I figured out a new tactic in Rome that you guys probably knew already:

As you may know, the war dogs regenerate after each battle as long as their keeper stay alive. As you also may know, your legionnaires hardly have time to throw their javelins when an enemy is charging at them. So, when the enemy is charging at you, you can throw your wardogs at them as they get in range of your javelins, stopping the charge! That lets your legionnaires throw their javelins and even do a counter charge. I did this on a bridge battle just now, where the enemy was crossing the bridge and i was defending. I threw some war dogs at them as they massed just before the entrance to my side of the bridge, which gave my SIX cohorts of principes to unload ALL of their javelins! Think of six 80 man cohorts at 2 javelins each just launching them into a mob of unarmored barbarians from all sides but the rear! It was glorious.

Got an epic Rome campaign going on in the Europa Barbarorum mod. Just finished up mopping up the rest of mainland Italy, took three provinces on the northern border neighboring the Gauls, and now it's time to initiate war with Carthage because Sicily will be mine!

First Punic war anyone? And right on time too... 264 B.C.E.

Edit: Upon checking my game it seems I've also initiated the Illyrian Wars, but a tad early it seems. Also, had some random skirmishes with the Gauls, so I guess my attempts at expanding and playing Rome as historically as possible is out of the question now.

I feel this should also be stated. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php All the modding action happens here, it's all hosted, tons of forums and sub-forums etc etc. You can find stable links to EVERY mod you could think of for TW games. For some of the larger mods, the creators have made torrents available for a nice and speedy download all with one click of a button. Just a bunch of good stuff all around. Second favorite forums overall on the entire internets.

If you don't know how to unlock this faction maybe this http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1118933-total-war-discussion/page__view__findpost__p__16668007 can help you out.

The Greeks do have the spartans which are really tough and useful for defending a city or if you're outnumbered in the battlefield.
I've never play Macedonian before so I can't say, but has anyone try the Seleucid's or Dacia?

Just got the empire and Napoleon GOTY edition, can't wait!

Nice! I've put over 400 hours playing Empire it's a great game. Sad but true.. maybe i should get a life. nah

Do you mean Empire & Napoleon Gold Edition?

I remember I once did a custom battle with 1 group of Spartan hoplites vs a full stack of enemy peasants. I think I lost one guy (he'll be forever honoured), while the peasants broke and ran after losing a thousand men to their spears. You can't count on peasants to do anything right...

Edit: I started playing as the Scythian's, to try them out. I lost my leader after only about 10 turns... he decided to foolishly charge some Rebels unaided, and met one of their spears. Needless to say, that was quite embarrassing. His son is on his way to avenge him now.

Not sure if I like the Scythians yet. They have a lot of archers, which is good, but they lack infantry and non-ranged cavalry. They have them of course, they are just limited. Going to have to work on my tactics a bit so that the enemy is weakened by arrows long before they meet me in close combat. I also foresee defending cities to be troublesome against elite infantry.

I mean http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0041G5SD8/ref=s9_simh_gw_p63_d7_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0Z44RCXFH9FZSA5JACEF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

The one that comes with both games, and all the DLC

why d'you ask?

My fav is Rome: Total War, played that a lot but I haven't even tried Empire yet.
Quite disappointed that the next setting is Shogun 2... So limited, and I'm not interested in Japanese military history with samurai and stuff.
Personally I would like to see a new game that covers the entire span of the middle-ages. (I think medieval total war only covered like 1100-1500?).
Another setting which might be interesting is a fictional one, where they include every "warrior society" in history in a fictional planet earth where they co-exist at the same time. Preferably excluding post-gunpowder societies.

Try Macedon then

Maybe on my next run I am doing quite well with the Scythians right now. Dacia is being slowly consumed into my Empire (they started it!), and I have various trade relations and alliances with other nations. For the most part, I make a fair bit of money each turn and most of my cities are extremely loyal (allowing me to tax high for a while). I do very well against the other barbarian nations, but I haven't had to face the Romans or their counterparts yet. Time will tell how effective my strategies on the battlefield are against them.

Right now the tactic I find works best is I send my archer cavalry to weaken their infantry/light cavalry, then I send in my wardogs. The dogs usually get slaughtered in the end (I pull their trainers back so that I still have the units afterwards), but that is their purpose. I then send my axemen in to soften up the survivors, and charge them from behind with my generals/light cavalry units. They usual break and run during the axemen stage, so the cavalry are mostly to mop up survivors and prevent them from routing. My usual casualties are less than 10% on most battles, and that is mostly from the dog-martyrs.

So I finally fixed the bugs with my program to add Medieval 2 mods to the registry, this allows them to be added to the launcher. Seems to be the only way to play mods with the Steam version without losing access to another campaign. Quite glad it finally works.

Ahaha, I started a new Rome campaign on RTR yesterday (VH/VH) and after playing virtually all night (paid for that at school today) I am now at 252 BC and I just won what was purely a diplomatic and intelligence gathering victory, though my generals did play their part. Being at war with Gaul was mostly a naval affair for the twenty or so turns since they had blockaded my port with out armies maneuvering around the cities of the north around the Po River. Finally my armies made a move first and captured Bonnonia (a rebel city at the time after a strange rebellion that kicked the Gallic admin. out), thus robbing them of their access into Italy proper.

