Rome: Total War- tips wanted on playing the three Roman factions

[Odin]

What are the best ways to play each of the factions?

[Jamski]

Massed Hastatii/Princepii in a line, set to fire at will. Set archers behind if you have them, and javelins in front. Set Equites on the flanks, and send them WIDE when the battle starts. The javelin bombardment as enemies close is nice, and the roman soldiers have enough "last" to hold in there until your wide horses can charge the attackers in the rear. Pursue fleeing opponents only with the horses, and reform the main battle line. Works in all battles vs the AI.

Map strategy - grab all the available provinces, always try to do any sentate missions that are with your reach. Defend with roving mega-armies.

Build strategy - upgrade roads and ports whenever possible. Build troops only in towns where you don't require pop growth. Hire all the mercs you can find early on rather than cull your population to make soldiers. Always have tax set as high as they will tolerate. Don't attack the other roman factions untill you are stronger than them combined - they WILL ally against you.

The rest is just management, really.

[germanos]

Well said, Jamski.

( I didn't think such a broad question could be answered so clear )

[Sava]

create_unit (settlement) carthaginian elephant african 60 9 9 5

type that in console but put a name of a settlement where I typed "settlement"...

it is fun, it creates these bad azz elephant archers... they are good at melee attack too... they stomp teh crap outta everyon!!!@

but if you want more, you have to save the game and reload, because rome total war only lets you do like one of each cheat code per session...

[Traianvs]

don't play vanilla... Rome Total Realism 6 is simply so much better

But anyhow there's no way to lose battles vs the AI. It's just so weak that if you just send your infantry to the enemy line and charge with some cavalry they will succumb. Usually tactics are not necessary due to the weak opponents. Ye can win 1/10 battles with some cunning movement but that's a bit hard to explain: Just make sure the enemy flanks try to outflank you (your meagre amount of troops), but they'll be so far off that your better troops will have slaughtered their right flank for example, so their new troops come in attacking with a shaken morale... And then it's a piece of cake destroying them all.
They will regroup, but will still have a horrible morale so don't worry bout that

[Cyclotron]

I've found that factions with phalanxes are infinitely easier to play, because the AI relies heavily on frontal attacks that a phalanx just isn' vulnerable to. Playing as Spain, I could get thrashed by the Gauls, and I consider myself a decent player - when they had many more command stars than me, plus simply a better unit roster, it took a great deal of finesse to pull off a victory. The Macedonians, on the other hand, really only need to set up a phalanx line and have enough cavalry to tool the enemy cavalry, then run around and hit them in back - if the phalanxes haven't made them rout already. I like a lot of the pike factions, but they're just far too easy.

Though the Romans don't have phalanxes, they typically don't suffer as much in this regard, as their units (even starting hastati) are very high quality, and they get a lot of decent generals.

[Traianvs]

I find Phalanx nations hard to play... I mean harder because it's harder to move phalanxes around. You need a good line and that requires more attention to your troops which is a bit time consuming. Often some Barbarian army will move his army shortly before you clash with them so your phalanx is standing out of its optimal position

[Sava]

carthaginian elephant african pwns phalanx

I stay at a distance and pick them off with arrows

then when their numbers are low, I charge and MASH THEM TO BITS

MUHAAHHAHAH

also, I found a patch that lets you cheat multiple times per game!!!



zomfg i luv this game

[Cyclotron]

Well, your experiences may well be different, but for me, phalanx armies own all - with support. As the macedonians, you can get illyrians and cretan archers to give you huge missile power; flaming arrows from the cretans will remove any elephant problems quickly. Add companion cav and light lancers to flank, and, well... it's over.

The problem is that the computer uses phalanxes primarily defensively; when using them, I always "push pike" and hit the enemy before they have time to flank me. Flanking, however, is usually not an issue; companions, macedon cav, and light lancers are more than capable of dealing with most factions' cavalry.