That damage with fire would be accurate except for the fact as soon as the unit gets experience. It makes arrows more deadly while fire are deadly as well but with the better accuracy and fire rate. Standard arrows would be better against any infantry
The biggest mystery of Rome: total War is how to use pigs properly. They're high tier unit, expensive, take 2 turns to hire and instantly die. And their only purpose is to make elefants and chariots lose control. Simple archers do it better as we can see in this video.
The only time I have ever used pigs in a campaign was in an old Scipii playthrough in which I was able to train pigs before I could train archers (basically I had just not built an archery range for some reason but I was focused on expanding cavalry). So when I was expanding into Carthage in North Africa, I trained some pigs to deal with their elephants. Once I got archers though, I stopped using the pigs
Something else to consider is as archers gain more exp their shots become more accurate. So rarely use f. Arrows with unskilled archers so they can rack up more kills with arrows. Once their accuracy is good enough (rank 3+) fire arrows will be more effective.
@@Casketkrusher_ I also noticed in Rome Totar War 2, Exp. makes Archers rate of fire increase as well. Not sure if that's the same in the original game though.
The best part of your guides are the fact that most of them also works with Medieval II Total War. Even if that game fix some bugs or improve mechanics from Rome Total War, most concepts share the same basis.
3:38 I wonder if there's a difference between how fast archers can kill a siege tower based on unit size. Like vs huge. If you think about it increasing your total Army population on the battlefield would also increase the amount of damage output you do to single targets.
I think you got it wrong with the armour topic. As far as I know, normal arrows have better armour piercing capabilities, so they should be used against armoured units. Flaming arrows actually do more damage, but as their piercing power is lower, they aren't that effective against heavy infantry. I think I got this from a complete guide I found on a forum, still, if you think this through, it actually makes sense. Normal arrows have a pointy and sharp tip, while flaming ones have to accommodate the flaming material thus loosing penetration power. So the balance between both arrow types is a bit more complex. Against armoured units I'll use normal arrows, penetration + rate of fire will cause massive damage. Against light units I might use either, If I want to kill a unit fast I'll use regular arrows (Because of the faster fire rate) while if I want to use as little ammo as possible I'll use flaming shot (Because of the damage bonus). In the case of cavalry, chariots or elephants is recommended using flaming shot, because of their lack of armour and also the fact that they can panic, still, if there is no hurry, danger or need of keeping much ammo, regular shot can be used with good effect too. I definitely agree on the fact that flaming shot looks better. And I must add that they serve the purpose of "tracer rounds" too. Nice video, hope someone could check what I'm saying or correct me if I'm wrong. Keep up the good work!
By the way, it would be nice a video explaining the different damage outputs depending on the direction de proyectiles hit their targets. I saw on the guide I mention that front, right, left and back actually have different proyectile damage multipliers.
@@BoboDeTurno Yes. I have personally observed that the basic slinger unit work super well when they fire into the back of enemies, even against armoured targets. Despite their apprent low attack value and no ap.
I already know it by experience but I needed someone to corroborate it to be really sure hahaha thanks man, you're awesome, keep doing it like you know
the argument around fire arrow vs armor is unclear: units DO have hit points (1 for a regular soldier, 2 for special cases like Spartans, Bull Warriors and Berserkers, 5 for chariots, 12 for elephants); when calculating defense, only armor and shield impact a CHANCE TO HIT for missiles
Great video here. In a crunch seige battle, archers using fire arrows from the city square can break a much stronger army. Used that strategy a lot in Barbarian Invasion:D Subbed!
Your own troops do not get a morale bonus by using fire arrows or firing normal arrows. They do get a morale bonus when they see a routing enemy unit though, so if your arrows route an enemy unit then your army will gain a slight morale bonus. In short: arrows themselves do not give a bonus, but by doing damage to the enemy, morale rises. Edit: grammar
Just found your videos, I love them! I'm curious if you know whether fire arrows or regular arrows do more damage in total over all 30 shots. Sometimes when besieging towns I use archers to soften them up before entering (especially effective since the AI never sallies out), but I often run out of arrows before killing most of their troops, so it would be helpful to know which arrows I should use to maximize damage.
