I'll bet cash money Medieval 3 is the next real game, probably 2 or 3 years from now. Seems to be their typical dev cycle.
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
I'm surprised they haven't done remakes of old expansions yet. I'd love an Alexander expansion or even just campaign for Rome II; most of the work is already done for them. Also would love to see a Total War: Vikings set around the time of the North Sea Empire, but I guess that would be more of an expansion/campaign for Medieval 3
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I just fought a series of siege battles, and the AI is still terrible. I had a city attacked by an army filled with horse archers and spearmen, and the entire enemy army was destroyed by a single archer unit, because the horse archers spent the entire battle out of range of my towers. Then when all the spearmen died, the archers came in one by one to get destroyed.
So, @Gokerz sucked me into this game again. We started a co-op run of the new Imperator Augustus campaign, setting it to hard difficulty... and damn. We got rolled on our first attempt, then started over with the same factions, and this time, a little more caution. I am playing as the Marcomanni, he as the Iceni. We wanted to play Rome at first, but got a tiny little bit overwhelmed by all the territory. When we stopped after 5 hours or so, I was back down to my home province, beleaguered by Octavian's Rome and all of the Swiss, while he was slowly but surely expanding and had something like 4 settlements.
Is it me, or are the Germanic units pretty crap? Am I missing something vital? My usual Barbarian strategy of "pelt them with missiles, while madly charging them with melee" doesn't seem to work at all with them, because Germanic Youths are simply terrible missile units.
Later I also started a Caesar in Gaul campaign as Caesar, and it's going pretty well so far. Gotta say, I really like the narrower focus of the campaign map!
Well.. most of the barbarian rosters are pretty awful and never get much better. When facing non-barbarians you need a minimum of 2 to 1 numbers. Anything less and you're toast. When one full stack of roman troops can shrug off a full stack ambush of barbarians thats when you know. When facing barbarians it basically comes down to your roster and a little bit of chance.
Never really liked playing as any of those factions. Its actually because even though I can conquer most of the known world my army still never starts wearing shits. Or making all buildings out of wood. Sigh.
So, @Gokerz sucked me into this game again. We started a co-op run of the new Imperator Augustus campaign, setting it to hard difficulty... and damn. We got rolled on our first attempt, then started over with the same factions, and this time, a little more caution. I am playing as the Marcomanni, he as the Iceni. We wanted to play Rome at first, but got a tiny little bit overwhelmed by all the territory. When we stopped after 5 hours or so, I was back down to my home province, beleaguered by Octavian's Rome and all of the Swiss, while he was slowly but surely expanding and had something like 4 settlements.
Is it me, or are the Germanic units pretty crap? Am I missing something vital? My usual Barbarian strategy of "pelt them with missiles, while madly charging them with melee" doesn't seem to work at all with them, because Germanic Youths are simply terrible missile units.
Later I also started a Caesar in Gaul campaign as Caesar, and it's going pretty well so far. Gotta say, I really like the narrower focus of the campaign map!
Flanking attacks. Have a couple melee units to hold the enemy in place then charge them from the back/sides with better quality melee dudes. Barbarians, especially Germanic tribes like the Suebi, have some brutal units but they're pretty squishy. If you send them straight into meatgrinders you're gonna lose a lot of troops for very little benefit.
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
Yeah like others are touching on, in general the biggest strength of barbarian units is charge bonuses, which are often complimented with their skills like headhunt and frenzy that raise weapon damage and charge for a period of time. Roman troops are tougher and better overall, but most don't have the shock value and pure killing power from their alpha strikes, so you need to take advantage of that since you mostly don't have good armor. Some barbarian units (a lot of Suebi ones anyway) even have wedge formation on their infantry.
They've been updating barbarian tribe rosters. Suebi was the last to get one and they have some good units now. 2 to 1 odds in your favor definitely isn't necessary, just smart play. I think most tribes by now have an Oathsworn unit or equivalent, and they have high armor and melee defense as well as good melee attack. Super good all around unit, so you should tech to them as quickly as possible.
Yeah, I was gonna say... 2:1 numbers was never necessary in my old Iceni campaign, those Slingers and Painted Ones were brutal. Much of the time I didn't even need to flank much... The pure charge was enough to break many lines from frontal assault alone. But then again, this was a year of patches ago.
Gonna try using smarter maneuvering to see where that gets me! Can't help but feel like the campaign AI cheats a bit on hard though.
