Rome Total War: Alexander
Strategy Guide first print
(for intermediate players)
by: A.H.W. aka Blood Rage
[email protected]
23 July 2006
Table of contents
=================
1.0 Author's note
2.0 Alexander: Introduction
3.0 Troops
3.1 Infantries
3.2 Missiles
3.3 Cavalries
4.0 Command
4.1 Commanding a phalanx based army
5.0 Terrain
6.0 Buildings
7.0 Economy
8.0 City Happiness
9.0 How my game went
9.1 Attacking a stone walled city during siege
10.0 Questions
------------------------------
11.0 Credits & Disclaimer
============================================================================
1.0 Author's note
=================
This guide is for slightly experienced players. I have no
experience playing in multiplayer.
This is not a comprehensive guide detailing everything you
need to know but rather elaborating more on strategies, rather
than game bugs, info, or cheats. Please no more e-mails asking
me about cheats beause I don't do cheats. The game here is on
'very hard/very hard' because anything less than that is too
easy from STW, MYW and RTW. Therefore, some mastery of basic
commands are recommended.
All this strategies here are exactly from my own play.
I also assume that the readers would be familiar with the
geography and terms of the game.
I recommend for readers to read from start to end as some
concepts applied later are explained in earlier paragraphs.
2.0 Alexander: Introduction
===========================
Which war gamer buff does not know of Alexander the Great?
So now's the chance for you to play in his sandals and kick
some Persian butt. The campaign is designed in a linear
fashion where there is only one plot to follow and there is
a time limit to complete the campaign, 100 turns to hold 30
settlements including 10 specific settlements. There's only
a total of 32 settlements on the map including one which you
cannot capture due to terrain blocks.
So, is 100 turns impossible? On very hard/very hard? I did
in 47 turns without rushing the last 22 turns. took my time
to get an elite stack from babylon. the starting is a bit
tough on the nerves as the persians had large stacks roaming
about but I was very lucky too with the early ambush. Anyway,
what I'm trying to say here is that don't panic and play it
calmly.
Oh, and this game should be seen as an extra. If you expect
a full fledged campaign on this add-on you'll be disappointed
with not able to play the other factions. It's basically an
Alexanderphile fest. Not much replayability potential.
3.0 Troops
==========
The troops available to Alexander are varied. I'll start with
the infantry as they are the bulk of the units available.
3.1 Infantries
++++++++++++++
Your most basic unit besides the peasants are hoplites which
are rather decent compared to the non-phalanx infantry. Those
who are familiar with phalanx play will have no trouble.
The hypaspists are akin to legionary type units with throwing
spears and a decent attack and defence but in truth, they don't
have the staying power of the roman legions. they have some of
the highest casualty rate among my troops even though they
seldom fight the enemy face on.
The phalangists are superb and takes 2 turns to train. They are
like phalanx pikemen. They are very reliable and are battle
winners if used correctly.
The rest of the infantry are mercenaries but they are quite
good. The only drawback is that they have a higher maintainance
cost. Mercenaries hoplites are a must at the start. The Eastern
Infantry may not fight greatly but they are cheap to garrison
when you need to move onwards fast.
3.2 Missiles
++++++++++++
There's only 1 missile foot soldier available to train in cities,
the Agravian Skirmishes which I seldom use. If I need skirmishing
done, I'd use the Hypaspists as they have more damage rating and
can melee. The mercenaries are better such as Cretan Archers
(you'll get it quite late to actually make any difference),
Rhodian Slingers, Illyrian Mercs and such skirmishers. Then again
from the outset this campaign is heavily phalanx and cavalry
centered.
3.3 Cavalries
+++++++++++++
The cavalry is good and reliable. The prodromoi is not much but
have a good charge bonus. The Allied cavalry are dependable and
lasted till the end. The Companion cavalry are simply powerful
but hard to retrain. Fortunately you can hire Companion Cavalry
as mercenaries. The other cavalry I like are the Steppe Cavalry
which you can hire as mercs. There's the Dahae Horse Archers
which are just so-so and don't make much difference to the
overall play. You can get early merc javelin cavalry but be
warned that they are not a match for the persian version.
Lastly, be warned that the general units except Alexander are so
much easier to die. Just look at their stats. I lost generals
charging into the flank of the enemy spearmen even when the unit
remains relatively intact as the general was the first to fall.
So, use your generals sparingly. This includes Parmenion.
4.0 Commands
============
Learn some basic hotkeys like grouping, select all and switching
phalanx mode.
