Ok, the game is overwhelming, where should I begin?

[Towerbooks3192]

Ok, I did the tutorial. Kind of aware on how I can build and move stacks around. I am experimenting with that little Age Gallicus scenario as the Senones. I am a bit confused about some of the stuff. Like why is there times my unit stack goes in a city and sometimes it fights the besiegers and sometimes it doesn't. I try to move it to relieve the siege but nothing seems to be happening. I am so confused by this right now. I don't understand why my units are not attacking or defending as they should be.

[Wolf01]

Is your problem that your not sure how to place stacks in cities and take them out? To place a stack in a city just hold it above the city, right click and it will disappear. To take them out is the opposite, but look at the unit and one of the small symbols will change. If there is one stack in the city, and one outside then the one in the city could get drawn into a battle i think.A lot depends on the posture of the forces and the level of fortifications (level 1 defences can be stormed immediately with the red assault posture). I hope this is helpful

[Towerbooks3192]

Originally posted by ryan_917K:

Is your problem that your not sure how to place stacks in cities and take them out? To place a stack in a city just hold it above the city, right click and it will disappear. To take them out is the opposite, but look at the unit and one of the small symbols will change. If there is one stack in the city, and one outside then the one in the city could get drawn into a battle i think.A lot depends on the posture of the forces and the level of fortifications (level 1 defences can be stormed immediately). I hope this is helpful

There are a lot of things that confused me. Like I can drag a unit in and out of the city but sometimes it wouldn't go in or it wouldn't come out. Also when moving, Sometimes I may have plotted the command but they will still remain in the region despite taking less than 30 days to march to the other region.

The other thing that bothers me is that there are times when I may be moving towards a region with an enemy army but the battle does not start and also a time when I was inside a city and my forces will not sortie to relieve the siege and times where I try to move in to relieve the siege but it has done nothing.

So far it is the thing that bothers me the most. Other than that, I have problems organising my units and picking my battles. It is easy to do in most ww2 games (anti-tank is a no go for armours, you must use artillery and air support, or machine guns will rip your men to shreds), as for AJE, I see different units but I don't know how to make use of them nor to ensure that I am not doing something stupid when I try to pick my fights.

To sum things up, the game looks interesting and yet overwhelming.

[Wolf01]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Originally posted by ryan_917K:

Is your problem that your not sure how to place stacks in cities and take them out? To place a stack in a city just hold it above the city, right click and it will disappear. To take them out is the opposite, but look at the unit and one of the small symbols will change. If there is one stack in the city, and one outside then the one in the city could get drawn into a battle i think.A lot depends on the posture of the forces and the level of fortifications (level 1 defences can be stormed immediately). I hope this is helpful

There are a lot of things that confused me. Like I can drag a unit in and out of the city but sometimes it wouldn't go in or it wouldn't come out. Also when moving, Sometimes I may have plotted the command but they will still remain in the region despite taking less than 30 days to march to the other region.

The other thing that bothers me is that there are times when I may be moving towards a region with an enemy army but the battle does not start and also a time when I was inside a city and my forces will not sortie to relieve the siege and times where I try to move in to relieve the siege but it has done nothing.

So far it is the thing that bothers me the most. Other than that, I have problems organising my units and picking my battles. It is easy to do in most ww2 games (anti-tank is a no go for armours, you must use artillery and air support, or machine guns will rip your men to shreds), as for AJE, I see different units but I don't know how to make use of them nor to ensure that I am not doing something stupid when I try to pick my fights.

To sum things up, the game looks interesting and yet overwhelming.

Right as to units not moving. This is related to activation status. Only Commanders with a white envelope can move (brown envelope means they cant) (stacks without a commander can always move but they are really ineffective). Note that you can change the settings so there is no activation rule to make it easier for you to learn the game.

As to no battle ocurring. This might ocurr for a number of reasons: enemy stack might have green withdraw posture and evade you. Or might go into the settlement etc. Bottom line is you cant be sure that a battle will happen. If you really want a decisive battle then hold your stack over the enemy army that you wish to attack, your army will follow them. This will increase your chances of a battle happening.

Sorties are in my experience not that usable. I think they only work if you have one army moving to relieve the siege. Then your stack in the town will come out and fight with the relieving army. I dont know if that always works or not. But I know it can work.

Right as to unit quality, the legion is the gold standard. They are the best quality, that is why it is advisable to play as Rome (they even have a good chance of making ballista siege equipment to make a siege shorter!). Thats why if you have a faction like the Senones you need quantitative superiority and want to fight the legions on open terrain. (Dont replicate Boudicca's mistake haha).

But yeah give it time, Rome wasnt built in a day! Playing as either faction in the Spartacus scenario helped me. And sometimes experience is good, rather than always winning while your learning. The age engine is simple at face value, but has many complexities, that are difficult to understand!

[Towerbooks3192]

Originally posted by ryan_917K:

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

There are a lot of things that confused me. Like I can drag a unit in and out of the city but sometimes it wouldn't go in or it wouldn't come out. Also when moving, Sometimes I may have plotted the command but they will still remain in the region despite taking less than 30 days to march to the other region.

The other thing that bothers me is that there are times when I may be moving towards a region with an enemy army but the battle does not start and also a time when I was inside a city and my forces will not sortie to relieve the siege and times where I try to move in to relieve the siege but it has done nothing.

