Rhye's and Fall of Civilization - Roman strategy
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Roma Invicta (A guide to winning the Roman U.H.V.)(This guide does not work well with BTS. It works on Warlords expansion.)
Overview
More than a thousand years ago, a city on the banks of the Tiber River was (supposedly) founded by the Sons of Mars. No one could have predicted that this seemingly insignificant city would one day assemble the greatest empire the world had ever seen; an empire that would stretch from frosty moors of Scotland to deserts of Egypt. This was the Roman Empire, an empire which united the entire Mediterranean rim. Long before the invention of the internet, airplane, telephone, or radio, the Romans efficiently maintained the Pax Romana over a 3,000 mile wide territory that included parts of 40 different nations. In the wake of the Roman Legions came artists, engineers, and merchants. The Romans remade the world in their image: citizens from all corners of the Empire walked down Roman streets. Despite this, the conquerors changed as well: its markets showcased ivory from Africa and grapes from Gaul; Greek merchants and Gallic chieftains became Roman senators. Although the Empire is long gone, the legacy of the Romans can still be seen: from highways that are still being used to mighty aqueducts that provided fresh water to the thirsty. Later empire builders in Europe - from Charlemagne to Hitler - admired and were inspired by the Romans and sought to emulate their success as well.
This guide is about how you can do what the Emperors of Rome failed to do: create an Empire that would stand the test of time. Will you defend the mighty Roman Empire from the wrath of the barbarians or repeat the disaster which befell to the Empire that was once the envy of the world?
Roman Unique Historical Victory conditions
1. By 200 A.D.(450 A.D. if on BTS) Build 5 barracks, 5 aqueducts and 5 amphitheaters.
2. By 450 A.D., Emulate (at least) the reaches of the Western Roman Empire: (at least) three cities in France, three in Italy, two on coast of north Africa, two in Spain, one in England, and two in Germany.
3. Before 1000 A.D.(1400 A.D. if on BTS), never lose a single city to the barbarians.
Opening Moves (1st Turn)
The first order of business is to order your settler to found the Eternal City on the spot where it’s standing. Then select your four Praetorians and put them all on the two galleys. Send your archers down southeast (they’ll be used later). Order your workers to mine the iron to the northeast. The galleys stop right outside of the borders of Carthage, and depending on their mood, you may be able to trade some techs with them. Set Rome to building a trireme, then a forge, then a barracks.
Initial Research Priorities
By now you might be wondering what are the best techs to research first. In my opinion, after several games, I think the following are the best: agriculture, construction, mathematics, and monarchy. In my case, I would research the said techs in this sequence: agriculture, then monarchy, then mathematics, then construction but since I was beaten to the Coliseum, this may not be the best tactic. Making a beeline for theology and Christianity is risky, but it may work as well (I never tried it myself). Why research these techs immediately you may ask, read the following reasons:
Agriculture
One of the requirements for the Romans to win the U.H.V. is to have at least three cities in France, three in Italy, two on coast of north Africa, two in Spain, one in England, and two in Germany. Now not all of those regions have always barbarian cities in them, so it’s a must to be a settler factory. Farms would help make your civ become one.
Construction
Since barbarians are constant annoyance in Rhye’s and Fall of Civilization, it’s best to have “something” that would defend your vast empire from those barbarians at all fronts. That something is the Great Wall. Building this wonder would allow your armies to focus on attacking rather than defending. Also, this tech would allow you to build the Coliseum. Having the “Flavian Amphitheater” would allow you to build troop at a much faster rate and give them a +4 bonus in experience.
Mathematics
Since the computer loves placing a lot of units in its cities, you need a unit that would damage or kill them in one turn. For the moment, catapults are the best solution.
Monarchy
A happy city is a productive city and in order to increase the number of happy citizens, it is best to exploit resources that give off a happiness bonus. Near Rome are 2 wine resources. In order to reap their rewards you need a winery.
