ROME victory possible?

[[bsArmy]-Shark]

Hello everybody,

so I play this game for hours now and I find it very difficult to take settlements and to hold them with the Roman faction. Greece and Macedonia is attacking me all the time. I win most of the time and still they attack with armies of men 1200+
I crush them, I really destroy the whole bloody army but the other round another pops up and after that another and so on. I am only defending my settlements, no time to move forward whatsoever. In the south it's Greece and in the North it's Macedonia.

Oh another thing that is really disturbing, is that Macedonia and Greece are allies!?!?! how is that possible. Both kingdoms are directly next to each other. Why can't I have peace with my neighbours? First the Gauls, then the Greece and now the Macedonians.

This is really no fun. What can I do to stop them attacking me? I mean, what is the key to success?

[Candelarius]

What difficulty setting do you play on?

[[bsArmy]-Shark]

Campain difficulty is on "normal"
and Battle difficulty is on "hard"

[kalkwerk]

that s total war. get used to it.

[[bsArmy]-Shark]

why the heck am I playing the campain mode then anyway? If it's all about Total War? Then I could just go on and play random battles and forget about diplomacy and all that stuff.

[kalkwerk]

okay i give you a few tips:
1. avoid common borders if you dont want to be at war with a faction
2. build forts in the passes (Alpes)
3. invade the ai in its back (for macedone/greece, land troops on the greek peninsula and conquer their settlements long way from the frontier)
4. If you take the ai settlements, but arent able to keep them, destroy all military buildings

In EB theres a force diplomacy mod which can be very useful, but I havent seen this for RTR based mods yet.

[pannonian]

Hello everybody,

so I play this game for hours now and I find it very difficult to take settlements and to hold them with the Roman faction. Greece and Macedonia is attacking me all the time. I win most of the time and still they attack with armies of men 1200+
I crush them, I really destroy the whole bloody army but the other round another pops up and after that another and so on. I am only defending my settlements, no time to move forward whatsoever. In the south it's Greece and in the North it's Macedonia.

Oh another thing that is really disturbing, is that Macedonia and Greece are allies!?!?! how is that possible. Both kingdoms are directly next to each other. Why can't I have peace with my neighbours? First the Gauls, then the Greece and now the Macedonians.

This is really no fun. What can I do to stop them attacking me? I mean, what is the key to success?

Firstly, yes it is possible to win as Rome - from my experience they're the easiest by far to win with. They have good basic infantry units - strong, manoeuvrable, and with missile capability. They're equally good on the ground in a field battle, or on the walls in a siege battle. Nothing grinds meat as well, or with as much ease, as a Roman legion. To the north are weak barbarians, there to be taken whenever you feel like sending an army of motleys together to do some rampaging. To the south are Greeks and Carthaginians, both of whom can be easily cleared from Italy and Sicily as soon as you put your mind to it. Once you've secured Italy and Sicily, the world's your oyster. Build a couple of strong fleets, put a spy on each, and set them to watch for Carthaginian moves which you will sink before they get anywhere. Rebuild your armies while you decide where to venture next.

The quincunx, or something similar to it, is the easiest and most economical way to use Roman troops, as it stops the enemy advance while allowing you multiple flanks to counterattack. It resembles a chequerboard, with squares (units) alternating with blanks (spaces). If you don't like the default formations, you can organise your own. Select the units you want to form each line, get them in loose formation, group them in an unbroken line, then get them in tight formation again - voila, a line of alternating units and spaces. I personally like having an ahistorical front line of principes, as they can stand the pain, on guard mode, with hastati behind to flank each individual bunch at an opportune time, triarii as back up or to deal with cavalry, and velites to quickly break a flank by throwing javelins in their backs, allowing you to roll up the line. Italian swordsmen and spearmen can be economical alternatives to the Roman units, but Italian javelineers aren't really worth bothering with, and neither are Samnite mercs and merc hoplites.

Back up your conquering armies with reinforcements and garrison troops. If you're not a complete incompetent, one reinforcement unit for each unit type should be enough to replenish their numbers after a major battle (in which you would probably annihilate the enemy stack). Garrison troops are selected on the basis that a policeman of whatever type is as effective as any other, therefore the larger and cheaper the unit is, the better it is for that purpose. In the early game, I use velites, while expansion to the south gives me peltasts, and to the north the gallic warbands (probably the best in the game). Garrison stacks don't cost much as long as you make use of them in good time.

If the Black Death gets too virulent even as you clear the Greeks from the south, remember the Peloponnese is an excellent springboard for the takeover of Greece. Not only is it easily defensible, it has a good concentration of cities, allowing for a good economical return on your conquests, and contains the 2nd best wonder in the game at Corinth, the Macs also rarely defend it with any strength, allowing for a quick and profitable takeover. Holding the Corinth chokepoint, you can take your pick between going for Athens, Larissa, or Thermon, each reachable within a turn. Once Greece and the Macedonian homeland is gone, the Macs are basically finished as a force, and you can plan your takeover of Rhodes and Crete. Once you have those two, there will be no more threats to your empire - only localised disturbances and your megalomanic dreams will remain.

[[bsArmy]-Shark]

Wow, Thanks a lot - excellent advices.

However, meanwhile I decided to build up a large army and attack them on their own land. This way I had a little time to build up some better defence on my border cities.

Thank to the Seleucid Empire which attacked Macedonia and also the Greek cities. That is very helpful and also I got a new ally (I'm afraid though as soon as Macedonia is defeated I will be their next victim).

