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The Guild - frogbeastegg`s Guide to Rome: Total War

1. Finally specific named credits for people have directly quoted or who have done something which is actually here in the guide in raw form Duke John for my nice snazzy title Maltz for a few handy quotable bits and pieces Sinner for the kind loan of his temple guide Steppe Merc for the brief quoted guide on modding playable units Tamur for the kind loan of his diplomacy guide All times are GMT The time now is 09 29 Page 1 of 45 12 3 4 5 11 gt Last Show 40 posts from this thread on one page Powered by vBulletin Version 3 5 0 Copyright 2000 2005 Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58
2. Farming Farming provides a small part of your income but you don t have to do ansia to start tapping into it Your cities will farm automatically although you can upgrade the farms yourself to bring in more cash and boost your population growth As we discussed earlier this is seldom a good idea Farm income depends on the quality of the farm land provinces like the Nile delta have great farmlands and naturally make more money than the Sahara It is important to know that farm income is not stable a bad harvest will reduce your profits and a good one will boost them You will not be notified of the harvests your cities are getting you can find out by calling up the city s trade information screen As with so many things to do with farming you cannot influence the kind of harvests you get Basically farming is a nice steady earner with no input or expenditure required Just sit back and let the cash trickle in You will not be able to rely on farming income alone you must supplement it with other forms Taxes Taxes can be summed up essentially as more people more taxes Breaking it down further than that requires some rather unpleasant looking maths and it s really not important for anyone but the numerically minded stat loving player If you really want to know more check this thread Increasing your tax rate gets you more money decreasing it gets you less How shocking Your difficulty level also appears to affect tax income harder difficult
3. Results You should prepare for an attack from this faction If they will accept nothing from you it is likely that they are preparing for war The old MTW engine would accept peace treaties the round before it launched a major invasion In RTW this happens rarely though it still happens Recovery Simply leave the faction alone and move armies to the border to build forts and defend against incursions Leaving one of your diplomats in their area is a good idea because then you at least have the possibility that this faction will use your easily accessed diplomat to get messages to you However your diplomat should be on the watch for assassins http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 31 Description of Offers and Demands The following list is a complete list of all possible offers and demands you can use in a negotiating session Alliance offer only Stances neutral only Description If you offer an alliance you are offering to solidify relations with a faction These solid relations will be demonstrated by you by 1 not attacking the allied faction 2 leaving trade routes open between yourself and the allied faction Additionally the alliance can be made stronger by not attacking your new ally s own allies It can also be made stronger by expanding the trade routes between you and your new ally by building better road
4. 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Upgrades light weapons 1 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 Page 46 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 47 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Experience bonus to troops 2 Public order bonus due to law 10 Ancilliaries Brilliant Inventor Temple or greater Geometer Temple or greater Saturn Law e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Public order bonus due to law 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 Arcani e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 2596 Public order bonus due to law 2596 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Arcani Ancilliaries Astrologer Crooked J udge Temple or greater Magician Temple or greater Neptune Naval e Shrine Requires a Port to build Public order bonus due to happiness 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 e Large Temple Public
5. Mercenaries are handled in their own chapter Retraining versus merging CA developer Dutch has this to say on retraining Retraining can do two things 1 if the settlement can produce that type of unit it will replenish the unit with new soldiers at the units average experience level these soldiers are subtracted from the settlement population as normal 2 if the settlement can produce armour or weapon upgrades for which the unit is eligible and which it does not already have retraining will add these to the unit being retrained If the settlement can do both it will do so Replenishment costs a proportion of the unit s cost in denarii while retraining for upgrades costs a nominal amount per upgrade You can retrain as many units as will fit into the recruitment queue in one turn although you end up paying for all of them Hence it is often better to retrain a lot of old units if you need troops quickly rather than recruiting new Clearly at the moment retraining is the better proposition especially if you have veteran troops IIl starred omens Your generals and captains will collect command stars as they win battles These stars make them more effective shall quote CA developer Jerome Grasdyke on how stars work t currently affects both morale and combat ability we tried it for a while with just morale but it ended up being not enough of a bonus The combat calculations have changed so much from Rome to Medieval as to be
6. Total War Page 26 Re A Beginner s Guide to Rome Total War XII Extortion for beginner s aka diplomacy This entire section is the work of Tamur Rather than repeat his excellent diplomacy guide decided to include it with his kind permission So until otherwise noted this is Tamur s work This version of his guide dates from October 10th and is out of date on some points He has also added some more advanced information to his later versions Please find his topic along with a download of the latest version of his guide here think that the version in this guide is better for beginners while the latest version is perfect for intermediate and advanced players who want to go the extra mile Introduction Rome Total War offers a challenging new dimension to the Total War series deep diplomacy Your diplomatic agents now have many possible offers and demands they can tender toward any faction in the game As the game describes it A diplomat is an individual trained in the arts of flattery cajolery smooth talking and sometimes even bullying who is sent out to deal with rival factions It is his job to strike bargains cement peace treaties or even demand a surrender Diplomats also act as the eyes and ears of their factions in the places they go This guide is by no means complete As new or corrected information comes available it will be updated Because of the depth and complexity available on the campaign map the Diplomatic Strate
7. agents navies and armies away from cities with the plague or they will catch it themselves If you have a family member agent or army in a plague ridden city leave them there moving them about will only spread the plague Yes this does mean you can deliberately infect a spy or assassin with the plague and then send them to infiltrate an enemy settlement potentially spreading the plague there too You evil person you The plague reportedly burns itself out after around 6 turns as long as no new infection source is added and units take 15 turns to be free of the infection so quarantine quarantine quarantine The original capital of Macedon will always be hit by the plague sometime around 255BC Those of a crueller persuasion may like to note that deliberately infecting an overcrowded city is a good way to reduce the population a little You will lose a few people from your garrison too but they can be retrained It s like talking to a stone wall Walls are vital if you want your city to withstand an assault Wooden palisades are flimsy and will be battered down in seconds but epic stone walls will require dedicated siege equipment and time to break through All three varieties of stone wall allow you to place troops up on the walls Missile units gain more range because of the extra height and melee troops will be able to push off ladders and fight attackers as they pour out of siege towers Note that any unit which requires space and or good
8. disciplined formations to fight effectively will not work too well on a wall Keep those phalanxes on the ground Also any lazy unit which uses some poor animal to get around instead of walking on their own two feet will not be able to climb onto a wall Walls also add to the number of turns a city can withstand being besieged If you think a city is likely to be attacked or if you want to secure a key city then build walls try to get at least wooden walls in all my cities build the walls when have run out of other options unless the city is likely to need them sooner http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 14 My city is making 256 denarii Help Actually no it isn t Yes I m going to cop out and quote the official FAQ again They aren t earning negative amounts of money When a settlement is shown with a negative cashflow it s a sign that it is not pulling its weight in your economy If possible improve its trade income improve the markets and ports look at the governor s vices very carefully or reduce the size of your military forces Military upkeep is divided between your cities according to their population so just reducing the settlement garrison won t have a direct impact froggy s rough build order for low tech cities 1 Roads Regardless of what and where this city is roads are number 1 if they are not alrea
9. forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 25 Thrace Propontis Tribus Getae Bithynia Paionia Macedonia Thessalia Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia lonia Spanish Mercenaries 750 170 Gallaecia Celtiberia Taraconenis Lusitania Hispania Baetica Samnite Mercenaries 750 170 Etruria Umbria Latium Apulia Campania Bruttium Cilician Pirates 620 200 Cilicia Cyprus Llyrian Mercenaries 650 700 130 Regnum Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus lazyges Dacia Illyria Dalmatia Pannonia Paionia Macedonia Thessalia Mercenary Peltasts 550 600 170 Thrace Propontis Tribus Getae Bithynia Paionia Macedonia Thessalia Epirus Aetolia Attica Peloponnesus Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele Syria Phoenicia Judaea Sicilia Poeni Sicilia Romanus Sicilia Graecus Sardinia Laconia Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia lonia Libyan Mercenaries 350 100 Mauretania Numidia Gaetulia Sahara Africa Tripolitania Cyrenaica Libya Byzacium Nile Delta Middle Egypt Thebais Balearic Slingers 750 200 Gallaecia Celtiberia Taraconenis Lusitania Hispania Baetica Baliares Sicilia Poeni Sicilia Romanus Sicilia Graecus Sardinia Mauretania Numidia Gaetulia Sahara Rhodian Slingers 750 200 Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia lonia Cretan Archers 750 200 Epirus Aetolia Attica Peloponnesus Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia lonia Barbarian Cavalry Mercenaries 450 800 100 Tribus Saxon
10. it s a row of soldiers standing side by side For more on flanks and the rear of the unit read the next little section Rank is a less concrete concept then in MTW In MTW I could and did say how to optimally deploy each and every unit in all situations In RTW rank is so different that s not really possible Instead get to tell you general guidelines The deeper a formation is the larger its flanks become and the less ground it covers with its front The thinner a formation is the more fragile it is It is a balancing act playing depth and coverage off against each other and the needs vary quite a bit depending on what unit you are using and what is about to happen with that unit in the battle can offer one firm bit of advice here using a unit in just one rank is asking for trouble your enemy will tear right through the heart of the formation and destroy it faster than you can blink Ok two firm bits of advice Some units have nice orderly formations such as the legionaries in the picture above Others have looser more ragged ones especially barbarian units and missile units The solid formations are more effective at resisting charges than the more disorderly ones That out of the way it is time to go to the vaguer bits For infantry not phalanx When facing cavalry or a strong infantry charge rank is key four ranks is a very good depth for infantry to repel charges with If you are facing chariots or elephants five even six ran
11. 2096 Population health bonus 2096 e Temple City Public order bonus due to happiness 2596 Population health bonus 2596 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Experience bonus to troops 2 Ancilliaries Druid healing type Master Embalmer Temple or greater Physician Temple or greater Wise Woman Witch Nicander Awesome Temple or greater Set Justice e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Public order bonus due to law 1096 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 50 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 e Temple City Public order bonus due to happiness 3596 Public order bonus due to law 2596 Population growth bonus 196 Population health bonus 1096 Ancilliaries Crooked Judge Temple or greater Judge Temple or greater Pet White Cat Awesome Temple or greater Horus Law e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Public order bonus due to law 1096 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to
12. Guide to Rome Total War Page 49 Ancilliaries Wrestler EGYPTI ANS Isis Fertility e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Population growth bonus 0 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Population growth bonus 1 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population growth bonus 1 596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Population growth bonus 296 e Temple City Public order bonus due to happiness 3596 Population growth bonus 2 596 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Osiris Fun e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 10 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 3096 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 4096 e Temple City Public order bonus due to happiness 5096 Population growth bonus 196 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Ancilliaries Comedian Temple or greater Cook Courtesan Temple or greater Dancer Temple or greater Drinking Companion Temple or greater Gourmands Chef Temple or greater Titus Maccius Plautus Awesome Temple or greater I mhotep Healing e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Population health bonus 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Population health bonus 1096 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population health bonus 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness
13. Roman infantry and the pilum further down Javelins are more damaging per volley than arrows as in they cause more deaths on average assuming all things are equal They do have a short range shorter than the skirmish range so you will probably find your men run away without throwing so much as a single javelin if skirmish is on Therefore most of the time you want to turn skirmish off either turning it back on when you want the unit to pull back to safety or withdrawing them manually You get fewer shots per man with javelins than the other missile types the actual number varies from unit type to unit type The dedicated skirmishers have more missiles than the heavy infantry with javelins Javelins are thrown in an arc so you can position javelin using troops behind your front line and they will throw over the heads of the other units Occasionally find this courses problems with friendly fire but not often as long as your javelins are not on a backwards slope and so lower down than your front line Most javelin skirmishers are fast so you can actually skirmish with them Send them running out to throw a few volleys at the enemy as they advance then pull them back before the enemy reach them Beware of cavalry when doing this even the Al won t miss the chance to mow your skirmishers down and unlike the other missile units javelins have such a short range they have to get very close to the enemy to work This means you don t usually have time to pu
14. Roman infantry and the pilum If you just click once to attack with Roman infantry you will find they rarely if ever get the chance to use their trademark pilum throw before drawing swords and getting stuck in If you want them to use their pilums you will need to turn fire at will on note that this option is off by default Draw your unit up in a reasonable depth and wait for the enemy to close Don t give any orders at all Your men will now throw their pilum into the charging mass then draw swords and charge into the disordered reeling mass A small related note All pilum using Roman infantry is set to use their pilums as their default attack This means they will always pause and begin to go through the throwing animation even if they have no pilums left To get them to charge properly and remove the annoying delay hold alt and right click Pilums are great in a multitude of situations the only real time you do not want to be using them is when you need to get into a melee quickly A chance to cause damage without letting the enemy hack at your men is almost always great and the casualties you inflict on the enemy with the pilum volley make them a little easier to break If your legionaries are about to be charged by cavalry draw them up in four ranks turn fire at will and guard mode on and simply stand still The cavalry will get a lot of pilums in their face their charge will make little impact and your legionaries will begin to fight th
15. The Senate asks that you send a diplomat to a faction and negotiate a treaty to obtain map information to extend Rome s knowledge of the world Get Trade Agreement The Senate asks that you send a diplomat to a faction and negotiate a treaty to get trading rights for Rome Appease Faction The Senate asks that you send a diplomat to a faction and get them to agree not to attack Offer tribute or anything else that seems reasonable As a short term measure this is most important Provoke Attack The Senate asks that you send a diplomat to a faction and see if you can provoke them in to making an attack against us Rome wants to be at war but does not want to appear to be the aggressor Peace Talks The Senate asks that you send a diplomat to a faction and try to improve relations with this faction No particular result is expected just sending the diplomat and getting agreement on an offer is enough as a first step Make Alliance The Senate asks that you send a diplomat to a faction and make an alliance with them Give Cash Allied friends sometimes need financial support The Senate asks that you make a single payment of at least one tenth of your annual income to a faction http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 35 That s the end of Tamur s section on diplomacy Now for a few froggy notes mostly emphasising some of Tamur s points a
16. You may find the Al blockades your trade ports when you are at war you will need warships to lift the blockade and restore your sea trade income to the targeted province Shorter sea trade routes will make more money than longer ones If an importing city is too far away no trade will take place i e Londinium is not keen on selling to Alexandria because it s a slightly long trip especially when there is that nice Tara place right nearby This does mean that cities tend to trade with the same partners game after game Trade agreements A thorny subject and the main source of mystery According to the manual a trade agreement boosts the amount made from trade between the two partners Trade agreements increase the number of markets you can sell to according to CA s FAQ suspect this means potential markets you can sell to as opposed to letting you trade with more people at once Since your merchants will automatically trade with the most profitable market each turn having more to chose from is a good thing Collecting trade agreements is generally easy and acts as good training for your diplomats Trade buildings The trade family of buildings trader market forum etc increases trade income in their home province Thanks to the researchers over in the Ludus Magna we now know that the first trader building adds 10 to the trade income from land trade the local settlement only and 10 to all exporting routes A further 10 is added for each
17. Your ally s provinces act as the buffer zone between you and your enemy in that situation Your ally will be grateful for the help and you will be grateful not to have a large border to fortify Clarification No additional info needed Tips To successfully negotiate for Military Access you must be either neutral to or enemies with a faction s enemies Alliance with a faction s enemy will almost completely eliminate the possibility of successfully negotiating for Military Access Also if you currently have a Military Access treaty then making an alliance with that faction s enemies will almost certainly spell doom for your Military Access Since Military Access is a level of trust beyond the standard you may be required to give more than offering bilateral Military Access If you ve assured that there are no alliance conflicts and a faction turns down a request for bilateral Access try again but offer a single payment or tribute over a couple of turns If you re desperate for Military Access you can try offering a settlement Attack Faction offer amp demand Stances any Description Offering to attack a faction or demanding that the faction you re negotiating with attack a faction can be done without an alliance You either offer or demand the attack specify which faction is the target and hope for the best See tips on the nuances of using this negotiating chip Clarification When either offering or demanding an attack on a
18. agent s skill Courtesan The attentions of a courtesan who has skill and refinement are a welcome relief at the end of a long day s brutal conquering 1 to agent s skill Retinue Management Traits Talent for assassination This man has shown a disturbing natural talent for quietly killing and getting away with it 1 to agent s skill Cutthroat People die Sometimes this man helps them to die 1 to agent s skill Inept Poisoner This man shows little appetite for the business of assassination as his victims show little inclination to die 1 from agent s skill Natural Born Assassin This man was born with a talent for morning in and out of places without trace and leaving fresh corpses in his wake 2 to agents skill Murderer Killing has become second nature to this man He has no qualms about removing targets 2 to agents skill Assassination Genius This man is a born genius when it comes to moving unseen getting close to people and killing silently With experience he could become a true master 3 to agent s skill The Death of a Assassin Assassins can die if their mission goes badly wrong in exactly the same way as spies They also die of old age at around 65 IX Armies the building and care thereof Both the manual and the tutorial teach you how to build and use your armies so won t bother reiterating Instead shall highlight the finer points and give a few suggestions on make up And no do not mean lipstick and mascara
19. an alliance though the cases in which it is rejected are unclear Make Single Payment offer amp demand Stances any Description This is simply the giving of a single one time lump of cash to another faction or the demand of a one time lump sum from another faction Often this is used to balance out what would otherwise be an unfair negotiation For example if you give a region like Attica which has huge income potential for a region like landlocked Tribus lazyges you will probably also tag in a Make Single Payment to balance the transaction Clarification You will need to specify the amount which you will give offer or which you expect to receive demand Tips This is the single most flexible tool in your negotiations toolkit Use it to balance your own proposals counter propose to the AI faction s requests which are often weighted on their side quite a bit buy large favours for your faction and so forth If you have a vast treasury this is the tool to use to accomplish what would otherwise be impossible Regular Tribute offer amp demand Stances any Description http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 33 Like Make Single Payment demanding and offering a regular tribute is a purely financial transaction However demanding tribute is demoralising to anyone receiving such a demand and is often viewed a
20. are generally considered to be harder than the Romans for various reasons So you can play as the Julii the Scipii or the Brutii All the Roman factions start with two cities and a bunch of preset main foes The Roman factions start off in an alliance with trade agreements and they will keep this state until the civil wars start late in the game All Roman factions answer to the senate and will receive missions from them They have the same units available to them with the sole exception of gladiators each of the three factions have their own unique kind of gladiator unit Building wise they are identical with the sole exception of temples and shrines each family has their own trio of Gods While their long campaign goals are identical hold 50 provinces occupy Rome and destroy or outlast the Senate their short campaign goals are different The Julii are the red Romans They start in northern Italy and are intended to fight the Gauls above all other foes Their Gods are Bacchus large bonuses to happiness Ceres small bonus to happiness increased population growth and Jupiter small bonus to happiness small bonus to law Their gladiator is the Samnite you can recruit them when you build an amphitheatre Their short campaign goals are to destroy or outlast the Gauls and capture 15 provinces Their game is quite easy the Gauls are numerous but on a man to man basis they are inferior to Rome s legions The Julii will mostly be conquering inland pro
21. battles According to CA developer Mike B arcade mode turns off morale fatigue and ammunition effects in battle Manage all cities Now this one is interesting important and will have a big effect on your game If the box is checked you will be able to manage the details of all your cities regardless of whether they have a governor or not If you de check the box you will have to have a governor present to give your cities orders In a way it s a case of picking your flavour of micromanagement shuttling governors about and queuing orders or handling all your cities each turn Note that if the option is selected you can hand cities over to the Al to manage anyway but if it is not selected the only way to gain control of your cities is to install a governor like to leave this one selected so can manage all my cities personally all the time and hand the less important ones over to the Al when get too many Follow Al characters If you want to see what the Al is doing leave this checked if not de check it Default is on Short campaign outlined the Roman factions short campaign goals in their blurb above Basically on this mode you will have to take 15 provinces and destroy or outlast set faction s to win regardless of who you are playing as Unit size A lot of people have asked me about this and a lot of people have asked on the assorted forums read It s actually an option under the graphics main menu just check the advanced s
22. be denoted with a corresponding number of asterix in that unit s province availability list c program files rome total war data world maps campaign imperial_campaign des cr mercenaries txt c program files rome total war data export_descr_unit txt unit hire cost upkeep cost province availability Barbarian Mercenaries 800 200 Britannia_Inferior Tribus_Silurii Britannia_Superior Hibernia Tribus_Saxones Germania_Inferior Tribus_Chattii Agri_Decumates Germania_Superior Locus_Gepidae Locus_Gothi Pripet Hyperboria Regnum_Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus_lazyges Dacia Belgica Armorica Central_Gaul Aquitania Lugdinensis Transalpine_Gaul Narbonensis Cisalpine_Gaul Venetia Noricum Gallaecia Celtiberia Taraconenis Lusitania Hispania Baetica Liguria Galatia Mercenary Hoplites 850 950 170 Tribus Sakae Tribus Alanni Tribus Sarmatae Maeotis Scythia Bosphorus Thrace Propontis Tribus Getae Bithynia Paionia Macedonia Thessalia Epirus Aetolia Attica Peloponnesus Apulia Campania Bruttium Sicilia Poeni Sicilia Romanus Sicilia Graecus Sardinia Laconia Africa Tripolitania Cyrenaica Libya Byzacium Rhodos Crete Lycia Phrygia lonia Bastarnae Mercenaries 1700 170 Regnum Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus lazyges Dacia Thrace Propontis Tribus Getae Bithynia Eastern Mercenaries 650 150 Colchis Atropatene Armenia Pontus Cappadocia Media Elymais Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele Syria Phoenicia Judaea Thracian Mercenaries 800 130 http
23. bribe navies http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 24 You can blockade ports by selecting a navy and then clicking on the target port You know when you have your cursor in the right place because a little blue circle appears under the port Blockading ports cuts off their trade income The AI can do this to you but it is rare XC II Bash for cash how to use mercenaries for fun and profit Mercenaries are quite a bit more complex than they were in Medieval Total War and this is a very good thing indeed Firstly as previously noted ages ago only generals can hire mercenaries Mercenaries are unique units they cannot be trained by any faction for example mercenary hoplites are different to the assorted hoplite units the Greek factions get Mercenary units cost one dollop of cash to hire then a set amount each turn in upkeep Mercenaries are more expensive than normal units but the advantages are that you get them instantly and that they fill roles and functions your own units may not be able to meet This is the primary use of mercenaries filling the gaps If your faction has no decent heavy cavalry then find some mercenaries to fill this role and so on with the other unit types Some mercenaries are better at what they do than normal units Balearic slingers are the best slingers out there bar none Mercenaries vary from region
24. confused There is no way to bring back the old left click select left click move system You have to use the left click select right click move system This is not a bad thing it is now impossible to accidentally order a unit to move when trying to select another one It only takes a short time to adjust and once you do you will never want to use the old system again Green arrows must die And die they shall Simply open the RTW main directory find the text file called preferences and open it Now look for the line DISABLE ARROW MARKERS False and change it to read DISABLE ARROW MARKERS TRUE Now save and close the file Done hate the new banners Feed them to the lions They don t bother me but have seen others complaining Open the preferences file same as in above tweak and look for the line SHOW BANNERS TRUE change it to SHOW_BANNERS FALSE Save and exit Done Cutscenes We don t need no steenkin cutscenes hate the assorted cutscenes the game spits in my face in battles you know general s death cutscenes big gaping holes in city walls cutscenes opened gate cutscenes and other stuff which ALREADY KNOW THANK YOU VERY MUCH There is an audio cue for all these events anyway and don t appreciate having my controls disabled at key points so can watch some rebel general drop dead In case you have not got the idea yet really do hate those cutscenes This is why patch 1 2 is a God se
25. destroy any existing religious buildings of a different culture to yours Yes sometimes those buildings give more useful bonuses than the ones you can build but they increase the culture penalty and make the population more restless Building your own temples both removes this problem and slowly converts people to your way of thinking It s not just temples which give that culture penalty CA developer JeromeGrasdyke gives a nice explanation of the culture issue here Culture penalty has a maximum of 5096 As a general rule of thumb the amount is determined by the proportion of buildings in the settlement which have been built by factions of your culture for example if you re playing the Julii and you take over a Greek city which is split 5096 between buildings built by the Greeks and the Brutii you should see something like a 2596 culture penalty Then when you replace the buildings built by the Greeks the culture penalty disappears Who last built a building of governance has a substantial influence as well So there you go any buildings not constructed by your culture cause culture problems The penalty will disappear when you overwrite the old building with your own culture s version of the upgrade for example replacing the palisade walls with your own wooden walls Temples cannot be upgraded in this manner unless the city already had temples belonging to your faction s group this is why they need razing to the ground Here s a nea
26. diplomats can die of old age or as just mentioned by an assassin s blade Replacing an eight Influence diplomat is a painful thing A key part of using diplomats is to have more of them coming up through the ranks at all times They require low level management to become successful but are very much worth the time And that ends Tamur s section on diplomats To keep the guide nice and homogenous shall nick his format for the other two agents The Spy The Birth of a Spy The spy is trained in the level 2 trade building for the Roman factions this is the market Spies are rated in sneakiness represented by a little eye icon Brand new spies will probably have somewhere between one and three icons depending on their natural ability The Cost of a Spy Spies cost 150 denarii to train and 100 denarii in upkeep each turn The Life of a Spy Spies fresh out of training will not be very sneaky The best way to improve their sneakiness is work experience Send them to infiltrate enemy cities preferably low level ones without enemy spies in them If your spy dies while trying to infiltrate a city avoid sending any more novice spies to that city as it is probably guarded by an enemy agent and you will be wasting your agents trying to infiltrate it at http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 21 the same time you will also be boosting the enemy
27. economy Money without it your empire is doomed Making money seems to be one of the biggest stumbling blocks new players encounter It really is quite easy when you know how Money is spent on many things the only on going expenses each turn are wages for your armies family and agents You will probably lose a bit of money to corruption as your underlings decide to give themselves a well deserved bonus without bothering to ask you well you are busy conquering the world so it s quite thoughtful of them really kind of Money is forked out as a one off sum each time you order a building or unit to be constructed Note that queuing up items takes the money from your treasury now even if the item will not be built for another 20 turns Retraining or repairing a building costs money the amount is proportional to the work needed Retraining a unit from 1 man back up to 160 and equipping them with better weapons and armour costs much more than just re equipping a 160 man unit in need of no new men The Big 50k As your treasury hits a certain preset limit you will find your family members becoming more corrupt That limit is 50 000 denarii It s a good idea to try and keep below this figure to limit the vices unless you have a real passion for seeing your might empire run by a family of gambling addicts embezzlers collectors of expensive vases and dirty old men who spend entire fortunes on dancing girls Every night For the rest of their lives
28. exchange is a good way to break the ice Later or even in the same negotiation session after they ve accepted a map from you bargain for Trade Rights Even if the faction in question is much to far away to be an effective trading partner this agreement can only help With these two in the bag you re well on your way to gaining an Alliance and everything that s possible after that Accept or We Will Attack offer only Stances neutral or enemy Description If you add this chip to a negotiation you are threatening your negotiating partner with painful consequences if they don t accept This works when you ve had a string of victories over a faction and you know they re hurting Time this threat badly there is a very good chance that the threat will be rebuffed and you will find yourself out of diplomatic possibilities with this faction for several years Clarification No more information needed Tips When you ve been pounding a faction into the dust and want to exert your diplomatic control over them back off for a round or two then send in a skilled diplomat Demand a settlement or that they become a protectorate or any number of other demands and for offer simply click the Accept or We Will Attack option If you do this right this may be the best way to gain a faction as a Protectorate Ceasefire offer only Stances enemy only Description Simple you promise to stop butchering the other faction and if they accept then
29. faction you need to specify which faction should be the target of the attack If you offer to attack then the faction you specify is the one that you promise to launch an attack on If you demand an attack then the faction you specify is the one who you want your negotiating partner s faction to attack There is no year or turn limit set This makes the process of judging whether a faction has fulfilled this obligation rather abstract Couple this with the fact that you cannot effectively see where any Al faction moves it s armies and you have a completely untraceable promise So take this one with a grain of salt Tips When offering to attack another faction you are throwing in a bargaining chip to gain something with a demand Your demand will come either with the offer to attack or later and the faction you re negotiating with know this They know there are no free gifts in the world of diplomacy If you go into a negotiation knowing this then you can understand that if you demand that a faction attack another faction then you will be expected to pay up This either means you need to pay them enough to recover any possible losses this could add up to a large amount or you need to offer at the same time to attack one of their enemies to whom you are currently neutral Give Region offer amp demand Stances any Description You can offer a region to a faction as part of negotiations or as the entirety of a negotiation or you can de
30. handlers have to be replaced by retraining just like any other soldier War dogs are fast enough to be excellent rout chasers they have trouble keeping up with some of the faster light infantry and cavalry but otherwise they can give chase and bring men down War http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 42 dogs are very effective against phalanx units because they get past the spears and start shredding the men who are not very well equipped to handle dogs Aside from phalanx units war dogs are most effective against rabble type units heavy infantry will usually see them off without too many problems They are also quite effective against stationary cavalry It is impossible for you to issue and attack order targeting the unleashed dogs themselves you can only give orders to attack the handlers and that does not help much one the dogs are loose If a unit is being eaten by dogs about all you can do is leave them to fight alone perhaps ordering another friendly unit to stand in the same spot with the hopes that those men will also begin to attack the dogs Ballistae Ballistae can shoot down the gates of wooden and palisade walls This saves you a turn or two building siege equipment Alternate attacks getting missiles to melee and so on All missile units have a melee weapon of some sort usually it is a crappy weapon but better than nothin
31. happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 e Temple City Public order bonus due to happiness 2596 Public order bonus due to law 2596 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Ancilliaries Astrologer Crooked Judge Temple or greater Magician Temple or greater SELEUCIDS Hephaestus Forge e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Upgrades light weapons 1 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Experience bonus to troops 2 Public order bonus due to law 10 Ancilliaries Brilliant Inventor Temple or greater Geometer Temple or greater Dionysus Fun e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 10 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 3096 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 4
32. in each and every battle personally he doesn t have to lead the charge just make sure he kills someone at some point even a fleeing peasant is better than nothing he will develop a reputation for being a hero The more people he kills at http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 17 once the more likely he is to be seen as a hero If he keeps on behaving like a hero in battle after battle he will grow in stature becoming a more famous hero Conversely if you leave the same man to rot in a no hope frontier town with just a temple of Bacchus and the locals for company don t be surprised if he takes to drinking orgies and other less than desirable pastimes The best way to forge your family into a beacon of Roman virtues is to use your logic and make them do things likely to result in good traits while steering them away from anything likely to give them bad ones All your menfolk should get military experience from time to time even your governors You don t have to send them into pitched battle against 10 000 screaming Germans with just a small knife and no army No a simple battle against 200 rebel slaves backed by an army of 500 veteran soldiers will more than suffice You don t need your governors in the field constantly just the odd battle every now and then to stretch their legs and let them prove their Roman military prowess and general ma
33. in the game too but without the love These are political marriages and love is an added bonus not a prerequisite Both your characters know what is expected so just leave them to it No posting viagra pills into your PC via the CD ROM drive will not help matters nor can you consult a wise woman give them an educational puppet show or anything else like that There are some things your characters have to do themselves and this is one of them Note that as in real life what You mean the game isn t real life characters can be barren or have a hard time conceiving It also takes time generally your characters are not prolific bunny rabbit types popping out a child every turn Look it takes 9 months and each turn is only 6 months so do the maths What am trying to say in a funny way is don t expect hordes of children and don t panic if it takes time even a long time had to wait 20 years for one couple to finally do something other than stare resentfully at each other at breakfast each morning Hehe whatever they had been arguing about for those 20 years must have been a real doozy after the first child they had two more almost immediately Let me repeat once again for emphasis that breeding is slow you will probably only get a couple of children from each couple if that and it will probably take them years to get that far Don t get impatient or worried if there are no children within ten years of the marriage You know it s all a bit
34. light briton barb horse archers scythian barb horse archers slave barb noble horse archers scythian barb scythian noblewomen scythian east persian cavalry east cataphract archer east horse archer east chariot archer egyptian bedouin egyptian chariot archer egyptian general s bodyguard early rebel amazon chariots merc horse archers merc bedouin archers The only negative to this fix is that the missile attack icon turns into a little javline symbol instead of a bow and arrow 1 2 is not as bad as it sounds honest I ll also repeat that while I ve been noting plenty of 1 2 broke this and 1 2 added this bug the patch really is an improvement over 1 1 and should be used Check the patch s readme for a few hundred reasons why http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 6 IV Your main aims taking over the world and enslaving the populace to your whims hahahahahah Yes can hear you saying Look you kill enough people of the right type and capture enough provinces of the right type to fulfil your campaign victory conditions it s easy you silly frog Shut up and stop throwing popcorn you ingrate If you want to conquer the world you must work in bite sized stages achieving certain goals along the way Alexander the Great didn t go straight in India did he No he united Greece under his size 7 boot then
35. lugs get to the phalanx s flanks or rear expect Pain with a capital P For this reason it s a good idea to try and get a line of several phalanx units to tackle elephants The wheels on the chariot go round and round round and round a children s song from 2000BC Chariots are a bit of a problem One rule of thumb now obey as far as possible is to keep my own cavalry and other quite loosely formed units away from chariots try to shoot them as much as possible to cause what damage can When melee is forced try to hit them with densely formed disciplined infantry Once the chariots are stopped they are dispatched reasonably easily Flaming ammo All archers along with catapult based siege equipment can fire flaming ammunition Flaming ammunition is less accurate than conventional ammo but it causes a bigger morale hit when if it actually does hit its target The flaming pots fired by onagers will cause more casualties than normal ammo if it hits down in the centre of a tightly packed mass of men but it is so inaccurate this effect is rare Flaming ammo can also set fire to buildings burning buildings will take constant steady damage Fatigue http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 43 When a unit is doing something be it marching running or fighting it will steadily get tired The rate it tires at depends on the unit cl
36. need to stand right off to one side Archers Archers are the basic ranged unit most people will understand instantly They come in infantry and cavalry flavours the cavalry version is covered a bit later on They shoot in an arc so you can position them behind your line and they will fire over the people in front They have good range and some elite archer units like archer auxilia and Pharaoh s bowmen have extra long range compared to other bow units Surprisingly arrows seem to be the most effective missile against heavily armoured enemies would have expected them to be the least effective You can send archers forward to skirmish and rely on the skirmish mode to bring them back to safety because their range is long enough to allow them to shoot a few volleys before the enemy close enough to force them to pull back Note that your archers may pull back reliably but they may also move to a stupid location such as in the middle of your heavy infantry line and then continue shooting If your archers stand in the middle of your infantry line and shoot you will suddenly notice half your front line is dead For this reason never leave archers to skirmish preferring to control them myself or to keep them safely behind my front line firing overhead Arrows are not armour pericing Sling units Sling units are the only unit in the game which will not shoot in an arc they release their shot in a mostly flat trajectory just like a gun This means yo
37. perverse in RTW older women seem more likely to have children when in real life it is the other way around Confusing no Now lied when said there was nothing you could do to help well only slightly so put that axe down and stop menacing the frog If you keep your general out in the field fighting away it seems less likely he will marry or have children Well you can hardly expect a good respectable Roman matron to tag along into the middle of a muddy battlefield can you It quite simply is not proper Family members in cities tend to have more children this is quite logical Actually there is something else you should know about those prolonged campaigns Well you remember how said this was not a love match Well just think of poor wifey at home alone and married to some berk she might not even like Now that berk is not in Rome he is in Libya and doesn t that present a marvellous opportunity to get a wee bit closer to that gorgeous Marcus who gave you a lift home in his chariot last week Yes it does No this is not the fevered imagination of a frog at work it does actually appear characters are more likely to get the unfaithful wife series of traits if they are away from home day after day year after year decade after decade Actually guess those who get the traits are only the ones who are unfortunate enough for their wife to be indiscrete in her indiscretions Not all characters who are away from home get this trait and not all c
38. ranks of the formation fighting at once when in phalanx formation They also have fewer men than pike phalanxes find that four ranks suits them nicely keeping a balance between frontage and depth Pike phalanxes can have the first four ranks fighting at once and they are some of the largest units in the game in terms of manpower I find that six ranks is good again a balance of frontage combat power and depth While in phalanx formation the unit cannot run it is also very slow when turning If you urgently need your men to run turn off phalanx mode tell them to run and then turn it back on as they arrive at their destination and begin forming up again To get your phalanx to turn properly issue the order then turn off phalanx mode turning it back on just as the unit finishes the manoeuvre say issue the move order first because the unit can get underway that little bit quicker and be on their way while you give the exit phalanx mode order Always always remember to turn phalanx back on if you turn it off or you will get a nasty surprise because your unit will not fight as you expect them to How to deploy your phalanxes this one is a rather long and important topic Hen SERES gt RR E Sa o This is want to die school of phalanx deployment There are large gaps between the units exposing their flanks Remember it s the front of the phalanx you want to be fighting not the rest Always guard your flanks never leave them e
39. rebellious so you should do something to turn opinion immediately if not sooner Red means they are going to storm your posh mansion trample the flower beds and do unspeakable things to your pet kittiekat The third symbol the man with a plus sign next to him means that the city s population is growing If population grow stabilises the man will turn yellow and the plus will vanish If growth goes into a decline the man will turn red and a minus sign will appear next to him There are several other possible icons that can appear which are not present in this screenshot A little yellow man waving a sword means the city is recruiting or retraining a unit of some kind military or agent A yellow hammer and saw crossed icon means the city is building or repairing a building A pitchfork on a flaming background means the city is currently rioting A symbol with walls and flames means the city is under siege this is also visible on the map as a ring of sharp stakes around the city and an enemy army waving a sword imposingly A skull means the city has the plague A gears symbol means the city is being auto managed by the Al Looking around your city at its province will reveal details about trade and construction Any roads present will be shown with each upgrade visible Plain roads as in this picture are brown dirt tracks Paved roads are grey lines Highways are deep grey lines The roads will have little wagons travelling along them these represent l
40. spy s experience and making him more dangerous You can also spy on enemy armies for a boost armies led by general s will probably have better security than those lead by simple captains The more important the general the harder it is to spy successfully Each level of the talent trait gives a bonus to sneakiness and line of sight expert spies make better scouts than novice ones It does take longer to get the higher level traits so keep on spying Spies have several main uses Scouting Spies have the largest line of sight in the game and can spot other sneaky agents like assassins and enemy spies You should always scout ahead of your armies with at least one spy you will avoid ambushes and have a better tactical picture of the situation this way It is best to use several spies to scout for each army especially when you are working in an area paved with decent roads Believe me it is highly embarrassing and costly when two massive enemy armies appear from nowhere right on top of your invading army and annihilate it because you didn t scout far enough ahead Counter spying Put one spy in each of your cities to make the infiltration of enemy agents much harder Attach one spy to each and every army especially those lead by a family member to make bribing that army harder This also makes it harder for the enemy to assassinate the army s leader Active spying This involves infiltrating enemy cities and finding out what is inside them When
41. than do Description Fulfill another faction s Senate obligation by taking a settlement when they re unable to take then give the settlement to the faction who should have taken it Optionally try swapping this region for one more suited to your geographic preference A variation is to give the region to the Senate Offer Demand Combos Give Region as Gift Give Region Give Region Give Region Make Single Payment When To Use When you want to gain standing with the People giving to SPQR faction When you want to be seen as an insufferable snot by the other factions When you need cash You can raze the settlement Exterminate Population then give it to another faction to repair but sell it at a high price 4 The Caelius Maneuver Summary Quote m sure you d all rather just go back home and farm a bit right Description Prepare a large siege army on the border of a province you want to take Send a spy and your best or at least a four Influence diplomat into the province Bribe every single one of the armies in the province then walk your seige army in and take care of anyone who wasn t bought off Offer Demand Combos Can be followed up with Give Region Make Single Payment When To Use f you spy out a province you want to take and find that the enemy have swarms of small or large armies that you don t want the expense and hassle of mopping up for two or three years f you want a quick q
42. that horse archers are bugged in 1 2 and so cannot fire on the move Javelin units are fine There is a DIY fix for this detailed near the start of the guide Now let s assume that all the units in this category do work correctly Horse archers can fire on the move they can also pull off the famous Parthian shot and shoot backwards They might be large targets but they will be able to beat infantry archers most of the time in a shooting match If they use their cantabrian special ability assuming they have it then the infantry archers will barely be able to touch them They are vulnerable to nearly anything in melee with a few exceptions missile cavalry are very light The heavier variety can melee like any other cavalry You should use most missile cavalry to charge into the rear of enemy units if you have to sent them into melee They also make very good rout chasers due to their speed although be aware that they will shoot routing enemy if they have ammunition left Horse archers are great at nipping behind units and bypassing their shields robbing them of the significant anti missile defence bonus they impart They can draw off enemy units leading them away from the main army so they can be fallen upon and killed safely or simply to keep them out of the way for a bit Javelin cavalry have a shorter range but they pack more of a punch per volley The same general principles apply to using them you just need to be a little more attentive
43. the Al had no units capable of knocking the walls down then they will stand outside and do nothing Now can confirm that the AI really does not seem to think of bringing some kind of siege equipment with it when attacking forts and unlike cities there is no option for them to build machinery outside the walls Remember how back at the beginning told you about that option to remove the time limit Well here is the one kind of battle where the time limit is handy If hadn t disabled the timer could have sat in my fort listening to the shrieks of the Gauls picked off by my towers until the time expired and won Well darn instead had to try and sally forth and that got incredibly messy But anyway who wants a 25 minute battle involving sitting around doing nothing at all Even at full speed that is tedious Famous battles Sometimes when you win a battle you will find a little crossed sword marker on the map It appears being outnumbered makes it more likely that you will get a marker and personally have found tend to get them when my battle is labelled a heroic victory but the exact details of how the markers are assigned are still mysterious If you hover your cursor over it then you will find a few details about the battle which took place there It s a neat little feature but nothing important you gain nothing from it except a warm fuzzy feeling every time you scroll past the marker on the map VI Gold beautiful gold Running your
44. to table the proposal There are three buttons on the bottom right corner of the negotiation panel Propose simply sends the proposal you ve crafted to the faction you re negotiating with They consider it and reply which we ll cover later Give as Gift will simply give whatever you re offering to your negotiating partner Any of your Make Offer options that are not by nature reciprocal such as Trade Rights or Alliance can be given as gifts An earlier version of this guide reported that factions cannot turn down gifts this is not true Factions apparently can turn down gifts on occasion most often stating We cannot match this offer The reasons for this are unclear If you give a gift it means that the faction in question has no obligation to repay your generosity Giving a profitable province to a faction as a gift is probably not a good idea The friendliness of the gesture is likely to be cancelled out by the greed it generates Gifts can tip the balance in negotiations with a faction However you can either give gifts in a negotiating session or offer demand in a standard fashion You cannot combine both in the same negotiating session It is possible to give a gift and follow that gift up immediately with a request for something like Military Access or Alliance if the faction has been reticent before to give in to these requests previously But again the gift receiver has no obligation to return the favour Inform is an opti
45. to agent s skill Natural born spy This man was born with a talent for getting into places he should not be and not getting caught 2 to agent s skill Superior spy The art of espionage is no mystery to this man and neither are the secrets of his enemies 3 to agent s skill 3 to line if sight Expert spy This man is a natural in all the skills useful to a spy and has contacts in all sorts of places 4 to agent s skill 4 to line of sight Plotter Plots and schemes come naturally to this man 1 to agent s skill Spy This man has a taste for reading other people s correspondence 2 to agent s skill 2 to line of sight The Death of a Spy Spies can expire if their infiltration mission goes badly wrong you will get a little message and the spy will fall over dead on the campaign map Spies will be more likely to fail and therefore die if you send them after well guarded difficult targets If you have a spy you really want to keep don t send him on missions with low success percentages Spies also die of old age sometime around the ripe old age of 65 The Assassin Assassins are the last agent type characters you get The Birth of a Assassin Assassins are available when you build a level 3 trade building a forum if you are playing a Roman faction The Cost of a Assassin An assassin costs 500 denarii to build and 200 denarii per turn in upkeep The Life of a Assassin Assassins have two primary roles killing people and sabo
46. to happiness 20 Upgrades light weapons 1 Experience bonus to troops 2 Upgrades armour 1 Anahit Fun e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 10 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 30 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 40 Ancilliaries Comedian Temple or greater Cook Courtesan Temple or greater Dancer Temple or greater Drinking Companion Temple or greater Gourmands Chef Temple or greater Titus Maccius Plautus Awesome Temple only Armazd Leadership e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Public order bonus due to law 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 Ancilliaries Fasces Temple or greater Pontifex Awesome Temple only DACI ANS Hebeleysis Battle http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 Page 55 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 56 e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Morale bonus to troops 1 Naked Fanatics e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Morale bonus to troops 2 Naked Fanati
47. troops By expansion if necessary yes this means that if the enemy has a city located in such a place as to be a real and significant threat you should do your best to capture it removing the threat and boosting your situation By threat mean cities which are splitting your lands up or are deep in your territory or are very strong and likely to grow into a powerhouse pumping out army after army right into your back yard A good example of this kind of threat is the city of Patavium at the start of a Julii campaign This city is large and if left for a short while it will send hordes down to attack the Julii on a regular highly irritating basis Look it up on your paper map and you should begin to see why the Julii really need to take Patavium ASAP Note that you don t have to kick everyone all of the time try to use your diplomat s to set up a few alliances with neighbouring factions so you will not be ganged up on Sort out your finances so you have a larger positive income Well this takes several different kinds of approaches and you will find a more in depth discussion in the economy section For now suffice it to say you should consider building basic roads everywhere ports wherever possible and perhaps the odd trader in cities making the most money from trade You may also need to be more proactive than that you may need to capture an additional city or two Unless you need to take another faction s city to secure your position t
48. unrecognisable so it s no longer easy to equate stars to experience As a rule of thumb it s one point of attack per command rank up to a maximum of 10 and this can become negative for very bad generals Experience is one point of attack and one point of defence per chevron plus a morale bonus http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 23 The general s command also controls his radius of effect which is set to 30 m 5 m command 2 m influence This is used to award morale bonuses only and is calculated between the actual general s position and the centre point of nearby units Experience is a handy thing to have Experience is represented by those tiny bronze silver and gold chevrons Experience gives one point of attack and one point of defence per chevron plus a morale bonus Bribery When you bribe an army you will only keep units you can potentially train yourself so if you as a Roman faction bribe an army made up of two hastati you will keep both of those units If as the same Roman faction you bribed a Greek army made up of hoplites then the soldiers will simply disappear If you bribe an army lead by a family member then that family member will join you as an adopted member of your family Captain general Generals are family members they are better than captains because they can gain traits and retinue members
49. way to make some quick cash add to my diplomat s influence Station diplomats near all of your ally s capitals and keep pestering them for this or that little thing The more you use your diplomats the more influence they will gain Travel is a big help as well Some traits and retinue characteristics come only from going well outside your faction s boundaries Picking up a Foreign Hostage for instance can only happen if your diplomat is in a war zone or recently conquered territory Becoming a Linguist requires going into foreign lands Don t keep your diplomats in safe places their entire career or you ll have a lot of very uninspiring diplomats to work with use Accept or We Will Attack See the description of Accept or We Will Attack in the Offers amp Demands Description section Basically you need to pummel a faction thoroughly then back off for a round or two then send in a good diplomat to start demanding things with this threat as the only offer in the negotiation Squeamish diplomats will not like doing this but if those who became your worst enemy thirty years ago finally give in to an Accept or We Will Attack demand it s a great feeling of fulfilled revenge Diplomatic Strategies This section is a rough and ready guide to strategies on the diplomatic level These are listed in no particular order 1 The Caesar Maneuver Summary Quote We could destroy you but Description Move a diplomat around
