End of Game Army Composition

[pgeerkens]

In purchase order, here is my final Roman army composition playing GBOR (where advanced unit types slowly become available over time:

1 Legate L25 (init)
2 Militia L19 (init)
3 Skirmisher L21 (init)
4 Scout L21 (init)
5 Spearman L21 (purchased for #5, at first availability)
6 Skirmisher L21 (purchased for #6)
7 Militia L16 (purchased for #7)
8 Scout L20 (purchased for #8)
9 Noble L21 (purchased for #10, at first availability)
10 Hastati L19 (purchased for #13, though available for #12)
11 Velite L25 (purchased for #16, at first availability)
12 Velite L24 (purchased for #16, at first availability)
13 Principe L19 (purchased for #20, at first availability)
14 Principe L20 (purchased for #20, at first availability)
15 Triari L19 (purchased for #25, at first availability)
16 Auxilia L12 (purchased for #35, at first availability)
17 Auxilia L13 (purchased for #35, at first availability)
18 Aux Cav L19 (purchased for #37, at first availability)
19 Archer L16 (purchased for #39, at first availability)
20 Archer L17 (purchased for #39, at first availability)

Entire campaign on Very Hard, final Fame = 1,116,830. (Third time through all the way, improving from barely over 1,000,000 the first time.) As is evident, some time was spent planning my unit purchases.

Men in Black remains the most challenging scenario, still requiring a number of tries just to get through. Some of the other scenarios - including Vadimo Lake, Latin revolt, and Cynocephelae - may require a couple of attempts. A few more require multiple attempts for a really good run, with an adequate number of unit promotions.

Particularly for the early scenarios, and Vadimo lake, pincushion units are purchased and disbanded without paying fame for healing.

If anyone still reads this thread, I would be interested in seeing comments on final Fame playing on Very Hard with GBOR rules.

[BruceWayne]

Romans - Very Hard

Legate - 51
Nobles - 25
Auxilla - 24 22
Hastati - 19 19 19
Archers - 23 21 21 20
Principe - 17 18 17
Elephant - 14 13
Velites - 16 15

Fame - 1064700

This was my best campaign. There were several scenarios that took a while to beat, but with some strategy tweaking I could always manage. The recruitment order is something I've had a lot of success with. Dumping your crap units early and starting strong on the Auxilla is the way to go. Archers become oh so powerful during the second half of the game. In the past I recruited too many cavalry units. This time was better - my nobles became so strong - they once had 161 kills. I also learned how to use elephants effectively this time around. Elephants are extremely effective against enemy cavalry - and backed-up by archers, my two units chowed down about 10 cavalry units. I had to back-pedal about half way and buy the velites because I was too light on light infantry for certain scenarios.

Hope this helps!

[pgeerkens]

Interesting - very high quality army. Playing GBOR I cannot get the good units early enough, so I have to keep a few of the weaker unit types or lose mucho experience.

Used strictly as missile units, the only advantage of velites over skirmishers is two extra javelins, so I go 2 and 2 until I can get some archers at scenario #39. In your army you might do better with 4 skirmishers than with 2 velites, for the same cost.

[gamer66]

I only have the demo, but at the end of the limited roman campaign my army looks like this:

1 leader
2 legionaries
3 auxilia
2 velites
2 aux. cav
1 aux. archers

all full strength.

[pgeerkens]

An update for the Roman campaign played on Very Hard all the way through, with GBOR rules where the more advanced units only slowly become available. Trying some new tactics, army planning, and skill selection, I got up to 1,129,870 XP. In purchase order, my final army composition was:
L 21
Scout 19 20
Spearmen 21 21
Skirm 22 20
Nobles 21
Hastati 20
Velites 23 23
Principe 20
Triari 21
Auxilia 17 18
Aux Cav 20
Aux Archers 16 17

Only 18 units total. I frequently, even on the casualty limited scenarios, recruited 'pin-cushions' to aborb enemy arrows and javelins. The disruption of the enemy caused by even a few cheap militia and skirm units is worht many times their cost.

