Patience or faction: why am I bored with my game?

[MonkeyMan]

I think it depends on how much fighting there has been... I don't think the Roman Ai factions will disband any existing units on purpose, but if they are fighting loads then those pre-marian units will eventually get all used up...

I have seen the Brutii if full stacks of legionaires and other post-marian units in my last scipii game, whereas in my present Julii game where pretty much all of my pre-marian units have been recycled into legionaires, but the SPQR faction is still all pre-marian units...

I think bob's got it there, the ai will certainly build new decent units as they expand or their existing units are killed off. However I don't think the ai will disband an outdated but full strength unit and replace it with a new unit. So if the roman factions stop expanding, they will undoubtably end up with outdated units. The senate which i've never seen fight a battle obviously therefore ends with the army it built in the first few turns of the game.

Has anyone seen the ai retrain a unit?

If so maybe making pre-marian units retrainable in post marian versions would solve this.

[Sinner]

Unfortunately it's not possible to mod the game to upgrade units from one type to another.

The general's bodyguard is meant to be upgradable - the Roman's have an early and late version, for example - but that's the only occurence. At it seems to be bugged and not working anyway.

Ideally each unit would have an upgrade path, with an upgrade perhaps costing double the difference between the two unit costs and reducing the experience by a level or two so that it isn't a free lunch, but at least you get to keep your troops in a more usable form.

[Vikings]

Yeah we all get that samn ol' feelings, next time try a different factions, something you never done before with a different strategies.

Some can play as horde of spies and assassins and they'er interesting agents.

If you havent noticed, try placing alot of good spies into neutral/enemy settlements let them riot into rebel's barbarians. That way you can avoid war by taken out the rebels.

It may sound lame, it also can be fun sometimes.

Always try something new to keep yourself happy, but of course it can be stupid or not worth it. Who cares, only a game, just try to enjoy it!

-Vikings

[Sin Qua Non]

One thing I have been doing is trying to make and keep strong allies. As the Selucids, I'm attempting to unify as many of the remaining non-roman factions against the Romans. Me and the remnants of Macedon vs. Scipii has been very interesting. I've given money, military alliances, and regions to them. It's very interesting seeing what makes them strong.

Or in other terms, let me shout some buzzwords at you.

SHIFT THOSE PARADIGMS, BABY! TO THE MAX!

[Watchman]

I've gotten the impression the AIs of all TW games have a thing against disbanding units, no matter how obsolete and how much they eat up upkeep. At least the pre-Marian stacks are more fun to fight than the crap spearman piles you saw in MTW...

It seems to cheerfully combine damaged units, though. That or the Scipii armies I bought off in Sahara had somehow been fighting a serious string of really succesful battles, with those silver chevrons and all... Doesn't quite explain where the thumb-twiddlers of the SPQR got those double-silver Urban Cohorts and Triariis from, though.