RTS Fans: Medieval 2 Total War Announced

[Guard Dog]

the hardest faction for me was the Egyptians... I'd always pick a fight to the east after a while I'd be pretty good on the east but the west would be attacked by the carthiginians so I'd be fighting a two front war... usually the only thing that saved me was the fact I'm paranoid and keep a half possible garrison at all my towns (makes it really easy to field a full army real fast).

 

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I always thought the Eqytians were easy because you had rebel towns to your west and you overmatched the Selucids on the east. I think the first thing on Egypts to-do-list would be to take care of the Pathians by taking the lone Arabian city (can't remeber the name) and limiting their expansion. But with Egypt, distance to Carthage is your friend and you can spend the first few game years in peace building up for the inevitable clash with the Selucids and Parthians.

 

I'm one of the most defensive and conservative commanders you'll ever meet which is why I'm so good with the greeks.

 

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My trouble with the Greeks was not winning battles, it was winning wars.

[Deraldin]

My trouble with the Greeks was not winning battles, it was winning wars.

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What was so difficult about winning wars if you could win the battles?

[Calax]

the hardest faction for me was the Egyptians... I'd always pick a fight to the east after a while I'd be pretty good on the east but the west would be attacked by the carthiginians so I'd be fighting a two front war... usually the only thing that saved me was the fact I'm paranoid and keep a half possible garrison at all my towns (makes it really easy to field a full army real fast).

 

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I always thought the Eqytians were easy because you had rebel towns to your west and you overmatched the Selucids on the east. I think the first thing on Egypts to-do-list would be to take care of the Pathians by taking the lone Arabian city (can't remeber the name) and limiting their expansion. But with Egypt, distance to Carthage is your friend and you can spend the first few game years in peace building up for the inevitable clash with the Selucids and Parthians.

well like I say below... I'm a very concervative commander so I don't expand as fast as most and generally won't attack until I think I can deal with their entire military coming at me at once.

I'm one of the most defensive and conservative commanders you'll ever meet which is why I'm so good with the greeks.

 

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My trouble with the Greeks was not winning battles, it was winning wars.

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the greeks are easy, keep making units in sparta and in thermon (I think) use the spartans to take back what is now greece from the macedonians. Thermon is just there to play backstop against the romans. also if you got really good diplo, try getting the romans to go to war with the macedonians.

[alanschu]

I considered picking this game up again....but Hearts of Iron 2 stepped in and said otherwise :D

[Deraldin]

I've just finished re-installing the game and am about to go on a run through of the greeks. I'll show keep you guys updated on my progress in this thread with periodic posts and screenshots.

[alanschu]

Ok. Some detailed strategic analysis, complete what you think your weaknesses are, followed up by an MP game would be great too

 

 

Hey Llyranor, (and perhaps Deraldin as well), have you let the Total War guys know how much you would just a multiplayer campaign?

[Nick_i_am]

Actually one of the best improvements introduced in Rome over Shogun and Medieval was the absence of the Risk style map. In Shogun/Med you marched an army into a territory and automaticly fought whatever army was there in a terrain fixed for that whole territory. If you won, the entire territory was yours. In Rome TW map borders are just lines on a map and you can march in armies to block trade by blocking roads, harbors, or prepare for a defensive fight by choosing your ground. The terrain on the campaign map is the same as the terrain on the battle map.

 

Case in point. Playing as the Greeks I know that the Romans will attack Syracuse within the first game year (2 turns). To buy time to prepare I send 160 Hoplites and 81 Peltasts to take up station over the road to Messina on the slopes of Mt Etna. They were attacked the next turn. Holding the phalanx on high ground backed up by peltasts my 160 hoplites broke a Roman army of around 400 Hastati and killed Quintus Scipio in the bargain. I was able to take Messina 4 turns later because I goaded the Scipii into attacking me on ground of my choosing.

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Cool, the 'risk map' was one of my biggest complaints.

 

My other was with the unit cap per side, so if you're attacked by 5000 troops and have 4000 on defence, only 1000 will actually be in the inital battle, and others will only renforce as your units retreat or are wiped out. But telling a unit to manually rout (such as a longbow army out of arrows, to bring in some heavy infantry) can panic other elements of your army.

[alanschu]

You can manually order them to retreat (not rout) as well, so that they don't cause panic.

[Guard Dog]

My trouble with the Greeks was not winning battles, it was winning wars.

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What was so difficult about winning wars if you could win the battles?

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As I told you earlier, I could not build the economy to fight Rome and Macedon at once. And I usually had to. Have you ever heard the term Pyrrhic Victory? It comes from Pyrrhus, King of the Greek City of Epirus who won a great victory over an invading Roman army at the battle of Asculum in 279 BC. The battle was won but his army was utterly broken. He was quoted as saying "Another such victory against Rome and I will be undone".

 

In the Greek games I have played I have invested heavily in keeping Theramon out of Roman hands. I have beaten off several Brutii attacks but they were Pyrrhic Victories beacuse the weakend city falls to Macedon when the come sniffing through the Dinirac Mountains. To date, to keep Theramon I must sell Syracuse to Carthage or abandon it to the Scipii and use the army there to defend Theramon. Syracuse is the Greeks best money maker in the early game. To keep it means using resources to fight the Scipii. That is bad but a Roman presence in the Balkans is worse. As for Sparta, leave it underdefended for a moment and the Macedonians in Corinth will come down to see you.

 

I always play with the campaign difficulty set to "Very Hard." The AI is pretty aggresive. What about you guys?

[Guard Dog]

I've just finished re-installing the game and am about to go on a run through of the greeks. I'll show keep you guys updated on my progress in this thread with periodic posts and screenshots.

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Let me know what your strategy was and how it worked out. I'd suggest you do Very Hard on campaign difficuty and Hard on battle difficulty.

[alanschu]

I was only able to play the Roman factions, probably because I hadn't been able to finish the game (I had to cut myself off cold turkey, my school depended on it).

 

To be honest, while I really enjoy the game...I haven't played it all that much

 

If my German invasion of Poland doesn't hold my interest, maybe I'll give Rome another go. I don't have school at the moment, and my Civ4 addiction has been satisfied for the most part, so it'll be easier to play.

[Deraldin]

I've just finished re-installing the game and am about to go on a run through of the greeks. I'll show keep you guys updated on my progress in this thread with periodic posts and screenshots.

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Let me know what your strategy was and how it worked out. I'd suggest you do Very Hard on campaign difficuty and Hard on battle difficulty.

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I will do that. Once I get the damn thing running. I installed one of the play all factions mods so that I wouldn't have to run through a roman game first but now I can't play any of them because when I click start the game it boots me right back to the single player menu.

 

The only thing I can think of beyond re-installing would be to get a save game from someone who just started a game, but none of my friends have it installed at the moment. Looks like I'll have to spend another hour installing it. <_<

[alanschu]

Just zip through the Roman campaign.

 

 

Does it matter if you play on hard difficulty in that campaign to unlock the other factions for hard difficulty?

[Deraldin]

Just zip through the Roman campaign.

 

 

Does it matter if you play on hard difficulty in that campaign to unlock the other factions for hard difficulty?

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As long as you complete a campaign at all even a short one you can play the unlocked factions. I need to reinstall before I can go through as the romans. The stupid mod decided to boot me back to the menu even when choosing the romans.

[Guard Dog]

Just zip through the Roman campaign.

 

 

Does it matter if you play on hard difficulty in that campaign to unlock the other factions for hard difficulty?

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As long as you complete a campaign at all even a short one you can play the unlocked factions. I need to reinstall before I can go through as the romans. The stupid mod decided to boot me back to the menu even when choosing the romans.

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If you want to cheat to unlock the other factions quicker before every battle hit ~ to open the command shell and enter the command auto_win attacker or auto_win defender. You can win the short game with a few hundred peasants if you win every battle. If you want to unlock ALL of the factions, let me know and I'll explain it. You still have to win as the Romans at least once.

[Deraldin]

Well, after reinstalling the game and starting up the prologue long enough to be able to play the imperial campaign I forgot to patch the game. After patching the game I can no longer play the imperial campaign as it won't start.

[alanschu]

Sucks to be you.

[Deraldin]

Sucks to be you.

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I found the problem. Something screwed up my descr_strat.txt file.

[alanschu]

Have fun :D

[Deraldin]

Have fun :D

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I hate you. <_<

[alanschu]

Doh! I thought you got it working and were able to play!

 

 

Good luck then! :D

[Deraldin]

Doh!  I thought you got it working and were able to play!

 

 

Good luck then! :D

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I just found the problem. I have to either re-install or find a new descr_strat.txt file before I can play.

[alanschu]

I don't suppose it's hanging around somewhere on the CDs is it?

[Deraldin]

I don't suppose it's hanging around somewhere on the CDs is it?

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Not that I've been able to find.

[Guard Dog]

I don't suppose it's hanging around somewhere on the CDs is it?

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Not that I've been able to find.

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I sent you the file as boardmail Deraldin.