50. which give battlefield boosts They are also harder to bribe Captains will lead your army if there is no general present and if they win enough victories to earn a couple of rank stars you will be given the option of adopting them into your family For some reason have found it harder to gain rank stars with captains than with generals one particular captain won something like 5 battles and captured a settlement and remained at zero stars whereas no star generals the pimply youths straight out of school who have done the same typically gain two stars It is important to note that only generals can hire mercenaries captains cannot Only generals can built forts and watchtowers captains cannot They call him Marius Marius the Reformer The Marian Reforms alter the Roman faction s tech trees dramatically making an entire set of units obsolete and replacing them with new ones You will lose your ability to build and retrain hastati principes triarii equites Roman archers and cavalry auxilia You will be able to train auxilia early legionary cohorts legionary cohorts urban cohorts Roman cavalry and archer auxilia instead The post Marian units are significantly stronger Your existing units of the old type will not disappear or transform into new units The Reforms take place after 220BC with 220BC being the absolute earliest the reforms can happen In addition to this a city with the hidden resource Italy must reach huge size You m
51. 096 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 5096 Population growth bonus 196 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Ancilliaries Comedian Temple or greater Cook Courtesan Temple or greater Dancer Temple or greater Drinking Companion Temple or greater Gourmands Chef Temple or greater Titus Maccius Plautus Awesome Temple or greater Asklepios Healing e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Population health bonus 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Population health bonus 1096 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population health bonus 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Population health bonus 2096 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 2596 Population health bonus 2596 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Experience bonus to troops 2 Ancilliaries Druid healing type Master Embalmer Temple or greater Physician Temple or greater Wise Woman Witch Nicander Awesome Temple or greater CARTHAGI NI ANS Tanit Farming e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Improved farms and food production 1 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Improved farms and food production 2 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Improved farms and food production 3 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Improved farms and food production 4 Ancilliaries Agriculturalist Tem
52. 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 2 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 59 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Experience bonus to troops 3 SPANI SH Teutatis Battleforge e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Upgrades light weapons 1 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Upgrades light weapons 1 Experience bonus to troops 2 Epona Horse e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 2 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Experience bonus to troops 3 Abnoba Hunting e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Upgrades missile weapons 1 Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Upgrades missile weapons 2 Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Upgrades missile weapons 3 Ancilliaries Beastmaster Sacred Grove or greater Pet Hunting Dog Sacred Grove or greater Esus Justice e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due
53. 44 the attack giving them more impetus Cavalry in MTW benefited greatly from running for a bit first because their charge threshold the distance at which they began their charge was too low for them to reach full speed If they were travelling faster when the charge began they gathered more of a bonus Um in summery this is still under investigation and none of this should be taken as 10096 fact but in my experience charging is still automatic and double click is still only run order units with a double click if need them to close quickly if the enemy are already close or if they are cavalry Two of these three are motivated by the desire to get them moving quickly now so as to stand more change of hitting that full bonus one is motive solely by the desire to get close quickly for some reason such as a vulnerability in enemy lines or incoming missile fire Sieges In the set up phase on the campaign map the siege equipment you will be able to build depends on the level of fortifications present in the city Wooden walls only need battering rams and so this is all you will be able to build Stone walls require tougher equipment so you can choose from siege towers sapping points and a few other bits and pieces Note that while the more advanced types of stone walls look as though they have exactly the same siege equipment this is not exactly the case siege towers will be taller tougher and armed with more effective weaponry including b
54. Leadership e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 Arcani e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 3596 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Population growth bonus 196 Arcani Ancilliaries Fasces Temple or greater Pontifex Awesome Temple or greater BRUTII Juno Healing e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Population health bonus 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Population health bonus 1096 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population health bonus 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 Page 45 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Mars e Population health bonus 20 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Population health bonus 25 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Experience bonus to troops 2 Ancilliaries Druid healing type Master Embalmer Temple or greater Physician Temple or greater Wise Woman Witch Nicander Awesome Temple or greater Mercury Trade Shrine Public or
55. The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 1 Page 1 of 45 1 2 3 4 5 11 gt Last Show 40 posts from this thread on one page The Guild http forums totalwar org vb index php RTW Guides http forums totalwar org vb forumdisplay php f 78 frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War http forums totalwar org vb showthread php t 38382 frogbeastegg 19 10 04 22 02 frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War This guide is entirely the work of frogbeastegg unless otherwise indicated You may not alter this document without my permission make money from it or claim it as your own work worked long and hard to write this don t steal If you want to translate this guide to another language convert it to a printable format add it to your website or anything else please ASK almost always give permission and like to know what is happening to my work if only because might get comments or feedback based on a version don t know exists apologise in advance for the atrocious humour that permeates this guide also apologise to those of you who speak English as a second language Try as might I m afraid have not been able to completely remove all my own little word inventions and eccentricities which could make your lives harder Faced with hundreds of pages of guide to write and edit find adding humour is the only way to make all the work tolerable They should not be too bad though and for the mos
56. To a certain extent Heavily armoured spear phalanx can push their way past the pike points of the weaker pike phalanxes Given equal match ups stats wise and the spear phalanx dies So both of these points are worth bearing in mind Thanks to the alterations made in 1 23 giving advice for phalanx units is much simpler than it used to be Take guard mode off unless you intend to stand still and need to hold your position Guard mode makes the phalanx less dynamic it reduces the pushing effect and ability to reform to get more men into combat It is quite hard to explain but with guard mode on the little men don t wander forwards to take up their positions and attack quite so well Also some very odd things can happen such as the formation redressing its ranks so it ends up backwards to the enemy it is supposed to be attacking With guard mode off click once to attack It s really quite simple Phalanx units can t charge and they can t run if in phalanx formation They will march up into range pull up their shields and begin to advance pushing the enemy back and stabbing with their spears Alternatively you can stand still and hope the enemy walk into the spear pike points As far as depth goes it depends which type of phalanx you are using Both types need depth in addition to cohesion to function well these two factors make it harder to disrupt the formation and thus rob the phalanx of their best weapon Spear phalanxes can have the first two
57. You have full Military Access to their lands Alliance and Trade Rights are guaranteed The length of the Protectorate status is unspecified You get no cash by default from gaining a faction as a Protectorate nor can you use or disband their troops Clarification No more information needed Tips Players report that having a Protectorate seems to do no good for the conquering faction while actually Becoming a protectorate is great you can worry less about invasion you pay no taxes to your conquerors and you can use the time to recoup losses and build your economy Protectorate status breaks down if you do anything to harm your status as Allies of the other faction There is not enough player experience with this option to know much more It would be helpful to know for example if a faction who are in Protectorate status can be bled for cash more easily by repeated demands for Make Single Payment or Regular Tribute Senate Missions amp Policy The Senate keeps a list of its current policy toward all factions in the game This can help you to plan your diplomatic activity either to coincide with the wishes of the Senate or to subtly thumb your nose at the Senate s agenda To see this policy screen simply click on your faction s circular icon in the lower right section of the screen The screen that opens up is the Faction Policy listing Click on any of the faction icons to see a detailed description of current Senate policy towa
58. aces with the Senate then your job will be easier How do you get the Senate to love you There are two main ways 1 Successfully complete at least some of the missions they give you This also nets you a reward which can range from cash in hand to a unit to a guaranteed position in the next elections 2 Conquer nasty people To check who the Senate want bashed look at your faction screen click on the round thing with your logo on it then on the senate screen finally on policy Work your way through the factions that are convenient for you to attack and note the ones which the Senate has a hostile policy towards Of course the old men like any conquest so you can just pulp the lot nearest to you When you are in good grace with the Senate then you are more likely to have your family assigned Senate offices These offices are a Good Thing they give assorted bonuses depending on the post but even the least of them gives a bit of prestige to the recipient You have to work your way up the ladder you cant just jump right in to consul When the Senate like you they give you easy tasks ones which are useful for you to accomplish and often have good rewards at the end of them Fear now we are turning things up a notch As your family expands and becomes more powerful the Senate s love will begin to fade festering away under suspicion and fear This is a delicate phase if you keep a low profile you can easy go back to being loved if you push th
59. aim to become quite comprehensive with something for all levels of play That s why changed the name from A Beginner s Guide to Rome Total War Please note that with the sole exception of the chapter on multiplayer this guide is for singleplayer only that is important and shall repeat it singleplayer only While there is a section on the battlefield and while many tactics and tips will work in multiplayer this guide is written solely for singleplayer unless otherwise very clearly stated Now for the obligatory rundown of the Total War series so far for those of you who have just joined us The Total War series is made by Creative Assembly a British company Shogun Total War 2000 The very first game in the series set in Sengoku Japan A revolutionary masterpiece The Mongol Invasion 2001 Shogun s add on pack featuring the Mongol Invasion of Japan Shogun Warlord s Edition 2001 This is a bundle containing both the original Shogun and the Mongol Invasion add on The contents are identical to what you get if you buy Shogun and Mongols separately Medieval Total War 2002 The second full game and sequel to Shogun It is set in medieval Europe but you already knew that because the name is a bit of a giveaway right The Viking Invasion 2003 The add on for Medieval it covers the Viking invasions and factional in fighting of Britain in the 9th 11th centuries AD Rome Total War 2004 The third full game and quite th
60. allistae with which to cover the assault You can also bring your own portable siege weaponry such as onagers Elephants can also ram doors down Your army will have a certain number of build points depending on what units make it up Each item of siege weaponry costs a certain number of points to build most of them take one turn but have hear it is possible to build some in less than a turn if your army has enough build points At the least large armies can build several bits of weaponry in one turn because they have more points than small ones Make sure you use as many of your points as possible and don t skimp on siege weaponry There is little worse than turning up with just two battering rams only to find they are both destroyed and you can t get in past the walls When faced with stone walls and a lack of onagers like sap points use a cheap expendable unit to do the sapping and then mob the dirty great hole in the wall with my shock troops Several holes are better than one so set up several sap points The central square marked by those nice faction related flags is the objective of the attacking army if they have men in the central square and there are no defenders present a countdown of three minutes will begin Unless the defenders manage to get some men back into the central square before the time runs out the attacks will win regardless of how many defenders are left The siege will also end with victory for the attackers if the
61. ally more of an issue in larger cities with big populations The government buildings such as the Governor s villa affect squalor and you should always build them the instant they become available The government buildings also have the nice benefit of enabling you to access the new level of buildings that arrives with your new settlement size You seem to receive a fixed squalor penalty when you do not have the appropriate level of governor s building in a city The government family is the only family of buildings which affect squalor Other families may counteract its penalties but only this family reduces the penalty itself Certain character traits and retinue characters will also affect squalor both positively and negatively A governor with one of the stingy family of traits will increase squalor with his miserly spending but a governor with a prim and proper family trait will reduce squalor There are other traits and trait families which affect squalor but you don t really need to know what they are unless one of your governors gets them Just keep an eye on what traits your governors pick up and send them to high low squalor cities accordingly The same applies to retinue members try to transfer squalor boosting characters to family members in a city where squalor is not a problem Happiness can act as a counter to squalor so build temples and entertainment arena etc family buildings to help combat the effects of squalor Garrisons help
62. amount 6 000 in this case the city will grow to the next level This is a Good Thing larger cities allow you to build more advanced structures Below that is a box labelled auto manage if you get tired of managing the city yourself check this box and the AI will manage the city according to priorities you assign Next is a blurb labelled tax rate with two arrows next to it click them to change the tax rate Higher taxes slow down population growth and bring in more money they also make people unhappy Strangely people don t like handing their money over to the government Weirdoes Low taxes increase population growth and happiness but hurt your income You will have to choose your tax level according to a bunch of factors discussed later in the guide Below that is a box showing a bunch of buildings with the word construction above it Astonishingly this is where you choose what buildings you want the city to construct If you right click on a building it will display a page telling you what it is and what it does Very handy The tabs behind this recruitment retrain and repair as well as how to build and queue items were explained in the tutorial so won t repeat Down the bottom left hand side of the parchment are 4 buttons From top to bottom they are Tech tree for your faction If you aren t playing a Roman this is the only way you can see your tech tree as there is no printout included in the game Victoria s advise on what to bu
63. and trade The more wagons you see the more trade is taking place You will notice icons like giant pottery cups jugs chunks of stone and so on scattered about the map These are trade goods A good must be present in a province for that province to export it Some goods are worth more than others and some provinces have more trade goods than others If you look above the flag in the screenshot you can see a white block this is the marble trade good If you hover your cursor over a trade good it will tell you what it is You can see pottery trade goods just across the border between Arretium and the rebel city just disappearing off the edge of the picture It is a very sound idea to look for trade goods on the map when deciding where to conquer next should probably tell you about the slave trade good now This good appears on the map as a pair of silver manacles It is not permanent instead it has a chance to appear when you capture and enslave a city The good will last for approximately 20 turns and will increase population growth in cities receiving the slaves According to thee 1 1 patch s readme Roman factions and Roman allied factions will have 2596 of the enslaved population go to the capital of the senate faction Just near the bottom left corner you can see a stone walled blob this is a port If you see this on a map you know the city has a port and can conduct sea trade think every coastal province can eventually build a port The thic
64. ar Note that some units have problems crossing bridges especially when they are crowded Chariots should cross only when the bridge is empty or they will possibly fall off and drown Yes any unit can fall off a bridge and drown in the river Defending a bridge is quite simple have my legionaries or other good solid infantry arranged to block the mouth of the bridge One main unit is set to block the bridge that unit has guard mode turned on so it will not move out of place Other units stand ready to reinforce as needed and in clear spells one of the other units stood behind that bridge blocking main unit could swap places with it cycling in fresh troops quickly have my missiles arrayed behind they can provide a constant stream of fire support until they run out of arrows Note that using slingers like this is really not recommendable they will probably kill more of your own men because of their trajectory My general is safely out of the way and a unit of cavalry stands by ready to gallop across the bridge when the enemy completely rout mowing them all down Since my infantry in this picture have pilums they are all set to fire at will If the enemy have a lot of missile units it is advisable to set up slightly further back safely out of range As long as you can attack the units pouring off the bridge before they have chance to regain their formation and cross in bulk you should do well Attacking a bridge now that is harder N
65. arches into the Gaulish settlement for the first time you can occupy enslave or massacre the inhabitants Occupying the city will leave the population intact along with all their nasty hair and Roman hating ways Enslaving will take a proportion of the population and distribute them to all your other cities which currently have a governor in place This is good it boosts your other cities while making the new one easier to control Finally you can exterminate the population This will kill off a significant number of the Gauls and make the city easier to control Now remember those peasant units you were going to send from your core cities to other cities to boost their populations They are good Roman peasants and good Roman peasants shave wear tunics and love being ruled by Roman factions Send them out to settle in the Gaulish city for a population and happiness boost So conquered this nice little place in Hispania Any conquered city will be harder to manage if it is not of the same culture as the new owners this applies to the non Roman factions every bit as much as the Romans There are several things you can do to reduce the culture shock and make the city easier to hold The first is discussed above killing enslaving part of the native population and replacing them with your own people A slower cheaper version of this is possible if you kill enslave the population and then let it grow back on its own The next most important thing is to
66. arge Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Public order bonus due to law 20 e Temple Complex Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Public order bonus due to law 25 PONTUS Zeus Governors e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Public order bonus due to law 1096 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Should be 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 Ancilliaries Freeman Clerk tax type Temple or greater Aphrodite Love e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Population growth bonus 0 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Population growth bonus 1 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population growth bonus 1 596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Population growth bonus 296 Hercules Violence e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 e Temple http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 Page 52 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 53 Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happine
67. avenous Bugblatter Beast s They are very handy if you wish to place your capital just so Garrisons do have a limit said it before but will repeat it now garrisons max out at 80 happiness increase If you add more troops when you already have 80 you will gain nothing except a larger maintenance bill Military or trade It s a simple question do you build your city for military troop and agent production or trade raking in cash You should only need a couple of troop producing cities probably in your heartlands Your fist few cities are excellent candidates for military settlements because you will have longer to build them up they should remain well protected until unless your empire collapses or the civil war begins and finally they should have larger populations than all those towns you enslaved or exterminated If you use your starting cities to produce troops you will be able to pour out units close to the other Roman faction s homelands and so when the civil war arrives it should be easier for your to strike and cripple their own core provinces In my short 15 province games 3 troop producing cities was enough to fuel an batch of active wars on several fronts without problems It did take a few turns for the new troops to get to the front but if had recruited from newly conquered lands would have been using town watch instead of principes and hastati In longer games it can be nice to select a few large nicely located
68. ay assume that any of the Roman cities in Italy contain this hidden resource while all others do not First cohorts After the Reforms take place you may find the Senate offers you a mission with a first cohort as a reward First cohorts come in two flavours early first cohort and first cohort The early first cohort wears mail armour and has slightly weaker stats than the plate wearing first cohort First cohorts have more men than the usual legionary units they also have a golden eagle as their standard In battle this eagle can prove a bit of a problem if the eagle bearer is killed then the eagle is dropped and lost This is a huge disgrace and morale will suffer badly do not know if the eagle is replaced or if it can be picked up by another of your soldiers on the field only know it is possible to lose it and that losing it is a Very bad Thing Indeed The first cohort gives a morale boost to all nearby legionaries so this can make them a real key unit on the battlefield Despite the fancy blurb in their description about leading the assault you are better off keeping them as reserves behind the front line boosting morale and then moving to support where needed shall state very clearly that you cannot built first cohorts of any type yourself ever You can retrain them for armour and weapon upgrades but not to replace dead men You can never build them yourself Ever Got that You have to get them from the Senate Make up You need t
69. be surprised if your general ends up dead or collects bad vices like coward Argh They changed everything That s the heartbreaking wail of many a Total War veteran on discovering the new camera interface and so on This is often closely followed by How do get the old controls back So here we go a section for all those disoriented vets who like me loathe the RTS style camera green arrows and all that We old timers are allowed to be crotchety it s our aching bones tiny pensions and the disrespect of the younger generations that drives us to it Why in my day we didn t have fancy 3D men in our battles No we had 2D http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 3 sprites and we were grateful for it We fought our battles uphill in the snow at 5AM unlike you softies with all your sunny Greek islands and plains and other degenerate namby pamby rubbish Back then we were real men except for those players who are like myself female We were real women back then and we weren t afraid of a bit of hard work You youngsters don t even know you re born Gah Ihe spinny bits of this new cameras makes me feel sick This one is easy just go to options either in game or from the front end menu and choose control options Then click on the arrow next to the words RTS on the camera controls screen et voila Left click right click I m so
70. ble one time the spears will win another the swords and seemingly no clear reason for either outcome Again three ranks and counter charging really did help the spears out a lot So remember your spears are not helpless little bunny rabbits they can fight very effectively although you should probably keep a close eye on them and ensure that they are adequately supported The Phalanx The phalanx is a tricky unit to use properly although it is now much easier to get along with than in 1 0 and 1 1 thanks to some very nice changes made in the 1 2 patch All the same it takes a little more practise and work to use these units to their best but they can be rewarding if you do master them http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 39 The phalanx is practically invulnerable head on so long as it maintains discipline and uses its special phalanx formation it s the unit s special ability When the special ability is turned off the phalanx will convert for all intent and purposes to an inferior unit of swordsmen They may use their spears pikes for a little while but not effectively and not for long before they draw swords In this mode you can also hold alt and right click to order them to go straight to their secondary weapons just like you can with missile and cavalry units You probably don t want to do this very often and you should try to
71. cities near your assorted frontiers to provide troops for that area if your main troop recruiting cities are some distance away These outflung cities will probably not be as advanced as your core ones but sometimes using some less advanced units is far better than sitting about waiting for your elite to slowly dribble in That leaves almost all your other cities to trade and trade is easy Simply build roads the trader family of buildings and a port if applicable Sit back and enjoy the cash Military cities might pump out the troops but it s the trade cities that pay for them A balance between the two is vital Bums on saddles Every unit you recruit takes population from the city if you recruit a 200 man unit 200 people will be taken from the city If you are recruiting a constant stream of large units from the same city the population is going to suffer it may even go into decline If the population is too small you will not even be able to recruit units This means you need to tread a fine line between draining your military cities dry and letting population growth get so out of hand they become uncontrollable Ideally you need to set things up so there is a tiny growth even when you are recruiting unit after unit after unit Finding this balance is up to you it will depend on existing population size the natural population growth city growth as effected by buildings and all those other factors discussed previously http forums t
72. cs Exp 1 b Ancilliaries Druid militant type Menhir Carver Sacred Grove or greater Bendis Farming e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Improved farms and food production 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Improved farms and food production 2 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Improved farms and food production 3 Ancilliaries Agriculturalist Sacred Grove or greater Herbalist Sacred Grove or greater Zalmoxis Forge e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Upgrades light weapons 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Ancilliaries Brilliant Inventor Sacred Grove or greater Geometer Sacred Grove or greater GREEKS Athena Leadership e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Public order bonus due to law 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 3596 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Population growth bonus 196 Ancilliaries Fasces Temple or grea
73. d and you give them yours When you do you gain the ability to see all the cities resources infrastructure etc that your negotiation partner has seen and they have the same privilege with your information Once you have bought the Map Information of another faction your campaign map changes to reflect the changing ownership of settlements that were on the map at the time you bought it So if Themiskyra happens to be on a map you bought from the Parthians you can keep an eye on who owns the place for an indefinite length of time without needing agents in the area Map Information is a nice prelude to a request for Trade Rights sometimes coming in as a necessary prelude Clarification No more information needed Tips The simplest use of a Map Information offer is to offer it and leave your demand open blank This allows your negotiation partner to name their price for your map information This is a great way to pad your treasury early in the game You can make anywhere from 2000 to 4000 denarii per transaction by offering your map information in this way Coupled with a Map Information demand a Map Information offer is a simple exchange as described above They will appreciate the shared knowledge and you gain some information you likely lacked about city ownership and province infrastructure Map exchanges like this can help lead to friendly relations such as Trade Rights or Alliance When you initially find another faction a map offer or
