Your Total War tactic

[gigastrike]

a. Hold with a phalanx and flank with cavalry. Nothing special, but it works.

b. Elephants...just elephants. I've captured small cities with one unit of war elephants.

 

[Waaghpowa]

I only bought Shogun 2, but I prefer to bait the enemy to me.

I set up a wall of spear men in front of my archers. That way if Calvary has the balls to get me, they get shot down by my archers, stuck with spears, then whatever else there is get hacked up by my Samurai/No-Dachi warriors. Then I have my calvary, who has been hiding in the nearby trees, flank their archers.

This strategy tends to work well enough that I can take on armies approximately 40% larger than mine, so I don't need a large army.

 

[LookingGlass]

Well, since you are playing England. Longbowman is the most devastating troop for Castle defense. Their special ability to drop stakes will stop every army. Just position them in front of your castles gate, and watch the enemy army flee in terror. (I once defended a Castle with 3 units of Longbowman and a Family member from 1500 men.

Do you happen to remember if this special ability is there in place of fire arrows, or if it's there as well as that?

I had two units of longbowmen and one unit of peasant archers, and they all just had fire arrows as their special ability. Despite the fact that the advice guy came up and told me about the stakes thing (but I was too stupid to pay attention and I closed it before hearing what to press to actually do the stake thing).

 

[Nami nom noms]

My overall tactic in Rome was to create a powerful super army, led by my best general, and send him on a campaign 'liberating' new lands. I'd focus on one faction at a time, and take over their whole country a town at a time, each town i left behind would have a small garrison of different units; enough to fend off an assault until reinforcements could arrive.

As I conquered I would always put spies into their towns, and send diplomats with outrageous demands lol. If they refused to negotiate or pay me money I would enslave their populace. If the enemy took the town back at any time I would retake it and wipe them all out

The funniest thing that happened was when i was taking over gaul,the spanish, my allies, broke their truce and attacked my town. In the battle I wiped every man out except for 2. I then proceeded to travel from spanish town to spanish town, slaughtering everyone, literally wiping out every enemy they sent at me and putting their citizens to the death for their treachery to rome!

by the last 2 towns they were pleading with me to leave them alone, offering tributes and so forth. I took the second to last town, took a massive tribute of money and then just left them be. A single town to their name, and no money or resources left, cut off on all sides by roman towns lol.

 

[Quigglebert]

elite infantry/longbowman spam, tis a bugger when im assaulting a castle as it get expensive with all my swordsman getting shot to bits, but the few that make it make a huge mess, and yeah longbowmen cause you can never get enough longbowmen

 

[SckizoBoy]

snip

Just to be petty, your topic title should read 'Your Total War Strategy'. Tactics pertain to battlefield manoeuvres, while strategy pertains to warzone manoeuvres, and with respect to the overall Total War gameplay in general (taking into account the entire length of the game) it's more 'grand strategy' than strategy, even.

/semantics

On Rome there's an easy tactic: spam cavalry. You can literally wipe out an entire AI army with just your general/his guards if you can micro well. I usually tried to get a nice mix of heavy cavalry and horse archers, the only thing's you had to watch for are those accursed war chariots.

How're you doing with sieges? Granted you can starve the enemy out, but I always like playing the battles.

OT:

Grand strategy - concentrate on economy first but if there're any easy pickings around (Scotland in M2/England, Hannover in E/Prussia, rebel held towns in R/anyone etc. etc.) then I'll take them. Don't provoke anyone, ally myself with one of my neighbours and rope them into a war with another neighbour. They keep each other busy, I mop up the remnants of both. Win win. Mid-game is where I get into my stride and I can usually keep up a war on two fronts or more. End-game... *shrug*

Strategy - depends on the game, depends on the enemy, depends on my faction, but to give an example: England vs France in N. Flood the Channel with frigates and harass the ports/tradelanes, until I've beaten Spain, clog up the Straits of Gibraltar. Land an army in Brittany and pillage asap. Once I've got another army kicking about to send to reinforce, off it goes and conquering proper commences. Bring up the armies from the Peninsular campaign and war = over.

Tactics - (no gunpowder) hollow box usually gets the job done with a three line formation (heavy/phalanx in front, archers behind reserve phalanx and reserve infantry on the flanks, minimal cavalry and all on the flanks)

[with gunpowder) lots of artillery, offering counter-fire early battle, then they concentrate on the elite infantry units. Line infantry in the centre, cavalry all in reserve, light infantry on the flanks with more line infantry to back them up in CC if necessary.

 

[Toaster Hunter]

Battlefield: Archers and artillery protected by an infantry screen, and cavalry to hammer the flanks. Simple but effective.

Campaign:Have spies and assasins in the target settlement, and destroy as much as possible. Move into the area and besiege for maximum amount of turns (this weakens the garrison). Completely sack a settlement for the money and rebuild, and be ready to reinforce it if possible.
Also trade is vital so set up trade agreements with as many factions as possible, even if they are potentially hostile towards you.

