Thread View: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
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Started by Dan Stephenson
Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:29
Rome Total War Tactics: City Defense
Author: Dan Stephenson
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:29
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:29
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I composed this on the mac version of this group but it's quiet over there. Here is my composition on city defense. Thoughts? RTW is totally amazing, I sure wish they'd make a new version of it. 1) the biggest danger when your city is attacked are the seige towers, as they put out a lot of fire on your troops on the walls. If you defend you walls, keep them off the walls until the tower gets very close, then try to get them in position. You will be able to, if you time it right. And your troops will not be reduced by half from the tower fire. 2) This does mean you cannot reduce the enemy forces by arrow fire of your own, if you're keeping your troops off the wall. Therefore, if there is a sizeable force attacking, and I have modest defense forces, I skip defending the walls. Let the the enemy have them. I repeat the bridge-defense mechanism, and defend a narrow street leading into the city square. Typically, the enemy only goes for one entrance, or if multiple, a great majority go for one entrance only. So align your best defense infantry with your archers behind firing fire-arrows. I've used this tactic many times with success. When I win on Very Hard difficulty settings, the key is to keep winning new cities with your armies, not keeping your best troops in cities to defend them through raw numbers. Raw numbers confer no advantage. 3) If your city gates are busted open from a prior attack, or similar with a section of wall, use the bridge-defense tactic there. About 50% of the time, the enemy streams toward that one open spot. This is particularly crucial in the wooden walls where you cannot place archers on the tops of the walls. By the way, the "lead enemy general in front of towers" works with the weak wooden wall towers, just not as well. You have to be very interactive and run around in a kind of circle. The enemy (or your troops for that matter) never ever cut a corner in a chase. They obey a line-of-sight pursuit guidance and therefore always result in a tail-chase. 4) You can often send out a cavalry unit to tease the enemy to chase it to the walls, where you escape through the gates. But not before the towers and the huge numbers of archers you've emplaced on the walls do their damage. 5) Many times, if you sortie to attack a besieger, they run away. The way enemy formations move, is often in their battle formation or similar. This means, if you can guess which way they will run, you can place your long-range archers all on that one side of your walls, and they'll take out a lot of enemy before your infantry even leave the gates. 6) When those beseiging armies run, send your general / cav units out first, to chase down stragglers. Especially the artillery units. Also, archers often run slower than enemy spearman, and cav typically beats archers. Even if the enemy spearmen and archers are running at the same pace, they'll be separated and you can attack the archers anyway, or at least shock-attack and then run away before the spearmen arrive. 7) When the battering ram lumbers in, time a cavalry attack to occur just as it gets in range of the tower fire. This attack causes the ram to stop. Then race your cav back to safety. The extra time is usually enough to cause it to catch fire. This "attack to stop" also works for towers and ladder-carriers, although attacking towers usually aren't destroyed, but, ladder-carriers are very vulnerable and you can get many kills in. Especially if this disturbs the enemy unit when within range if your archers on the walls. Note: you may have to send out the cav from the side gates, to avoid getting mobbed by the enemy. Usually, there is still time to run around. 8) If a unit gets in your city, feint-attack it with cavalry to draw it into a chase. Have the enemy unit chase your cav all along the inside of the walls, where inward firing towers will take out the enemy unit. 9) Often when attacking with a sortie from the city, and particular true for huge numbers of Hordes, keep your back to your city walls, particularly with one or two of your towers nearby. Mini-sortie with loose formation archers to take out their horse archers. When they attack, go to close formation and withdraw behind your infantry line. Then fire more arrows, and this time the towers join in the fire. And if at any point the enemy truly engages, you will at least have your towers on your side. 10) One of the best ways to defend a city under seige, is to attack a city of the beseiging army. That will draw off their army in order to attack your beseiging forces. This does not always require a BIG army on your part, either. This is key to victory when I played as the Frankes on Very Hard / Very Hard, where you are surrounded by nations and you are always getting under seige. 11) Upgrading to even the smallest stone wall is crucial, so you can have archers on the walls. You can have a ton of archers in a wooden walled city, and they really won't do any good. Put them on a small stone wall, and they can be devestating to an attacking enemy. 