Wow, those onagers are really large!

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
Of course, Khajiit has noticed the AI doesn't always see when they should take a deal...

Awesome! Glad you got to team up with your Geat allies! Sounds like a glorious victory!

Abandoned the Egyptian campaign. We overextended ourselves and started bleeding funds while our cities revolted and our enemies gathered forces all around us. Khajiit will return to Egypt to try again at some point but for now we started a Britannia campaign.

In Britannia, we started off on the main island of Britain (obviously), with an extra territory in the Normandy area. Germanic tribes are to our east, and the Gauls to our south and west. Things started off amicably enough, both the Gauls and Germans offered us trade rights and we even forged an alliance with Gaul. Well, that alliance soured quickly when the Gaulish navy stupidly attacked our superior British one and sent multiple tiny armies into our territory! We destroyed all of them, the early access to chariot archers being a big surprise! During one battle we fielded one unit of 37 heavy chariots (non archers) against a force of almost 200 Gaulish infantry. We simply made them chase our chariots around till they got tired, attacking periodically when they exposed a flank. Ended up losing 10 men out of 37 and completely wiping out the Gaul's army. No survivors. After several turns of us absolutely destroying their puny armies, the Gauls tried to offer us a deal for ceasefire but we countered with extorting 1000 moneyz from them for not attacking them. Then the idiots sent another army into our territory! We crushed it and now we are marching towards one of their cities.

To the east, the Germans have been oddly quiet. After sending a diplomat to scout out the area of a peninsula that Khajiit assumes is supposed to be Denmark, we loaded a bunch of boats up with troops and sailed there to take the city in that peninsula as it was lightly defended. We besieged it rather than attacking and successfully waited it out. Not one German showed their face. We'll be in real trouble should they attack the city in force, but so far so good. Then again, Khajiit has proven that he can annihilate numerically superior forces with a handful of chariots.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: May 27 2017, 01:09 AM

The cities along the Nile are hard to control. They get gigantic fast. After a while you need full, 20 unit garrisons of peasants to keep order in them. Even then it can be a struggle. Never build farms in any of the cities along the Nile. Nor any sanitation. You need to keep the population as low as possible. Likewise, but Law temples in all of them. (I think that is Horus). Finally, look at the traits of your generals. Some of them have very bad traits, that cause public disorder. Get them out of your cities and send them to contemplate their fates in the wilderness.

Not building sanitation sounds odd at first. But the way it works is that sanitation decreases squalor, which sounds good at first. But a lower squalor means a higher growth rate. A higher growth rate means... more squalor. So if you have no sanitation, it keeps your maximum population level lower.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 27 2017, 06:39 PM

Wow, thanks for the tips! So Khajiit should try destroying any farms in the Nile area (where applicable)?

Any tips for using slingers? My Britons don't have any archers besides the chariot ones (at least at the moment; not sure if we will get some later).

Battle has been joined on two fronts for my Saxons.

To the east, the Danes encircled one of my towns. The defenders could handle an attack, but the Danes are going to wait them out. My army in that province is moving to respond, but is hampered by the winter snows. We should be fine, provided the nearby Huns don't want to join in.

To the West, I laid siege to the Ebdanian capital of Eblana. They have lots of troops, but my troops are better trained and equipped. An army of Franks arrived nearby, so I made an alliance with them in order to get their help in the siege - this pretty much guaranteed my victory:

My army forms up as the onagers, hidden behind the trees, rain fire upon the town

The Franks arrive, and hurry to meet me

Mcu of the enemy force begins the battle on ships, and scramble to land

The defenders hold the line as the town burns

My forces watch the Frankish cavalry advance

My cavalry support the Frankish infantry as they engage the defenders

Thanks to the Franks, I won a decisive victory and lost very few troops. My large onagers proved very effective, so I might get another unit of them. I also want to make a more cavalry-heavy force (not something I've ever really done), as I was quite impressed with the Frankish cavalry performance. Perhaps and anti-Hun force of cavalry, including mercenary horse archers, would be interesting.

This post has been edited by hazmick: May 27 2017, 04:26 PM

Sadly you cannot destroy farms. Along with roads, walls, and a few other things.