Yeah, I just fought a series of siege battles, and the AI is still terrible. I had a city attacked by an army filled with horse archers and spearmen, and the entire enemy army was destroyed by a single archer unit, because the horse archers spent the entire battle out of range of my towers. Then when all the spearmen died, the archers came in one by one to get destroyed.
No attempt to destroy the gate, no mass attack.
/sigh
I like how @Geth agreed with this post, as if to say "yeah, that Rome 2 AI is shitty, not like my AI, which is amazing."
Yeah, I was gonna say... 2:1 numbers was never necessary in my old Iceni campaign, those Slingers and Painted Ones were brutal. Much of the time I didn't even need to flank much... The pure charge was enough to break many lines from frontal assault alone. But then again, this was a year of patches ago.
Gonna try using smarter maneuvering to see where that gets me!
As others have said, early Germanic units are awful. You really want to rush to a bronze forge so you can start making armies out of spear walls/round-shield swordsmen.
A woodcutter should be an early priority too so you can start recruiting slingers/archers.
Can't help but feel like the campaign AI cheats a bit on hard though.
It does, all the difficulty settings do is give bonuses to the player(on easy) or the AI(on hard or above). It doesn't make the AI any smarter or anything.
I bought the Hannibal scenario this weekend on sale. Played it a bit on Tuesday as Carthage, mostly just tried to end all the little squabbles in Iberia. Sadly, the African Pikes just reawakened my love of Pikemen and now I'm considering starting a Grand Campaign as either Epirus or Macedon.
Poor Hannibal, your chances of ever slaying Rome just dropped like a rock.
Yeah, I was gonna say... 2:1 numbers was never necessary in my old Iceni campaign, those Slingers and Painted Ones were brutal. Much of the time I didn't even need to flank much... The pure charge was enough to break many lines from frontal assault alone. But then again, this was a year of patches ago.
Gonna try using smarter maneuvering to see where that gets me!
As others have said, early Germanic units are awful. You really want to rush to a bronze forge so you can start making armies out of spear walls/round-shield swordsmen.
A woodcutter should be an early priority too so you can start recruiting slingers/archers.
Can't help but feel like the campaign AI cheats a bit on hard though.
It does, all the difficulty settings do is give bonuses to the player(on easy) or the AI(on hard or above). It doesn't make the AI any smarter or anything.
Unfortunately, a lot of 'hard' and the other difficulties is a result of straight stat bonuses to enemy troops. And money/recruitment bonuses. It's not my favorite but par the course for every strategy game pretty much. It's not as bad as Shogun 2 where the AI would just crap out full stack armies as soon the fog of war covered it.
The AI still does a couple of Wonky things; but if they bring a sizable force against a small garrison they could very well overwhelm you at on the walls. The problem is they don't bother to siege a couple of turns to get more equipment; it's as if it internally does a check to see if it can "easily" win and goes all in, otherwise they just siege until the marker goes down.
EDIT: Just wont a game on Hard as Augustus by getting Marc Anthony to enter a military alliance with me (by taking out the other Roman Factions and the Dacians I had gained enough favor with them) Easy win by uniting the Roman Empire.
Playing as Epirus (Hannibal at the Gates campaign abandoned indefinitely, whoops) and I've got all of Hellas under my control. Still got one chump keeping me from total control of Thracia, and I'm still friendly with Macedon and they've got Pellas, holding back having my third complete province. Hrm... I guess it's time to start using the "have my agents stir up rebellion" scheme. I want to finish up this area so I can move on to Rome and kick their butts. They took Apollonia and then fled, just to be jerks.
Is it just me or do slingers have fucking unlimited ammo and are like the best missile unit ever?
Fucking slingers always wrecking my shit forever.
Like, damn archers are running out of ammo and the slingers are still going
Also, in Rome it seems like if your general's unit gets anywhere near a fight that your general dies.
I had slingers take him out in a first volley once.
I like the game, but playing the battles seems like an exercise in futility.
"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to give into it." - Oscar Wilde
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Is it just me or do slingers have fucking unlimited ammo and are like the best missile unit ever?
Fucking slingers always wrecking my shit forever.
Like, damn archers are running out of ammo and the slingers are still going
Also, in Rome it seems like if your general's unit gets anywhere near a fight that your general dies.
I had slingers take him out in a first volley once.
I like the game, but playing the battles seems like an exercise in futility.
Slingers can be pretty great, but they do have some downsides compared to archers. Mainly their flatter firing arc means if you have them shoot over your own troops its much more likely that they'll hit your own dudes in the back and they have a much harder time shooting over obstacles(hills, buildings, ect.) For generals you shouldn't really ever put them in a "fair" fight. Have them hang back and just use their abilities/have their aura strengthen your line's morale or if your general is in a cavalry unit let him run down skirmishers or rear charge engaged enemy units and then pull out before they can turn around and attack properly.
