I want to like this game but something is wrong.

[incbob]

I was hoping the new patch 1.02 would help but it hasn't.

Playing as Rome on Balanced.
I still get dog piled. I have actually had nations, with whom I have a cooperation treaty, break the treaty and a turn later declare war.
In starting If I am only at war with 2 nations for the first 10 turns I figure it is a great start.
I spend, at a minimum, the first 50 years of the game at war. Is there ever peace?
I thought I saw something about hiring mercenaries, the manual actually mentions them, but no idea how to recruit or hire them.

How do I get to peace. Rome starts at war with the Semones (sp?) within a turn or two Etrusci, Samnium (sp?), and Tartenuim (sp?) declare war. At least 2 declare war, sometimes all three. This is regardless of whether I do nothing and buildup my army or go on attack.
My standard start is to wait 3-4 turns while I build up my army. By this time I am usually at war with at least Etrusci and Semones. I attack one. Of course this begins a siege. In the meantime the other, or a new nation will declare and start attacking my regions.

This is still occurring patch 1.02.
Is the game broken or can you explain how to achieve peace in a reasonable amount of time? I know it was a warlike period, but seriously.

Not having fun.

PS: I only use Empires to do battles. I was told i did not need Field of Glory 2 and don't think I should have to export battles to another $40.00 game in order to play correctly.

[guanotwozero]

I agree that as Rome you tend to get swamped with most, if not all, of your neighbours fighting you simultaneously.

One tactic is to try to knock out the Senones and Etruscans early before the southerners (Tarentum, Samnites) start invading, but often the various Celts beyond Etruria declare war too. I can sometimes force a quick peace by taking 1-2 of their territories, as an extended war means it's much harder to send enough troops to deal with the south. I'll usually try to build up two armies before long - one for the active front and the other for rearguard & firefighting, but that's hard as cash is short initially.

But yeah, as Rome you seem to be locked in perpetual but shifting war. My main issue is that conducting any war means taking territory and ultimately lowering loyalty, meaning that revolts become a huge problem before long. Then when a revolt happens, it forms a new *neutral* state! I'd like to be able to stop expanding while my loyalty builds up, but that means enemies beyond my borders can form large armies that are devastating when they invade. Either way I lose progress tokens and usually end up chasing turtles all the way down. My high water mark was securing all of Italy, Sicily and Cisalpina, but my loyalty was so low that a usurper appeared and steamrollered through the remains of my very decadent state.

As well as fixing the neutral revolters, I've suggested that there should be a way of fighting beyond your borders without taking those territories - I'm hoping this might appear in a future update.

The game has clever, innovative concepts and is close to excellent, but it's still very new and is bound to have a bunch of niggles, omissions and balance issues. I expect these to improve as updates come forth, so these reports from us players will help that.

Edit:
FWIW I do have FoG2 and love the battles there, but tend to only fight the marginal ones where the outcome isn't a foregone conclusion. While you don't need it, It's a good game in its own right and adds depth to FoGE, so I do recommend it.

[PDiFolco]

My current Balanced Rome game didn't turn like that... I used instantly the emergency levy decision (-100 legacy is nothing...). So I quickly had 3 armies to kill off the northern and Eastern enemies. Just took enough regions to form both Italian provinces, then turtled up a bit and raised Culture before engaging south . In 50 turns it started to run efficiently and never stopped since ...

[CV60]

I was hoping the new patch 1.02 would help but it hasn't.

Playing as Rome on Balanced.
I still get dog piled. I have actually had nations, with whom I have a cooperation treaty, break the treaty and a turn later declare war.
In starting If I am only at war with 2 nations for the first 10 turns I figure it is a great start.
I spend, at a minimum, the first 50 years of the game at war. Is there ever peace?
I thought I saw something about hiring mercenaries, the manual actually mentions them, but no idea how to recruit or hire them.

How do I get to peace. Rome starts at war with the Semones (sp?) within a turn or two Etrusci, Samnium (sp?), and Tartenuim (sp?) declare war. At least 2 declare war, sometimes all three. This is regardless of whether I do nothing and buildup my army or go on attack.
My standard start is to wait 3-4 turns while I build up my army. By this time I am usually at war with at least Etrusci and Semones. I attack one. Of course this begins a siege. In the meantime the other, or a new nation will declare and start attacking my regions.

This is still occurring patch 1.02.
Is the game broken or can you explain how to achieve peace in a reasonable amount of time? I know it was a warlike period, but seriously.

Not having fun.

PS: I only use Empires to do battles. I was told i did not need Field of Glory 2 and don't think I should have to export battles to another $40.00 game in order to play correctly.

Incbob-I've played almost exclusively as Rome during the beta. It is a challenge, as it was for Rome historically. From the beginning of the Republic up to the Principate (509-31 BC), the doors of the temple of Janus were closed only twice, ie, Rome was only at peace twice during this period. So it isn't your imagination-all the neighbors of Rome really do hate her. The game reflects this reality.

