Rome Total War speedrun (blitz) whole map campaign record - 29 turns as GCS.

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

(See post #8 for the answer)

Hi all!

The title says it.
I've asked some knowledgeable people and they think that someone has done a pretty good run but they don't know what it is.
If you know anything (who did it, what faction, and how many turns, where discussed, etc) please post it.
If you have a good blitz your own please post what you did. Maybe you're the one with the record.

I'm asking because I'll soon be starting a whole map blitz RTW campaign of my own and I'd like to have a target to aim at if at all possible.

Thanks to anyone who can help me with this.

[Khan DEVASTATOR]

My personal best on VH/VH was with the Brutii with all settlements taken in the winter of 221 BC. I was pretty pleased with that (still have the saved game) but others may have done it faster.

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

My personal best on VH/VH was with the Brutii with all settlements taken in the winter of 221 BC. I was pretty pleased with that (still have the saved game) but others may have done it faster.

Thank you for responding. Sounds like a nice campaign. I think the Brutii are likely to be the second fastest faction.
My research since posting leads me to believe that the best time will be with the Greek City States and that it will be in the neighborhood of 35-40 turns on VH/VH difficulty with huge unit size.
9/23/15 - I now think the record is likely to be about 30-34 turns.

[Genius of the Restoration]

Rebels could be fast if you play your cards right though the luck of the draw with rebel spawns can make planning the campaign difficult.

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

Here's my own result:

Faction used: Greek City States
Difficulty: VH/VH - Huge Unit Size
Completed: September 22, 2015
Duration: 35 turns (on the second attempt)




I don't think this is the best possible since my battle skills aren't the best and the campaign could have been planned a little better. If anyone wants any details just ask.

[Genius of the Restoration]

35 turns?! Good effort. It's interesting to see how far RTW players have come since I first started. Back then, 35 turns for the imperial campaign would have been seen as being godly fast!
Which areas were the last to fall and what would you do differently if you did it again?

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

35 turns?! Good effort. It's interesting to see how far RTW players have come since I first started. Back then, 35 turns for the imperial campaign would have been seen as being godly fast!
Which areas were the last to fall and what would you do differently if you did it again?

Thanks.

First, my disclaimer. I only started playing aggressively and seriously a year ago. My two attempts at this are the only full map campaigns I've ever run. I may be very wrong about my current estimate of about 30 turns being the best possible. Someone like Legend of Total War will be able to find more exploits, win battles with smaller armies and may cut this down to even fewer turns, I'm just not sure.

Now to the questions.

Campus Alanni and Tara were both taken on the 35th turn.

Campus Alanni had to be initially bypassed in favor of Campus Sakae since the AI packed it full of the last Scythians (3 generals and 17 horse archers) so I had to put together a backup army large enough to handle it. Fortunately I had extra troops I could move there.

Tara was the very last (as it was on the first attempt) because of distance and pirates infesting the Atlantic who interfered with the first army/navy so I brought up a reserve army from Spain while the first army conquered Britain. Fortunately my two spies with the army opened the gates and I took the city on turn 35 so I didn't lose another turn.

Things to do differently:

1) Better naval management. I should have recruited a few more ships. I did use the naval daisy-chain exploit but not as well as I could have. If I ever do this again I'll run some practice turns aimed just at working on that first.

2) Get an army into Armenia (Kotais) by naval daisy-chain sooner and keep pushing troops there. Either the Armenians or Parthians are going to spam stacks so the sooner they can be crippled or eliminated the better. It's also a good jumping off point for Campus Alanni and Campus Sakae which are key endgame cities.

3) Getting an additional port on the Atlantic. I got an army into Numantia on turn 19 (need to try to do that faster as well) to build an Atlantic fleet in its port but there were a lot of pirates along the Gaul coast. I did eventually get a port constructed at Condate Redonum but an earlier port along the north coast would be very helpful to assist the invasion of the British Isles even if it's just building some fleets to kill pirates.

If I think of anything else major, I'll add it later.


　

　

　

[Gaius Julius Caesar II]

Here's my own result:

Faction used: Greek City States
Difficulty: VH/VH - Huge Unit Size
Completed: September 22, 2015
Duration: 35 turns (on the second attempt)




I don't think this is the best possible since my battle skills aren't the best and the campaign could have been planned a little better. If anyone wants any details just ask.

I improved on this last year and got it down to 29 turns. I think that 28 turns may be possible but it's a lot of work to do these and I don't think Ill try again.