Full stack unit rosters

[Kralizec]

Yeah, I always try to attack with armies below the strenght of the enemy. That way you're in for a real challenge. I do the same in custom battles, where I give the enemy a monetary advantage of about 4000-6000 denarii and leave the difficulty on medium.

Simon: Sounds like an interesting set up! I've downloaded RTR the otherday, when I start playing as Rome I'll give it a try. Right now I'm busy guiding Pontus to victory

[YAKOBU]

Hi there

Generally I play as the Romans and both pre- and post-marius I try to use a 3/4 stack with the last 1/4 being used for mercs when necessary.

Pre-marius:
4 Hastati
4 Principes
2 Triarii
2 Missile
3 Cavalry

Post-marius:
1 First Cohort
9 Legionary Cohorts
2 Missile
3 Cavalry

[King Henry V]

I like to build armies as fast as possible. So most of my Roman armies are composed like this:
2 urban cohorts in one city, 4 legionnary cohorts, 4 auxiliae, 4 archers and four cavalry. Four turns to build an army, another to regroup them.

[Doug-Thompson]

Horse Archers, Persian Cavalry and Cataphracts. Who could ask for anything more — once you apply Qwerty's fix for cavalry archers.

[Conqueror]

A good basic stack for Seleucids:

1 General
1 War Elephants
1 Bedouin Camel Archers (merc)
2 Companion Cavalry
2 Cataphracts
2 Archers
2 Cretan Archers (merc)
2 Onagers
7 Phalanx Pikemen

An elite stack would be more like:

1 General
1 Scythian Horse Archers (merc)
2 Armored Elephants
3 Cataphracts
2 Onagers
4 Cretan Archers (merc)
7 Silver Shield Pikemen

An "early" stack to use before you get the infrastructure to build good units:

1 General
1 Bedouin Camel Archers (merc)
1 Bedouins (merc)
1 Arab Cavalry (merc)
3 Militia Cavalry
2 Cretan Archers (merc)
4 Peltasts
7 Levy Pikemen

And finally, a stack for assaulting cities with:

1 General
2 Cataphracts
4 Cretan Archers (merc)
4 Onagers
4 Silver Shield Legionaries
5 Phalanx Pikemen

As you can see, I like balanced armies for field. 6 cavalry (7 if you use the general), 6 missile/artillery and 7 infantry. But assaulting fortified cities demands more infantry and artillery, less cavalry. Also notice the heavy use of mercenaries in the "early" stack. The lowest-tier units for Seleucids tend to be quite sucky, while their homelands have plenty of high quality mercs available. I would also not recommend using full stacks in early game (for most factions), since you usually can't afford many units yet. It's better to have several smaller armies to attack multiple cities simultaneously than just one full stack.

[Kagemusha]

As Romans I use for a full stack combination of:
10 line infantry(Hastati,Principes,Legionary cohort,Praetorian Cohort)
3 archers
6 cavalry
1 general

Its easy to break up for three smaller armies.:
first section:
4 line infantry
1 archers
2 cavalry

two other sections:
3 line infantry
1 archers
2 cavalry

When i play Romans i dont use spear infantry at all.

[Brutus]

As post-Marian Romans, I usually use:

1 General
11 Legionary Cohorts
4 Archer Auxilia
4 Roman Cavalry

But I may vary. The minimum of Legionary Cohorts (or infantry equivalents like Praetorians or Urbans) is usually 10, though. (I have two stacks currently when I have Mercenary War Elephants taking up one Legionary slot)When standing still legionaries are quite capable of stopping cavalry so I don't like to use Auxilia infantry. Roman Cavalry might be replaced with Legionary cavalry or Praetorian cavalry, but I usually only use them to catch routers so I can't be bothered with their long training periods (besides the fact they're difficult to retrain).

Starting setup is usually like this:

L= Legionary Cohort
C= (Roman) Cavalry
A= Auxilia Archers
G= General

AAAA
L L L L L L
CC__L L L L L__CC
G

[Garvanko]

Pretty much what I would do with Roman elite units, Brutus. Probable wouldn't have so many Archer Auxilias though..

1 General
8 Legionary Cohort
2 Archer Auxilia
6 Roman/Praetorian Cav
3 Mercs (Usually skirmishers of any kind, but hoplites or basternae can be useful)

[Hold Steady]

As Romans I use for a full stack combination of:
10 line infantry(Hastati,Principes,Legionary cohort,Praetorian Cohort)
3 archers
6 cavalry
1 general

Its easy to break up for three smaller armies.:
first section:
4 line infantry
1 archers
2 cavalry

two other sections:
3 line infantry
1 archers
2 cavalry

When i play Romans i dont use spear infantry at all.

How do you handle heavy chariots then? just with flanking cavalry?

[lars573]

How do you handle heavy chariots then? just with flanking cavalry?

Easy line up three cohorts to soak them up. Heavy chariots are nothing but charge once that's over they are easy to deal with.

[Hold Steady]

Easy line up three cohorts to soak them up. Heavy chariots are nothing but charge once that's over they are easy to deal with.

Hmm, at the time I conquered egypt with the scipii I was still pre-marius. I had to soak em up with hastati. That's harder I guess. The charge indeed stopped somewhere down into my units, but soon they started swirlin' round INSIDE my units, IF they didn't rout allready. You know, the thing that happens when the unit you charge with cavalry hasn't got enough 'body' to effectively 'hold' the horses/chariots. I allways took one or two merc hoplites along, before I got triarii. And still got whacked a few times in the middle of libya. Best opposition I ever had in RTW. except maybe the battle at Cordoba Hill against the Iberians. Still don't know what hit me there..

Oh yah, mind you, it was both on 'very hard'.