Legendary WRE advice?

[Hank the Cow dog]

This game has been a thorn in my side for far too long now, I am unable to win the WRE on legendary. I think I could manage it if I adopted Roman paganism but I refuse to abandon Latin christianity out of realism.

I must have played 50+ different campaigns as WRE and still not a single on successful.

I want to keep Latin christianity, survive the migrators ,survive the barbarians, survive atilla, and conquer the ERE and reunite all of Rome under the rightful Western banner.

I'll take any advice you guys have

[Thodin]

Originally posted by DeathMarch:

Originally posted by PrivateXTC:

Razing and stuff is the easy way, defeats the point of playing legendary with a legendary start position.

If you watch LegendofTotalWar's video you will see a good idea of how to do it and he declares war on everyone first turn even ERE just to make it even harder:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SsvP3uksVM

then the developer should have turned off razing for WRE but they didnt so its an option and you're going to tell me the Real WRE never adandoned anything
also the OP sounds like hes really having trouble so whats wrong with doing it the so called "easy way" then he can go back and do it the so called "rightway"

The Romans abandoned alot of their provinces without a fight. Britannia is the most prominent one. But also Mesopotamia, Germania, Capadocia or Dacia. A strategic retreat to free ressources and troops is always a valid option. No one would argue about that.

But systematically razing stuff for gold is simply nuts. Tell me how this could be done irl: "Oh look a temple! Lets sell it before the barbarians burn it down^^" This is bs.

THERE ARE alot ways to beat the AI on legendary. Raze (means sell) everything, abandon Italy and evacuate to North Africa. Use the cash to build your new Rome around Carthage. Thats just one example which usually works fine. But its simply not historic, and lets be honest: WRE is not really the WRE, well...without Rome.

Find a way to save the WRE while you play how its meant to be played. There will always be super gamey elite tactics to beat any AI, but thats not what I prefer.

[Cabbage]

The OP should play it however he wants.

[Hannibal Barca]

Originally posted by Thodin:

Originally posted by DeathMarch:

then the developer should have turned off razing for WRE but they didnt so its an option and you're going to tell me the Real WRE never adandoned anything
also the OP sounds like hes really having trouble so whats wrong with doing it the so called "easy way" then he can go back and do it the so called "rightway"

The Romans abandoned alot of their provinces without a fight. Britannia is the most prominent one. But also Mesopotamia, Germania, Capadocia or Dacia. A strategic retreat to free ressources and troops is always a valid option. No one would argue about that.

But systematically razing stuff for gold is simply nuts. Tell me how this could be done irl: "Oh look a temple! Lets sell it before the barbarians burn it down^^" This is bs.

THERE ARE alot ways to beat the AI on legendary. Raze (means sell) everything, abandon Italy and evacuate to North Africa. Use the cash to build your new Rome around Carthage. Thats just one example which usually works fine. But its simply not historic, and lets be honest: WRE is not really the WRE, well...without Rome.

Find a way to save the WRE while you play how its meant to be played. There will always be super gamey elite tactics to beat any AI, but thats not what I prefer.

He asked for advice not a morale debate,he tried the normal way he can't do it , so you're going to tell him dont play at all if he doesnt do it the right way?

[Jack Sparrow]

dont burn down any cities, it just causes lots of public order issues elsewhere. have atleast 2 legions that are quite strong, this is because the AI will think your armies are too strong for them to even considering attack and will stay peacfull. next make sure you destroy all the buildings in the regions you know your going to loose (very early game). this will give you lots of money which you can spend on more viable cities to fix public order or even build up your industry for a stable, long term economy. north africa and hispania are very important, as theres no enemies just lots of unrest. leave a legion or maybe 2 in them regions to stop rebellions whilst you spend money on other closer parts of the empire. sticking with christianity has always been my favourite option as in the long run it costs no food like paganism, which stops cities from growing and been able to upgrade their walls, sanatation etc...

good luck and any feed back would be appreciated ;)

[Hank the Cow dog]

Originally posted by Raven2015:

It's possible either way.

- My first campaign: played withou a clue, choke and burnt to death.
- My second campaign: read up a few guide, follow the "burn to the ground" tactic, it works.
- Third campaign: only abandon England.
- Fourth campaign: abandon nothing, lost the Eastern frontier in the beginning the natural way.

