This section contains answers to commonly asked gameplay questions. It does not specifically replace the manual. The manual explains the basic interface, concepts and abilities. The manual can be downloaded here, http://www.eidosinteractive.com/downloads/search.html?gmid=124 . Even if you do not have the manual it is possible to learn most of the game's features from a combination of the tutorials and the readme file on the CD.
On this page:
- 3.1 Setup and Interface
- 3.1.1 Can I play as Barbarians or Egyptians?
- 3.1.2 What do the difficulty settings change?
- 3.1.3 Is there a list of keyboard shortcuts?
- 3.1.4 Can the map view be zoomed or rotated?
- 3.1.5 Can the game speed be changed?
- 3.1.6 How do I group troops?
- 3.1.7 How do I change the width of formations?
- 3.2 Unit Training
- 3.2.1 How can I replenish loses?
- 3.2.2 What is the difference between a village and barracks, and how do I use them?
- 3.2.3 How do I train a Centurion or commanding officer?
- 3.2.4 What limits the number of units? What are Unit and Troop Control Points?
- 3.2.5 What limits troop recruitment? Why can't I train a certain unit?
- 3.2.6 How do I gain Honour points?
- 3.3 Unit Usage
- 3.3.1 How do Stamina and Health work?
- 3.3.2 How do I treat poison?
- 3.3.3 What is the advantage of commanders?
- 3.3.4 Can I kill my own troops?
- 3.3.5 Can I stop my troops 'doing their own thing'?
- 3.3.6 Why don't troops retreat from battle?
- 3.3.7 Can I set multi-point patrols?
- 3.3.8 Does weather make a difference?
- 3.3.9 How does the hunters' ambush work?
- 3.3.10 Why won't my catapults attack?
- 3.3.11 Can I extinguish fires on war machines?
- 3.4 Buildings and Structures
- 3.4.1 Can I destroy bridges?
- 3.4.2 How do I rebuild bridges without infantry?
- 3.4.3 How do I move troops into towers?
- 3.4.4 Can the fortress's gate be repaired?
- 3.4.5 Can I build a fortress or village?
- 3.4.6 Can the protect command be used for buildings or areas of ground?
- 3.5 Multiplayer
- 3.5.1 How do I chat in multiplayer games?
- 3.5.2 Do any multiplayer maps feature fortifications and castles?
- 3.5.3 What's inferiority?
3.1 Setup and Interface
3.1.1 Can I play as Barbarians or Egyptians?
You can in multiplayer/skirmish mode. There is only one campaign, which is based on Romans. There are a few opportunities during the campaign to use or train non-Roman troops, however there are no missions that use entirely non-Roman forces.
3.1.2 What do the difficulty settings change?
Difficulty influences the size and makeup of your initial forces. For example, the first non-tutorial mission, Crossing the River Arar (see below), includes two units of Auxiliary Infantry and three Legionaries on "easy", one less Auxiliary Infantry on "Normal", and one less unit of Legionaries on "Hard". The enemy generally has additional units on harder settings. RogueImpaler notes: "Enemy villages will produce lots more troops on hard also." Less obviously, on harder settings the enemy's AI (Artificial Intelligence) is better. Centurion, on harder difficulties: "The AI was employing better tactics such as flanking my archers by moving through woods, but the blatant change was that I had less troops starting and there seemed to be more enemy troops. I thought arrows from enemy archers/mounted archers inflicted a little more damage."
3.1.3 Is there a list of keyboard shortcuts?
Yes. Such a list may be found in section 3.2 of the game's readme.htm file.
3.1.4 Can the map view be zoomed or rotated?
The camera height can be changed _slightly_ by altering the slider found under game options. This can also be achieved by rolling the mouse wheel or pressing Page-Up/Page-Down. The map cannot be rotated. It is not clear why the developers decided to lock the camera.
3.1.5 Can the game speed be changed?
No, although you can pause single player games by pressing Esc to bring up the game menu.
3.1.6 How do I group troops?
Select the required units, assign a group by pressing CRTL+1-9, then 1-9 to recall the group, and 1-9 again to jump to them. Rufus adds: "You can add units to an already existing group by selecting the new troops, then holding shift and pressing the number of your existing group and finally once again assign a group number. It is possible to have troops belong to several groups. To activate this you need to go to the Game Options panel and click the 'Troops in Multiple Groups' button."