BTW Possum: Much of my increased XP here is due to using some of the Avoid- and Anti- skills instead of others you recommend.

[Aleksandr]

Romans on VERY HARD in basic LA.

Legate 21
Nobles 37
Auxilia 26
Auxilia 31
Auxilia 33
Velites 33
Principe 27
Principe 28
Principe 28
Archers 33

Nobles: weapons lvl 5, helmet 3, all "elite" stuff
infantry: swords and armour lvl 4-5
shooters: armour lvl2+
non-Nobles: basic helmets and additional ammo, of course. Some "elite" stuff. And they wore boots, yeah!

FAME: 1 115 460
lolwut: Nobles' worst casualties = 22, so they were nearly extinct... :IsThatSo:


EDIT:

Romans on NORMAL in GBoR:

Legate 28
Scouts 32
Militia 25
Militia 26
Skirms 23
Nobles 32
Hastati 22
Hastati 21
Velites 22
Principe 22
Auxilia 18
Archers 14

Soldiers had different stuff: no Oddyseus bow, but Nobles wore nearly everything, including lvl 7 swords.

FAME: 125 425


EDIT2:

Romans in GBoR, HARD:

Legate 24
Scouts 20
Militia 20
Militia 20
Skirms 20
Nobles 28
Hastati 21
Hastati 20
Velites 20
Principe 22
Auxilia 18
Auxilia 17
Aux. Cav. 24
Archers 15
Archers 16

This time I used slightly more units than beofre and it was great. I replayed just a few of the more difficult scenarios. Equip. used: various, but elite troops (all of the cavalry and then the best of heavy/light infantry) were equiped by lvl 5-7 swords and armour. They wore legendary stuff, too.

FAME: 404 595


EDIT3:

Romans, VH, LA:

Leg 24
Nob 30
Aux 30
Aux 30
Prin 27
Prin 27
Prin 27
Arch 31
Arch 29
Cav 35

This was bodacious. I think that this is the best compositions ever, even though few battles could be really hard. The army is very flexible and manageble, while retaining power to end the time-limit battles fast enough.
I had a little problems with equipments, namely till the end I found it hard to distribute the elite stuff. Maybe no hign level swords + armour next time?

FAME: 1 120 365


EDIT4:

Romans, VH, LA:

I tried a little bit different army, seems like the best I evr had. Final fame was 1 117 280 and I did not even played it very well. I think I'll try something new and then I return to this...



EDIT5:

Romans. Normal, LA:

name: . lvl . (highest kills/best Exp.)
Legate: 50 (33/1556)
Scouts: 86 (250/22k)
Militia: 178 (314/31k)
Skirms: 48 (64/6.5k)

Lol, this sooo was funny.
Next time I take one Militia more, because it's a little pity that you cannot pass lvl 120 (game crashes at that point). Double troops = half Exp., yeah, but I can live with my lvl 90 Militia...
Or... maybe I try some Paesant action? Who can tell?
And yes, they wore everything available. Achilles' Armour, Teutonic Horses, D. Falx, Ajax B., Sarissa...

FAME: 137 220


EDIT6:
Romans, LA, HARD

name: . lvl . (highest kills/best Exp.)
Legate: 37 (20/1614)
Scouts: 75 (247/15k)
Militia: 112 (195/18k)
Militia: 113 (262/15k)
Skirms: 44 (60/8k)

After an abortive start (those paesants really suck), I tried this. I entered the "MiB" scenario with Scouts on lvl8 or so, swords+helmet=lvl3. They ate the lvl 17 light infantry alive and won the scenario purely on their own. After third or fourth wave of TDT the MiB were on "30/48, shaken" and than I beat them in h-2-h.
It was really funny campaign. Not very strategic, but funny. (I hope that I WON'T be able to win with this "army" on Very Hard, it would be akward...)

