First Legionary Cohorts both Early and Regular

[Bazi]

To everyone here thank you in advance for being quite the friendly bunch!

Next my question, there are threads that mention the First Legionary Cohorts and some seem to tell you that you can only get them as a reward from the Senate and other's that tell you that you can build them yourselves. Well I'm stuck in the never got the senate mission before I defeated the Senate and I would to have one these units if only for a showpiece to march around.

So which is true? Can you build it yourself without the Senate or are you doomed to have to get one from the Senate before you decide to defeat them in the civil war?

[Viking]

You can`t train first cohorts yourself, unfortunately.

If you didn`t get `em, did you complete many senate missions, or did you just ignore them?

It`s not the mission where you get first cohorts, It`s rather a random mission late in the game.

[Bazi]

Unfortuantely I was never offered them as an award. I've done multiple imperial campaigns as Romans and did all my senate missions even when I knew they were going to eventually ask for my head. I still did them loyally but nope was never offered the First Cohorts as a reward. Well that's a pretty bitter pickle! So if you defeat the Senate before you are offered this unit your out of luck ah well!

[Uesugi Kenshin]

You can train them for yourself, but only after patching to 1.2.

[Bazi]

Are you sure? This is what I mean you get one answer saying nope you can't train them..and the other saying yup with the patch. Well needless to say I'll patch this weekend and see it for myself :)

[Lord Hammerschmidt]

In the 1.2 patch, First Cohorts can be built in Rome, by whatever Roman faction occupies the city.

[Brutus]

I got them as a "major exotic unit" after I recaptured a city that rebelled under my rule. The same way got me some Elephant Mercenaries.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I first learned you could get 1st cohorts when I was playing an SPQR campaign, needless to say I immediately patched and built them in Rome. My faction was even more powerful after that.

[sunsmountain]

After the Marian reforms, re-load a few times getting a new senate mission, until you see the reward: Major exotic unit or similar. That can still give you elephants, it seems, but in my 2 roman campaigns so far, i havent had the pleasure of finding out about first cohorts (and losing/regaining eagles) either. Apparently you can train them in Rome itself (after which their need is gone, or almost nill).

[Viking]

In the 1.2 patch, First Cohorts can be built in Rome, by whatever Roman faction occupies the city.

Oh, that explains.

Haven`t conquered Rome yet with a roman faction since I started playing 1.2.

[Brutus]

Actually, if you look in the game files about character traits, you can find soem traits concerning eagles. It seems to be possible that a general who loses 2 eagles gets called "Infortunatus" and someone who captured at least two gets named "of the Eagles". Pretty cool, although I've never seen it actually work. But in that file a lot of nicknames and traits are to be found I've never seen work, so...

[Viking]

How do you capture an eagle?

[Conqueror]

By killing a first cohort in battle. You should get a message after the fight that you have taken the eagle and where it's stored and that the romans will likely try to retrieve it. I'm not sure if a roman faction can capture another one's eagle, but non-romans can definetly do it.

[Lord Dazed & Confused]

Yeah you can capture eagles from other Roman Factions when playing as the Julii I captured two from the Brutii but they never tried to recapture them.

[pezhetairoi]

Is there some sort of hidden resource that you can edit so you can build first cohorts elsewhere as well? Like Spartans can only be built in Syracuse and Sparta, but as long as you give other settlements the Spartan hidden resource you can still build them there. Same with First Cohorts?

[Marquis of Roland]

I captured two roman eagles as Seleucids. My faction leader is now known as "Eagle Taker" that is pretty cool.

Its possible for the Romans to capture their eagles back? Where does it say such and such army has whatever number of captured eagles?

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I captured a couple in my Seluecid campaign in one of the Dacian or near Dacia provinces. Eagle taker and all, but the city nearby was assaulted by wave after wave of full Julii stacks.

[Marquis of Roland]

hmm....thats interesting, because those Brutii are sending about 3 stacks a turn right now (with 1-2 for them commanded by generals) to attack my eagle-taking faction leader in Macedonia. I figured they just had lots of money (which they do, they're ranked #2 in my campaign), but maybe they're trying to take their bling back?

Unfortunately for them, my faction leader has a little under 500 armored elephants under his command

Seeing 400 or so elephants charge on huge unit size will always bring a smile to your face

[lars573]

Is there some sort of hidden resource that you can edit so you can build first cohorts elsewhere as well? Like Spartans can only be built in Syracuse and Sparta, but as long as you give other settlements the Spartan hidden resource you can still build them there. Same with First Cohorts?

The line under level 5 barracks that gives legionary first cohorts something looks like this. Be warned I've rebuilt this line from memory. Also the early firsts add early in from of legionary in the line below.

recruit "legionary first cohort" 0 requires factions { romans, } with hidden resource rome

Now the part about hidden resource Rome is what limits the recruiting of first cohorts to the city of Rome drop it off and they are available everywhere. If you can change it to hidden resource Italy (and not FUBAR the game that is) then first cohorts would only be available in Italian cities and no where else. The lack of hidden resource elephants on the armoured elephant line in the top level cavalry stale is why armoured elephants can be recruited everywhere by the Seleucids.

[Aegisthis The Infantryman]

I don't know. It would be cool to see how many millions of innocent greek soldiers I'd killed when marching through Macedon but I don't think there's such a thing.

[Hold Steady]

hmm....thats interesting, because those Brutii are sending about 3 stacks a turn right now (with 1-2 for them commanded by generals) to attack my eagle-taking faction leader in Macedonia. I figured they just had lots of money (which they do, they're ranked #2 in my campaign), but maybe they're trying to take their bling back?

Unfortunately for them, my faction leader has a little under 500 armored elephants under his command

Seeing 400 or so elephants charge on huge unit size will always bring a smile to your face

Battling with 400 elephants on your side? What's the point in playing that? That aint no battle, that's a rigged slaughter.

[pezhetairoi]

Ah, but think of the battles one must fight to get to the stage where you can rig slaughters. :-)

[BDC]

Ah, but think of the battles one must fight to get to the stage where you can rig slaughters. :-)

And what if the ai turns up with an army of pikemen and Creten archers set on fire arrows...

It's unlikely. But would bring a smile to anyone's face.