Rome Total War Gold Edition Manual
Rome Total War Gold Edition Manual
Rome Total War Gold Edition Manual
CAMPAIGN MAP Option menu = Esc Toggle settlement labels = Ctrl + T Toggle character labels = Ctrl + N Zoom to capital = Home Stop character walking = Backspace AI speed up = Space Quick save game = Ctrl + S Quick load game = Ctrl + L Show help window = F1 Select all units = Ctrl + A BATTLE MAP Option menu = Esc Pause = P Toggle unit run = R Stop current orders = Backspace Toggle special unit ability = F Toggle guard mode = D Toggle skirmish = S Toggle fire at will = A Toggle unit formation (tight/loose) = C Alternative attack = Alt + right mouse button Rotate unit clockwise = , Rotate unit counter-clockwise = . Increase formation width = = Decrease formation width = Set waypoint = Shift + Right mouse button Show unit destination = Space Group selected units = G Ungroup selected units = G Select all units = Ctrl + A Deselect all units = Enter Select all artillery units = Ctrl + B Select all infantry units = Ctrl + I Select all cavalry units = Ctrl + C Select all melee units = Ctrl + H Select all missile firing units = Ctrl + M Send message in multiplayer = T Zoom to general = Home Show help window = F1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ave! Welcome to Rome: Total War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 How to Install Rome: Total War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 CD Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 So You Dont Want to Read the Manual? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Experienced Total War Players Start Here! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Starting Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Main Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Single Player Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Multiplayer Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Load Game Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Advisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Asking for Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Campaigns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 How to Get Started with the Imperial Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 How to Get Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 How to Play a Turn in the Campaign Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 How to Deal with Messages and Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 The Marius Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 How to Use Armies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Moving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Selecting the Next Piece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Terrain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Ambushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Attacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Attacking with Supporting Armies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Multiple Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Merging Armies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Splitting Armies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Merging Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Unit Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Generals and Governors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Captains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Recruiting Mercenaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Building Forts and Watchtowers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 How to Run Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Settlements and the Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Settlement Scroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Who Gets to be Governor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Building Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Repairing Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Building Information Scroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Settlement Details Scroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 The Trade Scroll and Province Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 The Building Browser and the Technology Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Wonders of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Trouble in Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Changing Your Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 How to Train Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 The Recruitment Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 How to Besiege a Settlement or Fort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Conquering Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 How to Break a Siege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 How to Use Fleets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 How to Use Spies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 How to Use Diplomats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 How to Use Assassins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 How to Auto-Manage Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 How Not to Go Broke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 How to Manage Your Faction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Retinues: Ancillary Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 How to Deal with the Senate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 How to Get Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 How to Change Game Options During Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Battles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 The Battle Deployment Scroll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Attackers and Defenders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 How to Deploy Your Troops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 How to Use the Battlefield Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 How to Control the Battlefield Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 How to Move and Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Changing Unit Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Changing Unit Facing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Waypoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Unit Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Orders for Artillery Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 How to Use More Than One Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Grouping Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 How to Get the Most from Unit Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 How to Assault a Settlement or Fort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 How to Deal with Ambushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 How to Use Reinforcements and Allies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Custom Battles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Choosing Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Customise Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Customise Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Multiplayer Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Setting Up a Multiplayer Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Hosting a Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Joining a Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 After a Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 License to Use the Game Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Product Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
INSTALLATION
Please make sure your computer system uses Windows 98SE or a later Windows version. Rome: Total War is not compatible with Windows 98 or earlier or other operating systems. Rome: Total War also requires the latest DirectX 9.0ccompatible drivers for your DVD-ROM drive, sound card and video card, as well as any other peripherals. If you have problems running the program, old drivers are the most likely cause.
3. After Rome: Total War is installed, your computer will install Microsoft DirectX 9.0c if needed. When DirectX installation is complete, you may need to restart your computer. For more information on DirectX 9.0c, see the relevant Help file.
4. Now you can run Rome: Total War from the Start menu or by clicking Play on the DVD title screen. Please note that you must have the Rome: Total War DVD in your DVD-ROM drive at all times to play the game.
CD Keys
Your copy of the game came with a CD key, which is located on the back of the manual. When you install the game, youll need to type in this key. Your CD key is unique and without it, you wont be able to play the game. Please enter the key exactly as it appears on the back of the manual. Keep your CD key safe and private in case you need to reinstall the game. Do not give your CD key to anyone else because it may impair your ability to play multiplayer games. If you lose your CD key, you will not be issued another one.
The most important changes in Rome: Total War are: Left-click on a unit to select it and then right-click on where you want it to go. This is true on the campaign map and in battle. On the campaign map, every agent, army and fleet has a movement allowance. When selected, these pieces are surrounded by a highlighted area that shows how far they can move. Family members can hire mercenaries when theyre out in the field. They can also build watchtowers and forts. Both of these cost money. Armies, agents and fleets are no longer simply in a province or sea area. Instead, each army, agent and fleet occupies a specific place on the map. Just standing in the same province isnt enough to start a battle. Youll need to move into an enemy army or settlement to attack. Likewise, youll need to move an agent onto another piece to use its special abilities. Fleets now carry armies and agents. Move onto a fleet to board it; order the fleet onto a coastal square to disembark passengers. An advisor pops up from time to time with hints and tips about the game and whats going on. We recommend paying attention! What can be produced at a settlement is closely tied to the size of the settlement and the level of government. Units can only be trained when there are men in a settlement to fill the ranks. When youre playing as a Roman faction, you have allies (the Senate and two other families) at the start of the game. Sooner or later, other Romans will turn on you in a struggle for ultimate power in Rome. Of course, you can get your retaliation in first! The Senate will give you missions from time to time if youre playing as a Roman faction. Its usually worth finishing these missions for potential rewards and to keep the goodwill of the Senate. Clicking on the Help (question mark) button on information scrolls brings up ingame help. The Help button and the advisors are of great use when learning the game. OK, youve resisted the urge for conquest and plunder long enough! Now go play the game! Good luck with your conquests! Put not your trust in Greeks, Gauls or Carthaginians! And when facing elephants in battletry not to panic!
STARTING PLAY
The Main Menu
Single Player Takes you to the single player menu discussed in detail in the next section of this manual. Continue Campaign Automatically loads the newest saved campaign game and lets you continue with your conquests! Multiplayer See the Multiplayer Games section of the manual for multiplayer details. Load Game Gives you a choice of saved games to continue. Options Adjust the video, sound and gameplay settings of Rome: Total War. See the Gameplay Options for more information.
Quit Leave Rome: Total War and return to Windows.
Hereas with all the menu screensany options that are unavailable are greyed out so you cant click on them to bring up a new menu.
Quick Battle The fastest way of fighting a battle in Rome: Total War. Youre given command of an army and must drive your enemy from the fielda true test of command ability! Clicking on the U-shaped arrow in the lower left corner returns you to the previous menu. This return arrow appears on many screens in the game and always takes you back to the previous screen. The Backspace key also takes you back to the previous menu wherever you see the U-shaped go back arrow on-screen. Options that are unavailable appear in grey.
Multiplayer Menu
Online Battles Fight against opponents anywhere in the world using GameSpy. Youll need a broadband Internet connection to use this service. LAN Battles Fight battles across your LAN (Local Area Network). Each player will need Rome: Total War installed. Change CD Key Click here to change the CD key used for multiplayer battles. You may want to do this so two (or more) people can use the same PC, each with their own unique CD key. Options that are unavailable appear in grey. Youll find much more information on all these topics in the How To Play Multiplayer Games section of the manual.
Options Menu
This menu allows you to adjust the game for best performance on your PC and to choose your own personal preferences for the games look. Based on your PCs set up, Rome: Total War adjusts itself for optimum performance when installed, but this may not match your preferences precisely. Clicking on any item takes you to the appropriate submenu: Video Settings Click on the downward pointing arrows to bring up a list of options in any of the dialog boxes. Select the option you want from a list by leftclicking on it. Left-click on a check box to toggle the relevant graphics feature on and off. Audio Settings Click on the sliders to adjust each element of game sound to suit your personal tastes. The Master Volume slider affects the overall volume. The other sliders adjust the mix of sounds in the game. Again, you can left-click on any of the check boxes in the lower part of the screen to toggle individual options.
Note: EAX ADVANCED HD provides realistic sonic effects to accurately simulate the sound properties of different acoustic environments in Rome: Total War. The EAX ADVANCED HD acoustic models are dynamically updated as you move around in the game experience. For example, the sounds created in a forest have a different sound and reverberation trail than the sounds created in a flat plains region, which would have less reverberation and be more direct. Only the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy range of sound cards will be able to deliver great audio experience with EAX ADVANCED HD.
Control Settings You can modify the keyboard shortcuts to suit your playing style. Double-click on any item in the key list and then press the key(s) you want to use for that function. You can press the SHIFT, CTRL and ALT keys in combination with another key to create a shortcut. You can revert to the original assignments at any time.
Left-click on the icon in the lower-right corner to load and save key
assignments. If you find a particular combination you like, we recommend saving it. Click on the dialog box in the lower part of the screen and then type in a name for your settings file.
View the Credits A list of the gods, emperors, governors and wretched slaves responsible for bringing you this fine product! Clicking on the U-shaped arrow at the bottom left of each screen returns you to the previous menu, as always.
