Wow. Amazing.

[Felixion]

I recently left the bizarre and glitchy world of M2:TW and returned to RTW:SPQR - my one true love. I reinstalled vanilla, 1.3 and 1.5 and then 6.2. When I heard those horns sound on the opening menu, my heart skipped.

I started a campaign with Rome on M/M. In my first turn Hannibal moved his massive army to the fields outside of my only city in Sicily. Knowing that my garrison there was not enough to repel the Carthaginians alone, I sent a legion of well experienced men to counter the attack. (The "startup" legion in middle Italy.) When we arrived outside the city, Hannibal's army fled south, but only a little. While I made ground in Gaul over the next year, Hannibal's army finally engaged my own. We met on a flat grassy plain, with the ocean on one side. The two armies were massive. I assembled my lines with the triarii in front, supported by two succeeding lines of dispersed legionares. The two armies advanced and then stopped short in the middle of the plain. After about twenty minutes of skirmishing in the field, they sent their center column. I advanced my triarii. The two lines met and held while my Principes and Hastati bombarded them with pila, eventually joining the melee. I flanked their lines with my cavalry, but was ultimately repulsed by their ferocious elephants. After 32 minutes of combat, their center broke, and fled, but just then a large portion of my army began to flee, eventually turning the entire force to panic. As both armies scattered accross the field, the dead were left to rot. Eventually they calmed, and the remnants of both armies reformed, and made a second attack on the same spot where the first took place. In the end I won - barely. I lost 3472 men, some reinforcements from the nearby city. They lost upwards of 3200 aswell.

Never before have I had such difficulty fighting in this game. Great work.


I'm not playing with 4TPY or the Garrison script. Without these, will my game still be a challenge?

[el_dude]

as long as you don't blitz, it will be a challenge

[mdibatti]

I recommend you use the garrison script.....if you haven't before, it really adds a lot to the game.

If you don't feel like starting over, as el_dude said, as long as you don't blitz you'll be fine.

[jegui]

Garrison script will add another difficulty level to ur game and I'd seriously recommend it as well ;-) however if u can monitor urself and not blitzing u'll do fine without it :-)

[Felixion]

How do you define blitz? For example it's been five turns and I'm struggling to to hold Patavium.

[Garnier]

Well its difficult to define. You cant say on speed of playing is "blitz" and another isnt.

[el_dude]

not blitzing for me means not expanding beyond your starting borders until marian reforms, but that's jut how i play

[iamphet]

not blitzing for me means not expanding beyond your starting borders until marian reforms, but that's jut how i play

What are doing then? Building up your economy?

[jegui]

What are doing then? Building up your economy?

expand at most to 12/14 provinces (Italy/Sicily/Sardinia) before MR... have only 3/4 pre-marian legions to defend/expand ur realm and develop all ur protected cities to the maximum (u'll have built up a large treasure)... as soon as u build ur palace and get MR gradually pump up ur named legions and disband pre-marian legions...

u can then start ur outer expansion but do it in phases/mini-campaigns... Gaul... Iberia... Carthage... once u finish a mini-campaign consolidate ur conquests (build up/fortify provinces) and replenish/replace ur now veteran legions

[el_dude]

What are doing then? Building up your economy?

yes...the only expansion i do is sicily and maybe sardinia, then i build up my economy (and do border defense against the gauls) until i have loads of cash...post-marian units cost a lot more, and more importantly, upkeep is much hire...you'll need the cash

[Felixion]

Alright but I have a question - I'm constantly under siege. Constantly. Either Gaul is pressing my northern border, or I'm fighting off the Carthaginians from Siciliy, and southern Italy.

As a result I'm always building troops to go and assist my towns that are under siege, and thusly have lots of un-generaled half legions roaming around. How do you guys manage to only use fully constructed legions? I can't do it because of how i'm constantly being attacked.

Also, can someone send me the descr_strat.txt file from their SPQR?

[jegui]

Alright but I have a question - I'm constantly under siege. Constantly. Either Gaul is pressing my northern border, or I'm fighting off the Carthaginians from Siciliy, and southern Italy.

As a result I'm always building troops to go and assist my towns that are under siege, and thusly have lots of un-generaled half legions roaming around. How do you guys manage to only use fully constructed legions? I can't do it because of how i'm constantly being attacked.

Also, can someone send me the descr_strat.txt file from their SPQR?

Concentrate in 1 war front at the time... I normally pull all my forces out of Sicily and leave the city to rebel at the start (it may go to Greece with a bit of luck!! let Carthage fight them )... I then move my exisiting legions and garrison troops north to deter the Gaulic invasion whilst seeking a ceasefire with Carthage/Greece

The secret is to build forts at key positions near bridges and valley crosses... garrison them with one unit filler or with a proper garrison if u fancy overwhelming siege battles The Gauls will normally siege them but they may choose to ignore the forts and go straight for the cities... don't blockade the river and valey crosses with ur fort... that's cheating

Have ur 2/3 legions fighting the gaul stacks besieging the forts/cities but always locate them midway between the enemy and the supply cities so that u can replenish the legions quickly... take ur time to fight them 'cause they will besiege for 2 turns before attacking and u buy time to develop/expand ur northen cities whilst replenishing ur defences