Slitherine

It says they add agility.

What does this do? Make the troops march faster, or help them evade incoming damage, or both?

Do you buy your troops boots?

My apologies if this question is answered in the manual; all I have is the demo so far. My copy of the full game is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

possum wrote:It says they add agility.

What does this do? Make the troops march faster, or help them evade incoming damage, or both?

Do you buy your troops boots?

My apologies if this question is answered in the manual; all I have is the demo so far. My copy of the full game is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

Ave possum,

In answer to your question, your theories regarding boots are partially correct. All boots do is improve agility. Dodge from promotions is the way to evade damage and increase agility. I read somewhere that one innovation from the Romans, possibly by either Marius or Julius Caesar, was the invention of the heel for their boots. This improved the distances they were able to march with less fatigue. It's a posture thing, it prevented them from marching flat-footed. Incidentally, their boots were studded to improve grip and prolong their active life. Reads like an advert for a certain dog food!

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

The iron hobnails were supposed to be arranged in recognizable patterns, as well. Supposedly, when the legions were stationed near a town, the local "professional women" would wear hobnailed sandals with the nails arranged in an arrow pattern, then walk past the camp, so the troops could follow the arrows to the local brothel. I'm not sure how that affects your troops' morale in the game.

honvedseg wrote:The iron hobnails were supposed to be arranged in recognizable patterns, as well. Supposedly, when the legions were stationed near a town, the local "professional women" would wear hobnailed sandals with the nails arranged in an arrow pattern, then walk past the camp, so the troops could follow the arrows to the local brothel. I'm not sure how that affects your troops' morale in the game.

Ave honvedseg,

In answer to your poser.

The Roman army lived in a barrack "block" and if they could "dodge" past the sentries, always making sure to keep an eye open for the "junior NCOs" then it's a quick "trample" off to town in pursuit of the ladies who would "feint" at the "swordsman"'s "endurance". The soldiers would have to ensure "missile protection" at all times during the "skirmish" or is it "drill"? The soldiers would go in for some "weakspot targeting" in order to achieve maximum "armour penetration" and no booze or they couldn't "stand firm". They would have to endure "disciplined formations" or "advanced formations" while queing up for the "anti-infantry/cavalry/elephant specialist" afterwards. Did the ladies use "protection from cavalry/infantry"? People want to know?

All I can say, in conclusion, would all this activity make the bouncers at the brothels into "expert throwers"?

If you can understand any of the above "you're a better man than I, Gunga Din", or words to that effect.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

Actually, the ladies of the evening in rome wore sandals with letters cut into the bottom, so that the impression they left in the mud read "sequi me" or "follow me".

This was done because roman law did not prohibit prostitution at all, but it did stringently prohibit public solicitation.

Apparently, there were official colors of clothing that prostitutes were supposed to wear, and this and the sandals were sufficient to allow business to be transacted in a discreet but mutually satisfactory manner

Robert Graves goes into some detail about this in "I, Claudius", which is brilliant scholarship thinly disguised as historical fiction.

The more I play this game, the more convinced I am that Agility doesn't really help much, if it is supposed to help you avoid incoming damage.

The "Protection From Inf/Cav" skills seem to work much better.

I have increased agility, but it is only really useful on units with no armor. I think it helps you through rough terrain a bit, as heavy infantry with decent agility perform better in rough terrain than those with poor agility (fanatics vs. legionaires) This last bit is a theory, though.

It definitely does help avoid attacks, but it isnt 100% good. Other stats give a much more obvious and concrete type of benefit.

The advantage agility has is that it can let you avoid the hit (and thus any damage) entirely.

Cheers

Pip

Agility is not very useful if you only have a little of it. A few percentage chance of avoiding a hit won't make much difference. If, on the other hand, you already have a high agility, a few more points can make you slippery enough that the opponent is unlikely to hit you. The more you have already, the more valuable it is to get. Skirmishers and mounted Scouts would benefit the most, it would be wasted on an elephant.

/me ponders the concept of boots on an elephant...

Yes, on an elephant they should probably cost more, too. Materials costs for big feet...