My Rome campaign - Thoughts?

[GusRoman]

Hey all,

I am playing Rome right now and this is what I have at the moment:

I control all of Italy and Sicily. I mixed looting with slavery and found that I got the reforms at around 248 BC!

I have excellent governors ad about 4 average general and 9+ star generals.

Greece and Macedon destroyed the Illyrians and Thracians while I was building up Italy's infrastucture.

Once I had a stack that I thought would be accurate (1 First Cohort, 9 standard, 3 Velites, 2 Equites, 2 groups of balistas) I went over into Greece's territory (that had once been Illyria).

I first noticed Merc Archers and hired them on. Then I in turn went and took over 3 Cities and pushed into Athens.

I brought over an old stack of Pre-Reform units to act as garrison but still have my legion broke in 2.

Well, Macedon and Greece are allied and Macedon attacked me in Athens with about 900 men.

I had my First Cohort, 2 Regular Cohorts, a Velites, an Equites and the archers.

I sallied out and played cat and mouse with the Macedon skirmishers while my infantry set up. The Macedons also had 3 units of those Elite infantry ... pains in the neck.

Well After a terrible battle I lost about half my men leaving me with about 210 but I had also done enough damage to Macedon that they broke their seige. However, from the south there are Two full stacks of Macedon froces coming. Greece has no field armies and pitiful garrisons so my main enemy is Macedon.

Should I pull out of Athens and hole up on the west of Mecidonia while I covert my two cities to be full Roman? I have a nice Troop base just across the sea and can ferry more troops easily ...

Also, I LOVE the rework of Balistas. In RTW, they were purely cheap door breakers for barbarian sieges. Now they really do what they claim ... taking out 4 -5 guys a pop.

[Kazak borispavlovgrozny]

Make forts on teh penninsula and house them with cheap or depleted units, or mercs. Let macedon take them, gain time and once they take teh fort and occupy it, wait. Hwen they leave their fort, they usually leave it en masse, so sneak a unit, reoccupy it, and wear the army down in your own territory. apply as needed. rinse and reuse.

[GusRoman]

Hmmm I will try that! Another thing that bothers me is I have no idea what is going on to the north. Period. Gaul I can see a bit with spies but Macedon and the old Thracian areas are unkown. My spies get killed and my diplomats bought off. Macedon is 1st in overall rank and first in treasury so I'm guessing they own a bunch of territory there.

[JoeyJubb]

The cheaters way to know is to disable the fog of war on the fly using the console: type in toggle_fow.

This is, as I said, technically cheating though

[mAIOR]

Try to ambush the macedonian armies in the forests near athens. you can easilly wipe 1500 troops with little over 300 of your own. It really pays up. Also, ferry lots of units to greece open a second front along Epirus and take those cities (income boost and you can ferry two full armies per turn). after, make a pincer movement and trap the macedonian armies in its center. I managed to wipe out 5 macedonian 3/4 full armies that way making their recovery impossible in the time I gave them to try to break trough. Also, hire all mercenaries you can and send them forward. This way you'll take Macedonia a valuable and very fast army pool. To do this make sure you are always sending troops. in around 4 turns Macedonia cease to be a threat and in 8 turns you can completelly obliterate them.

Cheers...

[GusRoman]

My only problem there is that I'm testing my army's cost vs what I am pulling in. So far I make more money than lose but before I had 45000+ each turn ... now I have 10-15k to work with. I don't want to lose money because of mercs. I also want to get my legions some xp. Plus they mostly seem to be missle units and hoplites. I hate hoplites but they do in certain situations.

[mAIOR]

You have 15k extra each turn?? Are you kidding me?? I never have more than 3K a turn... I'm always building troops if you have that much money per turn you need to get an half a decent army.


Cheers...

[GusRoman]

Ok I said that wrong I think. I don't have 15k extra.

When I'm done building and training, I'll have 3-5k left. Once the turn is over I'll collect taxes and be at around 18k at the start of the new turn. With certain cities turning into ghettos without good service buildings, that 18K doesn't go far when it's like 2-3K for the Plumbing upgrades and such.

Looting the hell out of Macedonia has helped though.

[Kazak borispavlovgrozny]

In a similar situation (my current) , I allied with Illyria, made an All MERC army took scodra from greece and gave it back to illyria, looted and destroyed all teh military building in the greek penninsula, and then left to watch the thracians come in. I enjoyed teh thracian onslaugt on macedonia sooooo much

Currently, im just sittign back in italy, waiting for the refomrs. its 249. I own All of Italy below the rubicon (this is my BFMTP mod), Sicily, corsica and Sardinia.

[mAIOR]

Really build armies! You have too much money. sure city improvements help but you're at war. so armies matter the most... buy mercenaries where you can find them espetially rodian slingers and cretan archers to gain decent missile troops and tessalian cavalry if you need decent cavalry.

Cheers...

[GusRoman]

I recruite the hell out ot Macedonia's Mercs. But it's a real slug fest over there. I am cranking out Cohorts and equiping them with silver upgrades. Each turn I send a good 4 cohorts to Macedonia while I send 3-4 back for replenishment. The Greek mercs are mostly gone now and all that spawns are some peltasts and Galis swordsmen! The Galics I sent in first and have a few cohorts swing in behind .. all while my balistas cover their flanks.

Kazak, I wish I had someone near by ... The only country near me that I am friendly with is Gaul (hehe). Illyria, Thrace, and the other Barbarians of the north are gone. As is the Selucid Empire and Numidia.

BTW, I am also at war with Carthage so some of my resources are directed towards that front. I have a general there that is 8+ in Command, Management and Influence ...


But I say this: I never have this much fun in RTW. RTRPE is really neat and I appreciate all the people involved in it's creation.