Roma Surrectum 2.5 Gameplay Help, please.

[Fozzie]

Firstly, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Fozzie, and I'm a TotalWaraholic. I've been playing Total War games since RTW first came out. Sadly, I'm ashamed to say I didn't even know mods existed for these games until about six months ago. I've been prowling the forums for any information I've needed, and I rarely post, as answers usually already exist for problems I've had. That being said, I believe I've hit a wall.

On to my question:

Roma Surrectum 2.5. I love it. I've played SS, TATW, Thera, and HURB extensively, and I've enjoyed all of those as well. I was a little wary of trying Roma Surrectum, mainly because I doubted the capabilities of RTW as a base. My doubts have been shattered. So to those of you who made and contributed to this mod, well done. Forreal. Well done. Alas, I am not used to such a complex economic and construction system. I'm having a hard time surviving through the first ten turns of my Roman campaign after about 5 attempts. I tried turning to Aristotle Folly's guide to success, but I think there may have been some serious financial changes. I've tried disbanding many units, increasing taxes within all settlements (while still maintaining order), and where Aristotle Folly seemed to reap about 60,000 denarii, I'm reaping about 14,000.

This is my most recent effort: I abandoned Emporiae and Dyrrachium to centralize my military effort, shipping those garrisoned forces to Rome. Hannibal attacks my cornered army, and spanks them. The army retreats to Arretium, where the following turn, Hannibal and his homie lay siege to both Arretium and Ariminum. I've wised up and evacuated all except a small garrison from those cities, also moving south to Rome. The following turn, Capua, Tarentum, and Crotona rebel. My strategy was to get as many men as possible to Rome as quickly as possible, because if I don't, the rebels lay siege to Rome by turn 4. Unfortunately, I'm at a stalemate by this time. I have 2 stacks of mediocre Rebublican forces compared to the elite Carthaginian and rebel forces. If I march north to deal with Hannibal, which I thought was plausible, the rebels toodle up north to take Rome. If I move south to deal with the rebels, Carthage carpe diem's my butt. If I split my forces to siege Capua and Arretium both, both settlements are promptly reinforced, and typically both armies are crushed. The final option I could see was holing up in Latium to raise forces in Rome. Alas, with the siege of Arretium, Ariminum, and soon after, Rhegion (rebels), my income had dropped from a modest 14,000 denarii (well enough to raise armies) to bankruptcy at roughly -8400 denarii per turn. This leaves me with a fixed fighting force, quickly diminishing property, and stirring unrest throughout my precious republic.

In the words of Kobe Bryant and Eric Cartman, "What should I do...?" I'm typically a tortoise-style total war player. I like to build my infrastructure to maintain a large fighting force without sacrificing small garrisons. I'm not used to being forced into a crisis on a shoe-string budget with a medium fighting force. Like I said in the beginning, I'm not sure if there were financial changes between the creation of Aristotle Folly's guide and RS2.5, but I would certainly appreciate any advice from you mighty veterans.


Thanks!
~Fozzie~

[Fozzie]

Good news! I had a development! I adjusted my game using the fewer stacks, shorter battles EDU, and I decided to start yet another Roman campaign given I haven't made it far. I started it again by planning to abandon Emporiae and Dyrrachium, this time building a bireme at Dyrrachium and Messana to more quickly move forces from those regions to the mainland (Publius Jr's army was temporarily garrisoned in Messana). Excluding the generals, I brought the garrisons from Roma, Capua, Arretium, and Ariminum to reinforce poor Gaius's cornered army, positioning them to his southwest flank. I deployed my existing navy west to ferry Publius Sr's army from Emporiae. I adjusted taxes (some even to blue face) to get myself out of the unfortunate starting income of -6000 some odd. End turn. Hannibal takes the bait. Leaving Gaius Nepos alone, he takes his forces east to siege Ariminum. I take my half stack garrison army, skirt around, and place it north of Hannibals army. I advance Gaius Nepos's full stack army to confront Hannibal. The combined force gives me a military advantage, and I'm actually able to defeat that Carthaginian butthole. He retreats, I assume to Iberia, and now only Maharbal and his men at Genoa remain. I have men coming from Emporiae, Dyrrachium, and Messana. Now the great news, and the part I love about RSII. Because I won the battle against Hannibal, only Capua rebels. I find this kinda historically coherent. The southern Italian settlements rebelled crossing their fingers that Hannibal would have success against the Romans. Capua, historically, were the first traitorous swine to abandon the republic, so I get losing them, but I love that victory against Hannibal yielded a smaller loss to the rebellion. It also made my job against the rebels significantly easier. With fresh troops from the sea, things are looking up!

~Fozzie~

[Fozzie]

That being said, I still invite anyone's input. I'm sure there are others in my position, and winning against Hannibal is, as I'm sure we all know by now, not a guarantee.

[ImperialAquila]

Note: This is how I play so many players may or may not agree with me.

You should take care of Hannibal during the 1st turn. Do not let him roam around, wrecking havoc in Italy. Take every available units and place them under Nepos' command then attack Hannibal. Utilize every battlefield tactic you may know to defeat him. Always go for the general to rout the troops. AF's guide is pretty helpful but she doesn't want to defeat Hannibal immediately preferring to play historically. Defeat Hannibal first, then as soon as his army retreats to Genoa (which usually happens), besiege and take the city. The Hannibal threat is now gone and this is by turn 3-4.

With Hannibal now gone, his BF Hanno is the only one left to contend with. I usually play while holding both Emporiae and Dyrrhachium because Emporiae is your foothold in Spain while Dyrrhachium is your foothold in Greece so better not lose them. Publius Cornelius Scipio (The one in Sicily) should be pulled back to Italy to deal with the rebellion on turn 2 or 3. The rebels will be piece of cake against your legionaries and the rebellion should be quelled or at least reduced to one city by turn 6.

Avoid expanding into enemy regions first but take free/rebel regions and keep fighting a defensive war with Carthage. There's a reason why RS2 is the Anti-Blitz game. Keep building and don't neglect economic growth. By turn 7-8 your economy should now be in the positive side. You can accomplish this easily. Just turtle in early game and you will reap the benefits mid to late game.

Turn 10-11, you should now have purchasing power to upgrade, retrain, and recruit troops. You could either expand to Greece or Spain. The choice is yours.

[Fozzie]

Unfortunately, I'm not an overwhelmingly strong battlefield general. I'm pretty good at managing my empire strategically, I'm mediocre on the field. I waited one turn to deal with Hannibal, before he could do more damage than surround Ariminum, because I needed as many men as possible to handle him. Having won, and with fresh men from the sea, I'm able to crush the rebellion. I plan to take what's left of Gaius's army and march him to Genoa to choke Carthage. I chose to give up the eastern and western provinces simply because I prefer a consolidated empire. I have a much harder time when I have to sweat over those isolated settlements. But then again, I understand your point. It's nice to have a deployment point in those respective areas. On the front of Hannibal, however, I am inclined to agree with you, @ImperialAquila.

[ImperialAquila]

Your play style seems good enough though. Strategically, you are capable my friend but as you said earlier, you're not strong on the battlefield and that's your weakness. I think it all comes down to being a battlefield general because if you can play your battles correctly, you don't have to worry about anything except your economy. You can win battles even if the odds are against you so you don't need to spend money on reinforcements too much or withdraw troops from the front which will leave the frontier undermanned. Try playing some custom battles to improve and learn flanking maneuvers.