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Slingers are fantastic against anything that doesn't have armor. Even unarmored light cavalry will get destroyed by slingers in short order if they stand still and don't engage in melee. But once you get an armored unit, then slingers basically become an annoyance more than a threat, unlike the other ranged units. Also, only archers can fire above walls, so slingers are a lot less useful in a siege. They also can't use fire ammunition, so they're less useful in city defense, too.
And yeah, it does seem like they've either increased the focus fire on generals or decreased their toughness. If the enemy has a lot of ranged units, you can't just run your general up there to freak them out and take them all down, which is a good fix IMHO.
There are still some pretty glaring diplomacy AI issues, though. I've had a faction declare war on me in one turn, and then offer me gold for peace in the next turn. This has happened at least a half-dozen times. Hell, I had Royal Scythia declare war on me, not do anything for 2 turns, and then offer to pay me to become my satrapy client state. Seriously?
That was the only way that the Scythian king could sell it to his people. "Well folks, I know it doesn't seem like it because there's been no army casualties or other signs of conflict, but we're losing the war. It looks like we'll have to give up some of our freedoms in exchange for our survival."
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
That was the only way that the Scythian king could sell it to his people. "Well folks, I know it doesn't seem like it because there's been no army casualties or other signs of conflict, but we're losing the war. It looks like we'll have to give up some of our freedoms in exchange for our survival."
That sounds very similar to the line I used to subjugate unite the Parthian tribes...
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
Playing Parthia with the Radious Total War mod (I wanted more unit variety) is kind of hard.
Does anyone have any advice for the Suebi in terms of army compositions I should be going for early game? I've found a few guide online but they all seem to be out of date. I've spent so much time with Hellenistic/Successor factions that all I know anymore is "pikes hold forever, add ranged units or cavalry to kill." Speaking of which, my Epirus campaign is winding down. It seems like factions are much more willing to become client states now. I've got Carthage, Egypt, Nova Carthago, Libya, and Macedon all under my banner. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm going to win the game before I ever get access to my top-tier pikes and cav.
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
Wow, midgame for Parthia got kind of boring. It's like no one wants to fight me, so they just let me have their lands. And it's not like I'm picking on little wimpy one region factions, they have actually grown pretty big, but they're not actively sending armies against me, even if they declare war.
I started playing a Grand Campaign as Rome last week. I finally finished the research that lets you make the tier 3 barracks and upgrades all your guys to Legionaries and I was really excited to finally use them. I spent a whole bunch of my saved income to upgrade my 5 armies and build a 6th with the new units, and declared war on the Arverni (Emporer Edition really buffed them or something, because they've taken over Gaul and most of Spain in several of my campaigns). The very next turn, I get the following notifications:
1. Civil War!
2. Four of my 6 armies have defected!
3. All of my agents defected! (every... single... one)
4. You now have a small chance every turn for a Civil War to break out.
And of course, the Arverni are using the chaos to take bits of my remaining territory, and ignoring the Roman Backstabbers because for some reason they're not at war with the Arverni.
Did I mention that two of those defecting armies were gold chevron'd? And my balance wasn't even bad, it was like 40 Julia/20 Cornelia/25 Junia.
Heurgh....
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
edited November 2014
New DLC and Free-LC has just been announced, Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack (Cimmeria, Colchis and Pergamon) and the free Massilia. I was hoping for a new campaign, but I'm a fan of 'Jason and the Golden Fleece' as well as the 'Medea' plays so I'm glad to see Colchis get some love. All the new factions appear to be hybrids (Greek units mixed with other cultures), but they haven't released unit rosters yet so no way of telling if it'll be worth the money (For example, their Pirates and Raiders DLC has factions with really small and weak rosters, and they haven't added any units at all to fix them).
The Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack introduces three new playable factions into the ROME II Grand Campaign: Cimmeria, Pergamon and Colchis.
Originally citizens of the Greek States, these pioneering peoples have settled far from home, intermingling their customs with those of far-flung societies to create unique cultures of their own. The Black Sea Colonies bring a rich new gameplay flavour to ROME II through their unique traits, battlefield units and buildings, and hybrid unit-rosters.
