The Appian Way

Military Tactics

First of all, I'd like to state the obvious. Caesar 3 is not Age of Empires or Command & Conquer. Military action is very much a sideshow, just another obstacle you have to overcome on your way to building your city. However, the consequence of failing to defend your city is a nice little job rowing a galley, so it's generally a good idea to take out the invaders.

Furthermore, I do not claim to be the greatest military tactician this game has ever seen. There are a wide variety of ingenious formations and manoeuvres that may be employed in Caesar 3, a decent-sized compendium of which may be found over at Caesar 3 Heaven, but I tend to stick to fairly basic strategies, which I will outline below. First of all, though, a little generalised discussion:

The Roman Army

You have three types of units at your disposal in Caesar 3: Legionaries, Javelin Auxiliaries and Mounted Auxiliaries, hereafter referred to as Infantry, Javelins, and Cavalry, respectively. You may build up to six forts in a level, each of which may hold 16 troops of the same type. All of the troops at your disposal have inherent strengths and weaknesses (discussed below). It is naturally a good idea to play to the strengths of your troops, and the weaknesses of your opponents. In addition to troops, you may also construct as many towers as your city can staff. These will rain down javelins and ballista shot on all invading forces, and can be a useful supplement to your defences. The following list summarises the strengths and weaknesses of the units available:

• Infantry
  Superb in hand-to-combat, the Roman legions will flatten almost all opponents, provided they can get close enough. However, Infantry are very slow moving, so cannot be relied upon to intercept a sneak attack from an unexpected quarter.
• Javelins
  Faster than the majority of your enemies, and possessing a devastating missile attack, javelins excel if you can keep the enemy at a distance. However, their light armour means they are extremely poor in hand-to-hand combat, so should be protected from direct engagement.
• Cavalry
  While not as strong as infantry, cavalry have a decent hand-to-hand attack. They are also extremely fast, making them ideal shock troops and good against enemy missile troops. Enemy infantry is best avoided, however.
• Towers
  An extremely powerful missile attack from the ballista, which will kill an enemy with one shot. Relative inaccuracy and slow reload times makes them weak against fast moving enemies. They're not all that strong once the enemy get close, either...

Getting Started

All these troops must be trained at the Barracks. I would recommend also building a Military Academy, since this improves the morale of your troops, and makes them less likely to desert you in the middle of a long battle. However, even if only one member of a fort has been trained at the Academy, then all of his fellow soldiers gain the benefit of that experience, and the entire fort is deemed 'academy trained', unless that one member is subsequently killed.

One of the problems that some players have is not being able to start their military early enough to fend off invasions. Armies are expensive; very expensive. So, in order to build an army early, you need to establish a solid economy quickly. Hopefully the rest of the strategy section here will help you with that!

Assuming you have enough money, I would recommend you start your army with a javelin fort. You can delay adding a Military Academy until it has 14 members if cashflow is tight; otherwise you may as well add it immediately. Then add another javelin fort, then an infantry or cavalry fort (depending on the strength of the enemy). Continue adding forts whenever you can afford to, until you have an army composition you are happy with (again this will depend on the enemy and the size of invasions).

I recommend beginning with javelin forts simply because it is easier. Infantry require weapons, which you either need to import, manufacture from imported iron, or produce yourself. In the first two cases, this involves the expenditure of varying amounts of money. In the third, you often have to sacrifice weapons exports to build up your army. Either way, you save money when building auxiliaries. Since the time when money is most likely to be tight is the start of the game, build those auxiliaries first!

Anyway, enough rambling; on to the tactics themselves...

Caesar Alan's Tacticus

• Bounding Overwatch
  You will need several forts of javelins. Line them up in several successive rows. As the enemy approaches, withdraw the closest units behind the rear most units, and do this repeatedly while the enemy, who is unable to catch your retreating relays of javelin troops, are showered constantly with javelins and are forced to retreat or are killed.

  This tactic is best employed against slow-moving enemies (the archetype being the Carthaginians). Faster opponents with cavalry units, like the Celts or Goths, will be able to catch your javelins, resulting in a very nasty mess. You also need a fair amount of open space to run your javelins around in. Where space is more restricted, you can start running arund in a square, periodically changing the alignment of your javelins, but this requires more micromanagement than I am normally prepared to bother with.

• Shield Wall
  This is a much more static tactic, suited to maps with less space, or against faster enemies. Line up two, or preferably three, forts of infantry in square formation (you did academy train your soldiers, right?), and 'hide' two or three javelin legions behind them. While the infantry swap blows with the enemy, your javelins rain down a hail of missiles from the safety of the back row. This tactic can be improved further by having a wall of towers behind the javelins for extra missile support, and/or a fort of cavalry, to engage the enemy from the rear once they are already engaged in fighting your infantry.

  Where possible, I tend to combine this strategy with Bounding Overwatch, using my javelins to lure the enemy to my waiting legions and towers. This has the added advantage of wiping out a few of the enemy first, and it can split very large invasions into more manageable segements if you start the luring process before all the enemy troops are on the map.

  A further variant, to be used only against weaker or smaller invasions, involves the use of cavalry instead of infantry as the 'wall' for your javelins. This is particularly useful on maps where weapons are not readily available, or where you wish to export a lot of weapons.

This website was created by Mark Snow a.k.a. Caesar Alan. Most of the information presented here was gleaned from a number of other websites. Where possible I have credited my sources. You are free to use any of the information here, provided you acknowledge your source!