Rome Total War

[Anomalocaris]

I remember going on line and facing loads of people using the "if I put my hoplites in a ring, I am invincible" tactic.

Until someone sets up a ballista.

[Tobie]

I remember going on line and facing loads of people using the "if I put my hoplites in a ring, I am invincible" tactic.

Until someone sets up a ballista.

Yeah, I guess they assumed everyone would Zergcharge at them.

[Minimalist]

I like it in Empire when the 12 pounders let go with a barrage of canister into an infantry formation. That's when the Blood and Smoke module kicks in.

[Napoléon]

I have a question for anyone else who's played Surrectum 2.

The last battle I played, I sieged a city, got into the main square with literally a thousand infantry troops, and surrounded a small unit of swordsmen/heavy infantry, and it took literally forever to get rid of them.

I had them completely surrounded, but they were taking an absolute age to die. Even when I'd whittled them down to 20, then to 10, then to 5, they didn't even rout. I knew from looking at the units with my spy before hand that none of them were even equal to my own in terms of experience or equipment, so I was sitting there thinking... wtf.

Is this normal? I mean, units prior to the last battle had routed, but this last unit just took the piss. I have noticed the battles are a lot longer and enemies rout less easily, but still, this was crazy :S

[Anomalocaris]

That is why Genghis Khan never surrounds an enemy. He always take special care to prepare a route for the enemy to escape from a hopeless tactical situation, because it's much faster and less costly to shoot an escaping enemy in the back than to box him in so you have to face him from the front.

[Napoléon]

That is why Genghis Khan never surrounds an enemy. He always take special care to prepare a route for the enemy to escape from a hopeless tactical situation, because it's much faster and less costly to shoot an escaping enemy in the back than to box him in so you have to face him from the front.

Point taken. I guess it was perhaps that they simply couldn't retreat. They did have a ridiculous amount of troops surrounding them.

[Minimalist]

"Never cut off a man's line of escape...unless you want to see exactly how hard he can fight."

Attributed to Sun Tzu

[Napoléon]

I just killed Hannibal, in what was probably one of the stupidest moves I've ever seen the computer make.

Basically, Hannibal had my two cities to the north of Rome, I happened to have Genoa just to the north of those two and it was guarded by like 2 units (I'd taken a much larger army there beforehand to seize it but they had since moved on to protect Rome). So Hannibal, in his arrogance (or stupidity like I said), took his single unit to take it back. Ok, so he did take it back (it was only being defended by some peltasts and a very small damaged infantry unit, compared to Hannibals bodyguard unit). But the thing is, he'd left himself there, on his own, completely open to attack.

So I take my army from near Rome, send all the cavalry units and take Hannibal out in one of the easiest battles I've had to play.

I don't think the computer is doing a good job at simulating his tactical genius....

[Tobie]

In sieges, the defending army normally routs to the town center, so if they were surrounded there, it would explain it.

[Anomalocaris]

I just killed Hannibal, in what was probably one of the stupidest moves I've ever seen the computer make.

Basically, Hannibal had my two cities to the north of Rome, I happened to have Genoa just to the north of those two and it was guarded by like 2 units (I'd taken a much larger army there beforehand to seize it but they had since moved on to protect Rome). So Hannibal, in his arrogance (or stupidity like I said), took his single unit to take it back. Ok, so he did take it back (it was only being defended by some peltasts and a very small damaged infantry unit, compared to Hannibals bodyguard unit). But the thing is, he'd left himself there, on his own, completely open to attack.

So I take my army from near Rome, send all the cavalry units and take Hannibal out in one of the easiest battles I've had to play.

I don't think the computer is doing a good job at simulating his tactical genius....

In real life, Hannibal would have gotten wind of your approach and set a trap for you, instead of just sitting there waiting for you as he is constrained to do by the lengthy turns in this turn based nature of the game. This is why I think the turns should be much shorter.