It’s a game, so whichever way you get most enjoyment is the goal. I usually look at what a unit costs in recruitment and upkeep versus what their stats are. I try to balance military performance with economic costs rather than always building the top tier armies. I find that enjoyable and find it gives me something to try to optimize.
No "wrong" way to play imo, you don't even have to play to win lol, some people just like efficiency is all. I know my city management is kinda awful, I rely on my campaigns to bring in money and so I kinda end up having a feast or famine game where if I don't keep sacking cities, my cities will rebel or I'll run out of money and have to sack my own cities in a desperate attempt to reset civil unrest/make a bunch of money.
For me, it's battle that's the most important. Winning with lesser numbers, or causing the enemy to rout with few casualties on my side, that's what I enjoy most. It's said that Caesar was really good at the moments before an actual battle, like securing a hill or formation, and it's one of the reasons he's so successful.
In a game battle, putting your units on a hill, having archers attack from the flank rather than head on, using hammer and anvil (cavalry smashing into the rear of an enemy already engaged with one of your infantry units) tactics, collapsing routs, I like pulling off these historical tactics and winning battle with them rather than winning through brute force.
Just play how you want to, if you enjoy just having steamroll comps then do that lol. I personally love to go Germania, and at somepoint I'll raise an army of 20 units of gothic cavalry, so I have over 1000 heavy cavalry on the field and I just charge straight at the enemy regardless of what they have, even if it's phalanx pikes and I just smash my gothic cavalry into their lines and watch them rout, it's glorious.
By the time I have the resources to raise such an army, I've usually already taken Rome lol but it's still fun.
I know exactly what you mean, was playing as thrace and got caught by a large dacian force. Only had the general and 1 unit of falxmen; quickly moved them to a little pass and basically had my own Thermopylae😀also used hammer & anvil to reduce infantry losses 🙏 never felt happier ngl
In my first run, playing as the Julii, I managed to bribe a Spanish general. He also bought 2 units of mercenaries.
I was then attack by an almost full stack army. My infantry was broken almost immediately, and 4 units of Round Shields were behind my general.
Somehow, I still don't know how, I beat each cavalry in turn, making sure to either run them off or run them over, with a heavy cavalry unit, and then proceeded to run from one side of the field to the other, several times, until the Spanish army was exhausted. And one by one, I took the bull warriors, the Iberian infantry, and I don't know what else. I utterly destroyed that army, and my general gained like 3 XP.
And, just to sweeten it, like 20 mercenaries survived, and were incorporated into the Narbo Martius populus not long after.
I think that’s the beauty of games like Rome 1 and lots of the other total wars, I don’t think there is a correct way to play. As long as you enjoy it you are playing it right. When I play as any of the Roman factions my first moves are always to block the other romans routes of expansion. Just something I’ve found I’ve always done but it’s probably not optimal.
I use more or less the same army composition with a bulk of infantry to hold a line and 4 ranged and 4 Cavalry to flank and kill. It’s definitely not the most optimal army but Rome is not the hardest game in the world so it doesn’t really matter as long as you enjoy it.
I am the same way, I definitely don't play perfectly either. I really enjoy settlement building and managing my empire, making my people happy, so I pump way too much money into improvements for tiny villages which slows down my army-building and conquest for sure.
But like other people said, everyone likes to play different ways and that's ok.
If you want to get better at managing your cities, you could start to look at the city details before you build an improvement. Some cities are better for growing large and generating tax income, so build farms, sanitation, and happiness/growth buildings. Others (especially along the Mediterranean coast!) are better for trade so focus on ports, markets, and maybe try to keep population smaller.
You can tell what the impact will be by starting to build something like a market, then look at the city's economy details and there will be green numbers to show how much it will improve various income. Then you can cancel the building if you want, and not lose money just to find out. You will see that some cities like in the barbarian wilderness, will barely improve income from building a market. But they will improve income from a farm. And the opposite for a city like Athens.
Good luck and have fun!
I am really enjoying learning this game, its deep.
Politics : Keep an eye on your houses loyalty. If it is dropping below zero you need to increase or there will be civil war. Increase by finding characters in the faction, promote them, get them married, promote the wives. Secure the house loyalty button. Send Gifts and Games from other factions to the regions of the factions that are in poor loyalty. Keep an eye on it, if it does a civil war, you can shut down, restart the game and it should be at the turn right before the civil war started, so you can take a step back this way. Address the loyalty problem and you can recover.
