Some tips for newbie

[Dragunija]

So,hello.This is my first post in EB sub-forum (But certainly not first in the Guild).Well,i wanted to ask some tips about my Romani campaign:
1.Where to expand? I have all Italy except Bononia and Patavium,and whole Sicily,meaning i am at war with Qartadasim (Damn,spelling all those latin words is breaking my tongue :P).
2.What should be my everyday army after i take Bononia and Patavium? As of now,it's no orderly fashion,just few Hastati,Principes,one Triarii in each stack i have,some Rorarii to do flanking,cavarly is my General (I found Eqvitis not worth it.),and if i am assaulting stronger force,all mercs i can afford (And believe me,i can.)
3.What govt. buildings should i build? In all Italy and Sicily it's either Type 1 or Type 2.But what about other regions?

Well,thanks in advance.Oh,and sorry if it is wrong place.

Dragunija

[cyberVIP]

All is up to u.
there is alot of info about romani faction on the forum.
just check another posts here.

[Admetos]

Welcome to the EB forums Dragunija.

1. I suggest you follow the requirements for the reforms in relation to what provinces you take. You can find these in the FAQ.

2. I usally follow this for historical Roman armies. (Note - This is copy and pasted from somewhere here on the Guild, I just don't remember where because I saved it in Notepad)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Camillian

Camillian-era legions were divided into 75 maniples. Each maniple (60 men) consisted of two
30-man centuries. It had equal numbers of hastati (900), principe (900), triarii (900),
rorarii (900), accensi (900), with reduced leves (300) and cav (300) = 5100 total. Thus if you
should aim for:

1 leves (120), 2 hastati (160), 2 principe (160), 2 triarii (160), 2 rorarii (240),
2 accensi (120) (11 units) as the core of your legion. The other slots should be made up of
the General, and ‘up to’ 8 Italian (samnite) allies (allies MUST include one unit of pedites
extraordinarii (if you can produce them) if you have 5+ allies.

I haven’t included any extra cav unit because they made up such a small part of the legion
(and Roman military tactics) that the general becomes the cavalry (stick him on the
right-hand side; the default position for cavalry). If you want to include another cav unit,
include only equites romani, and then make the general the ‘equites extraordinarii’.

Formation arrangements consist of the usual pattern (triplex acies formation with wide gaps),
with the Romans making up the centre (dependable core) and the allies guarding the flanks.

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + equites);

1 leves, 4 hastati, 4 principe, 3 triarii, 3 rorarii, 3 accensi, 1 equites, 1 gen


Polybian

Polybian-era legions were divided into 40 maniples (10 velite, 10 hastati, 10 principe,
10 triarii). Each maniple (120) consisted of two 60-man centuries (except the Triarii which
had only 1 century per maniple). It had 1200 velite, 1200 hastati, 1200 principe and 600 triarii (4200 total). Thus in a ½ roman ½ allies, your army should consist of;

2 velite (200), 3 hastati (240), 3 principe (240), 3 triarii (120), (I mod the size of my
Triarii units by half) as the core of your legion (11 units).

Allies MUST include one unit of pedites extraordinarii (if you can produce them) if
you have 5+ allies. The rest must be ‘Italian’ allies (samnites).

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + equites);

3 velites, 5 hastati, 5 principe, 5 triarii, 1 equites, 1 general


Marian

Marian-era legions had 10 cohorts, and approx 10% antesignani. Thus in a ½ roman ½ allies,
your army should consist of;

2 antesignani (120), and 10 cohorts reformata (1000) as the core of your legion (12 units).

As allies, take a bit of local ‘produce’ (gauls in Gaul, greeks in Greece) since you are
fattening out your legion with locally raised troops. Use only one auxilia cavalry
(applicable to the region; Gaulic, Germanic, Hispanic, Thracian).

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + aux cav);

2 antesignai, 15 cohort reformata, 1 evocata (bodyguard), 1 aux cav, 1 general


Imperial

Imperial-era legions had 10 cohorts, and approx 5% archers. Thus in a ½ roman ½ allies,
your army should consist of;

10 cohorts imperatoria (1000), and 1 Eastern Archer Auxilia (80) – if operating in that area -
as the core of your legion (10/11 units).

As for allies, same restrictions as per 'Marian'.

When assembling consular armies, I can take 2 horse units (gen + aux cav);

16 imperial cohorts, 1 praetorian (bodyguard), 1 archer (replace with another imp cohort
if operating in the west), 1 aux cav, 1 general

Its worth noting that the allies referred to in the sources almost all 'fought in the
roman manner' by 272 are best represented by hastati, princeps, triarii and eqvites with
the occasional extrondarii (both foot and horse) being thrown in for good measure. More
exotic allies don't fit the bill for what is being described in the sources when these things
are mentioned. The more exotic allies are generally mentioned more specifically when they were
present.

