Rome: Total War Stories

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I think many of us have played enough to come out of the game with a few good stories of battles won and lost by now. I've got one or two myself which I'll get down soon, for now we'll just say that I'm the Britains and the Gaul's and Germanians have me in a pain sandwich despite my best diplomatic efforts.

Ok, one story.

I play on "difficult" level battle mode. The filthy Germans set siege to my original mainland starting city (Samarobriva) with a sizable troop, about 1300 men to my 500 or so. Most of my guys were warband (starting pike units) and I managed to train a couple head tossing units just to see if they could toss the limed things over the wall. I also managed to bring up one merc cavalry unit and one chariot archer unit as a reinforcement before he finally decided to attack. They had to start on the opposite side of the map once the battle began.

Why did he wait? So he could build four rams to batter down my walls, that's why. It had never even occurred to me to try that myself, I always used just one and dealt with the clogged entry. As the rams made their approach they split off and attacked three widely spaced parts of my wall and my main gate. I only just have enough for one unit of melee units to cover each spot the rams were hitting. I backed them up with head tossers and hold my slingers back in reserve along with my general's heavy chariot unit.

As they moved towards the gate I order my reinforcement archery chariots to ride like the wind around my city and start hitting the closest troop ramming my walls with arrows. I'm still outnumbered two to one but I figure they might as well kill as many as they can. I also brought my cavalry up to see what kind of trouble I could cause before they started breaking through. For those of you who haven't fought the Germans, they have these long spear units (Warband Spears) that are just just death if you hit them head on with anything. Once they broke a hole in the wall my troops wouldn't be able to hold them off toe to toe, it's a wall of spikey death.

A unit protecting their rammers broke off to run after my chariots which left the ramming troops all alone. I sent my cavalry swinging wide and slammed them into the ram units, killing enough of them to drop the siege equipment and make a run for it. Just as I did that, they broke through the three other attack points, all at the same time. I then used my chariots and cavs to keep the outside forces busy for the rest of the battle. Quick strikes and fast retreats to keep the long spears at bay.

At the first breach point along the line I brought my units back from the wall and let the long spear bastards come right in. As they started to slaughter my men I brought the now freed extra pike unit inside the wall to their flank and destroyed them. I also sent my cavs on the outside over to distract the remaining unit near the breach to prevent them from pouring in to back up their flanked comrades. From there I broke my now freed two units through the hole they just defended and swung them outside and up behind the attackers all piled up at the other two entries. They were just about to route my defenders (head throwers included) when I hit them from behind and turned the tables. It was a near thing but I managed to kill their general and the rest ran off. In the end, I lost 80% of my six hundred total units (including my reinforcements) and they lost just under 900 men (and one unit of woman screamers) before they ran for it. My general got big points for that one and the map is permanently marked to show our great victory.

I love this game.

I''ve not been able to play more than 15 minutes since Sunday; no stories here yet. Not of that quality, anyway.

Awesome. Thanks for that!

That''s excellent, Certis! Man, I really have to get this game.

AARs are great but you should also save the replays and post them for people with the game to see your triumphant victories for themselves.

I remember some 1.5 hour spectaculars in MTW:VI which boiled down to 1 or 2 units of peasants and a lonely exhausted general wandering the field.

Okay, these descriptions make it sound like both tactically and strategically this game is worlds beyond Shogun: Total War. Is that accurate?

I didn''t particularly like Shogun because it seemed like all I needed to do was turn my big sword units loose and hack the hell out of everything that couldn''t run away. This game sounds complex.

The Strategic AI is spot on, I can say that at this point. At medium difficulty, this scenario took place: I was seiging Carthegenian city with about 1,200 troops. Within the city were about 1200 troops, including some war elephants. The AI brought a small 200 man force in behind me, and attacked with it. What that did was start the battle with my troops facing a smaller army posturing, and behind me - unseen on the battle map until the battle started, therefore difficult to plan for - was a 1,200 man force, led by abouut 8 charging war elephants. I thought I''d have time to wipe out the smaller force before turning to meet the sally. Boy, was I wrong! It was all I could do to quickly arrange my forces to face the onslaught. Luckily I had a unit of heavy infantry in the rear which blunted the charge long enough for me to rearrange my main force. Tactically, the AI is at least the quality of MTW''s in that you have to have a plan, and a good one - or vastly superior numbers, or you will be beaten.

