More info- Provinces and Regions, Armies and Generals

[Hooahguy]

This thread right here answers a lot of the questions raised from the recent dev diaryhttp://forums.totalwar.com/showthrea...on-of-army-cap)

Personally I don't know how I should feel about this.

I like the limited army numbers. If you have only one or two provinces you shouldnt be able to recruit a bunch of big armies. Remember, there werent all that many people in the world back then. If I recall correctly, population numbers in the antiquity was about 30-50 million. Thats not that much at all, and recruitment numbers should reflect that.

EDIT: this will also prevent a large number of those small armies of 1-3 units that are a pure nuisance by running around. I think it really will increase the number of large battles as if the AI can only make a number of armies, plus recruiting directly into the army, the chances of having a large army rather than a bunch of small ones that the AI cant seem to be able to converge into a larger force.

Also, as one redditor put it, "we're not going to have a 3/4 stack of quality troops in every town anymore, if we let an enemy army get past the front lines, we're gonna pay for it."

[Barkhorn1x]

I like the limited army numbers.

Also, as one redditor put it, "we're not going to have a 3/4 stack of quality troops in every town anymore, if we let an enemy army get past the front lines, we're gonna pay for it."

Yea I think I like this too and you should pay for enemy armies marauding on your lands.

Not to change the subject but how come nobody asks about whether they fixed the phalanx or not? That is burning question for me.

[The Stranger]

what was wrong with the phalanx?

[B-Wing]

I feel like many of the changes and new features of Rome II are specifically geared towards the Romans, which causes me some unease (I am apparently amongst a minority of players who have no intention of playing as Rome in this game). But it does seem CA is trying to drastically cut down on army micromanagement, which I feel is probably for the best.

I haven't read the long response from Jack Lasted yet, but I hope he addresses whether there are any restrictions on army compositions, like recruitment caps on elite units, for instance. In Medieval 2, you could recruit militia units in much larger numbers than knights. This was due to the way the unit pools of individual settlements worked, but not due to any faction-wide limitations. Shogun 2's recruitment system was significantly less satisfying to me, but then again the scale of the game was extremely small compared to Medieval 2, so perhaps I'm comparing apples to oranges.

I may have missed this info, but have they confirmed if generals/family members also function as governors? If so, will their governing bonuses only be applicable when stationed in a province capital, or in any region's settlement?

[Hooahguy]

I haven't read the long response from Jack Lasted yet, but I hope he addresses whether there are any restrictions on army compositions, like recruitment caps on elite units, for instance. In Medieval 2, you could recruit militia units in much larger numbers than knights. This was due to the way the unit pools of individual settlements worked, but not due to any faction-wide limitations. Shogun 2's recruitment system was significantly less satisfying to me, but then again the scale of the game was extremely small compared to Medieval 2, so perhaps I'm comparing apples to oranges.

I think there may be some sort of limit. He says that you have to choose between a lot of low-trained armies or a few elite armies. Personally, I see why they want that, as German clans will have a lot of armies but not many elite units, while the Romans and Greeks might want more elite, but fewer armies.

[Barkhorn1x]

what was wrong with the phalanx?

The AI in RTW couldn't handle their phalanx units properly making them easy to flank/cut up piecemeal and the player barely could - all due to due to poor pathing.

[lars573]

The AI in RTW couldn't handle their phalanx units properly making them easy to flank/cut up piecemeal and the player barely could - all due to due to poor pathing.

You realize that was 5 whole games ago right? And that much progress was made in unit AI.

[Barkhorn1x]

You realize that was 5 whole games ago right? And that much progress was made in unit AI.

Umm...phalanxes haven't been in a TW game since RTW and CAs track record has been far from stellar when it comes to TAC AI - or AI in general for that matter.

[lars573]

Wrong. They were for sure in ETW, as it had pike units. And the AI has improved much in 5 games. I haven't played Shogun 2 (my PC lacks with ETW), but ETW's AI was a VAST improvement over RTW.