74. d killed That s what happens in RTW I am sure you are getting the picture now One very small yet oh so important note on difficulty and battle On harder difficulties the Al gets bonuses to the tune of an extra 7 to attack on very hard That means that when playing on any difficulty except normal you should expect to see odd outcomes such as cavalry riding over your phalanx as if they were not there One even smaller but also oh so important note The battlefield difficulties are screwed up thanks to 1 2 The game doles out the difficulty bonuses to both sides not just one This means battles on harder difficulties fly by with both sides fighting with a massive 7 to attack Battles on easier difficulties are a little more um functional because there are fewer no penalties involved So that makes this section rather interesting smiles in a faint ill looking way Rank and file A quick intro in terminology for those of you not already acquainted http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 37 i i PER V ES BA c DG gt NUN Say hello to our happy little Roman cohort As you can see I ve clumsily labelled the various parts of the unit The f obvious The flanks go on both sides predictably and are also obvious if you are familiar with the word in a military The rank is a little less easy to point out on this diagram
75. d unit of mercenaries you won t want to use them in this manner but if you hire some people in specially then it can be very handy indeed Sometimes it is cheaper to send the mercs in to die in situations like this retraining and or replacing your own damaged units can become costly as well as time consuming and inconvenient Retraining mercenaries is possible but by slightly different rules to ordinary troops You can retrain them in cities which have buildings giving bonuses to armour and weaponry to improve their equipment You cannot according to the Res Romanae retrain them to replace dead men You can replaces losses by merging mercenary units of the same type together just like ordinary units Suladan has compiled this list of mercenaries and kindly allowed me to use it updated 3 5 05 by Suladan Noel Anderson noel vexed orq This information was extracted from the following two files from the 1 2 version of Rome Total War The initial and maximum number of units available is also listed in these files as well as the replenishment rate of unit availability Note that in a few cases the hire cost of a unit varies depending on the province it is recruited in Also note that in a few cases units hired from specific provinces start with a higher experience level Example Mercenary Hoplite units hired in the province of Laconia start with an experience level of 3 and cost 950 instead of the normal 850 Provinces with an experience bonus will
76. demy If you examine export descr ancillaries txt you will be able to spot them together with a lot of other ancillaries which are linked to the presence of buildings To find a complete list of retinue characters and their effects as taken directly from the game files check appendix B The list was compiled by Ebannon Adoption You can adopt characters into your family in two ways 1 Bribe an army lead by a family member either from another faction or rebel You will only get the troops if you can train that kind of unit yourself but you will definitely get the family member and his personal guard 2 Let an army lead by a captain win a few battles so the captain gains some rank stars When he reaches around two stars you will be offered the chance to adopt him into your family keep encountering conflicting reports on what happens when you adopt a captain I ve never been offered the chance myself Some say that the captain appears in your capital leaving his army behind Others say that he remains with his army and becomes a general without any travelling have also hear mention of a third way random adoptions which have not yet encountered Reportedly a character just appears in your capital Adopted characters will be added to your family tree under a sponsor form your own family as if they were that character s child have seen people claiming that adopting someone will break your game and make it impossible for your charac
77. der bonus due to happiness 5 Increase in tradeable goods 1 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Increase in tradeable goods 3 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Increase in tradeable goods 4 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Increase in tradeable goods 5 Population health bonus 10 Experience bonus to troops 1 Ancilliaries Freeman Clerk trade type Temple or greater Idiot Savant Temple or greater Numismatist Large Temple or greater Procurator Awesome Temple or greater Wise Man Violence Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 1 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Experience bonus to troops 2 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Experience bonus to troops 3 Arcani Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 2596 Experience bonus to troops 3 Morale bonus to troops 1 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Population health bonus 1096 Arcani Ancilliaries Wrestler SCI PII Vulcan Forge Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Upgrades light weapons 1 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Upgrades light weapons
78. dy there Roads allow your units to move quickly bring in basic trade income and best of all they are cheap Plain roads only take a single turn to complete 2 1f the settlement has been recently captured or already has problems with unrest a shrine is a must because of the happiness bonus If you conquered the settlement make sure any existing shrines are razed to the ground right click on them in the city information screen then click the hammer icon in the bottom left corner to destroy them and replace them with your own This reduces the culture penalty If a shrine is not needed at this point build a basic farm land clearance to get my population growing sooner 3 Mines if they are available Money is nice Reliable income at a preset level is nice Mines are nice Build mines wherever you can 4 Trader or barracks depending on what function the city is going to have If build a barracks build the trader next 5 1 build whatever have not constructed out of the items have just listed Walls are the final item Now wait for the city to grow 6 When the city grows to the next phase immediately built the new government building this combats squalor neatly From there the cycle repeats upgrade roads then build trade or military depending on the city never build any more farms so the level 2 farms are left off the list 7 Repeat until you run out of stuff to build and need to wait for the city to grow then repeat step 6 wit
79. e balancing scales law affected by certain temples and governor traits garrison the soldier simply place military units in your city and they will act as garrison troops and again you can see the squalor icon Squalor is a big issue it affects quite a lot of city aspects and is hard to pin down because it arises from several factors Below that is income The scroll represents bonus income from the governor s management talent skilled governors can really bring you some money The wheeled cart represents trade of all types you can get a detailed breakdown on the trade screen The bags of money are taxes the higher your population and tax rate the more tax income you will get The little house with corn represents farming income The lower bar contains expenditures for this city The little bit of paper is the upkeep of your armies the total sum is divided amongst all your cities according to their wealth and population The portrait bust is the pay for your agents and family members The length of time a city can hold out in a siege is dependant on its food stores Food stores are influenced by the level of wall and governor s building in the settlement more advanced buildings enable a city to hold out for longer If you want this screen to open up automatically every time you click on a city tick the always show city details box Down the bottom left side you can see three icons from top to bottom they are View this city in all its 3D
80. e shakes fist at CA we shall have to scrutinise another city instead Let s look at Arretium the capital of the Julii er tiny cutely sized mini empire Oh ok the Julii two province backwater with empire potential and a nice view of the Alps Why Arretium Because think red is a nicer colour than blue or green so we use the Julii capital instead of the Scipii or Brutii that s why Arretium Capital b Q 31 Governor Age Management 22772 vv Settlement Detais Income 19 Population 4000 Publc Order 150 Population Growth 2 Population required for next level of settlement 6000 Automanage O 4 Normal tax rate b Construction Recruitment Side note While we have this convenient screenshot will record a piece of information that is very handy You see those four tabs labelled army town agent and blank Right clicking on the first three tabs will bring up an overview for the relevant section Army will bring up a list of all your armies their locations and their leaders City will bring up a lost of all your cities their governors and civil order Agent will drag up a list of all your agent spy diplomat assassin characters their locations and mission if any This screenshot shows Arretium on the map Because the city has been selected it has a green hoop thing around it and the city information screens have popped up Let s start at the beginning with the city itself on the map The
81. e demoralised survivors I ve seen off many cavalry charges with little damage this way Do note that it really works best if you have a line of legionaries rather than a single unsupported unit When facing pilums i e when charging Roman legionaries and their clones as used by other factions speed is the key If your men run in double click when giving the attack order then most often they will hit the legionaries before they have chance to throw Once melee is joined only the men at the very back will throw their pilums Pilums are armour piercing Size matters The importance of a big pike This kind of ties into the phalanx blurb but hey I ll put it separately for emphasis Spears will engage with the front ranks only Spear using phalanxes will engage with the front two ranks Pike using phalanxes will have the first four ranks fighting all at once As you might imagine the more ranks fighting at once the more devastation the unit puts out Also note that size matters in another regard long weapons will keep the enemy at bay Units with swords cannot even get close enough to attack a pike or spear using phalanx from the front not until the phalanx loses formation and starts to use swords as well So part of the advantage of big weapons is being able to fight when the other guys can t War dogs War dogs regenerate automatically after each battle as long as the handlers survive as in the dogs will regenerate not the handlers The
82. e departure from the previous games due to its brand new engine II Getting Started Patch 1 2 fixes a great long list of bugs issues grumbles and adds a few tweaks It also sadly adds some new problems of its own but the general consensus amongst players seems to be it does much more good than harm You can download it from the official site If you want to play multiplayer the patch is compulsory would suggest you read the manual while it is lacking rather a lot of information and can be sketchy at times it does give you the basics and there are some amusing jokes in it This guide is not a replacement for the manual nor is it a replacement for the tutorials it is intended to compliment them Now fish out that lavish map and tech tree that came with your game and take a good look at it Get a feel for the world you will be fighting in found it very helpful to note the locations of the various cities to speed my early game exploration and diplomacy Being able to go straight to the city of Dimmidi is much better than wandering around the Sahara for several years trying to find the place on your own Veterans of the previous Total War games will be right at home with the tech tree newbies can find an explanation of how it all works in chapter 5 You will quickly notice that there is only a Roman tech tree included on paper the other factions have their tech trees available in game As of yet there are no printable versions of the other fact
83. e envelope you will become truly feared You can tell when the Senate fear you because it will say so on the Senate floor screen check this often to find out public and Senate opinion of your family Now the Senate will begin to fear you for two reasons 1 You are growing large and powerful They hate seeing power concentrated in the hands of but one family 2 You have become very popular with the people Popularity with the plebs means they may offer you a chance to become emperor the Senate fear this more than anything an emperor is a king by another name and Rome hates kings When the Senate fear you then they begin to give you difficult dangerous or downright impossible missions They want you to fail Yes when they ask you to capture Londinium London for those who don t know in 5 turns when all your armies are in Greece they want you to fail they want to bring you down a peg or two and re establish who is boss If you actually manage to do the impossible and teleport your armies to Britain the Senate will be glad Rome has gained but they will hate you for being good enough to pull it off so expect to see your rating with them get worse Note that the Senate can hate you this is actually a different thing to fear Hate is gained when you repeatedly fail missions and ignore the Senate completely often you can counter this by conquering the odd place or two which you will probably be doing anyway However if you do not conquer and do not accomp
84. e forced to use the RTS style camera throughout the tutorial If you hate using this camera you will hate the tutorial Once the tutorial is completed Victoria will tell you when you have finished then give you the option of quitting or continuing to play you can access custom battles multiplayer the Imperial campaign and all those other fun bits Alternatively if you are feeling sneaky and don t mind missing all the lessons you can just start the tutorial then immediately quit This will also unlock all the other game modes If you played out the full tutorial then you are probably ready to begin a campaign as long as you feel comfortable If you don t it would probably be a good idea to play a few custom battles to get accustomed to the controls how units move and react learn some basic strategies and so on If you skipped the tutorial do recommend playing a few custom battles even if you are a veteran of the previous games The new engine has changed the way cavalry behave for a start and the interface is completely different If you can t fight effectively on the battlefield you will lose your campaign battles or have to rely on auto resolve neither option is much fun Auto resolve can be a bit wacky generating poor results with a lot of losses on your side It also has a penchant for getting your big expensive units such as elephants killed Finally it is very risky if you have a good general or family member involved in the battle don t
85. e man at the front two men behind him and so on Because the guy at the front is the unit s leader you should avoid using this formation if your general is in the unit Alexander the Great may have survived leading many cavalry charges but chances are your own generals will not share his luck In my experience wedge formation is best when facing a thinly strung out enemy formation the wedge will punch through the centre of the enemy unit and keep going before wheeling around to charge into the unit s back Against denser formations the wedge will stall before more than a handful of men have started fighting When charging dense formations it is best to use a line you get more men into the fight right from the start and therefore do a lot more damage Once your cavalry charge has halted you will want to take your unit out of wedge so it can fight more effectively or you will want to order them away from the melee to charge again Don t let them melee in wedge it s not too effective Guard mode Guard mode makes a unit keep its formation as best as possible and remain on the same spot as far as it possible It prevents a unit from chasing routers Giving the unit a move or attack order will override the stay put function of guard but they will still try to keep their formation If you have given an attack order they will chase the routers Guard mode is good in some circumstances such as holding a defensive line but in melee it can be a real pain o
86. e mercenaries for fun and profit 12 Extortion for beginners aka diplomacy 13 Pretty in purple The Senate 14 The Gentle Art of War being a battlefield guide 15 1z da rOxOrzz 1 w1nn3d da camaplgnz 11 Or in English I m not a newbie any more now what 16 Killing other people a brief guide to multiplayer 17s Appendix A A guide to the temples 18 Appendix B A complete listing of retinue characters and their effects 19 Appendix C A complete listing of Vices and Virtues 20 Appendix D Assorted stuff which doesn t fit anywhere else 21 Credits All chapter headings are in large red text and feature nice little Roman numerals to make them easier to find Since this guide is getting so big will insert a small search tip near the beginning Depending on your browser you should be able to hit ctrl f to call up a search box Type in the chapter name you want and it should take you to it after first stopping on the main index You can also use this to search the guide for specific terms if you want to find something smaller I Introduction http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 2 This guide is intended to help the bewildered newbie find their feet and understand the basics of Rome Total War Well it was intended solely to do that but it has now grown far beyond that initial
87. eader to commit suicide If you comply then they will calm down for a bit if you refuse they will outlaw you You do not have to let your leader commit suicide unless you want to avoid the war There is usually a very good chance that the senate will request the suicide of the man who replaces your recently departed leader and then the man after that and the man after that until you run out of people to kill So suicide can only buy you a little bit of time at rather a high cost The civil war ends when only one Roman faction is left and that had better be yours unless you want to lose Quite interestingly you can actually sometimes negotiate peace treaties with the individual Roman factions after the civil war begins If you are very fortunate you can even be at peace with all the Romans while the civil war is officially still in progress Mission Impossible Some Senate missions are pre programmed and will always happen these are the missions you are assigned right at the start of the campaign After that think it is a mix of pre programmed and random depending on the world state and your popularity with the Senate Potential rewards are varied in their worth If the reward is something like preferential consideration for an office then it may not be worth the effort well not if they ask you to conquer a huge dangerous city belonging to a neutral faction However sometimes the Senate offer big rewards for easy missions such as will be well
88. el field and very hard an unfair one see below for what the bonuses should be and were in 1 0 and 1 1 Now very hard is a level field meaning no bonuses or the bonuses are different Normal is biased towards the Al somehow Oh and while I m on the subject of 1 2 bugs and difficulty 1 2 most definitely and really strongly suspect all previous versions of RTW as well have a nice issue with saving and reloading your game while the Al is besieging a settlement If you save and reload any Al sieges will be broken This means if you are saving and loading a lot the AI will barely be able to expand So for best effects play RTW for as long as possible in each play session and do as little loading as humanly possible Battle map NB this is how 1 1 and 1 0 worked and how 1 2 probably should work Normal is a level playing ground with no advantage to either side shall quote CA developer JeromeGrasdyke on the effects of difficulty on combat bonuses The combat bonuses are easy they apply to attack only while on Easy the human player gets a 4 bonus on Hard the Al is given 4 and on Very Hard 7 The morale bonuses are much more complex as they work on a series of sliding scales Unfortunately the very hard bonus is rather ridiculous and it allows the Al do crazy things such as smashing a phalanx head on with plain hastati The Al achieves results which should never happen and the general attitude have seen expressed towards this difficult
89. elp a diplomat with his profession They fall into five categories the last of which Foreign Tastes affects only Romans Many thanks to therother from the Org who provided almost the entirety of this section A thousand blessings on his wife his cattle and his citadel walls Natural Abilities Diplomatic Talent 1 to Influence Natural Born Diplomat 2 to Influence Diplomatic Genius This man is simply filled with the powers of wit reserve and strength of mind needed to coolly focus on achieving in difficult situations 3 to Influence Good Diplomat Traits Tactful Diplomacy is a strength of this man s character 1 to Influence Courteous This man is the essence of manners 2 to Influence Diplomatic There are few diplomatic niceties that elude this man 3 to Influence Polished Diplomat This man has the makings of a figure for generations to remember 4 to Influence Expert Diplomat This man s words hold the wisdom of the Gods 5 to Influence Bad Diplomat Traits Tactless 1 to Influence Discourteous 2 to Influence Undiplomatic 3 to Influence Foreign Tastes Foreign Interests 1 to Negotiation 5 to Popular Standing Dresses Like A Foreigner 2 to Negotiation 10 to Popular Standing Vulgar Foreign Tastes 3 to Negotiation 15 to Popular Standing Awful Foreign Affectation 4 to Negotiation 20 to Popular Standing The Death of a Diplomat As with all named agents in RTW
90. ely easy to remove a 8 star is nearly impossible The experience aspect of assassination works both ways as your assassin becomes more experienced he will find it slightly easier to kill people If you manage to get a very experienced assassin killing that 8 star general suddenly becomes slightly more doable Assassination is not always about killing the high profile targets If you are playing on very hard campaign map difficulty the AI loves to try and bribe your people Assassins are very handy for cleaning house and removing other faction s diplomats from your territory before they can do any harm The Al also bribes occasionally on the lower difficulties Finally having a load of diplomats stood around cluttering up your empire looks ugly and they can block the movement of your own units Just like any other unit assassins get experience by doing their job Train low level assassins by getting them to kill low influence diplomats belonging to another faction Captains are relatively easy targets for low skill assassins You can also send them to sabotage an easy target in some small nowhere town Sabotage is easier for low level assassins to perform successfully so focus on that for a while Sneakily you can also kill your own agents so if you have cash to waste and no heart you can pump out diplomats for your assassins to practise on Retinues Monkey It s surprising how useful a monkey can be a cover a distraction a trained thief 2 to
91. enarii both to train and to keep working for you A diplomat costs 100 denarii to train and costs 50 denarii per turn thereafter presumably to pay for expensive nights out while schmoozing The Life of a Diplomat For a diplomat influence is everything At the start of the game your diplomats will be starting from nothing he will come out of training with no Influence beyond what he might have from an inborn trait The way for a diplomat to gain influence is for him to find a faction to negotiate with and stick with the negotiation Diplomats gain in Influence more quickly by plying their craft successfully They can gain influence in unsuccessful negotiations but it takes considerably longer Diplomats can have retinues just as family members can A retinue member adds to the diplomat s abilities in very specific ways For example a diplomat who has a Translator as part of his entourage can negotiate with greater fluency giving him a bonus 2 to his Influence rating When a diplomat has been around for a while and participated in many successful negotiations he may become renowned throughout the world This is the sort of diplomat who can bribe powerful armies into non existence force tribute payments from otherwise recalcitrant factions and generally rule the game for your faction However such a man will become a target Diplomats can and do die at the hands of assassins Although there is no way to completely stop this from happe
92. entioned before They can only attack if you turn fire at will on Do so having repeating ballistas sweep the top of that epic stone wall you are assaulting really helps your men out The battle timer The more units you have in a battle the longer the time you will be allotted With patch 1 2 you can turn the timer off in the options at the start of a campaign u Unit guide have not produced my own unit guide for RTW and as far as know there are no guides by other people in the same style as my unit guide for MTW and STW However have been given a link to Soulflame s unit guide which contains all the unit stats and unit availability frogbeastegg 19 10 04 22 04 Re A Beginner s Guide to Rome Total War 15 Iz da rOxOrzz 1 w1nn3d da camaplgnz 11 Or in English I m not a newbie any more now what So you finished your first Roman campaign and feel you know and understand everything in this guide lucky you Now you might want to try playing as one of the other factions in campaign mode they will provide a very different experience and you will have to use everything you learned to adapt and tackle their unique challenges You might want to try a longer campaign if you played a short one before or perhaps a short one if you did a long campaign You can try ramping up the two difficulties You could go and give multiplayer a go Really from here on you have plenty of options Details on the other factions in the same mould as d
93. es Germania Inferior Tribus Chattii Agri Decumates Germania Superior Locus Gepidae Locus Gothi Pripet Hyperboria Belgica Armorica Central Gaul Aquitania Lugdinensis Transalpine Gaul Narbonensis Cisalpine Gaul Venetia Noricum Galatia Sarmatian Mercenaries 1200 170 Tribus Sakae Tribus Alanni Tribus Sarmatae Maeotis Scythia Bosphorus Regnum Marcomannii Boihaemum Tribus lazyges Dacia Colchis Atropatene Armenia Pontus Cappadocia Arab Cavalry 750 120 Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele Syria Phoenicia Judaea Regnum Palmyrae Arabia Nabataea Sinai Bedouin Warriors 700 110 Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele Syria Phoenicia Judaea Regnum Palmyrae Arabia Nabataea Sinai Nile Delta Middle Egypt Thebais Numidian Mercenaries 750 130 Mauretania Numidia Gaetulia Sahara Africa Tripolitania Cyrenaica Libya Byzacium Scythian Mercenaries 800 120 Locus Gepidae Locus Gothi Pripet Hyperboria Tribus Sakae Tribus Alanni Tribus Sarmatae Maeotis Scythia Bosphorus Colchis Atropatene Armenia Pontus Cappadocia Bedouin Archers 750 110 Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele Syria Phoenicia Judaea Regnum Palmyrae Arabia Nabataea Sinai Nile Delta Middle Egypt Thebais Mercenary War Elephants 4000 490 Assyria Syria Babylonia Coele Syria Phoenicia Judaea Mauretania Numidia Gaetulia Sahara frogbeastegg 19 10 04 22 04 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome
94. etails on the Roman factions would go here if had any Oh well l Il handle that in a later version 16 Appendix A A guide to temples This section is entirely the work of Sinner Many thanks to him for letting me use this JULII http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Ceres Fertility e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Population growth bonus 0 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Population growth bonus 1 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population growth bonus 1 596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Population growth bonus 296 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 3596 Population growth bonus 2 596 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Bacchus Fun e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 3096 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 4096 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 5096 Population growth bonus 196 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Ancilliaries Comedian Temple or greater Cook Courtesan Temple or greater Dancer Temple or greater Drinking Companion Temple or greater Gourmands Chef Temple or greater Titus Maccius Plautus Awesome Temple or greater Jupiter
95. ettings box to reveal it Unit size can ONLY be altered at the start of a campaign It doesn t matter what you get your options to after starting a campaign you will be stuck with the unit size you had selected when you started Larger units have more men Oh golly and this has several Impacts Firstly it makes them that little bit harder to control on the battlefield they take longer to react to orders especially when altering facing by 90 degrees This is a Good Thing in my opinion Secondly they take more men from settlements when being built a Bad Thing You see the starting populations of cities in the campaign are the same for all unit sizes and so the AI tends to drain cities of people trying to build an army That means it s slower and harder to tech up and so you tend to run into crappy units a lot This can also happen to you the super smart human player person thing if you are not careful Thirdly and most obviously larger units require more oomph from your PC use the largest unit size and point blank refuse to drop below the second largest size Small units are not fun to me Horse archers in 1 2 A miscellaneous note on 1 2 which I can t think of anywhere better to place at present horse archers and chariot archers are bugged they no longer shoot while moving correctly There is a DIY fix for this discovered by QWERTY on totalwar org You need to mod in the thrown missile attribute to all the following units barb chariot
96. ey and you can build more advanced things in them However you do not want them to grow too big or too fast because squalor will get out of hand and things will get messy Cities max out in terms of what you can build at 24 000 people and at that size they can get hard to manage and the population keeps on growing But in many ways getting to that size is a distant problem for most new players instead the question is what to do with your dunghill 2 000 population town to get it growing and making money Population growth The major population growth factor is food All of the farm line of buildings increase the amount of food available and that in turn increases population growth Seems simple then just whack down farms as quickly as possible then upgrade them often right Er not not quite You see you can never demolish farms once they are built you are stuck with them permanently Imagine the kind of population growth you can get with 596 of 24 000 and you will see why paving the world in big farms is a poor idea in the long run Your population will run rampant expanding faster than you can keep it happy and requiring larger and larger garrisons to kept revolt at bay until eventually you can no longer keep pace and the city explodes So maximum farm upgrades are often a bad idea in the long term However no farm upgrades can be as problematic your population will grow at a crawl This leaves you technologically and financially stunted A
97. ften find units with guard on don t engage properly and then slowly rotate and reform after the charge so their back is facing the enemy Yes that means the enemy gets a huge advantage You re test udo ing my patience The testudo formation that the post Marius reform legionaries use makes them quite immune to missile fire small missile fire catapult boulders still squash men flat It is terrible for melee men tire quickly in the formation and the transition to and from testudo is slow It s really only useful when you need to advance under heavy missile fire and don t need to fight or defend yourself at the end of it all Pulverising problematic pachyderms Since have yet to encounter elephants on the battlefield shall quote Mike B in CA s official FAQ Burning pigs and siege artillery are the classic counters Defeating elephants depends on the circumstances where the elephants are used but usually fighting head to head with them will result in a lot of casualties before the elephants drop We favour hanging back and hitting them with as many missile weapons as possible as quickly as possible Sometimes you might have to sacrifice a unit as a speed bump to delay the elephants and give your missile troops more time but nothing in Rome Total War is invincible or undefeatable will also add that phalanx units will kill elephants quite nicely so long as the phalanx keeps formation and engages the elephants head on If the bit grey