In imperial armies praetorian cohorts should only accompany members of the imperial family.

Also you should increase the number of cavalry in your imperial armies. Even in agustan
times each legion of an army was usually supported by one ala, in the east 2. For example
the Roman garrison in Egypt (Strabo Geo: 17.1.12): 3 legions, 3 alae 9 auxiliary cohorts;
Varus army in Judea, 4BC to supress riots after Herods dead (JB 2.5.1): 2 legions,
4 alae + allied troops; Tiberius army in Pannonia, ca. 7-9 AD (Vallaeus 2.113):
10 legion, 10 alae, 70 auxiliary cohorts, 10000 veterans plus volunteers and allied Thracian
cavalry; Varus army in Germania, 9 AD (Vallaeus 2.117): 3 legions, 3 alae 9 auxiliary cohorts
or finally Germanicus army ca. 14-16 AD in Germania : 8 legions, at least 8 alae and
26 auxiliary cohorts (Tac. Ann. 1.49), in 16 AD (Ann. 2.16) he had additionaly 2
praetorian cohorts plus contigents of archers, horse archers and various additional
Germanic and Gallic allies including a large Batavian contingent.

An ala had a paper strengt of ca. 500 troopers compared to the legions roughly 5000 soldiers,
thus for 10 EB legionary cohorts you need 2 of our ala units to simulate one.

3. I suggest you use Konny's Roman Unit Guide in the Gamplay and AAR forum, which contains a map showing suggested governments. As a general rule of thumb though, build the best government you can (so, if homeland's available, build a type one, and so on...), unless of course there's strong regional troops available in that region, or you want to role play and have allied kingdoms, which is when you'd obviously build a type four.

Hope that helps.

[Dragunija]

Thanks.I already took Bononia and Patavium.Now,all bothering my is those damn Polybian era rebels popping out in the Italy,even though it's still 265 BC :P

[Uncle Odin]

I hope you don´t mind if I misuse your thread.

I have just a question about Saba. Are there units so dam unferior or is this just a feeling? I´m asking because most time I beat a Ptoly or AS army I get a heroic victory.

In all other campaigns I never got one, even when the odds were 3:1 against me.

Does anyone know?

[Chirurgeon]

@Oden:
I hope Berkelyboi sees this thread and posts because he played a Saba campaign but lost. He could give some good insight into the units. I am battling them currently with my Ptolemy campaign. They do seem to have an unusual staying power for such low stats. However with that said I am sure that you are suffering significantly higher casualties with them. They have to be one of the hardest to play with the "yellow fever" on one side and the "grey death" on the other.

[Rodion Romanovich]

So,hello.This is my first post in EB sub-forum (But certainly not first in the Guild).Well,i wanted to ask some tips about my Romani campaign:
1.Where to expand? I have all Italy except Bononia and Patavium,and whole Sicily,meaning i am at war with Qartadasim (Damn,spelling all those latin words is breaking my tongue :P).
2.What should be my everyday army after i take Bononia and Patavium? As of now,it's no orderly fashion,just few Hastati,Principes,one Triarii in each stack i have,some Rorarii to do flanking,cavarly is my General (I found Eqvitis not worth it.),and if i am assaulting stronger force,all mercs i can afford (And believe me,i can.)
3.What govt. buildings should i build? In all Italy and Sicily it's either Type 1 or Type 2.But what about other regions?

Well,thanks in advance.Oh,and sorry if it is wrong place.

Dragunija

1. first expand southeast to take the Epeiros settlement to the south, and maybe Messana too, then expand north to control the entire Italian peninsula. After that, you can choose between a number of directions. Either go northwest, which will draw you into war with the Celts in Gaul and you may find yourself forced to press north, or land in Greece and deal with Epeiros, or take Sicily and start fighting with Carthage. It doesn't really matter where you go, but Greece is what would give you most income and is therefore easiest, as long as you know how to fight phalanxes. Otherwise, look at some history site on the web and follow Rome's historical expansion.

2. make sure to have a backbone of principes and/or hastati. Principes only is easier, but not entirely historical. You also need a few triarii for dealing with cavalry. Finally, get some skirmishers (rorarii, akontistai)/slingers (accensi, iosatae, spendonetai)/archers (sotaroas, toxotai) and some cavalry. Early on you should mostly use equites, later you should probably go for hippeis (either from lvl3/lvl4 govt settlements, or as mercs), as they don't require such long transportation.

3. build a lvl3/lvl4 govt in the settlements that have many high-level auxilia units. This includes Massalia, Gergovia, Crete, any settlement in Greece (for hippeis), the southeast settlement on Sicily, and one settlement in North Africa (for numidian skirmishers and cav), and one in Iberia (for milites/caetrati etc). Build highest level govt everywhere else.