About the only story worth telling I have is about every time the AI stations its troops hang around the town square with their shields facing away from me. All I have to do is sneak a unit of archers behind a building and let ''er rip. Then it''s fun just zooming in and watching them dance and flail around.

Alien, MTW was far, far beyond Shogun, and is a classic in it''s own right. RTW is a solid improvement on MTW; it''s Civ-class in quality, to my mind.

Am I to understand that the game really marks your biggest victories on the map?

Am I to understand that the game really marks your biggest victories on the map?

Yeah, you''ll see a little crossed swords icon on the spot of the battle. When you mouse over it, it says who fought/won the battle. It''s pretty cool.

"Certis" wrote:
Am I to understand that the game really marks your biggest victories on the map?

Yeah, you''ll see a little crossed swords icon on the spot of the battle. When you mouse over it, it says who fought/won the battle. It''s pretty cool.

I can''t stand this. I am leaving work, now, and going to buy this game. I have NEVER seen so many of you excited about a game before.

"Certis" wrote:
Am I to understand that the game really marks your biggest victories on the map?

Yeah, you''ll see a little crossed swords icon on the spot of the battle. When you mouse over it, it says who fought/won the battle. It''s pretty cool.

That is painfully awesome.

An off-topic question, what Unit Size do you all normally play with? I use Normal, but i''m feeling like I might be missing out on some of the game''s majesty that way.

An off-topic question, what Unit Size do you all normally play with? I use Normal, but i''m feeling like I might be missing out on some of the game''s majesty that way.

Not even sure what you''re talking about, can you combine two units into one big one?

"Certis" wrote:
An off-topic question, what Unit Size do you all normally play with? I use Normal, but i''m feeling like I might be missing out on some of the game''s majesty that way.

Not even sure what you''re talking about, can you combine two units into one big one?

I ''think'' is refering to an option in game about the size of your unit''s (and battles?) you want to play with.

"Certis" wrote:
Am I to understand that the game really marks your biggest victories on the map?

Yeah, you''ll see a little crossed swords icon on the spot of the battle. When you mouse over it, it says who fought/won the battle. It''s pretty cool.

So that''s what those are.

Oh man, if I get this job I''m gunning for, I''ll treat myself to both R:TW and Kohan II.

Today''s edition of ""Out of Context Theater""...

An off-topic question, what Unit Size do you all normally play with?

Good god, I actually laughed out loud when I read that. Now there''s a bunch of engineers on the other side of my cube wall questioning my sanity.

Y''know, I hadn''t even thought of that until now.

My mistake, the game actually calls it ""Unit Scale"" which makes it a little better, but it refers to the sizes of individual groups of troops. ""Normal"" is 40 for the average Infantry unit, ""Large"" is 80.

Are the large units Romans...or Trojans...? <giggle>

Sorry, couldn''t resist...

I''m feeling too lazy right now to post a good story, but Certis'' is awesome. I was actually thinking about starting this exact thread with this exact title on the way home from class today.

The unit scale option isn''t documented in the manual but it actually does affect more than just performance. The more units you have, the more upkeep you have to pay but they gain experience faster. Also, you can''t change it in a campaign once you''ve started. I''ve got mine set to large, huge bogs down my system quite a bit if archers are involved and I figure the upkeep might get hard to handle later in the game.

I don''t understand. It isn''t just a graphical option?

I never managed to find the time to play M:TW, so I wanted to play that before R:TW. My question at this point is should I even bother with M:TW or just get R:TW? Is it good enough to render the earlier installment obsolete?

"SwampYankee" wrote:

I don''t understand. It isn''t just a graphical option?

That''s what polite women say, but in reality, it also heavily affects the gameplay.

Cloke, MTW was a great game. If you played it you would like it. But do not play RTW first if you want to play MTW, or you won''t be happy with it. My advice: Go with RTW, unless yopu really love the middle ages

Rome''s readme is worth checking out, it has a bunch of stuff that was left out of the manual.

