Realistic Troop Numbers Mod

[Quilts]

I'm aware of the structure of a post-Marian legion. In fact, it differs from your post only in that the first cohort has 5 Maniples, thus making a full strength of 9 x 480 + 1 x 800 = 5,120. This doesn't include the 120 light cavalry and 30 light artillery pieces.

The previous post I THINK we were talking about polybian era legions, which is when many of the legions were 'oversized' to fight particular threats.

They were 'typically' of 1200 Velites, Hastati and Princepes, plus 600 Triarii, or 4200 all up. Again cavalry ala of 300 and artillery notwithstanding. But they did go to 6000 or more in a single legion, presumably by expanding the size of each line (more of everything in other words).

Hunter

I don't think the enlarged 1st Cohort existed before the Empire.

About the bigger legions. I have been 'fiddling' with many ideas about how to represent this, and without buggering the Ai I don't think it can be done. My final conclusion was that you could take along an extra 'stack' of units that follows the big stack, and avoids battle, to replace loses. That in some way gives a feel of a bigger army (by being able to eplace loses etc) even if the actual battles are fought with the normal sized units.

On others things. How have you found the battle Ai handing your new formations? With a unit of romans having a frontage of.....60 something?, and phalanxes having a frontage of 40, it's significantly narrower.

The reason I ask is that I'm convinced that work has to be done to 'standardise' the frontage of units (with the player 'promising' not to alter them ). I reckon it will really help the battlefield AI as unit centres will target unit centres without having to angle in etc.....

Anyway, I'm rambling. But can you let me know what your thoughts about what impact your changes are having on the AI please?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

Quilts

[Southern Hunter]

I don't think the enlarged 1st Cohort existed before the Empire.

Yes, fair point. Probably right at the end or out of our time period completely.

On others things. How have you found the battle Ai handing your new formations? With a unit of romans having a frontage of.....60 something?, and phalanxes having a frontage of 40, it's significantly narrower.

The reason I ask is that I'm convinced that work has to be done to 'standardise' the frontage of units (with the player 'promising' not to alter them ). I reckon it will really help the battlefield AI as unit centres will target unit centres without having to angle in etc.....

Anyway, I'm rambling. But can you let me know what your thoughts about what impact your changes are having on the AI please?

It is hard to say from the limited testing I have done to date. My impression is that the AI has an easier time of it, essentially since fatigue is off, and that was a simple way of a guaranteeing that the AI mucked itself up. I am trying to get the morale levels right, having just reduced them to compensate for no fatigue.

My current feeling is that the lower morale levels give 'historical' results, sort of, but that slightly higher levels give 'hard' battles, since the routers generally reform and come back, and casualties for the winners are higher. If we can have battles causing more casualties for the winner, I think that will improve the campaign overall (and slow it down in some ways).

The AI still plows straight into the middle of a long line, and makes its units go all over the place. It doesnt handle the 'long line' concept particularly well. I found myself trying to hold the line, and then at some point in some battles just deciding to dogfight and play its game, running units everywhere to hit flanks and so on.

I havent fought many battles against barbarian types or Horse archers. I remember them as particularly painful and interesting last time I tried this in RTR.

What I'll do is post the files for Epic Battles Mod soon, and let other people do some testing as well.

Cheers,

Hunter