freed slaves

[GnaeusCotta]

When I build a regional barrack in for example Rome, it says that I should be able to train freed slaves, but they don't show up in the recruitment page. How do I train these dudes?

[Fluvius Camillus]

1. You don't want them, they are the worst troops in the game (like the RTW peasants).

2. I believe they are used for rebellion purposes, so the Eleutheroi will recruit them when the city revolts.

I hope this helps!

[Atilius]

I don't think you can. This is a trick to get around an RTW problem: if a settlement has no recruitment possibilities, a CTD will occur if the settlement rebels.

[Mediolanicus]

You can't train them (you don't want to train them either, they are armed with stones and have almost 0 lethality).

They are there to counter rebellion CTD's. The AI will spawn them during rebellion, or when you give a city to a faction, when there are no other troops/mercs available.

Edit : we're so eager to help...

[Antinous]

The only way you can ever get freed slaves is if an enemy takes a town of yours and you take it back and then they steal it. Then you have to take it back one more time before you can get freed slaves. So basically it is almost impossible to get freed slaves in your control.

[JNR]

If it's only for preventing CTDs, it doesn't work right. When my 1st legion was conquering Sicily, there was a Karthadastim army made up of only one unit freed slaves. So the AI is possible to recruit them I think. And they're stronger than expected :D About ten Eqvites Consvlares were killed, allthough the slaves only fought with cheap clubs...

[Ludens]

The only way you can ever get freed slaves is if an enemy takes a town of yours and you take it back and then they steal it. Then you have to take it back one more time before you can get freed slaves. So basically it is almost impossible to get freed slaves in your control.

Nothing as complex. You generally get apeleutheroi when a town revolts to you. This happens when the public order drops below a certain level and the governor's residence belongs to you (because you built it or it's a eleutheroi town with your faction set as founder/owner faction).

If you get them, disband them ASAP, as they have a high upkeep and little combat value.

[Novellus]

One time, I was playing as Saba. A remote Ptolemaic city rebelled and one of the units I recieved was an Apeleutheros. I thought it was funny when the Ptolemies came to take it because the moment I sallied forth and sent the Apeleutheroi to the front line, the enemy routed! At least they were good for something!

[satalexton]

well, i once defeated a Ptolemaic army of jews and pantodapoi with those guys.....they're not -that- useless... thrown stones do hurt afterall...

[Antinous]

I once had four units of the slaves from conquering a city in Anatolia as the KH. I sent the units against the Ptolemy and I killed about seven of their elites. Then there general came and totally annihilated two of my slave units.

[Novellus]

I can't remember which thread I found this fact in, but I believe the rocks have an AP value. If that's the case, they MIGHT do some pretty good damage when throwing their rocks off of walls, provided that you can lure the enemy close enough for them to hit.

[antisocialmunky]

Or you can order them outside and use them to lure the enemy into the boiling oil.

[Watchman]

Sorry, these days the Apeuletheroi don't have AP rocks and that typo which gave them crazy deadly clubs got fixed ages ago. So they really are kinda useless, except if you have nothing else to hold the newly rebelled city with.

OTOH, revolt troops often spawn with maxed-put exp (three gold chevrons) and gold-upgrade weapons and armour, which can make these guys much more unpleasant than they really have any right to be. (Still die like flies under missiles though.)

[Novellus]

Sorry, these days the Apeuletheroi don't have AP rocks and that typo which gave them crazy deadly clubs got fixed ages ago. So they really are kinda useless, except if you have nothing else to hold the newly rebelled city with.

Aw, that's too bad. They had the potential to be useful! Oh well, I guess they're good for target practice then.

[Antinous]

I really liked using them as bait so none of my skirmishers would get hurt.

[antisocialmunky]

Mmmmm. This thread about freeing slaves and then sending them to their deaths reminds me of that time the Spartans spread a message to the Helots that the 500 best Helots should go to Sparta to be honored/made Spartiates(something along those lines). Never saw any of those guys that showed up ever again.

[lenin96]

In my Karthadast campaign I enslaved two Lusotana cities and destroyed all the buildings that I was allowed to destroy and then left them, when the Lusotana cities I sacked rebelled to them they got full stacks of freed slaves and for a while I was fighting (and killing) hundreds of Apelutheroi.

[Novellus]

In my Karthadast campaign I enslaved two Lusotana cities and destroyed all the buildings that I was allowed to destroy and then left them, when the Lusotana cities I sacked rebelled to them they got full stacks of freed slaves and for a while I was fighting (and killing) hundreds of Apelutheroi.

Poor Apeleutheroi. It seems that the only thing they'd stand a chance at beating are Vanilla RTW Peasants!

I felt sorry for those Peasants! Poor beggars.

[Antinous]

I really hated the peasants. The ablility to make soldiers that will help you fail a battle really made them useful for me.

[antisocialmunky]

You used peasants to migrate people to cities so you can stand them up into troop producing centers fast.

[Antinous]

The AI didn't get that memo in rtw. I would play as the greeks half way through and by that time all the of the AI's armys had huge numbers of peasants. I learned that making peasants was a waste of resources, not that you can use those peasants for populating a city to make soldiers.

[Subotan]

I once managed to trade for a city with the Arveni whilst playing as Epeiros (For 40,000 and an Alliance no less! :D), and I recieved an entire stack of freed slaves.

[Antinous]

That sounds like an intresting way to give your new ally thanks.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

If you happen to have gotten some freed slaves through rebellion or diplomacy, check out their upkeep before you think about keeping them.

[Antinous]

Why would we check? Are the slaves really that expensive?

[desert]

Yes.
350 mnai, was it?

[Antinous]

Holy crap!!! How could lowely slaves get paid that much?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Originally I think the price was put their to discourage the AI from recruting them (although they did anyways). Then the method of having them but with no recruitment was added and the price was kept to "encourage" the player to disband them after a rebellion.

[Antinous]

Well isn't that clever.

[bovi]

If their upkeep was any lower, they would have outperformed a few units as garrison. Now they are worse at all tasks than any other unit.