hardest units to play with in rtotalw

magick

playing at the moment with the greeks, from day 1 im under attack from rome! the other states arent much help as well but i do find the Greek army untis are excellent to use on the battlefield .

Sand

Selucians are strategically screwed from the beginning.

I'm currently fighting the Greeks - The Greeks dragged me into the war as their allies against the Macedonians, and then turned on me the gimps! Though Ive managed to secure peace with the Macedonians, and I've almost completely conquered the Greeks - Only Syracuse is left, but Im pretty sure the Romans are going to turn on me soon as they wont agree to any deals or help me nobble the Greeks, not even now. Im also at war with the Egyptians who quite simply wont just get along with me, and I just annialated a massive Egyptian army invading my capital province, whilst Im hoping to return the favour by sending an army from Greece to invade via sea. The Armenians are conquered because they wouldnt stop beseiging my desert cities and I eventually had to nobble them. The Parthians are also invading me in the North and South, whilst the Pontic kingdom has been at war with me several times and is looking like its going to go at me again soon, but happily the Macedonians have invaded them recently so hopefully theyll each screw the other. So Im at war, with my armies stretched out all across the map. And all this inside the first 20-30 turns! The only way Ive managed to survive/succeed is bribing armies en masse, especially the Parthian armies which were heading straight for my cities. Diplomats are great, if expensive and not always full proof defensive units Im finding out.

That said, the Selucian empire has a great mix of units - Phalanx, Elephants, Archers, Chariots and Silver Shield Legionaries, which gives you the sort of heavy infantry other Greek empires dont seem to have supporting their Phalanx.

Pugsley

The Greek General guard can hold the flanks of a phalanx against more or less anything silly enough to engage them in melee but I find the best way to cover the flanks of a phalanx is to sort of curve it around a bit, so to flank you they have to come at you from behind, and its far easier to turn a phalanx 180 degree's then 90, and for the Macadonian line you can use Macadonian cavelry (are they in vanilla RTW? never played them much before) to sit just behind your line to charge any would be flanking troops.

My current campaign is as the Macadonians in RTR (http://www.rometotalrealism.com/, very good MOD), have already finished Greek and Egyptian campaigns in vanilla too. The eyptian campaign was actually quite hard, as they suffer in a similar way to Selucid, in that their early troops are rather pants, but once you get Pharoah guard and Nile Bowmen, its clear sailing the rest of the way.

Sand

The Greek General guard can hold the flanks of a phalanx against more or less anything silly enough to engage them in melee but I find the best way to cover the flanks of a phalanx is to sort of curve it around a bit, so to flank you they have to come at you from behind, and its far easier to turn a phalanx 180 degree's then 90, and for the Macadonian line you can use Macadonian cavelry (are they in vanilla RTW? never played them much before) to sit just behind your line to charge any would be flanking troops.

Ive found the Selucian Generals to be a bit pants really, not the sort of combat machines the Roman generals are. Best use Ive found for them is circling the line, driving off enemy light troops and if possible flank/rear charges against almost beaten foes. I dont think Id trust them to have the staying power to hold a flank. I prefer to take advantage of the cavalrys maneuverabilty anyway rather than chaining them to the defence of the line.

Actually, now that I think about it one of my personal annoyances has been how vunerable the early Romans are to heavy cavalry - Triarii are the only spear troops of any note that they have which you get so late before the Marian reforms that its not always worth training that many of them. Ive always had to hire mercenary hoplites or use my Generals to track enemy heavy cavalry because of this gaping hole in the Roman troop types.

My current campaign is as the Macadonians in RTR (http://www.rometotalrealism.com/, very good MOD),

I think I'll look into RTR when 6.0 comes out, I certainly prefer the broadened campaign map to stop map rushes and the specific ship building cities to stop the seas getting chock a block with german row boats.

BlitzKrieg

im playing with the selecuins as well. I find them very easy. OF all the nations they can be the easiest to defend. If you conquer egypt and the armenians first you can defend your southern and northen flanks with bottle necks (the mountains and alexandria) that leaves one to expand west with ease.

Sand

im playing with the selecuins as well. I find them very easy. OF all the nations they can be the easiest to defend. If you conquer egypt and the armenians first you can defend your southern and northen flanks with bottle necks (the mountains and alexandria) that leaves one to expand west with ease.

Ah but thats the trick - conquering the Eygptians and the Armenians to get those bottlenecks, whilst at the same time holding off the Parthians, Pontus, Greeks and Macedonians across a rather strung out and underpopulated empire. If you can manage to conquer all of them, with that going on, then youd be strong enough to ask why would you need bottlenecks to begin with - Carthage is no threat, the Scythians even less - I barely even garrison the Armenian frontier.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I realised today that whilst I knew the Selucian Empire was a successor to Alexander, I didnt know anything much else about them. To educate myself I used google and found this. Its a history of the Macedonian people and thus sets the scene for all of the Greek factions in the game, and a couple of others like Pontus. Now, it appears to be written by an extremely patriotic Macedonian who forsakes no opportunity whatsoever to rant on about Greeks, ancient and modern alike, but despite all that that its got some fascinating stuff - like Selucus ( the orginal founder) was stabbed to death by an enraged Ptolemy Kernatos - half brother to Ptolemy II of Egypt - in his tent, after Selucus had captured Ptolemy in the army of Lysimachus, whose Kingdom in Asia Minor Selucus had just conquered on his way to Macedonia, because Seleucus wouldnt assist him in overthrowing Ptolemy II. Kernatos' head went on to become a Gaulish mascot after they sacked Macedonia a few years later. Theres also guys like Demetrios who won and lost several kingdoms in Asia Minor and Greece before dying in luxury a prisoner of the Selucian empire.

I dont know, probably not for everyone, but I found it interesting and thought Id throw it out there just in case anyone else wanted to learn a little more about the empires beyond the troop lists.

Sand

My current campaign is as the Macadonians in RTR (http://www.rometotalrealism.com/, very good MOD),

Can you clear something up for me regarding this mod? I know that it removes the Roman factions and groups Rome as one Faction, but does it also remove the Senate and the Senate missions, and thus the ability to win enough favour with the people to declare yourself Imperator? Its just I saw one note where it said the Senate was removed, and yet people refer to the Senate army....

Pugsley

Havent played a campaign as Rome yet so honestly dont know (not a fan of sword infantry tbh, gimme a pike/spear+hoplon anyday), but Id say a fair few of the reference's are to the elite army that guard rome controlled by the SPQR, its about 9 full units of level 9 triarii with level 3 armour and weapons, as well as 5 family members, its a silly powerful army, only way to take them down is siege weapons and a lot of luck and probably several attempts, however this army is being removed in 6.0 last I heard as its simply annoying to have to deal with, luckily however they dont venture far from Rome and only ever control 1 city.