98. g in a tight pinch You can order them to melee by holding alt and right clicking Note that you do have to turn skirmish mode off if you want your unit to melee otherwise they will keep dodging back and the whole thing begins to resemble a farce Most cavalry has two weapons usually a lance or spear of some sort and then a sword mace or other short weapon The lance or spear does more damage on the charge but in melee it is not as effective You can hold alt and right click to attack this causes the cavalry to charge with the spear lance and then draw their secondary weapon if they have one Heaven knows why they don t do this automatically Skirmish mode Skirmish mode is actually useful this time as long as you keep an eye on skirmishing units and steer them out of any trouble they may be working their way towards Generally it is quite reliable at keeping your units out of enemy reach Do remember that chaps on foot can t outrun horses Cantabrian circle This special ability is used by some missile cavalry units It enables them to keep up a constant morale sapping stream of missiles on a target unit It also makes them very hard to hit with missile weapons It does tire them out rapidly though and it is a reasonable target for hostile cavalry to charge Wedge Wedge is a special formation certain units of cavalry can use usually heavy cavalry As you might guess from the name your cavalry will form up in a wedge shape with on
99. gbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 15 Watchtowers cost 200 denarii and are permanent there is no known way to destroy them They appear instantly there is no build time Watchtowers can only be built by generals They act like upkeep free stationary spies revealing a portion of the map around them If they are placed on hills or in clear areas they can see further than if they are plonked down in an area surrounded by tree and mountains Use logic in placing them if something would block your view in reality then it will do so in the game Forts Forts can only be built by generals and they cost 400 denarii They also appear instantly but they will disappear if they are left unoccupied by any unit of any faction for one turn have seen people saying that forts are bugged because the AI will never attack them can attest to my cost that this is wrong had an army of 500 wiped out by a massive marauding force of Gauls have also seen it said that the Al might attack some forts but never one in the Alps well can prove that wrong again Guess where my army was located The idea behind forts is to give your army some extra protection in the case of attack find them to be death traps Sallying out of a fort is extremely hard the walls are very flimsy and the towers don t put out nearly enough arrows to be of real aid If you decide to be brave and wait for the enemy to come through your walls then you might die of old age first if
100. get at the enemy from an advantageous spot such as the rear when doing this Most phalanx troops are quite weak when out of phalanx mode With phalanx mode on the unit will use the long spear or pike and only drop to the weaker sword if the enemy manage to force their way past the spear points suppose now is a good time to mention a few quirks related to the statement The phalanx is practically invulnerable head on Well firstly have seen quite a few people saying that cavalry can beat a phalanx even if they charge head on into the spear points have spent hours testing this in both single player and multiplayer and found it to be untrue Cavalry lose about 9896 of the time and their victories were freak accidents As long as the phalanx is in phalanx mode in good formation and hit head on they will slaughter the cavalry Many times even found the phalanx could see off cavalry when charged in the flanks or rear times when fully expected the phalanx men to be slaughtered This is because the phalanx managed to turn around and start fighting the cavalry effectively very quickly If the phalanx is occupied to the front when the cavalry hits the flanks or rear then the chaps on horses do much better Secondly have seen it said that spear using hoplites as in short weapons can beat pike using phalanx as in much longer weapons head on even though the spears have the shorter range and need to push past the pike points This one is true
101. ght bring home someone a little better Only let your daughters marry nice men ones with some talent and good character Their husbands will become part of your family they will become your governors and generals and fathers to your next generation And yes am serious about the 12 year old girl getting married this is historical if not entirely palatable to a modern audience If you don t like it keep refusing permission until she s older Widows will never remarry so if your darling girl marries someone at the tender age of 12 and he dies the next turn that s it she s condemned to a singleton s life Don t worry I m sure she ll find something to do to pass the time and someone to keep her from getting too lonesome but you won t benefit at all from it Rebel without a clue After 1 2 the rebels now appear to get many more family members newly generated ones instead of just sad remainders of destroyed factions In addition to these rather random chaps it also appears that if you turn down a suitor requesting your daughter s hand in marriage he has a small chance of taking the refusal a bit hard and running away to join the rebels Quite what he hopes to achieve by this don t know perhaps the pain of rejection is so great he wishes to die perhaps he hopes to impress you perhaps he just can t stand the humiliation Whatever he s never going to be able to marry the girl so it s probably kindest to just kill him and crush his little army Al
102. gies section will be constantly added to as players find new ways to utilise this tremendous dimension of the game Although would like to claim that all the words are mine there are many others who have contributed to this document Parts of the descriptions have been taken from the game itself and someone or some few more likely at CA deserve a big thanks for making this part of the game as robust as it is Players have contributed a great deal with their insights I d like to thank Thoros of Myr for being the catalyst to the project with his understanding of the diplomatic side of the game and all the great people at the Org who express their views eloquently and with passion Note Text in dark red points out areas where the information available is questionable incomplete or otherwise in need of more research If you read something incorrect find missing information or have answers to questions raised in this document please feel free to contact me Tamur directly via email cicero3558 yahoo com Conducting Negotiations The Mechanics of Haggling To open any negotiation you need someone to negotiate with and you need a goal For a quick list of possible goals see the Senate Missions section later For now though we ll assume that you want to open your first negotiation with the Gauls who are neutral to you You want to gain trade rights which allows commerce to flow between your towns and the towns the Gauls occupy First
103. glory on the battle map Make this city your capital city Show detailed trade information And that leads me to the next screen http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 10 Trade Details o9 Arretium Large town Settlement Resources Income Land Trade Imports and Exports Patavium amp E Q 20 Ariminum 4 51 Rome amp amp 52 Sea Exports Carthage amp 87 Farming Income Average Harvest 480 Mining Income 0 Total Income 690 Trade Income 210 Trade is a marvellous thing it supplies the lion s share of your income and doesn t cause any long term problems unlike farming and taxation But more on that later In this screen you can see how much your city is making and which other cities it is trading with Because trade needs roads or ports connecting the cities you also have to know the city exists you can t trade with places you haven t discovered yet we think Arretium is currently only trading with a handful of places mostly by road This screen is not glamorous or vital but find it handy to check how much a city is making from trade before building trade related buildings like the forum Right now we have covered the various aspects of your city it is time to discuss what to do with them Simply put you want your cities to grow because then they make more mon
104. graphic shows the culture of the city in this case Roman If it were a barbarian culture the city would be made up of mud huts if it were Egyptian it would be mud brick and so on Because these people are Roman they have nice tiled stone houses Unfortunately you can t tax them extra for that The huge red banner sticking up from the city which would expect to be very unstable and to blow over in even a mild breeze killing hundreds of innocent civilians shows that this city belongs to the Julii it is their colour and has their symbol on it Notice how part of it is a nice red while the rest is an unpleasant pink That shows the size of the garrison More red more men Below the city is a little box with the city s name Arretium for those of you with very short attention spans a few numbers and several funky icons From left to right the pile of coins with 19 next to it is the amount the city is making each turn Right now it is losing money to the tune of 19 denarii per turn Actually to be pedantic it is not losing money at all more on that later The little green face represents the city s mood Green is good green is where you want all your cities Yellow means there is some discontent but http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 8 it s not really a problem Blue means people are very unhappy and are on the verge of becoming
105. h the new building selection Keep doing that until the city is maxed out The build order is quite flexible for example if am in a heavy attrition war and need more troops than my military cities can supply will build barracks in my trade cities instead of trade buildings also tend to add the occasional military building to trade cities anyway just in case always build the trade buildings in military cities you can never have too much money Hit the road what did the poor road do to you anyway Roads deserve a bit more in depth coverage There are four levels of roads none dirt paved and highways Only Romans can build highways Barbarian factions can only build dirt roads Civilised non Roman factions can build paved roads as well as dirt ones The effects of roads are best split in two On trade dirt roads add nothing to trade Paved roads give a 100 trade income bonus to all land routes Highways give a 50 income bonus to all land routes On movement This does not fit into neat precise increases because there are some extra variables at work the research team working on this topic haven t been able to isolate yet Also different types of units infantry cavalry artillery agents all have different movement rates and so roads give slightly different bonuses to each type The movement bonuses apply to all units using roads friendly and enemy To try and sum up concisely shall borrow the results tables created by ther
106. haracters who stay at home are immune This one does actually swing both ways and male characters who are away from home seen slightly more likely to pick up vices about their best friend s wives female slaves and so on Well you know what they say about the Romans Ahem let your generals visit a city occasionally even if it is one they are occupying this does seem to reduce the likelihood of these kind of reputation destroying discoveries Let me stress that the at home out all day thing is not huge it does not guarantee that your field generals will never have children or will end up with a bunch of bad family vices it only makes it very slightly more likely in my own experience and letting them sit in a town once in a while did seem to help Certain traits and retinue members increase fertility The retinue members can often be found by staying in a city with one of the population growth boosting temples The number of family members is possibly tied to the number of cities you control and the number of family members you already have This is why sometimes you experience a massive baby boom shortly after taking a load of new cities or after a lot of deaths The game seems to like you having enough people to play with not too few or too many Children often either take after their parents or rebel and turn out their polar opposites Picture young Gaius Gosh Pater They way you drank the whole wine cellar dry in one go was so impressive Ca
107. he offensive to pummel the enemy before sending in your infantry The cavalry are there to support the flanks over and above all else They are not rout chasers not unless the flanks are safe and will continue to be so If the enemy hit the flanks of this line then things will more than likely go to hell in a hand basket The general and his bodyguard take a central position nice and safe ready to support if needed When you have a big line of phalanx units like this it is not so good to click on the targets you want the to attack This is because they tend to lose that single close line as they advance making themselves more vulnerable Instead try selecting your entire phalanx line holding down the alt key and then clicking behind the enemy This will get the line to advance in perfect order and position maintaining the same facing as before As the units run into the enemy they will begin to fight and they will do so if you got the command right in the same single line that they set out in Cavalry how to use it and how to stop it Cavalry is made to charge in melee it will usually die quickly but on the charge it will cause much pain and suffering Any ragged strung out unit will be swept over by the charging cavalry mown down as if it were never there This makes cavalry devastating against most missile infantry The key to real cavalry use is motion keep them moving as much as possible Let them charge the unit will usually pull a
108. ies get slightly less then the base rate normal and easy gives slightly more Taxes are a steady flow of cash you probably won t pay much attention to them as they hum along in the background nicely Mining Mining is simple if a province has mining resources then you can build mines to exploit them if there are no resources there can be no mines Mining resources can be spotted on the map they look like little nuggets of metal There are two different kinds of mining resources gold and silver think that they bring in the same amount when mined although in previous Total War games the amount http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 16 was dependant on the resource type There are two levels of mines mines and mines 1 Mines 1 will bring you more money than simple mines but you have to build the plain mines first and the city the province belongs to must be at size 2 or more You outlay more and bring more back trading cash in hand now for extra cash at the start of each subsequent turn find that to be a fair exchange Mine income is stable unlike the other forms of income Mines never have bad harvests they do not get blockaded and war does not put an end to the income If a mine says it will generate 200 denarii per turn it will do so until it is destroyed or upgraded Small but steady are the key words when talking about min
109. ification No additional info needed Tips Although this is a simple diplomatic maneuver in can have far reaching consequences If the faction you re cancelling the alliance with share other allies with you then there s the possibility that you will lose more than one alliance by doing this Be sure you can handle the sudden loss of those ties with the resulting drop in trade income It may not happen but best be prepared Trade Rights offer only Stances neutral or ally Description You can offer to give a faction trade rights This is bilateral if they accept then trade is allowed to happen between your cities and theirs and your ports and theirs Trade rights can be granted with or without an alliance They are vital to the economic and growth ability of any faction who aren t world powers Trade rights benefit both your faction and the faction you are giving rights to If you want to make life difficult for a faction cancel or do not give trade rights to them and encourage other factions to attack your target faction thus cutting off trade to other factions as well Clarification No additional info needed Tips Besides Map Information this is the most basic relation any two factions can have Since as said above it is mutually beneficial expect little resistance when proposing a trade agreement If they turn it down however it s likely that an examination of the web of alliances and enemies will show that you ve severe
110. ild next Show detailed information on the city Go to the city s location on the main map Phew Done Anything else you need to know about this screen was mentioned in the tutorial Now on to the next screen the advanced settlement details http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 9 Settlement Details Population Growth LETT T c s9 Public Order OQQdEERRE 4 oy e9 Income P bEEEI NOOONNaaae In the event of a siege this settlement can hold out for 7 turns Always show settlement details O Thankfully for my fingers and your eyes this screen will not take nearly as long to explain as the previous one Population growth has three icons a house with corn farming an ear of corn er general foody stuff and rats squalor Foody stuff plus farmed food add up to give a boost to your population given in a percentage You can see an individual total by hovering your cursor over the little pictures that applies to all the items on these screens Squalor detracts from the total people living in their own filth generally don t want to breed for some very strange reason If squalor gets too bad you can probably get negative population growth Public order is a breakdown of how likely the city is to riot Factors are prestige of the governor laurel wreaths assuming there is a governor and he has prestig
111. imate hot weather is more tiring for heavily armoured units and the activity Walking up hill is more tiring than marching down hill for example It s all very logical When a unit is standing idle it will slowly regain stamina It is a good idea to rotate troops if you can using a few units to fight while others rest and recover This is mostly possible in battles on a limited front such as bridge defence Height Height accords a significant advantage to the man who is highest up and a penalty to the one who is lower down Fighting up hill is a bad idea and should be avoided wherever possible Charging and fighting downhill is a great thing to do just make sure you remain on the slope or you will lose your advantage As noted earlier missile units can shoot further and do more damage when they are higher up Height is great love it and use it to your advantage Trees Some units get bonuses when fighting in forests You can also hide troops in forests to spring ambushes on unsuspecting enemy units Cavalry perform badly in trees it s hard to ride fight and watch out for branches all at the same time Keep your cavalry away from trees and try to lure enemy cavalry in Trees also intercept missiles giving shelter to units being shot at or hampering the effectiveness of any missile unit shooting out from forests Long grass Some kinds of infantry can hide in long grass and spring ambushes Bridges I ve not fought many bridge battles so f
112. in enemy lands beaten them repeatedly in battle and know via spying that they have been severely weakened by your onslaught The negotiating partner who receives a demand with Accept or We Will Attack tagged must have been recently attacked and beaten before acceding to this threat When it works it can get you the largest diplomatic prizes in the game such as Protectorate Status or Region Giving If it doesn t you ve probably killed off diplomatic possibilities with this faction for a good while to come How Dol This section functions as a FAQ about the larger scale mechanics of diplomacy and as such does contain a lot of spoilers If you re interested in digging through the diplomatic engine yourself and discovering what works and what doesn t it d be best to skip this section entirely and move in to the next That said those who struggle with the diplomatic engine should find many of their questions answered here in easy to find form This information is scattered throughout the guide in different places Secure a treaty of Military Access http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 28 If you ve tried you know it s near impossible to simply demand Military Access with an open ended you name the price approach Even gifting regions will not work in most cases Make Single Payment is your friend here Approach the facti
113. in enemy territory with a large and well seasoned army The army defeats anything in its way and lays siege to a rich settlement or even the faction capital Then the diplomat moves in to offer a better alternative Offer Demand Combos Ceasefire Regular Tribute Ceasefire Give Region Ceasefire Become Protectorate Ceasefire Military Access When To Use When a faction has refused any offers more than an in word alliance and you need to force an issue such as Military Access As punishment when a faction breaks an alliance or cancels Trade Rights Anytime you don t mind being seen as a bully 2 The Cleopatra Maneuver Summary Quote Here we know you ll like this Description http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 29 Station a diplomat at a faction s capital and as much as you can afford it gift cash provinces etc to them Wait a turn then ask about what you re really after Offer Demand Combos all offer only gifts Give Region Make Single Payment Regular Tribute Attack Faction When To Use When a faction has refused demands for Military Access or Alliance When you re working to move a recent Ceasefire to an Alliance Anytime you want to be seen as a generous kind hearted faction with altruistic motives 3 The Pompey Maneuver Summary Quote You idiots need this more
114. increased level So build trade buildings as and when you can and rejoice in the extra benefits they bring such as trainable agents like spies Do note that these buildings increase population growth very slightly The distance between land trading partners has no affect on how much the routes make unlike sea trade So to sum up trade build roads and ports everywhere as quickly as possible Upgrade them whenever possible Get trade agreements and try to remain at least neutral with most factions as war prevents trade Build the trade family of buildings to boost profits Keep your roads clear and an eye on your ports to spot those rare blockades Combined with your farms and mines this should make you plenty of money even if it is a bit vague and arcane frogbeastegg 19 10 04 22 02 Re A Beginner s Guide to Rome Total War VII Meet the family but watch out for Lupus he s a little strange Your family a bunch of wastrels drunkards fornicators perverts and a general drain on your economy I m sorry but if your family has ended up like that then it is your own fault for the most part Discipline Iron discipline You are the head of the family you are in essence the paterfamilias and you should damned well get off your backside and get on with paterfamiliasing In Rome Total War your family collect vices and virtues to represent their personality deeds and abilities They are collected in a logical manner if your general fights
115. ing income always build mines when have the opportunity usually as a matter of some priority just behind roads basic ports and any buildings need to get the city happy Trade Ah now we are talking about real money Trade is more expensive to set up and gets more expensive as you try to make it more efficient It is unreliable roads and ports can be blocked by enemy or rebel armies and this will hurt your income You cannot trade with people you are at war with so it is easy to trash your economy with a badly timed war Trade really requires you to send diplomats to pester people for trade agreements Those are the downsides now the upside huge quantities of cash Salivating yet Probably the prospect of huge piles of cash to spend on cities and armies can have that effect would ask that you try to dribble into a bucket or something instead of making a mess on the floor only just had the slaves polish the mosaics Roads and land trade Roads carry out land trade Land trade is represented by little caravans rolling along the roads on the campaign map More caravans more trade more money The better road types can take more caravans therefore it is a great idea to always upgrade your roads This also boosts your army and agents move speeds inside your empire so that s a win win situation Froggy loves roads you should love them too Um ok if froggy is honest roads do have a single downside they speed enemy movement too so if
116. ion s trees but hope this will change shortly The official CA FAQ can be found here recommend taking a look RomeWiki is a very handy resource for the RTW player and worth at least one visit It is a kind of RTW encyclopaedia where anyone can contribute information shall add a note about the Prima Official guide here everything have heard about it is bad didn t buy a copy myself do own both guides for Shogun and Medieval and was going to get a copy of the one for Rome until saw all the complaints It does not match the quality of the previous works and has a lot of wrong information especially in the units section Apparently many of the unit costs are wrong Obviously you need to tweak the game options to get good performance and nice eye candy that s your problem A small note on screen resolutions If you wish to use a resolution not in the game by default you need to open up your preferences txt file in your main RTW directory find the lines relating to resolution and edit them to whatever you wish to use The change you edited into place will not appear in the game menu itself so if you alter any in game graphics options you will have to redo your resolution edit Now your choice is a little more limited when you start the game up you are forced to do the Sons of Mars tutorial campaign Playing the tutorial is a good idea it acquaints you with the basics of the game Sadly and most frustratingly in my experience you ar
117. k from that number instead so long as the end number reaches 896 it doesn t really matter how you get there As your city will stop growing at 24 000 people the assorted happiness boosting buildings along with a garrison and a decent governor should be sufficient to keep everyone happy Population Growth Case 42d PLAAT e F Note It is the clumsily circled figure in this screenshot you want to reach exactly 8 not the number given on the main city information screen and not the number added up at the end 24 000 people is an important number because it is the last population level you need for a city to upgrade basically if the city goes much beyond that then you will not be able to get big enough boosts from your temples and other happiness boosting buildings to counteract the unhappiness caused by squalor At 24 000 or under you should be able to manage except in a very few cases When squalor gets so far out of hand it becomes uncontrollable such as if you have planned badly and growth continues after 24 000 people some people like to pull the entire garrison from the city park an army next door and push the city into rioting with high taxes Then they simply roll in with the army and recapture the city The deaths caused by this take the city down to a manageable population level while leaving the buildings intact In this way you can end up with a highly advanced city with a relatively small population As of patch 1 2 squalor is capped a
118. k red line snaking its way through the middle of the map is the border of the province and since you don t own any provinces beyond this one of your empire Right that s it for what you can learn from just looking at the map time to move on to the city information screens If you look at the right hand side of the screenshot you can see a parchment if you can t see it you should probably get glasses The grey box near the top the one with the picture of the man and scroll icons is the governor If there is no governor in the city the box will be empty The picture is not important the other details are Age is displayed in the top right corner the older the guy is the more likely he is to expire and become a small pile of ash in a ceremonial urn Dead governors are not replaced automatically you have to send another family member out yourself assuming you have a spare Below this you can see the chap s name Lucius Julius Command is battlefield leadership this mewling infant only has one star so you d better hope he never has to fight anyone with more skill than he has i e anyone who is more skilled than a damp piece of canvas Management indicates his ability to manage a city to do the job you have given him While he might be an utter moron on the field of battle this guy is seriously skilled at taxing people and oppressing the masses Below that is influence rated in snazzy laurel wreaths He has three of them quite good really Most characte
119. keep a lid on rebellions so if your city has high squalor you may need to increase the garrison but remember that the garrison effect maxes out at 8096 Health increasing buildings are a bit of a double edged sword the health bonus increases happiness in the city but it also increases population growth The happiness will help counter the effects of squalor but the population will grow faster meaning squalor will increase faster too Squalor inflicts a population growth penalty You can counter this directly with farms and indirectly with buildings that increase public health Remember that squalor grows in proportion to your population so it may not be a good idea to try and regain positive growth in a city where the population has stabilised or begun to decline The best way to handle squalor involves careful management and construction 8 population growth is a magic number by the time a city reaches 24 000 people that 896 growth will have been completely countered by the squalor growth penalty reducing growth to zero To get this magic 8 you need to take your city s natural growth rate i e the one it starts with when there are no farms or growth boosting buildings governor traits and retinue characters in play and carefully find a combination of buildings which will add to you can find the bonuses they give on the in game tech tree that base figure to reach 896 If there are already some farms and growth boosting buildings present just wor
120. ks can be needed to stand solidly and dispatch the charge would say that the absolute minimum you want to use in any situation is three ranks myself have settled into using four ranks almost all the time with the exceptions being when need to cover a lot of ground drop to three ranks or need to repel a very dangerous charge increase to five or six For cavalry Depth is a little less important for cavalry and they tend to be charging not receiving charges like to use my cavalry in three ranks for smaller units and four ranks for larger ones This makes the formation sturdy thinner formations collapse on impact and gets the maximum number of men slamming into the enemy as the charge hits Sometimes use five ranks generally when need the unit to be more mobile For missiles Since there is no line of sight accuracy penalty in RTW have taken to deploying missiles in short squat blocks about five ranks deep sometimes more It makes them easier to position and this way they are a little better at pulling back on their own without human intervention if left to skirmish It is also good to remember that unlike MTW the advantages of a few of your men wrapping around the enemy formation are minor In MTW this would cause the enemy unit to crumple quickly in RTW more often than not a few men will simply turn around and start fighting on the flanks while the others fight on the front That means there is no longer a very good reason
121. lenty but you might like to use more depending on who and what you are facing You probably shouldn t try to use a lot of ranged units in each army too many missiles and not enough infantry can lead to you being cut apart very easily if the enemy manage to get close x Paddling on the big boating lake navies duh Navies are quite simple in Rome Total War They are only used for two things transporting troops or naval combat When transporting troops only one ship is required regardless of the size of your army Yes it is actually possible to put 10 000 men on one ship Sending out unescorted ships is a recipe for disaster troop carrying ships can be sunk by a larger enemy fleet killing everyone on board Also for each victory an admiral wins he gains rank stars just like a general on land High star admirals are a pain to kill and small fleets are easy pickings which help build enemy admirals up with cheap victories An admiral is most likely to gain a rank star if he has a very decisive victory which sinks the enemy instead of forcing them to row away Ships will generally escape after a defeat unless they are opened in either by land or by other enemy fleets Wolf pack tactics are the way to go if you want that fleet to visit Neptune Ships will just like land based troops gain experience in battle They also benefit from any weapon and armour upgrades that the city where they are re trained can offer just like normal soldiers You cannot