3.1.7 How do I change the width of formations?
The width of individual units cannot be changed, except by changing the facing or (for certain units) adopting a special formation. Facing can be changed by selecting the unit, then either: (1) right clicking at the destination, holding down with the mouse and moving it in the direction desired to face, or (2) by selecting the 'facing' icon from actions menu in the bottom right of the screen, and then clicking at a point you wish the unit to face. Multiple units can be set into a formation of variable width. Gaius Julius writes: "After you've selected your troops, right-click where you want them to go; don't let go of the right mouse button yet, then either use the mouse's scroll wheel to set the width of the formation, or you can use the Page up, or Page down buttons on the keyboard." There is no direct way of ensuring certain units take certain positions in the formation. However, Shamaani writes: "In order to get spearmen in the front, standard army corps in the middle, and archer behind I do like this: Select army corps and set them to 'Defend' the pikemen. Select archers and set them to 'Defend' the army corps. For moving the whole army, just move the pikemen." Alternatively assign groups to different sets of units and order them separately.
3.2 Unit Training
3.2.1 How can I replenish loses?
New squads can be trained using a village or barracks. Sometimes during campaign missions additional reinforcements will join your army during the mission. Injured troops can be healed with a healer such as a Physician. The Physician can be ordered to heal a specific unit. Alternatively units within the Physician's area of influence will slowly be healed. Where an existing squad is missing men, squads can be joined. Select the units to be joined and press the join button (or J). For example, two half-strength (15 man) legions can be joined to form one full strength (30 man) legion. No one squad can ever exceed full strength.
3.2.2 What is the difference between a village and barracks, and how do I use them?
Villages must first be captured by destroying any existing garrison, building your own garrison next to the village using infantry, and then assigning a commander (Centurion or similar) to recruit at the village. Barracks have fixed ownership and cannot be captured, only destroyed. Barracks do not require a commander. Barracks are only ever found inside fortresses. Both barracks and villages can be destroyed. Destroyed villages or barracks cannot be rebuilt or captured; they are permanently removed from the map for the rest of the mission.
Both villages and barracks function in the same way: Assuming you have completed the steps above, left-click on the building, then select units to train from the menu in the bottom-right of the screen. Up to seven units may be queued for training. Training will automatically stop if there is insufficient population, honour points or unit control points (see below).
3.2.3 How do I train a Centurion or commanding officer?
You don't. Instead commanders are promoted from other units. Select a unit and then press Promote on the actions menu in the bottom right of the screen. A small tent will appear momentarily. One member of the unit will become a level 0 commander and the remainder of the unit will be unchanged. The civilization of the commander is determined by the civilization of the promoted unit. For example, if you want a Chieftain rather than a Centurion, you must promote a Barbarian unit (in most circumstances you will only control one civilization, and so will not have this choice). Prior combat experience or unit type is not transferred to the promoted unit: There is no advantage to promoting battle-hardened Praetorians instead of Auxiliary Infantry. Commanders instead gain experience from combat within their area of influence. Any regular or special unit can be promoted. Characters, single man units such as scouts, and siege engines cannot be promoted.
There is a limit to the number of commanders you may promote. This limit is not entirely understood. It seems that you may have one commander per 1-100 troops. For example if you have 30 troops, one commander; 190 troops, two commanders; 210 troops three commanders. You may never have more than five commanders in total. There are some oddities, particularly in campaign missions where this may not hold true. For example, certain named character commanders may not count towards the five-commander limit. If you are already at the limit and additional commanders join your army, you automatically keep all the commanders and exceed the limit.
3.2.4 What limits the number of units? What are Unit and Troop Control Points?
Overall army size is limited by Unit Control Points (UCPs) and Troop Control Points (TCPs). These are specified by the mission and cannot be changed. Typically UCPs range from 500 to 1000, TCPs from 50 to 75. To display the current values, press and hold down Shift to show the Battle Status Panel. Gaius Julius adds: "If you enabled it in the 'Game Options' section, it should be visible on screen." Unit Control Points refer to the total number of men you may command, so a unit of Legionaries might count as 30 men, a scout as one man. Troop Control Points refer to the total number of units that may be commanded as separate entities (yes I know that sounds the wrong way round), for example a unit of Legionaries counts as one TCP, as does a scout. Commanders, healers and scouts are exceptions to this rule. Commanders are described above (see How do I train a Centurion or commanding officer? above). Healers are restricted to two. Scouts are restricted to five. These levels can sometimes be exceeded during the campaign when additional troops join your army. For example, if the UCP limit is 500, your starting army accounts for 400, and 200 points worth of reinforcements join you, you can still keep the total 600 points worth. You will not however be able to train any new units at a village or barracks until the total drops below 500.