THE PROLOGUE
The Sons of Mars campaign is an introduction to the world of Rome: Total War. Its your task to lead the Julii family to a position of power by conquering Romes neighbours. This is the way to greatness in Rome: Total Warattack external enemies and gain credit for doing so. When youre ready, click on the arrow in the lower-right corner of the screen to begin. Youll start the game with one of your advisors, Victoria, telling you a little about herself and her tasks in the game. All you need to do to start playing is follow her instructions and advice. If you decide you dont want to play the Prologue through to its conclusion, you can press the ESC key to bring up the Campaign Exit Menu scroll, but we recommend playing the Prologue through at least once.
ADVISORS
The advisors are your most useful aid when learning to play Rome: Total War (as you already know if youve played the Prologue). The advisors in the game are your first place to go for help when playing, and theyre watching whats going on so they can pop up at appropriate times and give you helpful hints, tips and general information.
The magnifying glass button shows you the location that is relevant to the advice being offered. The X button dismisses an advisor. Pressing the ESC key also dismisses them. Buttons that are not appropriate for the advice being offered are always greyed out and cannot be selected. Sometimes, for example, there isnt anything that you need to be shown how to do.
Advice Preferences
After youve been playing for a while, you may feel you dont need any more advice. Go to the Options menu at the start of play or press ESC when on the campaign map and select Options from the Game End menu. Youll have the ability to alter the level of advice. Change the level of advice you get by going to the Game Settings menu and choosing an appropriate level of advice from high to none. Your advisors remember what theyve already told you, so if you want to hear advice again, click on the Reset Advisor check box on the same menu. Once youve done that, the advisors will assume youre a new player and offer information and hints accordingly.
CAMPAIGNS
Gameplay in Rome: Total War divides neatly into Campaigns and Battles. These two parts of the game are closely linked, so actions you take in the campaign game such as constructing buildings, training units or appointing generals have major effects on the battlefield. This part of the manual concerns itself with Campaigns. Later, well discuss Battles and how to get the most out of them.
The Imperial Campaign menu allows you to select and set all the options you might want in a campaign game: who youre controlling, how hard the game is to play and how you want to win. This screen allows you to do the following:
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Select your Advice Level for the coming campaign from the dropdown list thats displayed when you click on the down arrow in the text box. We recommend you leave this on High until youre comfortable playing the game. Select Campaign Difficulty and Battle Difficulty from the appropriate dropdown lists. You can pick the level of challenge in each part of the game, and the two dont have to be set the same. Click on the Arcade Style Battles check box if you want battles to be simplified and action-oriented. Many realism settings are turned off automatically if you choose this option. Click on the Short Campaign check box if you only want to focus on destroying or outliving certain factions rather than conquering the entire map. Click on one of the Faction Shield icons on the right to choose the people youll lead to greatness, glory and a mighty empire! The map changes to show where they start, and the text gives you a quick overview of their strengths and foibles. When you first start to play, you can only select one of the Roman factions, but others will become available in later games. Click on the arrow in the lower-right corner to start play.
How to Win
If youre playing as one of the Roman factions, the Brutii, Julli or Scipii, the basic victory condition for the game is to conquer Rome and much of the world. This isnt as easy as it sounds. Youll find yourself fighting against the forces of the Senate and the other Roman factions. If youre playing as any other non-Roman faction, the basic victory condition is very simple: conquer the world! If you dont want to play the game for quite so long, click on the Short Campaign check box. Once youve made up your mind, start playing! When you win, peasants cheer, trumpets sound and (probably) an angel gets his wings. And you have the inestimable pleasure of having crushed your enemies, seen them driven before you and heard the lamentations of their women. Cool, huh?
When you start a Rome: Total War campaign, theres a lot to take in. The Advisors built into the game are there to help, but theres still a wealth of information to think about. So, where to start?
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Everything on-screen is there to help you run your soon-to-be magnificent empire. The screen is divided into two main areas: a view of the campaign map and the Control Panel at the bottom of the screen.
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If you want to find out the name of a province or region, first left-click on an empty space on the game world map (to deselect everything). Then right-click and hold on an empty space in the province youre interested in. The underlying terrain, the owning faction icon and the province name will be displayed.
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For tabs that show military units, ships or agents, you can select an individual unit card in the review panel by left-clicking on it. You can then drag and drop a selected item onto a spot in the game world, and the forces or agents involved will move there. You can make multiple selections by holding down the CTRL key and repeatedly left-clicking on individual unit cards until you have as many as you want. You can also press Ctrl + A to select all units. You can also make multiple selections by selecting one unit card, then holding down the SHIFT key and selecting a second unit card. All the unit cards between the first and second clicks will be selected.
Rome: Total War is a game that repays a bit of thought on the road to victory. Its a good idea to have some general strategy in mind of what youd like to do: ask yourself, for example, when do you want to attack the Gauls? Where? Will you invade Sicily? Or head into the Balkan provinces? Answers to questions like these help to set targets to work toward.
With some kind of underlying plan, even if its as straightforward as defend whats mine, you can approach each turn with a goal in mind and do things to make your growing empire stronger and more successful.
Senate Missions
As a Roman faction, from time to time youll receive missions from the Senate. Its up to you whether or not you carry out their wishes. When deciding whether or not to listen to the Senate, its worth asking if you have the resources and time to do the mission. If youve been asked to conquer some place, can you do it without weakening your forces elsewhere? Or is the place worth conquering as a step to something greater? If youve been asked to make a diplomatic deal with a faction, do you want the other faction to feel safe for awhile? A trade deal, for example, can also bring in extra cash! Of course, nobodys forcing you to obey, so if you want to ignore the Senate, you can. If you do, the Senate will use its powers against your faction. See How to Deal with the Senate for more information.
Settlements
For each turnat least to start withits a good idea to check all your settlements and look after them carefully. When your empire isnt very big, you need to squeeze maximum value out of each settlement that you have!
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There are a few simple questions you can ask yourself about your settlements, and the answers will help you decide what needs to be done to get the most out of your empire: Is everyone happy in the settlement? Is public order above or close to 100, so riots are unlikely? Settlements where there are riots and disorder may even rebel! Hint: try altering the tax rate; your people dont like paying taxes. Is anything being constructed? A new building always makes a settlement do something better, be it train military units, defend the location, trade, farm or keep everyone in order. If youre not sure what to construct, ask Victoria. Is a unit being trained? Military units are the building blocks of armies. Generally speaking, in the long run units are cheaper to train (and maintain) than to buy as mercenaries. Again, if youre not sure what kind of unit to train, you can consult Victoria, your advisor. Is the settlement making or losing money? One settlement losing money for a time is probably sustainable, but losses in all settlements for long periods will destroy your treasury. A faction with no money is in trouble! Therefore it makes sense to tweak the tax rates in settlements to balance public order and your tax income.
Armies
Each turn you should ask yourself whether your armies are doing something to contribute to your success. Sometimes just standing in the right place can be enough, but its always worth going around and quickly reviewing your army positions. Are there enough armies in position to counter an immediate threat from enemies? Are river crossings and mountain passes guarded? Are armies placed ready for an ambush? When youve decided on an attack: Get armies into place to mount the attack. This might mean one large force, or a couple of smaller ones. Pincer movements to attack a foe from two different directions at the same time can be very effective. Position reinforcements for battleadjacent armies can be drawn into the fight. Extra men can be a great benefit. Pick the best general to make the attack. This is usually the general with the highest Command rating. As generals wage battle, youll find that the traits and ancillaries they gain give them a personality, and some generals will become experts at certain types of warfare.
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Agents
Diplomats, spies and assassins have their uses and should be quickly reviewed each turn. Agents may be needed to carry out a mission from the Senate. Are they in the right place to be easily deployed? Spies can be sent to scope out rivals territory. They can spot armies that could threaten your own forces or spy on settlements to learn the state of the defenses. Diplomats need to be within reach of a rivals settlement or army should there be a need to talk quickly. Assassins, if you have any, can be positioned near threatening rival generals. Perhaps a single knife in the dark can neutralize a threat more effectively than many swords.
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Moving
Select an army by left-clicking on it. The highlighted area shows every place the army can move to during the current turn. All actions (moves and attacks) cost movement points and as these are used up, the distance an army can move for the remainder of the turn reduces. Right-click on the spot where you want an army to go. A large arrow shows the proposed route for the army. Right-click and drag to show the route changing for an army as its destination changes.
Right-click on a friendly army (not an ally!) to merge the moving army into the stationary one. Well talk more about merging armies in a moment.
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Right-click on a friendly settlement (not an allied settlement) to merge the army with the settlement garrison (if any). The army will move into the settlement, and if the army has a general and the settlement doesnt have a governor, the general will be automatically appointed as the new governor. See the How to Run Settlements section for more information.
Red highlighted areas are in enemy zones of control, which means theyre adjacent to a non-allied army. Moving into a red zone ends further movement for an army. You dont have to attack when in a zone of control. Its possible to right-click beyond the green highlighted area, in which case itll take two (or more) turns for an army to reach its destination. Assuming the army is given no new orders and isnt ambushed, itll continue marching. The route is shown as a multicoloured line, with each colour representing one turns movement. Armies that cannot move have a red circle around them. Armies are shown as kneeling figures when theyre hidden and ready to ambush any passing enemies.