122. lish the missions essentially just sitting their picking your teeth you have nothing to counter the growing dislike Hate has nothing to do with you being strong or beloved of the smelly populace and everything to do with you being a total loser http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 36 Control of something they care about ah yes this one is the real jackpot What does the Senate care about most Rome Control Rome and the Senate need no longer bother you Well usually You see in my games the Senate has always been quite passive supporting the other factions but never actually conquering any cities it was just in control of Rome itself Now in some games the Senate may go and conquer a bit or they may be given a province or two as a gift Even if they have more than Rome they will be essentially broken without it so the point still stands even if you have a little more tidying up to do after your triumphal entry into the city Generally speaking the average player will work their way from ambiguity to love then slowly to fear The civil war will begin details later and end hopefully with your faction victorious and in control of Rome How do you deal with the Senate Make them love you until you no longer need that love then make them fear you until they play into your hands and begin the civil war Then finally and so very swee
123. ll them back before the cavalry hit and wipe them from the face of the planet Cavalry based skirmishers are usually fast enough to nip back out of the way but they probably won t have time to throw many javelins before the Al sends its cavalry to intercept You can also send your javelin units around to throw into the flanks and rear of an enemy once battle is joined Ordinary javelins are not armour piercing Pilums are Spears Spear equipped units have a bonus against cavalry the bonus is added on to the spear unit s attack when facing cavalry of any type Spears do not seem to receive a rank bonus in RTW unlike in MTW This means there is no pressing need to keep them in perfect order remember that depth and cohesion help them take charges so you shouldn t spread them too thin or let them get too disordered if that is your intent A few hours of experimenting with spear troops against cavalry has lead me to believe that you should always but always counter charge the cavalry found that almost every single time this lead to the spears winning faster doing more damage and taking fewer casualties also found that three ranks was quite surprisingly the best for seeing off cavalry so long as counter charged If stood to take the charge a deeper formation four ranks was predictably superior Spear units can and will beat sword units with similar stats However my testing has revealed that the results of any such match ups are unpredicta
124. lso you will be using a small band of cities to recruit your armies from and this reduces their population You will need those cities to grow back fast enough to keep supplying bodies for your wars but not so fast you end up with rioting So far have found building the first farm land clearance early on in each and every settlement is a good idea If plan on using a city to recruit a constant stream of troops might build the second but only if am going to be recruiting constantly So most places have the most basic farms and no more Farm upgrades also bring in a bit more cash but farming income is never much compared to trade so it is not worth building them for financial reasons especially when you think of the extra garrisons you may require to handle the booming population The terrain of the province itself affects how much food is grown some lush provinces have a naturally huge population growth while others barely grow at all Farms are not the only buildings which affect population growth certain temples and other buildings increase population growth Some people suggest building the population boosting temples to grow your cities quickly then demolishing them in favour of a temple which boosts happiness and or law haven t tried this strategy personally yet but do wonder if you might have problems with unhappiness when rebuilding the temples also don t like wasting cash and building time but that s stingy old me The other po
125. ly ticked off one of their strongest allies If that s the case and really do want trade with a faction that has denied it then patch up relations with that ally of theirs then propose it again Cancel Trade Rights offer only Stances neutral or ally Description You can offer to cancel trade rights with or without a Demand associated with it This works in exactly the same way as Cancel Alliance Clarification No additional info needed Tips Again take care to examine the web of alliances and enemies to make sure that this cancelling will have handle able side effects Military Access offer amp demand Stances ally only Description If you offer Military Access to a faction you are offering that faction the ability to move their armies into your provinces without fear of reprisals Conversely if you demand Military Access from a faction then you re asking for the ability to move your armies on their land safely An alliance with reciprocal military access is probably the strongest form of alliance in the game This allows them to aid you against enemies in your lands and allows you to aid them against their enemies A side benefit of this is that you can march through an http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 32 ally s provinces to attack another faction without having the constant pressure of a border to maintain
126. ly to gain some new skill or lack thereof in dealing with them than a chap who has been travelling for part of the turn and has therefore spend much less time with his tax collectors On the battlefield you are more likely to gain command stars and good traits if the numbers are even or against you Vastly outnumbering the enemy hampers your general s growth Of course this does not take quality into account so if you have 200 well equipped veterans against 500 peasants fresh form the fields If you have 50 000 denarii or more in your treasury your governors are more likely to pick up bad financial traits This is officially a pain It can be a good idea to give huge piles of cash to other factions when your treasury gets near 50 000 just to avoid the bad traits Every good Roman needs a family as in wife and children not as in pesky brothers to come over at 2AM and ask if they can borrow your chariot only they ve met this nice girl Your male characters will marry on their own you cannot control this When they finally decide to take on that good Roman responsibility you will receive a special announcement at the beginning of the turn telling you Typically they only tell you after the wedding so you don t get to go along and eat all the cake Bah have seen many people asking how you get children sighs Well you see when there s a mummy and a daddy and they love each other very much oh go ask your own parents Yes it works like that
127. mand that a region be given to you In game terms region translates into province When you give a region it means that you must move your armies out of the province s main settlement during the turn in which you negotiate the region transfer If you don t you ll likely receive a message calling you a liar and possibly breaking off diplomatic relations with you As should be obvious giving a province to another faction is a big step for which you should expect a large reward If a province is near rebellion has large squalor problems etc then expect the same payback as if you were trying to sell a rust pitted vehicle with no engine You can offer multiple regions at one time Clarification You will need to specify the region s offered This consists of going through a list of all the provinces that you own except where you ve specified your capitol to be and putting a check beside the one s you want to offer Tips Provinces mean revenue population and unit production power all in one nice package This can be a very powerful bargaining chip It won t work in the most severe cases such as if you are negotiating for Military Access with someone whose enemy is your ally but the giving of a region can be a huge economic and social benefit to a faction Use with care You can couple a Give Region offer with a Give Region demand effectively swapping provinces with another faction Depending on who you talk to this is an effective way to cement
128. my and they melt into the countryside Successfully bribe a faction family member and they turn traitor and join your cause Bribe another diplomat spy or assassin and they are yours for the using When bribing you simply need to approach the unit you want to bribe with a diplomat right click Click Bribe above the Make Offer header and sit back to watch the fun The bribed unit will either outright refuse or will demand a certain number of denarii You can haggle with them on the amount If your bribe is accepted you will see their faction flag change to yours In most cases if you bribe an army it will simply disappear There are two cases where this is not true First if you are playing one of the Roman factions and manage to bribe the army of another Roman faction then the army doesn t melt away it becomes yours to use The second case is when you bribe another faction s family member If you successfully bribe a family member they are by default adopted into your family no option to not adopt them They appear as sons under a sponsoring family member The mechanics of who is given the privilege of sponsoring a bribed family member is currently not understood Threats One special case in the Make Offer section needs some explanation Accept or We Will Attack is in the offer section This translates any demand it s attached to into a threat The successful use of this option is restricted to the case where you have marched
129. n have a go or Pater you are a disgusting drunken lout and hate you One version of Gaius will turn out to be a drunk the other will have no drinking traits or will have sober traits That s not a cast http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 18 iron guarantee though sometimes young Gaius will say Oh Pater am afraid your drinking makes no impression on me at all just can t be bothered to care and then not get any drink related traits t does seem more common for children to react to their parents then blandly ignore their existence full stop wish the same applied to those noisy brats in my local shopping centre Daughters these strangely dangerous creatures deserve special mention They have no traits you can never do anything much with them er actually like all female characters they are almost non entities The one time you do actually get to do something with them is when they approach you about a husband Usually they chose the first scumbag they meet actually think someone must choose for them what sane 12 year old girl picks a 72 year old man with a bunch of pervert vices and no talent in anything Now you can turn down their choice or accept it If you accept you basically never see your daughter again outside of the occasional birth death announcement If you refuse the hunt goes on and next time she mi
130. n their short campaign you must destroy or outlast the Greek Cities and Macedon and hold 15 provinces The Brutii represent something of a middle ground between the other two factions They will engage in some naval warfare and take quite a few coastal cities they will also have quite a few in land provinces Their enemies can field strong armies but they do not have to contend with war elephants To unlock the other factions you need to finish any of the Roman campaigns on any difficulty even an easy easy short campaign will do did it on normal normal with the Julii short campaign Difficulty Difficulty is split into two categories campaign map and battle map Explaining exactly how difficulty works just now is complicated See there are unknown factors there is the known set of factors CA themselves told us and then there is The Bug 1 2 introduced a bug with battlemap difficulties and to be honest trying to understand exactly how it has broken the system has given he a headache I simply don t have the time to read everything even on just one RTW dedicated forum let alone the many that now exist Anyway I ll spare you the froggy snivelling about lack of time and give you what is known and what my interpretation of the problem is Known Difficulty levels on the battlemap are bugged both in custom mode and in the campaigns The vague froggy bit think the bonuses are being applied on the wrong levels Normal is supposed to be a lev
131. nd it s worth installing for this one teensy little tweak alone After installing the patch and running the game once a few new command lines are added to your preferences txt file including this gorgeous little line here EVENT CUTSCENES TRUE Simply change the TRUE to FALSE save and celebrate the death of the general s death cutscene also want that fancy pants intro movie dead and buried NOW Yes no matter how fancy the intro FMV of a game you only ever watch it a couple of times Past that it becomes a minor annoyance Right click on the shortcut to RTW on your desktop choose properties and add nm to the end of your shortcut including a space between the which is already there and the e g D Program Files Activision Rome Total War RomeTW exe nm All this unlocking stuff is console crap and refuse to do it Honestly it s probably easier to just play an easy easy short 15 province campaign but if you insist on modding shall quote Steppe Merc s short modding guide 1 Find the file descr strat in Rome Total War Data world maps campaign imperial_campaign txt 2 Open it up 3 cut the faction you want to play as from the section its under either unlockable or nonplayable and copy it into the playable section that should do it Also on that same file for those who wish to play a very long campaign you have the start date and end date that can be modded there it says start_date 270 summer a
132. nd end_date 14 summer The interface sucks Yes this one can now be altered thanks to the general loveliness of 1 2 The chunky view blocking interface can be swapped for the svelte old version which featured in the old TW games Simply open up preferences txt and find the line MINIMAL UI FALSE and change it to true Then go and sacrifice one small goat and a chicken in gratitude for this absolutely huggable change For those who never played the old TW games I say give it a go Once you try it you ll never go back It s too fast it s hard to see morale and fatigue and other common vet complaints I m not going to deal with this kind of problem in this guide half of this can t be changed and the speed issue is heavy modding There are several old Total War features that are dead and buried sadly many of these features were useful The time slider has gone you are now limited to preset battle speeds Remember how you used to break your fingers assigning units to numbers using ctri alt number and again when recalling them with ctrl number The good news is that you no longer need to do this the controls are now both customisable and sane Use ctrl number to assign and number to recall Patch 1 2 has also brought back the ctrl shift number system for the sadists amongst you The old right click battlefield unit menus are also gone but honestly don t miss them All the commands you need are on the interface and can be assigned
133. nd giving my own experience Selling maps You can sell your map for a nice profit each turn find can usually get around 1 000 denarii per sale in the early game keep a diplomat near a city belonging to each faction have contact with and sell them my map each turn This is great training for the diplomats and it keeps contact open and thereby seems to make alliances last longer Finally it gives me more spending money in the early lean days while cutting back on my enemies spending money and hampering their growth Selling maps is so powerful wouldn t bother if it didn t keep my alliances alive for longer Bribery This is so powerful don t use it any more Bribery is dirt cheap in terms of both money and tactics a couple of thousand denarii will remove a large quite good army from the equation Keeping your alliances going As noted above I find my alliances will last much much longer if have repeated sustained contact with that faction Before read Tamur s guide my alliances lasted around five turns at the most now I have had alliances last for more than twenty turns Protectorates As of 1 1 protectorates are bugged they will inflict a significant crippling drain on your finances each turn Don t use them seriously Extort bargain negotiate Never accept the Al s first offer and never ask for what you really want the first time You can often bargain getting a little more or reducing the price of what you
134. ning you can protect your diplomat by 1 getting him to be as skilled as possible Influence helps avoid assassination and 2 having him travel along with a spy whose sharp eyes can keep a watch out for enemies To have a spy and a diplomat travel together simply click on a spy and then right click on the diplomat If needed you can use the Agents tab to separate them after clicking on the diplomat Retinues As with other named agents diplomats can pick up retinues as they live their lives One very important point to bring attention to retinue members can be swapped between diplomats until a diplomat is dead If a diplomat dies any retinue members he had are gone Following are the known possible retinue members for a diplomat with their bonuses Translator The ability to speak to foreigners in their own tongue is very useful to a diplomat 2 to Influence note cannot have a Translator and a Linguist both as retinue members of the same diplomat Rhetorician A man who speaks with honeyed words is likely to teach his master some helpful techniques 2 to Influence Linguist 2 to Influence note cannot have a Translator and a Linguist both as retinue members of the same diplomat Foreign Hostage 1 to Influence note cannot have both a Foreign Hostage and Foreign Diplomat as retinue members with the same diplomat Foreign Dignitary Foreigners can be trusted mostly to do the right thing for their own people They do unders
135. nliness Make sure they kill a few people personally you wouldn t want them accused of cowardice would you Swap out governors of your frontier backwaters occasionally spread the boredom and lack of decent toilet facilities fairly and you are less likely to end up with a handful of hate filled individuals and a bunch of soft plushies with a thing for over eating Make sure your generals kill someone in every battle they fight this cannot be repeated enough times Cowardly generals really hurt your army s morale and the traits fighting generals pick up are often very good One interesting fact is that many traits are not gained by a family member if he has moved in that turn so if your governor pops out of the city and immediately returns he will not gain certain traits at all good or bad You don t need to move much just enough to deplete the movement points by a little This does not affect those traits gained in battle if your general fights well or fights like a coward he will potentially gain a new trait even if he had exhausted his movement limit Some traits do require your character to have moved in his turn such as the harsh lifestyle family of traits The traits which are blocked by moving seem to mostly be those exacerbated by buildings such as the drinker line and those to do with government such as the farmer line This is quite logical when you think about it a chap sat around dealing with tax collectors for a full turn is more like
136. o fancy pictures this time just general tips Do as much damage as you can with missile units first Send some units with good morale and good armour across first they will survive longer and hold the bridgehead while the rest of your units begin to cross and add their own weight Using units with fragile morale or poor protection to lead the assault usually leads to them routing back into the rest of your crossing troops spreading panic slowing the crossing and achieving nothing at all Expect a lot of casualties when attacking a bridge Charging running and that old debate It appears that right click once is still attack right click twice is run to attack and charge is a completely separate thing you cannot order Know that all infantry and cavalry at least the ones have tried have automatically begun to charge when they get in range of an enemy when single click Reiterated single click walk double click run Yes do know what the tutorial says but the tutorials in MTW and STW said the same thing and it was proven wrong Now am assuming that the old need for a good run up to reach full speed and therefore full charge bonus is present and correct in RTW This means that if you only have a short distance between your unit and their target it might be beneficial to order them to run to http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page
137. o play to your faction s strengths when building your armies would go into detail on all the factions particular strengths and weaknesses giving recommended armies for all of them but honestly really can t be bothered and don t entirely see the point If you play as the Romans first then you should learn everything you need to know about how to put together a good army when you shift to the other factions you will only need to examine the unit information and work from there Also for the Romans you will sadly have to forget any ideas about historical army make ups you can t built hastati or principes right off the bat Instead you are stuck using hastati for much of the early game then swapping to a mix of hastati and principes when principes become available You will probably never get to use triarii unless you begin the campaign with some due to the Marian Reform issue mentioned above So for the Romans The Romans have excellent heavy infantry and some reasonable cavalry They are a bit weak on the missile front as they can only build some rather crappy archers and velites javelin skirmishers At the beginning you have quite a limited choice but your hastati are great line infantry and should form the bulk and backbone of all your armies until you can replace them with principes Support your infantry with a couple of units of cavalry probably equites and your general s bodyguard find two cavalry including the bodyguard is usually p
138. oked Judge Temple or greater Judge Temple or greater Pet White Cat Awesome Temple or greater Milqart Trade e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Increase in tradeable goods 1 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Increase in tradeable goods 2 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Increase in tradeable goods 3 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Increase in tradeable goods 4 Ancilliaries Freeman Clerk trade type Temple or greater Idiot Savant Temple or greater Numismatist Large Temple or greater Procurator Awesome Temple only Wise Man SCYTHIANS Papay Law e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Public order bonus due to law 5 Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Public order bonus due to law 15 Ancilliaries Astrologer Crooked J udge Sacred Grove or greater Magician Sacred Grove or greater Api Love e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Population growth bonus 0 5 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Population growth bonus 196 Head Hunting Maidens e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population growth bonus 1 596 Head Hunting Maidens Scythian Noble Women Kolaksay Horse Il e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Experience bonus to troops
139. on only when you are making a Cancel offer such as Cancel Alliance Offers such as these have no bargaining involved You are cancelling the agreement and your word is final Accept Reject and Counter Offer When an offer has been tabled the other faction has the option of accepting it rejecting it or giving you a counter offer If you are receiving a diplomat then when the negotiations open you will have these three options immediately to reply to their proposal Acceptance is simply giving the thumbs up to an offer At that point the negotiation becomes legally binding though of course treaties can fall apart rather quickly sometimes Rejection puts an end to the current set of proposals This doesn t mean that negotiations are necessarily over a new proposal can be tabled by you or the other party But it does mean that the proposal as it stood was entirely unacceptable to the party who rejected it A counter offer is the position between acceptance and rejection Receiving a counter offer or giving one out is a very encouraging sign It means that your negotiating partner is serious about your proposal but they feel that it s unfairly weighted toward your side Most often they will counter offer something weighted to their side and the position closer to the middle of the two is where an agreement will be reached Bribes Bribes fall into their own category You can bribe neutral or enemy units of any type Bribe an enemy ar
140. on whose lands you want military access to and demand Military Access then offer a single payment of around 4000 denarii If they don t go for that or make a counter offer then open a new proposal and offer them 6000 denarii You can keep going up by 2000 denarii until you get an acceptance or a counter offer If you have to go above 12000 denarii it s often not worth the price but that depends on your situation in the game pad my treasury using my diplomats There are a number of ways to do this First if you ve got a good map to offer you can make anywhere between 2000 and 8000 denarii each time you sell your map Remember though that each faction will probably only buy your map once You ll also get a better price for your map the farther away you travel from your own lands Second securing trade rights with as many factions as possible gives you a much better chance that the goods from your regions will find buyers happy to fork over the denarii Your ports especially will appreciate this since they switch their trade lines to the most affluent ports available to them Third a good diplomat in combination with a large army or invasion force can get you a lot If you are attacking a faction and have been winning all your battles against them then you can use the Accept or We Will Attack threat to coerce tribute single payments settlements or protectorate status out of a faction Of course tribute and single payments are the only
141. opulation health bonus 1596 Druids Ancilliaries Druid healing type Master Embalmer Sacred Grove or greater Physician Sacred Grove or greater Wise Woman Witch Britannia Trade e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Increase in tradeable goods 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Increase in tradeable goods 2 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Increase in tradeable goods 3 Ancilliaries Freeman Clerk trade type Sacred Grove or greater Idiot Savant Sacred Grove or greater Numismatist Sacred Circle only Wise Man http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Andrasta Victory e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Woad Warriors e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 1 Woad Warriors Head Hurlers e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Experience bonus to troops 2 Woad Warriors Exp 1 b Head Hurlers Exp 1 b ARMENIA Vahagan Battleforge e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Upgrades light weapons 1 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Upgrades light weapons 1 Experience bonus to troops 2 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due
142. order bonus due to happiness 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Corvus Quinquireme e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 2596 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Upgrades light weapons 1 Upgrades heavy weapons 1 Upgrades armour 1 Corvus Quinquireme Decere SENATE None MACEDON Demeter Farming e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Improved farms and food production 1 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Improved farms and food production 2 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Zeus e Improved farms and food production 3 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Improved farms and food production 4 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Improved farms and food production 5 Public order bonus due to law 10 Experience bonus to troops 2 Ancilliaries Agriculturalist Temple or greater Herbalist Temple or greater Governors Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Public order bonus due to law 5 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Public order bonus due to law 10 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Public order bonu
143. ore infantry in the flanks or rear Don t let them withdraw for another charge get them bogged down You can also shoot them to soften them up a bit suspect horses are big targets and therefore easier to hit than infantry Once cavalry are stationary they are very vulnerable as I ve been saying repeatedly throughout this section Camels have an advantage when fighting horses keep your horses away from camels and send your camels after horses A good demonstration of how best to use your cavalry against infantry in support The Roman infantry is slugging it out with the Carthaginian infantry the cavalry charge is just about to hit the Carthaginians in the back Because they are already tied up with will be less capable of fighting back against the cavalry and they will also take a lot more damage when the charge hits This in turn inflicts quite a blow to the Carthaginian morale both because of the losses and because of being surrounded http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 41 The same scene a little later The first unit of Carthaginian infantry is routing with only a handful of survivors The cavalry is just beginning its second charge having pulled out when the momentum of the first charge was lost Horse archers and mounted javelin throwers Well suppose that currently the best place to start with these units is to say
144. otalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 13 Unit dis miss This is the opposite of the previous point When you disband a unit the soldiers will head to the nearest city and add themselves to the population If you disband inside a city then that city is guaranteed to get the people Sneaky people may be spotting something here good for them If you recruit a unit of oh let s say peasants from city A which has a large population and problems with squalor then send them on a nice route march to city B which is newly conquered and has a small population then disband the unit inside the city then city A has reduced population and city B has gained population Think about this a way to reduce overcrowding and build up those newly conquered cities that little bit faster Yes it does cost some money in recruitment and maintenance costs and you do have to micromanage a bit but the benefits far outweigh the negatives We don t need no stinking foreigners Again this point builds on the last few So your mighty Roman army under the command of general Julius had captured a settlement of Gauls Gauls are nasty people they tend to be hairy and they wear trousers It is clear to any good civilised Roman that these people are undesirable The fact they have happiness penalties due to cultural differences is merely the final straw they must go When general Julius m
145. other Increase from dirt table 3 3 3 Dirt Roads Paved Highways 44 4 88 9 122 2 42 996 71 496 114 396 20 096 60 095 100 096 50 0 83 3 116 7 table Progressive increase table 3 3 3 Dirt Roads Paved Highways 44 4 30 8 17 6 42 9 20 0 25 0 20 0 33 3 25 0 50 0 22 2 18 2 table So to tackle the conclusion in a slightly more advanced way dirt roads are high priority items they are cheap beneficial and very quick to build Construct them ASAP everywhere Paved roads are also very high priority items as they give a big trade boost a big movement boost are still quite cheap and fast to construct Highways are less important more a midlevel priority They are very expensive and take a long time to build and their bonuses are smaller making all this fuss too much for them to be honestly worth it the instant they are available Automanage Be careful in the priorities you set if you let the Al manage a city you can end up with it pumping out loads of crap units and wasting your money have no experience with automanage and would not recommend using it A bit about the map Nice title no Since have already covered aspects of the map like trade goods and roads in this section may as well finish it off and bung the last few details here too Watchtowers http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild fro
