Topic: Gamer thread

[Aldaris]

Am I the only one who doesn't use auxiliaries?

Auxiliary Cavalry is better than Equites. Other than that, not really. Except for some special ones like Archers and Elephants. Those aren't really needed, but they're fun to mix in.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

nitpicking I suppose but it would have been cool to see the legionaries actually fight manipularly and the Greek phalanxes fight in phalanx formation instead of just mobbing up and running in like mad men.  Oddly enough pike infantry do fight in phalanx formation.  Greeks only do if they take the charge which is dumb.

@aldaris: I may have to build an auxiliary camp in aquitania then.  The Celtic light horse was murder on the equites.  Then again I am starting to research heavily in military management.  Cant remember how the lvl 4 roman horsemen are. I have tier 2 completely researched for all the civil trees and racking in 10k+ a year.

[phillyt]

Auxilia come from just the camp right?

You can get a larger variety of troops from a single building.  I did that in Carthage when I only held that settlement.  Allowed me to produce various types of units without a building commitment.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

come to think of it, it might be better in the long run just to hire mercs.  Though I am not sure if they reinforce if you loose the men.

[phillyt]

I think it is better.  You get to make normal legionarries and then all of the auxillia options.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

I thought you couldnt get legionaries if you did auxiliaries, or is it just the advanced ones like the vets and praetorian guards?

[phillyt]

I am not sure.  All of my cities, once they had a certain size, were able to make legionnaires.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

because of the high cost of food and the increase of squalor I keep my towns at lvl 2.  Though with this roman campaign so far I have tons of food and happiness so I just upgraded to lvl 3 towns in most of my provinces.

[phillyt]

I like the additional garrisons.

[Mogsam]

Beta patch 4 is now out!

[Feanor Fire Heart]

I like the additional garrisons.

Invading armies are usually so weak of small before 100 turns that the lvl 2 garrison usually suffices.

Beta patch 4 is now out!

cant tell if you mean BF4 or something else.

[Gunman006]

nitpicking I suppose but it would have been cool to see the legionaries actually fight manipularly and the Greek phalanxes fight in phalanx formation instead of just mobbing up and running in like mad men.  Oddly enough pike infantry do fight in phalanx formation.  Greeks only do if they take the charge which is dumb.

I agree about the legionaries fighting manipularly but that would mean changing the entire unite mechanic, same with adding the roman style of men switching positions during battle in order to have fresh men at the front while putting the exhausted soldiers at the back making the enemy always fight fresh eager soldiers whereas the enemy just fought until he dropped. But that would mean every single soldier needs to have his own morale and stamina bar instead of the the whole unit as a whole.

The greeks hoplites actually use phalanx, but it is more in the style of the phalanx we see in 300 and pikemen being the traditional phalanx we read most about in history books. But if you double click with your hoplites they break formation and charge in like they do in that horrible brad pit movie.

I actually really like the "cheat" they added by letting certain formation give bonuses to stats instead of having dynamic effect on the battlefield due to positioning. If they were to add more realism then they would have to create an entirely new engine and approach for the warfare instead of the system that they use today.

Invading armies are usually so weak of small before 100 turns that the lvl 2 garrison usually suffices.

You should play on very hard and legendary difficulty. They changed it last week so it is alot harder now and the computer coordinate with other factions when attack ensuring that they often ahve 2-4 armies invading your cities, most of them at 20/20 strenght. The computer is still dumb as shit in the actual battle though and will only win if they outnumber you 4-1 at least.

My biggest problem is head to head campaign, people always use autocombat at every oppurtunity, and playing against friends they usually give up at the first sign of hardship or even a temporary defeat.

[Aldaris]

The computer is still dumb as shit in the actual battle though and will only win if they outnumber you 4-1 at least.

I find odds of 3-1 pretty hard to beat already on very hard, and when I do, I usually lose a couple of units completely. The AI isn't very bright, that's true, but units tend to stay in the fight for quite long since patch 3 and that means lots of dead on both sides while you kill them. Also, units like Foot Companions or Oathsworn can really pile on the hurt and are really difficult to deal with even if you have them sandwitched.

