Rome: Total War (PC)

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Absorb

An easy way to absorb a horse charge for roman infantry is to activate a testudo. For some reason, you lose a lot less men.

Best Roman Legion

For an almost unfailable Roman Legion setup, use this. Spearmen (triarii) or light infantry (hastati) in the front lines (extended as far as possible but not too thin) these will absorb the enemy charge, Heavy infantry (pricepes) just behind they will throw their javelins and then join the fight, skirmishers (velites) behind to keep bombarding and to give temporary help if the battle goes amiss, archers (Roman archers) behind for the same reason as the skirmishers (NO FIRE ARROWS), if possible Light artillary (scorpions) behind to give more support (NO FIRE!), and heavy artillary (onagers) at the back (again NO FIRE) at the flanks have light Cavalry to intercept flankers, and behind them heavy cavalry to continuously charge pull back and again charge to crush the enemy and finally behind it all your general to give a morale boost. (Only EVER use your general if the situation is desparate or to chase down fleeing infantary to get experience) If chariots are present try to have velite gladiators atthe front, elephants should have been taken down by your artillary or if you have none, set arrows to flame to make them panic and run before they crush your perfect legion!

Blockades

If the Senate asks you blockade a port, you can go blockade it for the last turn and not have to do it for the entire five.

Cavalry Charge

If you have a large force of Heavy Cavalry and not much else, you can use these units to throw back a much larger army. Just when the battle starts, pause game play and assign each individual Cavalry unit to attack one unit from the enemy's side. Try to go for an even distribution if possible. Then, select all of your Cavalry units and resume game play. Next, order your men to run or to charge. The combined force of your Cavalry coming forward at a charge is enough to frighten most troops or throw them back. Your own casualties are usually light to moderate. Note: Do not attempt this if your squaring off against elephants, as you will not win.

Cheat Mode

Press ~ during game play to display the console window. Then, enter one of the following codes to activate the corresponding cheat function:

Cheat Code - Effect

add_money 20000 - Increase money by 20,000
gamestop - 10% cheaper units in campaign mode
jericho - Walls fall down in siege in battle map mode
oliphaunt - 40% bigger elephants in campaign mode

Note: Gerry Edmonds notified us he had trouble with the money code. Be sure you are on the campaign map before pressing ~. And, do not forget the space between add_money and 20000. This money code can be performed once per game. After the first time, you must save, quit, and restart the game to use it again.

Defend your settlement

Use the following tactic to fight an outnumbered foe at your settlement. If you know that you cannot defend your walls because there is too much ground to cover and you forces will be to thin to stop them, then follow this strategy. Put all your armies in the central plaza of the city. According to their location, put your light infantry blocking the path of where they would go after the walls break through. Remember that you want to make a small chokepoint so that they can fight only one way and not surround you. Then, put your heavy infantry behind the light infantry and put your cavalry on the flanks so that you can attack them at the sides. When they attack and are charging at you infantry, order all the infantry (including heavy infantry) to charge. Then, have your cavalry cut the enemy's retreat and attack their flanks. If this is successful, their front and rear will be attacked, allowing you to crush them. Note: This cannot be done against human players.

Easy money

Start with the Juli faction, Red Roman. Listen to their first mission. Take that rebel town, then make a few Diplomats. Spread them out everywhere, then start asking for trade rights. The more money you can get, the better. Also, if you know you or your allies will not attack them, you can ask for an alliance. Another good method is to build all the farms, roads, ports, and mining things you can do in a settlement.

Even More Codes

Here are ALL the console (key [~]) commands for cheaters, use them in conjuction with the Cheat Mode code.

