Rome II

[MengJiao]

No Defensive Alliance with Syracuse. A Non-Aggression Pact and Trade deal only. I wonder if I had fought the battle out myself and won the Capture Points in the city, if I would have gotten the city then?

  I suspect not.  I think the logic goes -- the besieging/blockading force has priority on capture (no matter what) UNLESS you attack them.  then I would guess the sequnce would go:  You fight the beseigers (with the support of the beseiged? I have no idea) and then you fight the beseiged.
As I recall, the capture point turns the color of the beseiger even if your troops are occupying the capture point, ie there are only two sides to any battle and you have to get that worked out "diplomatically" before the battle starts.
But this is mostly hazy speculation.

[mikeck]

I am also not a fan of sieges oy because the walls are too weak.  Thinking of hunting down a mod. Basically, all I need to take a walled city are my two ballistas. I just busy open the enemy gate and then punch 2 more holes in the wall. Im sorry...so better...I should not be able to break into Carthage with two ballistas. Conversely, the Ai should not be able to do the same or merely just light my gate in fire.

I think there is a mod to make walls and gates stronger but I'm not sure the AI can adapt? Dunno

[Sir Slash]

I went back to an earlier save to try to re-fight the battle but cannot attack Carthage as long as Syracuse sits on the blockade and turn after turn that's all they do.  :(

[Bison]

Sounds to me lik you need to take out that uppity wannabe empire of Syracuse.

[Nefaro]

I suspect because you chose to auto resolve the Syracuse army got credit for occupying the victory flag and you didn't.

Naa.. his ally was there first, so he got priority for ownership.

I actually played out my battle manually, and it was the same.  Other army was already within the red circle, possibly besieging, and I parked my own army within support range of his.  While I had the larger army, and was the one who was attacked by the AI (oddly enough), it gave the spoils to my defensive ally after the win.

I'm fine with the mechanic of firstest gets the mostest, but you gotta keep it in mind when you're playing. 

In my example, the besieged AI army would've attacked my ally's smaller besieging army on the last turn before it would take the city and probably would've driven it off.  Then I could've moved in to take the city myself at just that moment, after my ally had retreated out of range.  Had I known how it worked, it would've paid to wait it out.

There could be a problem in his example, however, since I don't often see the AI attack a blockade and drive it off.  There are some issues resulting from armies being able to just instantly turn into ships when they move into water.  Another being that Agents can't do anything to those armies while they're aboard ships, so you can just park your army in a flotilla off a coast if you want to avoid assassination attempts.  The AI also ends up inadvertently benefitting from this all too often since it's more than happy to get in the water.

[Bison]

I suspect because you chose to auto resolve the Syracuse army got credit for occupying the victory flag and you didn't.

Naa.. his ally was there first, so he got priority for ownership.

I actually played out my battle manually, and it was the same.  Other army was already within the red circle, possibly besieging, and I parked my own army within support range of his.  While I had the larger army, and was the one who was attacked by the AI (oddly enough), it gave the spoils to my defensive ally after the win.

I'm fine with the mechanic of firstest gets the mostest, but you gotta keep it in mind when you're playing. 

In my example, the besieged AI army would've attacked my ally's smaller besieging army on the last turn before it would take the city and probably would've driven it off.  Then I could've moved in to take the city myself at just that moment, after my ally had retreated out of range.  Had I known how it worked, it would've paid to wait it out.

There could be a problem in his example, however, since I don't often see the AI attack a blockade and drive it off.  There are some issues resulting from armies being able to just instantly turn into ships when they move into water.  Another being that Agents can't do anything to those armies while they're aboard ships, so you can just park your army in a flotilla off a coast if you want to avoid assassination attempts.  The AI also ends up inadvertently benefitting from this all too often since it's more than happy to get in the water.

Your rational hypothesis and subsequent test does not invalidate my half-assed, hair brained, AI conspiracy theory!