[Gunman006]

The computer is still dumb as shit in the actual battle though and will only win if they outnumber you 4-1 at least.

I find odds of 3-1 pretty hard to beat already on very hard, and when I do, I usually lose a couple of units completely. The AI isn't very bright, that's true, but units tend to stay in the fight for quite long since patch 3 and that means lots of dead on both sides while you kill them. Also, units like Foot Companions or Oathsworn can really pile on the hurt and are really difficult to deal with even if you have them sandwitched.

Thats true especially for northern barbarian units that have high morale and good attack. But i.e eastern spearmen are useless against pretty much anything thats tier 1 without support. Foot companions and oathsworn are last tier no?

[Athiuen]

But you have them freely as general's bodyguard units.

[Gunman006]

But you have them freely as general's bodyguard units.

yeah I fought against a friend in head to head campaign. And a nation in marocco attacked him with a army that had "noble infantery" in it, they basicly killed off 5 libyan hoplites, 3 mobs, 2 javelins by themselves even when they were surrounded. Some units are definatly broken. But damn it is a good game, and I think its sad how so many haters are calling this the worst total war game ever.

As a original shogun player I just love this game 

[Feanor Fire Heart]

@ Gunman006: I think you meant to quote me but you put it as Philly 

My main complaint is that they just mob in like barbarians instead of attacking as a unit.  I also made the comparison of the Greek hoplites using "300" phalanx instead of real ones, whereas the pikemen are (though I never mentioned it here).  Perhaps it would have looked funny with their shorter spears than the pikemen anyway so they didn't? Which is weird because the spartan hoplites look more like the ones from that era.  They had reverted back to using linothorax armor and started wearing pilos style helmets instead of the classic pop culture armor of using a bronze aegis and crested corinthian helmets. Seeing as they were going that route with the 300 tactic anyways. Or hell forgetting the aegis all together and going bare chested like the movie (and the alternate skins from the first rome TW game).  The spartan and perioikoi hoplites are hardly distinguishable on the battle map (I think they wear different capes?).

As for the Romans they too should still fight in formation instead of mobbing up.  You wouldn't need to give each soldier its own morale.  Keep the unit moral the same but make the unit stamina last longer.  My point is if they had the money to make ships and armies fight on the same map, they should be able to do that.  Even if they couldnt they should still be able to charge in formation what with all the training and advanced maneuvers the legions did.

I think I switch the game to easy at the beginning so I could learn the games and forgot to switch it back afterwards.  My first game I jumped in as normal and was trying to figure out the building trees and all the other new features while getting attack on all side.

I also have been playing TW games since the original shogun.    The one thing I miss in the later games that was in rome TW is the option of having the short campaign.  Just to do a speed run and win a game in a short amount of time.

[Gunman006]

Ah I misunderstood you, yes I would have liked to see the ability for civilized armies to charge in formation if they did so historically too. I usually charge up until i'm right infront of the enemy then walk in formation into contact with them or let them charge me. This require good amount of velites or peltasts though.

I played alot of Epirus fighting Sparta, and the pikemen always let me win against the computer because it only builds normal spartan hoplites. The main estethical difference that I have noticed is that spartans usually have bronze top hats and curly beards whereas Epirus has pimped bronze helmets with feathers and are usually shaved.

Maybe someone will make a mods for it, though I usually hate mods in these games. Always seem to just fuck it up. At least we may see a warhammer total soon 

[Noble Korhedron]

I started with 'Medieval', when I found that my computer couldn't handle 'Medieval 2'. I later picked up the Rome(Gold Ed.), Medieval 2(Gold Ed.), Empire, Napoleon and Shogun, but I don't really have any expansions or DLC for anything after Medieval 2.

[S.O.F]

But damn it is a good game, and I think its sad how so many haters are calling this the worst total war game ever.