Carthago delenda est (2nd Turn)
Declare war on Carthage and rush the four Praetorians to their heartlands. You should be able to attack directly from sea and lose only one, if any. (If not, just reload the scenario - it's too early to lose those precious Praetorians.) You may even be able to pick up another worker from them. If you're lucky, you won't end up razing Carthage, but if you do, no big deal. Better to eliminate the civ now then to let them grow into a problem later.
Around the second/third turn Mediolanum flips. Send one of their archers down to keep Rome happy. Set Mediolanum to archer-settler-archer-settler, ad infinitum, with some workers in the mix as well as needed.
A Greek Holiday (3rd to 10th Turns)
Reload all the Praetorians on the galleys and head to Greece. Trade a few techs with the Greeks and then, naturally, attack. Athens has always been pretty weak in my experiences. If you're lucky, they may also have settled Byzantium, so you can take that too (if your Praetorians survive!). If they have any cities left afterwards, no problem; the Greek civ should crumble within a few turns. Any Greek leftovers will not be aggressive, and may even act as a buffer from Babylon or Persia if they're in Turkey (as was the case with my game).
I tend to set up Carthage and Athens as Wonder building towns, guarding them with just an archer a piece for now (the archers sent to Southeastern Italy in turn one, picked up by galleys). Athens is a great place to build the Great Wall if you can, and that eliminates a great deal of headaches from barbarians later on. But for now build the Great Lighthouse - it will keep you afloat financially when your empire gets huge and unwieldy. I'd set Carthage on the Parthenon.
So, by this stage you have at least three cities: Athens, Mediolanum, and Rome (and maybe even Carthage).
Consolidating your conquests (10th turn to 450 A.D.)
Some keys at this stage:
1. At least two Celtic cities will spawn in France. Taking them over is fairly easy. In one of my games Paris didn’t spawn, so I had to settle that one myself. So, don't send settlers into France right away - better to take over their cities then use up one of your settlers.
2. Speaking of settlers, as said earlier you need to become a settler factory. In previous games I kept trying to make Rome a military-only town and found that I simply couldn’t settle all my cities in time. You’ll need at least one settler for North Africa (two if Carthage is razed); two for Spain; one for London; and possibly one for France. I didn’t bother with settling a city in Southern Italy until after 450; I didn’t have a settler to spare.
3. Forget conquering any other civs or cities until after turn 450. Jerusalem and Egypt are tempting, but owning them will spread your empire out too thin too soon.
4. Keep a good road network between your cities. Rome should be churning out Praetorians at least every other turn. Barbarians will pop up in Spain and in Germany by fours and sixes, and will be very aggressive. I kept a squadron of four Praetorians in southeast France, since it was midways between where they liked to spawn. Again, keep at least one of your workers busy with roads! Use the Roman Unique Power to its best advantage.
5. Your Spanish/French/English cities should take up few resources. I build monuments (for culture) if I don’t have a religion in hand, but otherwise spend little time on them. Maximize production with them, churning out military units.
6. Make sure you build the required buildings in 5 cities
7. As soon as I can, I set an engineer in Rome, towards creating a Great Engineer: very handy for a Great Wall or a Coliseum rush later on.
Surviving the Fall of 476 (450 A.D. to 1000 A.D.)
Managing to get both the pre 1000 A.D. historical victories before the required turns is the hard part when trying to win the Roman U.H.V. After that, barbarians shouldn’t be too much of a problem, except perhaps around Carthage, and some spearmen and/or praetorians should be enough to keep it safe. I was able to cruise to the third historical victory pretty easily by this point.
Then it’s a matter of seeing your cities get peeled away by Spain, France, and England. From 470 A.D. to the eighth century I would just build workers or military units in those flip-vulnerable cities—I wouldn't bother to invest any buildings, except perhaps walls and monuments. When the change comes, I always “agreed the flip” because the loss of cities actually helped stabilize my badly bleeding economy.
Now, I would settle cities on the Balkan coast and interior. Depending on the size of your army and the strength of the Eastern civilizations like Egypt, Babylon, and Arabia, you may want to push into the Middle East (beware the eventual Turkey flip, however much later on should you decide to play past 1000 A.D.).
