Total War

[nzdbox]

Another tip for reducing population, buy a load of peasant units, and take them out and disband them :)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, but you have to disband them in another province, because otherwise they will re-populate the province. It's actually a pretty cool strategy that I alredy read about but never tried applying. It's supposedly handy for populating recently conquered settlements, with their population all gone, with your own settlers. Doing so also reduces the culture penalty, since disbanded soldiers turn into citizens of your faction (for example, if you're roman, you can disband peasents and they will become roman citizens. It's handy, for example, for populating a Gaul settlement, because the original citizens of that settlement don't believe in roman ways and the settlement will receive a culture penalty).

[Pack Rat]

I have Rome and I must say it is one of the finest RTS I have ever played. I finshed the game with the Julii (Romans, for those of you who do not know the history or have the game), Carthage and the Seleucid Empire (One of the four Greek races).

The negative retinu from a city is the least of your worries. As long as you have a positive total everything is allright.

 

Train only the troops you need, forge alliances and get military acces. That's the best way to start your empire. Make sure all your neighbours are allies and go start conquering oversea. If you do so dont forget to leave an amry behind to protect your homelands, afterall the AI cannot be trusted, he hardly respects any truce or alliance and defenitly wont come asking for military acces so dont go paniking if your ally has an army strolling trough your land. Keep an eye open for it tho...

 

BTW is it just me or are phalanx-based units weak?, as long as you have a thight wall everything is allright but once they are trough... That's mainly the reason why I cant get decently started with the Greek Cities cause for those of you who have pplayed the Greek Cities know that your first enemy is immediatly the Roman Empire ( Scipii and Brutii ) and they are powerfull to say the least...

[Adrian Laguna]

The devs seem to have not done enough playtesting of their own game. Some of the unit balancing is off. For example, I can charge a formed up phalanx with heavy cavalry and have them (the cav) win. I hope that the up-coming patch will solve that and other problems. It is still a great game, but it could have used a couple extra months in development.

[MDRud216]

thanks for all the advice guys, i downloaded the rome total war demo overnight with my dial up, hehe and i love it! I have played The battle of Trebia (the demo battle) at least 4000 times already, mastering it on medium easy and hard, unfortunately i had technical difficulties with the medieval download. And I did notice that medieval total war is the same price whether or not it has the expansion so thats a no brainer.

 

to adrian lugana: phalanx are long spear units, and spear units have a distinct advantage over cavaly in every rts i've played, including total war. armed cavalry shatter like glass on a wall of long spears before they can inflict damage on the unit itself.

 

one thing i notice immediately even with just the demo is that the game is extreemly strategic, unlike warcraft where your units fight to the death if you send cavalry for an example against a spear unit then a lot will die and the rest will run. I guess it is unfair to compare total war to warcraft :P how about we discuss strategies?

 

In the battle of trebia the absolute best strategy i have discovered is to send your two elephant units to the sides of the land where the romans will march into. Send both units of cavalry around behind the romans, careful not to ingage the cavalry units around the roman general And charge your barbarians and infantry into the roman front lines. Also make sure your skirishers have the stand and fight mode enabled so they can do more damage. Immediately after your infantry charges and the roman cavalry are occupied attack from behind with your own cavalry, attack their general first then the actual army, charging your elephants into theri ranks as soon as the roman general has fallen along with your main cavalry force.

 

EDIT: graphics are a major factor for me, so i am reluctant to buy the previous two games since i read "the units in medieval total war look like cardboard" in a reveiw, but from the screenshots that I see even the units in shogun look good... maybe they are too far away for me to tell? what does someone who has played the game think?

[Adrian Laguna]

to adrian lugana: phalanx are long spear units, and spear units have a distinct advantage over cavaly in every rts i've played, including total war. armed cavalry shatter like glass on a wall of long spears before they can inflict damage on the unit itself.

 

That is what is supposed to happen. However, this doesn't occur with a couple of phalanx units in the game (can't remember which). Heavy calvary can charge them head-on without getting slaughtered. If I recall correctly, this is because the anti-cavalry bonus in these units seems to be missing. Like I said, it needs patching to truly shine. Then again, what new game doesn't?

 

 

EDIT: graphics are a major factor for me, so i am reluctant to buy the previous two games since i read "the units in medieval total war look like cardboard" in a reveiw, but from the screenshots that I see even the units in shogun look good... maybe they are too far away for me to tell? what does someone who has played the game think?