So in the end it comes down to expeirence really, in fact in my 4th even when I don't abandone anything it feels a lot easier since I have more income. What I learn is:

- When I say don't abandon, I don't mean I spread out my attention equally. I still only focus on rebuilding the core of the empire, other terriory are just bonus. They are just place I hold on as long as I can with local garrision without investing anything. If I lose them then I lose, but I realize there is really no extra benefit in burning them down myself.

It's easier NOT to convert to pagan, but at the same ignore the Christian research line. Because:

- It takes a while to convert enough % population to make the switch, meaning having to deal with uneccessary religious unrest.
- Don't have to forfeit early benefit of priest.
- Can't still use the pagan building chain.
- Don't have to make another switch in late game after fertility goes down.

Do you burn down your churches? Because they are very expensive to maintain.

I can almost hold against the enemies but how do you deal with the inevitable, rebellions and civil wars,

[PrivateXTC]

Just downgrade churches to level 1.

[JustaGamer]

Originally posted by Gygax's Chosen:

Do you burn down your churches? Because they are very expensive to maintain.

I can almost hold against the enemies but how do you deal with the inevitable, rebellions and civil wars,

Oh I do, not just church but just about every building I can. I'm just not abandoning any terriotry myself. If I lose them to rebel, barbarian whatever then so be it. I do fight for every battle though. I rely on an aggressive rotation of governors, tax exemptions and agent, there are a lot of macro that's for sure but it's doable. I also ignore pretty much any building that generate unrest.

I think a problem with people who try to switch to pagan kinda shackle themselve with the religious unrest during the build up which can be very long while limit or negate the benefit of having priest. Since I'm not aiming for a switch, I can focus on the building that give me higher +Approval rather then +% Pagan.

One building that I think extremely important early is Guardhouse, especially if you plan to hold onto Britania. In fact, if you focus on exempming tax, rotate governors, building +Approval building, you don't really need to keep your stack inside your core (like Italy) at all, what for? Instead you can keep them rotate on the outer territory and bleed your enemy slowly.

No matter which approach you uses it all comes down to once you stablize a couple core terriotry, you're set for the rest of the game. And in my experience sticking to Christina but building pagan building is the quickest way to do it.

[sammercer1]

Buildings: fishing ports, theatres and circuses, govonors palace, food emporiums, guardhouses, cattle fields.

Soldiers: spears and mercenaries. Especially African horse mercenaries, -15 morale to enemies.

Go through all provinces and dismantle any buildings you do not want or need to raise money. You should only build settlement buildings above and any resource building that gives food. Throughout your campaign remember to toggle the tax province option in the settlement details to reduce PO and prevent rebellions.

Start by razing Caledonians, alamans, and quadrians first turn. Then disband or pull back all armies to Spain and Italy. Build guardhouses in domavia and siscia to the east. This won't stop the oncoming izyges and huns but will deplete their troops. Camulodunum and lindum in Britain asap. Leave the one army in Britain after defeating Caledonians and create another in London. Should easily be able to take Britain with two 3/4 stack armies. By the time you've done this Frank's and Saxons will have invaded northern France. By then you can push north from southern France and South from Britain and recapture.

In Africa, start an army in tingis and take out the maurians first. Then move east through the other African factions.

When affordable, turn 7 or so, place a fleet of rams at the tip of Italy. This will prevent any Arab nation's sending armies by sea. Also place one near camulodunum to prevent Nordic tribes. They will still get through but this will deter constant attacks on camulodunum.

This is how I did it for a this is total war campaign. It's tedious and repetitive and all your settlements will have similar buildings and your armies will be 10 spear and 9 mercenary horse and an onager but it works.

The beginning will be boring because factions will sack a settlement 3 or 4 times so you're defending with no troops but this allows you to build infrastructure and armies in your heartlands.

[Hat8]

Originally posted by PrivateXTC:

Just downgrade churches to level 1.

You'll want those churches for longterm stability.

[RetroRun]

Originally posted by 786543:

Originally posted by PrivateXTC:

Just downgrade churches to level 1.

You'll want those churches for longterm stability.

Just conver to Graceo-Roman Paganism
You don't want churches at all

[Hat8]

Originally posted by Spacekiller_2011:

Originally posted by 786543:

You'll want those churches for longterm stability.

Just conver to Graceo-Roman Paganism
You don't want churches at all

The problem with paganism is the huge food cost. It might be easier to manage but it isn't really optimized for developing industry. Having lots of money really helps.