12) Typically onagers are useless inside your city, as you cannot take them outside the walls. However, there is a potentially large benefit in defense of city walls when attacked by towers. This is particularly true of the large city walls where the enemy towers are extremely powerful. The tactic is, when deploying your troops, place the onagers far back in the city, on side-streets. The idea is to provide them a line of fire.. to the attacking towers! This is the only way I know of it destroy the big powerful attacking towers. The tactic does not always work because you do not know in advance where the attack towers are positioned, or where they will go when you start the battle, or the window of time when the line of fire is available may be small. But try for it, and if they have just tower in particular, or if you have multiple onagers, it may be possible to rob the enemy of their best chance at taking your city walls. -- Dan Stephenson http://web.mac.com/stepheda Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)
Re: Rome Total War Tactics: City Defense
Author: Sheldon England
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:56
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:56
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Dan Stephenson wrote: > RTW is totally amazing, I sure wish they'd make a new version of it. They are releasing Shogun 2 - Total War later this year and most are sure that Rome will be the next re-make. IMO Rome, Shogun, and Medieval 2 are the best of the TW games. - Sheldon
Re: Rome Total War Tactics: City Defense
Author: Dan Stephenson
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:25
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:25
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On 2011-02-25 18:56:00 -0600, Sheldon England said: > Dan Stephenson wrote: >> RTW is totally amazing, I sure wish they'd make a new version of it. > > They are releasing Shogun 2 - Total War later this year and most are > sure that Rome will be the next re-make. IMO Rome, Shogun, and Medieval > 2 are the best of the TW games. > > > - Sheldon What is the gameplay in Shogun like? I mean, is it RTW transplanted to Japan? -- Dan Stephenson http://web.mac.com/stepheda Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)
Re: Rome Total War Tactics: City Defense
Author: rob
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:36
Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:36
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"Dan Stephenson" wrote ... >>> RTW is totally amazing, I sure wish they'd make a new version of it. >> >> They are releasing Shogun 2 - Total War later this year and most are sure >> that Rome will be the next re-make. IMO Rome, Shogun, and Medieval 2 are >> the best of the TW games. > What is the gameplay in Shogun like? I mean, is it RTW transplanted to > Japan? Demo is available at Steam, probably other places as well. I'm in Christchurch so will download it as soon as my broadband is back up
Re: Rome Total War Tactics: City Defense
Author: Insane Ranter
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:57
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:57
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On Feb 25, 7:56 pm, Sheldon England <sheldonengl...@netscape.net> wrote: > Dan Stephenson wrote: > > RTW is totally amazing, I sure wish they'd make a new version of it. > > They are releasing Shogun 2 - Total War later this year and most are > sure that Rome will be the next re-make. IMO Rome, Shogun, and Medieval > 2 are the best of the TW games. > > - Sheldon I want a WW1 version!
Re: Rome Total War Tactics: City Defense
Author: Sheldon England
Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:57
Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:57
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Dan Stephenson wrote: > > What is the gameplay in Shogun like? I mean, is it RTW transplanted to > Japan? Actually, they have dumbed down the tactics/battles in each new game. Shogun has the best 'models' of them all. The graphics are obviously not as nice but only in Shogun do troops tire out when climbing hills so height is an important advantage. Rain/snow and wind affect arrow accuracy and effectiveness, and fog obscures. Bridge provinces (rivers that can only be crossed at primary bridges) are a major pain to capture but a delight to defend. As far as the campaign, it is similar to Rome but there is no senate to get in your way. The emperor may favour other clans but there is nothing stopping you from attacking at will. The Portugese and Dutch traders eventually bring in muskets and arquebusiers ... and Christianity if you so choose. The ninja are like assassins but moreso the geisha are spies and your best hired killers. Each of the clans have strengths and weaknesses. There are no siege weapons at all in Shogun but you can still lay siege to castles in the campaign map. There are no missions -- just war and politics. Kensai are fun to watch in action -- these are sword masters who can as individuals take out small groups of enemies. The biggest failing of Shogun, IMO, is the beach invasion oversight. Once you know where an enemy port is, you can send armies from your ports to beach invade. The enemy AI never takes advantage of this in return so I play without ever using this loophole. Apparently Shogun 2 will include naval warfare. FWIW. - Sheldon
Rome Total War: what do you want in a sequel?
