Rome: Total War is Out

[asleepathewheel]

how does one combat rioting? My cities get to a certain size and then continually riot even though I have low taxes, a decent garrison, a governor, and the proper buildings to help out...

I love the first part of this game, but after I get, say, 15-20 provinces, the tedium kills the fun. I might be missing something, I hope, that would make the game more enjoyable for me. Its especially annoying to have 20 family members spread out and try to figure out where one dies that I have to replace. And I likely can't give him the go-to command, as it only reaches for a handful of turns, thus I have to remember what I had planned 5 turns ago. I want a game to be fun, not a matter of tracking on paper....

[Kassiopeia]

Change your capital away from the most docile regions closer to the rioting ones? Distance to capital is my main cause of rioting. Another is squalor, I hope they'll fix that in a patch because squalor is intolerable even on huge unit scale, where cities will be smaller because the units are so big. And squalor is calculated based on the population of a city.

[asleepathewheel]

Ah, capital moving. That's something I hadn't tried. Great.

Though it feels funny to move the capital to, say, Athens from Italy.

[dudemanjack]

I think moving the capital to a more centered area also lowers corruption. It must also be based on distance to capital.

[Guynemer]

Moving the capital definitely works. As the Scipii, as I conquered most of Africa, I needed to move the capital to Carthage--had much less rioting and better income after that.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Change your capital away from the most docile regions closer to the rioting ones? Distance to capital is my main cause of rioting. Another is squalor, I hope they'll fix that in a patch because squalor is intolerable even on huge unit scale, where cities will be smaller because the units are so big. And squalor is calculated based on the population of a city.

How do you move your capital?

[Kassiopeia]

Choose the city you want to make your capital, and open up the screen you do all the building etc. in, and in the left side of the scroll there's a button that opens up a new scroll with details on the city on the left half of the screen that's usually empty. Here, in turn, in the left side there's a column of buttons, one of these buttons changes the city you're fiddling with the faction capital.

[The diplomat]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
Choose the city you want to make your capital, and open up the screen you do all the building etc. in, and in the left side of the scroll there's a button that opens up a new scroll with details on the city on the left half of the screen that's usually empty. Here, in turn, in the left side there's a column of buttons, one of these buttons changes the city you're fiddling with the faction capital.

Thanks, I did not know that.

[Grumbold]

If you get a far flung empire then you're going to get rioting, no matter what. Moving family members in doesn't help in the long run because they go to seed and develop really evil traits if left in a backwater for long.

For people like the Scipii the solution is to be ruthless. Where a city is going into intolerable unrest, pull out all the troops, let it revolt and crush the city, putting its occupants to the sword. You get more money than it costs to rebuild the damage (especially if you don't autoresolve) and a smaller, happier populace. By the time I completed a world conquest as Scipii I had 3 full armies on offensive duties and two purely concerned with keeping my distant megacities trimmed down to size.

As the Brutii I had far less trouble with rioting since their powerbase is the greek cities, all clustered nice and close to the original capital.

[asleepathewheel]

I just one an imperial campaign on easy. The long campaign, as the Brutii.

Is that it? A lame 2 second ending, and no option to continue the slaughter? I had many more provinces to capture, I barely scratched the opposing Roman factions.

Blah

[Kassiopeia]

Yeah, I would have liked the option to keep on fighting as well. To my understanding you'd have to sit still until 14 AD and from then on you could have 50 provinces without the victory event firing off.

Anyway, I got my big imperial campaign done last night, and tonight I had a go at the Seleucids, on Very Hard battle difficulty. And it is very hard - the Egyptians are kicking my butt like nothing! Granted, I've only attacked their offensive forces (they declared war on me), but every time I've taken a beating like a mewling infant. Usually because my units' morale vanishes the moment they take a scratch - probably my brazen style with the stoic Romans is trousers-wetting for the "sons of Alexander". Oh, Urban Cohorts, how I love thee, you can chop down anything, any amount, and not buckle an inch.

Then there's the Phalanx. It's a killer ability and formation, but it's also a massive pain in the ass to assault with. In defence it's glorious, but you usually can't invite the enemy to walk at the pikes, you actually have to walk to them and thrust. That's where it gets tricky, the grouping option helps but come battle contact more often than not the formation has to break with the enemy moving around so quickly, and in a worst case scenario some ¤%!#%+ Egyptian charioteer unit rides in from a hole in the flank and lo, the entire army is turning tail once more.

I also hate horse archers with a passion. The only way to get rid of them is with melee cavalry, but you also have to tie them down with something lest they just run away and chip at you with missile fire. So you end up tiring your men hunting them down across the field.

[Jagdtiger]

Hit Ctrl+S during the victory screen to keep playing.

I suggest avoiding Very Hard battle difficulty, as apparently the A.I gets none of the old MTW tactical bonuses. Instead they have their attributes boosted up to ridiculous levels, with peasants being the equivalent of elite troops. Stick to medium/hard instead.

[asleepathewheel]

Thanks

I guess the other option would be to leave Rome for last, but that would be quite annoying, I would think, with their navy floating around.

[Sava]

all I have to say is: This game is ****ing magnificent.

[Kassiopeia]

Carthage rocks. Lots of mobile units, makes for great battles. They lack an infantry heavy hitter as far as I can tell, but the missile and cavalry units more than make up in my book. Way better than those godawful phalanxes. ELEPHANTS