Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 21 to 40 of 61

Thread: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

  1. #21

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by Roma_Victrix View Post
    Wait a minute...are you sure this isn't in the latest build already? Because I swear the Carthaginians, without landing a new army, spawned one filled with a curious amount of the same units, Ligurian Spearmen and Ligurian Swordsmen, all with the same level of experience (as you would expect from a spawned, artificially generated army).
    Besides the declaration of war, there's nothing in 2.35 to support a First Punic War scenario. Something else I've done which will be in the patch is switching the AI stance when a scripted declaration of war happens.

    The problem with the current situation is that while the diplomatic status may change, the CAI is still looking to make peace as quickly as possible. So the war situation is only temporary, and the AI doesn't actually behave any more aggressively.

  2. #22
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Posts
    15,243

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    So you're saying that army wasn't spawned then. Gotcha.


  3. #23

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by nvm View Post
    Free City is a "weaker" allied government which allows family members to govern the province at the cost of being super limited in construction options, and only one time recruitment.
    What especially worthwhile do the free cities miss in terms of construction? I have been keeping almost everything as free cities, assuming that would be the standard choice in the fairly early stages of a Roman campaign. I do notice that keeping finances and raising armies is difficult, though.

  4. #24

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by Septentrionalis View Post
    What especially worthwhile do the free cities miss in terms of construction? I have been keeping almost everything as free cities, assuming that would be the standard choice in the fairly early stages of a Roman campaign. I do notice that keeping finances and raising armies is difficult, though.
    Comprehensive:


    • Granaries (big happiness and growth bonus)
    • Highest tier roads
    • Port Garrisons aka Coastal Patrol
    • farms_five+
    • Amphitheater+ upgrade on game field
    • Second (of two) tier river ports
    • Forum et Basilica 12k population+ market building
    • (Post-Marian event) Provincial recruitment colony
    • (Post-Marian event) Evocati road garrison



    I sorted them roughly from the most important on top to the least on bottom. What I generally do is install a free city government when it's available from the get-go, representing a quick to establish and fairly generous governance, unless it's so far flung or hard to pacify that a client ruler is the only feasible option to start (hellooooo, Iberia). Since the refresh pools are 100 turns, I only use the recruitment to form the town's garrison, emptying out all of its pools right away, at which point my army can move on to other tasks after its rest and the new garrison help secure the city.

    If it's a well developed city, I will upgrade to a province sooner rather than later, to permit granaries and high level roads.
    If it's a smaller place, I finish some of the basics first (temples, law buildings, Strategic Fortifications and mines if applicable, etc), and get around to the province when the 'critical' early stage buildings are done, but not in much of a rush compared to bigger cities.

    Also, if I'm strapped for cash, I'll not recruit the cavalry or other expensive units at the free city, and wait until I'm about to have to upgrade it to a province or let its queue sit idle to finally pay for them before they're lost in the upgrade (assuming pre-Marian).

  5. #25
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Posts
    15,243

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Great advice, Myarta! Thank you for this. I also noticed the every 100 turns refreshment rate of units. In a campaign that's about 650-700 turns or so (reaching the Marian reforms and a bit later), that means such settlements would only be able to produce new recruits about five to six times during your entire campaign, so yes, it's best just to upgrade to full provinces where they give greater economic bonuses (with higher-tier infrastructure options).

  6. #26

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Wow, thank you so much, Myarta. I now realize I have been playing this all wrong. Difficulties in keeping everyone happy and the lack of proper roads have been a problem for a long time for me. Time for a change of paradigm, then.

  7. #27
    Jurand of Cracow's Avatar History and gameplay!
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Cracovia
    Posts
    8,451

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    BTW, Guys, I've got a question.
    Given that the Roman campaign is easy (and it's going to be such in the Imperator Rome), do you have a set of house rules for playing Romans to make their campaign a bit more challenging?
    cheers, JoC

  8. #28
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Posts
    15,243

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    I personally don't have any house rules, Jurand. And you wanna know why? Virgil says it best: "tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento!" ... "imperium sine fine." [Roman, remember by your strength to rule the Earth's peoples! ... "sovereignty without end".]