Thank you and welcome to the channel! This is just my opinion as I haven't tested thee scenario's specifically, but here are my thoughts It definitely depends on what troops you're trying to soften up and what quality of walls the town has I'd say. In the case of attacking a settlement with wood walls (low levels) you have much more flexibility because accuracy is not as important and your archers have a better angle on the enemy. In the case of stone walls, fire arrows are tough to use because their accuracy is worse and have trouble hitting troops in such a precise area/angle. Plus, your archers are more vulnerable to the towers and any ranged units on the walls. Also, a fun way to utilize archers on stone walls is to take the walls with your infantry, and then have your archers climb the ladders or siege towers and position themselves on the walls to fire on enemy troops inside the city. As for troop quality, fire arrows are better against heavy armor, regular arrows are better against light armor. So overall I would say for each situation: - (Wood wall/light armor) Regular arrows - (Wood wall/heavy armor) Fire arrows - (Stone wall) Regular arrows or no arrows at all. Or, my preferred method, save them until the walls are taken and turn the city defenses against the troops inside Hope this helps!
@@BlueMatona Thanks! I've started testing this. So far I've done wood wall light armor (with 5 archer units attacking 20 town watch). Regular arrows killed ~800 on average, fire arrows ~700. I'll try wood walls/heavy armor next. I rarely try to shoot units on stone walls for the reasons you gave. I do use archers against units blocking a sap point breach to kill them before charging in.
A good thing to do when softening the enemy before entering the walls is let archers use fire at will (I think this way the pick the best targets) of course if the enemy general is at range you may want to try to take him down with your arrows, anyway once the enemy has suffered some casualties the tend to retreat to get out of range from your archers, so this is a good moment to disable fire at will mode, just to enable it when your soldiers cross the walls and the enemy send some forces to stop you. 😉
@bluematona What do you mean by 3 arrows per soldier? They always fire more than 3 volleys per unit, and even in your vid you show them firing more than 3 each. What did you mean by this?
@@BlueMatona Ah okay, thank you. Makes more sense. I wonder if you could investigate whether killing archers increases the total number of shots fired or not? So if I kill half the archers, do the remaining half get double the arrows? Or will every archer always have 30 arrows, regardless of how many are in the unit? Sometimes it seems a smaller unit can fire for longer, but might just be imagining that.
@@Joe125g20 sometimes not all soldiers are in firing range and ammo is passed on to the front ranks. I see this a lot when my hastati are in a long collumn in front of a breeched gate, throwing pila at the barbarians standing on the other side. They have 2 pila each, but fire three times, sometimes a very small fourth round.
great video. How about siege engines onagers. Which is better in destroying walls faster? fire munitions or normal ones. in my experience fire muniruins do more damage but waste shots and damages buildings. but I m not sure. so I just use normal munions against stone walls for accuracy and make every shot counts.
@@retardcorpsman I think you are either confusing it with a different game in the franchise or you are confusing it with a druid/priest chant. In Rome 1, warcry improves attack and only lasts about a minute.
I once accidentally routed the entire enemy army because i pressed F on my full 6 warband units. I just wanted more damage against a superior force (brutii). I didny have enough cav to kill on the rout lol
@@aplaguedoctor406 it does only last a minute, but as my comment just now, i was advancing onto early legionaries or some roman unit, formed up and used it, they ran away
i like to mix fire and basic, when i run a huge archer army basic for the kills. while fire for the reload times ,and i swtich between the 2 arrows. so i can out last the AI in long drawn out battles .
I usually pack archer units on my left flank so they shoot avoiding shields as much as possible... Does it pay off?, Or have I been blundering for years?
The problem with fire arrows is that they lag the game A LOT. I love them, but I prefer to use the normal ones, without worrying that my game will run like a shit.
@@Ugh718 Bro, my pc is 3 yrs old and run most of the new games just fine. Unfortunately Rome TW is optimized like shit on the newer systems, and lags a lot on the modern pcs. I'm not the only one with this problem, it's a very common issue with this game. Just check out the forums and you will see that many people have a problem with this. I wish that CA would ever fix it, but knowing them and the lack of support for the older games they surely won't. It's a shame though, because Rome is really an awesome game... The lag is not terrible and the game can be played but it lags a lot on huge 3k battles. Especially with the fire arrows on. At least on my pc.
@@FrankUnderwoood I was kidding.I have a 3 y old laptop,and it still lags when I use fire arrows lol😁 Edit:Actually,come to think of it,my laptop isn't even that old.I got it in 2018 for christmas and my birthday(my birthday is in december,so it was a nice touch lol),and it still lags regardless of being that young lol.Man.Who would've thought that modern games like fifa 2018,medieval 2 total war,blockade 3d,the last stand dead zone...Would work so much better than a game made in 2005.Like,that's ridiculous man😁
@@Ugh718 Ahh, I see haha. Yeah, that's a pity dude. It's seriously an awesome game but it lags terribly sometimes. I wish that something could be done to prevent that and run the game smoothly on the modern pcs. I tried many fixes and it helped a bit but still the lag in battles is crazy sometimes.