 

[DSK-]

Generally my tactic is just sitting at home, teching up and, depending on what game you play, bribing castles and increasing your territory that way.

Slowly building up enough forces to take my intended targets and have garrisons so as to negate and counter uprisings.

In the original Shogun I'd tech up to geisha's and...well, you know

Unfortunately for me, Shogun 2 keeps crashing on me which prevents me from playing it

Oh and as the poster below me stated, keeping the papal states happy is a MUST. Either that, or you attack them and keep a large garrison to quell them over the course of the game.



As for battle, I loved playing defensively when attacking or actually defending. In Shogun and Medieval I'd always place my troops high up on hills and let the enemy come to me. I used to love defensive battles, and when attacking I'd use the patented family tactic passed down from generation to generation when playing RTS's: The pincer movement.

 

[Baradiel]

M2: On the campaign, I'd always keep friendly relationships/alliances/assassins with the Papal States. Yes, they all result in the same thing. The amount of popes I killed is ridiculous.

On the battlefield, on my Milan campaign half my army was usually Genoese crossbowmen/militia. They RIP through other ranged units, charging infantry and cavalry, and they are amazing in melee, to the point that they can take castle walls from spearmen or even heavy infantry. If you arent Milan, and you're at risk of needing to fight them, take them out as soon as possible.

For most of my campaigns on M2, cavalry was the way to go. A nice little trick for cavalry: if you hold ALT when you doubleclick an enemy to charge, your cavalry are more likely to use lances. Lances are vital to a good charge.

Also, try and take the settlements south of Morocco. There's only one path through the desert, so if you stick an army there they are perfectly defended and can focus on finance, which is good since they're surrounded by ivory, gold and slaves. Whoever you are, having those settlements are ALWAYS useful.

I have hundreds of hours on M2, to the point I could spend a good hour or so explaining all my tactics.

For Empire, artillery is very, very important. One barrage of Canister shot on charging infantry will make them rout in all but the most extreme circumstances.

Oh, and Fire By Rank is possible the best infantry technology to get. If you are against an army that has it, and you don't, you will take SO many more causalities.

If you want to get some colonies in India, get there before the Marathans win (I'm pretty sure they will ALWAYS win if left alone). I've always noticed that Bengal, the most north-eastern province of India, is never defended well. It also has a port and such. But be prepared to defend yourself from both Indian factions. Bengal is part of the Mughal Empire, and the Marathans are VERY aggressive when it comes to Indian territory.

 

[ediblemitten]

Download and install Stainless Steel.

/thread

 

[Mcupobob]

Funny you should mention this, cause I just installed Rome Total war on my new computer to try it out. I'm going to set the graphics so high. My old computer was something I found in a archaeological dig and couldn't run anything past the year 04 and even then...

Anywho I go defensive, my tactic is to set all my units in a box that covers my archers. Usually some spear man cause I'm found of the barbarian guys and the spear man are cheap and can make shield walls, not to mention they throw a javelin before the enemy get to them so its like cheating.

I have my calvary either flank the enemy or if they're decided to be bitches I have my calvary come in from behind them and push them towards my box.

 

[Bluntman1138]

Do you happen to remember if this special ability is there in place of fire arrows, or if it's there as well as that?

The Longbowmens stakes can only be placed During battle set-up, and can only be done while you are the defender.

It has those restrictions, but it is still the most powerful special ability (IMO) in the game. Set the up in front of the gates, and watch the computer die enmasse when they charge through the gate. Even in the open field while defending, with enough of them, you can negate the opponents Cavalvary, or at least make it do where they have to do a full on double envelope to get to you.

I stopped playing England, because the game was too easy with longbowmen even on Very Hard/ Very Hard settings.

PS. While defending in a castle, if you have lets say 3 LB units, stack all 3 of them in front of the gate, and plop the stakes down at once, as close to the gate as you can. When cav charges they dont even make contact with your troops, and the enemy infantry will rout once they see their Cav getting slaughtered. (After battle set up, be sure to put units on the wall, to stop guys coming up ladders)

 

[LookingGlass]

The Longbowmens stakes can only be placed During battle set-up, and can only be done while you are the defender.

It has those restrictions, but it is still the most powerful special ability (IMO) in the game. Set the up in front of the gates, and watch the computer die enmasse when they charge through the gate. Even in the open field while defending, with enough of them, you can negate the opponents Cavalvary, or at least make it do where they have to do a full on double envelope to get to you.

I stopped playing England, because the game was too easy with longbowmen even on Very Hard/ Very Hard settings.

PS. While defending in a castle, if you have lets say 3 LB units, stack all 3 of them in front of the gate, and plop the stakes down at once, as close to the gate as you can. When cav charges they dont even make contact with your troops, and the enemy infantry will rout once they see their Cav getting slaughtered. (After battle set up, be sure to put units on the wall, to stop guys coming up ladders)

Ah that I didn't get at all. The advice guy told me about them after I'd already started a battle and had been playing for a couple of mins... weird.

Thanks for the info.