Strange Rebels

[Genaral Julis]

I recently spotted a rebal stack that had..Samnite Mercs, Hastai and Equites in it. I find this strange..anyone else seen any strange rebal stacks?

[Punicus]

That doesn't sound so strange to me, I've seen them plenty of times. I'm guessing you mean the armies are more professional than the typical militia armies that rebels have?

I've had cities rebel and turn out garrisons with decent units that have gold chevrons. It was with Carthage, so I think the units that came out were typical Carthaginian units like Iberians, Long Shields, etc.

[Genaral Julis]

Well these rebals appeared out of the blue.

[TruePraetorian]

Did it happen near italy? I've had that happen quite a few times in a Roman campaign when my cities had low public order. In recent forum investigations people have noticed that rebels appear more when the public order is low.

The army you talk about sounds like your either taking over Italy or your in south Italy, that's where the samnites are usually.

The toughest rebels I ever fought were when Carthago rebeled, the Carthaginians took back their capital with 3/4 a full stack

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Its not too strange to have Brigands appear with fairly low/mid class units. Quite a few times Hastaii has appeared in bands around the Roman area in my campaigns, although Equites and merceneries are much less common.

As you have pointed out though, when it comes to rebels they usually attack with simpler units such as Town Watch, Peasants or lower class archers and skirmishers.

I'm not sure if this is related in anyway, but such more powerful bands only have ever seemed to appear after the Marian reforms for me. Has anybody else seen such a trend?

The most odd rebel army (in a city) I ever fought consisted of Carthaginian Peasants, Militia and three units of Yutseb Elephants (an extremely powerful and large elephant unit which can normally only be activated by a cheat code). I won in the end with a combination of Legionary Cohorts and skirmisher Auxila. The cohorts were used primarily as a distraction for the riders to fire their arrows at, while the skirmishers were used to fire at the elephants with the aim of killing them.

[Genaral Julis]

The refroms have not happend yet.

[TruePraetorian]

The most odd rebel army (in a city) I ever fought consisted of Carthaginian Peasants, Militia and three units of Yutseb Elephants (an extremely powerful and large elephant unit which can normally only be activated by a cheat code). I won in the end with a combination of Legionary Cohorts and skirmisher Auxila. The cohorts were used primarily as a distraction for the riders to fire their arrows at, while the skirmishers were used to fire at the elephants with the aim of killing them.

That is rather odd...Also, I didn't know that those could be killed I've only used them once and got cheat-happy, making 20 for a grand CTD

[Barbarian]

I have met many types of rebel units. I could say, almost any unit, that is in the game. But what is interesting, I often meet armies with different types of gladiators. That makes fighting more interesting, because in close combat they can beat even roman legions.

Another thing. I play with the FOW turned off for the first time, and noticed a lonely settlement at the edge of the map, above Scythian lands. It is deeply in the forest, and only one narrow path leads to it. It is owned by rebels, named not brigands or bandits, but "Amazons"
Well, I had conquered it before, but always took it from another faction, I never saw it being owned by rebels. I am sure there are some awesome warriors in that settlement.
Maybe that's the place where Yutseb elephants come from?

By the way: Isn't it possible to get Yutseb elephants by accomplishing Senate missions? I think I got 2 units of them in version 1.0. Never had such prize in later versions. I also didn't try them in battle, they were a trophy in my capital. I don't like using cheats, so haven't seen them since that time.

[Caeser The III]

to me, its not that strange, its happenned to me a plenty of times

[Caius]

Another thing. I play with the FOW turned off for the first time, and noticed a lonely settlement at the edge of the map, above Scythian lands. It is deeply in the forest, and only one narrow path leads to it. It is owned by rebels, named not brigands or bandits, but "Amazons"
Well, I had conquered it before, but always took it from another faction, I never saw it being owned by rebels. I am sure there are some awesome warriors in that settlement.
Maybe that's the place where Yutseb elephants come from?

No, but Amazon Chariots come from there. A good and unique unit.

[mrdun]

yubtesb's as a rewad, sweeet!

[Flying Pig]

I modded a script in to annoy the senate where a full army of praetorians and a rebel lord spawned right outside the city of rome!

[Caius]

I modded a script in to annoy the senate where a full army of praetorians and a rebel lord spawned right outside the city of rome!

I'd like to see that. I mean, do the SPQR fight against rebels?

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I'd like to see that. I mean, do the SPQR fight against rebels?

Oh yes - even in the regions next door if any dare to turn up. I remember multiple times getting the role of reinforcements to the senate's forces should a rebel army have been adjacent to one of my Italian city.

They never conquer neighboring rebel provinces though if there are any and leave that up to another Roman faction.