The basic idea of the battles is to use phalanx to hold and
cavalry to crush. So I suggest you get the hang of controlling a
phalanx line offensively. It's so easy to defend using phalanx...
or so i thought. In this campaign it's actually easier to attack
with the phalanx than to wait for the enemy to rush into you. The
AI tends to aim for my flanks with projectiles and followed up by
cavalry. If my troops break they always break from one flank. But
when I go on the offensive even when I am the defender, I manage
to go straight head on and do not give them much time to
reorganise to pick on my flanks.
The cavalry are designed for rushing behind the enemy lines and
hitting them from behind like the 'hammer and anvil' strategy.
Honestly, this seldom happen for me. I have used the hammer and
anvil strategy in RTW and RTW:BI but here the AI seldom ever gave
me the chance as they use their superior cavalry numbers to
harass my flanks trying down my cavalry or my cavalry needed to
cut down enemy projectiles who are committing murder on my troops.
Anyway, it doesn't matter as the phalanx are just too powerful
and all infantry try just fall away if left alone.
There are many ways to control phalanx. Here's my long description
of my technique of controlling a phalanx based army.
4.1 Commanding a phalanx based army
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When you start the battle, first set up your phalanx unit formation.
What the computer normally do is to line your phalanx up in a line
for you with about 4-5 men deep even for units with less men. That
makes things easier for you. If you wanna select all your phalanx
and set them up yourself, it's ok too but you got to make sure the
depth is equal in all units as your unit numbers may vary due to
casualties. If you need to place certain phalanx units in certain
positions, do it first. For example if you have hoplites and
phalangists in your army and you wanna place all the hoplites in
the center, then at the start you select all your hoplites, group
them and right click them somewhere back but DO NOT change their
direction. Then manually select each phalangists and right click
them beside the hoplites, again do not change their directions so
that they all face the same way. Tweak to your heart's content and
follow the same steps.
Now just select all your phalanx units and group them. Place that
group anywhere you want on the map (hopefully facing the enemy) by
simply select the group and hold down right click to set the
heading. By grouping them you will not be able to change their
formation as you place them in any direction you want which is a
good thing as it's a hassle to reset the formation. Also switch them
to standard formation as you'll most likely need to move them about
first if you are the attacker. Then manually select the other units
to set them up around your phalanx. I usually place missle units
behind the phalanx and the cavalry behind the phalanx at the sides.
Do not place your cavalry beyond the side of your phalanx or it will
just attract enemy to them and also make the group movement control
awkward. This is how it should look like:
++++++++++++phalanx+line+++++++++++
====missile=line====
cavalry cavalry
cavalry general cavalry
Do notice that the cavalry in the flanks do not cross the flanks
of the phalanx. This makes groupcontrol so much easier because the
game take the top left corner of your group as the reference point
for group maneuvres. So, if you have a nice square end, the reference
point will be the top left phalanx soldier. But if you have units
further left to your top most soldier, then you will have an
'invisible' reference point as the game intersects the uppermost and
leftmost soldier lines to give you your reference point. Like this
case where the (`) becomes the reference point:
` ++++++++phalanx+++++++++
missile
cavalry cavalry
Why is this reference point important? Well, let me ask you... if you
can't see your reference point, how will you be able to finely control
the direction of your units quickly? This is all important for phalanx
as any unwanted change of direction can be dangerous.
Now once the formation is set, select all units by pressing 'ctrl-a'
and group them all by pressing 'g'. Then you can start the battle.
Move your army forwards by holding down right click at the location
you want to place the all important reference point.
When you are attacking, the enemy tend to remain stationery until you
get close, so you can take your time advancing. Just command your
troops using the group command and you can advance them as the pre-
setup formation all the way until you face the enemy. Take precaution
to minimise sudden direction changes as you advance. For example if
the enemy set up their lines at 1 o'clock direction, make multiple
small angle changes to your army as you advance so that you will end
up facing them head on without ever noticing much of a direction
change.
As you walk the group over towards the enemy, take notice when the
enemy archers start moving towards you. This means that you are
entering their archer range. Now run the group forwards to close the
gap (lessen losses to archers) to mid-distance from the enemy. Your
cavalry will end up ahead unless you order them to go back to walking
speed like half way to the mid-distance. Once your troops arrive in
mid-distance without engaging in melee, run them forwards again to
the half distance to the enemy again (to bring you total of 3/4
distance from the enemy archer range. Once you arrive at this second
point, you can start to go into phalanx formation.
Now, to attack, use your group command (reference point again) to
carefully place your units to end up just enough for their pikes to
touch the enemy line. Remember that you must only go straight ahead
and therefore the group command must be aligned to your current facing.
Any major changes in direction so close to the enemy lines will be
detrimental.
Once your pikes touch the enemy line, they will engage. Now you just
sit back until the enemy rout or pull back. Then advance again in the
same manner.
Often the enemy will charge your pikes when you are close to them
(about the distance of 10 to 15 men deep of phalanx) and this is also
a good thing as all you need to do is absorb the charge.
What about your cavalry and missile units?
You should order your missile units to stop advancing (backspace) with
the group and disengage them from the group by selecting them and
pressing 'g' as soon as they get slightly into firing range, which I
usually take it as able to hit the enemy archers/slingers for my
archers or to hit the enemy front line for skirmishers. That way when
you further advance your phalanx it won't pull your archers forwards.
As for cavalry, once you pull the cavalry from the group to deal with
other problems, disengage them from the group so that they won't all
trot back into the original formation when you command your phalanx
forwards.
I sometimes do not disengage units from the group if I intended them
to return to the original formation. This happens when I am fighting a
small army but they have a large reinforcement coming directly behind
their small army.
Lastly do not ever disengage your phalanx units out of the group unless
you intend them to break formation. This can occur when one wing needs
extra help.
It all may sound complicated but with practice it will become second
nature and I don't have to consciously think about it when I play.
5.0 Terrain
===========
Take note of the terrain. There are so many locations you can take
advantage of. There's plenty of bridges and forests in Asia Minor.
There'll be plenty of uphill fighting further to the East. I was
lucky enough to ambush Mennom of Rhodes in the end of the first turn
and opened up an easy route towards Helicarnassus.
6.0 Buildings
=============
The buildings in this campaign are secondary. No need to get worked up
about building up a city. If you need tech, just capture a city that
already has tech like Babylon. In time you will have plenty of leftover
cash to build anything you want.
7.0 Economy
===========
You main source of income will always be from massacres. Alexander
started off as the great and ended up the butcher. Only after you
control the Meditteranean cities will you make positive income easily.
Don't bother building unit training buildings much in the West, in
fact raze them if you need cash. Just build up ports and marketplaces
to boost income.
8.0 City Happiness
==================
Just massacre and use peasant garrisons. Don't worry too much about
happiness buildings. You are Alexander, not some pansy people loving
hippie! Did not face any riots.
Don't forget to move the capital Eastwards to reduce distance to
capital unhappiness.
============================================================================
9.0 How my game went
====================
From the start I'm always an aggresive player. I attack first always.
I hired as many mercs as you can for Parmenion. Then I set him to
ambush at the river crossing.Alexander headed East towards Byzantium
and kill the big Thracian stack there forcing them to retreat into
the city. I then left a small detachment to siege Byzantium while the
main Alexander stack aim towards my ships. Spend as much of the
starting cash as you can, even queue build because you will
definitely lose cash with all the mercs.
I was lucky at the end of my first turn as Parmenion ambushed Mennom
of Rhodes and killed most of his troops. He managed to escape though
and hid in Helicarnassus. By the second move, I siege Helicarnassus
and Alexander was following behind. I captured Helicarnassus the
next turn. I only used 3 siege towers and some crafty maneuvering to
easily win with minimal losses. Phalanx just makes city capturing
easy-peasy. I let the troops at Byzantium wait the siege out as it's
a small stack I left behind of mostly hoplites, skirmishers and
prodromoi.
Pella was sieged by the silly Illyrians and I easily defended the
city from 1500 troops with 5 hoplites, 1 general, 2 skirmishers and
1 hypaspists. I just place all my units in the city center with the
hoplites placed with one diagonal line from one corner of the city
square to another. All the other troops are behind them. 3 wall
breaches which 5 hoplites will never be able to contain.
From there I had 2 strong stacks to advance straight to Issus. I
largely ignored the 2 northern coastal cities at first as I did not
want to get sidetracked from capturing Issus which is a major
enough a city to retrain my units.
I left Parmenion to guard the bridge close to Issus while Alexander
went south into Egypt. On hindsight, I should have sent Permenion
south rather than Alexander as I didn't expect Egypt to be so lightly
defended. Helicarnassus trained up phalangists and I created a third
stack of mostly merc hoplites to capture the northern coastal cities.
