jr]

Thanks guys!!!
Theses ware very helpful!
Just completing, I'm playing with Julii for beginning. I'm getting up set with that craizy missions from Senate! How can I attack and take Massilia in only 10 turn with so few troops I have ??:hmmm: They are very insane!
And after I heard that tha Senate ask you to kill your self! It's true?

[Oldgamer]

Thanks guys!!!
Theses ware very helpful!
Just completing, I'm playing with Julii for beginning. I'm getting up set with that craizy missions from Senate! How can I attack and take Massilia in only 10 turn with so few troops I have ??:hmmm: They are very insane!
And after I heard that tha Senate ask you to kill your self! It's true?

I've never obeyed an order to kill myself!

The Senate will give you orders, and it is best to do what they say. But if it is impossible, failing a mission or two will not bring down the wrath of the Senate upon you, as long as the failed missions aren't one after the other.

Concerning "impossible" missions, they usually aren't all that impossible. I've been in the position where I was ordered to take Massilia after taking Segesta. I put four infantry units, one velite unit, and a general on a ship, and sailed to the coast, south of Massilia. Then, I besieged the place for one turn (so that I could build a single ram), and attacked.

The enemy outnumbered me, and the ratio was 1:3. But, I always fight a battle on the battlemap. Never, EVER, autocompute battle results! You are always a better general than the computer. The result of the battle was the loss of 17 men, and the enemy was totally destroyed.

I don't know whether you're playing a mod, or not, but the above won't work if a city has stone walls. The towers and gatehouse will destroy your ram, if that's all you have. You need ladders, siege towers, and/or sapping points.

[Surlethe]

And after I heard that tha Senate ask you to kill your self! It's true?

The Senate won't ask you to kill yourself until much later in the game; it will use you until you become the most powerful faction, and then, when you are able to rebel and march on Rome (there'll be a pop-up when that happens), if you don't, the Senate will order your faction leader to commit suicide.

Actually, I wanted all my troops to be in place before I attacked, so I killed my faction leader twice when I was playing as the Brutii ... .

[adailton_jr]

Right! I get it! But wicht is the best form to flank? Keep a unit of equites out of battle range and when the enemi strike me and then send my cav? Or run to their rear and then charge them?

[Zuwxiv]

For the Romans, you have pretty good troops.

When you fight a battle, remember this:

You have some good heavy infantry - they will do well in melee combat. Let them throw their pila (javelins) first and then fight the enemy. Your troops are also fairly maneuverable - try to run around the enemy and outflank them. The Romans won't have much of a problem defeating most of their opponents, as the Romans have very strong infantry.

On the campaign, don't worry too much about the Senate. Build up your economy. If you aren't at war, build up your economy by building farm upgrades, markets, ports, etc. But make sure you have the ability to train the best soldiers you can.

You will also notice that some temples might have bonuses for different types of units. If you capture a settlement with a temple that has a bonus to missile troops, build the best archery range buildings and only train missile troops there. Have different cities devoted to certain types of units - one city can train cavalry, another trains infantry, the other trains ranged units. That way, you don't have to make tons of buildings in every city - it's faster and cheaper to make the best units.

[JayC]

hiya. wt i do is l8er on in the campange (spelling mistake) if i hav gt a big region (Athens) n it as gt stone walls for defences thn i have about 12 units of archers in the region with about 1 unit of cav n 4 units of infantry. This always works for me because sometimes the enemy siege my region wiv about 2 batterin rams unless i leave thm 2 wait 2 get mre seige equipment. So wen thy attack me with a full stack n hav lil seige equipment i get about 5 units of arches all 2 fire at the unit thts mvin the seige equipment n the ova 7 units 2 fire at the enemies ova units tht aint doing nothin but wen the enemies troops aint in range i use my cav unit 2 run out of the gates n lure the enemy close enough 2 be fired at by my arches n thn i mke my cav unit run bk in the gates (i find it entertainin lds of enemy units getting wiped out by my arches lol).

[HappeR]

If you have just started I recommend you play one of the Roman families. Brutii and Julii are the easiest, because they have the most 'free' enemy settlements. The key to learning to play RTW is just finding out what works for you.

You can be an agressive nation, focussing on conquest to profit, but you can also be an economic nation, gaining a load of money from trading. You can also try to be a combination of those.

The advantage of being an agressive nation is that you will have the edge of superior troop quality and quantity when fighting the AI, but you will need to take other factions towns to survive, because you economy is not that good.

An economic nation can become very rich, very fast, but don't have a huge army. To win battles you have to rely on superior strategy, rather than troop quality and quantity. Being an economic nation when playing as Brutii is very easy, because you expand into Greece, which has pretty rich towns. The Julii can be a great economic nation too, because they have many easy to take barbarian cities, but you will face the Gauls, who will be able to make full stacks appear out of nowhere, so a pretty big army is advisable.

[NobleNick]

Weclome to RTW, adailton_jr!!!

As was said, management and tactics depends on who you play. Since you are just starting, I'll make the pretty safe assumption that you are going Roman. So...

Go to the top page at this site and surf until you find the campaign tutorials. Read the tutorial for the faction that you are about to play (I would suggest starting with the Julii SHORT campaign on normal difficulty settings).