If you want to find out the terrain in a particular area, first left-click on an empty space on the game world map (to deselect everything). Then right-click and hold on an empty space in the province youre interested in. This tells you the terrain type of the location, the owning faction and the province name. The terrain determines whether your armies can move into a location and determines the kind of battlefield youll fight on in that area. Some terrainsuch as mountainsare simply impassable to armies. Youll need to find passes or routes around blocking terrain.
Terrain
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River crossings are marked on the campaign map by fords or bridges (after roads have been constructed). These are the only places where armies can cross, and are, thus, strategically important. Armies can hide in wooded areas and ambush passing enemies. Wise commanders choose their ground carefully to make the most of troops, so its worth checking out the terrain near mountain passes, river crossings and other choke points where the enemy must pass.
Ambushes
Armies can ambush passing enemy armies on the campaign map. Armies that can carry out ambushes are always shown kneeling down in the woods, even at the start of a game turn. Armies belonging to other factions that are lying in ambush arent shown on the map until the ambush is sprung! If your army is ambushed, its movement is halted and it must fight a battle. This can be auto-resolved or fought on the battlefield. The ambushed army is usually at a severe disadvantage!
Attacking
When you have an army selected, right-click on the enemy army or settlement you wish to attack: The Battle Deployment Scroll will appear. This gives a breakdown of your forces and the enemy arrayed against you. The most important piece of information is the strength comparison in the centre of the scroll. Move the cursor over the crossed swords to see the odds for the coming battle. Reinforcements are also listed, drawn from adjacent armies. See Attacking with Supporting Armies on the next page. You can fight the battle for yourself, taking control of your units on the battlefield. This gives you the most control and iswe thinkthe most fun! You can have the PC work out the result for you. Casualties may be heavier than if you fight the battle, and you cant protect your general from harm.
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You can withdraw from your attack. If youre attacking a settlement or fort, see the How to Besiege a Settlement or Fort section of the manual.
Multiple Attacks
As long as an army keeps winning, it can keep moving forward and attacking. Depending on casualties (and other factors), it may be able to attack two or three times during a turn.
Merging Armies
Move an army onto another friendly (same faction) army or settlement to merge the two forces. It may be useful to merge units before merging armies. You cant merge units while youre merging armies. The general with the highest Command rating is usually in charge of a merged army. When an army led by a captain is merged with a generals army, the captain is reduced to the ranks and disappears.
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If there are more than 20 units (total, in both armies) involved in the merging, then the Merge Armies scroll appears. Select the units you want to move to the other army. You can make multiple selections by holding down the CTRL key as you left-click. Some units may be greyed out. These have moved as far as they can this turn, and therefore cant move (merge) to another army. Click on the transfer arrow button in the middle of the scroll once youre happy with the army compositions. You can also drag-and-drop units between the two armies on this scroll. Once youre happy with the merged armies, click on the check box in the lower right-hand corner of the scroll.
Splitting Armies
From time to time, you may want to split a force or move part of a garrison out of a settlement or fort. Select the units you want to move using their unit cards in the Review Panel in the centre of the Control Panel at the bottom of the screen. You can use the SHIFT and CTRL keys while selecting to make multiple selections. Either move the cursor to the spot you want the selected units to go. A ghost army will be shown in the cursor position. Or drag-and-drop the selected units from the Review Panel to an appropriate location in the game world. In both cases, the son army marches to the new location.
Merging Units
After a battle theres a good chance your forces have taken some casualties. Some units may have been reduced to only a few men. No matter how few men a unit contains, it still uses one of the 20 slots in an army roster. This results in armies that are full of units yet contain few men. Units can be increased in numerical strength by merging them or by retraining at a settlement. See the Retraining Units section on page 35. Merging units must be of the same type. Drag one unit onto another in the Review Panel, and the two will merge. The men in the unit being dropped are added to the target unit.
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The dragged unit may vanish if all its men are used in this way. Any spare men remain in their original unit. You can auto-merge depleted units by pressing the M key.
Unit Experience
Be careful when combining units since troops with low (or no) experience can dilute a high experience unit and reduce its performance in combat. The number and colour of the chevrons on the unit card in the Review Panel show unit experience. A unit with experience can be relied on in combat, and will usually beat an otherwise identical unit. Chevrons can also be gained by units under generals with high command values, or as a result of good training facilities (buildings). No chevrons indicate the unit has little or no experience. One, two and three bronze chevrons show the unit has been blooded in combat. One, two and three silver chevrons show the unit is composed of soldiers who have seen much hard fighting. One, two and three gold chevrons show the unit is composed of tough, grizzled veterans who know the business of war inside and out. A unit with three gold chevrons is likely to be one thats worth its weight in gold to a commander!
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Captains
Captains are limited, temporary leaders of armies. Theyre selected from the ranks when an army needs a leader and a named character isnt available to be a general. When a general joins the army, the captain returns to the ranks. Captains cannot: Recruit mercenaries Build forts and watchtowers Govern settlements When a settlement without a governor is besieged, a captain leads the garrison.
Recruiting Mercenaries
While a general is outside a city, he can recruit mercenaries from the local province. Click on the Recruit Mercenaries button in the Control Panel. When there are no mercenaries available, the button is greyed out. This brings up the Army Details Scroll, showing the general and the list of available mercenaries. Left-click on any mercenary unit to select it and add it to the queue of mercenaries to be hired. You can deselect a mercenary unit for hiring by leftclicking on it once again. Right-click on a mercenary to bring up details. When youre satisfied with your hiring choices, click on the Hire Queued Units button on the left of the scroll. Unlike a factions own troops who have to be trained for at least a turn before they appear, mercenaries instantly appear as part of the army in the review panel.
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A general can build as many watchtowers and/or forts as you want in a single turn, limited only by his ability to move to a new site. Forts can be extremely useful in defending strategic choke points such as mountain passes: an enemy will have to lay siege to the fort to advance. Its even possible to build a wall of forts to isolate an area.
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This icon shows whether or not the population of the settlement is increasing or not.
Green indicates the population is growing. Amber/Orange indicates the population is stable. Its worth
having a look at a settlement to see whats not going well as far as population growth is concerned.
This icon appears if a unit is being trained in the settlement. This icon appears if a building is being constructed or repaired in the settlement. A gears icon appears when the settlement is being auto-managed.
A left-click on one of your settlements selects it, and the Control Panel at the bottom of the screen changes to show the contents of the selected settlement.
Left-click on the Construction Button to open the construction tab within the Settlement Scroll. This allows you to issue
orders for new buildings in the settlement. When construction is underway, the button shows whats being built. Otherwise, the button is empty.
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Left-click on the Training Button to open the Recruitment tab on the settlement scroll. This allows you to issue orders to train new units, ships and agents in the settlement. When a unit is being trained, it appears here. Otherwise, the button shows that the settlement is ready to receive training orders. You can click on the Retrain tab to show retrainable units. The review panels in the centre show various details of the settlement, depending on which tab has been selected. The left tab shows the garrison units in the settlement, along with any governor and his bodyguard. Right-click on a unit card to bring up information. The governor of a settlement is always shown with a management scroll on his portrait. Visiting generals are shown with stars on their portraits in the review panel. The second tab shows the existing buildings in the settlement. Rightclick on any of the building pictures to bring up the Building Information Scroll. The third tab shows any visitorsagents of your factionin the settlement. Right-click on any of the agents to bring up the appropriate character scroll. The fourth tab (passengers on a fleet), is not used for settlements. In the right-hand section of the Control Panel are two large buttons with the town name alongside: Click on the arrows on either side of the name to move between settlements.
The Settlement Scroll is the key to getting information about, and issuing orders to, a settlement. The large arrows on either side of the settlement name allow you to scroll between settlements quickly. The main part of the Settlement Scroll is divided into four areas: The top part of the scroll shows the Governors Details (if theres a governor in residence). Depending on difficulty settings, without a governor, a settlement is always auto-managed for you. The governors attributes have an effect on how well the settlement is run.
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The next section shows the Settlement Details. This displays a summary of all the important statistics for the settlement, along with icons that show whether or not the settlement is revolting, under siege and/or infected with plague. Youll also see a population requirement for the settlement to grow in size; this will not be shown if the settlement has reached its maximum size. The next section allows you to Set Policies for the settlement. When automanagement is off, youll be given the choice to alter the tax rate in the settlement. The tax rate you set affects how much money you earn from the settlement (income), how happy your people are feeling (public order), the population and the population growth rate. The tax rates vary from low to very high; try adjusting the tax rates and seeing what happens to income, public order and growth. These four values determine how well your settlement functions. Some factions can have amphitheaters and circuses in settlements, so youll also have the choice of how often games or races are thrown to amuse the people. The Orders section has four tabs for Construction, Recruitment, Repair and Retraining. For the moment, well concentrate on Construction and Repair. This is where you order building works for your settlement. The Recruitment and Retraining Tabs are dealt with in the How to Train Units section. Tabs that cant be selected are greyed out. Down the left-hand side of this scroll is a set of buttons that control the settlement and give you more information: This button brings up a more detailed analysis of your settlement.
This brings up a scroll showing you the buildings in the settlement arranged according to their position on the games technology tree. This is useful for reviewing progress and planning future civic developments. Click here to ask Victoria what to construct. Shell suggest a building and give reasons for her choice. Click here to centre the campaign map view on the settlement. Frontier settlements have different priorities than those closer to the core of your empire.