FAME: 422345

[Aleksandr]

Once again Romans in LA on Very Hard:

Legate 24
Nobles 37
Auxilia 31
Auxilia 26
Archers 32
Archers 32
Archers 33
Principe 28
Principe 28
Principe 25

FAME: 1 121 175

Not worthy the try, imho. Gotta try something different.



EDIT:

Next try, same version and difficulty.

Leg 22
Nob 39
Aux 31
Aux 32
Arch 31
Arch 34
Arch 32
Pri 23
Pri 27
Pri 25

Fame: 1 124 230

Same troops, but a bit different build - I went for the fast Trample with Nobles and I took Endurance with non-missile since the beginning, losing quick Frenzy, but gaining some value of Fame instead...
In fact, the gain is not that great, so this could be just a question of fortune or my own experiences.
Oh, and I once again screwed some battles.



EDIT II:

LA, Easy, Peasant Arena Unlimited.

Leg 31
Peas 122
Peas 116
Peas 124
Skirms 51

Hm. Not that funny as it may seem - no tactic at all, since 1/2 of the campaign I just clicked the fast forward button. The Peasants are brutal, nice and all, but at the end - it was boring. Really, unless you got a Cavalry and real shooters, there's no tactic involved.
But it was... experienceful. (Is there any such word )



EDIT III:

Ahem, so with an advice from moj, I tried this.

Auxiliary_Troops.army

Legate 23
Aux Cav 41
Auxilia 28
Auxilia 26
Aux Arch 29
Aux Arch 29
Aux Arch 30
Aux Arch 30
Auxilia 28
Auxilia 25

So, except for the Legate, all troops made massive ammount of Expo. The last troop hired had its Experience gain significantly worse than the other ones had. This is basically because the senior troops just blow out everyone before the Aux IV can touch anything.

Fame was 1 137 180 after final battle's healing. Not that I played it that well, but I must admit that I quit some battles that went visibly wrong. But this was not a case of Fame hunting, buit rather I tried better tactic.

Next goal is 1 140k Fame with what I believe would be the best army composition.

I do not use pin-cushion arrow fodder, neither do I use auxiliary troops, except for some serious troublesome scenarios like MiB.

One last note - This thread looks dead, so I transfer to one that seems living and where moj made some work.

kthxbye



EDIT no.XYZ:

So, I just tried the "best compozishun eva" and it went much worse than expected. I really believe that for the best Fame record the "Auxiliary_Troops" used above could be the most efficient.
Healing those Auxiliaries is much cheaper than that of Principes.

Otoh, I just cannot remember having any serious problems during this campaign, not even the unfamous MiB, Cynoscephalae, and all simiral scenarios, which could be painful with light troops only. Nice that it wasn't frustrating, but rather relaxed campaign. Some of the time limit battles, namely the one to kill the oposing general (name it, please) took some tries, but...

I tried the Preatorians, too, but they are not worthy it, imao. I just returned to previous save when I have seen how horribly they fared in battles and took the Principes. Than again - maybe with some Exp.?

So, it resulted in this:

Leg 21
Aux Cav 39
Auxilia 27
Auxilia 29
Aux Arch 32
Aux Arch 31
Aux Arch 32
Principe 26
Principe 27
Principe 27

FAME: 1 127 990

Not much of a difference, is it? I gain 4k with each try, so this is more a question of experience and good memory than some genial mix of troops and their skill paths. However, I found the Auxiliary Cavalry very helpful. It does not take a wizard to find that Aux Cav lvl 39 > Nobles lvl 39.

I am not sure if another one troop wouldn't be helpful, but I got one strange rule - I play with nine troops (or ten, Legate counting) only. Because you know what? I like to have my troops in left row only. Stupid, I know...

For now I am officially fed up with the game. Well, at least with Romans. Maybe I try some Celtic action and than I return back to further drill my legionaries. Maybe I try some weird skill paths, who can tell, but I know for sure that I will use that one-of heavy cavalry with massive Trample.