[Quirinus]

Ooh.... that would be interesting to watch. Wouldn't the SPQR lose every time though, against such steelhides like Praetorians?

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Ooh.... that would be interesting to watch. Wouldn't the SPQR lose every time though, against such steelhides like Praetorians?

I would presume that it would take quite a few men - the SPQR's forces usually consist of classical pre-Marian troops with an odd post-Marian unit mixed in. Not actually going to war with any neighbors results in no troops losses to replace.

I would also expect them to find their losses hard to replace. I'm not quite sure, yet I believe that SPQR's income is fairly poor due to having a combination of one city and an overly large number of troops (most of the time two or three stacks) defending it.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

I would also expect them to find their losses hard to replace. I'm not quite sure, yet I believe that SPQR's income is fairly poor due to having a combination of one city and an overly large number of troops (most of the time two or three stacks) defending it.

Sometimes SPQR still managed to get respectful amount of money .. IIRC then this happens after some battles against the brigands and because the have lost some men the upkeep will be smaller .. so they will be able to get a lot of money ..
Also .. Rome is rich city and they usually have trade agreements with almost everybody ..

[Quirinus]

Oh.... so Rome will not replenish its losses at all? That's interesting.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

I once took Rome with onagers with out fighting its main army. Thus, I turned it into a rebel army, which aren't allowed to have triarii and principes.
The resulting army was far inferior. But still very potent as far as rebels go.

[Spartan198]

I just recently ran into a unit of rebel Sacred Band.

[The Wandering Scholar]

I play with Rebels off, I get soo tired of wasting my time fighting low quality troops.

[Spartan198]

I like fighting low quality troops... keeps the blood flowing in the sword arm for when the real fights begin.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I often find rebels (brigands) useful for training up young generals prior to fighting "real" factional enemy forces.

Often, due to the very weak nature of the brigands and the strength of the general's unit, the general's bodyguard alone has to be used without any other troops getting involved - the battle odds often have to be bias towards the enemy, equal or be slightly to your side for the novice to have a good chance of gaining command stars from the fight.

This tactic can also be used when a faction has a very low family member to province ratio to gain new generals under your banner. Sending a unit out, and it winning a Clear Victory or above, often gains the "Man of the Hour" event when the number of family members is low and the number of provinces is high. The greater the victory, and the lower the ratio, the more likely the faction is to gain a new adopted son.

[Good Ship Chuckle]

This tactic can also be used when a faction has a very low family member to province ratio to gain new generals under your banner. Sending a unit out, and it winning a Clear Victory or above, often gains the "Man of the Hour" event when the number of family members is low and the number of provinces is high. The greater the victory, and the lower the ratio, the more likely the faction is to gain a new adopted son.

I love Men of the Hour!!
Especially on my campaigns where I expand very quickly and need generals for armies I just created ASAP.

[Slug For A Butt]

I may be wrong, but I think you'll get a MOTH for any sort of win really if your General:City ratio is low enough. Just dont make the mistake of accepting the first one you are offered, if you decline him you will get offered more with potentially better stats.

[El Diablo]

That I did not know. I always take the MOTH nominations (as apposed to adoptions) as they are usually pretty good (a couple of commands stars at least) and I thought it had a lot to do with a captain leads stack winning against the odds.

I did not know that any sort of win will get you a MOTH as most if not all of my major stacks are general lead.

Mind you once I lost a pretty average general in a heavy fight against the gauls and upon winning the battle got "Heroic Death" followed by MOTH.

Niiiiiice (especially as the first general was hopeless)

[Punicus]

I may be wrong, but I think you'll get a MOTH for any sort of win really if your General:City ratio is low enough. Just dont make the mistake of accepting the first one you are offered, if you decline him you will get offered more with potentially better stats.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly it, I was offered a man of the hour in the same turn that the general of that army died - it could have been a regular adoption too, not sure. But something of that category usually occurs in those situations in my experience.

[Quirinus]

I play with Rebels off, I get soo tired of wasting my time fighting low quality troops.

But then again, a game without brigands would make the game easier instead of harder, right? They're annoying, yes, especially in regions which I've long conquered, and have garrisons full of militias and peasants. But I find that it's a little more realistic this way. =)

[The Wandering Scholar]

Could be yes but I just find them a waste of my time. PLus I am a nice leader so there is no reason for the population/ military to rebel

[Punicus]

Could be yes but I just find them a waste of my time. PLus I am a nice leader so there is no reason for the population/ military to rebel

Sometimes there's simply no way around it. Late game Carthage sometimes gets 50,000 population, I've found there's almost no way to stop a rebellion. I'm curious to know, when a city rebels in your game, what happens? Did you just mod out the ones who stand around doing nothing? Or have you taken away the rebel feature of cities?