 

The only reason why you would want to see the units from up close, is when the battle is over, you have won and want to watch your units mop-up. Otherwise it is wise to look from afar so you can pay attention to new developments. The graphics between Shogun/Medieval (same engine) and Rome are nowhere near each other, and even on the lowest settings Rome is incredibly better. Rome uses 3D models, Shogun/Medieval use sprites. However, I always did like looking at the little sprites battle it out. Even if they look rather pixalated, those sprites are quite detailed and always fun to watch. So unless you really can't stand to play a game with old graphics, I doubt it will be a problem.

[loveme4whoiam]

I own both Medieval (with expansion) and Rome, although for some unknown reason i can no longer install or play Medieval :blink:

 

They are both superior games than anything else in the genre (i consider Medieval the superior of every other "strategy" game released before or after it, expect Rome of course).

 

What everyone has said is true, but i don't think anyone has mentioned the one thing that really annoyed me in Medieval (aside from the silly number of diplomatic units), which was the repetition of the battle maps. I played primarily on the Viking Invasion campaigns, and i can tell you that you soon get used to fighting along the length of a ridiculously high-sided valley. I've been playing Rome since pretty much the first week it came out, and i've only once played on the same battle map, which was my own decision (a dirty great ridge which forced the attackers to try a really stupid flanking move), due to the new map generation stuff Rome does.

 

All things considered, I'd play Rome, since the sieges are so much better (although still not the high-point of the game), and the added depth and tactics of Rome appeal to me more (plus i can actually play Rome in a decent resolution with high detail :D ).

 

Adrian Laguna, can you post/PM the website address for that Napoleonic: Total War mod? I've been waiting for a game based around this era for so long (Cossacks turned out to be C&C with muskets, maybe Cossacks 2 will be better), i'd love to get hold of it.

 

EDIT: Never mind, i've found it ^_^ .

[Pack Rat]

The battle of Trebia can be won within a minute ( at least that's how I do it every time...

 

Just let the romans come near your line and let them batter thelmselves against your frontline from the moment the first roman troops enganged your warriors send the cavalry (who in the mean should already be formed up in the rear) after the general, once the general is dead keep pushing trough and the entire army will flee. Just clean up what's left behind. BTW if you do the campain always kill as many soldiers as possible, cause the more soldiers you let go, the more who will come back. And they do come back. My Seleucid army is build-up the following: 5 compagnion cavalry units (5 * 54 units), 4 Cathapract Elephant units ( 4 * 12 ) and one general (preferably a family member ) all the rest of free spaces you fill up with phalanx units, they never get enganged into battle anyway, just a line where to fall back too. Send in the elephants, the enemy army will throw everything they got at the elephants. A waste of units cause nothing can stop those animals besides pigs and so far I've never ran into an army who had pigs along. When the enemy start to retreat attack with your cavalry whom in the meanwhile you've already positionned behind the enemies forces. Be carefull tho, dont elt your cavalry get too close to the elephants or you might lose some units due the arrows comming from the archers on the elephants.

 

Once you get used to this tactic you inflict a huge loss to the enemy forces without losing a single man...

Still working on a tactic to make phalanx units strong in attack. It's hard to make a defence unit into attacking without losing many men.

[Fishystick]

Hey man, I've got all three games+VI, I say they are all great games, Rome is a little greater though.

 

Btw, if you need a good phalanx strategy, I've got one that always works:Have 1-3 units of heavy cavalry(generals work good), then have the rest be phalanxes. Send all your phalanxes straight at the enemy, just don't let them break formation, and at the same time, you go around the enemy with your cavalry and when they've sent their troops forward to face your phalanxes, their general is more than often left behind with maybe 1 or 2 groups of defense, charge him with all your cavalry and if he flees.

 

Have one group hunt him down and the other two charged into the back of the frightened, fighting to the death enemy.

This always works for me as the Greek Cities, I've won 78 battles and lost 2 B)

[MDRud216]

I got the shogun demo to work, and surprisingly i really like it! the strategic value is excellent, and its pre-played price over at ebx can't be more than 3 dollars. i cant wait to actually play the games, haha. I will probobly play as many historical and custom battles as i can before i begin a campaign.