Note: these commands are recognized only in different specific game areas:

? : retrieves help for the command

bestbuy : sells units cheaper

toggle_tow : shows/hides the tabbed output window

add_money : adds an amount of money
to a faction's coffers, can be negative, default is player faction

add_population : adds an amount of
population to a settlement, can be negative

move_character , : moves named character to position
on campaign map

auto_win : the attacker or defender wins the
next auto-resolved battle

create_unit
: creates one or more units of the specified type

toggle_fow : toggles the fog of war on or off
toggle_restrictcam : toggles camera restrictions on or off

give_ancillary : gives the character an
ancillary

give_trait : gives the character a
trait at level (default = level 1)

process_cq : completes all (possible) construction pending in queue

character_reset : resets the character back to it's start of turn settings

show_cursorstat : shows the cursor position and region id

toggle_terrain : toggles the terrain to display various data sets, no param
resets to normal

give_trait_points : gives the character
points for trait

list_traits : lists all the available traits

list_ancillaries : lists all the available ancillaries

mp : gives the character movement points

list_characters : lists all the characters in the world or
those belonging to a faction

show_landings : shows the landing positions available
to the ai from a given region, default hides them

filter_coastlines : applies filter to world map coastlines

toggle_coastlines : toggles strategy map coastline display

set_building_health :
sets health of a building of the specified type (eg core_building)
in a settlement, so that the final health percentage is as specified

ai_turn_speed : sets the maximum speed of turn processing during
the ai round

amdb_min, amdb_max : sets aerial map overlay depth bias for min, max zoom

amdb_offset : sets aerial map overlay offset towards camera

zoom : zooms to specified aerial map zoom

set_ranking_interval : sets the denominator of the faction ranking graph
interval which is calculated as (number_of_turns / denominator) ;
if set to 0, then the denominator will be set to number_of_turns,
giving an interval of 1

regenerate_radar : does what it says on the tin

adjust_sea_bed : adjusts whole sea bed to specified height

reload_shaders : reloads all vertex shaders

reload_textures : reloads all textures

toggle_game_update : fire (mt | toggle | reload | int)

toggle_perfect_spy : toggles everyone's spying ability to perfect and infinite
range, and off again

building_debug : toggles building debug mode : TAB to toggle view modes,
RIGHT SHIFT-TAB to reset mode, LEFT SHIFT-TAB to go back modes, G damages
mouse-over building, P displays plaza

reset_display : forces a display_close() ; display_open() display reset cycle

toggle_underlay : ...

toggle_overlay : ...

process_rq : completes all (possible) recruitment pending in queue

force_diplomacy : forces the negotiator to accept or
decline a proposition

diplomatic_stance : set the
diplomatic stance between the two factions

shadow : ...

ie : ...

invulnerable_general : makes that named general invulnerable
in battle

test_ancillary_localisation : adds all ancillary to the character info display

perf_times : toggle display of simple performance times of game update vs display

burn_piggies_burn : ignite all the piggy winks

test_message : test the event message specified in descr_event_enums.txt

show_terrain_lines : display defensive terrain features

message_collation_set : set the message collation on or off (sets all factions)

show_all_messages : show all messages to all factions (on/off)

clear_messages : clear all the current stacked messages

puppify_my_love : mmmkay...

reapply_rigid_model_influence : ...

toggle_flowing_water : toggles display of campaign map flowing water

nw_stats : toggles display of network stats

toggle_pr : toggles pr mode

list_units : lists all of the units in an army

victory : show victory message for faction for short or long
campaign

trigger_advice : triggers an advice

damage_wall : damage wall of settlement ;
forces 40% damage to a random gatehouse and a nearby straight section ;
destroys gatehouse if 'gate' parameter present ; breaches wall if 'breach'
present

test_victory_scroll : opens up
the victory scroll declaring that the given faction is the victor

date : changes the campaign date to the given year

season : changes the campaign season to the given season

upgrade_effect : triggers unit upgrade effect

force_battle_victory : forces the local player's alliance to win the battle,
completely destroying the enemy alliance

force_battle_defeat : forces the local player's alliance to win the battle,
completely destroying the enemy alliance

output_unit_positions : output the positions of all units in the
battle to the specified file