3.2.5 What limits troop recruitment? Why can't I train a certain unit?
The village or barracks recruiting the unit must have the pre-requisite population available. Most villages grow population slowly over time, although there are occasional campaign reports of villages where population does not re-grow. Any honour point requirement must be met (see How do I gain Honour points? below). There must be enough space remaining in your army for the units (see What limits the number of units? What are Unit and Troop Control Points? above). Full troop requirements are shown in the Unit Training appendix. Not all units are immediately available in the campaign. This varies by mission and is listed at the start of the walkthrough for each mission. Generally, special units are not freely available until later in the campaign. The only mission where absolutely every unit from every civilization is available is the final mission, Just One... More... Fight (see below).
3.2.6 How do I gain Honour points?
Honour Points (or "Honor Points" for Americans) are required in order to recruit certain units types, notably cavalry (1 point per unit) and special units (2 points per unit). Honour points are gained from battle. They accumulate slowly as your troops gain experience from fighting. The precise relationship between combat experience and honour points is unknown. Gaius Julius notes: "The number of HPs you accumulate varies by troop type." The current honour point total is displayed on the Battle Status Panel (press and hold down Shift). Gaius Julius continues: "You'll see an icon of a star with a wreath around it, next to it you'll see a number. This number is the number of HP's you have. To the right of this you'll see a bar, when it fills up completely, you've earned another HP."
3.3 Unit Usage
The Appendices contain data covering unit strengths, abilities and use of terrain.
3.3.1 How do Stamina and Health work?
Health reflects the overall life and damage of the unit. Single-man units will survive until their health reaches zero. For multi-man units, health is an average across the unit. Such units typically start losing men once the unit's health declines below about 50%. Health can be recovered using a healer such as a Physician. Stamina is used when running or (in certain cases) when using special abilities. Stamina declines at different rates. For example, Legionaries' stamina will decline fast when running because all that armor is heavy - try it ;-) . Stamina recovers over time once the unit stops trying to use it. Certain abilities such as Extra Energy Regeneration and Prayer can be used to recover stamina more quickly. Steal Energy Effect drains stamina from enemy.
3.3.2 How do I treat poison?
Poison is only used by Nubian Archers. It can be treated using the Physician's Cure Disease ability. The later ability also cures blindness.
3.3.3 What is the advantage of commanders?
Commanders (Centurions, Chieftains or Barbarians) are required to recruit at villages. They also have advantages in the field. Troops within their area of influence gain bonuses to attack and defense. These bonuses vary by civilization and experience/level - as shown in the Unit Abilities appendix below. Bonuses do not stack, however it is thought that where two commanders of different civilizations are present, the highest bonus available applies. This would mean that a level 4 Centurion and a level 4 Chieftain collectively give a 30% bonus to both attack and defense. This is only relevant to a few campaign missions, since in most only one civilization is available. The area of influence is shown by a faint blue circle around the commander. RogueImpaler adds: "You can tell if your troops are affected by their leader when they have a little extra eagle in their flag." Combat that takes place within a commander's area of influence increases the commander's experience and level. Higher ranking commanders can make a significant difference to the outcome of a battle, so ensuring they gain experience is useful.
3.3.4 Can I kill my own troops?
There is no command to do this, however there are tricks to destroy your own units. From no_pulse: "Build a tower and garrison it with the units you want destroyed. Then send a battering ram in to destroy the tower, and it will not only destroy the tower, but also the units inside." Athos suggests: "You can also position your troops between a ballista and the ballista's target." Mercurypitt writes: "I like to hide them in grass and then burn the grass while forcing my troops to run through the flames." Kmorg74 adds: "I just break them up into small groups and send them to probe or decoy enemy troops."
