Your "what if" Empires

[Olaf Blackeyes]

To the OP:
This is what human civilization typically goes through when we see the rise of world states like Rome or America. So its not like you can help it. Honestly this is whats sticking me on my story. Im trying to make it as different as possible but i cant get anything but the "natural" human progression into my head. I just cant see any other way the humanity would work.

[SwissBarbar]

What exactly makes you think, that the Romans were the only ones who had military reforms after having expanded their sphere of influence? Ever heard of Philipp II. of Makedonia?

[The historian]

Building an empire is a natural tendency through history do you think that had Rome not made it the Carthaginians or anyone else would have hesitated in creating a world spanning empire. the European and steppe barbarians so to call them had big cohesion issues but if those were to be resolved they are just like anyone else look at Parthia they started out as a nomadic tribe and created an huge empire for themselves.

[Ca Putt]

I still use the dream of a pan-hellenic league as excuse for my expansionist plans :D and as long as there are still cities with conciderable hellenic minorities i can con... ehm, .. liberate the world of the roman/seleukid opression. tho after i avenged the Galatians at ankyria, i now grant celts full rights and free all celtic lands from alien rule. so the Konion's troops can be found anywhere between Emporion and Persepolis :D

[Mecha Pope]

Well, to clarify abit, my focus here is shying away from cultures like the Romans or the Macedonians, who have the luxury of historical precident and obvious proffesional units. My concern here lies in how you, the community, deal with professionalizing your armies when it takes a little more creativity, whether with one of the more obvious solutions (such as using Galic heavies as your proffesional line troops), or a culture that takes a bit more creativity. For instance, I have no idea how I would do such a thing with the Saba...

For example, once my empire was substantial and my coffers fat enough, my Parthian army was "professionalized", trading in all of thier basic HAs for mediums, and trading in most of it's tribal levy style infantry for professional regionals. What I want to know is, how many others fell compelled to do this, and how; and who is perfectly content to command a leavy army with a few elites to back it up over the course of thier empire?

[SwissBarbar]

As you can read in my Arverni AAR, my excuses for war have nothing to do with "expansionistic thoughts" as such. I used excuses like a civil war (The league of the Arverni against the Principality of Mediolanum), migration of peoples (tribe of the Saluvii expelled by the rassistic Archon of Massalia / Liguri dispersed from their lands by the Romans, fled to Arverni territory and have been re-located in Liguria after a war against the Roman Republic / Mass Migration of the Belgae - tribes from the north, due to the Germanic threat), and economic reasons (Iberian tribes, who pursued unfair competition - hiring pirates and stuff - when it came to the trade with the British tribes) and last but not least the migration of some of my own people, who had to flee from civil war and now hire out as mercenaries in the east.

[Zim]

I've been planning to do something like that in my Sweboz campaign. After a period where I was getting hammered by the Romans and reformed Aedui and put the strongest units I could in my armies (see the "putting together a Sweboz army" thread for details) I've started basing my armies around war bands with one fm and, depending on his status, anything from a quarter stack to nearly a full one. These tend to have a smattering of levies, cheap archers or slingers, and a few better troops and regionals.

Once I hit the 192 reforms I'm going to professionalize my armies, with a core of the heavy German infantry filled out with medium spear or swordmen, and no non regional levies.

Well, to clarify abit, my focus here is shying away from cultures like the Romans or the Macedonians, who have the luxury of historical precident and obvious proffesional units. My concern here lies in how you, the community, deal with professionalizing your armies when it takes a little more creativity, whether with one of the more obvious solutions (such as using Galic heavies as your proffesional line troops), or a culture that takes a bit more creativity. For instance, I have no idea how I would do such a thing with the Saba...

For example, once my empire was substantial and my coffers fat enough, my Parthian army was "professionalized", trading in all of thier basic HAs for mediums, and trading in most of it's tribal levy style infantry for professional regionals. What I want to know is, how many others fell compelled to do this, and how; and who is perfectly content to command a leavy army with a few elites to back it up over the course of thier empire?