Rome: Total War

Best Strategic Game of History for me. Its just GREAT

Some Shots of "Battle for Esparta"

[N1ghtw0lf]

If you like the others you'd like this, i wasn't too fond of it since i like building my own armies and towns.

[Noob'Slayer]

@nightwolf:

Rome - TW is great. i think you just haven't given it a chance or have never really played it

ps: you CAN build towns (use your king to settle somewhere). and what would it be a war-game where you can't build an own army??

[N1ghtw0lf]

I played it for a few hours, if it takes more than that to draw me in, i dont feel i want to play it. And what i meant by build towns is like RoN, AoE type RTS. This was fun for a while, but i prefer the more traditional type of RTS.

[hoyoyo80]

It is VERY hard for me to get into shogun and medieval total war...but this one is great!!!

[RZetlin]

I just played the demo and I didn't really like the game. The control is done on a macro level.

If you're a RTS fan that likes building stuff you're going to be disappointed with this game. You can only control the army that is given in the scenerio, so you can't make train more men.

[Strider]

yeah its actually one of my favourite games, ive been playing for like a month straight aside from when ive been playing hl2, and im still not really bored of it, ive played as julii though my save got screwed up, so now im playing as carthage and im almost done getting about 2/3 of the world

[hoyoyo80]

Have anyone try barbarian faction?Any good battle strategy to suggest?
I want to know...do heavy armor phalanx always better than heavy armor infrantry?

my basic troop contain:
1 general+2 cavalry
2 pestal
3 archer
2 cavalry pestal
other is phalanx(5-6 groups)

i like phalanx since it can take out cavalry and chariot, 2 cavalry missile to provoke them,and finish them with phalanx and clean up using cavalry...

Funny Greek put a lot of phalanx in a troop,i make some troop contain a lot of archers to finish them due to their lack of speed.

[TheMaister]

Rome is a killer title!! Finally I can beat some Gaul-ass with the greeks!! I love the feeling the game gives me.

[cabal]

When I am playing as the Romans, I don't use missile units since their infantry can double as short-range archers (which, in an ideal battle, they always will). I follow what seems to be historically correct: Hastati form the front line, which is the longest (largest in terms of men); Principes form the second line, which is smaller, and Triarii form the third (which is usually much smaller since Triarii take two turns to train so I rarely use them... don't really need to). According to the unit information pages, the Hastati were the youngest members of the army and served to soften the enemy up and wear them down. The Principes then took the fight and finally the Triarii.. if they were ever required (I thought it was interesting that "going to the Triarii" or something like that was a saying back then meaning the battle was about to reach the climax). A typical battle has me forming up the lines and manuvering to match the CPU; usually they just stand there (I hope the AI patch coming soon is as good as rumored) so I move up just in range of my Hastati's pilum (don't know the plural.. pilae?). Once in range I allow fire at will at which point the Hastati unload their pilae, softening the stationary or advancing line. This usually provokes the enemy to charge. The Hastati remain in their line and meet the enemy charge. This holding maneuver allows the second line, the Principes, to fire at will and mow down a significant portion of the busy enemy attackers with their pilae while the enemy is busy attacking the Hastati. This helps a lot when facing phalanx units. At that point the enemy is either mostly dead or reinforcing itself and the Principes charge through the Hastati line. I usually place the Triarii on the flanks since they're effective at killing cavalry. Of course, when fighting phalanx armies you need a sizeable cavalry force. Have infantry hold the block in place and then flank with a charge to the side or preferably back.. should rout them in no time.

When playing phalanx armies I use the missile units to slaughter the oncoming army while the phalanx blocks hold them in place. It's very hard to maneuver the phalanx units so most of the killing is done by missilers and cavalry. I love defending a town with phalanx units.. the AI just pours troops at them. I don't think I've ever lost a town defense with phalanx units because they're almost impossible to flank when placed correctly in cities.. and they kill almost everything that dares approach from the front (except elephants, probably).

I'm playing as Carthage currently and plan on testing a strategy that is a bit of a combination between Rome and the phalanx armies.. since Carthage gets Libyan spearmen I can use them in the front line in phalanx blocks and while the enemy is busy attempting to kill them have Iberians or Scutarii flank them as opposed to having missilers attack.

[caipirinha]

guys the game does let you build your towns , choose which buildings you want and build your army on the big map turn based thing. at least if it's the same as the previous games.

I so want this game but after buying 3 games last month I'm totally out of money .

[Strider]

cabal: i played as carthage before and i actually very rarely used infantry, once i got them, i used poeni infantry, and sacred band infantry to defend towns, i usually took like 2 sacred bands, 2 skirmishers (to kill chariots) and like 10 long shield cavalry, 2-3 sacred band cavalry, and 1-2 war elephant units, whatever room was left was generals. i used cavalry a LOT in the carthaginian campaign, especailly against the romans. On many occasions i'd have 4 or so cavalry units, and i was getting attacked by like 10-15 roman infantry units, and almost always i would win. The cavalry charge of the sacred band was awesome, i could form up lines, charge 2 units of hastati, and cause a mass rout as everone began running away. I also used cavalry and general units against phalanx units, i'd use the general to lure the phalanx and outflank the phalanx with my cavalry and crush them from the sides or the back. Then there would also be the seiges which were hard especially against armenia with they heavy cataphracts, for those i *had* to rely on my war elephant units, they were one of the only units in the game effective against cataphract lancers and archers.. a group of armored war elephants could take out the front lines of an enemy defence within less than a minute, it was a lot of fun seeing the horses fly as elephant tusks bore into armenian units

just talking about this game makes me wanna install it again, it really was a great game, one of the games of the year

[hoyoyo80]

can phalanx be defeated with any infrantry,toe to toe i mean...i test with germania the toughtest axeman vs sacred band,charge directly(since i want to know who's better) and the result is axemen are running away:P i only found that urban cohort can take out phalanx...any other infrantry...

[Strider]

urban cohort? havent ever used those, but from what i know a good phalanx will defeat a good infantry unit pretty much all the time... the only times i see the phalanx losing is when you have a very weak phalanx unit, against a very elite infantry unit, and even then im not sure... phalanx is meant to win infantry battle, its a wall of spears that one does not just run into, the weakness of the phalanx are the flanks and the rear, but from the front it is a rather impenetrable line... except if the other phalanx has bigger spears

[hoyoyo80]

Originally Posted by Strider

urban cohort? havent ever used those, but from what i know a good phalanx will defeat a good infantry unit pretty much all the time... the only times i see the phalanx losing is when you have a very weak phalanx unit, against a very elite infantry unit, and even then im not sure... phalanx is meant to win infantry battle, its a wall of spears that one does not just run into, the weakness of the phalanx are the flanks and the rear, but from the front it is a rather impenetrable line... except if the other phalanx has bigger spears

Maybe that is reality about that:P phalanx are quite invisible to attack even from rear or flanks(unless using horses),i try to surround a group of phalanx vs 3 group of germania axeman,i that a lot of time to bring em down,making a turn over,now the 3 group are surround by other phalanx...