Larger units

[mcgib]

You must be able to make larger armies than 1000 or so men. I've read of ancient armies numbering in the thousands, so ... how do you raise a roman army of several thousand? There must be a way.

[pezhetairoi]

...by changing the unit scale, or going into descr_unit and manipulating the basic unit size of the units.

[Ludens]

You must be able to make larger armies than 1000 or so men. I've read of ancient armies numbering in the thousands, so ... how do you raise a roman army of several thousand? There must be a way.
Pezhetairoi already gave you the basic answer, but there is a limit to what the engine can handle. You can set unit size to huge in the options menu and increase the basic unit sizes in the desc_unit file, but I understand the engine refuses to accept units over a certain size, which was IIRC 240.

So in one battle you could get nine stacks of twenty units of 240 men plus three officers per unit and one captain per army. So the maximum number of men is 9 * (20 * (240 + 3) + 1) = 43749 men on the field. But you need a very powerful system to show that battle without a hitch.

[Celt Centurion]

I am presently in a campaign as the Brutii in "huge" setting. The increased numbers basically means that I typically send 2,000 or so of the enemy to their early ends.

Control of units seems to be a little more difficult in this setting.

My greatest problem "controlling" them is that often they do not go where they are sent. I will right click cavalry to the corner of the field in order to set them up to slam into an enemie's flanks or rear, and half of them will go 180 degrees from where they are told. Some actually charge right into them even as I am trying to pull them another direction. What were they thinking?

I have noticed also that it takes a lot longer to send 160 light infantry running along the walls and through the enemie's towers than 80.

And getting archers into position from one section of the wall to the other? Too many to fit through that little door fast enough.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

[Patricius]

It can disadvantage factions in poorer territories. On larger scales, finding cities of only 400 population - the minimum - is common.

[Ludens]

It can disadvantage factions in poorer territories. On larger scales, finding cities of only 400 population - the minimum - is common.
Not to mention that the A.I. tends to deplete its cities when the basic units are warbands. This leads to low tax income and no city growth, forcing the A.I. to buy more warbands and so the viscious circle is complete. I don't know if this is inproved in 1.5/1.6 though.

[Mooks]

Wheres the unit scale? Iv searched all the option pages and didn't find it..Some direction might be nice.

[Doug-Thompson]

I've always just imagined that one man = 10 "real" men. An 80-man unit would represent 800, for example. Same for city populations.

[Ludens]

Wheres the unit scale? Iv searched all the option pages and didn't find it..Some direction might be nice.
IIRC it's under graphic options, advanced, unit size.

[Mooks]

I set it from large to huge (How is large 40 by the way?) and it didnt do anything..Same unit size.

BTW I have BI with 1.6 patch.

:help:

[symball]

you need to do it before you start a campaign. it wont work with an existing campaign.

[Ciaran]

It works only when you start a new campaign. Or for custom battles, of course, but if you change the unit size and load a campaign that loaded game will keep the old unit size.

What do you mean by 40, by the way? 40 in the decr_unit or 40 on screen or what? In the first case, that´s the default size, you´ll get it if your graphic setting is on normal (or default, I don´t know right now), large is twice the size, huge four times and small half.

[Zatoichi]

You can also edit your preference.txt to change unit sizes - there's a setting for unit size there - I've set mine to 100, which in my opinion gives nice sized battles without too much drain on the city resources. This will only work if you edit the text file before starting a campaign, though.

[Mooks]

OOO ok ok, ill just start a new campaign. Thx guys.

[tai4ji2x]

Not to mention that the A.I. tends to deplete its cities when the basic units are warbands. This leads to low tax income and no city growth, forcing the A.I. to buy more warbands and so the viscious circle is complete. I don't know if this is inproved in 1.5/1.6 though.

yup, this was a real problem, from what i remember. anyone with 1.5/6 able to comment on whether this phenomenon still exists? if so, all the more reason for me to stay away from coming back to RTW

[Germanvs]

I've always just imagined that one man = 10 "real" men. An 80-man unit would represent 800, for example. Same for city populations.

I did search a little for roman unit's size (mostly curious why the standard size is 80 in the game: 100 seemed likely because of the centurion title), but the research made it clear that 80 was indeed the regular (combat) strength of a basic roman unit.

Since then I didn't bother with greater units, as my system will slow down and I will have to sacrifice the graphics to compensate.

[Mooks]

There was 5000 legionarrys in a single legion, commanded by a single legate. Centurions I think commanded 100.

[Ludens]

There was 5000 legionarrys in a single legion, commanded by a single legate. Centurions I think commanded 100.
Not quite, a centurion commanded 80 or 83 IIRC. The reason for this is not really know, but it possible that the Romans reduced the size of the administrative century without changing the name. Romans had more officers per man than any other contemporary army.

[Atilius]

The number of men in a century depended on the type of unit and the time period, and to some degree, the circumstances.

Excluding centurions, standard bearers, imaginifers, aquilfers, cornicens, tubicens, tesserarii, etc:

In the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, the Hastati and Principes were organized into centuries of 60 men, while there were 30 men in each century of Triarii. In times of emergency the centuries of Principes and Hastati could be expanded to 80 men. Velites were organised more loosely, with a total of 1200 per legion. The century was not really a tactical unit at this time. The smallest tactical unit was the maniple, consisting of two centuries. There were 10 maniples each of Hastati, Principes, and Triarii in a legion. Finally, there were 10 turmae (30 men each) of Equites attached to a legion. Normally a legion consisted of about 4500 men.

Early in the first century BC, the legion was reorganized into 10 cohorts. Each cohort consisted of 6 80-man centuries, for a total of about 4800 men. The century became the smallest tactical unit of the legion at this time. The cavalry wing was largely done away with and auxiliary cavalry used instead.

Perhaps early in the 1st century AD, the first cohort was exanded, consisting of 5 centuries of about 160 men and a small cavalry detachment of about 120 men was reintroduced. The legion would then have about 5200-5300 men.

[Ludens]

I didn't know that. Thanks for the information, Atilius.

[TB666]

yup, this was a real problem, from what i remember.
No it wasn't.
If you had a unmodded RTW then you had a minor problem but you could very easy fix this problem yourself by simply adding a few lines in one of the txt files so that building gave more population growth. And if you didn't want to do it yourself then you could just download the fix.
So it never was a problem to begin with.

[Slug For A Butt]

if so, all the more reason for me to stay away from coming back to RTW

Why are you trying to make us all persuade you to come back to RTW? Personally I don't give a monkeys toss if you do or don't. Just make your own mind up without reminding us all that you might or might not come back. Seems like noone remembers you anyway.
Just do it or don't man, that simple. It's not like you are asking for advice on whether to buy it or not, you already have it just make your own mind up. ~:rolleyes: