r/RomeTotalWar

I just saw the recent meme about the spy and plagues, and realized that I have a good bit to learn about this game.

Curious to know what you guys have done and realized “well that’s not good, I’ll never do that again / never let that happen again”.

Might shine light on some game mechanics I never noticed.

Mine is a recent one that made me a remember, as Gaul, I didn’t make it to the last original Rome settlement to prevent Marius. Man it’s been a slow grind ever since.

I’ll never let Rome get to Marius again, regardless who I start as (other than Roman).

https://preview.redd.it/h5tzxlzrag2h1.jpg?width=700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f0fc33056b0bcc0e2ccfb3cabac7a8594965fa85

A couple weeks ago I asked if you guys ever used (frequently) late-game units. Your answers where variegated, but not few of you agreed with me that they were rare to use because campaigns ended before you could enjoy these units. That's why I began modding in my little spare time.

In fact, in these last days I found some time to work on it: I made progression a little faster in order to get those units faster. I also balanced some units and buildings to pursue this objective but I'm not sure things are okay, so I wanted your opinions. Here are the changes so far:

M.1) All 2-turn-cost-recruitment units now takes only one turn, but their recruitment cost and upkeep is doubled. There is one exception: ever heard of Deceres? I never heard! I found them while modding. They were originally recruited from the scipii's last tier naval temple (that also made me think that maybe I am very right to do this mod). Anyway they took 3 turns to recruit. They now take one, but recruitment cost and upkeep is triplicated.

M.2) Buildings don't require more than 5 turns to be completed (Tier 5 takes max 5 turns, tier 4 takes max 4 turns, tier 3 max takes 3 turns). Also, recruiting some units is a lot easier. Here are the changes for the factions I touched:

1. Britannia:

- Added Tier 2 archery and stables

- Warband woad briton from tier 2 barracks

- head hurlers from tier 2 archery

- light chariots from tier 2 archery

- heavy chariots from tier 2 stables

- druids from tier 2 temple

2. Spain:

- carthaginian infantry from tier 1 barracks

- naked fanatics from tier 2 barracks

- bull Warriors from tier 3 barracks

- balearic slingers (I made slingers have balearic slingers stast, but we will talk about that in M.3) from tier 2 archery

3. Gaul

- naked fanatics from tier 2 barracks

- druids from tier 2 temple

4. Germania

- screeching women from tier 1 barracks

- naked fanatics from tier 2 barracks

- night riders from tier 3 barracks

- berserker from tier 3 barracks (requires shrine of Donar)

- gothic cavalry from tier 2 stables (requires shrine of Wotan)

5. Dacia

- naked fanatics from tier 2 barracks

6. Rome

- hastati from tier 1 barracks

- auxillia from tier 1 barracks

- principes from tier 2 barracks

- legionary cohort i from tier 2 barracks

- legionary cohort ii from tier 3 barracks

- triarii from tier 3 barracks

- arcani from tier 4 barracks

7. Carthage:

- carthaginian sacred band infantry da tier 5 barracks (Should I change it with tier 4 requiring shrine of Baal?)

8. Scythia:

- warband axe scythian from tier 1 barracks (no exp bonus)

- barb horse archers scythian from tier 2 barracks

- barb noble horse archers scythian from tier 3 barracks

- barb scythian noblewomen scythian from tier 3 barracks (should require shrine of Api?)

- barb head hunting maidens scythian from tier 2 stables (should require shrine of Api?)

9. Thrace

- Should I add tier 3 stables with heavy cav?

M.3) Units rebalanced and some little changes to some rosters. Nerf to Germania, Scythia, Seleucid, Rome; Buff to Spain, Numidia and Armenia. (I am considering a buff to Thrace and Dacia)

1. Germania:

- Spear warband: They are now the same as other barbarian warriors (no more phalanx, but warcry)

- Berserker: Morale 16 -> 13, Attack 19 -> 17, Defence Skill 5 -> 3

2. Scythia:

- Horse Archers: Ammo 40 -> 30 Recruitment cost 540 -> 680 Upkeep 110 -> 140

- Head Hunting Maidens: Morale 10 -> 9

3. Seleucid:

- Removed small elephants and cataphracts elephant (they now have only war elephants)

4. Rome

Urban cohort: Morale 12 -> 11 Melee Attack 14 -> 12 Ranged Attack 18 -> 16 Defence Skill 7 -> 8

Praetorian Cohort: Melee Attack 12 -> 14 Ranged Attack 16 -> 18

5. Spain

- Slingers are now Balearic Slingers

- Scutarii; Morale 4 -> 6, Discipline: impetuous -> normal

6. Numidia:

- Numidian Legionaries: Morale 8 -> 10 Melee Attack: 7 -> 9 Ranged Attack 11 -> 13 Armour 7 -> 10 Defence Skill 4 -> 5 Charge 2 -> 3 (Numidian, Armenian and Roman legionaries have now same stats but Numidian and Armenian have 2 points less in defence)

- Added all elephants (not the oliphants of course)

- Considering a buff to camels

7. Armenia:

- Armenian Legionaries : Morale 8 -> 10 Melee Attack: 7 -> 9 Ranged Attack 11 -> 13 Armour 7 -> 10 Defence Skill 4 -> 5 Charge 2 -> 3 (Same reason)

Other changes I think I will make: Every faction starts with capital at maximum tier (only governor's palace, barracks, stables and archer), and neighbour cities progressively one tier lower. Spain will have Numantia and Corduba but Carthage will have Carthago Nova. Numidia will have Leptis Magna and Cyrene but will lose Dimmidi. Egypt will lose Cyprus. Little changes to AI (using feral personalities ex: comfortable_caesar ecc.)

And that's all! I don't think I did a great job, but for 90% of things I am happy with them. I want all of your opinions, so please say what you want and suggest me things, especially if you think they are crucial; just remember, this mod is made to have late game units faster so give tips keeping this in mind and the consequences it can have especially with the changes I want to make, in order to not break the game in favor of some factions. Thank you for reading and for your help!

Hi folks!

Have you ever seen a city with over 40,000 citizens or more ? I ask because I’ve been playing Rome Total War for a long time, upgrading cities like Alexandria, Athens, Byzantium, Rome, and others, but the most I’ve ever seen is 34,000 residents, no more!

https://preview.redd.it/6ik4slvzi42h1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=2e2e7980fe78d307a3f3b6b271a93704280ff37d

Looks fixed now

She fixed herself after I attacked Rome.

I'm on my second campaign in the game and I chose the selecuids because they made me cry the most when I played with the jullii after they became the last big empire.

The worst thing about them is that it takes a looong time to get (decent) elephants and heavy cav but they are so worth it. (Mainly becasue elephants and chariots are so much fun to play with) So after I conquered asia minor and egypt I was traumatised by having to fight on four fronts.

So when i only bordered numidia and scythia I trained huge fleets and armies of hoplites, elephants and chariots. I took control over the seas and started the program.

So how does the program work?

Step 1: Choose a faction with cities near the coast.

Step 2; Deploy spies and diplomats.

Step 3; Destroy all (enemy) ships at sea and block all ports

Step 4: Choose and besiege 1 or more cities, make sure to destroy their walls.

Step 5: Enslave the population, destroy all buildings and leave the city.

Step 6: give them back their cities with a diplomat, they will get some peasants in that city.

Step 7 attack city again with destroyed walls and enslave the population after you mow down these poor peasants with chariots.

Repeat steps 6 and 7 but exterminate them. This will bring down the population to 400 and gives some money.

Step 8; leave the cities and maybe keep 2 units of militia hoplites so the enemy has to take them back and take a bunch of casualties beacause of the naked long stick boys.

The enemy can't reach you because the ai often does not want to cross lands of factions they are not at war with, so no going through scythia and all ports are blocked.

The romans just kept attacking the greeks and germans. And Carthage keeps the numidians busy.

Love it, I did noticed that the ai just kinda T-poses when I'm not besieging them and the are not at war with anyole else. Their armies just stand there...

But the ai economy is ruined, their cities will never reach decent populations again and I get a shitload of money and population growth and I only need to worry about the Scythia, but scythia was the trial run... For multiple times now.. so they just do nothing. I don't need to keep pushing ever forward with huge armies to eleminate threats like I did with the romans or greeks have to do.

Anyone else using this tactic or has any tips for it?

But no I will not stop spending loads of money on chariots, it's to much fun.

I've found myself giving the remastered a shot, the Julii, very hard. I'm mostly a seasoned player and I thought it will be fun to face the hordes of dumb barbarians as I slowly conquer and civilize them in the name of the republic.

Gauls were ok, it was fun to fight their stacks of warbands with my hastatis, equites, velites, some principes later on. It was tough but fair.

Iberians started to randomly desant on the italia and stirred shit up, and while it was a bit annoying, it was manageable and provided further to the challenge.

Then, here they come, the Britons. The Britons and their fucking stupid chariots.

Then they're attacking me NON-STOP. While I'm managing to hold and catch up with the rest slowly, I still need to manually fight on average 1 big battle per turn, and it's not fun. How they've gotten the chosen swordsmen so early?! And don't get me started on the chariots. 5 hit points??? With all the rest, fucking really???

They also destroyed Germans early and landslide across the northern Europe, which sucks as I had thoughts of fighting Germans and their berserkers in the late game and doing some Teutoburg forest type of fuck-ups. But no, instead I have to deal with a bunch of British heavy chariots for approximately next 60-70 turns : ).

Have I mentioned that I fucking hate chariots?

I’ve noticed that a lot of the faction specific formations use light infantry alongside heavy infantry. But why would I use light infantry as opposed to heavy infantry besides the fact that they’re cheaper? Seems like a historical accuracy thing more than winning thing.

Sadly I couldn't find much guides going into details with what i plan to do, but I'm basically creating a 'Royal Peltast" unit, made from Armoured Hoplites, which are basically swordsmen with precursors javs.

Here's where I am stuck:
- Making the model not have phalanx spears at the start of a battle and when throwing javs.
- Making the model show their swords all the time, besides when throwing javs.
- Making the models have jav assets when throwing javs.

I have tried editing the models' .cas in blender (converting through IWTE), it ended up as... elongated. But so far, everything else works, besides switching out the assets for the models. My EDU and DMB are fine, i believe most of my issues are under models_unit and their .cas. I have also yet been able to edit an .dds file (Still finding a program that can open them in 3D), nor have i been able to find an unpacker that i can download (my IP is blocked from the forum for some reason).

All help or directions to older guides will be much appreciate! Thank you in advance.