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Building Construction
All building construction work uses two resources: time and money. The number of different buildings shown as construction options depends on the size of the settlement and what youve already built. If you dont have the money, you wont be able to construct some buildings. Buildings that are beyond your means are greyed out. Left-click on a building under the Construction tab to add it to the Construction Queue. The money to pay for the building is immediately deducted from your treasury. Left-click on a building in the Construction Queue to cancel the construction order. The building will reappear under the Construction tab in case you want to construct it later. When the Construction Queue is full, buildings under the Construction tab will be greyed out. Buildings in the Construction Queue are completed in left-to-right order. You can alter the order by dragging-and-dropping the building pictures until youre happy. Right-click on a building in options or the queue to bring up the relevant Building Information Scroll.
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Shrines and Temples are special cases. You may be offered a choice of temple for construction. Once youve added a temple to the Queue, the other temples will be removed as construction choices. Each settlement can only have one temple, and they are mutually exclusive. Its possible to destroy a temple and start over with a shrine to a different god.
Repairing Buildings
Buildings can be damaged through natural disasters and during siege assaults. Its quite possible to damage a town without taking it, and the longer an assault takes, the more collateral damage is done. Left-click on the Repair tab to see which buildings need work. Repairing buildings works in a very similar fashion to new construction. The cost of repairs is usually substantially less than the cost of a new building, both in terms of cash and of time. Instead of being presented with construction options, there is a collection of buildings needing repair. Left-click on any damaged building to add it to the construction queue. It can be dragged and dropped into the queue and left-clicked to cancel the work as described above for new construction work.
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Left-click this button to bring you down into a battlefield view of your
settlement. It can be a great help in letting you get a feel for the streets and defenses.
Left-click this button to bring up the Trade Summary Scroll and see
how your settlement is generating taxable income.
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The Rome: Total War package includes a printed technology tree for the Roman factions in the game. All factions, however, follow a technology tree, some of which are very different from that of the Romans. The Building Browser Scroll allows you to review a settlements progress through the technology tree. Buildings in full colour have been completed. Greyed-out buildings are either not yet built or unavailable for the settlement. The Building Browser shows the government building you need before you can construct other buildings at the same level. Right-click on any building (including those not yet built) to bring up the relevant Building Information Scroll. All buildings keep, or improve on, the abilities of earlier structures.
Trouble in Settlements
Settlements are not always good places to live, and sometimes the people will make their feelings clear by revolting. Victoria, your advisor, will warn you that problems are developing and suggest solutions, but prevention is sometimes better than cure. You can reduce the tax rate, send troops to quell dissent, send a better (or indeed any) governor and, if time permits, construct buildings that have a positive effect on public order. Sieges have to be endured or broken. See the section on How to Break a Siege on page 36 for more information. Plague is, perhaps, the worst thing that can happen to a settlement, and a sign of the gods disfavour! A settlement thats a squalid place to live is more likely to suffer plague than somewhere thats wholesome. Again, some buildingssuch as sewershave a positive effect on public health and lessen the likelihood of a plague.
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As youll see, this is very similar to the Construction tab. The Recruitment tab is where you order new units to be trained in your settlement. Immediately below is the Recruitment Queue, which shows training in progress. Down the left-hand side of this scroll is a set of buttons that are described in the How To Run Settlements section. Click here to ask Victoria about what unit to train. Shell suggest a unit and give reasons for her choice.
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Retraining Units Click on the Retraining tab to see units in a garrison that are eligible to be
retrained. Retraining can be carried out if a unit meets one or both of the following conditions: The unit is numerically under strength: it has taken losses and has fewer men in its ranks than when it was originally trained. Under-strength units that are
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retrained may have any battle experience diluted by the raw recruits who enter their ranks. The unit has inferior quality weapons and/or armour compared to those currently available in the settlement. For example, a unit trained where theres no blacksmith moves to a settlement where theres a foundry. The unit is eligible for retraining because better weapons are available. Retraining costs money and time. The unit is removed from the garrison during retraining, and has no public order effects. Mercenaries can never have their numbers replenished, but their weapons and armour can be upgraded.
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There will be times when you want to stop besieging a settlement. Simply select the besieging army and move it away from the settlement. The siege will be lifted automatically. You can also click on the Lift Siege button on the Siege Details Scroll. Any siege equipment that your troops have constructed will be abandoned and lost to you.
Conquering Settlements
There are three ways a settlement can fall to you as a conqueror: By being starved into submission through a siege. By an assault, played out on the battlefield. By an assault that is auto-resolved in your favour. Once a settlement has fallen, you have a choice about what to do with it and the people who live there: Occupy the settlementYoull make some profit from looting, but the settlement will be relatively undamaged. The number of people in the settlement will be unchanged, although they may be resentful towards their conqueror. Enslave the populationSome looting occurs, but the main effect is to ship people from the newly conquered settlement to other settlements in your empire as slaves. Only settlements with a governor can gain population this way. This can be an excellent way of boosting the population in your important settlements, as well as making sure the newly conquered settlement is less likely to revolt. Exterminate the populationThe people are put to the sword, reducing the population of the settlement immediately. Immediate looting takes place on a large scale, too. This brutal policy can be useful when conquering people belonging to a faction with a very different culture from your own. Income from the settlement will be massively reduced until the population grows once more. You also have the option of auto-managing the settlement and leaving it to the game to run it for you.
There are two ways of breaking a siege: sallying forth with the garrison and sending a relief force. While under siege, the garrison cant leave and new forces cant enter the settlement. The settlement is cut off by the besiegers.
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To sally out, select any units in the garrison and right-click on the besieging army. The Battle Deployment Scroll will be displayed so that you can see the odds and decide whether or not to auto-resolve the fight. Any adjacent friendly armies will appear as reinforcements in the battle (allied armies will always be controlled by the AI). You will have control of the garrison for the sally battle. A relief force is another army that attacks the besieging force. In this case, the garrison appears as reinforcements (again, allied armies are always controlled by the AI). During a sally battle, the besieging army may attempt to break into the settlement and capture it. After all, gates that open to let defenders out also let attackers in In both cases, the garrison (sallying force) or the relief force must be victorious to drive away the enemy and break the siege. In either case, it can sometimes be worthwhile to target any siege equipment that the besieging army has constructed. Its loss may delay their final assault.
Naval Combat
The naval combat system in Rome: Total War is abstract and auto-resolved. To start a naval battle, left-click on your fleet to select it, and right-click on the fleet you wish to attack. Fleets that lose ships in combat lose any military units or characters that the lost ship(s) happened to be carrying. The command rating of the fleets admiral influences its fortunes in battle.
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After combat, the losing fleet will either sink or pull away from the victorious enemy.
Passengers on Fleets
If you want an army or agent to board a fleet, select the land-based piece (army or character) and move the cursor over your fleet. The cursor will change to a boarding symbol to show that this move is possible.
Right-click to confirm the boarding order. From now on, orders to the fleet
will include its passengers. By the way, movement points used by passengers before they join a fleet limits the movement of the fleet. To disembark passengers, select the fleet and then right-click on a coast. Everybody aboard a fleet will disembark at this spot. Any and all agents assassins, diplomats and spieswill be attached to a disembarked army. If you want to partially unload a fleet, select the units or agent(s) in the review panel and then right-click on the campaign map on the coastal area where you want them to disembark.
Blockades
Its possible to blockade an enemy port and cut its trade links with the outside world. The blockaded faction will not receive some trading income each turn the blockade is in force: Select an army or a fleet, then right-click on the port you wish to blockade. A barrier will be placed around the port to show a blockade is in force. You can lift a blockade by moving your fleet away. You can break enemy blockades by successfully attacking the blockading fleet. Victory will break the blockade.
Fleets as Bridges
It is possible for land forces or characters to board a fleet and then disembark on the same turn.
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Storms
Storms can cause fleets to lose ships. Its possible that a fleet can be entirely dashed to pieces by a particularly bad storm. Ships in coastal waters are in less danger during storms than ships far out to sea. Any ship thats sunk is lost with any military units it was carrying.
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Diplomats can be attached to your armies like other characters. Simply move them to the same location as an army. This makes it slightly safer for them to travel. They can be removed from the army by clicking on the Characters tab, selecting the diplomat and then right-clicking a spot on the game map.
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Left-click on the target and then click on the assassination or sabotage buttons. You can always cancel the mission by clicking on the X button.
There are no guarantees that an assassin will succeed. Assassins who fail might get killed in the process.
Settlements in Rome: Total War can be left to run themselves if you prefer to concentrate on the military side of the game. If a settlement doesnt have a governor itll be auto-managed. Moving the last character out of a settlement turns auto-management on. When you conquer a settlement, youre given the option of auto-managing it. The conquering general can be the governor, but the settlement can still be left to look after itself.
The Settlement Scroll In the set policies section of the scroll, click on the Auto-manage check box to
toggle auto-management on and off. When its on, youll have the chance to pick a build policy for the settlement. This gives the administrators some basic guidance on where they should concentrate their spending. The policies are all straightforward: BalancedResults in a well-rounded settlement. FinancialTrade and income-producing buildings are favoured.
