So I got started a bit but I have a bunch of other games I’m playing too, so I haven’t had much chance to test the waters. Do any of you have any advice as to what I could do in battle, how to manage towns, how to know how much to send where when I’m called to get a city?
Well, the battles really depend on the troops your’re facing. If you’re facing pikemen, attack their FLANKS AND THEIR REAR ONLY. If you attack them head on you’ll get creamed. If you’re attacking infantry, face them with cavalary. Attacking archers? You can either charge them quickly with cavalry or use heavy infantry to minimize losses. Also, MAKE SURE one of your units doesn’t get isolated among enemy soldiers, because it will be reduced to nothing in seconds. Also try to keep your troops organized, because if their morale drops they’ll run away.
On the battlefield, light infantry and archers hiding in forests is your best friend. You can take on a force three times your size and win if you have the element of surprise (I did anyway).
As for managing towns, start slow. In the Campaign you start with 2-3 towns, so manage those until they’re producing a steady stream of income. Keep taxes relatively low and give the citizens entertainment so they don’t revolt, and once your starting towns are bustling capture other towns and repeat the process.
As for getting sent to cities, do you mean when the Senate orders you to capture a city?
Yes , I meant with the senate. As for managing towns, it feels like it takes a really long time to get stuff developed :S
Oh my GOD, other people have this game! I’d been looking around the chat for WEEKS looking for someone to blather about this game to
Ok for senate missions there are a variety of options, you might want to start developing an intelligence network of spies so you know how much all the towns have. In general though you’ll get an idea of what you need once you get a taste of the other factions. (Gauls for example are beatable when they outnumber Roman troops 5:1).
As far as managing towns goes, I would first buff up your towns income: trading centers, ports, MAYBE farms (Farms are controversial, you’ll see later when squalor becomes an issue), public health buildings should also be fairly high priority. As far as troops go, you’ll probably want to use the 3-4 towns in your starting area as your main troop producers since they’ll have the largest population. Make one dedicated to infantry, one dedicated to cavalry, and one dedicated to missile attacks; that way you don’t need to build up every tree.
Oooh 
Keep it coming CH!
Also if lots of people have it we need to setup some sort of 2V2 giant battle, and then we can all laugh as me video card kills itself.
Oh you like that eh Sin? Well if you could tell me about how experienced you are with the game I could help you out more.
I don’t know how much general battle advice I can give, you just need to mess around and get to know your troops types. I guess I can give you some basic tips for the Romans though since that’s probably what you’ll be using
Skirmishers: These are your javelin chuckers, the Romans also get some mounted skirmishers. If you haven’t noticed already, being forced to be the agressor in battle is a major disadvantage, it’s far far harder to maintain your battle lines if you have to attack. Skirmishers can go outside your battle lines and harass the enemy until they either attack, or just bear the losses. Keep these guys away from cavalry since they tend to get mowed down. Also, once the battle has really started have these guys fight hand to hand. (If you right click normally then skirmishers will throw spears, however if you hold alt the spear icon will change into a sword and that means they’ll fight hand to hand, this can also be used for your heavy infantry, it’s very useful so remember it)
Archers and artillery: You know how in war movies the archers always just fire one volley of arrows and then you never see them again? But in WC the archers could shoot through the whole battle. Well this is more like the movies, you have to be VERY careful of friendly fire, don’t set your infantry too close to the archers either or they’ll be shot in the back. Archers are valuable in the same way skirmishers are, they can often force the enemy to attack. Once the battle starts either get them to stop shooting, or shoot at some unit off on its own. Archers can’t really fight HTH and you have to babysit them because if cavalry gets through your lines to the archers they’re toast.
Heavy infantry: Roman infantry is stupidly powerful, their use is pretty straightforward so I’ll just throw out a few ideas. During the battle preparation, click and hold the right mouse button over an infantry unit and drag to the right, this can customize the length and depth of the unit. Very useful if you have to hold a long battle line. Try to have them support each other to avoid flanking, use your pila as a premptive strike to soften up enemy units (Don’t use pila if another infantry is already engaged though, just alt click to fight with swords).
Cavalry: Cavalry is extremely useful, you have to be careful how you use it though, they’re not made for heavy combat. You’ll notice when you order a cavalry charge spears will be used, but during straight combat they will use swords. The spears will do shock damage and disrupt formations so that’s what you want to use. Your cavalry can run around a lot without getting tired so use this to your advantage. Look for a big infantry fight and have your cavalry crash into the rear, chase down archers, use them anywhere you need help, they’re wonderful for causing a rout. Cavalry tend to have the most experience of any unit since they get a ton of kills chasing down routing units. Just keep them away from spears, cavalry don’t like spears. If you HAVE to engage spear units, hit them in the back and then disengage.