Conclusion: Imperium Sine Fine
By 1000, if none of your cities were conquered by barbarians and you have achieved the other 2 victory conditions, you won the game.
Although it’s very tempting to recreate the extent of the empire during the reign of Trajan, chances are that it would be a massive financial headache to do so; so much that you might lose most of your units and your ability to go on military campaigns. Rome is a great civ if you are planning to play mostly defensive, in my opinion. If you are lucky, you might be able to not do some of the seemingly “not cool” suggestions in this guide (e.g.: giving up certain areas to emerging factions) and still triumph in the end. Also you might be given a few bonuses; in one of my games playing as Rome, I was given an army of cannons, knights, and pikemen that came of nowhere in the North America and, by conquering the Aztecs, I used this army to create a Romano-American Empire, another something that the Roman Emperors were never able to do.
Codicil
by Pacifist
Rome is truly a great civ to play with (besides Arabia it's the only other civ which I can achieve an Augustus Caesar score, true to his name). Just a few tips that I thought might be useful:
1. Anticipating the rise of the later European civs, you may not want to build anything other than a granary in your Spanish or French cities (so as to whip the troops out more easily). Instead of founding London in the usual place, why not wait till the last moment and put it on the cow (so that you won't incur the expenses of a small city, don't need to defend it, and have access to a cow all at once). You can do the same to your 2nd Spanish city (which I build ridiculously close to Valencia).
2. Needless to say, deforest northern Europe before the later civs spawn.
3. After 600 or thereabouts, after you've whipped all your cities to a 1 to 2 pop, you might want to give some of your cities to a civ that you know won't make much of your European colonies (I chose Egypt). Evacuate your troops, give it to him (who became friendly and sold me some techs for a song), and watch the barbarians rush in. (Too bad there's no auto destruct sequence, otherwise I would have destroyed them rather than give them to France or Spain). When Spain spawns, somehow it will accept your London as a city, so Isabella becomes pleased with you (important for later French conquest).
4. When Germany spawns, Mediolanum should have enough culture to encompass the Mainz area (important to get all the stone and iron there). Wait till Germany declares war on you, and rush in to capture Berlin. (My game was totally anti-historical; Rome conquered Germanic spawn areas in 850).
5. Expansion to the east is tough, since Turkey is a pain in the butt. Sogut comes out of nowhere and demands my Moncastrum (on the north coast of the Black Sea) and cuts off Constantinoplis' fish. Well, I sent 2 great artists to Constantinople around 1200-1300, give my evacuated Moncastrum to Russia (who was friendly to me) and wait till Suleiman has his hands full fighting Russia, Babylonia and Arabia. Then I swoop in and recapture Moncastrum and the fish.
6. Rome is an amazing production city. With the Moai Statues, organized religion, bureaucracy, Apostolic Palace and 3 Christian buildings, mines and quarries all around, I was able to build the Spiral Minaret in 5 turns, Apostolic Palace in 10 turns, and a knight/maceman/trebuchet/cannon in 1 turn! (If only I had a better science rate I could have built many more wonders before China and Babylon beat me to them).
7. You need to snag the only elephant resource close by (in Morocco). The computer (barbarian and civilized alike) tends to favor horse archers which are not very strong, but elephants are useful in Africa for countering those camel archers. You should be the only one with knights (other than Turkey) after France collapses and before anybody else gets to Guilds; with Roman roads your knights can traverse the empire in 2-3 moves max.
8. Rome is also winnable in Emperor mode: you have to use the whipping exploit and be sure NOT to found your Spanish/2nd African/English cities until the very last moment (otherwise your economy will be in the dumps). There's no way you can get construction before China so don't even try. Instead build lots (and I mean LOTS) of axemen, praetorians, spearmen and an occasional catapult. Get the elephant in Africa early so you can build war elephants against camel archers. When you're reasonably secure build Hadrianople (south of the river and west of Constantinople) which will be a very strong fortress against the barbs (since they have to cross the river, and you're on a hill)...it will also not fall under Sogut's culture and you'll still have the clams and fish. If you're reasonably strong (I was) both Netherlands and Portugal will become your vassals.
