Principate Romans: Superior or Average??!!??

[Blathergut]

So, the debate raging inside this olde brain is:

Do I make my 6 BGs of Roman HF Legionaries superior or average when taking on Deadtorius and his Seleucid swarms? Superior is sooOooo nice since a 4pak of HF + 2 LF archer supports needs to lose 4 before dying. But the skilled swords get no better bonus than swords against pikes, spears, and mounted beasts...all of which the Seleucids have swarms of! I save 104 pts by going average...that's lots of artillery!

Hmmm....what to do, what to do...

[batesmotel]

While the skilled swordsmen upgrade doesn't help against pikes, the superior upgrade makes the legionaries much more durable against pikes. Unless you think you can avoid facing the pikes frontally and can win elsewhere, I think you need the superior upgrades. Besides, the skilled swordsmen will neuter the HW of any Thracians you encounter . If the LF archers are optional, it migth be worth forgoing those to upgrade the HF.

Chris

[deadtorius]

Save even more points and go for poor troops, their swords are just as effective against my pikes as skilled swords would be.

As for Thracians, I have learned its a waste of points to bring them out if its Romans, I would rather have the citizen miltia poor offensive spear than the Thracians. Now that I have a second unit of Cats and elephants painted up...... swords won't be counting against most of my army

[Blathergut]

*Starts loading his arty with peanuts*

[Blathergut]

*Bribes RBS to add flaming mice to the army list*

[deadtorius]

Bring on the artillery, nothing like cumbersome clunky ranged weapons that I can manouver out of their arc of fire.

As for flaming mice, thats why elephants have flat feet to stomp them out.

Speaking of peanuts I have a deal on about 500 amphoras of peanut oil to lubricate your Roman armour with that you can't pass up

Guess I won't see any poor Romans on the battlefield... too bad think you missed an opportunity

[richnz]

I would definitely go for superior. The skilled sword isnt great value, but averages are just too vulnerable to knights, lancer cav, pikes, impact foot.

[marioslaz]

So, the debate raging inside this olde brain is:

Do I make my 6 BGs of Roman HF Legionaries superior or average when taking on Deadtorius and his Seleucid swarms? Superior is sooOooo nice since a 4pak of HF + 2 LF archer supports needs to lose 4 before dying. But the skilled swords get no better bonus than swords against pikes, spears, and mounted beasts...all of which the Seleucids have swarms of! I save 104 pts by going average...that's lots of artillery!

Hmmm....what to do, what to do...

Indeed it's a problem related to opponent, but not only, and I think opponent is not so important. IMO, your army should be build following your character. Just in a very general way, you can consider that an army with a lot of poor/average troops need a very patient player, because you need to look at your opponent tactic and react in a way to take advantage of your number. At the opposite, an army with few superior troops is well suit to an impatient player (like me ) because you get the best from your army with a fast blow against your opponent.

[deadtorius]

I would definitely go for superior. The skilled sword isnt great value, but averages are just too vulnerable to knights, lancer cav, pikes, impact foot.

Don't have any knights and likely no impact foot since I havent painte those guys up yet. he will be up against pikes, offensive spear, mounted swords and elephants which cancel the skilled sword POA and either even out the combats or in the case of pikes and elephants give me a + POA over skilled swords for a lot less points.