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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Khajiit will definitely be bookmarking that! Thank you for posting this!

My first plague of the game has struck in Campus Roxolani.

Not far to the west, the Hun horde turned back to strike at Vicus Sarmatae. The besieging army was wiped out by my sallying Sarmatians. That left 3 Hun stacks left. My army marched out and built a fort in front of them, daring them to attack. They did, and I sallied from the fort. Scratch two more Hun armies. The following turn General Ara caught up with the final Hun army. The Huns are now nothing but a memory. That is two factions I have destroyed this game.

Far south, in the warm climes of Greece, I have one army laying siege to Thessalonika. From the Roman armies I see in the field around it, they will probably do the me favor of attacking me and giving me a battle in the open field, sparing me from assaulting the city. Farther south, my second army of invasion assaulted Athens. The Roman Emperor within was laid into the dust!

Only Thessalonika remains of Greece. After that the ERE has about half a dozen settlements in the Balkans. Surely now they smell their impending doom?

With their Eastern Roman noses so high in the air? Not likely.

But hey, that'll make your victory that much sweeter when you descend upon them like a scourge of the gods!

Down with the ERE!


My Saxon campaign is proceeding slowly but surely. My eastern army took the dane-held town of Oium, so the entire province of Germano-Sarmatia is now under my control. A short time after my victory, the Danes offered me a peace treaty and some gold, both of which I accepted. No point continuing that conflict now that I've taken the land that I want.

Not everything went smoothly though, and a horde of Huns showed up to attack the weakened Oium. After my high priestess assassinated the Hun leader, my forces sallied forth and defeated their army. We followed the retreating horde through the winter snows and made sure they were completely destroyed. We're having some food shortages in the region, and Huns on our doorstep really wasn't helping.

Back in the west, I formed a cavalry force at Tulifurdum. They're heavily armed, well trained, elite horsemen and will be used as a Hun hunting force. The second Hun horde is somewhere between Frisia and Germano-Sarmatia, but the exact whereabouts are unclear (and obviously they move around all the time).

A plague on the Hunic vermin!

Looks like slaying Huns is all the rage!

Well video game ones anyway

Actually it'll probably be awhile before Khajiit jumps into BI, and therefore has to face the Huns.

Ugh, Khajiit is having to spend a fortune on boats to defeat the pirate fleets that keep springing up around Britannia. The bigger boats help, but man those pirates are annoying!

Eventually you will get so rich that you will have to invent ways to spend your money.

My Sarmatian hordes continued their roll through the Balkans, taking both Salona and Aquincum. I didn't realize it, but that met the game's victory conditions!

But three of the Eastern Roman Empire's cities remain. This will not do. So three Sarmatian armies lay siege to all at once. After conquering the second of them, the last of the accursed Roman royal family lay ground in the dust. With him died the Eastern Roman Empire. The final Roman city turned Rebel. That of course did not save them from Sarmatian arrows...

That does it. I not only met the game's official victory conditions, but also my own goal of destroying the ERE. With 35 territories, I am done.

One thing Khajiit doesn't get about our short Briton campaign is why Gaul is our main enemy when our Gran-da on the intro movie is clearly not happy with the Romans' behavior.

And now for a campaign update:

The silly Germans finally attacked our town in the Danish peninsula with a numerically superior force and besieged it. Fortunately they were superior only in numbers, and we were able to sally and rout their army. After the battle some reinforcements from Londinium arrived! 3 warbands and a woad warrior unit disembarked from the ships and joined our army in the town. Now we will replenish our numbers and hopefully the town will grow so we can build more buildings there.

Also the dumb Gauls think it's cute to take a tiny navy and blockade our ports. Given all the trouble with pirates we've had, our navy is pretty big and has no problems sweeping aside their pathetic blockades.


Hail the conquering warrior queen! Hail!

The way Rome Total War works, whoever is currently your neighbor is your biggest enemy. The game actually has two AIs, which operate completely independently. The diplomacy AI makes alliances and the like based on what the computer thinks makes sense for the faction. But the tactical AI attacks whenever it sees a weakness. So if you have a lightly defended city bordering another faction, or have a small army moving near the border, the AI will attack. This is even if the diplomacy AI made an alliance with you on the same turn!

Basically it is a dog eat dog world, and you will have to fight and destroy everyone you come into contact with eventually.

Congrats Rosa! Man, those Romans didn't know what hit them!