Black Sea Colonies Cultural traits:
Greek Knowledge: +5% to research rate
Far from Home: +2 cultural conversion
Cimmeria
Background:
The Cimmerian Bosporus has been fought over for its resources and strategic importance for millennia. The adventurous Greeks of Miletus, in Asia Minor, formed several colonies around the Black Sea coast during the 6th and 7th centuries BC in order to exploit its resources for trade with the wider Greek world. By the beginning of the 5th century BC their government had gravitated from classical Greek democracy to control by a single family. The current ruler, Satyrus, conquered nearby Greek cities, heralding the birth of the Cimmerian Kingdom, and a dynasty of rulers that endures to this day. Despite this strength, Cimmeria remains under threat from the surrounding nomadic tribes, and from the avaricious gaze of nearby Pontus, whose military strength may yet prove its undoing.
Faction Traits:
Tyrants: +5% corruption
Bosporian Fertile Lands: +5% wealth from agricultural buildings
Multiculturalism: -25% unhappiness from all foreign cultures in own territories
New units:
- Scythian Hoplites: Armed in the Greek style with spear and shield, these medium infantry are solid defenders.
- Cimmerian Heavy Archers: A truly multirole unit, these heavily-armoured archers trade their bows for spears when the enemy draws close.
- Cimmerian Noble Infantry: Noble Infantry are drilled to a peerless standard in the classic hoplite style.
- Picked Peltasts: Accurate and determined, these javelin-armed skirmishers can pack a devastating punch.
Unit roster:
Greek/Scythian hybrid
Unique Buildings:
- Prytaneion
- Rose Marl Building
- Sanctuary of Demeter
Pergamon
Background:
Although a minor player up to that point, Pergamon came to prominence during the struggle of Alexander the Great’s Successors for control of his fragmented empire. An ambitious lieutenant named Philetaerus acquired control over the fortress city and led Pergamon into a new golden age of culture and learning, building an impressive acropolis and a temple to Pergamon’s patron goddess, Athena. Not yet a kingdom in the truest sense, the time is right for expansion beyond its current borders. There are also new threats to be faced from Galatia, the duplicitous Pontus and Cappadocia. Pergamon must be strong if it is to meet these challenges and fulfil its destiny as a mighty Successor state.
Faction Traits:
Great Builders: -10% to all building costs
Military Underdogs: +10% non-mercenary recruitment cost
Town Growth: +4 growth in all provinces
New units:
- Agema Spears: The cream of Pergamon’s infantry, these elite defenders will hold the line against the odds.
- Pergamon Noble Cavalry: Hardy and proud, the lance-wielding Noble Cavalry of Pergamon can execute a devastating charge.
- Picked Peltasts: These elite, javelin-armed skirmishers are trained to a superior standard.
Unit roster:
Greek/Hellenic/Galatian hybrid
Unique buildings:
- Great Altar of Pergamon
- Library of Pergamon
- Spring of Asclepius
- Baths of Asclepius
- Sanctuary of Asclepius
Unique technology:
Pergaminus
Colchis
Background:
Far to the east of the Black Sea, at the very edge of the Greek world, lies Colchis. A place of legend, it is said to have been the final destination on Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece. Around the 6th century BC, Greek traders from Militus arrived to construct a thriving mercantile economy from this former Persian satrapy. Its current ruler controls a powerful Greek trading state with strong Scythian influences and a nobility who extol the finest qualities of both cultures. His warriors fight in the Greek fashion, yet the ferocity of their nomadic past is very much alive. As such, Colchis has set out to conquer much of the land around it - to absorb further Scythian tribes, and as many former-Persian lands as possible, into his burgeoning empire.
Faction traits:
Trade Crossroads: +15% trade income
Golden Legacy: Major diplomatic penalty with Greek factions
Assimilation: +4 happiness from presence of other cultures
New units:
- Colchian Nobles: Heavily armoured and drilled to blunt the mightiest charge, Colchian Nobles are a force to be reckoned with.
Unit roster:
Greek/Eastern hybrid
Unique Buildings:
- Temple of the Golden Fleece
- Trade Centre
For those of you who are still hesitating, Rome II is 50% off in the Steam sale right now. It's been said in this thread already, but most of the release bugs are gone and the game is pretty cool now! Something to tide you over until Attila comes out, perhaps?
For those of you who are still hesitating, Rome II is 50% off in the Steam sale right now. It's been said in this thread already, but most of the release bugs are gone and the game is pretty cool now! Something to tide you over until Attila comes out, perhaps?