146. ow bore you with a quick discussion of those points Stabilise your existing lands This does not necessarily mean being all nice and building schools and kissing babies it can mean kicking seven shades of hell out of the nearest threat Basically in this category you need to identify anything that could do significant harm to you in the initial turns and this can include unhappy cities ambitious neighbours rebel armies or perhaps even badly placed family members who are either vulnerable to attack bribery or are not helping you at all Secure your borders by expansion if necessary Build however many armies you need to guard your lands There is a snag with this one money Usually in the beginning you will be making a loss and only have a few thousand denarii in the bank For this reason usually use a more roundabout approach to getting my armies use the initial troops thoughtfully scattered throughout the territory If a unit of decent troops is in a city then pull it out If it is required to act as a garrison train a unit of town watch to replace it town watch are cheap and less effective in combat than most other troops Er actually only peasants are worse than town watch in a fight have found that can usually get two decently mixed armies with about 10 units each including generals out of my initial units You will probably still be losing money but at least you have not exacerbated the situation by spending money on loads more
147. ple or greater Herbalist Temple or greater Baal Justice e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 Sacred Band Ancilliaries Crooked Judge Temple or greater Judge Temple or greater Pet White Cat Awesome Temple only Milqart Trade e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 Page 51 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Increase in tradeable goods 1 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Increase in tradeable goods 2 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Increase in tradeable goods 3 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Increase in tradeable goods 4 Ancilliaries Freeman Clerk trade type Temple or greater Idiot Savant Temple or greater Numismatist Large Temple or greater Procurator Awesome Temple only Wise Man PARTHI ANS Zoroastra One God e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Public order bonus due to law 1096 e L
148. pulation boosting buildings such as the trade building family trader market forum etc are useful and they do not provide such a massive boost to growth always build them Taxes also affect population growth as mentioned earlier If you want your population to grow swiftly give them low taxes if you need to arrest growth with high unhappiness as a side effect then stick taxes to the maximum Note that if your city is about to revolt due to squalor pumping your taxes up may halt growth but it will also probably tip the city over the edge into rioting Normal tax rate strikes a balance between income happiness and population growth find it makes a good middle ground unless you urgently need to alter one of those factors http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 11 Squalor will negatively affect population growth if it gets bad enough then it will counter all the positive growth factors and halt growth I think it is also possible to end up with a famine which makes population decline If you push your taxes high enough when the city is already experiencing slow growth you may push growth to a negative There is a final rather abstract way to make your population grow slaves When you conquer an enemy city you are offered a choice between occupying enslaving and occupying or exterminating and occupying If you choose enslave a ce
149. rd that faction The Senate will sometimes tell you to send your diplomats on very specific missions A list of these follow with a description There are reports of players having never seen any of these in any of their games The conditions behind their appearance remains a mystery akin to those of the Good Goddess Send Emissary The Senate asks you to send an emissary to a Specific faction with no goal in mind besides diplomatic contact Demand Tribute The senate feels that a faction needs to recognise the superiority of Rome It requests that you send a diplomat to demand a regular tribute payment You will be rewarded depending on the size of the tribute you obtain Obtain Surrender The Senate feels that a faction has been weakened enough to make forcing surrender a realistic option Send a diplomat and demand that they become a Protectorate under Roman control Negotiate Return of Legionary Eagle The Senate would like to send a diplomat to negotiate the return of the Legionary Eagle a faction holds The loss of the Eagle standard is an ongoing source of shame to the Legion that lost it and there seems to be little chance of getting it back by military means Negotiate Settlement Handover The Senate feels that there is a realistic prospect of persuading the current owners to hand over a settlement by offering them an exchange for one less valuable to us Send a diplomat and attempt to get them to hand it over Obtain Map I nformation
150. re are no defenders left alive or if the last few defenders are routing The central square gives units infinite morale they will steadfastly fight to the death and any routing units will head for the square However if the last few men are routing towards the square but are not actually in the flagged area the attackers will win Never ever go in through the front gate in stone walls your troops will be boiled with oil This includes gates a spy has opened for you the daft idiot opens the gate but leaves the boiling oil intact Spies must get some sick pleasure from seeing their compatriots get burned alive Bash a hole in the walls or use siege equipment to get on top of the walls then capture the gatehouse then you can send your men in through the gate because the oil is disabled On stone walls towers will only stop shooting arrows if you capture them Select a unit of infantry and click on the wall top near the tower the infantry should enter the tower and climb up onto the walls capturing the tower in the process If your infantry are already on the walls just tell them to walk to the walls on the other side of the tower they will then pass through the tower and capture it Note keep saying should in my limited experience with stone walls my troops just dither around doing nothing and getting shot to bits thanks to the dodgy pathfinding Which brings me to my next point Siege towers have their own weaponry mounted on them as I briefly m
151. rewarded for blocking a port Yes you can get a huge pile of denarii for sailing a ship to the designated port and leaving it there for a turn So make sure you read the small print carefully and fully consider the implications of what they request before deciding what to do about the mission XIV The Gentle Art of War being a battlefield guide This chapter is dedicated to the battlefield half of the game bet you couldn t guess that could you In both of my previous Medieval Total War guides went into some detail on the battle side of the game won t be doing the same here at least not in such depth You see we don t know the combat calculations the unit stats are only just being discovered the bonuses are mostly hidden and generally it is all very vague will pass on what can and note a few dos and don ts RTW is a more dynamic game than MTW to me at least It relies more on logic find that on normal difficulty without any bonuses to either side as given by difficulty that logic and historical knowledge provide plenty of basis for what really happens on the field Of course there are some exceptions to this rule but overall what you thin should happen does If you think of a cavalry charge against a ragged strung out unit you expect the cavalry to mow the infantry down That s what happens in RTW If you think of a cavalry charge against a solid well formed and disciplined infantry force you expect them to get bogged down an
152. rs have low influence if they are not faction leaders heirs or in a senate office Influence helps a governor keep control over his citizens a little awe really does help prevent riots Below that box is another labelled settlement details This is your one stop shop for the critical information about how your city is doing Income is a simple repeat of the same figure on the map to get the real meat you need to go to the detailed city information screen more on that later Public order represents how likely the city is to riot Anything under 100 is bad it means there is unrest Ok to be honest you can survive with slightly below 100 but it is really skating close to the edge of thin ice and any small problems will push you over into the happy little land of trouble Having your governor die and your city revolt because public order was already close to danger point is severely not fun Because this city is at 15096 it s as stable as a very stable thing Population is the current number of souls stuffed into your taxation hellhole Population growth is represented as a percentage each turn the displayed percentage is calculated for the population and then added on In this case 296 of 4 000 is 80 so at the beginning of the next turn the city will have 4 080 people Larger populations grow faster such is the arcane magic of percentages Population required for next level of settlement means just that when the current population hits the indicated
153. rtain amount of the cities citizens will be removed from that location and divided up between all your other cities that have a governor no governor no slaves This is quite handy it allows you to boost your core cities and makes the new city easier to control You can also get some new characters for the enslaving general s retinue this way Beyond that initial burst of slavery there is a steady on going 1 growth bonus for any city connected to the newly captured settlement by road This extra bonus lasts for 20 turns until the slave resource on the map disappears Squalor and happiness Squalor is a major issue in Rome Total War Squalor makes your population unhappy if unhappiness gets too high they will riot Squalor is the main cause of unhappiness in many cases Squalor represents the general ills and upsets of a city think crime inequality poverty overcrowding and so on On the most basic level squalor increases in proportion to your population if you have a large population then you are more likely to have squalor Getting slightly more complex a large population is not just one that is a big number A city can have problems with squalor shortly before it reaches the required population to grow to the next size A city can also begin to have problems with squalor because of the governor s traits and retinue but more on that in a bit But if squalor has to be generalised suppose it is fair to say that squalor is more common and gener
154. ry to look for rebel held cities as you can capture those without starting a war While your diplomats are doing the rounds trying to collect alliances try to get trade agreements as well As outlined in the diplomacy section trade agreements are easier to get than alliances Grow your finances so your income is stronger At this point you being adding more trade buildings upgrading roads and ports anywhere you can seeking trade agreements and building mines Again you can find more in the economy section Tech up by building army related buildings when affordable and convenient What is says on the tin This one goes quite low on the priority list because you can often get by with your initial facilities for a short while and by the time you require more advanced troops being trained in more locations you should have a steady cash flow Organise your armies which will probably be battered after the initial phase of expansion and battling Again precisely what it says on the tin You will probably need to merge and retrain units as well as bring out a few freshly raised reinforcements Since the retraining versus merging argument is a long old rambling topic shall cover it later in the army section Slowly begin to expand taking strategically chosen targets http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 7 Right you have money in
155. s Your units can now fire with no accuracy penalty if they are in more than two ranks the old line of sight penalty has been dropped This means you can deploy your archers in ten ranks without any loss in performance repeat the old line of sight penalty is gone The 1 2 patch brought back the old friendly fire system If your missile units are left on fire at will and given no orders they will shoot of their own accord at any enemy units in range unless they are likely to hit their own friends in doing so Note that if you order a unit to shoot at a specific target they will keep on shooting regardless if any friendly casualties they may cause http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 38 Height is still massive advantage to ranged units increasing the damage they do and the range at which they can fire Rain and snow still dampens bowstrings reducing both accuracy and range Armour reduces the effectiveness of missiles heavily armoured units will only suffer a few casualties per volley as their armour protects them Lightly armoured units will take heavy losses per volley Shields also protect men for missiles effectively the larger the shield the better the protection You can bypass the shield s protection by shooting from the side or rear of a unit You only need a 45 degree angle from the front to bypass the shield so you do not
156. s 5 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Experience bonus to troops 1 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Experience bonus to troops 2 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Experience bonus to troops 3 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Experience bonus to troops 3 Population growth bonus 1 Public order bonus due to law 10 Increase in tradeable goods 2 NUMDI ANS Tanit Farming Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Improved farms and food production 1 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Improved farms and food production 2 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Improved farms and food production 3 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Improved farms and food production 4 Ancilliaries Agriculturalist Temple or greater Herbalist Temple or greater http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 Page 57 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 58 Baal Justice e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Public order bonus due to law 10 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Public order bonus due to law 2096 Ancilliaries Cro
157. s Maccius Plautus Awesome Temple or greater 17 Appendix B A complete listing of retinue characters and their effects Being formatted and edited into place as you read 18 Appendix C Assorted stuff which doesn t fit anywhere else Mount Etna will always erupt sometime around 261BC The lava flows kill any agents nearby as well as causing heavy casualties to any nearby army 19 Credits Unlike Oscar night speeches shall try to make this short and relevant also promise not to cry and thank my non existent pet cat Keeping a list of individual credits for all those handy titbits have collected on the org and official forums has proven to be nigh on impossible as well as very time consuming If credit every single person who has said even one line of vaguely helpful text will have literally pages of credits and it will take me longer to write than the economy section Instead shall just say my grateful thanks to the communities of both those forums for playing posting and researching A second general thanks goes to all those who have answered my questions again it s quite a long list and am sure people would rather spent time writing the guide rather than the credits Thank you all for your help A respectful bow to those who made this guide possible namely CA for making the game and Tosalnu for the usual help battering the forum into cooperating with this massive document and for arranging the picture hosting space
158. s a hostile action Demanding and getting Regular Tribute damages the enemy s ability to create an army build defences make city improvements and recover losses from any ongoing wars Being under such an arrangement is often intolerable and will often lead to renewed battle Clarification When demanding tribute you will need to specify the amount per six month turn you wish to be given and the number of turns that this should continue Tips Demanding Regular Tribute is often the sign that a faction is near the end of its lifespan If accepted it can put a tremendous strain on the resources of a faction thus weakening it in all areas A strong enemy will never accede to a request for Regular Tribute A weak or recently beaten enemy will accept it simply for survival s sake A strong ally may accede to a Regular Tribute request if you ve given over a lucrative province in exchange for nothing but cash and you want to avoid hitting them up for a mountain of cash with Make Single Payment Map I nformation offer amp demand Stances any Description This is the most basic form of interaction between factions In a unilateral Map Information negotiation one side gives their Map Information to another faction either as a good will gift or for cash The side that buys the map gets to see all city resource and infrastructure information the map holder has seen In a bilateral Map Information transaction they give you their map of the worl
159. s between your cities and the allies cities or expanding ports which service your ally s harbours Clarification No additional info needed Tips Alliances are most often accepted when there has been some previous history of contact between two factions The most common negotiated lead in to a successful alliance proposal is to exchange map information and cement trade rights Let trade flow for a little while a year or two Also important is to consider the question Who are the allies and enemies of this faction If their enemies are your allies your diplomat is likely to walk away empty handed unless he s got a large treasury behind him as well as a good influence rating It s still possible to cement an alliance in this situation but there is no possibility for stronger ties than an in word alliance If you want to move from a state of war to an Alliance with a faction you must first negotiate a Ceasefire then work to fulfil the qualifications above to secure an alliance Cancel Alliance offer only Stances ally only Description If you are currently allied with a faction you can offer to cancel the alliance If this offer is simply placed out on its own then the cancel is unilateral no matter what they think your faction will cease all formal ties to that faction If on the other hand there is a Demand associated with this offer then this offer translates into a threat with the demand side being protection money Clar
160. s due to law 20 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Public order bonus due to law 25 Improved farms and food production 2 Experience bonus to troops 2 Upgrades missile weapons 2 Ancilliaries Freeman Clerk tax type Temple or greater Artemis Hunting Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Upgrades missile weapons 1 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Upgrades missile weapons 2 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Upgrades missile weapons 3 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Upgrades missile weapons 4 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Upgrades missile weapons 5 Public order bonus due to law 10 Improved farms and food production 2 Ancilliaries Beastmaster Temple or greater Pet Hunting Dog Temple or greater Ares Violence Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Experience bonus to troops 1 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Experience bonus to troops 2 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Experience bonus to troops 3 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Experience bonus to troops 3 Morale bonus to troops 1 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Population health bonus 10 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 Page 48 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s
161. select one of your diplomats and move him into Gallic territory It s often best to send a spy in before your diplomat so you can see where the faction s family members are and where cities are Although some say it makes no difference there are those who claim to have gotten better results from negotiating at cities or better yet from negotiating at the faction s capital Once your diplomat is in Gallic territory right click on any agent or a city belonging to the Gauls The negotiation screen will open up Note you don t need to be in a faction s territory to negotiate with them you simply need to be able to right click on a faction s agent On the negotiations panel there are two main parts The left half contains all your diplomatic options These change based on your standing with a faction A faction to which you are neutral will have different diplomatic options available than one with which you are at war or allied The right half contains all the current proposals When you first open up negotiations this will be empty If an emissary from another faction has sought you out then this will be full with their offers and demands The offers section as well as the demands section is split up into two well three but Bribes are different sections Offers and Demands The Description of Offers amp Demands section lists and describes all possible offers and demands so far discovered anyway With this screen open you can Offer
162. someone invades you will have less time to react However do find this to be a tiny fly in a very big pleasant smelling tub of ointment Any enemy or rebel army parked on a road will halt the flow of caravans cutting off part of your trade Smack the army with extreme prejudice to restore the cash flow Land trade appears to take place between all of your cities automatically as long as they are linked by a road This nets you a small income which appears to grow depending on how good the roads are between the two places It also seems that land trade will take place with neutral or allied factions if you have a road connection even if you do not have a trade agreement It is suspected that you have to know about a city as in you can see it on the campaign map even if it is currently under the fog of war before you can trade with it Problematically you will not trade with all the cities you know about Trading partners are selected automatically each turn by your merchants they will select the partner who will bring in the most profit Ports and sea trade Each level of port can sustain one trade route up to a maximum of three when a dockyard is built You will see a blue dashed line with tiny ships sailing along it flowing between your port and the trade partner Trade partners are chosen each turn according to how much profit they will bring you your merchants automatically select the best partner You do not need to build any ships to trade
163. something by clicking on one or more of the items under Make Offer These are things you are proposing to do In our example we want to gain Trade Rights from the Gauls so our towns can start sending goods to their towns and vice versa We find Trade Rights under the Make Offer section and click it Trade Rights has now moved to the right side of the negotiations panel You can cancel that offer by simply clicking on it in the right panel and it will move back into your possibilities and be removed from your current offers You can Demand something by clicking on one or more of the items under the Make Demand heading These are things that you are proposing that the other faction do In our example we don t want to demand anything because Trade Rights is an offer only proposal See the Offers amp Demands section for more information about offer only proposals Some options have further information you need to provide For example if you click Attack Faction under the Make Offer header then you ll need to specific which faction you re offering to attack If you demand Regular Tribute then you ll need to specify how much per turn and how many turns half years you want them to pay that amount Propose Give as Gift and Inform http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 27 Once you ve finished adding offers and demands you need
164. ss 1596 Experience bonus to troops 2 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Experience bonus to troops 3 Ancilliaries Wrestler GAULS Teutatis Battleforge e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Upgrades light weapons 1 Experience bonus to troops 1 Naked Fanatics e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Upgrades light weapons 1 Experience bonus to troops 2 Naked Fanatics Exp 1 b Epona Horse e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 2 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Experience bonus to troops 3 Abnoba Hunting e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Upgrades missile weapons 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Upgrades missile weapons 2 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Upgrades missile weapons 3 Ancilliaries Beastmaster Sacred Grove or greater Pet Hunting Dog Sacred Grove or greater Esus Justice e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Public order bonus due to law 596 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Public order bonus due to law 1096 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due
165. t 100 public disorder penalty instead of the previous 125 This makes life a lot easier when dealing with huge cities Anything past 30 000 people will no longer inflict an extra penalty so long as the Imperial palace is in place Some people just don t appreciate how good life is Some provinces are inherently more rebellious than others Epistolary Richard has created this map to illustrate the problem provinces http forums totalwar org vb clientscript vbulletin global js 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 12 C Doc Health is an unassuming but important thing If city health is poor it is more vulnerable to the plague plague is officially Not A Good Thing Healthy citizens are happy citizens and this alone makes the health line worth building Good health can boost city growth this can be good or bad as discussed earlier Logic would suggest that health related buildings would reduce squalor this does not appear to be true but as they also increase population growth any benefits will be temporary at best Game for a laugh The Roman factions can host games in their cities when they construct an arena or the upgrades in a city The games cost money but improve the host city s happiness for a short space What s that flashing You may notice icons flashing on your city information screens usually trade icons flashing can t explain this any better than the official FAQ so q
166. t list of what culture group each faction belongs to provided by Maltz Group Romans SQPR Julii Brutii amp Scpii Group II Greeks Greek cities Macedon Thrace the Selucid empire Group III Barbarians Gauls Germania Britania Dacia Spain Scythia Group IV Africans Carthage Numidia Group V Easterns Parthia Armania Pontus Group VI Egypt A faction can control a city of another faction s culture without a culture penalty if it belongs in the same group For example the Gauls can capture a British city and control it without cultural issues but if they take a Roman city they will have a culture penalty Damaged buildings Buildings damaged in a siege or by an assassin do not function until repaired no matter how slight the damage might be Repair buildings as a priority Note that you can repair multiple buildings in the same turn as well as begin construction on a new building Bribing cities If you bribe a city and this is far harder to do then bribing an army especially if there are enemy spies or family members in the city you have precisely one turn the turn you bribed them in to get a large enough army to quash the resulting unrest in If you do not get that army in or if the army is too small then the city will revolt back to its former owners or to the rebels Ihe plague don t really know much about the plague All can say is keep city health high and hope you never catch it Do keep family members
167. t part potential confusing bits are in unimportant places such as introductions Written for Rome Total War version 1 2 currently updating so actually a mix of 1 1 and 1 2 and a bit of a mess You can sort of ignore the index for now because it s a bit wrong A note on terminology City town settlement province it s all the same thing The screenshots in this guide require refers to be enabled in our browser and firewall if refers are not enabled you will see little totalwar org logos instead of images The setting varies from program to program and some firewalls including zonealarm pro call refers private header information can t really offer much help in finding the setting if you find the pictures aren t displaying but a quick web search should find you some instructions for your particular browser or firewall Index Introduction Getting started including veteran s 101 Choosing your faction difficulty and all those other options Your main aims taking over the world and enslaving the populace to your evil whims hahahaha Bread and Circuses city management and a bit about the map Gold beautiful gold Running your economy Meet the family but watch out for Lupus he s a little strange A handy dandy guide to agents of all varieties Armies the building and care thereof 9 00 SI OY UT SGN Paddling on the big boating lake navies duh 11 Bash for cash how to us
168. tage Sabotage is only as useful as the target will allow there is not much use in damaging a small town s shrine but knocking the advanced barracks out in an huge city that is constantly pouring troops out to fight you can give you a turn or two of breathing space You can only sabotage buildings you know about so it is useful to operate an assassin with a spy as a team Send the spy in to infiltrate the city then send your assassin in afterwards Because your spy has found out the settlement details you will be able to target all the buildings in that settlement If a building is only listed as a question mark then you can do nothing with it Sabotage does not have to totally destroy a building to be useful a building with even 1 of damage stops working and its effects disappear The size of the target city as well as the presence of any enemy spies or assassins affect your assassin s chance of success More experienced assassins will have an easier time sabotaging http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 22 Killing people works you would expect more important targets are harder to knock off because they have better security Generals are harder to kill than captains and some traits and retinue members make a general harder or easier to kill Also each command star makes the general slightly harder to kill A 1 star general is relativ
169. tand funny foreign ways though 1 to Influence i note cannot have both a Foreign Hostage and Foreign Diplomat as retinue members with the same diplomat i Retinue Management therother has written up an excellent summary of techniques for managing the retinues of your diplomats quoted below Having ancillary characters spread across a number of diplomats is generally not such a good idea It is better to concentrate them For instance combining a Rhetorician 2 a foreign dignitary hostage 1 and a linguist translator 2 can turn even the most ordinary diplomat in one whose counsel is listened to with respect And if you have diplomat who was born with the Diplomatic Genius trait he speaks with the force of law for many people And this is before he get any merited traits The better you can make the new diplomat the greater the chance he has of developing to Expert Diplomat 5 and even the double edged Foreign Tastes line It also makes sense to transfer ancillary characters from aged diplomats who are about to die to younger diplomats This should give you an elite cadre of highly skilled forceful virtually impossible to assassinate diplomats who can negotiate just about anything from your allies and enemies alike Traits http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 20 Following is a list of all known traits that h