Concerning the unit scale specifically (which I got wrong, actually, nothing about upkeep) I''ll copy/paste it:

Unit Scale Settings
The Unit Size option found in the Video Options screen will affect the gameplay experience of a Campaign, as well as being a performance setting. Using smaller unit sizes in the game will use up less population when you train new units and therefore affect the amount of Denarii you gain from taxes. Using larger units sizes will also result in units gaining more experience in battle, but will be more of a drain on your population. Players should bear this in mind when changing this setting and may use it to choose the style of gameplay which best suits them. Please note: This setting cannot be altered mid-campaign. The unit size setting selected at the start of any campaign game will apply through that entire game.

Thanks, DF.

Man... I was doing so well avoiding this game. Methinks that''s coming to a screeching halt. It sounds very cool. (Unless y''all are embellishing unmercifully, and I''ll be controlling the 4 red dots against my opponents 5 green dots... ;))

Hi fellow gamers with jobs!

(ouch, didn''t mean for my greeting to sound so dorky, but there it is.)

I''m a new poster but have been coming to this site for a long time. I''m a somewhat jaded gamer having played since the early Atarii 2600, Commodore 64 casette drive days, so it''s rare that I find a game that I love these days. Well, Rome: TW has done it. I probably wouldn''t even be posting if it weren''t for this game. It''s renewed my hope and joy in PC gaming. I''ve certainly got that ""just one more turn"" bug happening to the chagrin of my poor, long suffering wife.

Anyway, I''m finding it a very difficult game even on medium. I''m no stranger to RTS, and have done quite well with other RTS titles (and used to be right up there on the Myth 2 ladder). This is tough! In fact, I''m embarassed to say that I couldn''t complete the Prologue!!!!

I jumped into the Imperial Campagne anyway as the Scipii. The Carthaginians are my arch nemeses and I left for work this morning on the verge of taking over their second capital (after wiping the last Spanish bastion from the African Coast near the Straits of Gibralter).

The best battle so far has been defending Syracuse from an onslought of 1000 Carthaginian troops. I had the camera hovering above my gate and I watched in total disbelief as the sun glinted off 1000 swords and shields and dust rose from the feet of the oncoming army. The seige towers, ladders and ram were making me a little nervous so I positioned some light infantry on the walls. It created a pincer effect on the ramparts so when the Carths poured over wall, I could attack them from two sides. It was a total loss for the opposing force.

Once I had eliminated the wall scaling I decided I would sally forth and take the fight to them (which was a hint subtley dropped in the general''s speech). I had my light infantry use the enemies'' siege towers and ladders to pour over the side of my own walls to attack the ram. Once the ram was down, I opened the door and committeed my entire army (about 600) to a full frontal assault. I had managed to take out so many on the ramparts of the walls, that the sally was easy work.

The Scipii house is in decline right now. I''ve spread myself a little thin along the North African coast, and I''m unable to manage so many cities. I''ve also been a bit defiant of the Senate. They know nothing of war as they sit in theirs baths growing fat on home cooked feasts! Bastards! I''ve also seen a bit of a dry spell in having male children. And to top it off, I lost my best general to old age before a critical battle along the Spanish coast (which I subsequently lost). My prospects are not good right now, but I''m enjoying it anyway! I''ve never enjoyed losing so much in a game. I''m so impressed with the AI in this game (most of the time!). It''s easy to admit defeat to such a worth opponent (I lost another battle to the Carths when they ambused me in the mountains of Sicily).

This is all just to say that if you haven''t picked this game up, do yourself a favor and buy it. It rewards careful planning, and creative tactics on the battle field. Last night I got home, got some stuff done around the house, poured a nice dark beer and continued with my game. I savored every detail and every tiny decision. This game rewards goal-oriented strategy. It isn''t just gloryfied rock-paper-scissors.

Cheers!

Awesome first post, thanks for diving in! It sounds like you''ve got a good handle on the battle side of things, you just need to manage your strategy map/cities a little better. Personally, once I decided that not every city needed military buildings right away and my army didn''t have to always be on the move to conquer new places I started doing better. Retraining your army before heading out again also seems to make a big difference.

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