triple armed Romans

[vakarr]

Hi, I'm playing my first game against the triple armed Romans - with half of this and half of that etc, how do they work - I read somewhere they can't shoot, is that correct?

[rbodleyscott]

Hi, I'm playing my first game against the triple armed Romans - with half of this and half of that etc, how do they work - I read somewhere they can't shoot, is that correct?

The 80% darts and 20% bow count together as an Impact phase POA (on top of the one for Light Spear) if the Romans are receiving a charge.

[Kroem]

Yea the bows bit just makes them more resistant to charges, but doesn't help when they are charging and doesn't give them a shooting attack. In general the infantry are very good defensively but struggle to get good charges in.

The ones to watch out for are the Auxillia Palintina. They are heavily armed and well motivated meaning they can outfight most heavy infantry on the flat, but they are classified as medium foot so ignore most of the terrain as well!

[vakarr]

Managed to shoot up the Auxilia Palintina , they lost cohesion, but they got a general slapped onto them and it was still a 0% chance of winning if I charged them with Hun heavy cavalry - tried it anyway, with the bow+sword armoured superior cavalry, they bounced off having lost cohesion for their trouble.

[kvnrthr]

What is the best way to use later roman infantry? They're great on the defense but that assumes the enemy will oblige you by charging at them. Against enemy foot they do ok but I'm not sure if they have any use against cavalry armies.

[MVP7]

Yeah, they are too good for their own good against cavalry as the AI is pretty much incapable of charging them. If you wish to use them for anti cavalry you'll just have to walk your legios around the cavalry unit that has walked up to you but refuses to charge and then take it down with a series of flank attacks. Generally you can think of Legio Comitatenses and Palatina as expensive light-spear and swordsmen that won't be frontally charged by cavalry. Without real usable bows they just lack the leverage to force the enemy into unfavorable melee. Auxilia Palatina are pretty great though.

Issues of late Romans have been discussed in several threads but sadly they remain my least favorite unit type in the game for very gamey reasons.
viewtopic.php?f=477&t=83050
viewtopic.php?f=477&t=83370
viewtopic.php?f=477&t=87057