For another six or so turns we moved around the bridge across the Po, and we both attempted some ambushes which failed but kept each other honest and hiring some more spies (at least I did ). Finally, my Iberian allies declared war on them and my spies in the Alps saw three armies pull back to get to their new front. Seizing the opportunity, I set up a hasty garrison of mercenaries, some veteran infantry and a young and eager General to hold the bridge and way into Italy while my main Legion boarded the fleet and sailed past the river to besiege Patavium.

Seeing this, but also noting my considerable garrison/merc force across the river, they decided to let the city to its own fate and protect Mediolanium and their backs by holding the bridge area. However, time was running out and they had a considerable force inside Patavium, including the Faction Heir, many heavy infantry and a considerable amount of slingers and I didn't want to risk my troops at the base of their walls so I opted for starving them.

Luckily I had a large network of spies in the Alpine passes and in Gaul itself that forewarned me of two large armies (one lead by their King himself!!) coming through one of the passes which would reach my army in at least 2 turns. So I packed up my bridge-garrison and sailed them to Patavium as well in a risky move.

They however wanted to open talks of peace before the blood-letting and offered a truce between factions. Obviously using it as a chance to re-group their forces, I seized the opportunity and demanded the renewal of trade rights, map info, a single payment of 3000 gold and to top it off--- the city of Patavium. And they accepted with little choice, though I would have had to assault their walls, and though I would have won the loss of Roman life would be too high to be acceptable amongst the Roman people.



It's quite an enjoyable campaign

Illyria is actually doing something and has bested Greece for 3 of their cities now and has a strong alliance with Macedon and Thrace. I like seeing them expand because usually they take two cities along the Adriatic and then implode on themselves as their troops are too low of quality to generally be any use. Unfortunately the Seleucids are falling quickly again as I would've liked to see at least 1 campaign where they actually expand and keep their land instead of getting steadily eaten away by Egypt, Pontus, Parthia, Armenia and the Bactrians.

Yes that one. I suspect your copy was the same I heard mentioned about last year, so now you have it confirmed and save by gaming future. :thumbsup:

Hey guys I just got empire total war and had a question to ask because I am struggling. I was wondering if I am doing something wrong because I am very poor.
I'm playing as Great Britain and I own the 13 colonies as well as a bit of territory like Florida and eastern Canada. I managed to conquer France and what is modern day Belgium. I have a lot of plantations. Nearly all my settlements are upgraded to have commercial ports and have high level plantations because I researched division of labor. I trade with my allies and some neutral countries too. Tax wise I try to tax at the highest level I can without making the population unhappy. I'm at war with France (hanging on with just a few regions) Spain and the barbery states I think they are called. I think economically I should be rolling in the cash but I can barely make ends meat for my nation. I recognize my largest expense is my army but what else am I supposed to do? My cities do need defending, weather I like it or not I have to garrison troops in the cities. That and to win I have to capture regions so I have to build armies to conquer. How am I supposed to make more money? Conquering somewhere actually costs more than its worth because you have to repair buildings, upgrade them, upgrade the farms and such in the area. On a tight budget that will take me way too long. Any tips?

Build a couple stacks of trade ships and send them off to some trade nodes.

And you really shouldn't be wasting too many units as garrisons in your cities, just for starters. Especially not in cities that aren't on your front lines.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=233129

1. Cut taxes: High taxes are bad. They decrease the development of wealth. Therefore, high taxes over a long period of time decrease your income from taxes. Taxes on the nobility do this directly. Taxes on the Middle class (or lower if your playing anyone but England and Poland) increase the rate of town growth.
2. Are you using troops to garrison towns so you can have higher taxes? If so, lower taxes, disband troops, make money.
3. Don't waste money upgrading Trade Ports on the mainland. They don't help you. Only upgrade the ones on the British Isles and in the Americas. Also, don't upgrade the ones in Britain if you don't need more trade slots. Also, don't go overboard upgrading the ones in the colonies. Ports are expensive, and they don't pay for themselves without allowing you more trade routes or to export more goods.
4. Check your trade routes. If your partner is being blockaded, that can seriously hurt your bottom line. Consider revoking trade routes that are being blockaded.

I usually attack the country that would be blockading an allied port.

If you are at war, try to raid enemy trade routes for a little extra cash. Its not much, but it can certainly help if you raid a major trade route.

Ah thank you all this helps. I only garrison troops because I worry that if I leave my cities unattended or poorly defended then the enemy can just walk up and snatch the city from me and I can't fight back.
I have been recruiting trading ships but oh my goodness they take two turns to build one boat! That is really unusual because I can build sloops in 1 turn. Also, any tips on how to decrease research time excluding putting a gentleman in the school/college/university?

I think Shogun 2 is basically them saying "screw the future". They'll hopefully hop around timeframes, like Mesopotamia: Total War and Native Americans: Total War.

Definitely going to buy Shogun 2, as the first one has sentimental meaning to me.

Shogun 2 looks amazing. I just hope they fix the engine to make the games more playable.

Some fixes would be good. I seem to remember banging my head against the wall at some of the AI in medieval 2. Especially in castles

Just figured I'd mention that the Shogun 2: Total War demo is available on Steam now, and warn that in accordance with Total War tradition it's kind of huge.
Reserve 6 Gb at least

Nice. I'll have to check that out. I've preordered the game already, but a demo would be good.

Played through most of the available campaign in the demo. All battles are pre-scripted, so you can't test how dumb the AI really is. It runs very smooth for me though.