What to recruit first?

scarfacetarraff · Post by **scarfacetarraff** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:39 pm

honvedseg wrote:My approach is to disband all of the starting units and buy a Roman Auxiliary light infantry unit. There should be enough left over to add a militia unit to help guard one of its flanks. That should be all you need for a few battles, until you can afford to buy a SECOND Auxilia. They will gain *** NO XP *** during the first battle, and very little in the next two, since most of the units they will face are too low in value to even be worthy of their attention. You might take a casualty or two, if you are playing on a higher difficulty setting, provided that you use a militia unit or two to avoid getting them outflanked and surrounded. I sell off the militia units as soon as I can afford something better.

Interesting approach. I'll try this next go round.

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 9:36 pm

Ehhhh, the game has changed a bit post-patch, and CoM has changed it greatly.

By CoM having changed it greatly, I mean that once you know what's waiting for you in the CoM extension-to-campaign, you start thinking more hard-core from the start, as far as army composition.

The puissance of Militia units has declined post-patch, though entirely from indirect causes (meaning I don't they got stroked with the nerfbat themselves), and when you consider CoM, Militia units just don't cut the mustard at all.

My current run through the campaign is focusing primarily on heavily-armored line units. Furthermore, as a radical experiment, I am working on building up their Agility, with Dodge and Parry both maxed. I tried Master Dodge and Boots 3 last time, and it didn't seem to help to any noticeable degree. So this time we'll see if throwing in Master Parry is enough to yield some noticeable improvement.

Militia, if you look, have a starting Agility of 10.....

iandude · Post by **iandude** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 1:45 pm

sum1won wrote:Personally, I think roman auxilla are by far superior to roman spearmen. The rough terrain benefits more than make up for a slight increase in durability and a resitance to cavalry. Want those? Get real heavy infantry. The auxilia is the best light infantry troops you can get, while you can get far better heavy infantry than spearmen. Unit redundancy is very, very important.

If you disagree, feel free to start a thread.

i must agree sum1won! redundancy IS very important! you might find you will need it!

i can't find the guy who wrote the quality over quantity guy but... i totally agree!!!

kongming · Post by **kongming** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:48 pm

I've been using the strategy proposed by sum1wun and developed by spedicus and hondsaveg (sp?), to sell all the initial contigents of militia, skirmisher, and scouts for 1 auxilia. This way you end up with a unit that is extremely potent even in the later campaigns, not one that you have to baby and hold onto out of respect for their veteran status and not wanting to lose all that XP. It seems like the best move going.

moj · Post by **moj** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 3:32 am

In order of purchase...

1. Auxillia
2. Auxillia
3. Auxiliary archers
4. Auxiliary archers
5. Auxiliary cavalry
6. Praetorian
7. Auxiliary archers
8. Auxiliary archers
9/10. Praetorian/auxiliary cavalry, order dependent upon mood
11. Praetorian
12. Praetorian
13. um... that's it

I've got very, very set in my ways.

moj · Post by **moj** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:42 am

moj wrote:I've got very, very set in my ways.

Have just treated myself to a horseless campaign.

In order of purchase...

1. Auxillia
2. Auxillia
3. Auxiliary archers
4. Auxiliary archers
5. Auxiliary archers
6. Auxiliary archers
7. Praetorian
8. Praetorian
9. Praetorian
10. Praetorian
11. Praetorian (which probably wasn't necessary: only came into play at Cynocephalae, and I think just delayed the opposition's Death By A Million Arrows)

'Etruscan Treachery' was a problem with the first six units. After five attempts I borrowed some Hastati for an easy win, but I'm sure I could have got there without.

Vadimo Lake and Cisalpine Gaul with the first eight units were relatively easy with the addition of lots of cannon fodder (who sustained a 0-284 kill count!)

Ausculum felt very strange without cavalry but I actually won the battle inside time, which I don't recall doing before.

Malventum was incredibly easy. I usually end up with 4x archers splashing around in the water, trying to kill <i>just one bloody elephant</i> with their bare hands. This time I had seven units left on the map. The difference seems to be getting the third and fourth archers up to 'heavy missiles'.

From then on in it was plain sailing. Adys and Aqua Sextae, the two nasty 'kill general' missions which I thought would be the most tricky without cavalry, were completed by my legate.

Cynocephalae took four or five attempts, but that was down to bad generalship rather than horselessness. Vercellae also took a few attempts due to timing out, which surprised me, but generally it was all pretty easy. It culminated in a comprehensive 289-0 win at Philippi, using only archers and my legate.

Horses. Who needs 'em?

What to recruit first?

Which unit/units from the start-up army would you disband?

Re: First Units