My own campaign is still going slowly. My victory conditions require me to control Britannia Superior and do some raiding. The only problem is that there isn't anyone to raid, at least not without starting half a dozen wars. This will require some finesse.

I did manage to wipe out the remnants of the Ebdanians today. The few troops they had left all fell to the explosive ammunition of my large onagers. Elsewhere, my cavalry forces engaged what I thought was the main body of the Huns - either the main horde is hiding elsewhere, or the Huns are a lot weaker than I anticipated. Their army was primarily infantry, and only a few of those were spearmen. They were dealt with quickly and easily.

The (not quite so ferocious) Huns

My force of elite heavy cavalry

My scouts test the Huns, forcing them out to give chase

By the time my one-and-only infantry unit arrived, the battle was long over

With the Huns all but destroyed, I plan to send a force south towards the ERE lands (or what used to be the ERE, I'm not sure how things are going down there) to find any good raiding targets. I plan to take Britannia through diplomacy, though the Britains and Franks are being stubborn.

No one to raid!?! What is a Nordic Warrior to do!

You are right, the Huns don't look very ferocious. Or Hunnish for that matter. That looks like the third string Germanic mercenaries they hired...

Forth Eorlingas!

Diplomacy! What would Donar say! I say negotiate on the blade of your axes!

There is always someone to raid! Kick the poo out of those southron "warriors" Haz!

Since the WRE has been destroyed, I'm guessing that the ERE won't be too strong either. It might be easier to fight them, but perhaps more profitable to fight a stronger faction like the Sassanids. All of this also depends on the White Huns, who should be roaming around down there somewhere.

True. Stronger folks will have more goods. Good luck!

Before he saved and quit last time, Khajiit took a Gaulish town on the lower west coast of what will be France. We then sent a diplomat to check in with our old Spanish trade partners in hopes of forging an alliance and guess who was there. Why none other than our old allies, the Julii (we allied ourselves with them earlier in the campaign, set up a trade agreement, and then left them to their own devices). With the war against the Gauls and Germans swinging in our favor, we appear to be on a collision course with the "Red Romans". Khajiit will need to be especially mindful of keeping a decent force in any land bordering a Julii territory. Those guys are not to be trusted!

Aww crap. Just read part of that strategy guide Subbie posted a link to earlier and discovered a neat little trick: disbanding units in or near a city adds population to that city. Khajiit did not know this! The level of detail in this game is crazy! The Danish peninsula is about to get some emigrants from the Isles!

*Edit*
OMG!!! You can purposefully expose an agent to the plague and send him to a city to spread it?!!

Biological warfare is a great tactic for weakening your enemies. So is filling their cities with spies and using assassins to destroy their temples and other public order buildings. You can make the cities riot that way, and cause even more damage.

I was doing a defensive Scythian campaign once, and my greatest problem were the Armenians. They sent army after army of cataphracts at me. So I sent a wave of spies and assassins into their cities, and destroyed all of their stables in all of their cities every turn. Their invasions stopped.

Nice! Gotta try that too!

A slow time for the Saxons at the moment, though we're making some progress. An alliance with the Franks brings us close to controlling Britannia - only the Britains stand in my way. They're allied with the Franks, so I can't attack them right now, but that alliance is deteriorating quite quickly.

Over in the east, my Hun hunters are tracking a horde and closing in fast. We were slowed down by the winter snows, prolonged by global warming, but the thaw has now arrived and I can proceed. My spy confirms that this horde is the real deal - more horses than you can shake a pike at. It promises to be a worthy challenge.

As for my raiding plans, I'm still not sure. My slavic allies have more land than I realised, so I need to keep heading south. The Sassanids are my primary target, but we'll have to wait and see.

Hun Hunters? Are they led by Ethan Hunt?

So is raiding a new mechanic? Or did you just march an army the normal way through the lands of your allies. With the idea of attacking the Pesians and taking cities/looting cities like normal?

Armies can enter a special raiding stance while they're moving around (I think stances were added in Rome 2). It lowers army upkeep, gives me some gold, and reduces public order in the province being raided. Great way to make money and draw enemies into a battle. I haven't done any raiding yet, since I'm still in allied land.

I have a military access agreement with my allies, so we can move troops freely through each other's territories. Makes chasing Huns easier.

Raiding sounds like a fun mechanic!

Got another update. Holy moly, things are very much happening now. 414AD:

My forces attacked and easily defeated the Huns. I was particularly impressed with my mercenary steppe mounted bowmen - great work on the flanks. While this was happening, my forces in Britannia began raiding the Britains' land around Camulodunum.