Author: Dan Stephenson
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 01:13
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 01:13
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On 2011-03-02 16:57:57 -0600, Sheldon England said: > Dan Stephenson wrote: >> >> What is the gameplay in Shogun like? I mean, is it RTW transplanted to >> Japan? > > Actually, they have dumbed down the tactics/battles in each new game. Well this is bad news. I hope the developers know better when they make the sequel to Rome Total War. I would also like to see onagers and ballistas on city walls, or, at least be able to direct towers to what I want them to shoot at. -- Dan Stephenson http://web.mac.com/stepheda Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)
Re: Rome Total War Tactics: City Defense
Author: Ross Ridge
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:07
Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:07
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Sheldon England <sheldonengland@netscape.net> wrote: >Actually, they have dumbed down the tactics/battles in each new game. >Shogun has the best 'models' of them all. The graphics are obviously not >as nice but only in Shogun do troops tire out when climbing hills so >height is an important advantage. Rain/snow and wind affect arrow >accuracy and effectiveness, and fog obscures. Bridge provinces (rivers >that can only be crossed at primary bridges) are a major pain to capture >but a delight to defend. I remeber all these things (except wind) affecting battles in Rome: Total War. I've never played Shogun or any other of the games in the series, so I don't know if they had as big a factor in Rome, but I've definately used these things to my advantage. Ross Ridge -- l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU [oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca -()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ db //
Re: Rome Total War: what do you want in a sequel?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 17:09
Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 17:09
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On Fri, 4 Mar 2011 19:13:06 -0600, Dan Stephenson <stephedanospam@mac.com> wrote: >On 2011-03-02 16:57:57 -0600, Sheldon England said: > One feature I've always wanted is to have the computer resolve the battles, but let me WATCH it do so. I enjoy the strategic game but I'm tactically inept when it comes to the actual battles. Fortunately, the games let you autoresolve the conflicts, but they did it behind the scenes; you just got a summary screen telling you the outcome. Since the whole point of the Total War games was battles with the insane number of units, I missed out on a lot of the experience. Watching the battles would be a lot more fun than a dry outcome summary. It might inspire me to fight a few of the battles myself, too.
Re: Rome Total War: what do you want in a sequel?
Author: John Doe
Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:46
Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 18:46
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson gmail.com> wrote: > Dan Stephenson <stephedanospam@mac.com> wrote: >> Sheldon England said: >> > One feature I've always wanted is to have the computer resolve > the battles, but let me WATCH it do so. I had the same (IMO good) idea about chess, but most were too anti-chess computer at the time. That sounds like a good option for real-time strategy (RTS), when playing either skirmish or multiplayer. -- > > I enjoy the strategic game but I'm tactically inept when it comes to > the actual battles. Fortunately, the games let you autoresolve the > conflicts, but they did it behind the scenes; you just got a summary > screen telling you the outcome. Since the whole point of the Total War > games was battles with the insane number of units, I missed out on a > lot of the experience. > > Watching the battles would be a lot more fun than a dry outcome > summary. It might inspire me to fight a few of the battles myself, > too. > > >
Re: Rome Total War: what do you want in a sequel?
Author: Dan Stephenson
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:05
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2011 03:05
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On 2011-03-06 11:09:25 -0600, Spalls Hurgenson said: > On Fri, 4 Mar 2011 19:13:06 -0600, Dan Stephenson > <stephedanospam@mac.com> wrote: > >> On 2011-03-02 16:57:57 -0600, Sheldon England said: >> > One feature I've always wanted is to have the computer resolve the > battles, but let me WATCH it do so. > > I enjoy the strategic game but I'm tactically inept when it comes to > the actual battles. Fortunately, the games let you autoresolve the > conflicts, but they did it behind the scenes; you just got a summary > screen telling you the outcome. Since the whole point of the Total War > games was battles with the insane number of units, I missed out on a > lot of the experience. That is a good point. After all, the computer DOES do the AI. Even AI for 're-enforcement armies'. Did you read my city defense article? Hopefully that gave you some ideas. I'll write a big battlefield article at some point, but not tonight. The basics, though, are: put archers behind infantry and try to use cavalry to wheel around the enemy and attack while they're engaged with your infantry. > > Watching the battles would be a lot more fun than a dry outcome > summary. It might inspire me to fight a few of the battles myself, > too. even if you do nothing in the battles, you can watch the AI attack you. Usually the starting army formation is OK. -- Dan Stephenson http://web.mac.com/stepheda Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)
Re: Rome Total War: what do you want in a sequel?
Author: Sheldon England
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:30
Date: Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:30
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Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > > One feature I've always wanted is to have the computer resolve the > battles, but let me WATCH it do so. Actually that would be a very good 'tutorial' of sorts for learning techniques. > Watching the battles would be a lot more fun than a dry outcome > summary. It might inspire me to fight a few of the battles myself, > too. Agreed. - Sheldon
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