So Dammerung/Malkais/The Large One posted about R:TW the other day. I thought I’d add my general thoughts to it.
First off, it’s pretty fun. It provides a nice tactical game, and lets you wonderfully slaughter badly balanced forces. (See: 2 battalions of heavy cavalry on a flat plain vs 3 battalions of sling throwers and 5 bat. of light infantry vs 1 bat. of light horse archers)
Second, it’s the first RTS game I’ve played where terrain could *really* hide troops. I mean, like, you’re walking along and BAM you have two battalions on your flank that just came out of nowhere and are slaughtering your Velites(like archers, only they throw spears). (See: 3 bat. medium infantry, 1 bat. Velites, 1 bat. heavy cavalry (general’s guard) vs a freaking buttload of gaul on an insanely wooded mountainside).
Third, influence? It makes towns happy. And makes people happy. And makes the senate like you and vote you into positions. Other than that? Junk. It’s one of those things that’s useful for those crappy relations that you’re never, ever going to give an army to so they just sit in town.
Fourth, the greek phalanx thing. I hate them. I can’t break them with a charge of cavalry, they’re hard to kill with arrows, and I tend not to have archers, and they’re hard on infantry as well. The only thing that makes them tolerable is that they can’t really charge, just walk slowly forward, or backward.
Fifth, cavalry. I’m not a *huge* fan of cavalry as a rule, namely because they’re not as much use when in towns. I do, however, really want one bat. or so in every army. Why? They can run people down while they flee. Breaking an army is great, annihilating an army so that you don’t have to worry about it again is awesome. My poor infantry just don’t run fast enough.
Sixth, my usual army makeup. You’re probably not that interested, but as a rule my armies will have 2-4 bat. of medium infantry and some sort of ranged unit, either velites or archers, Or horse archer mercenaries in one lucky case, and the heavy cav that surrounds my general.
Seventh, momentous battles. One of the best parts about RTW is probably the glorious defeats. For example, when you’re moving a battered group of cav or infantry and you get ambushed by vastly superior forces (best one yet was 25 light cav vs about 350 peasants and light inf). Retreat of course isn’t an option I’ll take. So what do I do? I harry them! I ended up taking about 200 down with me before the last remnants finally were slaughtered or fled. While that isn’t as good of a ratio as some battles, the fact that I managed to do that much was pretty nice. Had they been horse archers I think I could have won.
joe/ish
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