taking a roman eagle

[seleucid empire]

Hello, im currently playing a seleucid campaign and ive just had a massive battle outside arrentium. the interesting thing is, after i defeated this particular roman army, a message popped up saying my general captured a roman eagle and it has been sent to arrentium. my general got the eagle taker trait which gives troops all +1 morale. im just wondering if anyone else has seen this trait and if there are any negatives. the message said the arrogance of the romans means they will do anyhting to get it back. is that just a comment on the pride of Romans or should i be expecting endless stacks besieging arrentium??

[Basileus_ton_Basileon]

I think it prioritizes the Ai (Artificial idiocy) to that city. You'll probably see 'endless' (random 3 units of vigiles) armies going for Arrentium. Why waste your time on small bands of petty barbarians pretending to be greek when you can go for the Barbaropolis (Roma) itself? Just pack in a few levy phalanx and missle units (slingers) to deter the roving warbands and go straight for the crown jewel. :D

[seleucid empire]

i have all of italy, i conquered all of the east and stepples so there was absolutely nothing that can threaten me and then i sent 15, 000 men (5 full stacks to Sicily and made my way up to arrentium in 3 years

[Basileus_ton_Basileon]

Then your worries are entirely unfounded. There's no script for the Ai to spawn armies out of thin air to retrieve that eagle. :)

[seleucid empire]

nah but the romans still have 18 provinces in central europe and spain. and they have marian reforms too :(

[PelicanMan]

Bigger they are, the harder they fall.

teach them who's boss.
THE P-MAN

[seleucid empire]

haha its not that im worried they will blitz me and take back italy, its more like im sick of fighting stacks of 4000 virgils (battle virgins i call them) who just waste your time and give you heroic victories all over italy. they dont seem to recruit proper legionaries

[Shadowwalker]

That's easy to solve, seleucid empire.
The AI goes for a pure cost/stats ratio as far as I can tell. And apparently the cheap Vigiles have a better ratio than legionary cohorts. (Not on the battlefield though ... but we're talking about the TW AI )
So .... just make a backup of your EDU and then lower the price of the cohorts to about 2/3 of the original price (~ 300 mnai).
Delete your map.rwm (just in case, don't know if it's really necessary) and after reloading your campaign and playing some more turns you should see proper roman stacks.
(Alternatively raise the cost of the Vigiles, should have the same effect.)

[athanaric]

haha its not that im worried they will blitz me and take back italy, its more like im sick of fighting stacks of 4000 virgils (battle virgins i call them) who just waste your time and give you heroic victories all over italy. they dont seem to recruit proper legionaries

Build full stacks of Pezhetairoi and have them autoresolve against armies you don't like to fight. Phalanx is near unbeatable in autoresolve.

[seleucid empire]

ahh i found out how i got the trait. if there is a legionary first cohort in the battle and you completely destroy it, you will capture an eagle. Also the pros far outweigh the cons. ive captured my third eagle and this gave my generals troops +3 morale and +3 influence. It seems for every eagle you take your general gets +1influence and +1 morale for troops on the battlefield

[Ca Putt]

That's indeed much more relevant than the AI pointlessly attacking you instead of the usual AI behavior (pointlessly attacking you)