Elderly Preatorians?

[Siris]

Just wondering, here's the info.

I made a nice Preatorian defense army for my Capital, but I decided to send them North to aid my warring weak provinces, army was about 12 Preatorians, some archers, family member.

In their process, they first started off from a battle outside of my Capital which was beseiged by the Gauls strangly... but they fought well, sustained around 100 casulties, and defeated the larger gaulish army without having archers or any real heavy calvery on their sides aside of family member generals which I didnt want to kill so didnt use until the oppositions retreat to inflict greater damage upon them.

I then made some more units for them, calvery, archers, and sent them North as I stated above. They have fought so many battles, breaking Gaulish seiges of my cities (where do all of their stacks keep coming from!), and defeated around 10+ other armies, sustaining, extensive, losses. I have sent them back to my Capital & Arrretium, city next to my Capital for re-training over & over, so now their like 80 years old! But they seem to still be like 25? So do the units ever age like the faction leaders & generals/spies/assassians do? If they did, that would be awesome! But by now, I think all that you see below of the original army marching to break the Gaulish seige of my Capital in their first glorious battle, have long since perished in battle, and been replaced by new trainees.

[jerby]

please no! why would you want that? it would look hilarious on the battlefield. I´m losing enough units in battle, with that mode i would never make my target.

[Ziu]

Some roman units existed for centuries. The soldiers were replaced as they aged, just as in today's armies. Dips, spies and generals are single characters so therefore age. Units are not.

[Siris]

Darn, that would be funny though, seeing 80 year old men on the field, all wrinkled & slow, and they die if you ask them to run quickly, lol!!!

[Powell]

Hahaha! I'd love that. Maybe past the age of 70 their pila throwing ability is replaced with a special attack called "shake walking stick in a vaguely violent manner" which causes enemy troops to die of laughter?

[Akka]

I think that the replacement of people in units should be simulated by a toll on your population, working exactly like the monetary upkeep : each city would lose a certain number of inhabitants each turn, proportionnal to the size of the army (of course, much lower than the actual size. I would say that, in total for the whole empire, the toll should be about 1/80th or 1/100th of the total size of the army each turn ; so if your army is 10 000 men big, your cities would together lose about 100 inhabitants each turn, which is quite negligible). It would prevent small kingdom having larger army than population, also :P

[ulyanov]

New Unit:

Aged Praetorian Guard

Attack 15 (Experinced Fighters)
Defense 17 (Spry, but not as quick as they were)
Charge -1 (Walking frames get in the way)
Missile 16 (Shorter range though)
Special Javelin Charge, Excellent Morale, Excellent Stamina except in Winter (Arthritis) and Deserts (they tend to expire without warning)
Special Function - Sit around and tell the enemy about how the wars they got in the old days were much better than the wars that you get now, not that you can really call them wars, mind you. I rememeber old Drusus, you didn't know him, he got a spear right through his chest, he kept fighting, too. I turned to Gaius and said "have a look at Drusus" and Gaius had a look and said "He's got a spear through his chest" Well, you've got to laugh, haven't you. These gauls these days. Not real Gauls if you ask me. Effect: Bores enemy to death, improves allied charge (gotta get away from the old farts)

[KiOwA]

Add this:

Will Not Charge Despite Orders (companion to the May Charge Without Orders)

[Arrowhead]

You should add 2 too the charge because they have pointy blades on the front of it (if they ever reach them)

[Arrowhead]

and frightens cavalry (''No dobbin, that's not going to happen to you! Damn these old war stories!)

[Blitz]

The weight of the armour is heavy therfore dun make them run around instead use them as a shield against charging enemy while protecting the younger infantry

[Mikeus Caesar]

This is starting to sound like one of rebelscums threads.....they start serious, but just descend into complete stupidity....

[Siris]

They do have some good points though. The one where you should lose a specific amount of citizens everyturn as upkeep to the ageing soliders, is a good idea, as it is done in modern times with modern armies, and as it was done in their time.

[Axeknight]

The history buffs wouldn't like it though.


"There is no way early cohortal legions had scythed zimmer frames! I hate all these fantasy units!"

[KiOwA]

There was this other thread, whereby there was this idea you could only get elite troops by upgrading existing troops that had at least seen some action, e.g. upgrading hastati with 2 chevrons into principes. I think that merits serious thought

[Siris]

Yes but would take forever to do, and at the rate that some of these peoples empires grow, wouldnt be economical.