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MilitaryBuildings that train or upgrade troops are constructed. DefensiveWalls are given priority. CulturalTemples, amphitheaters, arenas, academies and other buildings that make people feel happy are favoured. The amount of money invested in new buildings is determined by the overall AI spending policy, which is set on the Faction tab of the Overviews scroll. The Overviews scroll can be accessed by left-clicking on your Faction icon in the lower-right corner of the control panel. When auto-management is off, youll be given the choice to alter the tax rate in the settlement.
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Faction RankingsA summary graph that shows you how well each faction is doing compared to the others. Family TreeA convenient summary of your factions available senior
personnel: your generals, their wives and their children. Click here to bring up the Senate Officials Scroll. This is discussed in greater detail shortly.
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You can click on the faction symbols to toggle the graph lines on and off for any particular faction(s). This can be very useful when reviewing your progress in a war.
Attributes
All family characters have three attributes that affect their performance in the game. These are command, management and influence, and theyre measured on a scale of 0 (poor) to 10 (almost divinely inspired):
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Command is the ability the character has to lead and inspire men in battle. High command has a positive effect on the morale and fighting quality of soldiers. A low command rating has some effect, and is definitely better than no command rating at all. Management is the ability of the character to run a settlement and conduct the business of government. Influence is the ability of the character to sway others by argument and the force of personality. This has an effect on public order when a character with influence is a governor. Other characters in the game also have attributes: Admirals have command ratings, but only for sea battles. Diplomats have influence, and this affects their chances of successfully negotiating with another faction. Spies and assassins have subterfuge ratings. Subterfuge is a measure of sneakiness, double-dealing and underhandedness.
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In Rome: Total War, the Roman empire is represented by four factions (you cannot play the Senate). They are all on the same side when it comes to dealing with nonRomans, but one faction will eventually take control of the whole empire. At the start, the Senate and other Roman factions are not hostile. You dont need to worry about being stabbed in the back by another Roman faction. At some point, itll become inevitable that youll have to march on Rome and stake your claim to be imperator (emperor) of the Roman world. The other Roman factions will be working toward the same goal. Its therefore likely a civil war will break out. An attack on Rome will only succeed if you have a strong military force and your faction is popular with the Senate and People of Rome.
Senate Missions
At the start of each turn, event messages appear on the left-hand side of the screen. Among these can be messages from the Senate requesting you perform a mission of some kind. These missions are intended to further the interests of Rome, not just your faction. While whats good for Rome is often the same as whats good for you, it may not always be the case. The Senate also sets a time limit for these missions. As you carry out Senate missions and your faction becomes stronger, the tasks the Senate asks you to perform will become more challengingand the rewards for carrying out the wishes of the Senate grow!
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Your popularity with the Senate rises if you carry out Senate missions and if you conquer foreign territory to add to the glory of Rome! The Senate also takes into account your military might and the threat you represent to them. Your popularity with the plebs rises as you conquer new lands for Rome (for your own faction, in fact). The plebeians love a winner!
In many places youll see a ? button. Click on it to get help. If the advisor is already on-screen and highlighted, youll have to read the current advice or dismiss the advisor to see the help information. Victoria is pretty clever, but she can only tell you one thing at a time!
Pressing ESC when no scroll is visible brings up the Game Options menu. For game, audio and video options, use the sliders and check boxes to alter the settings to suit your personal preferences. Load Game and Save Game allow you to save your position and reload it later (or even undo some terrible calamity by stepping back to an earlier game date, not that youd ever cheat like this, oh no).
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BATTLES
This part of the manual concerns itself exclusively with the battle side of play and how to get the most out of commanding your troops. The two halves of the game are linked on many levels. The campaign game determines where a battle takes place and the units present; results in the battle game affect the campaign. Generals can earn traits as a result of their behavior in battle. Cities can be won and lost, and a brilliant victory in the field can mean the conquest of new lands!
Victory
Generally, in a field battle you need to drive the enemy from the battlefield to win. You can press the ESC key and select Exit Battle at any time to end a battle. Victory may require killing many enemy troops, although a crisis of morale (the death of a general) will make the enemy flee the battle. As an attacker, there may be a time limit. If you havent defeated the enemy before the timer expires, you lose the battle.
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As a defender, the timer works in your favour. Remain on the field until time runs out and the attacker is automatically defeated. During a siege assault, victory is determined by control of the central square or plaza in the settlement. The attackers must take this plaza before the timer expires. During a battle, you can press F1 to see information about the battle, including the victory conditions.
Waiting Before a Battle If youre the attacker, you can wait before starting the battle. If the weather isnt right, just click the Wait button. Theres a chance the weather wont change, but
you cant postpone a fight forever waiting for the perfect day: Battles fought in bad weatherrain, snow, sandstorms and so forthwill be more tiring for your troops and for the enemy. Wet weather is likely to have a negative impact on bow-armed units (bows and bowstrings do not like damp conditions). Mist, fog and sandstorms can make it difficult to find the enemy. As the defender, you have to fight with the weather your attacker has decided is good enoughfor his purposes!
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An ambush gives you no chance of choosing the weather for the battle.
CTRL and left-click on the units (on the battlefield) or unit cards (in the Control Panel) you want to select. CTRL and double-click on a unit card (in the Control Panel) to select all units of the same type in your army. Left-click and drag on the battlefield to create a box around the units
you want. All units within the box will be selected.
Deploy multiple units by right-clicking on the ground you want them to occupy. You can right-click and drag the units out into a line. When youre happy with your deployments, click on Start Battle.
Battle Advice
As soon as the battle begins, your military advisor appears with an opinion about enemy tactics for the upcoming fight. Youll find this information useful in formulating your own plans.
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The Mini-Map
The mini-map gives you a view directly down onto the battlefield. Terrain on the battlefield is taken from the campaign map location. Youll see distant mountains, the sea and even volcanoes beyond the battlefield. The mini-map is always oriented with north at the top. The arrowheads in faction colours show the position and facing of units on the battlefield. Selected units are always highlighted on the mini-map. The two blue lines show the current view onto the battlefield. The shadowed area at the edge of the mini-map is out of bounds during a battle. Units may only enter this part of the map if theyre withdrawing from battle or running away like frightened bunnies (or routing, to use the technical term). You can zoom in and out of the mini-map using these buttons to change the map scale.
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The other data and controls in this section of the panel are: The hourglass shows how much time remains before the battle ends. If you speed up play, the timer speeds up, too. Just above the game speed controls, the kill bar shows the relative success or failure of your army in disposing of the enemy. Click on one of these four buttons to pause or play the game at normal, twice and three times speed. You can also press the P key to pause and un-pause the game. Orders can be issued to units while the game is paused.
Units can be grouped together during battle. By clicking on the tab, all units in a group can be selected and controlled as one. Unit cards can have action icons superimposed to show what the unit is currently doing.
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Click here to set the selected unit(s) to guard mode. When guard mode is toggled on, the unit(s) holds position and formation at all costs, and lets the enemy come to them. A unit on guard will not pursue fleeing enemies. This can be useful for holding an important location (such as a gateway). Click here when a unit is selected to toggle the units speed between walking and running. A unit that runs tires more quickly than one that marches. When a group of units is selected, click here to bring up the group formations buttons. See How to Use Groups and Group Formations for more information on these and how they work.
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The cursor arrow keys on the keyboard track the camera view left, right, forward and back without changing the viewing angle. Left-click on the ground and hold down the left or right arrow keys to pan the camera rapidly. The numeric keypad also changes the camera view. Check the key settings by pressing F1 during battle for the camera controls.
Double left-click on a unit card to make the camera move to a position directly behind that unit. Pressing the End key with a unit selected also
has the same affect. Click on the generals portrait in the control panel to move the camera to a position directly behind the generals bodyguard unit. Click on the faction banner to move to a point directly behind the captains unit if no general is present. The blue lines on the mini-map showing the visible area of the battlefield change as the camera position alters. The camera view can be changed when the game is paused. Press Esc and go to game options to change camera mode. This will be familiar to players of earlier Total War titles. Virtually all camera controls are the same, with one important exception: The up and down cursor arrow keys on the keyboard track the camera view forward and back without changing the viewing angle. The left and right cursor arrow keys on the keyboard pan the camera (spin on its vertical axis) without changing its position. The mouse wheel adjusts height but does not change camera angle.
Moving and attacking with units in Rome: Total War use the same basic controls: left-click to select, right-click on the battlefield for a destination or target. To issue a move order: Left-click on a unit on the battlefield or a unit card in the control panel to select the unit.
Right-click on the battlefield location where you want the unit to move.
The unit will march to this spot. Double right-click on a battlefield location if you want the unit to
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If a unit cannot move to a given location for any reason, the cursor changes. The terrain may be impassable or the location out of bounds, for example. You can review all movement orders by holding down the spacebar. Chevrons show all unit destinations as long as the spacebar is held. To issue an attack order: Left-click on a unit on the battlefield or a unit card in the Control Panel to select the unit.
Right-click on the enemy unit you want to attack and the unit marches
into combat. The cursor will look like this when the units primary attack is in hand-to-hand combat. Double right-click on an enemy unit if you want your unit to charge into the attack. Again be carefulcharging from too far away will tire your men before the fight has begun. This cursor is displayed when a units primary attack is with javelins or throwing spears and if the unit has ammunition remaining. This cursor is displayed when a units primary attack is with bows or other missiles (such as sling bullets) and if the unit has ammunition left. For all missile units:
Double right-clicking when a missile-armed unit is selected causes the unit to run forward until within attack range. Animated red movement arrows confirm the attack order. Click on the stop button on the control panel or press the backspace key to cancel a movement or attack order at any time. Some units can attack in more than one way. For example, many javelin-armed troops also carry swords (or knives for use in self-defense). You can order a unit to attack with a secondary weapon:
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Hold down the Alt key and right-click on an enemy unit to order a secondary attack by a unit. If the cursor shows a sword, double right-click to order the unit to run and then charge home into melee. Secondary attacks can be useful with many of the Roman Legionary units, as this forces them to fight hand-to-hand. Most Legionary units follow Roman tactics of throwing a volley of pila (special heavy javelins) and then attacking hand-to-hand with swords. This is why their primary attack is usually shown as a spear. They automatically charge home as the enemy attempts to recover from the missile attack.
Right-click and drag to change the unit frontage. During this process, the
cursor changes and the layout of the unit is shown with chevrons on the ground. The large arrow shows the facing of the unit.
All units have a facing. All attacks are carried out to the front of a unit, and units can be vulnerable when attacked in the flanks (sides) or from behind. Its possible to alter a units facingto meet an oncoming threat, perhapswithout having it move. Select the unit by left-clicking on it on the battlefield or its unit card in the Control Panel. Use the < and > keys (the same keys as comma and period on many keyboards) to rotate the units facing without changing its position. The new layout of the unit is shown with chevrons on the ground. The large arrow shows the unit facing. When multiple units are selected (see How to Use More Than One Unit), changing unit facing creates a battle line and then rotates it.
Waypoints
When a unit is issued a movement order, it normally marches straight toward its destination. However, units are sensible and watch for barriers such as walls and rivers and follow a route that takes them over a river crossing (a ford or bridge), or through a gap in the walls. Its possible to issue detailed marching orders to a selected unit and set up waypoints for it to follow to its final destination:
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To set a waypoint for a unit, hold down the shift key and right-click on the spot you want as a waypoint. Repeat this process to add another waypoint to the units marching route. No more than a dozen waypoints for a route are advisable. You can remind yourself of waypoints later. With the unit selected, hold down the shift key to show the waypoints that have been set. Holding down the spacebar (without the shift key) still shows the final destination and facing of the unit.
Unit Activity
Move the cursor over any unit on the battlefield or unit card and a tool tip appears, giving you details of the units status. The unit cards in the Control Panel also give you a way of monitoring what your units are doing. Each unit card can have a symbol as a notification of whats happening to the unit. Its quite possible for more than one of these symbols to apply at any one time. If this is the case, the symbols that apply are displayed in turn: A single arrowhead at the top of the card shows the unit is moving at a steady march toward its ordered destination. A double arrowhead at the top of the card shows that the unit is moving toward its ordered destination at a run or is charging an enemy unit and has yet to make contact. Crossed swords show the unit is in hand-to-hand combat. A bow and arrow symbol shows that the unit is firing missiles. (This symbol is used even if the unit is actually throwing spears or firing sling bullets). Arrows show the unit is under fire. It may be worth moving the unit out of range or ordering it to attack its tormentors! This symbol shows that the unit is currently hiding and may not be spotted by enemy forces. Most units can hide in woods (allowing them to spring tactical ambushes), but there are some types of soldiers who can hide almost anywhere! The white flag symbol shows the unit has suffered a morale crisis and is now routing, that is, running from the enemy. The unit banner also changes to white on the battlefield. It may be possible for a general to rally troops who are routing. If a unit is surrounded and unable to rout, the fight to the death icon will be displayed on the unit card.
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These symbols only appear on unit cards during sieges. See How to Assault a Settlement or Fort.
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Grouping Units
Groups can be a very useful way of managing a large force. With a collection of units selected, click on this button to group them together. You can also press the G key. The relevant unit cards in the control panel will be collected together into one numbered group. Grouped units dont have to be of the same type. When grouped like this, the new group has the lowest group number thats currently available. Alternatively, with a collection of units selected, hold down the Ctrl key and press one of the number keys on the main keyboardnot the numeric keypadto create a numbered group. A grouped unit is displayed like this in the Control Panel. Left-click on the numbered group tab to select all the units instantly or press the number key that corresponds to the group number (shown in Roman numerals in the tab). Groups can be split or modified at any time: Select two or more groups of units and then group them again using one of the above methods to create a new, larger group that includes all the units of the old selected groups. Select a single group and click on the group button in the Control Panel (or use a keyboard shortcut) to break up the group. The units become single units once again, though they remain selected.
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Select one or more units within a group and click on the group button on the control panel. The selected units will be removed from the current group and create their own group. At least two units must remain in the group, otherwise it will be completely broken up. Groups can be put into group formations: Click on this button to show the group formations buttons. Eight group formations can be selected. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you move the cursor over the buttons, tool tips appear describing the formations. Click on the relevant button to select the formation you want the selected group to use. Alternatively, hold down the Shift key and press numbers 1 through 8 on the main keyboardnot the numeric keypadto select a group formation. You can select more than one group before deciding on a formation. Your selected groups will collectively adopt the group formation you choose. Groups can be placed under AI assistance: With a group selected, click on this button to toggle AI assistance of the group on and off. A group under AI assistance has a red outline on the control panel. Units within an AI assisted group will ignore your combat orders in favour of those of their commanding officer. However, you can order the group to move to a location, and the computer will handle the detailed movement orders for units. Units in an AI assisted group will stay in formation. You can cancel AI assistance at any time by clicking on the Control Panel button to toggle it off.
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Unit Morale
Morale is the willingness of a unit to fight on while taking casualties. As long as a units morale remains good, it will fight. But sooner or later, even the bravest of men will realize that their lives are in more danger if they stay than run. Morale, therefore, is more noticeable when its lacking: a unit with no morale will run away. Not all units are equally blessed with good morale. For example, peasants arent keen on going to war. Professional Legionaries, on the other hand, are likely to stay and fight against great odds. Some units in the game have morale effects in addition to their combat value: Generals (usually) and captains boost the morale of nearby troops. There are some traits, such as personal cowardice, that reduce the morale of warriors under a generals command. The death of a general or captain is usually a severe blow to the morale of his whole army. Some units frighten nearby enemy units, either because of their terrible appearance and fearsome reputation or because theyre armed with cruel and unusual weaponry. Enemies are more likely to run when faced with frightening units. Routing units can cause other friendly units to rout: if lots of other people are running from the enemy, soldiers tend to think it might be a good idea to run, too!
Routing Units and Pursuit As has been noted, generals can rally routing units. This wont work if enemy
forces are too close to the routing unit. They will ignore the general and concentrate on escaping death! Therefore, it can be a good idea to keep some speedy forces available to pursue fleeing foes to prevent them from rallying. Theres also a good chance of killing some enemies as they run, saving you the trouble of having to fight against them on another battlefield. Traditionally, light cavalry were used for this task. Units in guard mode will not pursue enemies.
Romans and Legionary Eagles Some types of Roman units carry Legionary Eagles. These appear in the
campaign game after the reforms of Gaius Marius have occurred, but theyre always available in custom battles. A First Cohort unit carries a Legionary Eagle. This battle standard is regarded as the soul of a Roman Legion, and is an inspiration for any Roman units nearby. Its presence raises the morale of friendly Roman units. Losing a Roman Legionary Eagle is the height of disgrace, and a terrible blow to the battlefield morale of an army that loses one.
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Unit Characteristics
There are a couple of other unit abilities that are worth remembering: Some units are rated as hardy or very hardy. They dont tire quickly when running or chargingtheyre not supermen, just fitter and tougher than average soldiers. Impetuous or berserker units may charge into combat without orders.
Hiding
Many units can hide in forests. Hiding is automatic when a unit moves into terrain where its men can hide. A few highly specialized units can hide in less promising terrain, or even in relatively open terrain. On the battlefield, hidden units are shown with their soldiers crouching down. Enemy forces cannot see hidden units until theyre very close. This makes it possible to stage tactical ambushes with hidden units. The same holds true for enemy forces, of course. Its possible for an enemy unit to hide and not be visible to you on the battlefield! Generals cannot hide, nor can captains.
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There are, however, extra conditions that apply during sieges, and new weapons and tactics for both the attacker and defender.
Siege Equipment
Siege equipment is constructed in the campaign game when an army is besieging a settlement. In Custom Battles, siege equipment can be obtained during setup. In either case, suitable siege equipment is automatically assigned to units when battle deployment begins. Without siege equipment or suitable artillery, its almost impossible for attackers to break into a settlement. Rams, ladders and siege towers are assigned to individual units. The unit cards of relevant units are marked with one of these symbols to show they have siege gear. Units with ladders, towers and rams cannot charge.
Saps (or sapping points) are placed on the battlefield in front of suitable sections of wall. They cannot be moved during deployment.
