Problem becuase of the Marius thingy...

[adal8or]

Hi.
I'm playing as the house of Julii and have cut deep through Gaul territory leaving them with their capital of Alesia and another city in the middle of Spain (Iberian peninsula or whatever) and I have giant armies at the frontline which are being pumped up so i can go and take the heavily fortifies Alesia and their faction leaders army up there.

Trouble is, my armies mainly consist of Hastati with some Principes here and there. The Marius thingy has just happened (This is my first campaign in Rome, so i ddidn't have a clue what happened here till some scouring around :P) so I can't get anymore Hastati or Principes. I have swarms of Hastati but to replace them would take a forever and a half since I only have a couple cities able to produce some decent cohorts and they are in northern Italy, not western Europe. Also I don't have a clue what to replace them with and so long as I'm at war it'll be very hard to replace them anyway (economy needs to be afloat, cities could be left vulnerable for short periods of time so on so on..). Auxilia don't seem to work as a replacement for Hastati since they have no javelins and are mainly defensive, they just don't really seem to server the same purpose as the hastati.

So any suggestions?

Questions
1.What shall I replace Hastati and Principes with?
2.What shall I do with Hastati? Throw them at the Gauls?
3.Praetorians are going to cost loads right?
4.Anything else I should worry about?

Thanks, adal8or.

[Quirinus]

Hi.
I'm playing as the house of Julii and have cut deep through Gaul territory leaving them with their capital of Alesia and another city in the middle of Spain (Iberian peninsula or whatever) and I have giant armies at the frontline which are being pumped up so i can go and take the heavily fortifies Alesia and their faction leaders army up there.

Trouble is, my armies mainly consist of Hastati with some Principes here and there. The Marius thingy has just happened (This is my first campaign in Rome, so i ddidn't have a clue what happened here till some scouring around :P) so I can't get anymore Hastati or Principes. I have swarms of Hastati but to replace them would take a forever and a half since I only have a couple cities able to produce some decent cohorts and they are in northern Italy, not western Europe. Also I don't have a clue what to replace them with and so long as I'm at war it'll be very hard to replace them anyway (economy needs to be afloat, cities could be left vulnerable for short periods of time so on so on..). Auxilia don't seem to work as a replacement for Hastati since they have no javelins and are mainly defensive, they just don't really seem to server the same purpose as the hastati.

So any suggestions?

Questions
1.What shall I replace Hastati and Principes with?
2.What shall I do with Hastati? Throw them at the Gauls?
3.Praetorians are going to cost loads right?
4.Anything else I should worry about?

Thanks, adal8or.

Ack, that sucks, I remember how much it hurts if you're caught off-guard by the reforms.

[1] The replacement for hastati and principes is the "early legionary cohort", from the tier above auxilia, they use the sword and can throw pila.

[2] Regarding the pre-Marian troops, I would say keep them. They are still good troops well worth their price and upkeep, especially if they are veterans. Just slowly phase them out with the early cohorts as their number dwindle.

[3] Yea, Praetorians are expensive-- and high-tier. I don't really use Praetorians all that much, they are cool looking to be sure, but the ordinary legionaries are still going to be the backbone of your army.

[4] I would say, pray hard that the Senate don't decide to outlaw you now or something. For now I would suggest going on the defensive while you pump out those cohorts from Italy. Hopefully some of your earlier Gallic conquests (Massalia?) are big and teched-up enough to recruit early cohorts as well. I find it useful to set a "recruitment city" for each region: for example, in my last Julii campaign, my troop-producing/-retraining centres for Gaul were Alesia and Massalia. Don't worry too much about attrition, these post-Marian cohorts are tough little buggers, so it'll probably be some time until you seriously need to go back and retrain.


Welcome to the game!

[lugh]

Paved roads are a great investment for any nation, but especially for the Julii since your five northern Italian cities should be the fastest to become "industrialised". With Paved roads throughout your holdings you can reach the frontiers in minimal time.

As Quirinus said, keep your pre-Marian troops! They all ought to be at least a bit experienced for one thing and the Marian reforms don't automatically make them bad. It's more than possible for a group of pre-Marian troops to take on the newer "editions" if it does come to civil war. What will be the major trouble is getting your veteran legions home in time.

[SubRosa]

I would hang on to your Pre-Marians and keep using them for a while at least. Just merge them as they get depleted, and slowly replace them with Post-Marians as you can. When you eventually have enough Post Marians to completely fill out your front line armies then relegate the Pre's to garrison work along the frontiers.

[adal8or]

I had a couple epic battles and pwnt their faction leaders (or one of their heirs?) army and also took Alesia with a full stack of Hastati and Generals bodyguard. Narbo martius and the one in the province north of it are my main front line producers. one last Gallic province to go. I actually have huge armies garrisoned in my ex-Gaul provinces and 1/5 and 1/4 stacks in my 'main cities' in North Italy O_O.

Pavatium is actually my biggest city (being a huge city) and about most advanced. Arretium (capital city) Is only 3rd or 4th size city :/. Segesta seems to be doing crap at growth even on lowest tax rate. I occupied it too and there are no more public order bonus buildings left at its city size. Anyone else have governor problems? Expansion is a pain when you don't have enough governors.

Once I've taken this last Gaul province I'll settle in and build my cities so my main production points can produce a good variety of units.

Thanks, adal8or.

[Quirinus]

Pavatium is actually my biggest city (being a huge city) and about most advanced. Arretium (capital city) Is only 3rd or 4th size city :/. Segesta seems to be doing crap at growth even on lowest tax rate. I occupied it too and there are no more public order bonus buildings left at its city size. Anyone else have governor problems? Expansion is a pain when you don't have enough governors.

Cool, as the Julii I usually use Patavium and Mediolanum as troop-centres while the initial two cities go economy-build. I like to move my capital to Mediolanum around mid-game personally. Don't worry about Segesta, it has a naturally low growth rate. It's not that important at any rate other than as a chokehold.

I usually play with the "Manage All Settlements" setting on, so I don't have this problem. I'm not sure if it's possible to change settings mid-game though. If you really want more generals though, just take a small army and go around rebel-hunting, you might get a "Man of the Hour" adoption. Or simply keep expanding and do nothing, you'll either get new babies or offers for adoption.

[Alp Arlsan]

What I would suggest is that you immediately set about recruiting cohorts from your able cities until you have full armies, recruit auxilla in your frontier towns and send all hastati/ princeps to your borders led by FMs. Hopefully you can avoid war until you gain this reform but the good thing is that you do not need as many armies with the new more powerful troops. One stack per frontier border should be enough. That will help you economy as well.

[adal8or]

Thanks for the help guys. What bonuses does a city gain from being a capital city? Seems like a good idea Quirinus.

[Quirinus]

A capital city receives no "distance-to-capital" penalty. Your cities get a penalty to public order the further away you get, up to a maximum of 80% (I think). So the best thing is to place your capital in as central a location as possible. So really the most efficient place for your campaign would probably be Massalia or Ludugnum, but I'm just personally partial to Cisalpine Gaul (Mediolanum), haha.

Hope this answers your questions.