[TWC Gaming Staff] TWR2 Legendary Challenge

[PROMETHEUS ts]

Iceni has already been completed, by me but it would be nice to see your screens and vids regardless
I do not want to risk losing what ive gained by a remade challenge as ive put quite a lot of admittedly enjoyable time into this, id very much approve of a new one however.

I think that Rome II is done now ... the next time , perhaps for Medieval III , the competition shoudl be organized better , like givng a startng date for each player, a chosen faction to compete for and so on ...

[terminator acheron]

Hi all - I have just finished the campaign on legendary as the Iceni and have uploaded the first to videos on my youtube here http://www.youtube.com/user/terminat...n?feature=mhum tomorrow I will upload the final rome 2 cinamatic footage from the completion of the campaign and screenshots of the steam achievements. so please subscribe and leave comments as I will be uploading the whole campaign over the next month as I have all up about 1TB of fraps. I will answer questions and explain how to win as we go - so I hope you join and enjoy. who do i send the save game replay to or is the video im about to put up ok a proof. please let me know - this sounds like fun

[bzhou]

Epirus done! Blitzed the last 40 regions in 3 hours without building in them phew.

http://imgur.com/a/l8djy

Edit: save

[The Forgotten]

Congratz man, although you might need to post the save.

But what happens now? Since the Seleucids arn't even out it would seem like all the factions are done.

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

Now, we wait.....

[DeliCiousTZM]

I want a medal that everyone can get who won every campaign on Legendary. Im hoping we will get that mhm grouhcy! Still waiting for my medal!

[Mithridate]

I support this suggestion and while im here:

Afaik regarding the current legendary challenge, we should have news at the beginning of october with luck.
Id also like to ask if anyone know when the Selucids will be made available, time will have to be set aside for it^^

Until then, fellow legendary players!

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

I support this suggestion and while im here:

Afaik regarding the current legendary challenge, we should have news at the beginning of october with luck.
Id also like to ask if anyone know when the Selucids will be made available, time will have to be set aside for it^^

Until then, fellow legendary players!

How many medals do you want sir? You've already got Pontus and the Iceni. What greed!

[Mithridate]

You make it sound as if greed was a bad thing They are three that I desire, aside from the one proposed by the Monetary.

Mans greed knows no bounds

Yet its counterpart generosity is not good, or helpful, or selfless in itself. Generosity is distributive. It makes no moral judgements and cares nothing for the effects of this distribution.
Worse, it can easily be made to create a distribution where all things flow to one place. That isn't generosity, that is greed.

Would not then the saying of mans greed knowing no bounds, also mean the same for our generosity? Id like to think so, while the truth is all in between.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sorry, could not help myself

I wanted Iceni for my heritage, Pontus for my namesake and Selucid for their words. If I can, then I shall claim them^^
The medals for the later faction/s, yet to be made available will be the more noteworthy as the game will have been patched to a more challenging point too.

Rambling aside: yes, I am greedy

[The Forgotten]

Iceni? I thought you were Scandinavian?

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

I really do not know how you get these results people. Are you patched up? I started an Epirus compaign on hard that was not going anywhere. Played on normal, Larissa was besieged some 7-8 times mostly by multiple stacks and fell by turn 12. In the meantime Pyrrhus was besieging Brundisium which was taken on turn 13 or so. So back up to two settlements but with civil unrest in one and food shortages in the other following the loss of Larissa. On turn 15 I had lost my spy, one army had been poisoned, Apollonia was besieged by 4 Athenian, Spartan and Ardiaei stacks plus an Athenian naval force while 17 Roman ships (and they were not the only Roman ships around) attacked Pyrrhus in Brundisium. The odds for both Apollonia and Brundisium were more than 6:1 against me. In Apollonia, the yellow was just visible in the odds bar and I had there a fleet, also some hoplites that had escaped from Larissa and the garrison. I restarted the campaign on easy. All the enemies of Epirus mostly held back until game turn 13. On game turn thirteen the Macedonians declared war and sent a full stack to attack Larissa. Immediately after that 4 smaller Athenian and Spartan armies attacked Larissa on the same turn. I was still outnumbered around 10:1. This is worse than fighting the Mongols in M2. And you do not get to fight the Mongol horde on game turn 13 when you only own two villages. How do you fend off these serial multistack attacks? Winning in Legendary in a few hours? I find it hard to believe. I would like to hear from someone who got to turn 20 or so on easy.

[Mithridate]

*Snip*

Using patch 2 for Eupirus and Chartage, ive not found much of a differance in the AI. Slightly more agressive, only really noticeable as cartage whom every faction hates.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I dont get how people have food problems as the civilized factions, food is incredibly abundant I took Athens on turn 1 and Sparta on turn two, as he lose his army along with Athens. Then conquer Macedon whom should invade your north... You may lose the village to macedon on turn 2 pr 3 but should be able to hold it and after that you have all the choices in the world.

