Rome: Total War

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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