Late roman battle formation?

[Dux Limitis]

When these days I play the game I found an interesting thing.When the AI play the late roman army,they will still use the old manipular formation as the republican,early-mid empire's army.Then sources and books indicate the late roman army tend to use the line formations but not the manipular formation,because the late infantry formation and combat style is more like the Achaemenid Persian's sparabara formation not the classical legionaries,in epic battles(frigidus,strasbourg,adrianople,user's milvian bridge)the late roman army're use the line formation,but in other battles,the AI don't know it then auto use the old manipular formation to deployed their late roman army.Could the game makes the AI to use the line formation when they're playing after-284ad's roman army in the next version?
And,well,speaking of the late roman army,I wanna say again about the back rank archers in the late roman infantry units(20%),make them can do the manual shooting's value is more than let them contribute to the defensive Impact POA(only 20)points when the unit reciving a charge and most of times the enemy refuse to charge.If makes them can do manual shooting their impact POA should be removed then,there're darts can contribute to the defensive impact POA too(removed the bows effects,66-80 points left).If they can do manual shooting at least they can defiant the enemy to charge,fought back the horse archers and skirmishers,better than act as less defensive POA points.

[Dux Limitis]

Old manipular formation and late roman line formation.

[zakblood]

i like the one with the archers in the rear, as it makes more sense, as they aren't melee fighters, so best to keep them out of harms way, but in game you can't fire like this, so rather a mute point, but could maybe be modded to?

but no one here knows history better than RBS

[Dux Limitis]

i like the one with the archers in the rear, as it makes more sense, as they aren't melee fighters, so best to keep them out of harms way, but in game you can't fire like this, so rather a mute point, but could maybe be modded to?

but no one here knows history better than RBS

So I'd like to see what will the Mr.Bodley Scott to say this time. @RBS

[rbodleyscott]

When these days I play the game I found an interesting thing.When the AI play the late roman army,they will still use the old manipular formation as the republican,early-mid empire's army.Then sources and books indicate the late roman army tend to use the line formations but not the manipular formation,because the late infantry formation and combat style is more like the Achaemenid Persian's sparabara formation not the classical legionaries,in epic battles(frigidus,strasbourg,adrianople,user's milvian bridge)the late roman army're use the line formation,but in other battles,the AI don't know it then auto use the old manipular formation to deployed their late roman army.Could the game makes the AI to use the line formation when they're playing after-284ad's roman army in the next version?

The Romans stopped using the manipular chequerboard circa 104 BC after the reforms of Marius. However, they continued to use a chequerboard of cohorts in the Later Republican and Imperial periods.

Whether they immediately stopped doing so after the reforms of Diocletian is uncertain. We were in two minds whether to have them do so or not, and so currently in the game the 284-424 lists still use chequerboard for autodeployment. On balance I think you are probably right that a linear formation is more likely, and we can change that for the next update as you suggest.

The 425-492 AD list already uses a linear deployment.

[rbodleyscott]

And,well,speaking of the late roman army,I wanna say again about the back rank archers in the late roman infantry units(20%),make them can do the manual shooting's value is more than let them contribute to the defensive Impact POA(only 20)points when the unit reciving a charge and most of times the enemy refuse to charge.If makes them can do manual shooting their impact POA should be removed then,there're darts can contribute to the defensive impact POA too(removed the bows effects,66-80 points left).If they can do manual shooting at least they can defiant the enemy to charge,fought back the horse archers and skirmishers,better than act as less defensive POA points.

This has already been discussed in other threads and the game-design reasons for the way they work in the game currently have been explained. You have already expressed your disagreement, which we have duly noted.

[Dux Limitis]

When these days I play the game I found an interesting thing.When the AI play the late roman army,they will still use the old manipular formation as the republican,early-mid empire's army.Then sources and books indicate the late roman army tend to use the line formations but not the manipular formation,because the late infantry formation and combat style is more like the Achaemenid Persian's sparabara formation not the classical legionaries,in epic battles(frigidus,strasbourg,adrianople,user's milvian bridge)the late roman army're use the line formation,but in other battles,the AI don't know it then auto use the old manipular formation to deployed their late roman army.Could the game makes the AI to use the line formation when they're playing after-284ad's roman army in the next version?

The Romans stopped using the manipular chequerboard circa 104 BC after the reforms of Marius. However, they continued to use a chequerboard of cohorts in the Later Republican and Imperial periods.

Whether they immediately stopped doing so after the reforms of Diocletian is uncertain. We were in two minds whether to have them do so or not, and so currently in the game the 284-424 lists still use chequerboard for autodeployment. On balance I think you are probably right that a linear formation is more likely, and we can change that for the next update as you suggest.

The 425-492 AD list already uses a linear deployment.

Thanks in advance！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

[Dux Limitis]

And,well,speaking of the late roman army,I wanna say again about the back rank archers in the late roman infantry units(20%),make them can do the manual shooting's value is more than let them contribute to the defensive Impact POA(only 20)points when the unit reciving a charge and most of times the enemy refuse to charge.If makes them can do manual shooting their impact POA should be removed then,there're darts can contribute to the defensive impact POA too(removed the bows effects,66-80 points left).If they can do manual shooting at least they can defiant the enemy to charge,fought back the horse archers and skirmishers,better than act as less defensive POA points.

This has already been discussed in other threads and the game-design reasons for the way they work in the game currently have been explained. You have already expressed your disagreement, which we have duly noted.

Theoretically,I think this better be reconsidered.Because let them act as less defensive POA is not better than let them can do manual shooting(You can consider this with pictures,most of times no reason will let the back rank archers not shoot even the enemy horse archers and skirmishers are sticking to faces).Any way,with out archers,there're 80% darts left can act as a large defensive impact POA,still will give the late roman units' buff of defensive impact.