My spy continues to head south, and has discovered 4 new Hunnic hordes! Not all are at full strength, but it was still quite a shock. 2 of these hordes quickly make their way towards my lands, raiding some areas and attacking the city of Palteskja. Rather than waiting for my forces to starve to death, I charged forth to attack the Huns head on. One horde was destroyed, while the other put up a really good fight and limped away after killing 50% of my army. My Hunters were too far south to assist, but have swung back around to cut off the Huns' retreat.

While all this was happening, a Danish agent attempted to assassinate my high priestess. He failed, but she was injured and had to recover - this, combined with the Hun attacks, hit my public order really hard. To top it all off, a plague broke out in Palteskja.

Everything's under control now, but I'm forming a second army of infantry to back up my Hunters. I'm also considering reigniting my war with the Danes - nobody attacks my high priestess and gets away with it.

My cavalry prepare to face their first Hunnic horsemen

My mercenary steppe mounted bowmen on the flanks

The Huns

Battle begins

Chaos. We actually lost very few troops here, while the Huns suffered massive casualties, including their general.

Further north, a second horde prepares to attack my city.

My forces advance through the fire

Both sides take heavy losses. We were quite evenly matched, and my forces had to attack quickly since the Huns' large onagers could out-shoot anything we had. Of the 900 troops I fielded, over 450 were killed. The Huns lost a little over 400 of their 700 troops. A close victory for me.

The world map. The Franks and Alemans are still making good progress in Europe, while the ERE have been pushed right back. My agent in Caucasia will swing west to see how badly the Romans are really doing.

Wow Haz, those Huns sound annoyingly persistent. Glad to hear you were able to salvage victory out of those potentially sticky situations.

Had a much more relaxed time today. Destroyed two hordes, and the rest vanished.

The plague in my lands (the actual plague, not the Huns) cleared up, but not before it was passed along a trade route to my ally in the east. Whoops. Now I'm trying to get a better balance of food/sanitation/public order - I think I've got it sorted, but time will tell.

To the south, my agent found the eastern border of the ERE. They only have a few lands, but they all look quite strong. There are lots of different factions in the south and east, but no good raiding target has really jumped out at me yet.

As for the ongoing raid in Britannia, the Britains still refuse to declare war and attack me. I've assassinated two of their generals, but I might have to kick things off myself. The risk here is that the Franks may take the Britains' side, which would in turn make the Jutes and Geats attack the Franks, and I'd start a bigger war than I need right now.

If the silly Britons let you raid with impunity then that's exactly what Khajiit would continue doing. Something will have to give with them eventually.

Mixed day today.

As soon as the winter snow thawed, the Huns returned. I destroyed 2 hordes straight away, while another two attacked one of my armies while it was moving between towns. We managed to fend the Huns off, but not before they killed our general (the best general my faction had). The new general, who took over command of this force, lead a counter attack and finished the two Hun hordes off. My lands are clear of Huns again for the time being, though I really want to find their faction leader so I can assassinate him.

Over in Britannia, I declared war on the Britain faction. I sent a gift to the Franks just before that, and was rewarded for my generosity - the Franks didn't join the war. The Britains put up a rather poor defence, and I won a decisive victory and captured the town of Camulodunum. Now I just need to upgrade my defensive alliance with the Franks to a military alliance, to fulfil one of my victory conditions (I could also take the 3 Frankish settlements in Britannia, but alliance is way easier).

In the south, my agent is still exploring. We found the Sassanids, who seem to have a pretty big empire. My dreams of raiding them may have to be shelved. Not only are the Sassanids themselves powerful, they also control several other factions in the area. It might actually be better if I went to war against the ERE. I'll continue looking for a better target - I need to capture a few more settlements to complete my victory conditions.

Here's some shots from the Hun battle in which my general was killed:

It's over, Hunakin, I have the high ground.

The first half of the horde emerges from the misty treeline

A short while later, and the battle is won

The Hunnic survivors make their escape

I hate losing a really good general like that. Those Huns are becoming troublesome! You have already killed a pile of them, and they just keep coming with more.

I definitely prefer that place to Mustafar!

Wow, it looks like your archers really did a number on the Huns before they even reached your line. But I can see your own guys have definitely thinned out by the end. That must have been some battle!

That's right, run Huns, the exterminators are here!

Anybody here ever use peasants in a battle?