Pikes makes any siege battle an utter slaughter, mercenaries are cheap and pretty deadly fodder for assaults

You could probably wipe macedon first and just hold off Athens but its a less effective strategy.

[bzhou]

I really do not know how you get these results people.

Hi! Looks like I should answer this, since I did the Epirus campaign. I played half on non-patched, then half on patch 2 beta as soon as it came out. Looks like this will be a mini-guide.

I basically blitzed the first 10 turns. The thing I probably abused the most was forced march reinforcement. Here's what I kind of did

Turn 1: Larissa army go to Sparta (right at the strait), Apollonia army stands on my side of the strait, within reinforcing distance, forced march. Recruited 3rd general at Larissa, move to same place as second army, recruiting 3 units (since army 2 can't recruit in forced march).
Turn 1 AI: Sparta attacks Larissan army (I may have gotten mercs with this army already, not sure) with his two generals. I kill them, ~60% killed, 20% casualties. Simple kiting against Sparta.

Edit: basically auto-resolved everything starting at Africa, but hey you gotta do what you gotta do for those medals!

Turn 2: With efficient use of forced march, kill Sparta, forced march (sail) to Knossos.

Turn ~4: Knossos is dead, I kill Athens in one turn (also declaring on Macedon), since most of his army is on the water next to Athens.

Turn ~4 AI: Rome declares on me.

From this point, I play hide and seek with Macedon's fleet and army stack, which keeps forced sailing towards Athens every time I move towards Pella. I take Pella with a smaller army and defend his attack on Athens. Rome is busy with Carthage, and from turn ~10 on I take Brundisium + Cosetta (?), then finish Italia, as Rome is busy elsewhere.

For the rest of the campaign, I took Africa and Garamantia's lands and swung clockwise through Mauretania, Iberia, Gaul, Britain, Germania, then finally pushed through Anatolia and blitzed the Seleucid 30 stacks. It's (it was) pretty doable, but I guess I was slightly lucky was well.

Edit: Looks like mithradate beat me to the punch, but basically in legendary you have to take advantage of the period where AI can't spam 5 units per turn.

[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]

Hi! Looks like I should answer this, since I did the Epirus campaign. I played half on non-patched, then half on patch 2 beta as soon as it came out. Looks like this will be a mini-guide.

I basically blitzed the first 10 turns. The thing I probably abused the most was forced march reinforcement. Here's what I kind of did

Turn 1: Larissa army go to Sparta (right at the strait), Apollonia army stands on my side of the strait, within reinforcing distance, forced march. Recruited 3rd general at Larissa, move to same place as second army, recruiting 3 units (since army 2 can't recruit in forced march).
Turn 1 AI: Sparta attacks Larissan army (I may have gotten mercs with this army already, not sure) with his two generals. I kill them, ~60% killed, 20% casualties. Simple kiting against Sparta.

Edit: basically auto-resolved everything starting at Africa, but hey you gotta do what you gotta do for those medals!

Turn 2: With efficient use of forced march, kill Sparta, forced march (sail) to Knossos.

Turn ~4: Knossos is dead, I kill Athens in one turn (also declaring on Macedon), since most of his army is on the water next to Athens.

Turn ~4 AI: Rome declares on me. <snipped>

Thanks bzhou. I tried something along these lines and Mithridate's. Taking Sparta then Athens by game turn 4 causes the AI to die (goes into deep defense - i.e. it becomes completely passive). From then on it is like playing a football game with only one team in the field.

If you would like to know what it is like playing against the AI, check my video below. The Rome II campaign AI is almost unbeatable in its current state even on easy difficulty. But it seems to only kick in at around game turn 4 or so and if you can get your faction to about 3-4 provinces before that, you break it and it never does anything.

[Zipzopdippidybopbop]

Han är inte Brittisk! Unless he considers his ancestors to be the women the Vikingr took home with them

[Mithridate]

It does say where im from, Uikikr all the way naturally

Iceni because theyre... well, blue. They can be made to fit the misty and fierce raider image from across the sea and all the later mixing with the Vikings. Oh, and head hurlers Not to mention the way the romans viewed them as opposed to the germans, they where an unknown fear from across the sea as opposed to the far better known german menace.

[Abels]

I made it with Pontus legendary .

http://postimg.org/image/fetxuivr9/

I will upload the safe game and the screenshot as soon as i am able too!

[Abels]

http://postimage.org/image/xbcwop4pf/
http://postimage.org/image/md68k95hv/


How can i get to the safe game? xD

[Toho]

this challenge... is it even worth anything with an incompetent AI?

[Scaregnome]

So all factions already taken? post needs an update! damn i always miss out on the fun Gratz to those that got it done though good job!