3.3.5 Can I stop my troops 'doing their own thing'?
Yes. Assign them 'Hold Position' orders (press H). Stationary formations may also be used, although these generally have a more specific purpose than simply telling your troops to remain still. Troops will still react to the enemy when holding. This reaction can be modified by setting them to 'Aggressive' or 'Defensive' mode. In 'Aggressive' mode units will engage the enemy as soon as they come into view/range. In 'Defensive' mode units will wait until they come under attack or the enemy comes very close before responding.
3.3.6 Why don't troops retreat from battle?
Troops cannot be retreated once they have been engaged in melee. This is considered realistic. Troops can retreat from ranged attacks, however they may sustain heavy casualties doing so.
3.3.7 Can I set multi-point patrols?
By default patrols are set between the starting point of the unit and the location you set the patrol. By holding Shift down while setting the patrol route, multiple patrol points can be set. Similarly, if CTRL is held down while setting a patrol point, the unit will run that part of the route.
3.3.8 Does weather make a difference?
No. Weather is essentially there to look pretty. It does not affect how troops fight, their stamina, or anything else.
3.3.9 How does the hunters' ambush work?
Andrex Aurelius writes: "Place your Hunters in a forest and wait until their Stamina regenerates to full. When it has, the Hunters will automatically go into Ambush mode and will attack enemies that walk over their position. When in Ambush mode Hunters become invisible to the enemy (except to Wolves) and deal much higher damage."
3.3.10 Why won't my catapults attack?
War machines are generally the least likely to respond to an approaching enemy. This partly reflects the time taken to load and fire them. To make them more responsive set them to 'Aggressive' mode. The main danger with auto-firing siege engines is the risk your troops will get caught by them. This is particularly true of Ballistas, which fire straight at the target, rather than over the heads of your own troops. Alternatively, assign attack targets yourself.
3.3.11 Can I extinguish fires on war machines?
Yes. Retire the machine or siege engine from the front line and assign Auxiliary Infantry (or similar) to repair the machine.
3.4 Buildings and Structures
The use of villages and barracks is discussed under Unit training above.
3.4.1 Can I destroy bridges?
Wooden bridges can be destroyed using archers or Catapults. Simply order them to attack the bridge and after a short time the bridge will start burning and then collapse. Stone bridges cannot be destroyed.
3.4.2 How do I rebuild bridges without infantry?
Demote an existing regular or special unit. Click on the unit, select demote from the bottom-right menu and confirm the demotion. The unit will put up a tent for a few seconds, and then reappear as infantry. The infantry can then be used to rebuild the bridge. Demoted units cannot return to their former unit type.
3.4.3 How do I move troops into towers?
Select the unit and then right-click on the tower. From Random: "It's important to click the base of the tower. I was clicking the top of it, but it wasn't registering." Cicero notes: "Make sure that the towers are in good or perfect condition. They get damaged by attacks, in which case your archers may not get in. If there's damage to towers, simply get your auxiliary troops to repair them." Only foot troops can enter towers - not cavalry or siege engines.
3.4.4 Can the fortress's gate be repaired?
Yes, so long as it is your fortress and the gate has not been completely destroyed. Assign Auxiliary Infantry (or similar) to repair the gate, by selecting them and then clicking on the gate. The unit will attempt to repair the gate to full health and then stop repairs. They will not attend to subsequent damage and must be reassigned each time new repairs are required. Once the gate has been destroyed it cannot be repaired.
3.4.5 Can I build a fortress or village?
No. Major fortifications and villages are defined by the map and cannot be built from new, moved or modified.
3.4.6 Can the protect command be used for buildings or areas of ground?
No. The protect command works with troops only.
3.5 Multiplayer
For technical issues see I can't connect to an online game. Any suggestions? below.
3.5.1 How do I chat in multiplayer games?
Press Enter to chat to your allies, Shift+Enter to chat to everyone.
3.5.2 Do any multiplayer maps feature fortifications and castles?
Officially no. Jare writes: "The plans for fortress sieges in skirmish and multiplayer had to be put on hold in order to make the release date we had committed to." However existing siege maps have been hacked to make them playable in multiplayer or skirmish mode - see Are there any custom or multiplayer siege maps? below.
3.5.3 What's inferiority?
This feature is designed to make it easy to finish a multiplayer game without having to search for every last enemy unit. When the enemy no longer has any villages, or their force is 10% the size of your force, inferiority is enabled. This starts a 60 second timer. Once the timer has run out the location of all the enemy's remaining units can be seen.