This mod is unplayablly hard. How do you deal with it?

[uberman7788]

I've had to restart my campagin a dozen times and there is no success to this.

1. Hannibal's army completely wipes the starting full stack, every time. No matter what tactics I use, no matter how many times I try the battle, Hannibal's troops are simply just stronger and there is nothing I can do about it. I can't even move the stack away.

2. I only have enough money at the start to recruit 2 units.

3. After I recruit said units, the finances are in such ruin from the start that I have -5000 after the 2nd turn.

4. After a few turns, Maharbal and Hannibal take northern Italy, with me unable to do anything because I can't recruit anything.

5. Half of Italy revolts and takes whatever Carthage didn't.

6. I end up holding up in Sicily with no troops, no money, severely in debt, with no hope. Every single time. No matter what difficulty I choose for the campaign or battles.

This mod ****s Rome campaign starters over from the very beginning. I don't see how this is playable or fun. Or am I doing something wrong?

[Hoplite of Ilis]

3. After I recruit said units, the finances are in such ruin from the start that I have -5000 after the 2nd turn.

add_money 99999999



I totaly understand!

[x187x BigEazyE]

Try winning that first battle. I win every time, Try emptying the surrounding cities of troops, fill up your main stack with what u can, (Cavalry) and whats left over let the A.I control in battle, they will be good distractions and will most likely cause hannibal to split his army. strategy and tactics mang, either u got em or u don't. play smart, dont just try charge your army in. If hannibal wont advance, send in a cavalry charge or archers/skirmishers to make him advance, (kill a few and they will advance to your position,without fail every time.) Other than that man I dont know what to tell you. In my opinion rome is the easiest to win with. try seleucia if you want "HARD" .

[Post Hoc]

What difficulty do you play on? How much experience playing RTW do you have?

You do not have to fight the battle at the beginning, just don't move that stack anywhere for the first turn. You can send units to that army without triggering the battle.

Jack up your taxes in every city to very high but be careful not to leave them on very high for a long time.

Send a fleet to pick up Scipio and his army in Emporiae and another to pick up the other Scipio in Sicily.

In my experience you must defeat and kill hannibal's army before the first rebellion or else you will have a significantly harder time.

If you want i can post a little beginning tutorial and show you how to manage early on.

[uberman7788]

I even tried that first 10 years guide and I have no idea how that guy got 60k from the first turn.

Rome is such a money sink its incredible. It starts out as -15k!

Again, no matter what I do Hannibal always wins.

I'll probably just end up adding cheat money. Its the only way, at this point.

[Hoplite of Ilis]

Seriously now, RS2 is really hard on the money... even on easy. Does it happen even if you build nothing for a few turns? I'm having a mind to play it again just to find out why it's such a *****...

[uberman7788]

One odd thing is that after the 1st turn all my settlements get switched to auto manage.

Also I'm trying to avoid cheating as much as possible. So I'm just gonna spam assassins at hannibal until he dies.

Also all the rebellions happen on turn 2 so I have NO time to prepare for them. Can't even move the Scipios from abroad before Rome falls to the rebels.

[Toho]

I just hate rome in general because of some obscure reason that cities are always producing -2000 and I just dont know why...

[Scipio praeditus]

I just hate rome in general because of some obscure reason that cities are always producing -2000 and I just dont know why...

Not sure if this has been adressed, but those figures are averages of the total income relative to population numbers, a city can make a profit and still display a negative on the strategic map.
The end-turn financial balance is the only thing that counts.

[uberman7788]

I'm probably just gonna play Arverni. Thanks RS 2 for turning me off to Rome entirely.

[Post Hoc]

Give me 30 minutes i will post a survival guide.

[tungri_centurio]

abandon emporio and bring army to italy
abandon dyrracium and that army you combine with the one from sicily
you now have 3+ armys to take on hannibal and the rebels
taxes on verry high let hannibal take arettium
siege him for max amount of turnsif 2/3of his army is left you can take him out relativly easy,defeat the other carthagian army with army from spain
i never had any problems with 1st rebellion,if you sack all citys that rebeled you are almost out of the red
take out rebels with army from sicily and dyrracium and iff you killed hannibal disband an army
use your spy to open the gates or garrison script kicks in,its ment to be hard in the start

[Spartan999]

abandon emporio and bring army to italy
abandon dyrracium and that army you combine with the one from sicily
you now have 3+ armys to take on hannibal and the rebels
taxes on verry high let hannibal take arettium
siege him for max amount of turnsif 2/3of his army is left you can take him out relativly easy,defeat the other carthagian army with army from spain
i never had any problems with 1st rebellion,if you sack all citys that rebeled you are almost out of the red
take out rebels with army from sicily and dyrracium and iff you killed hannibal disband an army
use your spy to open the gates or garrison script kicks in,its ment to be hard in the start

He should be able to take out Hannibal as long as he uses his units right.
Also I think Dyrrachium should be given to the Macedonians to have a temp peace treaty and some trade rights (he can use the force dimplomacy to make sure the Macedonian to accept since it is a fair deal, and maybe even have the Macedonians pay him about 2000/10000 gold coin)

[Spartan999]

(This is for Medium to hard difficulty only, as you can't auto resolve the rebellion in very hard with your troop and expect to win).
Attack Hannibal after you brought 2 Campanion cavalry from Capua, 1 latin cav from Rome, and transfered maybe some cohorts from Rome as well (Arretium and Ariminum corhort could bbe used as well)
Use the 2 Campanion cavalry, 1 latin cavalry, 1 equitaes, and 1 ally equitaes to go behind Hannibals back and then attack his general bodyguard from behind. It also helps to put all your cohorts in defensive formation in one line, while keeping the Triari on the back.