So what to do? Here are some things I would do, in no particular order:
1) First, try to keep peace with as many neighbors as you can. Cooperation agreements and alliances are good, but they aren't foolproof. (it sounds like you are doing this already)
2) When possible, only go to war with one enemy at a time (it sounds like you are doing this)
3) Go to war with an overwhelming, but balanced force. The Roman legions are good, but pair each one up with a skirmisher. Ditto one skirmisher per allied infantry. Add 2-4 cavalry/light cavalry, and a total army size of 14-20 units . This will allow you to overwhelm anything in the plains, as well as rapidly win sieges.
4) Give the army a good leader. If you are attacking and have a 2-0 leader available, use him. BUT you have to be constantly attacking, as he is almost useless once you go defensive. If you aren't sure whether you are going to be attacking or defending, go with the 1-1 leader. Have him in charge of the army one turn before combat to give his bonuses to the troops. DO NOT attack without at least a 1-1 or 1-0 leader UNLESS you are attacking a enemy force that is known to be small and grossly overmatched.
5) Preserve your force. As it fights, it gets experience which makes it more effective. Therefore, don't loose an experienced force. Keep it together, fighting as a unit. If you need two experienced armies, but only have one, slowly create the second by feeding fresh troops into the experienced army to get combat experience while SLOWLY taking experienced troops out to build the second army. Alternatively, build an inexperienced army, but have it beat up on easy/overmatched opponents like the Italic tribes to get experience.
6) Build troops only where they can get training experience . As a general rule, this means Rome. While training grounds can give a little experience (5 XP), the barracks in Rome gives 10. So build in Rome whenever possible.
7) For Rome, time is of the essence. You need to quickly eliminate enemies. Don't be afraid to assault walled cities, if you have overwhelming strength, as this shortens the war and frees up the army for duty against other enemies. While a direct assault on a level 3 walled city isn't generally advisable, if you trounced the nation's field army really good outside the walls, the city may be relatively undefended. If you aren't sure, siege the walls to reduce it to a 2, then assault.
8 ) You can also temporarily eliminate enemies by negotiating a peace treaty with them. For instance, If I can decisively beat the Celticii in a battle, I might propose a peace treaty with them, so I can defeat a more immediate threat from the Etrusci. I can always finish off the Celticii later, once the treaty expires. Even if the Celticii don't accept my proposal, if I propose the treaty right after trouncing them, I have a couple of turns to "mitigate with prejudice" the Etrusci threat, while the Celticii are still recovering.
9) Don't be afraid to temporarily give up some provinces, rather than fight on unfavorable terms. The Roman general Fabius did this against Hannibal, don't be afraid to do it also. If an enemy attacks and takes one province that means his army isn't in one of his provinces. Attack there. The exception is Rome and Neapolis. Don't let enemy armies hang around there too long.

If you are still having trouble after doing these, let me know. I've done one AAR as Rome, which is located here: http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 34&t=92523 I could do another more detailed one detailing the conquest of Italy over a 30 year period, with some room for some Q&A form players. The one last piece of advice I can give you is to stick with Empires. It really is a very good and fun game, but there is a learning curve associated with the strategy and tactics of the game.

[benzidrine]

I have FOG 2 and have never actually exported a battle in twenty hours. While I love FOG 2, I find the included battle system to be pretty good and haven't felt the need to export. I like having the option but if I ever use it then it will be more to play out an impressive battle for novelty more than anything. I definitely wouldn't say it is required.

[JWW]

Hi. I'm playing a game as Rome now and a couple of days ago posted an in-progress AAR on Steam briefly summarizing how I stumbled through the first 57 turns and managed to survive as Rome and begin to thrive despite nearly getting knocked out right at the start. The link is attached I encountered the same piling-on you did but expected it, having already read some reports about playing Rome. And, as noted, it is quite historical. SteveLohr gave some great advice and knows a lot more than I do about playing Rome. I'm just presenting my AAR to show that even an inexperienced player can survive the initial turns as Rome. So look through my AAR if you like, remembering that I'm still learning the game and made lots of mistakes.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1011390/ ... 995055731/

As an update, I'm now in turn 84. I did manage to eliminate the Boii and unify the Italian peninsula. I honor their bravery as my ally, but they finally just got in the way. I also started getting a handle on some of the other aspects of the game. I'm 3rd in Legacy behind Maurya and Seleucids. I jumped rapidly upward as I crushed the Boii. I'm 30th in CDR.

[incbob]

I started again and am doing much, much better.

I still have the question of how do you recruit mercenaries?

[loki100]

I started again and am doing much, much better.

I still have the question of how do you recruit mercenaries?

good ...

unless you are Carthage you need a mercenary Recruitment Building - anywhere in a Province will allow you to raise a variant of the medium infantry and medium cavalry of your faction

[CV60]

I started again and am doing much, much better.

I still have the question of how do you recruit mercenaries?

If I may ask, what are you doing differently now? The reason I want to know is that I'm drafting a short guide to playing Rome for beginners to post on STEAM, and I want to address some of the mistakes, as well as good strategies that new players use. As far as mecenaries, there is a decision you might get as Rome. Usually I don't get it until turn 50 or so. But unless you are critically short of manpower, and have no other way to raise an army, I wouldn't use Mercenaries. THey are expensive and not as good of troops as Roman legions. Also, it is too Carthaginian for my taste.