170. ter Pontifex Awesome Temple or greater Aphrodite Love e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Population growth bonus 0 5 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Population growth bonus 196 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Population growth bonus 1 5 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Population growth bonus 2 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Population growth bonus 2 5 Public order bonus due to law 10 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Experience bonus to troops 1 Hermes Trade Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 5 Increase in tradeable goods 1 Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Increase in tradeable goods 2 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 15 Increase in tradeable goods 3 Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Increase in tradeable goods 4 Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 25 Increase in tradeable goods 5 Population health bonus 10 Experience bonus to troops 1 Ancilliaries Freeman Clerk trade type Temple or greater Idiot Savant Temple or greater Numismatist Large Temple or greater Procurator Awesome Temple or greater Wise Man Nike Victory Shrine Public order bonus due to happines
171. ternatively you could bribe in into your family and make him live the rest of his miserable life next to the woman he loves watching her marry and live with someone else Oooh that is evil Retinues Your characters will pick up retinues as they travel about the empire doing whatever it is they do Generally those followers will be useful and relevant to the character s work Generals tend to pick up drillmasters and other soldier types governors pick up cooks and other peaceful types Each character can have up to 8 retinue members at any one time and the retinue members vanish without trace when their character dies This means it is actually a good but not nice idea to strip elderly characters of all their close friends and leave them to die alone You can swap retinue members between characters if they are in the same location i e when it looks like they are in the same army Simply open the character information screen for the character who has the retinue member you want to move then drag and drop that member onto his new master s portrait at the bottom of the screen Try to keep retinue members where they will do the most good for example give those who gift a reduction in troop costs to the governor s of your military cities Academies and other education buildings have an effect on retinues as described by CA developer JeromeGrasdyke The Academy generates ancillaries for characters which are inside a settlement which contains an Aca
172. ters to have children This is FALSE in all my games have adopted people and had children born afterwards Actually in one brief for testing purposes and soon abandoned game I had no children until after had adopted someone VIII A handy dandy guide to agents of all varieties The diplomat This section dealing with the diplomat is written by Tamur and taken with his kind permission from his diplomacy guide http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 19 The Birth of a Diplomat Diplomats are trained from cities that have a Governor s Villa and take one six month turn to train They become available to you with only their name possibly some traits and a rating called Influence which we ll discuss in great detail later To see these details about a diplomat simply find a diplomat on the campaign map and right click on the diplomat s unit card in the unit card section of the screen When a diplomat is trained he does not immediately appear on the map He appears in the special Agents tab when you have a city selected You can also gain diplomats by bribing cities in which there are diplomats or if you assault and take a town that has a diplomat inside it The enemy s diplomats as well as spies and assassins become yours to do with as you wish The Cost of a Diplomat Diplomats aren t expensive but they do cost d
173. the bank and a profit each turn your armies are sorted out and capable of fighting your cities are slowly improving and your initial position is safe Now you can begin expanding out to take on those foes you deem most worthy of your attentions clue you will probably have several potential target factions to choose from Try the ones who will either give you a real benefit now such as rich cities or ones who will get nasty if left to tech up When campaigning against your faction s main foes in the early game you can give yourself a boost and cripple them by targeting their best cities first Here s a few examples from Maltz Armania Parthia Dacia Thrace Macedon gt Greek cities gt Rome Germania Julii 2 Rome Numidia Carthage gt Brutii gt Scipii 2 Rome Carthage Brutii gt Scipii gt Rome V Bread and Circuses City management and a bit about the map Rome the eternal city the beacon of culture the centre of the world the jewel in the crown you get the idea Well sorry folks but Rome isn t for you not until you have grown inordinately powerful Instead think of Backus Waterus the eternal mud pile the beacon of yokels the maggot in the apple yup it really is that bad You have heard the saying Rome wasn t built in a day Well sadly it is true to get Backus Waterus up to the level of Rome will take years hundreds of them Because CA didn t see fit to include Backus Waterus in the game thus ruining my jok
174. they promise to stop trying to attack you Clarification No more information needed Tips There are basically three situations in which to use Ceasefire when you re getting your tail whipped and you want a break when you re in a fairly even but long running conflict and need the resources to deal with another problem or when you re decimating an enemy and they are down to their last drop of life In the first case you ll need to offer something big like Give Region or Regular Tribute to have any hope of a Ceasefire being accepted If they refuse with one of those two then throw in a single payment if you can afford it In the second case the other side may be in the same situation and you can simply offer the Ceasefire They may demand more if so go for Make Single Payment to balance out the difference if it s not too much In the third case offer a Ceasefire in conjunction with a large demand Regular Tribute Give Region or Become Protectorate are all in the realm of possibility here Players have reported receiving over 12000 denarii in Regular Tribute from this Ceasefire scenario http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 34 Become Protectorate demand only Stances neutral or enemy Description When you demand that a faction become your protectorate you are offering several things at once All hostilities cease
175. tly wipe them out In my experience so far all had needed to do to keep on the Senate s good side is keep expanding slowly taking down my designated enemies e g the Gauls in my Julii game and accomplishing the occasional mission And my rating steady rose until they loved me and then began to fear me a little My rating with the people never did too well with this approach the best got was them swearing at me in the street shall kill them liberally for that later The Plebs Rumour and logic has it that the plebs will like Roman victories and expansion so conquering should help your rating If this is so then the boost is very minor to the tune of two faction icons for a 15 province empire and several famous victories suspect that holding games in any arenas you might own will boost your popularity people always love a good gladiator show with plenty of split blood and freebies for scroungers Certain Senate missions offer a set of free games in your honour if you succeed in the mission these games will boost your standing amongst the plebs The Civil War Because have only played short campaigns thus far something such as this guide has been sucking up my free time so a long game is impossible have not actually hit the civil war myself This is all based on reading winces Ok the civil war will begin when the Senate outlaws one of the three other Roman factions If they really fear you they might ask for your faction l
176. to happiness 1096 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Naked Fanatics e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Public order bonus due to law 1596 Naked Fanatics Bull Warriors Ancilliaries Crooked Judge Sacred Grove or greater Judge Sacred Grove or greater THRACI ANS Ares Battle e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 10 Morale bonus to troops 1 e Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 60 Morale bonus to troops 2 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 2096 Morale bonus to troops 3 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 3596 Morale bonus to troops 4 Ancilliaries Druid militant type Menhir Carver Temple or greater Dionysus Fun e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 10 e Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 20 Large Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 3096 e Awesome Temple Public order bonus due to happiness 4096 e Panatheon Public order bonus due to happiness 5096 Population growth bonus 196 Public order bonus due to law 1096 Ancilliaries Comedian Temple or greater Cook Courtesan Temple or greater Dancer Temple or greater Drinking Companion Temple or greater Gourmands Chef Temple or greater Titu
177. to hotkeys of your choice never used the right click battlefield menus anyway There is now no way to make all the units use identical ranks so if one unit is smaller than the others it will deploy in a thinner formation Hold formation and hold position have been merged into a new command called guard Wedge is now a special formation limited to certain units only Rally is also a special ability that only a bare handful of units just generals the Sacred Band cavalry had the ability in the demo but haven t used them in the full game get You cannot save replays in SP campaign battles think that covers everything important Patch 1 2 has also resurrected another feature from the old games and again it s quite simply a handsome little tweak that makes a world of difference It certainly made this frog smile They brought back alt move There that will have got all the old TW vets jumping up and down with glee but for the newbie it needs a little explaining You know how you set up your nice pretty army all neatly grouped with delightful unit arrangements and split into several hotkeyed groups And then you need to move a bit because the dastardly enemy are not going to obligingly walk right into your front So you try to move everyone at once while getting them to keep the exact same deployment and facing but somehow it all goes horribly wrong and people end up backwards scattered in strange locations stood on top of each other and generall
178. to law 1596 Druids Ancilliaries Crooked Judge Sacred Grove or greater Judge Sacred Grove or greater GERMANS Freyja Fertility http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 54 e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Population growth bonus 0 596 Screeching Women e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Population growth bonus 196 Screeching Women e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Population growth bonus 1 596 Screeching Women Donar Violence e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Experience bonus to troops 2 Berserker Ancilliaries Wrestler Woden Viking e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Experience bonus to troops 1 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Experience bonus to troops 2 Naked Fanatics e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 Experience bonus to troops 3 Naked Fanatics Gothic Cavalry BRI TONS Brigantia Healing e Shrine Public order bonus due to happiness 596 Population health bonus 596 e Sacred Grove Public order bonus due to happiness 1096 Population health bonus 1096 e Sacred Circle Public order bonus due to happiness 1596 P
179. to region for example mercenary hoplites are usually found in Greece Each type has their own frequency how often they appear to be hired and regeneration rate how quickly more of that unit type will appear to be hired some types of mercenaries are simply much more common than others This does mean you can raise armies tailored to the local nature of warfare buying hoplite to counter hoplites or horse archers to counter horse archers Course this is not always the ideal tactic and some local armies fare better than others when turned back on their own kind Hoplites will do well against other hoplites but there s really not so much point in turning peltasts back on peltasts not when you can just send in the cavalry and mow down the enemy skirmishers with much less fuss and fewer casualties The mercenary peltasts will do a nice job of turning enemy hoplites into imitation hedgehogs though It s also worth remembering that some terrains give bonuses or penalties to units for example barbarian mercenaries receive bonuses when fighting in forests You can use local mercenaries to take advantage of the local terrain gaining bonuses if you use them sensibly Mercenaries remain on your payroll as long as you choose to keep them It is possible to hire them instantly use them in a battle and then dismiss them all in the same turn This makes them very good cannon fodder for those tricky situations like storming gatehouses Obviously if you have a prize
180. to string your formation out to be a little longer than the enemy s For advice on phalanx units read on they have their own special section Front flanks and rear Hitting a unit in the flanks or rear gives you an advantage and probably a small attack bonus Hitting any unit in the rear with something will be devastating if you manage to charge heavy cavalry into the rear of an engaged unit you will cause tremendous damage and possibly even cause an instant rout The flank of a unit seem less vulnerable then they were in previous TW games This is because the men on the flanks do a better job of turning and fighting in effect allowing the unit to fight on two or more fronts at once Note that men will turn and fight on any front so you can actually surround a unit and see it fighting on four fronts Obviously dividing manpower up like this is a bad thing and so being flanked hit in the rear or surrounded is still a powerful and dangerous thing The phalanx deserves special note it is practically invulnerable from the front unless they lose cohesion and start using their swords instead of spears or pikes Hit them from the rear for best effects Hitting the flanks is also good Missiles in general There is one big change to the established system that TW veterans generally have an issue with This is not a grumbling ground so will simply log it quickly and informatively for the newbies and those just making the transition from the older game
181. tory but doesn t attack anything This also happens when you mistakenly or intentionally move your army into a territory of another faction from whom you have not secured Military Access Results If you are playing a Roman faction you will receive notification from the Senate telling you to move your army out of that faction s territory or suffer the consequences The consequences of not moving are that the Senate will probably investigate your family s finances and if the Quaestor that year is not part of your family will likely levy a whopping fine on you Fines as high as 90000 denarii have been reported by players They may also bar your family from Senate office for a period of two to four years Recovery If you are the perpetrator then you need to immediately move your army back into your territory or territory for which you have gained Military Access This will avoid any retribution from the Senate and the neutral faction in question If you are on the receiving end of such a move and you have a diplomat in the area then you can try bribing the army if you have the cash of course There are no diplomatic options currently for demanding that an army to whom you are neutral move their wandering army out of your lands Hopefully this scenario does not happen too often though up in the steppes of Scythia and Pripet it s bound to happen 2 Refusal on All Offers Description A faction refuses all of your offers even Region gifts
182. u should never place them behind another unit and leave them on fire at will or give them an order to shoot they will very often mow down the unit in front of them without a single bullet making it to the enemy They have good range though lower than archers and because of their unique trajectory they cause a lot of deaths per volley This is because any bullets which miss are likely to hit the man behind the original target Slingers can be devastating They have enough range that you can send them out in front of your lines to skirmish but due to their trajectory problems it s best to control them yourself if you don t you might turn your attention back to your skirmishing slingers only to find they have wiped out half your army for you An alternate line of skirmishing the only one you should drop to using after the battle lines have joined involves running your skirmishers around to the flanks and rear of the enemy line and unloading on them as they melee with your own front line Slingers often have loads of ammo in the form of bullets so you can rely on them keeping up a sustained barrage for quite some time You may like to know that sling bullets are not armour piercing avelin units Javelin units are short range skirmishers They come in infantry and cavalry flavours you can also find some units of heavy infantry mostly Roman who have a special variety of javelins called pilums The heavy infantry version is covered in the section called
183. u ve got it offer the region to your ally faction with a generous sum of denarii 6000 or up depending on how skilled your diplomat is but couple these two offers with a demand for Military Access If they refuse outright up the Single Payment amount until they do accept Once Military Access is secured move onward to smash the faction you took the settlement from After you ve defeated any major forces especially if you re able to kill one of their faction members give them a Ceasefire proposal with either Protectorate or Regular Tribute attached Let them tribute for a couple of turns then end the tribute early and offer an Alliance Use the tribute money to buy Military Access This most often results in having vast regions of land in which you can move your armies It also results in a stable section of the world from which you don t have to worry about invasion Offer Demand Combos Too much to break out see Description When To Use When you need to secure a troublesome border area so you can focus on matters elsewhere When you want to test out the diplomatic prowess of your best agents Diplomatic Disasters Sometimes things don t go exactly the way you expect them to Sometimes it s not even close This section aims to cover the basic diplomatic problems that happen and how to recover from them 1 The Wandering Army Description An army from a faction who have no Military Access treaty with you moves into your terri
184. uick way to beggar a faction i e take a settlement with this maneuver then offer it back to them at a high price When you have a large treasury and not much patience for battles f you want to quickly stun an enemy s military and know that a significant portion of their military forces are stationed in or near this province 5 The Robin Hood Maneuver Summary Quote These saucy varlets need a good drubbing and we will all share in the tasty proceeds Description Prepare a large siege army and place them in a province that fulfils the following conditions You can get to it without crossing territory that isn t yours or isn t Military Access ible and http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 30 The province borders a faction who you have an alliance with and whose land you want military access to or whom you want to have as firmly bound allies and The province also borders a faction with whom your ally is at war It may seem like a lot but these are all over the map most of the time After you have picked out this province move one well skilled diplomat to your ally s capital and one to the capital of the faction about to be pounced on Once you have your army and agents in place besiege and capture a settlement of the faction with whom your ally is at war Exterminate the populace and as soon as yo
185. uote time These represent effects that are about to disappear in the next turn It might be that a trade route no longer exists a building has been demolished the garrison has left town or you ve just conquered the place Think about what has changed for the settlement and you should soon see a connection How transparent To follow on from the point about flashing icons you may also note semi transparent looking icons in the same screen These represent the effects buildings you are constructing will have when completed For example if you are currently building a farm you will see a faded out looking food icon in the population growth sector Hover your cursor over it to find out exactly what effect is about to be added That is a capital question old thing what what Cities that are a long way from your capital receive a happiness penalty There does not seem to be much you can do to relieve the penalty so make sure your capital is in a central location in your empire and when your empire starts to get very big try to counter the penalty in your outermost cities with happiness buildings good governors garrisons and the like Don t be afraid to move your capital about as much as is needed it has no bad side effects unless you go and park it too far away from some cities boosting their happiness penalty by a lot in one go and pushing them into revolt There are two distance to capital tools out there that am aware of dOt s and R
186. vinces and this hurts their potential trade income as shockingly you need to be on the coast to build a port However this does not mean they will be perpetually bankrupt once you have five or so cities you can with careful planning and construction rake in significant piles of cash The Scipii are the blue Romans They start in south western Italy and Sicily They are intended to take on the might of Carthage and the Numidians above all others Their Gods are Vulcan small happiness bonus bonuses to armour and weapons of troops Saturn small happiness bonus small law bonus and Neptune small happiness bonus eventual ability to build the corvus quinquireme Their gladiator is the Mimillo and you can recruit them when you have built a coliseum In their short campaign their goal is to destroy or outlast Carthage and Numidia and capture 15 provinces The Scipii will be engaging in a lot of naval warfare and Carthage is a tougher foe than the Gauls However because many of their provinces will be coastal they will really rake in cash from trade The Brutii are the green Romans They start in south eastern Italy and they are intended to crush the Greeks and Macedonians under their hobnailed sandals Their Gods are Juno small happiness bonus small city health bonus Mercury small happiness bonus small trade bonus and Mars troop experience bonus Their gladiator unit is the Velite you ll be able to recruit them when you construct an arena I
187. want If you want 1 000 denarii for your map start by asking for 1 500 or more then work your way down You may even get the Al to agree to your outrageous request first time XIII Pretty in purple the Senate Ah the Senate A bunch of old men in togas with the feebleminded and insulting delusion that they can order you about that they are the true heart of the Roman Empire What do we do with old men in togas everybody everyone yells kick their assess No we do not and Wayne stop eating crayons We are far more devious than that oh yes far more devious Allow me to lapse off into my fictional writing and quote a character of mine a spymaster by the abnormal name of Trempwick here Love fear control of something or someone they care about those are the three main ways to gain control over a person Pick a person apart to see how they work then apply that proverb and they are yours My Trempwick is one smart sly crafty shifty beggar indeed and he has just summed up our dealings with the Senate in one bit of catchy dialogue or at least like to think so The catchy not the aim know about the aim it s the catchy that s an issue Maybe Love ah yes sweet sweet love You want the senate to love you you want them to hang off your every word to look after your interests and to bend over backwards for you What do you get if the Senate love you Money positions for your family nice missions support If you are in good gr
188. way slightly and recharge of its own accord When they finally stop and become stationary pull them back by double clicking on some empty ground let them regroup as they run away from the enemy then send them back to charge again Rinse and repeat Note that if your cavalry has fragile morale pulling them back may cause them to rout This is highly irritating Never ever charge your cavalry at a phalanx head on unless you really want to see them turned into little horsemeat kebabs Even charging into the rear of a phalanx is dangerous if you do not pull your cavalry back before they have change to enter melee Charge pull back quickly then charge again Phalanx units eat horses for breakfast Charging into the front of any well formed infantry is a risky proposition and should only be attempted by heavy cavalry in an emergency Spear units will also give your cavalry a headache Chariots well just keep your cavalry away from chariots if you are attached to them in any way Chariots mince horses Oh and elephants elephants tread on horses and laugh evilly while scraping the ex cavalryman off the soles of their big feet Use your cavalry primarily to tackle vulnerable missile infantry to harry the enemy s flanks and to charge home into the rear of an engaged unit Never ever hang around in melee that cannot be stressed enough The key to killing cavalry is stopping them then mobbing them Use deep units to take their charge and then hit them with m
189. went off on a foreign holiday Everyone always divides this kind of game up into three phases early game mid game and late game could revolutionise this and invent my own froggy division system but I m lazy shall use the standard Early game This is where you start You have barely any resources crappy units very little cash or income and generally everything needs doing Mid game You have expanded a little and stabilised your situation Your cash flow is healthier and you can now use better units You still have some way to go but now you are less likely to be smushed into pulp if you make a tiny mistake Late game If you are playing the long campaign then this phase includes the Civil wars and Senate killing as well as collecting those final provinces with your high tech troops If you are in a short campaign you will most likely just need to tidy up the last couple of provinces belonging to your specified enemy s and reach the fifteen province count Roughly in order of priority you need to Stabilise your existing lands Secure your borders by expansion if necessary Sort out your finances so you have a positive income Grow your finances so your incomes is larger Tech up by building army related buildings when affordable and convenient Organise your armies which will probably be battered after the initial phase of expansion and battling Slowly begin to expand taking strategically chosen targets will n
190. xposed like this deo hae 2 n XS aye LEFT X A aa eS 3 Pus ES Prya eo a E e NES ges se Now this one is right from the school of I m here to kill you Notice how all the phalanx units are in a single line with only tiny little gaps between them That s as close as the game will easily allow you to deploy them This phalanx is strong You will notice an array of other units scattered about this is because you should never use phalanx units unsupported They need some other unit types to guard their flanks in this case units of cavalry Peltasts javelin units are deployed out front to skirmish and break up the enemy before they a http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 40 reach the phalanx they will need to draw out of the way to the sides not straight back Why Because if they go right back they will disrupt the phalanxes and that does not help your cause much It s usually possible to run your skirmishers about to the sides then support with cavalry if the enemy pursue them Behind the phalanx line are some archers they will fire over the heads of the phalanx and keep on disrupting and demoralising the enemy even when melee is joined Make sure you turn skirmish off for them though or they will scuttle back when the melee begins You can also send the archers forward if you are on t
191. y Buggered Up Royally Not so any more Just select all the units you want to move hold down the alt button and give your move order The units will deploy where you clicked facing in the exact same direction they were and deployed in exactly the same formation they were Even if ordered to move backwards Even if the units are not grouped at all Even if you told them to move a long way sideways http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t238382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 4 III Choosing your faction difficulty and all those other important options Another 1 2 change slots in here nicely replacing a former section about a bug which many loved to take advantage of It is now no longer necessary to take advantage of a very bizarre bug to turn off those dreadful time limits in campaign battles 1 2 adds a tickbox option to the campaign set up screen You can only alter this option at the start of a new campaign Faction Upon selecting the Imperial campaign for the first time you will notice you only have three factions to choose from unless you modded your game in which case will ignore you until much later It is much easier to write a guide aimed squarely at the Romans than one which tries to cover all the different factions and much of this advice will work perfectly for the non Romans There will be some notes and tips on the non Roman factions near the end these factions
192. y is one of frustration So for now recommend sticking with normal it might be rather easy for veterans but at least your phalanx works Campaign map http forums totalwar org vb printthread php t 38382 amp pp 4 02 11 2005 09 30 58 The Guild frogbeastegg s Guide to Rome Total War Page 5 have no idea at all what difference the difficulty makes on this mode Presumably you start with more cash on the easier difficulties would also expect the Al to be more aggressive and expansionist on the higher levels The Al is famous for bribing your cities and armies on very hard on normal it only seems to target your diplomats The readme for the 1 1 patch says that campaign map difficulty affects the results of auto resolved battles Although it does not actually state what changes are made for each difficulty it seems logical to assume that on easier difficulties the battles are most likely to give you favourable results whereas on the harder levels you will take more losses and lose more battles Interestingly the readme for 1 2 makes no mention of autocalced battles but find that while playing on very hard in 1 2 my naval battles go as they did in 1 1 on medium difficulty So it is possible the autocalc bias has been removed or toned down in 1 2 Other options Advice level This controls the advisors Victoria and Marcus Unless you want them nattering away at you like in the tutorial leave them on the default off Arcade
193. your army attacks a city your spy has infiltrated there is a chance he might open the gates during an assault The better the spy the more likely he is to be successful in opening the gates It appears the more advanced the walls negatively affect your spy s chance of success this makes taking the more advanced cities harder Opening the gates does not automatically give you the city but it does make your assault a lot easier Spies in enemy cities also cause unrest if you place enough of them in a weakly garrisoned city you may be able to provoke a revolt There is some evidence however that the AI has a special cheat which prevents cities from rebelling even with very low loyalty and minor garrisons Spies do not help control unrest in your own cities they only make it harder for enemy agents to infiltrate the settlement Retinues Monkey It s surprising how useful a monkey can be a cover a distraction a trained thief 2 to agent s skill Poisoner The wise ruler knows that no resource should be squandered and that dinner guests should always be left wondering about the fish course 2 to agent s skill Courtesan The attentions of a courtesan who has skill and refinement are a welcome relief at the end of a long day s brutal conquering 1 to agent s skill Retinue Management No idea about optimal retinues or how to collect the various members Traits Spying talent This man has shown a natural talent for spycraft since birth 1

The Guild - frogbeastegg`s Guide to Rome: Total War

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