So far this is my first campaign with 5.3 and so far as the Romans its been an absolute blast. You start out small and surrounded by potential threats, and basically by turn 3 I was getting thrashed by the Greek General Pyrhus of Epirus. I've never really had a game that went without me simply building up, throwing a big army at an enemy, and then essentially once the army got going it would never stop. Now I need to get recruits from loyal Roman citizens in order to replenish my soldiers numbers, and the enemy themselves somehow seem to actually behave much more intelligently with their troop movements.
Normally it was just victory after victory, with a close victory every now and again. Now I am actually being defeated, and sometimes soundly (sometimes embarissingly). The most important part about that is the fact that my defeats arent because of the simple fact that their units are obviously better than mine or because of simple bad luck, but because the units are now actually functioning the way they're supposed to. Pike Phalanxes used to be simple to kill with a few principes, now its tricky business. Hoplite Phalanxes can take absolute deluges of arrows before taking heavy casualties. So much was changed and tweaked and perfected to the point where when I enter a battle, I actually have to constantly rework, reform, and execute a new strategy for each new situation that develops within a fight in order to ensure victory. No longer can I just simply run around the sides and just flank and attack from the rear and cause big chain rout and everything is craptastic for everybody.
Another good thing is, like I said before, how decisive battles are actually decisive now. With the way finances are constantly strained, raising an army takes time. No longer can I simply queue up a massive army in a couple turns. However this does not mean that armies are less massive. Indeed I've noticed far more armies, and much larger ones at that, being placed in the field by every faction. Currently I am absolutely dreading my inevitable clash with the Ptolemies...they have about a dozen or so full stacked armies...and I'm guessing I wouldnt be so lucky to find out that they're all only just peasants and its all just a big joke on me...
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