The persians held a surprise for me when Darius appeared with the
most powerful Persian stack I faced in the campaign. After capturing
the first city, my third stack headed towards the second city only to
come across a full stack of 1800 troops compared to my low tech 1100
mostly merc hoplites troops. So I retreated onto a bridge to the west
of the city and they attacked me there resulting in a famous battle
site. I lost quite a sizeable amount like 400 troops due to their
long range archers firing from across the river. Then after that
stack was gone I sieged the city only to break off the siege when
Darius full stack came. I hired more mercs and sent as many troops
from Parmenion as possible and my third stack laid in ambush south
west of the city... to fail an ambush and had to fight conventionally.
Nevertheless, my 1200 troops managed to defeat Darius' 1800 troops to
gain another famous battle site. Killed the Persian king too. My
losses was big too like half my troops of mostly merc hoplites with a
few phalangists, thessalian cavalry and allied cavalry.
Once Darius is gone, the Persian never did mount a serious challenge.
So Alexander rushed back up ignoring Petra which would be captured
later by a weaker fourth stack. By then too, I manage to pull the
troops from Byzantium to Pella to make an army to capture the
Illyrians first then the Scythians on the mainland. I hired all the
Steppe Cavalry along the way as they are really cool.
After capturing Babylon it's just a uni-direction march towards
Bactria. Cash started flowing in after securing the Mediterranean and
Black Sea ports. I had so much cash that I decided to kill the
Persian navy by creating my trireme fleet which I later disbanded
after sinking the Persian navy. It's just a formality to complete the
game after Babylon. The Dahae are crappy. They have large numbers like
7 stacks but they are easily beaten with phalanx. The largest battle
was 1 Alexander stack 1800 troops against 3000 2 and a half Dahae
stacks and still won with less than 300 casualties killing 2717.
I attack during sieges in all the cities that Alexander and Parmenion
sieged and everything else east of Babylon. Other less important
cities I wait the siege out as I use smaller stacks to siege them
like Petra, Byzantium and the Scythian cities. Attacking during siege
is surprisingly easy due to the idiocy of the AI, even when I am
outnumbered 700 to 1200!
Let me just tell you how...
9.1 Attacking a stone walled city during siege
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Don't be put off by stone walls. The longer your unit sit outside,
you'll be vulnerable to reinforcements. So get them indoors to the
pleasure houses of Persia. Only takes one turn to build all the siege
equipment you need that is... 1 siege tower. You can use ladders too
but I'm a siege tower die-hard.
Once you start the battle, don't bother making fancy formations or
placing your siege equipment at fancy locations. just start right
away. the advantage you'll have is that there is no time limit. So
take all the time to get as much advantage as possible.
What I did was to move my siege engines away from the starting
location and away from the wall defenders. The defenders tend to
position at the walls facing your starting location and will not
move away (stupid AI). So, I get onto the walls from other directions
and capture all the wall defences along the way except the ones close
to the wall defenders. So, I usually capture 3 out of 4 gates. That
way I can stream in easily unchallenged. Once I get my hoplites in, I
set perimeter lines to block roads and advance the rest of my phalanx
towards the city center. When the defenders challenge my advance they
will only face pikes. So easy it's brainless! I don't even use
cavalry in the city. Phalanx are all you need.
============================================================================
10.0 Questions
==============
Hopefully things are straightforward enough. Oh, and please don't ask
me about cheats or mods as I don't use them.
============================================================================
11.0 Credits & Disclaimer
=========================
This game is just so-so by itself but quite nice as an add-on and
nothing more. Definitely not a must have. Can't wait till Medieval
Total War 2 comes out. I spent so many hours on MTW in the past.
Thanks to GameFAQs for all the other games where I'm too lazy to
figure things out myself.
Thanks to Sun Tzu who brought us that strategies that can be
formally learned.
No lifeforms were hurt or killed during this production.
Recommended reading: Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
This is an original work. In no way whatsoever have I posted up any
contribution from anyone as I said above I detail how I've played
the game myself. I do not claim to have discovered any strategies that
I apply here. I can be found in the Gamefaqs board mostly to pick up
new ideas to explore and also answer questions to get a feel of what
other gamers find difficult with the game. Most of the basic strats
are based on previous experience with Shogun Total War, Medieval Total
War and the wonderful translated illustrated abridged version of Sun
Tzu's Art of War by Asiapac (my first strategy guide for all the
strategy games played so far). If any similarities are found, please
e-mail me at
[email protected].
E-mail me if there is any further queries.
Therefore this is my work and any reproduction besides for personal
playing use will require permission from myself. It may not be
publicly displayed or distributed without prior permission.
Peace!
A H Wongso
[email protected]
July 23 2006
