Pretty surprised to see people dissing saving/loading in campaign play. It is all about time investment and the random crap that can go on in this game. It crashed completely for me when I was about to win Opening Moves, for instance. In RoR as it used to be, save games could corrupt when projectiles were in motion, so it was a roulette system anyway.
Cheat codes allow you to win instantly or with next to no effort, and I was amused to see that achievements still counted when playing this way. That alone suggests that they are happy with cheating. Saving/loading is just protecting your time investment. Some of those scenarios can take a really long time, and random stuff can get you killed, especially in the fixed force missions. It’s not as bad as in say WarCraft III, where you basically HAD to save on hard difficulty to survive at all, especially in “survival” missions, which we thankfully never had in this game. But still it makes sense to save regularly just in case something goes awry. Rendering an hour wasted by not having saved is far removed from using cheat codes.
Here is my clips for beating The revolt of Spartacus and Phyrrus of Epirus in Hardest. Works everytime for me. There are tips you need to prevent AI early rush: Walls are the best! (esp. In map Spartacus, you must wall up your territory in as wide area as possible. Walling up a small area still no works) :)) @Totalste @JosephC64 @qweytr24 @Tom4
Remember in Spartacus, build wall before they send a unit to scout your base. You can see in my clip I built a wall in north west side that blocked a scout unit from red army.
In Phyrrus map, use your boats to block the sea. Dont let the AI get into your main base in eastern side.
My formula for Spartacus campaign:
1- Scout your base.
2- Upgrade Wall & Architecture.Try to build 3-4 layer of wall to block enemy. There should be space between layers so that Heavy Catapult cannot attach several walls one time.
3- Defend your base by Priest. Try to convert valuable unit like Centurion or Cataphract. Don’t build towers as they are ineffective and costly.
4- Go to Iron Age with 30 vils.
5- Upgrade Scythe Chariot and use them to crush the enemy. They are not strong but effective against siege unit, cataphract and legions. (For centurion, use Priest.)
6- Try to protect ally to avoid his being defeated.
The weak point of my strategy: My ally is on his own. No way to protect him at the beginning except providing resources. All I can do is to praying he will survive. However, it is good if some of his units can get into my base before I finish walls.