Corm's Addendum
In addition to Pacifist's tips and the original guide it may be wise to hold off your 4 Praetorian invasion of Carthage until they have founded 2 cities (normally Hippo and Carthago with the patch released on 28/11/07).
It’s also wise to only settle Spain and wait till the Celtic cities spawn without defenders before moving your units in to net you the 3 cities you need in France. Holding your units back from the Stone Hill in North West Italy appears to expedite the Celts settling.
If you move units up further north or west than this the Celts often only found 2 cities and occasionally only 1.
I always leave Greece alone if I’m playing Rome to the UHV as it is, for me at least, an unnecessary distraction and would act as a good buffer to barbs if you don’t manage to build the Great Wall (or don’t bother; I don’t since the exp gained from the barb combats I feel is necessary for getting experienced French and German thrashing units).
Roman strategy for BtS 1.09 on Monarch
by LtCowprod
Opening Moves
Settle Rome on the spot and adopt slavery immediately. One settler should go south to found Pompeii (1S of Pigs). The other settler, accompanied by an archer, will head north to found Lugdinum in France (1E of Horses). Don't bother attacking Mediolanum since it will flip in a few turns. Instead load the Praetorians on the galleys and wait for the Pompeii canal to reach Greece.
Once your boats are at Greece's borders trade techs and declare war. Make sure you can reach Athens the same turn however, as they quite possibly have naval units. You should be able to attack from the sea losing only one, maybe two Praetorians. That's fine since with any luck you will have captured at least one worker.... ship him over to Pompeii in exchange for an archer.
After Greece has been properly dealt with heal the army and rendezvous on Carthage's borders, but don't attack. Regardless to what you can see Carthage has more than likely founded it's second city now. You can rest assured the cavalry are waiting there so the best bet is to wait for reinforcements first.
Build Orders
- Rome: Trireme -> Praetorian -> Spearman -> Praetorian
- Pompeii: Galley -> Spearman -> Monument -> Workboat -> Settler
- Mediolanum: Scout -> Settler -> Archer -> Settler
- Athens: Great Light -> Great Wall
- Lugdinum: (anything until size 2) -> Settler
With your initial workers chop wood and mine iron, followed by marble, and then chop the forested hills tiles. After the initial military buildup is finished you should move the workers to Mediolanum to chop the forests and farm the Wheat. You want that first settler out quick.
You should research Agriculture immediately; if you can't, trade for it and then beeline Construction through Math. You will need all three of these techs to meet the first two UHV goals; the first for farms to build settlers, and the latter two for Amphitheaters, Aqueducts, and wonders. Once those are out of the way you can research anything. Theology is a decent option but bear in mind the holy city will probably end up somewhere in France (easily lost later if you are unlucky). Code of Laws or Monarchy are both beneficial as well if you can't trade for them.
Whip everything as soon as you can and stage your troops off Carthage’s border. When the invasion force is ready declare war, again trading techs first if possible. Once Carthage has been eliminated pick up an archer garrison and then send everyone to Lugdinum to wipe out the Celts and Barbs. You would be wise to leave a spearman behind to deal with the mounted barbs coming soon.
Carthage and Athens are good production centers and should be building wonders almost exclusively. The most crucial of those are the Colossus, Temple of Artemis, Great Light, and the Great Wall. Also Moai Statues if it can be built in Carthage with enough time to finish the other buildings.
When your troops arrive in Lugdinum send them west to capture Bordeaux (I can't remember the Celtic name). You now need to settle 5 more cities - one each in North Africa France, England and two in Spain. Only in Carthage are you certain to keep the city so settle it first. The others are a guaranteed loss... either settle them late or whip them heavily for military. With the exception of Lugdinum you probably shouldn't improve any land either. Just chop forests and whip military units - nothing else.