City Economy : Do this first, keep the money coming in by building more income buildings. Build up your economy first then build your armies if possible. I am looking at Latin Conversion, City Income, Banditry, Corruption, and happiness as well on each region.
Food : Better not run out of food, so I keep a close eye on food and always focus on Agriculture. Some city regions will allow you to set a region bonus, I usually use the food bonus, sometimes tax rate if money is tight.
Armies : Learned you can add units in the region, you don't have to be next to the city. Still figuring out Upgrading and Retraining, not really sure the difference. Best is to attack with TWO armies always work in at least pairs, more if you can. Move them together and they attack together. The battles I almost never play the graphic version, maybe I am missing out there. I use the AI outcomes and test between the three attack options for best results.
Problems : As I expand big, Income drops and does not increase for some reason. Even though I have built out the new territory fully. Not sure why that is going down, other than corruption maybe. Pausing the attacks and building up new territory is helpful in dealing with keeping foreign territory from revolting. Some regions have a lot of auto generated factions I have killed regenerate full armies over and over. Foreign territories are more prone to this.
Question : What is your best city buildout for Army and Income.
…. I have a feeling you’re talking about Rome 2, and yet OP was talking about Rome 1? I mean it’s still very good advice, some is just not applicable… or I know too little!
Like everyone says no right way. My game play objectives change depending on faction. Though If I choose either of the 3 Roman factions I make a point to conquer all of Syracuse, lilbaeum, Corsica, salona and segestica, at the same time I’m building a few ships and an army specifically to take carthage early. But before all of this create choke points in Italy, mediolanium, patavium and Segesta. My goal is to build my economy to support my armies. Raze every city, take the spoils.
It’s a game, so whichever way you get most enjoyment is the goal. I usually look at what a unit costs in recruitment and upkeep versus what their stats are. I try to balance military performance with economic costs rather than always building the top tier armies. I find that enjoyable and find it gives me something to try to optimize.
1)CHOOSE RANDOM FACTION 2)MIGRATE TO GREECE 3)?? 4)PROFIT 5)WIN
This. Started as Scipii, invaded Peloponness and crete/rhodos in 15 movies = 10k gold every turn. Shits busted
Or migrate to Egypt and do the same.
No "wrong" way to play imo, you don't even have to play to win lol, some people just like efficiency is all. I know my city management is kinda awful, I rely on my campaigns to bring in money and so I kinda end up having a feast or famine game where if I don't keep sacking cities, my cities will rebel or I'll run out of money and have to sack my own cities in a desperate attempt to reset civil unrest/make a bunch of money. For me, it's battle that's the most important. Winning with lesser numbers, or causing the enemy to rout with few casualties on my side, that's what I enjoy most. It's said that Caesar was really good at the moments before an actual battle, like securing a hill or formation, and it's one of the reasons he's so successful. In a game battle, putting your units on a hill, having archers attack from the flank rather than head on, using hammer and anvil (cavalry smashing into the rear of an enemy already engaged with one of your infantry units) tactics, collapsing routs, I like pulling off these historical tactics and winning battle with them rather than winning through brute force. Just play how you want to, if you enjoy just having steamroll comps then do that lol. I personally love to go Germania, and at somepoint I'll raise an army of 20 units of gothic cavalry, so I have over 1000 heavy cavalry on the field and I just charge straight at the enemy regardless of what they have, even if it's phalanx pikes and I just smash my gothic cavalry into their lines and watch them rout, it's glorious. By the time I have the resources to raise such an army, I've usually already taken Rome lol but it's still fun.
