Help on Rome Total War
- Thread starter G.Bone
- Start date
I got that game for Christmas last year; unfortunately my computer was unable to handle it. Its been at a friends house this entire time…
Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
Banned
If a city doesn't have a governor, choose "Growth Policy" and take construction and recruiting off auto-management.
Get the highest taxes that will keep public order above 95, maybe 90%. Build arenas when possible. Ignore military buildings, pick the ones that get you money. Don't fill the queue with all the buildings or units you're planning for, that just wastes money; take them one at a time.
Exterminate or enslave the population of all conquered cities, and destroy their temples to replace them with your own. For temples I recomend Mercury.
Start your conquests with Apollonia, then try to take either Thermon or Salona, and if Sparta's still Greek by then take it (use a fleet or tresspass on Macedonian territory). Make peace with the Greek cities when they no longer have anything in Greece that you can conquer, then ignore any Senate requests of blockading Syracuse or Rhodes or Pergamum. If you're lucky enough not to be attacked by Macedonia (try to make them allies), build your forces to attack them.
Don't ignore your navy, as the Greeks can cut you off from your conquests with theirs.
Your Italian possessions are fairly safe now, don't waste too much on defending them.
The western Balkans are a great place for forts, but they're only useful if you plan on a long peace. Otherwise, the armies you use to attack can also take care of any invaders.
When you've conquered enough cities, move your capital to the one that an enemy would have the most problems reaching. As soon as all of Greece is secure, choose a city there. New characters appear in the capital, and if your capital is in Italy you'll have to use a fleet to get them to where the action is (across the Ionian Sea).
Choose your faction heir carefully; don't be afraid to disinherit someone, and keep in mind that future developments might give you better choices. Any character that has more stars than scrolls should be put in command of an army; combat experience can turn him into a great general. Exchange retinue between generals and governors when possible (in some situations, certain characters can be used as "carriers"), as some retinue members are good for governing and some are good for commanding.
I use 3 town watch units to garrison a city, but this may not be the best idea. Your early units are good enough for you, your enemies not having anything much better. Don't waste precious time building the army you can hire on the road. Build better units when they're available, though you'll wait a while for artillery. Always retrain your units where possible.
Never keep your ships isolated. All your possible enemies (for me: the Greek Cities, Macedonia, Thrace, Gaul, Pontus, Armenia, Egypt, and Carthage in an earlier attempt when I cared too much what the Senate said) will have an important naval presence. Groups give you little flexibility, but you can make them almost undefeatable. Retrain your ships when you have nothing for them to do, there's a harbor near the end of your route, or their manpower is really bad. One of the earliest military building you need to be interested in is a shipwright in Italy.
After taking Greece, you have 3 possibilites for expansion (from easiest and poorest to hardest and richest): the western Balkans and then Patavium (if the Julii haven't taken it, it's one way of giving them the finger), Thrace, or Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. When you're done with a theatre, make peace with your enemies there.
Playing like this, you'll still lose plenty of money, but you'll have conquests and trade to support you. I lost a fortune, but I'm now the richest faction, and I've conquered (in chronological order): Apollonia, Thermon, Sparta, Thermon again (my Macedonians allies backstabbed me), Larissa, Athens, Thessalonica, Bylazora, Byzantium, Tylis, Salona, Segestica, Patavium, Campus Getae, Pergamum, and Nicomedia. My capital and largest city is Larissa.
Get the highest taxes that will keep public order above 95, maybe 90%. Build arenas when possible. Ignore military buildings, pick the ones that get you money. Don't fill the queue with all the buildings or units you're planning for, that just wastes money; take them one at a time.
Exterminate or enslave the population of all conquered cities, and destroy their temples to replace them with your own. For temples I recomend Mercury.
Start your conquests with Apollonia, then try to take either Thermon or Salona, and if Sparta's still Greek by then take it (use a fleet or tresspass on Macedonian territory). Make peace with the Greek cities when they no longer have anything in Greece that you can conquer, then ignore any Senate requests of blockading Syracuse or Rhodes or Pergamum. If you're lucky enough not to be attacked by Macedonia (try to make them allies), build your forces to attack them.
Don't ignore your navy, as the Greeks can cut you off from your conquests with theirs.
Your Italian possessions are fairly safe now, don't waste too much on defending them.
The western Balkans are a great place for forts, but they're only useful if you plan on a long peace. Otherwise, the armies you use to attack can also take care of any invaders.
When you've conquered enough cities, move your capital to the one that an enemy would have the most problems reaching. As soon as all of Greece is secure, choose a city there. New characters appear in the capital, and if your capital is in Italy you'll have to use a fleet to get them to where the action is (across the Ionian Sea).
Choose your faction heir carefully; don't be afraid to disinherit someone, and keep in mind that future developments might give you better choices. Any character that has more stars than scrolls should be put in command of an army; combat experience can turn him into a great general. Exchange retinue between generals and governors when possible (in some situations, certain characters can be used as "carriers"), as some retinue members are good for governing and some are good for commanding.
I use 3 town watch units to garrison a city, but this may not be the best idea. Your early units are good enough for you, your enemies not having anything much better. Don't waste precious time building the army you can hire on the road. Build better units when they're available, though you'll wait a while for artillery. Always retrain your units where possible.
Never keep your ships isolated. All your possible enemies (for me: the Greek Cities, Macedonia, Thrace, Gaul, Pontus, Armenia, Egypt, and Carthage in an earlier attempt when I cared too much what the Senate said) will have an important naval presence. Groups give you little flexibility, but you can make them almost undefeatable. Retrain your ships when you have nothing for them to do, there's a harbor near the end of your route, or their manpower is really bad. One of the earliest military building you need to be interested in is a shipwright in Italy.
After taking Greece, you have 3 possibilites for expansion (from easiest and poorest to hardest and richest): the western Balkans and then Patavium (if the Julii haven't taken it, it's one way of giving them the finger), Thrace, or Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. When you're done with a theatre, make peace with your enemies there.
Playing like this, you'll still lose plenty of money, but you'll have conquests and trade to support you. I lost a fortune, but I'm now the richest faction, and I've conquered (in chronological order): Apollonia, Thermon, Sparta, Thermon again (my Macedonians allies backstabbed me), Larissa, Athens, Thessalonica, Bylazora, Byzantium, Tylis, Salona, Segestica, Patavium, Campus Getae, Pergamum, and Nicomedia. My capital and largest city is Larissa.
Last edited:
I got this game recently (I love gift cards) and tried a few games last night. How important is it to do the missions the Senate sends to you? My biggest problem is that I always have forces off conquering this city and blockading that port, and meanwhile the Gauls build up armies and tromp all over me at home. So, if you ignore the senate demands, does that turn everyone against you? If I could get Gaul out of the way first, it'd be so much handier....
Performing Senate missions is not exactly necessary, as the Senate will outlaw you eventually, no matter what you do.
some of the missions aren't that bad.... besiege a nearby town, blockade a nearby port. It's when they want you to besiege a town in Spain or blockade a port clear over in Greece is when you have problems... those are about impossible to accomplish in the time limit...
Don't worry about it, they're just a bunch of old men who are jealous of your power, what can they do?
I am truly agog at those who are skilled at this game than I.
I did heed the advice and got $$$. I had sort of a good financial state although the problem was with the Gauls. I made a trade relation with them but never got Apollonia. I did get the village NW of me and had a problem with the invading hordes. The $$$ went out faster than I could see. I did build a sewer system after I had went through roads, traders, land clearing, and etwas else I cannot remember. The trouble is that I seem to be lacking troops although the Senate seems to like me when I do the missions - although not Messina (sp?) which is too far away.
Oh and I was playing the Julii. Is there anyway I could avoid the movie when I am just simply waiting for it to load?
Check this map out. The Seleucid Empire at maximum expansion, A.D. 138. *Note, the empire possesses a treasury of over 1,000,000 denarii. Hit escape while waiting for it to load.
Having played this game for a while, I thought I'd offer up this advice:
Try to carry out every single assignment the Senate gives you. This guarantees that your armies will be scattered all over the map, trying to assault fortresses held by enemies that vastly outnumber you. Meanwhile, the Gauls come a calling at home. You're better off ignoring the "go take this city" orders, unless they are right next door to you.
Ignore every single assignment the Senate gives you. This will lead to lack of support, loss of characters (they 'commit suicide'), and being declared an outlaw way too fast. While you have no choice but to ignore a lot of the "go take this city" orders, it isn't a bad idea to scatter a few fleets around the map; that way, you can follow most of the "go blockade this port" orders... that's a cheap way of complying with the Senate, and delaying the Outlawing for a while.
Conquer everything as fast as you can. The first couple of times I played the campaign game, I did just this. I ended up stretched way too thin, and had revolt simmering everywhere. Basically, I built up armies at the expense of everything else, and my people were unhappy most of the time.