I never liked slingers much. They don't seem to be able to fire over the heads of friendly troops in front of them (though I could be wrong). One trick I did learn with them was to use your general to bait an enemy unit into chasing him. Then run back to a unit of slingers. Make a circle around the slingers, and the enemy will follow. That allows the slingers free reign to shoot at the enemy unit. If you can get the left side of the enemy facing the slingers. That way their shield bonus will not count.



Very cool. Another faction aiding in battle, troops making an amphibious landing. Neither are things I am used to seeing!

I love cavalry, especially horse archers. They require a lot more micro-management than infantry. But you can do a whole lot more with less troops. You can use cavalry units to bait enemy units into attacking them, then retreat. The separates the chasing enemy unit from their rest of their army. Then you can gang up on it with 3 or 4 cavalry units charging from all directions.

Slingers are good for flanking and harassing the enemy or defending walls. They can move quickly, and I believe they get some bonuses when fighting in forests. They can't fire over your own troops very well though, so when fighting in formation it's best to have them at the front and pull them back when the enemy gets close.

My Sarmatian Empire has expanded throughout the Levant. All that is left is Petra and Alexandria. And I think the ERE has a city way to the west in Cyrenecia. But in spite of exterminating ever city I take, I am getting bogged down with public order and religious disorder within them. That is increasingly miring my best generals with playing policeman.

Philadelphaea is the worst. I cannot get the public order over 30%. Even though my garrison is larger than the total population of the city! I might just abandon it leave it to the rebels. But the trouble is it tends to go to the ERE Rebel faction, not the generic rebels. That might make them a problem I don't want leaving in my rear when it comes time to take Asia Minor and Greece.

In other news Campus Sarmatae has once again rebelled over to me! I might try to keep it this time. Doing so will probably put me in direct conflict with the Huns. It looks like they have settled in Campus Roxolani and Vicus Sarmatae, and they don't seem to have much of an army left. Though of course if I take both cities they will go horde again, and I am not sure how many units they will spawn. Probably an awful lot.


I also went and added some game maps to the original post.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 27 2017, 07:04 PM

That game looks incredible! Khajiit wishes alliances were more than just waiting for your ally to attack you in Rome: Total War. Congrats on teaming up with the Franks for the win!






Thanks for the info you two!

Khajiit is still a bit confused over the whole public order thing. For instance, how do know what temples to build, or how many units in a city are enough to maintain order?

As far as which temples to build, if you look in the building browser, it will show you the bonuses of each level of each temple. All of them give a bonus to happiness. Then they give a second bonus to something, public health, farming, weapons, troop experience, law, etc... If you are mainly interested in keeping order, always build the Law temples.

As far as garrisons go, all the game cares about is the total number of troops you have in a settlement. It does not take the type, experience, or quality in account. So Peasants make the best garrisons, because they have the most number of people in each unit. One neat trick is to fill the build queue of the city with Peasants. The people are immediately taken from the population of the city, even though the units have not been built yet. That in turn makes the city a little easier to control. Put enough units in to keep the city happy. A handy tactic is to build a full stack of 20 Peasants and have it follow your invading army. After your army takes a city, immediately move it out, and put the Peasants in. Except for your general, as usually he will improve order.

A city riots at 65% happiness or lower. If you are under that, increase your garrison. You can also lower taxes. The lower you go, the happier people are. Finally look for generals with a high Influence, because that helps with public order. But like I said before, look at their traits, and watch for things that decrease public order.

Buildings from a different culture in your cities cause a culture penalty as well. So it is best either build over them with the next tier building to replace it with a building of your own culture. Or tear it down and start over with a brand new building of the same type.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 27 2017, 11:07 PM

Ah, good information. Thanks!

Khajiit googled it and found this thread on garrisons and public order in a TW forum.

I got over my teething pains with public order in the Levant, and even Philadephaea has been brought to heel. Pet Lions do wonders for motivating people (one of my favorite retinue members).

Now my Sarmatian Empire is rapidly expanding. In the south I have taken Petra, and Alexandria fell in a rare night battle. This gives me a Wonder. Even now I have an army on board a ship headed for Cyrene. That will complete my African conquests (and most importantly, drive the Eastern Roman Empire completely from the region).

