Rome

Early game army: 12-14 units of Praetorians, 4-6 units of veites. 2 units of light cav for routers (mandatory).

Mid game: reduce veite count for Socii Equites Extraordinarii

Late Game (haven't even played that yet due to deleting my saves constantly): Mass pretorian guard (10 minimum), and an even mix of Aux. Cretan Archers and Aux. Eastern Cataphracts.


Northern Barbarians (Gaul/Suebi/Iceni)

A core of the best spear units I can field. Between 6 and 8 units.
Heavy sword infantry on the rear flanks - things like Oathsworn, Swormasters etc. Between 4 and 6 units (used to chop up enemy spear/phalanx units from the side and rear, and to dispatch cav units that get bogged down in melee).
Masses of shock cav and 2 units of light cav for the remaining slots, with 2-4 skirmisher troops if I lack funds/time to recruit more cav and melee.

Early armies get a lot more skirmisher support and only 2 light cav units to rout enemy skirmishers and kill fleeing armies.

Hellenistic factions (true greeks and successor states)

If true greek:

Masses of pikes (8+) as a core, 4-6 heavy hoplites on the flanks. 2 light cav to kill routers/route enemy skirmishers. Peltasts for support since hellenistic slingers are somewhat meh.

If successor state:

Pike core of 6-8 units. 2-4 heavy hoplites on the flanks. 2-4 heavy infantry as rear flanks. Rest is shock cav and 1-2 units of light cav to kill routers.

If early game army, replace cav units with peltasts/eastern slingers

As a nomad barbarian: 12-16 units of the best HA I can field (migh tmix in jav-cav if available) the rest is shock cav.


It's important for the factions who have niche units to make use of them correctly. Don't try to hold a line with berserkers, naked fanatics or painted ones. Use them to butcher enemies from the side/back. Don't chase down routers with heavy cavalry unless i'ts past the victory screen. Etc.