Just played my first game of 1.95 (Vanilla) as Rome. Didn't lose a city, but took me too the start of France to finally build the required cities for the UHV. I mostly blame it on Axeman vs. Praetorian.

So I'm thinking, normal game aside, why not tweak it slightly? Limiting the Roman Empire to a hyped up city-raiding swordsman is kind of dumb, considering the legions were a great tactical improvement over the usual barbarian tactics, and readily fought in the field vs. infantry. So why not a vs. melee bonus instead?


Perhaps something like this:

Base Strength 6 or 7 (They're swordsman with reasonable armor)
50% bonus vs. Melee (they're essentially l337 infantry)
10% bonus City raiding (to keep with the sword-theme of the basic game)


My only other thought would be to script the Euro barbarians to favor spearman for a good long while before they're allowed axemen.

Praets have an edge over Axmen of 8 vs. 7.5.

Praets have an edge over Axmen of 8 vs. 7.5.

But that usually means they only have a couple of HP after fighting an axeman, unless the Praet was defending. It means Praets are afraid of the axeman if it's in defensive terrain, or fortified in a city.

That may be fair to represent a true Celt uprising, but I'd like some push over infantry to represent the initial conquest of Gaul. In vanilla, there's no Warlord (Caesar) to make it easy on the Praets.

That may be fair to represent a true Celt uprising, but I'd like some push over infantry to represent the initial conquest of Gaul. In vanilla, there's no Warlord (Caesar) to make it easy on the Praets.
Well I think we all know the solution to this problem, in fact you answered it in the question ;)

Well I think we all know the solution to this problem, in fact you answered it in the question ;)

I'll never buy Warlords!!!!! NEVER.

:)

Solution in vanilla: just start giving them Shock, or start building them by the fifties. If you generalize (something the game Civ specializes in) a time-period, you will still win Gaul even without having pinpoint accurate details.