Now after beating Hannibal, move your navy to Capua's port (I believe that is the closest port) and used them in the 2nd turn to bring scippio's army from Sicily.

After that build 2 brimes in Capua to make your existing navy more powerful and then build 3/4 brimes in Rome to send to Iberia to get Scippio Senior (it will take two turn to get him to Iberia to Italia).

[Templar Knight]

I've had to restart my campagin a dozen times and there is no success to this.

1. Hannibal's army completely wipes the starting full stack, every time. No matter what tactics I use, no matter how many times I try the battle, Hannibal's troops are simply just stronger and there is nothing I can do about it. I can't even move the stack away.

2. I only have enough money at the start to recruit 2 units.

3. After I recruit said units, the finances are in such ruin from the start that I have -5000 after the 2nd turn.

4. After a few turns, Maharbal and Hannibal take northern Italy, with me unable to do anything because I can't recruit anything.

5. Half of Italy revolts and takes whatever Carthage didn't.

6. I end up holding up in Sicily with no troops, no money, severely in debt, with no hope. Every single time. No matter what difficulty I choose for the campaign or battles.

This mod ****s Rome campaign starters over from the very beginning. I don't see how this is playable or fun. Or am I doing something wrong?

1-Then dont fight Hannibal the first turn.... simply dont touch your army and when you end turn the AI will move Hannibal away to go do other things generally.

2-Yeah you start with enough money to recruit more then two units....

3-Jack up the taxes, and frankly I think you might be exaggerating that -5000. Either way the beginning of the campaign is financially difficult and it will take a while before you can get your economy into high gear.

4-Divide and conquer dont fight both of those stacks at the same time and make sure you have sufficient troops in position when you do you fight. You are going to want to withdraw from the provinces outside of Italy and bring those soldiers back to Italy to fight the Carthaginians and Rebels.

5-Yes the first rebellion can be a pain, but through patience and determination you will beat it.

6-Perhaps you just aren't a very good player and you need to refine your skills. It is very much possible to survive the opening of the Roman campaign as I and many other players have done it multiple times.

It's supposed to be a challenge, if you want an easy start then I'd suggest vanilla.

I'm probably just gonna play Arverni. Thanks RS 2 for turning me off to Rome entirely.

It's not the teams fault you are loosing, and frankly there are many of us that enjoy the difficult start as it makes the game more enjoyable and rewarding once you get going. Have fun with the Gauls, just remember Rome isn't an easy enemy to beat when they come knocking, and they will.

[uberman7788]

I'm not exaggerating in the slightest. In fact it was the opposite way. After turn 1, I was left with a resounding -7342 in the bank.

Also I start with 5001 gold. It costs ~2400 to recruit 1 unit of cohorts/triarii.

[Post Hoc]

Defeating Hannibal in less than 2 turns:

First thing to do is jack up your taxes in every city ( i didnt put any cities into the blue)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Second thing to do is send one ship to sicily and the other to emporiae and bring back the two armies.

END TURN

The other carthiginian army will attack you automatically, defeat this army easily

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The ship you sent to sicily should be able to arrive with the army. Disembark them in northern italy and send them right next to hanniabl.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Then attack hannibal with your main army and win the battle.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[uberman7788]

Defeating Hannibal in less than 2 turns:

First thing to do is jack up your taxes in every city ( i didnt put any cities into the blue)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Second thing to do is send one ship to sicily and the other to emporiae and bring back the two armies.

END TURN

The other carthiginian army will attack you automatically, defeat this army easily

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The ship you sent to sicily should be able to arrive with the army. Disembark them in northern italy and send them right next to hanniabl.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Then attack hannibal with your main army and win the battle.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Ok so there might be something wrong.

If you didn't do ANYTHING in the 1st screenshot other than jack up taxes - here is my differences to yours (without touching anything)

Starting treasury - 5001
Income - 58k
Expenses - 66k

While your expenses are 48k and income 60k.

[uberman7788]

The above post, since I can't figure out how to edit, was all from memory. Here is a screenshot of a medium/medium (I usually do H/H, doesn't matter anyways its the same numbers) fresh start. I have not done ANYTHING other than open the finances screen.



So, Templar Knight, was I exaggerating?

[5th Lieutenant]

This is supposed to be Rome's darkest hour; they lost the first battle and suffered the rebellions of the Socii. To what people have said:

Kill Hannibal as soon as you can, even if you lose the battle that is a major victory.

The Carthaginians cannot reinforce that quickly, so when Hannibal is dead you can destroy them, or issolate them, quite easily.

Bring your overseas armies home if needs be.

Increase taxes as fast as possible and generate more fighting forces ASAP.

Rome wins in the medium term if you stick with it; the campaign is supposed to begin with drama in order to reflect history.

Once you survive Hannibal, things get better and this is an epic mod...