The real question is, why would you spend money on this when Dragon Age: Inquisition is out? =P
Does anyone have any advice for the Suebi in terms of army compositions I should be going for early game? I've found a few guide online but they all seem to be out of date. I've spent so much time with Hellenistic/Successor factions that all I know anymore is "pikes hold forever, add ranged units or cavalry to kill." Speaking of which, my Epirus campaign is winding down. It seems like factions are much more willing to become client states now. I've got Carthage, Egypt, Nova Carthago, Libya, and Macedon all under my banner. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm going to win the game before I ever get access to my top-tier pikes and cav.
While a bit late but.
Suebi are almost all about the infantry.
Some of the best units you can get early on are Wodanaz spears (recruitable from the Grove of Wodanaz). They're tough by germanic standards, they can shield screen, they have excellent melee skills, they boost morale and they're pretty nasty on the offense too. They're expensive though, so you probably won't be able to fill out your army with them.
So instead most of your army should be a mix of Round shield swordsmen (mostly on the flanks and where you want to break through) and Spear brothers with Wodanaz spears mixed in to boost their staying power. Club levies are still good fillers due to their anti-infantry bonuses and good AP.
Add Germanic scout riders to gain flankers and a better way of dealing with enemy heavy infantry (get them in behind enemy lines on launching javs from swordside and they'll massacre things).
If you face a lot of pikes, add archers or javelinmen.
Once you hit tier 3 you want to replace spear brothers entirely with Spear Wall units and add small numbers of wolf brothers (due to their high AP and anti-infantry bonus Wolf brothers are better than they look as long as you're fighting enemy infantry. Don't ever leave them alone vs cavalry) or night stalkers as a way of breaking enemy morale. Spear wall units are overall better defensive units than wodanaz spears (better armor, better defensive skill) so you'll want to reduce the numbers of Wodanaz spears to maybe 2 or 3 units. But wodanaz spears are still better on the offense (way better) and have their encourage ability. Wodanaz spears are sort of your "sub generals".
For your elite armies you may want to replace round-shields entirely with Wodanaz since wodanaz have better staying power, better AP and are just overall better.
Finally at tier 4 you want to have a few Wodanaz spears for morale support and cavalry killing, mostly Sword Masters to murder everything, small numbers of berserkers to scare enemies (straight upgrade from Wolfbrothers) and a small number of Spear wall to tie up enemies and add even more cavalry killing power. Archers&javs if you face a lot of enemy pikes.
On the eastern front you might want to add more cimbri bowwomen, spear wall units and a few Scorpions if you face enemy horse archers. A thin line of spear wall in shield screen formation with a thin line of archers close behind them will murderize enemy archers.
Specialized siege armies should feature mostly Sword masters plus some Wodanaz, berserkers and onagers or ballista units.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Actually, checking the stats of swordmasters and finding out that they have encourage. Well, just drop wodanaz entirely in favor of sword masters and spear walls as appropriate.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
speaking of, Suebi's roster revamp was really good. Much better than they were at launch. enjoy using the Spearwomen and women hunters a lot, good for variety and they tend to have better attack stats than their counterparts.
With their extra health, range, firing speed and morale I really like the Cimbri bowwomen as well, but I'm divided on the utility of the Spearwmen. They're overall better than spearbrothers, but they're also 35% more expensive. Even with frenzied charge two spearwomen is a worse choice IMHO than 1 spearbrother+1 Wodanaz. If money isn't an issue, go all wodanaz.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
You've got pikes, don't you? The AI isn't great about not charging their cav directly into a pike phalanx, so do that. If they're out-flanking you, I suggest Thorax Spears or whatever they're called (I think Egypt gets them, on my phone now so I can't confirm). The Spears have javelins that will murder cav like nobody's business, and you can close in and finish them off with the same unit. Put one on each flank of a pike line with archers behind and you should be more than a match for most armies, Alexander Style.
Edit: Thureos Spears. Those are what you want. Very useful unit.
Terrendos on
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
Right now I'm playing as Egypt (main campaign, not Augustus), and I'm having a bit of trouble with eastern cavalry armies. Any suggestions?
I really like Egypt as they have a diverse roster; as for countering Eastern cav armies, Nubian Spearmen are a really great cheap unit with heat resistance, add some camel spears/archers to counter cavalry (camels scare horses and lower morale) and you should be good to go. Having some archers/slingers/javelins with Nubian Spearmen protecting them also help against cav, although not as much as having camels. Nubian Spearmen are IMO superior to Thureos Spears, especially when fighting out east in the desert; they're cheaper and besides armor have slightly better stats, except they don't have javelins.
The thureos spears ability to throw javelins is important. That and their armorbonus justifies every cost increase for them vs Nubian spearmen.