In the game Rome Total war 1, after the d3d8.dll file against glitches, the burning shells and arrows disappeared, they are not visible. Can you please tell me how to fix this????
for Onagers: fire if u want random devastating shots that land everywhere...or no fire if u want accurate limited damage shots. usually i use fire and hope for the best...its just too devastating for other artillery i dont really know what is the real difference. maybe a bit of an extra morale hit...not sure
Each soldier has 30 arrows to fire, not 3. Apologies as I realize now that when I say thirty in the video it sounds a lot like I am saying three
That damage with fire would be accurate except for the fact as soon as the unit gets experience. It makes arrows more deadly while fire are deadly as well but with the better accuracy and fire rate. Standard arrows would be better against any infantry
The biggest mystery of Rome: total War is how to use pigs properly. They're high tier unit, expensive, take 2 turns to hire and instantly die. And their only purpose is to make elefants and chariots lose control. Simple archers do it better as we can see in this video.
The only time I have ever used pigs in a campaign was in an old Scipii playthrough in which I was able to train pigs before I could train archers (basically I had just not built an archery range for some reason but I was focused on expanding cavalry). So when I was expanding into Carthage in North Africa, I trained some pigs to deal with their elephants. Once I got archers though, I stopped using the pigs
Doomstack with only pigs! It works perfect ;)
there meant for the digging under the walls right?
@@itsjustdewieman I don't think they can. But simle peasants can for sure so there's no point in hiring pigs for digging even if they could
@@itsjustdewiemanonly if there are truffles under the walls.
we have one badass captain there at 4:34
I love it nice catch! Didn't notice that while recording or during the like 20 times I watched it during editing haha
Yeah, a double kill with just a knife. Tough guy.
Something else to consider is as archers gain more exp their shots become more accurate. So rarely use f. Arrows with unskilled archers so they can rack up more kills with arrows. Once their accuracy is good enough (rank 3+) fire arrows will be more effective.
I never knew about this.
@@Casketkrusher_ I also noticed in Rome Totar War 2, Exp. makes Archers rate of fire increase as well. Not sure if that's the same in the original game though.
The best part of your guides are the fact that most of them also works with Medieval II Total War. Even if that game fix some bugs or improve mechanics from Rome Total War, most concepts share the same basis.
Same engine
I think you may be the first RTW UA-camr who says "Cavalry" and not "Calvary" Great video!
3:38 I wonder if there's a difference between how fast archers can kill a siege tower based on unit size. Like vs huge. If you think about it increasing your total Army population on the battlefield would also increase the amount of damage output you do to single targets.
Now that Rome: Remastered is out, these videos are as invaluable as ever, great work!
I think you got it wrong with the armour topic.
As far as I know, normal arrows have better armour piercing capabilities, so they should be used against armoured units. Flaming arrows actually do more damage, but as their piercing power is lower, they aren't that effective against heavy infantry.
I think I got this from a complete guide I found on a forum, still, if you think this through, it actually makes sense. Normal arrows have a pointy and sharp tip, while flaming ones have to accommodate the flaming material thus loosing penetration power.
So the balance between both arrow types is a bit more complex. Against armoured units I'll use normal arrows, penetration + rate of fire will cause massive damage. Against light units I might use either, If I want to kill a unit fast I'll use regular arrows (Because of the faster fire rate) while if I want to use as little ammo as possible I'll use flaming shot (Because of the damage bonus). In the case of cavalry, chariots or elephants is recommended using flaming shot, because of their lack of armour and also the fact that they can panic, still, if there is no hurry, danger or need of keeping much ammo, regular shot can be used with good effect too.
I definitely agree on the fact that flaming shot looks better. And I must add that they serve the purpose of "tracer rounds" too.
Nice video, hope someone could check what I'm saying or correct me if I'm wrong. Keep up the good work!
By the way, it would be nice a video explaining the different damage outputs depending on the direction de proyectiles hit their targets. I saw on the guide I mention that front, right, left and back actually have different proyectile damage multipliers.
Very well though out thanks for the explanation!
@@BoboDeTurno Yes. I have personally observed that the basic slinger unit work super well when they fire into the back of enemies, even against armoured targets. Despite their apprent low attack value and no ap.
That's not how it works... In RTW they ignore half of armor or not. Im pretty sure that archcers didnt ignore armor completley
Thanks for these guides!!!! I've literally JUST got back into this game from years ago but i never really knew this stuff.