Management: Move general and entire garrison in each city JUST out of town for JUST a moment. Go to the town's construction screen and set taxes to NORMAL. If your (town's population/3000) + (town's population growth in %) is more than 7 then do not build farm upgrades. Use 8 instead of 7 for these same cities after population reaches 12000 and you have completely upgraded markets as high as you can. Use 6 instead of 7 for cities you capture close by, in the early game. Use 4 for cities captured far away, of a different culture and/or in the late game.

Remembering the rule above, build and upgrade economic buildings like farms, roads, markets, ports, and mines aggressively. Farms are important if your growth rate is too slow. Roads, markets and ports are very important all the time. Mines are nice to have; but can make your city a tempting target for invasion. Public health buildings are a luxury that is not needed in the early game. Same for Temples that do not give an economic or military bonus. Even walls should be left for later if the risk is worth the payoff.

Pay close attention to economy in the beginning, and try to limit military spending: buy only the military that you need. You NEED good infantry; but you do NOT need a barracks, blacksmith and military upgrade temple in every city. Build a barracks, blacksmith and a military-friendly temple (if available) in one city with a high population. Build archery, blacksmith and any needed temple in another. Stables, etc. in yet another. In all the other cities, build economy non-stop.

Use your limited military to take easy cities in the beginning: rebel cities like Segesta (for the Julii). Listen to the Senate in the beginning: They will give you assignments that will help build your empire in a structured way. And they also give nice rewards for success. Later on in the game, the tasks are not so helpful to you, and the rewards not so nice.

For military: There are lots of variation in techniques,tricks and strategies; but I think most people would tell you to build a well rounded military that relies mostly on the best infantry that you can buy. 1/2 infantry, 1/3 cavalry and 1/6 archers is probably close to the average of all the different advice you will get. Use more archers and less cav for protecting a town. Build only Peasants for garrisoning the cities at the protected center of your empire.

Build spies to scout out the territory ahead of you, so the your armies do not get surprised. Build a few diplomats to go get trade agreements, so that your ports and markets bring in more money. Build a few assassins to kill the other spies, generals and diplomats, and to kill the assassins that are trying to kill yours.

Do NOT auto-resolve battles. At least not while you are learning. Play every one out, since you should quickly learn to do much better than the A.I. will do for you.

EDIT: WHOA! A lot of posts since I started on my reply. So, You are playing Julii.

I'm getting up set with that craizy missions from Senate! How can I attack and take Massilia in only 10 turn with so few troops I have ??:hmmm: They are very insane!
And after I heard that tha Senate ask you to kill your self! It's true?

The Senate missions are NOT insane, they are very doable AND very helpful in the beginning. Think: You need 2 turns at the city in order to take it. You need 3 turns to get an army there (MAYBE 2 if you go by boat). So that leaves 10-5 = 5 turns to raise an army and get them staged at Segesta. You probably only need 5 of the right units to take the town, so build them in several towns and make sure they and a boat are there at turn 5.

[Trajan]

Moved to the Total War Battle Planning sub-forum.

[adailton_jr]

Thanks you all!!!

This topic got better then I thought!
I'm not accustomed with it! In Portuguese forum's they just suggest a link!

Now I will put it in test on the battlefild!!!
Thanks again!

Edited:

Ixi!!! Try to do it! I'm only with 5 cities (Caralis, Mediolaniun,Segeasta, Aretium e Ariminun) and going to try take Patavium, the year is 253 BC and is Winter ( the Game started at Summer 270BC) . This is a good progress? :hmmm:

[Surlethe]

Ixi!!! Try to do it! I'm only with 5 cities (Caralis, Mediolaniun,Segeasta, Aretium e Ariminun) and going to try take Patavium, the year is 253 BC and is Winter ( the Game started at Summer 270BC) . This is a good progress? :hmmm:

You have a whole lot more to go! It is good progress, but you have lots more good progress ahead of you, I'm sure. The Julii generally expand into Gaul, so you should have your sights set to the north and west.

[adailton_jr]

!! Not like Aexander, The graete, that had conquest almost all Asia and Egypt in only 20 Years! rsrsrs. I'm center my attentions on then! Gauls! They have already 6 cities! Their army is grow up fastly!! .... but i'm blockating their ports and try to cancel theair aliance with Germmanys, but I don't not how to do it! I already have trade right wiht Germmanys, but don't show in the screen aliance's option!

[JayC]

Adailton_jr, do you try and do what the senate tells you to do? (if you dont then you should to start off with but afta a while in the game make sure your regions near Rome are strong because the over Romans will attack you). I think your doing good progress. How much Daneria (speeling mistake) do you have and how much do you make each turn in profit?

[golden collini]

A good tip, use your diplomants to exchange map information for money! First ask for trade deal, then go for the cash......helps early in the game when your waiting for your economy to grow.

If you wish to raise the population of a settlement quickly and want to keep the population of your large towns low for a while, (keeping costs down) raise peasant units and send them to low population towns = disband them, this will increase the settlements population more quickly!

hope it helps?

[penance_of_discord]

oh, sad. i worte a long post of tips, and by the time i finished the site auto-logged me out, and it deleted the entire post! rawr....