Doubts about EB.

**Modestus** · 01-22-2006, 13:00

Perhaps you are right about rebels along lets say the Dacian border. But in a Romanised province that is supposed to be contented having rebels just popping up I wonder. Maybe I am not managing my cities properly though in RTW in the end no matter what you did you ultimately ran in to trouble with squalor. To be honest I do not know how fluid the Roman borders were in this time period I suspect the movement of tribes was fairly widespread. But when you’re slogging it out in Greece and up pops some rebels outside a well run Rome!

**Ludens** · 01-22-2006, 13:16

Nobody really knows what causes brigands to appear in R:TW. There have been a few theories advanced in the Ludus Magna, but nothing definite. Other than that, rebels were indeed plentyful in R:TW 1.2, and other than modding them out entirely there is nothing EB can do about that. R:TW 1.5 makes the frequency of rebel apparences moddable, however.

The phalanx problem you describe is again hard-coded: a phalanx can turn far too easily. I did spot some improvements in this in 1.3 and 1.5, but I haven't played them enough to be definite.

**Rodion Romanovich** · 01-22-2006, 13:36

You shouldn't hunt down the brigands actively. Just hunt them if they besiege your cities of cut off very important supply (reinforcement) routes. Playing EB that way makes it much more enjoyable (same thing goes for RTW - don't hunt the brigands actively, fight them "defensively"). Playing in that way, I've only one about five times in 40 game years been forced to actually fight brigand armies. Sometimes moving a large army nearby and attacking makes them retreat out of your way, clearing the supply rout for you and making it unnecessary to actually fight them.

**Jebus** · 01-22-2006, 15:39

I don't know, it makes sense to me. Spartacus' revolt was far from the only slave revolt in Ancient history, and a great deal of the over-taxed, under-fed and opressed masses that the poor sods under Roman control were indeed had to resort to briganding to be able to survive.

I wouldn't assume that it was all peace, quiet and prosperity in the Roman empire - especially in the Republican period. Far, far, far from it. The only people that really benefited substantially from Roman rule were the small elite in Rome...

**Steppe Merc** · 01-22-2006, 17:53

There are revolts, rogue military units and brigands very often not only in the ancient world, but through out history. Just because most of them failed horribely didn't mean they didn't happen...

**Reenk Roink** · 01-22-2006, 18:35

Playing a bit of 1.5 vanilla, I sorta took a liking to those rebels, they weren't pesky anymore, but rather realistic, and great fun to put to the sword

with my captains (who sometimes became good young men for the family

.

**Dayve** · 01-22-2006, 19:43

Realistic? What's realistic about one unit of rorari appearing between 3 cities that have happy green faces and blocking trade? Why revolt with a unit of rorari? Why would rorari revolt? Slaves who revolted i doubt would have little more than a wooden shield and a cheap nasty spear... And the Romans wouldn't say a unit of rorari have revolted outside cannae would they? Because they wouldn't be called rorari... The rebels that popup in this game should just be a special unit only available to them with a simple name like 'rebel spearmen'... Just men armed with a cheap spear and shield, not rorari like what appears on the Italian peninsula...

I know it isn't in EB's power to change this, but something does need to be done... Instead of these ridiculous 1 unit rebel 'armies' popping up... Why can't a large-ish army just popup occasionally and wreak havoc?