Introductions from an EB noob

[RomanHoliday]

OK! so I've had a weekend of pretty solid play and I think I'm ready to give feedback and ask some questions. First, a summary:

- I'm now in the late (or is that early when you count backwards?) 250s, have all of Italy and Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, making inroads into Gaul territory immediately adjacent to Italy, and have taken Carthage and the settlements close to it along the coast of Nth Africa. Now moving west along the coast of Nth Africa to finish taking this region, then I'll move up in to the Iberian peninsula from there to finish off the Carthaginians (sorry at work, don't have the proper faction names or settlement names to hand). Once the Iberian peninsula is secured, I'll move on Gaul and Germanic controlled Western Europe from 2 directions - coming up from Iberia and across from the North of Italy. Sound like a sound strategy?

- I'm only playing on m/m but I would have bee fine on h/h. Once I got through those first few lean economic decades it has pretty much been business as usual. The economy is really well balanced, well done modders! I have minimal garrison, 2 stacks in Nth Africa and 2 stacks in Nth Italy...

- So army configuration and retraining: actual Roman troops and can only be trained and retrained in those first few Roman settlements, then after that it seems to be all local troops. So when I use my Roman stacks outside of this area, i then have to sail them back for retraining. Its a hassle, but I like the realsim. So now I have my original two Roman stacks, then a stack of local troop types up in Nth Italy/Gaul, and a stack of locals in Nth Africa. I use the all-star Roman stacks to take heavily garrisoned settlements and powerful enemy stacks abroad, then bring them home for repair, replacing them in the settlement I've taken with local troop types. Is that pretty standard practice?

- Loving all the local troop types you can train though, very cool. And the mercenaries you can train in different regions are amazing!

- And assassins have been rendered useless right? I trained one but his chances of doing anything were as low as 1% in most cases, so I retired him to Rome. Likewise with spies, I've managed to get some in to settlements, but they don't get any trait increases - has this also been taken out?

- And the vast empty expanses in Africa, is there anything out there/ I've sent a spy out to path-find but he pretty much always ends up in a dead-end and has to re-trace his steps. I can see some resources down in the bottom left corner (Timbuktu?), but I couldn't find a way down theree...

ok that's it for now, sorry about the long post,
cheers,
DS

[miotas]

Firstly, g'day to a fellow aussie and welcome to the .org.

- So army configuration and retraining: actual Roman troops and can only be trained and retrained in those first few Roman settlements, then after that it seems to be all local troops.

Yeah romans can only come from the first 5 until the reforms and tehn i think it's all of italy.

-
So when I use my Roman stacks outside of this area, i then have to sail them back for retraining. Its a hassle, but I like the realsim.

I prefer to send out reinforcements, but to each their own.

-
So now I have my original two Roman stacks, then a stack of local troop types up in Nth Italy/Gaul, and a stack of locals in Nth Africa. I use the all-star Roman stacks to take heavily garrisoned settlements and powerful enemy stacks abroad, then bring them home for repair, replacing them in the settlement I've taken with local troop types. Is that pretty standard practice?

I make my armies half homan and half allied troops.

- Likewise with spies, I've managed to get some in to settlements, but they don't get any trait increases - has this also been taken out?

They do get traits for successful missions but the best way to train spies is leave them in a city for 5-10 years, after this they will breaking into settlements and opening gates like nobody's buisness

-
And the vast empty expanses in Africa, is there anything out there/ I've sent a spy out to path-find but he pretty much always ends up in a dead-end and has to re-trace his steps. I can see some resources down in the bottom left corner (Timbuktu?), but I couldn't find a way down theree...

no way to get there.

[RomanHoliday]

Hi Miotas, thanks for your replies. Will leave the spies at home for a few years training first, thanks for the tip. And yeah the half/half stacks a re a good idea, less Romans to retrain. And when you say you send out reinforcements rather than return home, do you mean you just merge the damaged units?

So, a Ballina-ite hey? Small world - I've lived up there twice - as a toddler in the late 70s and then for a year in 1988 (year 7 at Ballina High). And my grandparents live up there now, will be heading up mid-june for g-father's 94th bday...

lets PM some more and figure out our two and half degrees of separation!

cheers,
DS

[miotas]

And yeah the half/half stacks a re a good idea, less Romans to retrain.

There is an excellent guide to accurate romani army composition hanging around here somewhere but I wasn't able to find it, perhaps someone else can provide a link.

I don't follow the guide exactly, but I try to follow a similar structure in my armies.

And when you say you send out reinforcements rather than return home, do you mean you just merge the damaged units?

I tend to have a small army of 3 or 4 units which tend to take the most casualties and have it tag along with the main army, it is useful for attacking tiny enemy armies that would normally slow your main army's progression, holding captured towns until a level 4 gov can be established, and to replenish any troops that are lost from the main army.

If I have a second general in the army who is gaining experience for role-playing purposes I will often have him lead my small army against those enemy small armies so that he can gain some actual in-game experience.

The best thing however, is to do what you think "feels" right, and to have fun of course.