BTW: Are the Principes really the best in terms of power/cost/Exp ratio? I just can't believe it, that they are SO better than the rest of the troops...
BTW2: Anyone reading this stuff? Just asking...

[Aleksandr]

Well, so after a few days pause I tried this...

AUXILIARY LEGION

Legate 22
Aux Cav 34
Auxilia 27
Auxilia 27
Archers 32
Archers 31
Archers 32
Auxilia 27
Auxilia 26
Aux Cav 32

Fame 1 134 265

Even though I used pincushions and played it pretty good, I had no significant Fame gain. I think that it is due to the second Cavalry unit that took some Fame to heal, and also because I had one bowmen troop less, so more of the enemy got it to my lines. But this composition is very flexible and does not suffer of all those problems that bother the light infantry - cavalry charges, heavy missile fire, open plains, etc. I can recommend it, but I think that if I wish to break the 1 140k limit, I need to make a slightly different army. I'll try later.


EDIT:
Well, I tried the Gauls' campaign after quite some time (years, maybe...?) and I finished like this:

Legate 17
Scouts 19
Warriors 17
Warriors 18
Archers 18
Archers 18
Archers 17
Veterans 19
Veterans 19
Nobles 18

Fame: 483830 and I used pincushions regularly.

Overall, the feel I got from the celtic campaign isn't that strong as from the roman one, but maybe I am just fed up with the game.
I just think that there are far more strategic and tactic decisions allowed when one plays for the Romans...

[Aleksandr]

AUXILIARY LEGION:

(classic LA, Very hard)

Legate 19
Aux Cav 36
Auxilia 27
Auxilia 27
Archers 31
Archers 33
Archers 29
Archers 30
Auxilia 25
Auxilia 24

Denarii: 7 165
Fame: 1 138 810

All hand-to-hand squads wore a lvl3 helmets and lvl5 armour and weapons, archers just had the lvl1 helmets (and the three basic ranged imporovements, of course).
When it comes to the elite stuff, the cavalerists got the most of it: Sarmatian, Teutonic and Achilles' things. The rest of the h2h guys were awarded zero elite weaponry. Well, they couldn't even have some. Archers had Odysseus' Bows
Legate was given nothing...

Notes on tactics:
I used pin cushions whenever possible, even during the "low casualties" missions, at least when it was obvious that I won't lose too many men no matter what happens. Towards the end of the campaign I bathed in Denarii, so I always bought some ten to seven new Velites per scenario, using them as a decoy and reassigning them once the mission was over, unless their losses were so low (and the exp. gain so high), that I decided to use them again. There's a mission during the last Caesar's campaign where the "low casualties" limit was extremely tight and the field was also too open for the light troops, so I bought three Praetorians instead.

Interesting thing is that a Fame gain was not really significant (ok, I haven't played the game for two years, but still...). Otoh, I saved thousands of gold because I deliberately passed the usual unnecessary stuff (Dacian Falx, high lvl helms, etc.). I also gained quite some Fame due to the already mentioned use of one-shot units, AND thanks to a good knowledge of the game.

I'm not sure if I wish to try the Gallic campaign. I should have, but well, I don't like it as much as playing for the Romans...
Except for the heavy cavalry, Gauls don't inspire me too much.

Several scenarios were quite annoying (namely the time-limit battles), morevoer one or two are bugged. But well, I still enjoyed my time... except for a few scenarios with extremely short time limits, where a win is a question of luck than anything else.
I've had very little troubles with the usual suspects (with Men in Black remaining the hardest of the initial scenarios), and I think that with a proper tactic (and a bit of a good luck), I may finish the whole campaign without a single restart.

But otoh, I already played the game a little bit before.

Overall: I've had a nice time after some two-years pause.

[pgeerkens]

OVer the past few years, I come back occasionally and run through again; usually I come up with a nother new twist or two and set a new personal best. For Classic LA, Very Hard: 1,144,620; for Battles of Rome, Very Hard: 1,136,680. Lots of pincushions of course to hit those marks; a good balance of lights and heavies to minimize fame losses; and lots of instant kills and protections for the h-2-h guys, after level 4.

[pgeerkens]

And, ... spear-chuckers as well as archers.

[pipfromslitherine]

Wow. Interesting to see people still playing the old girl . I wish we'd had a good way to let people play their 'final' armies against each other!

Cheers

Pip

[Aleksandr]

For Classic LA, Very Hard: 1,144,620; for Battles of Rome, Very Hard: 1,136,680.

I'm not even close. Nice that it's possible to get past the 1 140k!

and lots of instant kills and protections for the h-2-h guys, after level 4.

Ha! I'll give this a try.

Wow. Interesting to see people still playing the old girl

Old love gets never rusty, or how is the saying in english...

I wish we'd had a good way to let people play their 'final' armies against each other!

Yep, it'll be amazing!

[Aleksandr]

Hm... Tried something a little bit different and was a bit dissapointed with the result. Although the cam played nice and all, after the last scenario healing I finished at som 1 121k Fame and nearly none gold. Morale: don't purchase heavy infantry, they're not good enough to pay for their losses.

My final composition was:
Leg
Aux Cav
2x Aux
3x Arch
4x Princ
1x Aux Cav

Their levels were from 20-30 and I hadn't money for all the elite stuff. Looks like the "ten-guys-only" core is the best, as it's strong enough to win and small enough to not cost Denarii nor Fame.


EDIT:
I've decided that I'll try something different - see how far can I get without any restart? As usual - Romans in basic LA @ very hard.

so, interestingly enough, I've lost at the very first "bottleneck" of the roman camapign - Scout The Etruscans...

[Aleksandr]

So, as my "no restart" try was stopped by the Latins (yes, mainly because I was greedy, but it's not an excuse), I'll decided to try something completely different.
It's called...:

Eight Colours Of Rainbow Aka THE_LIGHT.leg

Environment: Legion arena
Difficulty: High
Real difficulty: absurdly high?
Special features: ummm... yes, there wil be some

Stay tuned!

[IainMcNeil]

You are a glutton for punishment

[Aleksandr]

You are a glutton for punishment

So, I needed just one restart until now, and it was only because I forgot to place one unit... I'm a bit pissed because of that, but well, what can a man do? Follows my army right before the Men In Black.

In order of appearance:

8cR aka The_Light.leg

Legate 7
Peasants 6
Militia 10
Auxilia 5
Skirmishers 5
Velites 4
Auxiliary Archers 1

As I was quite some penny short of purchasing my last squad (read: Scouts), I gave a lvl1 weapons to Militia and Auxilia.

EDIT:
Complete walk in the park. Only the Peasants were routed.


___________________________________________________
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I downloaded the newest patch, unpacked it, and... guess what! Game didn't work.
For all those years I've used a Bulgarian version of Legion Arena!
Now I just finished the digital download. At least I got a reason to start the campaign all over again!

EDIT: Looks like the game is a little bit different. I finished the first roman minicampaign with one restart and one near-loss. Obviously I need to play little bit more cautiously.


___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

Ok, so now for something completely same...

I'll try a no-restart Roman campaign in vanilla LA, on Very Hard. I'm interested how far will I get... I don't think I can actually finish the game without any battle lost, but well, at least I'll try my best. I'll obviously use my usual army composition, with just a minor tweak.
I won't take much care of Fame and even far less care of Denarii, as I need to win every battle at the first try. This however means that many, many roman Peasants will join the ranks... for a while.


EDIT:

This is my army before "Gauls and Pyrrhos" minicam. I've had quite a good time with it.

My Usual Auxiliary Legion

Legate 17
Auxiliary Cavalry 13
Auxilia 13
Auxilia 12
Auxiliary Archers 11
Auxiliary Archers 10
Auxiliary Archers 9
Auxilia 7
Auxilia 7
Auxiliary Cavalry 8

So far so good, few of the battles were just so so, with honourable mention of the Etruscan Treachery (120 minutes time limit) that I won 2 seconds before the end...
The double Cav were able to completely trample one of the enemy squads with post-routed overruns, which is the first time it happened to me.

[Aleksandr]

I rewrote the previous multiple posts into a single one...

So, Adys was my undoing!

Not bad, I've got through half of the campaign without single restart. I misplayed Cisalpine Gauls in an extreme way, and I think that Adys could have been won if only I had ten seconds more. Nevermind!
I'm going to finish the campaign, so that I unlock the Gallic campaign. If I'll return to the Eight Colours of Rainbow, or if I'll start anything else, I can't tell. But now I'm really interested in my final result. Imho it won't be anything spectacular, I've made some mistakes.

EDIT:
Ahem... Aquae Sextiae wasn't fixed not even in the latest patch?
Quite annoying. If at least I knew which other unit than the general is marked to destroy...

[Aleksandr]

Romans, Legion Arena, Very Hard, no-restart policy.

Here comes the final composition:


As you may easily calculate, none of the Archers had an Odysseus' Bow. Interesting thing. Looks like the XP gain is very different in this version, because I got this first Odd Bow item very soon, maybe during the penultimate minicampaign. And no, I don't think that the unusual pin cushions (this times Skrims and Velites instead of everydays Peasants...) ate that many XP points. in case that the picture would vanish in a future:

AUXILIARY LEGION:

(classic LA, Very hard)

Legate 52
Aux Cav 31
Auxilia 26
Auxilia 27
Archers 25
Archers 25
Archers 25
Auxilia 22
Auxilia 21
Aux Cav 27
Velites 13
Velites 12

Denarii: 825
Fame: 1 133 385
First loss: Battle of Adys

I can't tell what is the reason of so bad result. Well, the missing fourth Archers were... missing. Otoh, I gave very very good equipment to all my h2h guys, including armour and weapons of lvl7 for the Cavs and lvl6 for the Auxies. Seems like the Auxies were either worsened, or maybe I made some mistakes in skill tree. I also gave away few battles (mainly Cisalpine Gauls was a massacre) and the no-restart policy lead to quite unusual and riscant tactics, as I needed to win no matter what.
The army is flexible, but I think that my "only ten men" approach is not enough. First of all, I needed lots of pin cushions to start the things going, to provoke the enemy. Otho, these ate loads of arrows and javelins, so this wasn't a problem. But what cost me quite some XP were the special disruptive elements like the Skirms and Velites mentioned. I even went as far as keeping those, after I realized that they contribute to my army quite well.

Once I've finished the army's core, I've bought ten Skirmishers and cyclicaly reassigned and repurchased them when they lost some men. But when they gained a lvl 5-7, I decided to remove them completely and buy ten Velites instead (note that I also gained some gold during the past scenarios), so that instead of Skirms and an empty purse I had Velites and some leftover money.
This created a possibility of keeping a strong Velites force, long until the end I had four Velites: the best and/or the luckiest of the initial ten squads; the ones that either made the fastest levels or the ones that encountered the least losses. Maybe these Velites gained some XP in favour of my other troops, and if it happened instead of Archers, than yes, it could be a problem, as such a thing prevented the Odd Bow. Otoh, I wasn't willing to let them go, as I had enough money for a potential upgrade, and with their levels, they were more than just an arrows fodder. (In fact I hadn't use them as such - I bought other pin cushions, mainly Skirmishers -, but I used them as a real unit.) I disbanded two of them just prior to the end of the whole campaign, when I needed some money for an elite Auxiliary stuff.
With this in mind, imagine like that my core had two more Velites.

I liked the two Cavalry units, they were very useful with provoking, breakthroughs, etc., they also made loads of overruns. Otoh, healing the second heavy squad could be the reason of my moderate Fame result. But well, maybe it's just a synergy of unusual tactics (forced by the no-restart rules), bad skill tree decisions, bad luck and/or planning, and also some redesign of game mechanics in the "newest" patch.

I think that although the ten squads are easy to command, the army lacks punch and with the ammount of money available, I'd be better of with a stronger army. Not that twenty greenhorns would fare better, but I think that some fourteen elite guys can work well.
No missile pin cushios next time (unless extremely needed), because they took away some XP from the main body of my army. Otoh, once the core squads became experienced, they'd gain very little if any XP from the low-level enemies, which are incidentally the only ones, that my pin cushions and screeners were able to defeat. To put my thoughts more blankly - a four levels made by a Skirmisher squad doesn't really correspond to a four levels less of an Auxilia.

I was surprised with Leader's XP level. However, once you finish the Leadership circle of skills, there's not much to do, imho. Leader will never be extremely useful in combat, so why charge him into a reckless charge, namely when this brings danger of losing him and thus making the control of an army far less easy.


Move on to the Gaul.

[Aleksandr]

Hrmpf... I know what I dislike about the Celtic campaign. It's totally random. Namely the time limit battles are annoying and Spercheus Crossing is a nonsense.

EDIT:

I'm back.

So, the Gallic campaign is not that hard once you'll get past the opening stages. Unfortunately many of the time limit battles seem to be very badly tested. That, or maybe my tactics is awful...

Once I built the core of my army, and namely once the heavy cavalry gained Frenzy and high levels of Trample, the scenarios became very relaxed. There are few of them, where in you just command your Nobles to charge in a fire-and-forget style, as they just crush anything in their path. Amazing unit, indeed. There's one of the minicampaigns that was exactly like that; shame that I don't remember which one it was.

I bought some pin cushions and also some screeners. Whenever possible, I upgraded my men's stuff, although I tried to keep some gold in case I'd need it for either a pin cushions or an elite stuff.
Most of my men wore nothing special, unless of course you count lvl 5 swords and armours as special stuff. Nobles, however, they had Sarmatian Cavalry Armour, although the last one guys dressed it just a moment before going home...
Legate got a lvl2 sword... so that I had less writing with final Fame.

Btw, I was quite satisfied with Scouts' results, although if i could play the initial battles with a better horsemen, I'd do that. I could also use one more Warriors, but I don't remeber a time when I said to myself "oh, if only I've had one more light infantry". Nobles are enough.

I think that the Gallic campaign is so so. Several scenarios are really exhaustive and take far too many tries, while other (mainly the ones till the end) are bit too easy. At least the final battle could have been more epic, but well, nevermind.

The army composition:



AEQUI RIDERS AND HERNICI FARMERS:

(classic LA, Very hard)

General 19
Scouts 17
Warriors 17
Warriors 17
Archers 16
Archers 15
Archers 16
Archers 15
Nobles 17
Nobles 18
Nobles 17
Nobles 16

Denarii: 10
Fame: 482 370
First loss: Greek Landings (its time limit is a joke...)

What now? Either I'll return back to the Eight Colours of Rainbow, or... maybe... I'll take a look at the mods!

edit: Imho it is wise to cut the Scouts once possible. Not only this speeds the army progress by one scenario, but also because the Scouts, although good for Skirms hunts, are easily destroyed. And while their healing is not that expensive, there's a lot of it during the fourty scenarios. Most of the times I didn't even knew what to do with them, as many enemy units were too dangerous for them, so I just rode them somewhere, provoke somebody and rode back behind my lines.
The other change I'd do would be a one Noble less, so that I save myself of at least some healing of a heavy squad. So maybe the very best composition would be exactly those lovely ten squads (that occupy the left column; and you already know that I like the simplicity and clarity) with very little heavies (and thus very little fame lost to healing), but with great cavalry force of three Nobles. But this change is not that certain, because I really loved the four Nobles.


PS: Hello, is there anybody out there?