    Well, I guess I have one solid and consistent house rule for my current campaign: I'm going to largely stay out of the Eastern Mediterranean until about 150 BC or so. I'll focus more on Western Europe, i.e. Iberia and Gaul, and Northwestern Africa, i.e. the Maghreb + Punic Atiqa & Carthage before then. Then, when I basically have Iberia, Gaul, the Alpine region, Illyria and Dalmatia under my belt, I'll conquer Greece, the Aegean, and invade the Eastern Mediterranean in earnest. I'll break with established history by conquering the whole Mediterranean before 100 BC, probably with an initial push into Germania on the opposite front too. Then I'll probably spend the 1st century BC conquering the entire rim of the Black Sea basin and capture a few provinces in Arabia and Mesopotamia after Egypt & Sudan are in my possession. I won't push my empire into Persia, although I'll definitely take every square inch of the Balkans. I intend to capture at least half of the Pontic Steppe.

    In other words, I plan on making my Roman Empire about 20% larger than the Roman Empire at its height under Trajan, roughly by the lifetime of Julius Caesar. Alternate history is fun.

  9. #29

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jurand of Cracow View Post
    Given that the Roman campaign is easy (and it's going to be such in the Imperator Rome), do you have a set of house rules for playing Romans to make their campaign a bit more challenging?
    I am in my first serious playthrough (had a brief first attempt with Sweboz and just couldn't handle the complexity of it all) and I accept learning the game mechanics as a thing that limits my power. I've made some mistakes and faced many dangerous-looking situations. But it is true that whatever peril I have faced has turned out to be easy to handle in the end. However, I have some rules.

    First of all full fog of war. I do not check the factions scroll to determine the power of other factions or look for spoilers online but solely rely on what things look like according to my own scouting. I have shied away from conflicts I could have won easily because the enemy looked formidable. Second, I only use assassins to battle enemy assassins. Third, I try to roleplay instead of trying to "beat the game" and in general try to avoid exploiting AI weaknesses. Fourth, no looking under the hood for unit stats and the like but relying on written descriptions and whatever understanding of historical units I have (related to roleplaying). And of course, no save scumming unless the game does something unexpected such as the pathfinding algorithm sending my units on some crazy sightseeing tour around the province in a crucial spot.

    I've had a blast playing this way, but the next time it has to be either a harder difficulty level or a more challenging faction. Too bad I do not remember which one I picked for campaign difficulty and it seems impossible to determine it now.

    For the sake of experience sharing, I just won a battle in which I lost 72% of my force (62% dead). A huge Lougiones force invaded one of my northern cities and I met them over a river crossing. They wouldn't take initiative to cross the river so I sent a small force over myself. The enemy sent ALL of their troops to meet me in the shallow water in one great tsunami and I had to do the same. All kinds of units, cavalry included, were butchering each other in that narrow corridor. I was getting my ass kicked for a good while, but eventually the somewhat better quality of my troops factored in and the enemy routed, leaving me with a bitter, pyrrhic victory. I guess I got the upper hand when both parties had lost 42% of their men.

  10. #30

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    If you're new-ish to Rome, my comprehensive guide I made for the Roman Cursus Honorum (offices) might have some tidbits in there that are useful to know. It says 2.2B but really it's changed very little since then and is basically still correct: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14807636

    I thought I had written something more about my government type strategy, but I can't find it even using search, so perhaps I'm just imagining it.

  11. #31

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    A bit off, but...I've started a Romani campaign recently, and the more I play, the more I feel total lack of shock troops and reliable cavalry in general. What are in your opinion best troops available to Romans, especially early?

  12. #32

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Dude. Dude.
    I can only speak as someone who has played against the Romans in this version of the game. Fighting them feels like hitting a brick wall. Every battle where you don't outnumber them 2 to 1 hurts - as long as their army is actually somewhat close to historical. I could swear that the Polybian Equites were the most lethal cavalry I had to face so far, btw.

  13. #33

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by Rad View Post
    Dude. Dude.
    I can only speak as someone who has played against the Romans in this version of the game. Fighting them feels like hitting a brick wall. Every battle where you don't outnumber them 2 to 1 hurts - as long as their army is actually somewhat close to historical. I could swear that the Polybian Equites were the most lethal cavalry I had to face so far, btw.
    ...what cavalry did you face? Those guys are pretty much like Raskumezenai or Iberian medium cav but without javelins. My Galatian retainers could pull off better charge than Roman cavalry, and those are infantry spearmen. They're decent at melee because for cavalry, spear animation is more advantageous than sword, but still they can't beat in melee the likes of Thessalians or Lydians, not even Aispidotai Hippeis.