In the center my nomads have pushed though Tarsus, and debouched upon the Anatolian plateau. Caesarea has fallen, and Sinope is currently under siege. It looks like the ERE has little left in Asia Minor that can stop me. I will probably be more slowed by dealing with public order in the cities I take than the actual Roman army.

Back on the steppes in the north, I sent a diplomat ahead to scout around and secure trade rights with distant powers. He discovered that while my last reports said the Huns owned Tribus Iazyges, in reality the Goths have taken it back. If you right click over a territory you have previously discovered either directly or trading map information for, it will show you the true owner of the province.

With Tribus Roxolani and Locus Sarmatae in my control, my northern army marched upon Vicus Sarmatae, the last city of the Huns. I have laid siege to it, but cannot storm it. I only have one infantry unit - a mercenary steppe raider, and the Huns have much more infantry within. They even have stone walls! So I am going to have to sit this one out, and either wait for the city to fall to starvation, or the Huns sally out to fight in the open.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 29 2017, 12:30 AM

Good luck!!

You can mod RTW and Barbarian Invasion to make Farms destructable. I did this with Amazon Total War, and just remembered how to do it.

A warning: if you do this in the middle of a game, all the farms in the world will disappear. It will also give you an error message when exiting the game. But the error message will not happen with campaigns that you begin after you do this.


First go to Rome Total War\Data\export_descr_buildings.txt

Search for "hinterland_farms" and replace it with just "farms". There is only one location where you have to make this change.



Now go to Rome Total War\Data\Export_Descr_Buildings_Enums.txt

Again search for "hinterland_farms" and replace it with just "farms"



Next go to Rome Total War\Data\Text\export_buildings.txt

Again search for "hinterland_farms" and replace it with just "farms"



Next go to Rome Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign\descr_strat.txt

Agan search for "hinterland_farms" and replace it with just "farms"

In this case however, there are 28 locations to make changes. If you are using Notepad, use Edit -> Replace to replace them all quickly.



For Barbarian Invasion, go to the Rome Total War\BI\Data\ folder to find export_descr_buildings.txt, and Rome Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\barbarian_invasion\ to find descr_strat.txt

This post has been edited by SubRosa: May 29 2017, 02:49 AM

Thanks for the info! Khajiit may have to try this if he can't get the hang of keeping our settlements happy.

My glorious Sarmatian hordes are burying the Eastern Romans. All of east Africa has fallen under my hooves. So too Crete and Cyrpus. Asia Minor is now completely mine as well, along with my second Wonder - The Mausoleum of Halicarnasuss. I also noticed something about the Pyramid Wonder. While it says it makes the Egyptians more loyal to you, it actually confers a +10% public order bonus to all your settlements. Every little bit helps.

There was a flash flood in Syria, but no one important drowned.

I have even crossed over into Greece with one army and taken Constantinople. In a few more turns I should be able to bring a second army in. But the ERE has a large fleet in the Aegean which has been causing me some annoyance. So I have begun construction upon a Sarmatian fleet.

In the northern steppes, the Huns sallied from Vicus Sarmatae. There was a tremendous slaughter. In the end the city was mine. It has been many years, but the Sarmatians have returned home.

Unfortunately that just turned the Huns into a horde. I was hoping that killing all of their family members would wipe out the faction. But alas no. If I want to finish them for good, I will have to wipe them out before they can settle again. I am not sure if I will be able to do that. I only have one major army on the western steppe, and the ERE has a full stack nearby to the south. I now have new Gothic and Lombard neighbors as well. So doubtlessly I will be at war with them soon. But on the bright side, maybe the Huns will keep the latter two busy for a while.

In the eastern steppe, I put together a small army to take the last two rebel towns - Campus Alanni and Campus Sakae. I put some cavalry in Armenia on boats and am sending them north to rendezvous outside of Campus Alanni. Soon the entire eastern map will be Sarmatian.

Froggbeastegg has an excellent guide to Rome Total War and Barbarian Invasion here. There is even a link to a pdf version of it on the same page.

Froggbeastegg has another guide for MTW1