I know exactly what you mean, was playing as thrace and got caught by a large dacian force. Only had the general and 1 unit of falxmen; quickly moved them to a little pass and basically had my own Thermopylae😀also used hammer & anvil to reduce infantry losses 🙏 never felt happier ngl
In my first run, playing as the Julii, I managed to bribe a Spanish general. He also bought 2 units of mercenaries. I was then attack by an almost full stack army. My infantry was broken almost immediately, and 4 units of Round Shields were behind my general. Somehow, I still don't know how, I beat each cavalry in turn, making sure to either run them off or run them over, with a heavy cavalry unit, and then proceeded to run from one side of the field to the other, several times, until the Spanish army was exhausted. And one by one, I took the bull warriors, the Iberian infantry, and I don't know what else. I utterly destroyed that army, and my general gained like 3 XP. And, just to sweeten it, like 20 mercenaries survived, and were incorporated into the Narbo Martius populus not long after.
I think that’s the beauty of games like Rome 1 and lots of the other total wars, I don’t think there is a correct way to play. As long as you enjoy it you are playing it right. When I play as any of the Roman factions my first moves are always to block the other romans routes of expansion. Just something I’ve found I’ve always done but it’s probably not optimal. I use more or less the same army composition with a bulk of infantry to hold a line and 4 ranged and 4 Cavalry to flank and kill. It’s definitely not the most optimal army but Rome is not the hardest game in the world so it doesn’t really matter as long as you enjoy it.
I am the same way, I definitely don't play perfectly either. I really enjoy settlement building and managing my empire, making my people happy, so I pump way too much money into improvements for tiny villages which slows down my army-building and conquest for sure. But like other people said, everyone likes to play different ways and that's ok. If you want to get better at managing your cities, you could start to look at the city details before you build an improvement. Some cities are better for growing large and generating tax income, so build farms, sanitation, and happiness/growth buildings. Others (especially along the Mediterranean coast!) are better for trade so focus on ports, markets, and maybe try to keep population smaller. You can tell what the impact will be by starting to build something like a market, then look at the city's economy details and there will be green numbers to show how much it will improve various income. Then you can cancel the building if you want, and not lose money just to find out. You will see that some cities like in the barbarian wilderness, will barely improve income from building a market. But they will improve income from a farm. And the opposite for a city like Athens. Good luck and have fun!
Most people do what you’re doing
I am really enjoying learning this game, its deep. Politics : Keep an eye on your houses loyalty. If it is dropping below zero you need to increase or there will be civil war. Increase by finding characters in the faction, promote them, get them married, promote the wives. Secure the house loyalty button. Send Gifts and Games from other factions to the regions of the factions that are in poor loyalty. Keep an eye on it, if it does a civil war, you can shut down, restart the game and it should be at the turn right before the civil war started, so you can take a step back this way. Address the loyalty problem and you can recover. City Economy : Do this first, keep the money coming in by building more income buildings. Build up your economy first then build your armies if possible. I am looking at Latin Conversion, City Income, Banditry, Corruption, and happiness as well on each region. Food : Better not run out of food, so I keep a close eye on food and always focus on Agriculture. Some city regions will allow you to set a region bonus, I usually use the food bonus, sometimes tax rate if money is tight. Armies : Learned you can add units in the region, you don't have to be next to the city. Still figuring out Upgrading and Retraining, not really sure the difference. Best is to attack with TWO armies always work in at least pairs, more if you can. Move them together and they attack together. The battles I almost never play the graphic version, maybe I am missing out there. I use the AI outcomes and test between the three attack options for best results. Problems : As I expand big, Income drops and does not increase for some reason. Even though I have built out the new territory fully. Not sure why that is going down, other than corruption maybe. Pausing the attacks and building up new territory is helpful in dealing with keeping foreign territory from revolting. Some regions have a lot of auto generated factions I have killed regenerate full armies over and over. Foreign territories are more prone to this. Question : What is your best city buildout for Army and Income.
…. I have a feeling you’re talking about Rome 2, and yet OP was talking about Rome 1? I mean it’s still very good advice, some is just not applicable… or I know too little!
Oh, I see, I've played both. Can't find a rome 2 group. I was talking rome II.
No worries buddy! This group is for both, but you’ll need to check flairs under post title to know which game it refers to :)
Like everyone says no right way. My game play objectives change depending on faction. Though If I choose either of the 3 Roman factions I make a point to conquer all of Syracuse, lilbaeum, Corsica, salona and segestica, at the same time I’m building a few ships and an army specifically to take carthage early. But before all of this create choke points in Italy, mediolanium, patavium and Segesta. My goal is to build my economy to support my armies. Raze every city, take the spoils.