I’m not that experienced actually, I barely started the first campaign and I spent a couple hours in the prologue. I essentially want a few tips for how to manage towns, combant, requests and to make sure my ass is covered. I just feel like I don’t know what to do in between turns.
Turn your advice settings to max. 
Oh and for senate requests, you’re going to get a shitload of requests to blockade ports, so keep a small navy ready. Don’t bother trying to defeat the whole enemy navy, just blockade the port one turn and leave.
Also, come back and post when you get far enough to run into the dreaded squalor >:P
It has no cure but I can give a few tips to combat it.
Try to ask about specific stuff, general tips are hard
My main worry is I don’t know what to do in between turns (I just edited my post). What is the “Deaded Squalor” ?
Really the only thing you need to do every turn is make sure every one of your provinces is building something. You might also want to be sending troops or generals to the war front (Assuming you have one) You should also have a fair number of agents, right click on the agent tab to see all the ones you have. It’s a good idea to keep agents busy so their skills will increase.
Squalor is overpopulation, it gradually increases and steadily lowers a the happiness level of your provinces. It pisses a lot of people off because it has no direct cure.
How do I get agents to do anything? I remember I had one and I kinda didn’t know how to use him. And how do I get rid of foreign diplomats from outside my towns?
Agents are spies, assassins and diplomats. You can recruit them in town once you get trade and government buildings. All of them can gain traits and retinues like your family members can, but you have to use them instead of having them lay around town. (Spies and especially assassins can be killed in their work though)
Spies: These will tell you information about the enemy, right click on an enemy unit or town, the spy will move into the unit and you can click the unit now to see exact army numbers. Click the spy after you’ve right clicked on the enemy unit if you want to get him out again. Also if you have a spy stationed in an enemy town, there is a chance he will open the gates for your army.
Assassins can be used to assassinate (duh) enemy family members and agents. Just select the assassin and right click whatever you want to die. Starting assassins suck though, so you might want to train them on enemy captains. Killing a captain won’t do anything, but it’s fairly easy to do and your assassin can gain experience that way. Any enemy troop without a family member (It’s map icon won’t be wearing a cloak) has a captain.
To use a diplomat just right click on any unit, town, or diplomat owned by any other faction. You’ll open up the diplomacy screen and there are a bunch of different negotiations available.
Also lets play multiplayer sometime after you’ve got some practice Sin.
Will it work multiplayer if my version is cracked >.>?
That I’m not sure. >.> One thing I do know is: In multiplayer, NEVER use flaming arrows. I have an ATI Radeon X800 graphics card and when I used flaming arrows in mulitplayer it STILL caused me to lag like crazy.
As for how much you should send when capturing a town, it really depends on the size of the town and how many men are in it. You should send a spy to find out exactly what you’ll be facing, and a spy is extra handy because it may be able to open the town gates for you if you attack.
If you’re attacking a town with walls, BRING siege equipment, otherwise you’re going to have wait until the other town starves itself (which can take as many as ten turns later on). When entering a town itself, use cavalry to form a wedge in the enemy army’s defenses, then follow up with infantry.
Also, a few more tips for town management: First off, Traders, Mines, Markets, and later Forums should be top priority. They’ll give you much more income and that will prevent you from losing money. You should always have at least one thing being built in a town, and you can make sure it is by checking to see if there’s a construction icon in front of a town. Armories, as you’ll also learn, will make your troops last longer in combat. Build them.
This is for later in the game: DO NOT make too many armies. There’s an upkeep for how many men you have, and if you have too many, it’ll put a huge strain on your budget (I learned this the hard way).
I can’t use flaming arrows even in single player mode, turning off dust and smoke in the graphics options helps the situation SLIGHTLY, but you I’ve heard you have to mess around with the game a bit to fix it completely.
And Sin, probably not, might as well try though. 
As for NEEDING to bring seige equipment, I call bullshit. Building your own seige equipment is a completely reasonable alternative. It’s sometimes even faster to just build a ram in one turn and then attack if you’re up against nothing tougher than a wooden fort. Since having to lug onagers around cripples your armys movement rate. Ladders and seige towers also kick ass for the heavier walls, onagers are great, but are in no way neccesary ever.
Also for town management, uncheck AI management in every town, the AI blows.
Actually CH, I meant bringing siege equipment in the event that the army had no build points. =P
What kind of army has no build points?
try to build as many pig units as you can. There pigs covered in pitch and oil that are sent into battle and set on fire when near enemy units. I’m not sure what country has them, but find out, and make as many as possible.