Thureos spears, pikes, nubian archers (much better than regular egyptian archers) and scorpions are very good choices for facing off against eastern cavalry armies. Add a few african war elephants too if you have the tech.
I'd watch out for the Armenians though. It could be "so much cavalry" and it could be "Kartli Axemen represent".
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
That sounds a lot like my current army setup. I used nubian spearmen at first, but I switched them out with Thureos Spears for the armor and javelins.
I got pikes in the center with Thureos Spears at the sides, and some swordsmen behind and to the sides for flanking once the lines meet.
My archers usually start in front, and then pull back and to the sides when the enemy draws near.
I have a unit of camel spears, citizen cavalry and javelin cavalry on each side, and a unit of elephants for charging into stuff.
I don't have any artillery yet, but I'll be sure to add some.
For a group of 4-5 horse archers, I still like the Thureos spears. Their shields are large enough to block most of the arrow fire and the AI will happily burn through their ammo on them, so just let them run out of arrows. You'll take some losses to those spears but it shouldn't be too bad.
For even larger numbers, consider dedicating additional space for archers in your armies. Horse archers will get obliterated by infantry archers. In fact, one good volley is usually all it takes to decimate them.
Sandwiching Thureos spears and Nubian Archers (A two man deep line of spears followed by a two man deep line of archers fairly tightly behind them) will absolutely murder any horse archers (especially cheap horse archers).
You need to put the archers tightly enough that the spearline will absorb most of the direct fire.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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Fleebhas all of the fleeb juiceRegistered Userregular
edited December 2014
OMG why did they make the "dismount" button look so much like the "skirmish" button get back on your horses OH NO they all ran away oops you're dead.
New Campaign Map
The earliest period any Total War game has depicted, Wrath of Sparta’s campaign map is a vivid and detailed representation of the Greek world in 432 BC; featuring 22 provinces across 78 regions, covering the Greek mainland, islands and the Ionian coast. The map brings 12 new Wonders to light, including the Ruins of Troy, the Temple of Zeus and the Royal Tombs of Makedon. Furthermore, as the campaign features a tighter timeframe than the ROME II Grand Campaign, each turn represents one month.
Four Playable Factions
Athens (Athenai), Corinth (Korinthos), Sparta and Boiotia are all playable in Wrath of Sparta, each bringing its own faction traits, unit rosters, challenges and geographical starting point. In addition, famous generals and statesmen of history appear throughout the campaign, such as the Spartan general Lysander and the Athenian dignitary Sokrates.
In homage to their historical strengths, Sparta can field a greater variety of troops than other factions to reflect its mastery in land warfare, while Athens has the roster advantage in naval warfare.
Panhellenic Games and Festivals
The Greeks of the age were keen athletes, and the annual competitions of the Olympic, Pythian, Sithmian and Nemean games are represented. When each is held throughout the yearly calendar, you’ll have a number of choices to make. Do you sponsor an athlete, back a competitor, send an envoy or do nothing? Each choice can bring you favour or misfortune. Likewise, the Greek calendar was packed with religious festivals, which bring their own campaign bonuses and benefits, and bring the flavour of the age to life.
New Tech Trees
Wrath of Sparta features all-new tech trees, reflecting the military, naval and civic developments of the time. The six branches enable the player to advance in the fields of military, naval and support technologies, philosophy, aesthetics and mathematics.
Hellenic Tribalism
With the exception of the Persian Empire, the factions represented in Wrath of Sparta are Culturally Hellenic, so ‘Culture’ has been replaced with ‘Tribalism’. Each faction belongs to one of the Greek tribes, and while the four playable factions won’t suffer from public unrest due to the presence of other Greek tribes, they will suffer major diplomatic penalties with factions that were not ‘true’ Greeks.
The Persian Threat
The Empire of Persia sits at the eastern end of the campaign map and remains largely uninvolved with Greek affairs. However, if one Greek state rises to dominate all others, the Persians will escalate their military involvement over time, in a growing effort to bring that power to heel!
New Army and Naval Unit Rosters
New unit rosters are available to all four playable factions, representing warfare of this period in Greek history. The Greek factions feature a heavy emphasis on hoplites, with supporting elements to react to different combat scenarios and bring tactical variety. There are fewer but more specialised units of mercenaries available to swiftly bolster and bring greater flexibility to armies, and these are more widely available across the provinces.