    I'm still at camillian army, but the lack of shock troops is hitting me hard when trying to expand into Sicily. The grinddown against Syracusan hoplites is brutal, since I have no way to strike at their flank-my cavalry is too light for repeated charges into back of spearmen, my only swordsmen-Leginu-are half skirmishers and best ranged support I have are balearic slingers. I've wiped out one of the rebel full stacks in Sicily and had to ship back due to heavy casualties.

  14. #34

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Etruscan or Mamertine hoplites seem pretty much like the best you could get at that point. Camillian Triarii perform really well as well, but their lower numbers and potential ahistoricity of using them as primary fighters harms them. When in a battle, I would just try to let my line advance properly, and keep an unit of infantry aside to ward off enemy cavalry, which would inevitably strike at me. After inevitably defeating them, my cavalry was free to reign free.

    Of course when it came to fighting Carthage, that wasn't working so well. Their roster is just so much better, when they actually bother to face your army with a general and it's not composed of numidian levies like they love to do. In the end it came up to pretty much numbers against numbers. At least that's something Romans have plenty of.

    The best shock units you have for your own disposal are pretty much mercenary Gaisatoi and Eporedoi Donnoi, which come pretty soon. Neither are your factional units, but they are just so freaking good...

  15. #35

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by nvm View Post
    Of course when it came to fighting Carthage, that wasn't working so well. Their roster is just so much better, when they actually bother to face your army with a general and it's not composed of numidian levies like they love to do. In the end it came up to pretty much numbers against numbers. At least that's something Romans have plenty of.
    How frequently are they fielding proper armies, rather than hordes of Numidian levies?

  16. #36
    Roma_Victrix's Avatar Call me Ishmael
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Virginia, USA
    Posts
    15,243

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Even in the Camillan period you can recruit Etruscan hoplites, Greek hoplites, "Hustatus" Campanian or Mamertine hoplites, Umbro Picenian medium infantry, and Histro Venetic infantry all in Italy. Hell, you can even recruit Celtic Boii retainer cavalry and their heavy infantry. If you have an oligarchy up north you can even recruit heavy Celtic Argos infantry. Cavalry is a bit weaker, since Histro Venetic and Tarantine skirmisher cavalry aren't as heavy as Camillan and Polybian equites. By the time the Polybian reforms kick in, though, you get to have the incredibly numerous 240-man Cohors Socii allied unit PLUS the incredibly heavy Pedites Extraordinary swordsmen infantry. Triarii aren't very numerous and are small in comparison to other spear-wielding units, though, so you'll have to keep recruiting hoplites before the Marian Antesignani.

  17. #37

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius View Post
    How frequently are they fielding proper armies, rather than hordes of Numidian levies?
    Well, it was somewhat an exaggearation on my part to say that they like to field hordes of levies. In truth, most of their armies actually seem fairly well rounded, as much as an AI army can be, and I have witnessed more "proper" armies than those full of levies, although these are still present. It's possible that their recruitment was affected by them having completely crushed Numidians in my game, and not unlocking access to better Numidian units before that. So it's nowhere as big of an issue compared to Lugiones having fielded a disturbingly high amount of mounted warriors through enclaves.

    Pretty much the only complain in this regard I would have is that I have barely seen any elephants. Although that too could be due to them having had more conflicts against Numidians, Areaukoi and Leusitane, and Ptolemaioi than against me. At least they do recruit them, I've seen one unit in their capital at turn 234.

  18. #38

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Are Lugiones armies with large numbers of steppe cavalry still a problem in 2.35?

    The AI factions get elephants spawned every 80 turns (and ships) just to make sure they have some, but otherwise I don't think they can ever afford elephants.

  19. #39

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Quote Originally Posted by QuintusSertorius View Post
    Are Lugiones armies with large numbers of steppe cavalry still a problem in 2.35?

    The AI factions get elephants spawned every 80 turns (and ships) just to make sure they have some, but otherwise I don't think they can ever afford elephants.
    Quintus, does the high number of turns for the elephants spawing relates to the siege bug with elephants?

  20. #40

    Default Re: Advice for Romani campaign, building varied provincial governments?

    Huh. Looking at things...I should not build Ius Latinorum in Italy until right before Marian reforms, right? Because it looks like it'll remove some important local units in favour of factional ones, leaving me with no support troops. Or is it required for latifundia?

Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •