Slitherine

Within the mulitplayer games, how do people feel about the game balance?

I am feeling a persistant - but not super strong - northern bias. That is, the barbarians seem stronger than I expect, and the Carthegenians weaker. In particular, the African infanty compared to the legion.

Also, what is up with Lake Trasemene. This seems much easier for the Romans that it should.

The balance between the different types of troops in the PC version is pretty much the same as in the TT rules with the minor difference that on the TT the actual sizes of BGs is an important element in how they compare for effectiveness.

The accuracy and balance of individual scenarios is a different question and also a matter for a amount of subjective judgement. It is difficult to reproduce the actual outcome in the Lake Trasimene scenario. Probably biggest issue there is the absence of a fog of war element so it is easier for the Romans to respond intelligently to the situation without the element of surprise that presumably existed in the historical battle. It might help if the PC version provided some provision for units in ambush as the TT rules do. Of course that would also need to be coupled with allowing non-historical deployment for the Carthaginians to be effective for re-playability of the scenario.

Chris

In regard to Lake Trasemene, I think perhaps the quality level of the Romans should be reduced some degree to reflect the disorder and confusion caused by them being caught in a line of march and not deployed for battle and taken by surprise, as opposed to their foes who were prepared and psyched for the encounter. Just my humble opinion.

Don't need to reduce quality, just start some of the foot seeing enemy to the flank as Disrupted so they fight impaired or need to be cautious and rally. The disrupt penalty is reasonable for the Impact Foot.

It might be nice to be able to start a scenario with a unit Disrupted or Fragmented. You coudl start teh whoel Roman army Disrupted to simulate surpriose and see if they can recover soon enough to deal with the attack.

One thing that helps the Romans is the lake itself. When they route they run to the lake's edge and just stand there making a big roadblock for the Punics.

Deeter

Yes getting by the Roman beach bathers is somewhat of a bother. If you could artificially tell the game the waters edge is the map edge and the Romans would just wade in and drown themselves it would help with the clutter of routers