The backbone of Greek naval assets is composed of tactical variations on the Dieres and Trieres hull types, with a greater focus on ramming and boarding. In addition, troop transports act more as cargo ships than combat vessels, and are no longer able to ram in naval battles, reducing the unfair advantage of troop convoys in naval warfare. This change will be retroactively applied to all ROME II campaigns.
Amongst over 50 new Naval and Land units for Wrath of Sparta, you will also encounter specialist and legendary troops, such as the Immortal Spearmen, Spartan Hoplites and Skiritai.
here's hoping they include the island of Melos on the campaign map!
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No attempt to destroy the gate, no mass attack.
/sigh
Is it me, or are the Germanic units pretty crap? Am I missing something vital? My usual Barbarian strategy of "pelt them with missiles, while madly charging them with melee" doesn't seem to work at all with them, because Germanic Youths are simply terrible missile units.
Later I also started a Caesar in Gaul campaign as Caesar, and it's going pretty well so far. Gotta say, I really like the narrower focus of the campaign map!
Unreal Engine 4 Developers Community.
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Never really liked playing as any of those factions. Its actually because even though I can conquer most of the known world my army still never starts wearing shits. Or making all buildings out of wood. Sigh.
Flanking attacks. Have a couple melee units to hold the enemy in place then charge them from the back/sides with better quality melee dudes. Barbarians, especially Germanic tribes like the Suebi, have some brutal units but they're pretty squishy. If you send them straight into meatgrinders you're gonna lose a lot of troops for very little benefit.
They've been updating barbarian tribe rosters. Suebi was the last to get one and they have some good units now. 2 to 1 odds in your favor definitely isn't necessary, just smart play. I think most tribes by now have an Oathsworn unit or equivalent, and they have high armor and melee defense as well as good melee attack. Super good all around unit, so you should tech to them as quickly as possible.
Gonna try using smarter maneuvering to see where that gets me! Can't help but feel like the campaign AI cheats a bit on hard though.
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As others have said, early Germanic units are awful. You really want to rush to a bronze forge so you can start making armies out of spear walls/round-shield swordsmen.
A woodcutter should be an early priority too so you can start recruiting slingers/archers.
It does, all the difficulty settings do is give bonuses to the player(on easy) or the AI(on hard or above). It doesn't make the AI any smarter or anything.
Poor Hannibal, your chances of ever slaying Rome just dropped like a rock.
Unfortunately, a lot of 'hard' and the other difficulties is a result of straight stat bonuses to enemy troops. And money/recruitment bonuses. It's not my favorite but par the course for every strategy game pretty much. It's not as bad as Shogun 2 where the AI would just crap out full stack armies as soon the fog of war covered it.
EDIT: Just wont a game on Hard as Augustus by getting Marc Anthony to enter a military alliance with me (by taking out the other Roman Factions and the Dacians I had gained enough favor with them) Easy win by uniting the Roman Empire.
Fucking slingers always wrecking my shit forever.
Like, damn archers are running out of ammo and the slingers are still going
Also, in Rome it seems like if your general's unit gets anywhere near a fight that your general dies.
I had slingers take him out in a first volley once.
I like the game, but playing the battles seems like an exercise in futility.
"We believe in the people and their 'wisdom' as if there was some special secret entrance to knowledge that barred to anyone who had ever learned anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Slingers can be pretty great, but they do have some downsides compared to archers. Mainly their flatter firing arc means if you have them shoot over your own troops its much more likely that they'll hit your own dudes in the back and they have a much harder time shooting over obstacles(hills, buildings, ect.) For generals you shouldn't really ever put them in a "fair" fight. Have them hang back and just use their abilities/have their aura strengthen your line's morale or if your general is in a cavalry unit let him run down skirmishers or rear charge engaged enemy units and then pull out before they can turn around and attack properly.
And yeah, it does seem like they've either increased the focus fire on generals or decreased their toughness. If the enemy has a lot of ranged units, you can't just run your general up there to freak them out and take them all down, which is a good fix IMHO.
There are still some pretty glaring diplomacy AI issues, though. I've had a faction declare war on me in one turn, and then offer me gold for peace in the next turn. This has happened at least a half-dozen times. Hell, I had Royal Scythia declare war on me, not do anything for 2 turns, and then offer to pay me to become my satrapy client state. Seriously?
That sounds very similar to the line I used to subjugate unite the Parthian tribes...
1. Civil War!
2. Four of my 6 armies have defected!
3. All of my agents defected! (every... single... one)
4. You now have a small chance every turn for a Civil War to break out.
And of course, the Arverni are using the chaos to take bits of my remaining territory, and ignoring the Roman Backstabbers because for some reason they're not at war with the Arverni.