You will generally have 4 cities size 5 or more - those being Athens, Pompeii, Carthago, and Rome. Build the required buildings in those cities and road between Pompeii (everything else is connected by sea). With the two hard goals and the Great Wall you can simply cruise to the finish. The wall won't stop the barbs invading Carthage though. You will need to garrison those cities with at least two spears and an archer. If you didn't get the Great Wall research Engineering for Castles and Pikemen, and Feudalism for Longbows. You should probably build the Temple of Kulkulkan either way since spearmen don't fare so well against camel archers.
Now it's time to enjoy the ride as your empire gets stripped to the boot... No pun intended - seriously.
The New Roman Empire (Senatus Populusque Romanus)
by Pacifist
This has nothing to do with Mussolini's use of the term, but just refers to the fact that you can't whip your cities any more to achieve the UHV. Now you have to build 5 barracks, 5 amphitheaters and 5 aqueducts. Lt Cowprod's strategy might work, but having to build troops to kill Carthage will make building those buildings harder, although it may save you from having to build 2 cities in North Africa. So here's what I did:
Had a lucky start where Carthage only had the 3 archers inside the city, so took it with the loss of one Praetorian. It seems that Athens is going more for expansion rather than culture, since in the last few starts I had, they've always built one more city. In my game it was Sparta which is underestimated as a growth/production city (at the end it grew to 17 pop), granted that it takes production away from Athens. So I conquered Greece next with only 3 praets and some luck.
Rome needs to be improved quickly, especially the stone. Build harbor, granary, and as soon as the stone quarry is done and connected, Moai Statues, and most importantly, the Great Wall. Then 5 settlers (I built 2 from Rome, 1 from Athens, 1 from Mediolanum and one from Spolato). Spolato builds Colossus (mine the copper), while Athens builds the Great Lighthouse. After that you need to divide the 5 buildings evenly between your cities. The cities you're going to keep (i.e.: Greek, Roman and African) should build expensive aqueducts and amphitheaters, while the French cities were good for cheap barracks and units which can be chopped and whipped. Spanish and English cities were founded just around 400AD to avoid depressing the economy. (Remember to send a galley to the English Channel so that your settler can ferry across).
Research order:
- Math
- Construction (build Great Wall)
- trade for monarchy from Babylon
- trade for monotheism, agriculture and archery from Egypt
- Theology (if you get lucky you may found Christianity)
- Currency (for trade routes)
Then it's up to you but I emphasized Machinery-Guilds-Optics to circumnavigate and get the conquerors events (3 of them since Maya is still alive) and paper-education-liberalism (I chose constitution). Needless to say, I built every single wonder up till Democracy except for the Pyramids, Temple of Artemis, Stonehenge, Oracle, Coliseum, Notre Dame (China beat me by 1 move), and Great Library. (I really was divided between Coliseum and Moai Statues, but since Rome will build a knight in 1 move when it's at 16 pop and with the Moai Statues, and I needed to build settlers, I decided for the latter).
Then I conquered all of Germany and expanded towards Russia. Made the Vikings, Ethiopia, Inca, Maya (who collapsed) vassals and conquered all of Mexico. (The conquerors event happens AFTER 1300 so time your caravels to arrive then. Make sure to approach the Aztecs and Mayans from the north, since if you don't your troops will get sent to South America when you declare war.)
Played the usual dirty trick on Turkey--gave them Copenhagen, captured it in the same move with a knight and voila, all their initial units disappeared and no Sogut. I had previously culture bombed Hadrianopolis so it really wasn't a big deal to use this trick but I felt cheated whenever Sogut gets built.
If you play it correctly you should get a 20000 score in 1400. Being a pacifist I didn't conquer France or Netherlands but could easily be done.
Roman conquest victory
It is possible to kill all the Europeans, the Arabs, the Turks, even (most importantly) the Mongolians and the Americans. (The Incans, Mayans and Aztecs you can just kill with the conquistadors.) You just have to time your troops to appear right next to their starting points, preferably with 2-3 collateral damage-promoted catapults or cannons, and at least 2-3 more troops than the AI. Make sure you chop any trees in Russia or Germany that their troops may be on, so that they won't get any defensive bonuses. After that you can make the big 4 your vassals: China, Khmer, Ethiopia and Mali, as vassals do count in a conquest victory. Just make sure that you get assembly line/fascism/nationalism soon, because all the golden ages in the world won't help you if you're not in nationhood/police state/occupation by the time you get to Parthia and India to conquer all the remaining independent cities.