So far it is the thing that bothers me the most. Other than that, I have problems organising my units and picking my battles. It is easy to do in most ww2 games (anti-tank is a no go for armours, you must use artillery and air support, or machine guns will rip your men to shreds), as for AJE, I see different units but I don't know how to make use of them nor to ensure that I am not doing something stupid when I try to pick my fights.

To sum things up, the game looks interesting and yet overwhelming.

Right as to units not moving. This is related to activation status. Only Commanders with a white envelope can move (brown envelope means they cant) (stacks without a commander can always move but they are really ineffective). Note that you can change the settings so there is no activation rule to make it easier for you to learn the game.

As to no battle ocurring. This might ocurr for a number of reasons: enemy stack might have green withdraw posture and evade you. Or might go into the settlement etc. Bottom line is you cant be sure that a battle will happen. If you really want a decisive battle then hold your stack over the enemy army that you wish to attack, your army will follow them. This will increase your chances of a battle happening.

Sorties are in my experience not that usable. I think they only work if you have one army moving to relieve the siege. Then your stack in the town will come out and fight with the relieving army. I dont know if that always works or not. But I know it can work.

Right as to unit quality, the legion is the gold standard. They are the best quality, that is why it is advisable to play as Rome (they even have a good chance of making ballista siege equipment to make a siege shorter!). Thats why if you have a faction like the Senones you need quantitative superiority and want to fight the legions on open terrain. (Dont replicate Boudicca's mistake haha).

But yeah give it time, Rome wasnt built in a day! Playing as either faction in the Spartacus scenario helped me. And sometimes experience is good, rather than always winning while your learning. The age engine is simple at face value, but has many complexities, that are difficult to understand!

How does the F2 recruitment work and that eagle symbol to train troops work? I will try to play spartacus. I managed to win the Senones scenario and as Both sides but I was still confused by a lot of aspects. I must be doing some things right to win as Senones but I want to be efficient.

So I would assume playing Romans is like playing as the Germans in WW2 games and the other factions are only feasible if I gained much more experience later on?

[Wolf01]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Originally posted by ryan_917K:

Right as to units not moving. This is related to activation status. Only Commanders with a white envelope can move (brown envelope means they cant) (stacks without a commander can always move but they are really ineffective). Note that you can change the settings so there is no activation rule to make it easier for you to learn the game.

As to no battle ocurring. This might ocurr for a number of reasons: enemy stack might have green withdraw posture and evade you. Or might go into the settlement etc. Bottom line is you cant be sure that a battle will happen. If you really want a decisive battle then hold your stack over the enemy army that you wish to attack, your army will follow them. This will increase your chances of a battle happening.

Sorties are in my experience not that usable. I think they only work if you have one army moving to relieve the siege. Then your stack in the town will come out and fight with the relieving army. I dont know if that always works or not. But I know it can work.

Right as to unit quality, the legion is the gold standard. They are the best quality, that is why it is advisable to play as Rome (they even have a good chance of making ballista siege equipment to make a siege shorter!). Thats why if you have a faction like the Senones you need quantitative superiority and want to fight the legions on open terrain. (Dont replicate Boudicca's mistake haha).

But yeah give it time, Rome wasnt built in a day! Playing as either faction in the Spartacus scenario helped me. And sometimes experience is good, rather than always winning while your learning. The age engine is simple at face value, but has many complexities, that are difficult to understand!

How does the F2 recruitment work and that eagle symbol to train troops work? I will try to play spartacus. I managed to win the Senones scenario and as Both sides but I was still confused by a lot of aspects. I must be doing some things right to win as Senones but I want to be efficient.

So I would assume playing Romans is like playing as the Germans in WW2 games and the other factions are only feasible if I gained much more experience later on?

Good stuff with the Senones :). With recruitment, the numbers (chits) just indicate the replacements for any damaged sub-units (partially red ones).

Secondly, I think your referring to the eagle sub-unit of the Roman legion? Now i'm not entirely sure but I think this represents a centurion and gives the legion its bonuses, like the probability of it receiving balistae during a siege etc.

But yeah the Romans have the best units and the dictator mechanic means they can have massive armies. However they are beatable as you say. They don't usually have the best leaders and the ai is beatable. Especially when you've got excellent leaders, like Hannibal Barca etc.

[Victor]

FIY I put a lot of hours into Alea Jacta Est and I'm still on a daily step by step process. What a deep game.
This particular playthrough helped a lot, and it has boosted my interest in roman civil war more and more.

[Giri Hachi Roku]

One Way to learn is to Read up some AAR (After-Action-Report) in the AGEOD Forum: http://www.ageod-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?316-AJE-Alea-Jacta-Est-AARs

[Sruba]

Btw: Here is the best guide in AAR form.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-hero-the-traitor-and-the-barbarian-an-aje-pbem-beginner-aar.632034/

[Giri Hachi Roku]

Originally posted by Sruba:

Btw: Here is the best guide in AAR form.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-hero-the-traitor-and-the-barbarian-an-aje-pbem-beginner-aar.632034/

Yes, that is a very Good Tutorial AAR.... i worked through it a few years ago... Thanks for the reminder :-)

[Fogey Gamer]

Youtube = search for Charles Cummings :)

[ChickenTarTar]

Read the manuel.