Empire is the worst Total War game ever but to a degree these can be mitigated by the fact it was a new engine and a stark era departure for the series. Much the Rome 2 'hate' is really just frustration. This is the 4th game on this engine and it still suffers from problems that we had in Empire (piss poor sieges being the biggest problem in my mind). Shogun 2 is undoubtedly the best they have managed on the Warscape engine, sadly it is an era I've never been able to get into (I've put in only 63 hours into it). Rome 2 feels like many steps back.

Can it still be fun, well yes but it still has some pretty serious flaws. Patching will help and if as comprehensive mod support is eventually released as Shogun 2 received, though sadly too late for most to notice, it has a chance.

[MrDWhitey]

I agree Empire was the best of the series.

[Feanor Fire Heart]

Yeah those are the Pilos helmets.  Though I have seen some Thracian helmets here and there which were popular in Macedon and Epirus troops.  Spartans grew out their hair and beards to look more like lions and be more fierce.  The Macedonians made everyone shave and cut their hair short so that no one could grab the soldiers by it during battle.

[Gunman006]

Yeah those are the Pilos helmets.  Though I have seen some Thracian helmets here and there which were popular in Macedon and Epirus troops.  Spartans grew out their hair and beards to look more like lions and be more fierce.  The Macedonians made everyone shave and cut their hair short so that no one could grab the soldiers by it during battle.

Ah that is cool, have you studied this era or are you just really into history? 

I disliked Empire. I spent 65 hours on it, but it got boring so quickly imo.

But damn it is a good game, and I think its sad how so many haters are calling this the worst total war game ever.

Empire is the worst Total War game ever but to a degree these can be mitigated by the fact it was a new engine and a stark era departure for the series. Much the Rome 2 'hate' is really just frustration. This is the 4th game on this engine and it still suffers from problems that we had in Empire (piss poor sieges being the biggest problem in my mind). Shogun 2 is undoubtedly the best they have managed on the Warscape engine, sadly it is an era I've never been able to get into (I've put in only 63 hours into it). Rome 2 feels like many steps back.

Can it still be fun, well yes but it still has some pretty serious flaws. Patching will help and if as comprehensive mod support is eventually released as Shogun 2 received, though sadly too late for most to notice, it has a chance.

I disagree, Rome 2 got decent sieges where the computer around turn 30 start getting ballistas and catapults, and if you are fighting a friend it is pure awesome, especially combined with naval landing in addition to ground armies on the same map. It had some flaws in the beginning, I guess this is what caused all the pansies to get hysterical, but almost everything is fixed now, run into a bug now and then but nothing serious.
Shogun 2 was great but it had alot of bugs too, especially in the beginning.

Rome 2 does what the developers wanted to do, and that was to capture the human emotion in the battle. And if you take the time and look into the battles on ultra graphics, you can see facial expressions, talking to each other, cool fighting animations (not as cool as shogun but still awesome) and that every unit moves in a slightly different way, holds his weapon differently, maybe yells a warcry individually which completely gives an awesome experience during the battles never seen before in any other total war game. I got a good friend who is in the same opinion as you though, not saying I'm right, just saying why I love it and my own opinion of it.

No more clone armies, I just love it 

Note: I only play on very hard and legendary difficulty, I dont know how it is on easier difficulty.

[Noble Korhedron]

Yeah those are the Pilos helmets.  Though I have seen some Thracian helmets here and there which were popular in Macedon and Epirus troops.  Spartans grew out their hair and beards to look more like lions and be more fierce.  The Macedonians made everyone shave and cut their hair short so that no one could grab the soldiers by it during battle.

I could be wrong, but what you call a 'Thracian' helmet, I would describe more as a 'Phyrgian cap' helmet. Also, in the basic Rome game(i.e. no mods) the Spartan hoplites appear to use the Pilos helm and are clean-shaven(I think)..... Can't remember for sure 'cause I've been using DarthMod for months now. 

[S.O.F]

I disagree, Rome 2 got decent sieges where the computer around turn 30 start getting ballistas and catapults, and if you are fighting a friend it is pure awesome, especially combined with naval landing in addition to ground armies on the same map.

Poor to no use of Rams, Ladders, and Siege Towers is still a big deal breaker for me. Also I've never been a fan of multiplayer in the strategy settings.