Road to Glory (Alternative guide to winning the U.H.V.)
Opening Moves
The first thing to do is found Rome on the spot. Send your workboat one tile north to improve the fish. On the third turn a city or two will flip to you (the Celtic city to the north, and if you're lucky a Greek colony in Italy will flip to you; if not, send a settler there). When your workers arrive, send one to hook up the iron and the other to improve other tiles (I recommend resources first).
You will want to use your starting Praetorians to wage war early. You have two targets: Greece and Carthage. The sooner you get them out of the game, the better. You don't want Carthage to get too powerful, and taking Greece is necessary to get the buildings completed on time for the UHV and is a good production center.
Taking Carthage is relatively easy if done right. They will probably only have archers in their city from the start; in my experience they keep a stack of Numidian cavalry and spearmen protecting a worker, and it will stay out of the two cities if you keep your forces in the galleys when not attacking (attack from the galleys; don't land first). Both cities are size one at the start and will be auto-razed. Attack Carthage the turn you declare war; it has naval units that could threaten your forces if allowed to leave the city. If you attack later in the game you will need to build up forces but the cities will be larger and won't auto-raze.
Greece will normally focus more on expansion than military strength. You should be able to get at least two cities from them (one of which is Athens). They will probably collapse within a few turns of Athens being captured.
Early Game Research
Agriculture
You need to be able to grow you cities so you can whip the buildings out. You may want to trade for this, but it is important to get this fairly early so you may want to research it yourself if you aren't in contact with Egypt.
Mathematics
This is needed for the aqueducts. I recommend researching this first or immediately after agriculture.
Construction
This is needed for the amphitheaters. I recommend researching this immediately after mathematics.
Constructing the Buildings
The buildings are most easily built in the three cities in Italy (you may need to found one to the south of Rome if Greece didn't) and two Greek cities, especially Athens. The reason is this is where you best production is going to be. Build the barracks first, and then the aqueducts and amphitheaters as the techs for them are researched. You should start this as soon as possible. You don't have much time before they need to be completed.
Founding the Cities
You don't have to build all the cities from the ground up, just have the right number in the corresponding places. You can get the two in North Africa from Carthage (if they were razed you will have to re-settle them). The three from France can be conquered from the Celts. Important: don't send units in to France until those cities are founded, as they won't spawn if you have units there. You will have to send your galleys around the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) to the English Channel so you can transport a settler to England. The two in Spain will also have to be settled.
In my last game I only had to build one settler; the Greeks founded the third Italian city and I got two other cities from them. I got my North African cities from Carthage, and I used my two starting settlers to build the cities in Spain.
After 470 A.D.
After you get the cities up, you will need to improve your economy. You should research code of laws (for courthouses; they will also help your stability, which will be hurt by losing the cities later to new civs) and currency (for the extra trade route). Useful wonders, if you can get them, are the Great Lighthouse (you will probably have a lot of coastal cities) and the Colossus.
The most efficient way to prevent barbarians from taking your cities is to build the Great Wall. This will prevent them from entering your borders. If you can't build it, you will have to be on guard. There will be significant barbarian forces coming out of Germany, mostly axmen and swordsmen. You can gift cities elsewhere; you only have to prevent barbarians from taking them; losing cities by any other means is fine. You will lose your cities in Spain, France, and England to the spawns of those civs. This means that you will have fewer cities to worry about later on. Even if you do build the Great Wall, you will have to protect your cities in North Africa. Barbarians can still enter those lands because they are separated by water from the rest of your empire. You will see horse archers and camel archers head toward Carthage; you can keep units around to kill them or you can gift the cities to Spain or Egypt if still around.