Of course the Barbarians are no longer a threat to my Legions but Levy Spearmen Elite are really a pain in the arse.

Soon I will dominate whole Italy. The South of it is still under Greek control but I already destroyed the main cities - didn't take them, just destroyed and slaughtered everyone and moved on to the next city.

In the North I got about 5 Barbarian cities and once I finished the "Italian job" I will expand my empire to the north.

NOW IT IS FUN AGAIN! Thanks again.

[FMvonKleist]

Yes the Seleucids are your next enemy, so taking the land of macedon and greece will give you the money and resources to fight them. YOu think you see phalanx spam now? oh just you wait. Another thing, if you can get naval supremacy and blockade all the ports, it will kill there ability to spam armies. Also, I always keep "sweeper" armies of nothing but legionares to hit and destroy armies automatically. After a long time, the have so many gold bars, nothing can stand against them. Sweeper armies I do not play out the battles, i let them auto decide. This frees up my "fun" armies to take cities and fight "fun" battles".
You must take the cities in the south quickly at the beginning of the game. No time to spare. Or else you are doomed. And cannot possibly have the economy to deal with them.

[Maximus Lazero]

Hah, the Seleucids attacked me at the worst times. I had camped my military in the Balkans to reorganize them and disband the useless/excess units I had acquired after constant warfare with Iberia, Gaul, Germania, Illyria, Macedonia, Greece, and the Thracians. So when they attacked, I had a blitzkrieg of 5+ legions waiting for them. Combine that with my strategy of besieging cities and waiting for their relief armies to attack: within about 10 years, almost all of Seleucid controlled Anatolia was in my possession; their army was a shadow of its former self. Have fun with them ^_^

[Darviathar]

If you are playing Rome even remotely historically, then you shouldn't be having so much trouble! The only circumstances I can envision attacks by Macedon and Greece being such a threat are if you gave yourself a common border with them too quickly, before building up your cities and organizing your legions. You likely attacked and conquered the weak Gallic cities immediately, giving yourself a border with Illyria, who then attacked you. The Illyrians are about as weak with the Gauls, so you pushed them down the Balkan coast, and "stirred up" Macedon and Greece, drawing yourself into a war with them about 20 years (or 80 turns) too early. Macedon is a great rival; they build huge stacks and can really wear out even veteran legions, especially if you auto-resolve combats. You can't expect to just waltz through them as though they were Gauls! Macedon is a great mid-game opponent for me. I take great steps to avoid a war with them until Carthage has been humbled.

[Darviathar]

What mod are you guys playing btw? I am using the Extended Realism mod for RTR, and in at least 5 seperate Roman games, each lasting at least to the 240's, I've never seen the Seleucids last long enough to fight them. They are always wiped out by a combination of the Ptolemaic Empire, Bactria, Pontus, and the Galatians.

[spqr_arcani]

I'd like to add that you should check your rankings graph every so often. The source of my problem is that I didn't realize how powerful Macedon got and only realized that after sending a spy out. Macedon had pretty much taken over Seleucid Empire and the Greek States, and on its way to usurping Thracia. Meantime, I wasted too much time on conquering Gauls and Iberians, whose threat is nothing compared to Macedon. On top of that, the cities I conquered from Gallia and Iberia did not become useful in the grand scheme of things until much later when I decided to fight Carthage.

So, instead of avoiding, I'd rather engage factions that were getting powerful early on so that they don't become way too powerful later, as was my case.

The other thing to think about, is that there's a lot more east of Rome then west. So, even if Gauls or Carthaginians take up everything in Gallia and Iberia, their potential threat is more limited than a faction that has access to resources all the way to India.

There's not much you can do if a distant faction, say Bactrians, become the same problem. But your closer neighbors, especially Macedon, are enemies you can take care of and not leave unchecked.

[Darviathar]

The natural inclination in Rome is to punish and destroy the Gauls first; You share a border with them that isn't separated by an ocean (as is Carthage), and they will harass you endlessly, never honoring peace agreements. The problem is that if you push through the alps passes and conquer Massila and the cities adjacent to it, you just open yourself up to having to defend more strategically unimportant cities from more attacks. Which usually leads to pushing the Gauls even further into northern France, or conquering them outright. Doing so invariably triggers a war with Germania, and usually Iberia. This simply isn't what you want as a Roman player! There is little to be gained by conquering inland barbarian cities, especially the ones in Germania. The Iberian cities are a little better, but navigating Spain is difficult; some of their cities take a long time to reach, and they require big garrisons to keep them in line. You can't simply conquer them, drop off a battered Hastati stack and continue to the next city. As was stated in the old Candelarius guide to "Playing Rome historically", the Gauls are best left as a buffer between yourself and the other Barbarian factions. There is a reason that they lasted until the time of Caesar, and in game terms, this is it!

My advice is to take Bonnonia and Jeneusis after conquering Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. You CAN take Mediolanium, but be careful taking Patavium; it usually shares a border with Illyria, and as I said earlier, once you border Illyria, they WILL attack you, and you WILL get pulled into a war with whichever powerful faction is controlling the Greek areas. Historically, Illyria was exactly the reason that Rome got involved in the Macedonian wars to begin with, and this mod does a good job reflecting that.

[BlackDeathLegion]

im pretty sure in the RTRPE description it says tht the game was made to be way more harder then the original.