Once the battle starts, units with siege equipment can be ordered to advance against city walls: A unit equipped with a ram can be sent against a gateway or wooden wall. The cursor changes to show a suitable target gate or wall section for the ram. The unit will push the ram toward the gate or wooden defense and then attempt to smash a way through. If its successful, it will haul the ram out of the broken gateway so a clear path is available into the settlement. Elephants can be ordered to attack gateways or wooden walls without siege equipment. They just batter a hole! A unit equipped with ladders can be sent to scale a suitable stretch of wall (not a tower). The cursor changes to show a suitable wall to assault. The unit will march toward the walls, raise their ladders and climb up. Theyll have to fight any defenders on the walls! A unit equipped with a siege tower can be sent to assault a suitable wall (not a tower in the defenses). The cursor changes to show a suitable wall to attack. The unit will push the siege tower toward the wall, then clamber up before launching an assault directly over the battlements. Units in siege towers can fire arrows, and theyll have to fight any defenders on the wall.
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Most types of units can be ordered into a sap in front of a stone wall. Progress in digging a tunnel toward the defenses is shown by a line of disturbed earth between the sap and the wall. When the diggers reach the wall, there will be a pause while they undermine the walls and set fire to the sap; this brings the walls crashing to the ground, opening a hole in the defenses. The sapping unit(s) will then emerge from the tunnel. While any or all of these attacks are happening, the defenders will not be idle. As an attacker, you should expect missile fire from defenders within a settlement and on top of the larger walls. Towers will also fire missiles at your troops. When a breach in the defenses is caused (either a gateway is broken or walls are knocked down), the camera view switches to show the breach. Units can be ordered to drop siege equipment by clicking on this button in the Control Panel. A unit thats not currently equipped with siege gear can be ordered to pick some up. The siege equipment has to have been abandoned by its previous users.
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Capturing Walls
Wooden walls serve only as a barrier to keep out attackers. Stone walls, on the other hand, can be actively fought over by the attackers and defenders: Any infantry (i.e. non-mounted) unit can be ordered to move to the top of a wall, or ordered to attack defenders on a wall. If an attacking unit is in sole possession of a wall, gatehouse or tower, it will capture the structure. The defenders can recapture walls.
Sally Battles
Sally battles occur when a settlement garrison emerges from behind their walls to drive off their besiegers. The garrison is always treated as the battle attackers and the besiegers as the battle defenders even though, in strategic terms, the situation is the other way around. The besiegers appear on the battlefield outside the settlement with any siege equipment they have constructed. Attacking the unit to which it is attached can destroy siege equipment. This can be a good way of thwarting the progress of a besieging army that might be about to assault the town. Its also possible to time sallies out of a besieged settlement so reinforcements from a relief force are also present on the battlefield. See How to Use Reinforcements and Allies on page 68 for more information. One point to remember: its possible for sally battles to go horribly wrong if the besiegers get into the settlement during the battle. The settlement defenders can all be committed to taking the fight to the enemy, leaving their town or city vulnerable to a sneaky incursion! For the attackers (sallying out) to win, they must kill or drive off all the defenders (the besieging army).
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Failed Ambushes
Its possible that an ambushing army will not get the drop on an enemy. In such cases, a battle will still take place. Thus, each side must make the best of the day that it can!
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While your camera view onto the battlefield can be in any direction, the mini-map is always oriented with north at the top. This can be useful in working out where reinforcements are likely to appear. Reinforcement units wont necessarily arrive on the battlefield at the start of a battle. They can be delayed by intervening terrain, weather and sheer bad luck. You may also notice that cavalry and light forces arrive at a battle before heavier units. Direct control of reinforcing units depends on the following: Allies are always controlled by their own leaders, and are never placed under foreign commandin this case, your command. You wont be able to issue orders to allied units. An allied army will arrive on the battlefield as a single force. A friendly army thats led by a general will be independent and under computer AI control during the battle. You wont be able to issue orders to units in that army. An independent army like this arrives on the battlefield as a group, all at the same time. A friendly army under the command of a captain appears as reinforcements under your command. There are restrictions on when reinforcement units become available to you:
Armies can have a maximum of 20 units. A unit with only one man still counts as a unit, and occupies one of the 20 slots that exist within an army. Unless a spare slot exists, a reinforcement unit cannot enter battle. The unit will wait in the out-of-bounds area until a spare slot opens to receive it. This may be because one of your original units has been eliminated in combat, you ordered it to withdraw or it has routed off the battlefield. A reinforcements unit card is transparent when its out of bounds and about to come into battle. When it enters battle, the unit card becomes opaque; it can then be selected and given orders like any other unit. Once a reinforcing unit is on the battlefield and under your control, its treated as being part of your army. A reinforcing captains unit has its unit card marked with a silver star, in the same fashion as a subsidiary general.
Once a battle is over, any surviving reinforcements and allies return to their original position on the campaign map.
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CUSTOM BATTLES
A custom battle gives you the opportunity to command any army you want in battle. This is a sandbox mode that allows you to try any kind of combination of terrain, armies, units, allies and enemies you want. Custom battles are an excellent way of learning the battle game and an ideal way to hone your skills before trying your command abilities online! Select Custom Battle from the Single Player menu to begin the process of setting up and fighting your own battle. Youll be given the option of saving away your custom battle setup during the creation process.
Choosing Conditions
Initially, this screen appears in the express setup version that only allows you to select a limited number of variables for your custom battle: Game type determines the victory conditions for the battle. For example, Last Man Standing is a fight to the death. Difficulty sets the behaviour of your opponents. At easier difficulty levels, youll find that enemies tend to have lower morale, for instance, while high difficulty levels present you with a greater threat. Terrain allows you to choose the landscape for your battle. As you might expect, troops tire more quickly in hot, dry conditions such as a desert. Some armies are not at their best in some terrainusually an army fights best on its home ground.
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The check box for Arcade Style Battles turns off many of the realistic features of the battle system. The emphasis in arcade battles is on action and excitement, not on clever tactics and command skill. The Show Advanced Conditions tick box brings up more options so you can precisely tailor the battlefield and the conditions youll face. As youll see, these can let you practice sieges, face different weather conditions and even practice fighting at night!
Season allows you to choose the time of year for your battle. This has an influence on how much (if at all) the weather changes during the course of battle. Fighting in the depths of winter can affect how tired your troops become. Weather allows you to set the initial weather for the battle (but you probably guessed that!). Rain and snow have negative effects on bowarmed troops. Time of Day sets the starting light conditions for the battle. Time Limit sets the timer for the battle. Its entirely possible to run out of time before achieving victory when attacking, or deliberately run out the clock to achieve a defensive victory. Advice Level determines how active Centurion Marcus (your battlefield advisor) will be in giving you information and tactical hints during the battle. Settlement Level runs from none to Huge City. If you want to fight a siege or sally battle, youll need to include a settlement on the map. Settlement Culture only applies if theres a settlement present. This allows you to choose the look and layout of the settlement from the six cultures in the game. Barbarian settlements can be no larger than a minor city. Settlement Defenses only applies if a settlement is present. This allows you to choose the type and size of the walls around a settlement. A settlement without walls is pretty unlikely in the ancient world, and not much of a challenge to any besieging army.
When youre happy with your choices, click on the continue arrow. Return to the Single Player menu at any time by clicking on the U-shaped arrow.
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Customise Battle
This screen allows you to select the faction armies you want in the battle, and assign them to different sides for the coming struggle: Team Denarii allows you to set a purchasing budget for each team (side) in the battle. This money is used to purchase individual units. Its also used to purchase equipment and experience upgrades for units. If theres more than one army on a team, the money is split equally between the whole team; each army does not get the full budget! Indirectly, the amount of money sets the maximum size for each army in the battle (theres still the option to have lots of cheap units or a few expensive ones). The first army in the central list is always controlled by a human playeryou! All other armies are shown as CPU player and are controlled by the game or are empty and not in use. The list in the centre of the screen shows the armies that have been selected. There are a couple of methods for choosing an army for each slot on this list:
Left-click on the name box, and then left-click on any of the faction shields on the right of the screen. Duplicated factions are not allowed in
custom battles, so any faction thats already been chosen has its shield greyed out.
Left-click on either arrow to cycle through the full collection of available factions. A faction thats already been used is not available. Each large faction shield is highlighted in turn.
If you want to clear one of the armies from the list, left-click on the deselect shield icon on the right hand side of the screen. Alternately, you can click on the arrows on either side of the small shield icons until the small version of the deselect faction shield appears.
There can be up to eight teams (I through VIII in Roman numerals) in any battle. Click on the arrows to change the team number for an army. Armies with the same team number are automatically allied. Any force with a different team number is fair game!
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If theres a settlement involved in the battle, there can only be two teams, and one of these must be defined as the settlement defenders. Left-click on this icon to select the settlement defenders. When youre happy with your choices, click the continue arrow to move on to selecting units for each army. You can return to the new game menu at any time by clicking on the U-shaped arrow.
Customise Army
This screen allows you to select the individual units in each army. The only limit is the budgetyou can select any mix of units you like. Denarii Left shows the remaining budget for unit selection and upgrades. Every unit costs denarii, and no more than this budget may be spent. Overspending is not allowed! Click on a faction shield to change armies and select another force. The army currently being selected has a glowing faction shield. If this icon is displayed, the unit counts as an attacking force. This is always the case in field battles where no settlement is involved. When attacking a settlement with defenses, extra siege equipment options are shown on this screen for the attacking army. Its almost impossible to get into a settlement without siege equipment, so make sure the attackers have some! If an army is defending a settlement, a shield icon is displayed.
The screen has two boxed areas that are used for unit selection. The upper area shows all units that belong to the selected faction. The lower area shows selected units that are part of the army.