I already know it by experience but I needed someone to corroborate it to be really sure hahaha thanks man, you're awesome, keep doing it like you know
Same here. Been playing Total War since I was seven, but its interesting to see what I know and what I don't from these vids.
I've been playing since I was about 10 or 11, and definitely am still learning new things as I make these videos too haha
I never really used fire arrows unless I was fighting elephants to get them to lose control.
Thanks to you. I didn't know fire arrows do more damage, not joking. Also, this is the first time I see a siege tower falling with troops inside.
Love your videos bro, keep up the awesome work
Thank you for these guides. You make this game soooo much easier with all the tips.
I like to make the last volley with fire before engaging
the argument around fire arrow vs armor is unclear: units DO have hit points (1 for a regular soldier, 2 for special cases like Spartans, Bull Warriors and Berserkers, 5 for chariots, 12 for elephants); when calculating defense, only armor and shield impact a CHANCE TO HIT for missiles
Great video here. In a crunch seige battle, archers using fire arrows from the city square can break a much stronger army. Used that strategy a lot in Barbarian Invasion:D Subbed!
Hey, do you know if the fire arrows affect the morale of your own men? When fired by your own archers I mean :)
Your own troops do not get a morale bonus by using fire arrows or firing normal arrows. They do get a morale bonus when they see a routing enemy unit though, so if your arrows route an enemy unit then your army will gain a slight morale bonus.
In short: arrows themselves do not give a bonus, but by doing damage to the enemy, morale rises.
Edit: grammar
@@BlueMatona I think he was talking about something like friendly fire but in the morale aspect
@@lucianomosca8853 yes Luciano, that is what I meant :)
I can't say for sure but I believe friendly fire also damages your morale
Thank you for this great video bro.
I would theorize that fire arrows are also good against massed enemies troops, since the accuracy penalties wouldn't matter in that situation.
The most beautiful thing is seeing fire arrows land on a tustudo
Just found your videos, I love them! I'm curious if you know whether fire arrows or regular arrows do more damage in total over all 30 shots. Sometimes when besieging towns I use archers to soften them up before entering (especially effective since the AI never sallies out), but I often run out of arrows before killing most of their troops, so it would be helpful to know which arrows I should use to maximize damage.
Thank you and welcome to the channel! This is just my opinion as I haven't tested thee scenario's specifically, but here are my thoughts
It definitely depends on what troops you're trying to soften up and what quality of walls the town has I'd say. In the case of attacking a settlement with wood walls (low levels) you have much more flexibility because accuracy is not as important and your archers have a better angle on the enemy. In the case of stone walls, fire arrows are tough to use because their accuracy is worse and have trouble hitting troops in such a precise area/angle. Plus, your archers are more vulnerable to the towers and any ranged units on the walls. Also, a fun way to utilize archers on stone walls is to take the walls with your infantry, and then have your archers climb the ladders or siege towers and position themselves on the walls to fire on enemy troops inside the city.
As for troop quality, fire arrows are better against heavy armor, regular arrows are better against light armor.
So overall I would say for each situation:
- (Wood wall/light armor) Regular arrows
- (Wood wall/heavy armor) Fire arrows
- (Stone wall) Regular arrows or no arrows at all. Or, my preferred method, save them until the walls are taken and turn the city defenses against the troops inside
Hope this helps!
@@BlueMatona Thanks! I've started testing this. So far I've done wood wall light armor (with 5 archer units attacking 20 town watch). Regular arrows killed ~800 on average, fire arrows ~700. I'll try wood walls/heavy armor next.
I rarely try to shoot units on stone walls for the reasons you gave. I do use archers against units blocking a sap point breach to kill them before charging in.
A good thing to do when softening the enemy before entering the walls is let archers use fire at will (I think this way the pick the best targets) of course if the enemy general is at range you may want to try to take him down with your arrows, anyway once the enemy has suffered some casualties the tend to retreat to get out of range from your archers, so this is a good moment to disable fire at will mode, just to enable it when your soldiers cross the walls and the enemy send some forces to stop you. 😉
Your guide is ultra useful
@bluematona What do you mean by 3 arrows per soldier? They always fire more than 3 volleys per unit, and even in your vid you show them firing more than 3 each. What did you mean by this?
I think he said 30 per soldier
Ya its 30 shots for each soldier in the unit. On listening to it again I see why it might sounds like 3, my bad haha
@@BlueMatona Ah okay, thank you. Makes more sense.
I wonder if you could investigate whether killing archers increases the total number of shots fired or not?
So if I kill half the archers, do the remaining half get double the arrows? Or will every archer always have 30 arrows, regardless of how many are in the unit? Sometimes it seems a smaller unit can fire for longer, but might just be imagining that.
I heard 3 also....was very confused
@@Joe125g20 sometimes not all soldiers are in firing range and ammo is passed on to the front ranks. I see this a lot when my hastati are in a long collumn in front of a breeched gate, throwing pila at the barbarians standing on the other side. They have 2 pila each, but fire three times, sometimes a very small fourth round.
great video. How about siege engines onagers. Which is better in destroying walls faster? fire munitions or normal ones. in my experience fire muniruins do more damage but waste shots and damages buildings. but I m not sure. so I just use normal munions against stone walls for accuracy and make every shot counts.
Fire arrows are so OP against armies using chariots and elephants.
me who doesnt even use any ranged units: Yes! Useful.
What does warcry do? How long does it last and what stats does it affect?
Dolfy
Warcry lowers the morale of incoming enemy troops and increases your troop morale in OP levels. It lasts until you turn it off.
@@retardcorpsman Overpowered levels orrr?
@@retardcorpsman I think you are either confusing it with a different game in the franchise or you are confusing it with a druid/priest chant. In Rome 1, warcry improves attack and only lasts about a minute.
I once accidentally routed the entire enemy army because i pressed F on my full 6 warband units. I just wanted more damage against a superior force (brutii). I didny have enough cav to kill on the rout lol
@@aplaguedoctor406 it does only last a minute, but as my comment just now, i was advancing onto early legionaries or some roman unit, formed up and used it, they ran away
i like to mix fire and basic, when i run a huge archer army basic for the kills. while fire for the reload times ,and i swtich between the 2 arrows. so i can out last the AI in long drawn out battles .
good stuff.. thanks matona
3:38 R. I. P.
interesting vid thank you
Fire arrows during river crossing defense
I usually pack archer units on my left flank so they shoot avoiding shields as much as possible... Does it pay off?, Or have I been blundering for years?
Another video, yeee!
The problem with fire arrows is that they lag the game A LOT. I love them, but I prefer to use the normal ones, without worrying that my game will run like a shit.
If ur game lags just from fire arrows from a game made in 2005 u have a potato pc XD
@@Ugh718 Bro, my pc is 3 yrs old and run most of the new games just fine. Unfortunately Rome TW is optimized like shit on the newer systems, and lags a lot on the modern pcs. I'm not the only one with this problem, it's a very common issue with this game. Just check out the forums and you will see that many people have a problem with this. I wish that CA would ever fix it, but knowing them and the lack of support for the older games they surely won't. It's a shame though, because Rome is really an awesome game... The lag is not terrible and the game can be played but it lags a lot on huge 3k battles. Especially with the fire arrows on. At least on my pc.
@@FrankUnderwoood I was kidding.I have a 3 y old laptop,and it still lags when I use fire arrows lol😁
Edit:Actually,come to think of it,my laptop isn't even that old.I got it in 2018 for christmas and my birthday(my birthday is in december,so it was a nice touch lol),and it still lags regardless of being that young lol.Man.Who would've thought that modern games like fifa 2018,medieval 2 total war,blockade 3d,the last stand dead zone...Would work so much better than a game made in 2005.Like,that's ridiculous man😁
@@Ugh718 Ahh, I see haha. Yeah, that's a pity dude. It's seriously an awesome game but it lags terribly sometimes. I wish that something could be done to prevent that and run the game smoothly on the modern pcs. I tried many fixes and it helped a bit but still the lag in battles is crazy sometimes.
good info
Does a wheather affect fire arrows?
In the game Rome Total war 1, after the d3d8.dll file against glitches, the burning shells and arrows disappeared, they are not visible. Can you please tell me how to fix this????
Use other dll wrapper
Thx
Why are they autoenabled on night battles? More accurate at night?
Don't think flaming arrows are ever historically accurate, but definitely look better at night!
@@BlueMatona oh yeah they aren't historically accurate at all yes
For Artillery what munitions to use?
for Onagers:
fire if u want random devastating shots that land everywhere...or no fire if u want accurate limited damage shots.
usually i use fire and hope for the best...its just too devastating
for other artillery i dont really know what is the real difference. maybe a bit of an extra morale hit...not sure
Still only using fire arrows cuz it looks cool
How do you have such good frame rates in battles? Mine are like slide shows in windows 10, even with the dx8 fix
I swear it's more than 3 per person
he meant thirthy not thrrr