show_battle_paths : show all valid processed paths in the pathfinder

show_battle_paths_for_unit : show all valid processed paths
in the pathfinder for a specific unit given a unit id

show_battle_street_plan : show the street plan for the settlement

show_battle_marker : display a marker at (x, y) for t seconds

show_battle_circle : display a circle at (x, y) of r radius
for t seconds

kill_faction : removes the faction from the game

diplomacy_mission
: creates a diplomacy mission

event : creates an event at position

kill_character : kills a character with the given name

control : switches player control to specified faction ;
old faction may not act correctly as ai faction

create_building : creates a building
of the specified type in a settlement ; for building level see
export_descr_building.txt.create_building.failed to build building

capture_settlement : evicts any resident characters and
armies and gives the settlement to the local player

disable_ai : disables the ai, so that it does nothing

halt_ai : halts the turn sequence just before the
start of the specified faction's turn, or the current faction if no
faction given

run_ai : re-starts an ai turn sequence after disable_ai or halt_ai has been
triggered

Fighting in open areas

When fighting in an open area, attack with ranged units first, then send your cavalry to the flanks. Do not attack with the cavalry just yet. Instead, bring your main force directly into the enemy force and bring your cavalry in to close off their escape path. This strategy can allow you to win battles against forces three times your size.

Huge amount of Denari

Go to "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign". Then open the text file "descr_strat". Then edit the denari you want to have say from 5000 to 999999 on your selected faction and then close the file run the game and when you play Imperial Campaign you should have the selected amount of Denari.

Lose with as much damage against opponent

When you get into a fight that you know you cannot win and you cannot run, use the main body of your force to attack the enemy and have ranged units fire at them. Slam your cavalry into the rear of the enemy, then pull them away again. Send them back in and pull them out. Keep repeating this, and you can at least cause the enemy to lose as much of his forces as possible.

More money

Add_money 20000. As before but on each go you add say 20100 then 20200 and can keep doing this by changing the numbers indefinately as long as dont use the same numbers twice and just keep going up youl will never run out of money now.

Public order

When squalor is overwhelming your cities, remove your garrison and governor to let it rebel. Then, crush them and enslave/exterminate them. The decrease in population is the short term cure for squalor.

Removing culture penalty

Destroy the foreign shire/temple and wait for one turn.

Stand off

When you are outnumbered, have low forces, and know that you will lose, get a good stand off position by gathering all of your remaining forces, and go to a hill or the highest position if possible. If that is unavailable, go into the forests. Then, gather your forces and put all archers in the very back, all medium to close ranged missile weapons in middle, and all of your spearmen in the front with the legionnaires, swordsmen, etc. just behind. If you have elephants or horses, put them javelins. Then, with the spearmen formation, you can either wait for the enemy to hit the spearmen then charge with horses. However it would be better to horse charge them when they are in archer or javelin range, then keep bombarding them. Next, use all of your swordsmen to attack after the enemy hits the spearmen. Then, use all of your forces to charge, except for the archers. Move them away from the fight and keep bombarding. This is also a good choke point defensive maneuver.

Taking a settlement

This only works when you attack, and when the enemy has a wooden palisade or walls. When you want to take a settlement and you are totally outnumbered, get two gate rams. When you are deploying, take half of your troops and move them over to one gate. Leave your general with the first group. The enemy should send only horses to the second group. Bring good soldiers so that you can charge in after you attack. If done correctly, then the enemy should stay attacking the first group. Leave your archers with the first group to "rain fire on the enemy". You would probably take the settlement. Note: This works best against barbarians and sometimes rebels.

Unlocking all Factions without playing campaigns

To unlock all Factions in the game go to "C:\Program Files\Activision\Rome - Total War\Data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign". Then open the text file "descr_strat". Then move whoever you want from unlockable or unplayable to playable. If you move some things to playable from unplayable they might crash the game if you try to use them or might just outright not work, so be careful.