Did I mention that two of those defecting armies were gold chevron'd? And my balance wasn't even bad, it was like 40 Julia/20 Cornelia/25 Junia.
Heurgh....
http://www.gamersgate.com/DLC-TWR2BSCCP/total-war-rome-ii-black-sea-colonies-culture-pack
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The real question is, why would you spend money on this when Dragon Age: Inquisition is out? =P
While a bit late but.
Suebi are almost all about the infantry.
Some of the best units you can get early on are Wodanaz spears (recruitable from the Grove of Wodanaz). They're tough by germanic standards, they can shield screen, they have excellent melee skills, they boost morale and they're pretty nasty on the offense too. They're expensive though, so you probably won't be able to fill out your army with them.
So instead most of your army should be a mix of Round shield swordsmen (mostly on the flanks and where you want to break through) and Spear brothers with Wodanaz spears mixed in to boost their staying power. Club levies are still good fillers due to their anti-infantry bonuses and good AP.
Add Germanic scout riders to gain flankers and a better way of dealing with enemy heavy infantry (get them in behind enemy lines on launching javs from swordside and they'll massacre things).
If you face a lot of pikes, add archers or javelinmen.
Once you hit tier 3 you want to replace spear brothers entirely with Spear Wall units and add small numbers of wolf brothers (due to their high AP and anti-infantry bonus Wolf brothers are better than they look as long as you're fighting enemy infantry. Don't ever leave them alone vs cavalry) or night stalkers as a way of breaking enemy morale. Spear wall units are overall better defensive units than wodanaz spears (better armor, better defensive skill) so you'll want to reduce the numbers of Wodanaz spears to maybe 2 or 3 units. But wodanaz spears are still better on the offense (way better) and have their encourage ability. Wodanaz spears are sort of your "sub generals".
For your elite armies you may want to replace round-shields entirely with Wodanaz since wodanaz have better staying power, better AP and are just overall better.
Finally at tier 4 you want to have a few Wodanaz spears for morale support and cavalry killing, mostly Sword Masters to murder everything, small numbers of berserkers to scare enemies (straight upgrade from Wolfbrothers) and a small number of Spear wall to tie up enemies and add even more cavalry killing power. Archers&javs if you face a lot of enemy pikes.
On the eastern front you might want to add more cimbri bowwomen, spear wall units and a few Scorpions if you face enemy horse archers. A thin line of spear wall in shield screen formation with a thin line of archers close behind them will murderize enemy archers.
Specialized siege armies should feature mostly Sword masters plus some Wodanaz, berserkers and onagers or ballista units.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Right now I'm playing as Egypt (main campaign, not Augustus), and I'm having a bit of trouble with eastern cavalry armies. Any suggestions?
Edit: Thureos Spears. Those are what you want. Very useful unit.
I really like Egypt as they have a diverse roster; as for countering Eastern cav armies, Nubian Spearmen are a really great cheap unit with heat resistance, add some camel spears/archers to counter cavalry (camels scare horses and lower morale) and you should be good to go. Having some archers/slingers/javelins with Nubian Spearmen protecting them also help against cav, although not as much as having camels. Nubian Spearmen are IMO superior to Thureos Spears, especially when fighting out east in the desert; they're cheaper and besides armor have slightly better stats, except they don't have javelins.
Thureos spears, pikes, nubian archers (much better than regular egyptian archers) and scorpions are very good choices for facing off against eastern cavalry armies. Add a few african war elephants too if you have the tech.
I'd watch out for the Armenians though. It could be "so much cavalry" and it could be "Kartli Axemen represent".
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I got pikes in the center with Thureos Spears at the sides, and some swordsmen behind and to the sides for flanking once the lines meet.
My archers usually start in front, and then pull back and to the sides when the enemy draws near.
I have a unit of camel spears, citizen cavalry and javelin cavalry on each side, and a unit of elephants for charging into stuff.
I don't have any artillery yet, but I'll be sure to add some.
What about armies with a lot of horse archers?
For a group of 4-5 horse archers, I still like the Thureos spears. Their shields are large enough to block most of the arrow fire and the AI will happily burn through their ammo on them, so just let them run out of arrows. You'll take some losses to those spears but it shouldn't be too bad.
For even larger numbers, consider dedicating additional space for archers in your armies. Horse archers will get obliterated by infantry archers. In fact, one good volley is usually all it takes to decimate them.
You need to put the archers tightly enough that the spearline will absorb most of the direct fire.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Sonofabitch
here's hoping they include the island of Melos on the campaign map!