Julii PBM - out of character thread

[econ21]

OK, if you are settling on Julii as a faction, I would be interested. We now have 3 players. That's a good start. We might be able to attract one or two more if we clarify some of questions I raised in post #2 above.

(1) what difficulty level?
Personally, I think VH campaign to create a challenge. The Julii does not face very powerful enemies (Gauls). The battles, I would rather avoid VH difficulty - raising the AI attack unbalances tactics a lot. I would say H or M. What do you think?

(2) how long will each player play for?
Experience suggests 20 turns each is best. You can always recycle players later on for a second go. More turns than 20 may burn out players.

(3) will you set any characterful objectives?
Knocking out Gaul & Iberia, plus invading Britain would be appropriate. Maybe a house rule not to step into Scipii and Brutii's backyard - ie leave Carthage and Greece/Macedon alone. That would allow the other Romans to be powerful leading to an exciting civil war.

(4) do you want to set any special houserules?
The ones I like best are:
(a) no extermination
(b) no retraining land units below full strength
(c) each ship can only carry one unit
(d) historical army composition - for Romans, this might be max 2 cav and 2 archers per stack; plus aiming for 1:1:1 mix of velites, hastati and principes before the reforms. Post reform may be a 1:1 mix of legionnaires and auxiliary, maybe with one ballista if desired.
(e) optional - fighting with half stacks. It could be fun to fight full stack barbarians with a small disciplined legion. If you do this, cut the cav and archers to one per stack.

(5) Is the emphasis on role-playing, story-telling etc?
Is it important that players to take screenshots and write characterful after action reports? Or that optional, with just playing the game the key thing?
Should players use generals according to their traits (e.g. cowards shun battle etc).

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