Move the cursor over any unit card. A tool tip appears giving a brief description of the unit.
Left-click on a unit in the upper area to add it to the army. The unit cost is immediately deducted from the available money.
The first unit selected is always the army leader. Unless this is a general or a (barbarian) warlord, the army will be led by a captain.
Right-click on a unit in the lower area to remove it from the army. The unit cost is credited to the available budget.
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You can drag-and-drop units to select them for the army. To deselect units, drag from the army and drop them in the top unit box. You can drag-and-drop units within the lower army box. You can drag-and-drop a unit into the first place in your army (the upper left-hand box) to make it the commanders unit.
You can upgrade some units in an army. This costs money for every improvement you make. Not all units can be upgraded:
Left-click on a unit in the army to select itnot a right-click since this removes the unit from the army!
Click on the arrows next to the chevrons to change the units experience rating. The more chevrons, the greater the units experience. Grey chevrons indicate no experience. Click on the arrows next to the sword to change the units weapon quality. Grey indicates standard weaponry. Bronze (+1), silver (+2) and gold (+3) indicate increased quality. Click on the arrows next to the shield to change the units armour quality. Grey indicates standard armour. Bronze (+1), silver (+2) and gold (+3) indicate increased quality.
In siege battles you can provide siege equipment for the attacking army: Click on the arrows next to each of the siege equipment items to add them to the army. Note that all of these have a cost, so make allowance in your budgeting for some siege gear! These options are only available during siege battles, and only the siege equipment thats needed for the battle is shown. Click on this button to clear the selected units in an army and start again.
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Click on this button to make the computer select an army for you. It will do its best to spend your budget efficiently and create as flexible a force as possible. This can be a good way of giving yourself a starting point when creating an army: you can change the computers initial choices to match what you want. Click here to save the custom battle setup or load a custom battle you created earlier.
The game automatically saves the last custom battle setup you created, but this file is overwritten every time you start a custom battle.
When youre happy with all your choices, click on the continue arrow. You can return to the Customise Battle screen at any time by clicking on the U-shaped arrow.
MULTIPLAYER GAMES
Multiplayer games allow you to battle against other people, either over the Internet or across a Local Area Network (LAN). You can create multiplayer customised battles or fight one of the special historical multiplayer battles that have been included with Rome: Total War. There are three options on the multiplayer menu: Online BattlesClick here to host or sign in to an online battle hosted through GameSpy . Youll need an active Internet connection before starting and any firewall software on your PC needs to be correctly configured. See the separate technical notes supplied on the Rome: Total War DVD-ROM for further information. You wont need a GameSpy profile to play Rome: Total War online. LAN BattlesClick here to host or sign on for a battle across your LAN. This battle will be fought on local machines and doesnt require an Internet connection but the process for setting up a LAN battle is the same as the Internet. Change CD KeyClick here to change the CD key used for multiplayer battles. You may want to do this so that two (or more) people can use the same PC, each with their own unique CD key.
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Chat
At the bottom of all multiplayer screens is the chat area. Type a message and it appears on-screen for everyone in the lobby. Between the message window on the left and the player list on the right are a set of toggle buttons that allow you to filter and/or ignore messages. Select the player you want to ignore (or filter) and then click on the appropriate toggle. You can change your mind later.
Hosting a Game
Hosting a game is similar to setting up a Custom Battle. See Customise Battle on page 72 for more information. The host gets to decide on the overall battle conditions, but each player gets to select his or her own army. Unlike a Custom Battle, the host has access to a special kick feature. This kicks a player out of the game at the hosts discretion, a useful tool for excluding abusive individuals!
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Joining a Game
Once youve decided to join an existing game, youre committed to the setup selected by the hosting player. Once youve made your choice on each screen, click on the continue button in the lower right-hand corner. Until all players have completed their choices, youll see a Waiting for message on-screen. When all players are ready, the multiplayer game moves on to the next part of setup or into battle itself!
After a Battle
When a battle is concluded, youll see a report on how well or badly you fared, and then be returned to the Lobby.
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CREDITS
Project Director Mike Simpson Production Ross Manton, Luci Black Production (CA Oz) George Fidler Design R. T. Smith, Mike Brunton, Jamie Ferguson, Chris Gambold, James Russell Programming Jerome Grasdyke, Robbie Austrums, Alan Blair, Ric Broadhurst, Lee Cowen, J. Guy Davidson, Charlie Dell, Chris Gascoyne, Tom Miles, Scott Pitkethly, Jon Raftery Programming (CA Oz) Ken Turner, Daniel Glastonbury, Artem Kulakov, Scott Lowther, Martin Slater, Martin Valigursky Art Kevin McDowell, Joss Adley, Paul Abbott, Greg Alston, Andrew Bedford, Peter Brophy, Ranulf Busby, John Carline, Jason Dalton, Zaq Foster, Will Hallsworth, John Harmon, Denzil O'Neill, Ben Potts, Brendan Rogers, Irina Rohvarger, Nick Tresadern, Mathieu Walsh Music & Audio Direction Jeff van Dyck Sound Effects & Post Production Richard Vaughan PR & Marketing Ian Roxburgh, Richie Skinner Testing Graham Axford, Simon Allen, Dion Lay, Gian Piras, Jeff Woods Supporting Roles Tim Ansell, Alex Chapman, Martin De Sutton, Gareth Hailes, Kevin Hoque, Melvyn Quek, Scott Ryan Additional Art Jude Bond, Tunde Glover, Alistair Hope, Howard Rayner, Ester Reeve, Nick Smith, Chris Waller Vocals Angela van Dyck Mandolin & Guitar Saki Kaskas Voices Kubler Auckland Management, Jonathan Atherton, George Baladinos, Andrew Buchanan, Adam Cooper, Karen Crone, Haskel Daniel, Michael Futcher, Damien Garvey, Terry Hansen, George Kapiniaris, Caroline Kennison, Todd Levi, Bruno Lucia, Anthony Mir, Errol O'Neill, Yalin Ozucelik, Simon Palomares, Jimmy Poulos, Akmal Saleh, Martin Slater, Leo Taylor, Matt Zeremes Thanks Musiclab (Brisbane), Roger Beames, Alkis Alkiviades, David Hamilton-Williams, Mark Milton, Steve OHagan, Phil Morris, Kerry Shale.
A big thanks to the Org, all the moderators on the official forums, and all the fans that have helped make the online community as great as it is! And a huge thanks to our families and friendsfor their understanding and support. Usa Miles Sound System. Copyright 1991-2005 RAD Game Tools, Inc
CEO of SEGA Europe / SEGA America Naoya Tsurumi President/COO of SEGA Europe Mike Hayes Development Director Gary Dunn Head of Development Europe Brandon Smith Production James Brown Darius Sadeghian Creative Director Matthew Woodley Director of European Marketing Gary Knight Head of Brand Marketing Helen Nicholas European PR Manager Lynn Daniel Brand Manager Darren Williams International Brand Manager Ben Stevens Creative Services Tom Bingle Keith Hodgetts Akane Hiraoka Arnoud Tempelaere Online Marketing Manager Morgan Evans Web Editor Romily Broad Senior Web Designer Bennie Booysen Head of Development Services Mark Le Breton QA Supervisor Marlon Grant Master Tech. John Hegarty Senior Lead Testers Denver Cockell Rickard Kallden Testers Winson Ting Andrzej Lubas Dominic Taggart Hercules Bekker Hany Gohary David George
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WARRANTY
WARRANTY: SEGA Europe Limited warrants to you, the original purchaser of the Game, that this Game will perform substantially as described in the accompanying manual for a period of 90 days from the date of first purchase. If you discover a problem with the Game covered by this warranty within the 90 day period, your retailer will repair or replace the Game at its option, free of charge, according to the process identified below. This limited warranty: (a) does not apply if the Game is used in a business or for a commercial purpose; and (b) is void if any difficulties with the Game are related to accident, abuse, virus or misapplication. This limited warranty gives you specific rights, and you may also have statutory or other rights under your local jurisdiction. RETURNS WITHIN A 90 DAY PERIOD: Warranty claims should be made to your retailer from where you bought the Game. Return the Game to your retailer along with a copy of the original sales receipt and an explanation of the difficulty you are experiencing with the Game. At its option, the retailer will either repair or replace the Game. Any replacement Game will be warranted for the remainder of the original warranty period or 90 days from receipt, whichever is longer. If for any reason the Game cannot be repaired or replaced, you will be entitled to receive your direct (but no other) damages incurred in reasonable reliance but only up to the amount of the price you paid for the Game. The foregoing (repair, replacement or limited damages) is your exclusive remedy. LIMITATIONS: TO THE FULL EXTENT ALLOWED BY LAW, NEITHER SEGA EUROPE LIMITED, ITS RETAILERS OR SUPPLIERS ARE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE POSSESSION, USE OR MALFUNCTION OF THIS GAME Information in this document, including URL and other Internet Web site references, is subject to change without notice. Unless otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, people and events depicted herein are fictitious and no association with any real company, organization, product, person or event is intended or should be inferred. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of SEGA Europe Limited.
PRODUCT SUPPORT
Please check www.sega.co.uk for details of product support in your region. Register online at www.sega.co.uk for exclusive news, competitions, email updates and more. Visit SEGA CITY today!
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