[Nefaro]

Your rational hypothesis and subsequent test does not invalidate my half-assed, hair brained, AI conspiracy theory!

You got me there.

Foiled once again!

[Bison]

Your rational hypothesis and subsequent test does not invalidate my half-assed, hair brained, AI conspiracy theory!

You got me there.

Foiled once again!

[Grim.Reaper]

Interesting stuff on what they are thinking to improve for battles....

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/94255-Battle-and-Unit-teams-What-we-are-working-on

[Nefaro]

Interesting stuff on what they are thinking to improve for battles....

http://forums.totalwar.com/showthread.php/94255-Battle-and-Unit-teams-What-we-are-working-on

Hah!

Looks like they're admitting that the AI, Flag Cap mechanic, and other wotnots were just outright unfinished.  I mean.. the AI wasn't receiving all the feedback it required in order to work, and the flag cap mechanic was only to be used in a combined army & naval battle to make sure the bulk of it took place on land.  The first two examples, there, just scream early beta at best.  At least they're admitting to it, in some way.  The denial stage has been passed.  ;D

Should we start slagging Sega on the assumption they set a release deadline and pushed it out?  Or point fingers all around?  :P

[mikeck]

Great! I'm glad they are working on the issues. I've had battles where the Ai did nothing (just had one where they stroud there and let me fire on them) but I've had many where the Ai did quite well. Out of my 9 or 10 battles that did not take place in a town, only one had capture flags so it hasn't been an issue for me. As for speed and formation...yeah it sucks, so I use mods.

Many aren't enjoying it. Me, I  having a blast with it and am glad to see that there will be patches making it even better. I can only imagine what the mods will do in the future.

[Gusington]

When you guys take over provinces what do you do to keep morale from spiraling out of control? Public anger is a real thorn in my side here.

Anyway I pulled out of Corsica and Sardinia, made peace with Carthage, and am now pouring my forces into the lands of the Frescii. In the last hour I took one of their coastal cities, looted it and then took their capital the next turn. Looted that too. But public anger is the big issue I am having.

Also had a naval battle against totally superior numbers. The game automatically lowered the graphics settings...hadn't had that happen before.

The 2nd patch did halve AI turn times and smoothed the campaign map, and I like the tech indicator that has popped up. I am on the verge of cracking the game and diving down deep...I just want to get the happiness up in my provinces...

[Bison]

When you guys take over provinces what do you do to keep morale from spiraling out of control? Public anger is a real thorn in my side here.

Anyway I pulled out of Corsica and Sardinia, made peace with Carthage, and am now pouring my forces into the lands of the Frescii. In the last hour I took one of their coastal cities, looted it and then took their capital the next turn. Looted that too. But public anger is the big issue I am having.

I've found the key to a new conquered province where you own all the city states is to do three things.  1. Exempt from taxes for a few rounds.  2. Build a temple.  3.  Leave a standing army.  You'll be able to gauge when you can tax again and move the army because your public happiness meter (whatever it's called) will have a positive number if you subtract the tax and army bonus.  At that point the happiness will remain positive for the most part with some small building and tech research adjustments as your province grows.

Looting is something I've never really felt compelled to do.  Honestly, I've never had a major issue with making money past the first few initial turns.  I just don't see the cost benefit to looting over occupying honestly.

[Gusington]

^You're the one who told me to get all Roman on their asses!!

OK so where is the tab to exempt from taxes? I thought only whole regions could be exempt, not individual cities.

This part of the game is obviously frustrating me...it's just not clicking in my head. A print manual would help.

[Bison]

^You're the one who told me to get all Roman on their asses!!

OK so where is the tab to exempt from taxes? I thought only whole regions could be exempt, not individual cities.

This part of the game is obviously frustrating me...it's just not clicking in my head. A print manual would help.

You can only exempt the whole province.  You have to really consider the all of the towns together when you are planning your structures, because a temple built in one town benefits all towns in the province for example. 

I told you to conquer the world in the name of Rome not cower in fear of little whimpy Carthage!