How much do you allow geography to dictate your army composition?

[Macilrille]

What army does not tremble at the sight of nimble numidians, hoplitae haploi, akontistas and gaeroas?

Eeeehhh... The Roman one...

When I play Rome local units are supplements, with 4-8 in a stack, or stopgap measure till I can get some proper Roman troops there who I know will never waver.

[Weebeast]

Meant to be sarcasm. Ideally that's what I like to do but that luxury clearly only lasts til the end of Punic/Gallic/Iberian/Illyrian war. I can slow down but AI doesn't always play historically. Without Marian being triggered through a general your other option is to invest in higher tier locals while waiting for your Polybians to arrive lol.

[Cute Wolf]

Did you also get the Roman AI suddenly got Marian troops in 220 BC?

[Zim]

For me it can depend on what faction I'm playing. In a Carthage game where my empire became pretty large I did use regional armies from time to time, but mostly I just shipped units around to where I needed them. The time delay waiting for them (or perfect timing needed to have them arrive just as I needed them) added to the challenge. I should note I considered the Iberian troops Carthage can recruit as not counting as regionals, though. I also think shipping troops around so much would be much tougher if I played a faction away from the Mediterranean.

One thing that may make it easier if you prefer to have at least some factional troops in each army is to raise a big stack of whatever unit you like best as the core of your armies and ship it to the front, then split it in two and add regional skirmishers, support troops, etc.