Ignore what's going on in your individual cities, and tax the hell out of them right from the start. This is a surefire way to have revolts going everywhere at once. You really have to build things to make people happy... arenas, etc. As dull as it gets, it's pretty much necessary to look at each city you have every round. Sometimes, you have to adjust tax rates up and down all over the place to keep everyone in the green.
There are other ways to lose, but these are the big ones. Oh, you want hints on how to win? If I ever do so, I'll share some....
How to Lose at Rome: Total War Every Time
Try to carry out every single assignment the Senate gives you. This guarantees that your armies will be scattered all over the map, trying to assault fortresses held by enemies that vastly outnumber you. Meanwhile, the Gauls come a calling at home. You're better off ignoring the "go take this city" orders, unless they are right next door to you.
Ignore every single assignment the Senate gives you. This will lead to lack of support, loss of characters (they 'commit suicide'), and being declared an outlaw way too fast. While you have no choice but to ignore a lot of the "go take this city" orders, it isn't a bad idea to scatter a few fleets around the map; that way, you can follow most of the "go blockade this port" orders... that's a cheap way of complying with the Senate, and delaying the Outlawing for a while.
Conquer everything as fast as you can. The first couple of times I played the campaign game, I did just this. I ended up stretched way too thin, and had revolt simmering everywhere. Basically, I built up armies at the expense of everything else, and my people were unhappy most of the time.
Ignore what's going on in your individual cities, and tax the hell out of them right from the start. This is a surefire way to have revolts going everywhere at once. You really have to build things to make people happy... arenas, etc. As dull as it gets, it's pretty much necessary to look at each city you have every round. Sometimes, you have to adjust tax rates up and down all over the place to keep everyone in the green.
There are other ways to lose, but these are the big ones. Oh, you want hints on how to win? If I ever do so, I'll share some....
Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy
Banned
G.Bone said:
There's a reason building and recruiting have 2 qeues. If you mean no advanced army, than you'll have to choose quantity over quality.
Also, if you're a crappy general it's useful to admit it and let the computer screw the battle in it's own way.
The best advice for the Julii is to not play them. The Brutii are much easier.
I just played it the first time. I got home on at 3:30, having already played it about 4 hours, and then played continuously until 1 AM. I was able to conquer Gual, Spain, Britian, Germania, Dacia, and few random terrotories in the Mediterrian and North Africa while keeping most territories happy and profitable. Then I was declared an outlaw, underestimated the ability of the other Romans to attack me, and got wiped out. I should have just let my faction leader kill himself, oh well lesson learned.
This time I think I'll keep more armies in reserve after the early game and spend money faster. You say Brutii is easier? I'll try that too.
Some things I learned:
1. Make more cash from towns by building money buildings as much as prossible and mostly just relying military buildings that existed before when I took them over.
2. When a town gets too unprofitable raise taxes to the maximum, move all military units, and let it revolt. After that move a large army to it, retake the town, and exterminate the population. This left me with a much smaller population to deal with afterwards, and oddly enough, the provinces were both happier and more profitable within 2-3 turns of reconquering then they were beforehand.
3. Blockading a town is useless, armies just kept attacking me (well mostly). I was far batter off just taking it as soon as I had enough siege equipment built and sat in it defending a little and gaining money.
4. Exterminate the population most of the time. Makes for a more managable town size and is very easy and quick way to get LOTS of cash. The towns don't seem to mind much either.
Dang, this is a fun game. I think I'm finally over Starcraft (it only took me 5 years).
This time I think I'll keep more armies in reserve after the early game and spend money faster. You say Brutii is easier? I'll try that too.
Some things I learned:
1. Make more cash from towns by building money buildings as much as prossible and mostly just relying military buildings that existed before when I took them over.
2. When a town gets too unprofitable raise taxes to the maximum, move all military units, and let it revolt. After that move a large army to it, retake the town, and exterminate the population. This left me with a much smaller population to deal with afterwards, and oddly enough, the provinces were both happier and more profitable within 2-3 turns of reconquering then they were beforehand.
3. Blockading a town is useless, armies just kept attacking me (well mostly). I was far batter off just taking it as soon as I had enough siege equipment built and sat in it defending a little and gaining money.
4. Exterminate the population most of the time. Makes for a more managable town size and is very easy and quick way to get LOTS of cash. The towns don't seem to mind much either.
Dang, this is a fun game. I think I'm finally over Starcraft (it only took me 5 years).