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[Japo]

It's been long since I played it but I think that what you needed to get an alliance was to convince them that you could easily kick their behind if they didn't come to terms on their own accord. So you need to be very powerful. But yay for your approach, "just make them pay for wasting precious time", that's basically all you need in this game.

[another_guest]

Well, that works on easier difficulty levels; on higher difficulties you'll want to avoid battles and casualties.
Though for quite some time I used to think the diplomatic talks were just there for flavour, that they never worked :P

[Mabuse]

alliances do work. but countries need to have different approaches.

there are lists on the net that describe what to do exactly to convince each country.
(but i did not read them to much, just skimmed over them, as i thought its boring when to know, often it is also that you cannot wait until you have the requirements (army size etc))


often "diplo - diplo - offer allience" work

sometimes you have to scare therm -

"diplo - agressive - offer alliance"


some countries will just never agree to ally.

sometimes it depends also which army you bring. some countries will be impressed by a big army (and see a small army as sign of weakness), other will see it as a sign of hostile (and so negotiations will always fail)

also the third answer should be "offer alliance" because if you talk more th epeople wil also get bored


however, on higher difficulty levels (senator and emperor) it is a gift to avoid a battle

but when i played the game first i also thought they dont work. however, when i played last time i could get two allies. thats always a good thing and help so much



in general:
germans and gaul are impressed by really big armies (consular), and maybe you need to be a bit aggressive (but i usually conquer them beofre i get consular armies, because they are an excellent recruiting ground)
some of the "weak" nations feel uncomfortable if you go into them with a too big army
be nice to cleopatra .. good-good-offer-alliance (but dont talk too long, else she get bored - so good-good-good will not get you anywhere)
in general stick with "diplo-diplo-offer alliance" that may work sometimes
some contries (especially the historical enemies of rome (chartage, siciyl, partha and whatnot)) will never ally with rome

[Sebatianos]

OK, never ran into this before - it's a terrible mistake, almost ridicilouslly funny.

My expedition (in 266BC) just found Noa's Ark at mount Ararat and I was promoted for it. Rome wouldn't care about such a thing at thos point in history (so it's been at least 6 centuries too early for it).

[aquila]

Haha I have just finished this game on emperor level, but it's so difficult, had to reload xxx times, and some of the battles are very difficult to win in one go. For example, carthage i beat right at the end of the game with a consular army and scipio africanus, but only had one horse and one cohort left, both in a weak state of mind. And some other battles are a nightmare like parthia or scythia unless the enemy leader marches in front and you can kill him quickly.

Not to mention the randomness of sea battles, you attack a fleet and it says says 50 ships, then load the game, attack it again and now it says 135 or something. Strange or ???

And also the roaming hordes of barbarians, they attack anywhere, anytime, and it's really hard to keep every conquered province, I managed to do it, but only after numerous reloads.

And also I don't get the naval battles, what's the point of galleys, I only ever used fleets of 100-200 triremes, and even so, the naval battles were random most of the time, for example how many ships you kill as opposed to how many you lose.

Also what's very difficult is the farther out east you move, the more wimpy the provinces are, and it's difficult to replenish consular armies. At the end, I had 2 active consular armies, one led by Scipio Africanus (I Ital) and the second (I Dac) was led by Cornelius Scipio. I had a third consular army defending rome I think, but maybe it died? (led by Marius).

Also I used a kind of a trick, my second and third consular armies had crap leaders, so I attacked barbarian tribes and killed my leaders until I randomed the other two good ones, cornelius scipio and marius. It's a bit sly I know, but consular armies really are pointless if you don't have a good leader to command them, because they are so huge, the units just get in the way of each other.

And not to mention at the beginning I milked the gambling for chariot racing big time, it got boring after a while, but it's the only way to make money if you're not plundering, and waiting for taxes is too slow. And when Rome wanted games, I used a 10 talent gladiator vs a 10 talent big cat, and low blocked until max happiness, then low swiped, it's so cheap for 20 talents, again a bit of an exploit but what the hell, it's there so use it.

All in all, it's a great game, but EXTREMELY difficult on emperor mode, even with reloads, and without reloads, I don't even want to think about it. My end stats were 14 provinces negotiated through alliance, 31 battles won, 4 lost, 81410 legionnaires killed, 96087 enemy soldiers killed, won 11 fleet battles, lost 5 fleet battles, lost 541 ships, sunk 671 enemy ships. Sponsored 33 games, entered 10 races and won 10. Collected 10152 in tributes, of which 1866 in bets, 0 plundered. Whew!

As you can see from my stats, it is obvious I reloaded a lot, and also I still haven't really got the hang of naval battles, the point of triremes and galleys, and also the point of having troops on board when engaging another enemy fleet etc.

But anyway, the first time I played this game I finished it on galley slave, and now emperor level with xxx reloads, I think I will next try legionnaire level without reloads, gonna be tough, but at least the land battles will be easier.

P.S. If anyone has any tips or suggestions on how I could improve my game on emperor level, please feel free to reply to this. Thanks.

Originally Posted by aquila

P.S. If anyone has any tips or suggestions on how I could improve my game on emperor level, please feel free to reply to this. Thanks.

There's a trick to refine your coward soldiers. Raise a legion in a land with panicky or weak couraged nation than move it into a land with fierce people and sea coast. Build a fleet with only one trireme than move your bad legion onto it. The game will prompt that most of the soldiers will remain on land because they will not fit into the ship.
And that's it! They will meld with the original population and become fierce.
This way you can fill up the fierce countries wih people where you can strenghten your other legions after it. Beware of adding more people to the population than the country's maximum capacity because the extra people will disappeare. Italy may be the best choice with its max. capacity of 7000 people or more.(Sorry I can't remember exactly.)
Have fun!

Originally Posted by Guest

... Italy may be the best choice with its max. capacity of 7000 people or more.(Sorry I can't remember exactly.)
Have fun!

Not sure about the limit in Italy (6600?)

In any case Gaul can go up to 7000, and if memory serves me well, Germania's limit is 8000. And of course both are fierce. Then again, can you load troops to a transport out of Germania, not sure anymore?

Your point brings back an old discussion: if you leave a fierce country at its maximum population, the population will not grow so it's actually better to immediately use some of the inhabitants to reinforce or raise your armies. On the other hand, this probably costs you tax money...

[Luchsen]

Kingdom at War is listed as similar. Which features do you like to have?

[DoomYoshi]

Lords of the Realm is very similar also.

[angry axe]

lol this plays alot like legion (or does legion play like it? :weird: )