lol @ Satis and his past-plague bearer general. Yes, the plague sucks hard style. Its rather gay that you cant have the general shake it off.

And youre damn right, Urban Cohorts are 133333333333333333333333337!

I have noticed that heavy onagers are better than vanilla onagers. Dont know exactly though, i think the missile attack value is higher by about 5 and maybe the range may be better.

@ Ox, ditto on the archers.

Arent the Selucids kinda like Huns?

Im continuiuing on my Julii campaign ATM. This time on hard. And for once the CPU is actually putting up a formidable fight. I am gaining terriroty much slower and am fighting against armies much bigger (althougn that doesnt stop me crushing them with my Principes).

Oh, very important update. Ive started this new thing in RTW where i now ALWAYS have my faction leader commanding the main army. Mainly because of the large number of body-guards that tag-along with him. Not only that though... By doing this, my faction leaders see sooo much action that the first Julius had 9 stars, his son followed suit and i managed to get him to 10 (if i count right), and basically this is what ive been doing ever since. As soon as the "Mighty" faction leader dies, his son, races from whichever provionce hes curently governing to take over his job. So far all of my faction leaders have had the trait, "Legendary Commander".

But one of the most significant things is seeing the enemy shudder in terror as him and his 45+ H.Cav bodyguards charge, trumpets calling, into a mighty charge of honour.

@ Satis: did you try just the old prnt scr, or some custom program. Cos I use prnt scr and it works fine. Sucks about your Brutus. I hope he conquered a lot and spread the plague among the natives before succumning. Couldn't agree more about Preatorian/Urban cohorts. They are the backbone of any serious army...I shudder to think what I will do without them in my current game. See now why i'm an infantry man?

@ Derf: they aren't really alike no...the Seleceud empire is mostly heavy cavalry, elephants and hoplites. The Parths are all about light cavalry and archers, as you no doubt know. lol@ your new tactic...so, basically your army has a few ultral33t commanders and tons inexperienced ones? I strongly suggest you let your faction leader learn a thing or two about management and influence though, as his stats will have an overall influence on the efficiency/squalor rating of your entire empire.

btw, heavy onagers have a bigger blast when striking, other than that there isn't much of a difference.


Check out this video, very well done. The quality isn't superb but it does the trick:

http://www.totalrome.com/downloads/rtw/ ... rryman.wmv

enjoy


P.S. there's a 1.2 patch coming up

http://www.totalrome.com/

I'm using the regular print screen button. Ah well, whatever. I haven't been playing a whole lot recently, but I've continued my conquering spree. I think I'm still wresting Crete away from the Scipii, and still rampaging around Europe. Not doing as much conquering any more...just developing militaries, spreading out my massive number of generals into governors, building up cities and fortifications, etc. I'm having trouble keeping my far-flung territories under control, so I'm moving alot of troops and governors out there to keep them sated. Which, unfortuanetly, is limiting my expansion.

Once my mass troop manufacturing really takes off, though, it shouldn't be an issue. I will pwn the western world.

@ Ox - Really!? shit, i didnt know that. Well, i might start doing it when squalor becomes a problem because in these early stages, the barbarian towns dont really have that issue.

@ Sat - Sound like youre making good progress. Which unit scale are you using?

General note: Getting stuck into my Julii campaign. Ive managed to throw back the Gauls, and ive just deplyed a second army + support that should make some progress north, while my first army works along the west coast of France.

Seleceud empire going good as well here...it's apparently one of the easier factions to play, with their combo of hoplites and heavy cavalry.

It won't get any better controlling those corners of your empire Satis...after a while it becomes absurd. It's pretty neat, in a way, because back in those days it obviously was over month's travel getting to the other end of the empire, something we can hardly imagine anymore. So they should be hard to control.

I'm 99% certain Satis uses huge unit scale Derf...I do too without any problems so he and his freakmachine should too.

Jeez , thats a different experience altogether!

I think I use large, not huge. Wasn't sure what that meant. Guess I'll switch. :p All graphics options are turned to maximum, of course.

btw, I beat the Brutii campaign. I'm kinda bummed how the game just ends...now choice to continue playing. I'd ended up with virtually all of europe and asia minor, and most of the mediterranean islands. I started a new game as the Germans, but haven't gone very far...just building up my economy for now. I can't believe their basic unit has 241 men in it. hehh. I'm thinking about eventually fielding an army of screaming women, too, just to see what happens. That and it's a great unit name. :p

They're fairly effective too, from what I've heard. Oh, and if you just started a new game it might be best to start over again with huge unit setting, cos you can't change them anymore in the midst of a campaign. I found that the extra RAM enormously enhanced my smoothness with larger armies, too, but I forgot if you're packing 512mb or 1 gig. You can continue playing, too...if you save during the final victory screen thing.

attached two pics of my current game...one is just neat (two phalanxes), the other is brutal. I was happily living side to side with Egypt when those treacherous bastards besieged my most important border city. One other army was coming up too...so I decided to be one step ahead and broke out of the city to attack their besieging army. Thing is: my army was 60-70% miltia hoplites...which can be effective when fighting around the city gates but still. Add to that no ranged units, some arab cavalry and 2 general's bodyguards, one of them extremey seasoned and a 10-star general.

They fielded an army with pikemen, chariots, light desert cavalry, axemen and archers...you can see that their army was about a 100% more balanced. Anyway, what happened was an epic battle with tons and tons of casualties on both sides. I beat their main force more or less when their second army arrived, and that proved the bridge too far. Their cavalry smashed my last remaining hoplites and I was forced to retreat back into the city with barely any men left. My 10-star general died on the field of honour too, after an awesome battle. So now I'm left with 150 scattered troops and an experienced general. Anyway, check it out...the bodies you see are just a fraction of the total slaughter.


Pics might be too big but too lazy to bother making them smaller

Carpet from bodies eh.

Speaking of carpet of bodies, just for a laugh i tried a custom battle. 4 units of souped-up Urban Cohort (320 men) against 20 units of Iberian infantry (1600 men).

Guess which colour the land was stained? Roman red, or Iberian white?

I'm pretty sure it were the Spaniards.

And youre absolutely right. Cant wait for the next update.

If you want a fairly equal fight try urban cohorts vs. spartan hoplites. Head-on, of course. They're extremely hard bastards.

heheh...I like the pics. I may have to get a 3rd party screen capture utility so I can snap some of my own.

Well, I was being all nice and peaceful, but the Britons decided to be limey bastards and besieged one of my settlements. So I moved in an army I gathered up real quick and attacked them. The army from my city was controlled by the computer, so the general of course died and the army routed (morons), but I smashed them with the army I controlled. Screaming women rock. They're not too good until an army routs, but once it starts running they run alot faster, so they're the perfect slaughter machine. Cavalry is a bit better, of course, but still, very effective. And I haven't had a single army break yet with my women behind em screaming. :p

he he. Ive never take the screaming women seriously, said that, ive never taken ona German campaign. Are they actually any good at fighting?

Just seen the movie. Its pretty crazy with the huge numbers of troops and stuff. It looks like the guy commanding the Roman force was a bit noobish. The music is awful.