Army matchup.

[Derek_Zoolander]

What does your armies generally look like?

For me, since I started as the Brutii, advanced onto greece\macedonia taking them easily. Later at the Marius Reforms, I used the Larissa\Sparta\Corinth\Athens\Thermon city placement, along with the old Macedonian Capital (can't remember name) to build a huge army quickly and ship them to Egypt, Pontus, Armenia, etc. I have one city build two-three quinquiremines and have Thermon build 5 archers, while macedon capital builds praetorian cavalary (awesome unit). Larissa builds onagers (two-three) while the rest build urban\praetorian cohorts.

So generally my armies are a General, three onagers, 5 archers, two-praetorian cavalry, and the rest heavy infantry.

 

[Stuck in Pi]

I played as Egyptians, here were two of my armies:

1 general, 9 Pharoah's Gaurds, 6 Pharoh's Bowman, 4 Nile Cavalry
OR
1 general, 9 Pharoah's Gaurds, 6 Pharoh's Bowman, 4 Chariot Archers.

 

[Hasdrubal Barca]

Carthage

Early

1 General
4 Balearic Slingers
6 Lybian Spearman
3 Scutarii Mercs
2 Round Shield Cav
2 Iberian Infantry
2 Numidian Mercenary Cavalry

Mid

1 General
3 Balearic Slingers
6 Poeni Citizen Infantry
6 Long Shield Cav
2 War Elephants
2 Numidian Mercenary Cavalry

Later

1 General
6 Sacred Band Cav
6 Sacred Band Inf
2 Balearic Slingers
2 Hvy Onagers
3 Armoured elephants

Multiplayer

7 Sacred Band Inf (one is general)
8 Sacred Band Cav
2 Hvy Onagers
3 Armoured Elephants

 

[civverguy]

Early

1 General
4 Balearic Slingers
6 Lybian Spearman
3 Scutarii Mercs
2 Round Shield Cav
2 Iberian Infantry
2 Numidian Mercenary Cavalry

Are you sure you can afford this in the beginning? I usually can't (or maybe because I rush a lot).

My army matchups are varied depending on who I fight because of the other factions army structure or size of cities. If I fight the Greeks/Macedonians as the Romans I would use in the early game:
1 General
4 Hastati
3 Principes
2 Cavalry

Against Gauls/Britons:
1 General
3 Hastati
1 Principes
1 Archers
3 Cavalry

Against Carthage/Numidia

1 General
1 Numidian Skirmisher
2 Numidian Cavalry
2 Velites
1 Archer
3 Hastati/Principes

It doesn't really matter what house you are. You will be fighting against more than 2 factions like if you are Scipii you will fight Carthage/Numidia and Greece/Macedon.

 

[Hasdrubal Barca]

Are you sure you can afford this in the beginning? I usually can't (or maybe because I rush a lot).

Well beginning is like the first 20 turns for me....my second build are always a barracks upgrade in Carthage and neighbour core cities...so lybian spearmens are all i build there....my first builds are always markets, roads and harbors to make money flow like wine, plus diplomats for trade rights and the automanage everything set to "save" on the end of turns for more 30-40% cash profits sacrificing city growth (enslave will make them grow).

Balearic Slingers are easy to get, you start with 2 in Iberia and 2 in Baleares so that´s done...

Scutarri Mercs are easily bought and cheap in Iberia...if you can´t replace with 3 lybian skirmishers, they are very good also...

You start with 2 round shield cav i think, if not, build them.

Iberian Infantry is a must in the beginning, very cheap, very fast and with good stamina, ideal to take down barbs and rebelions (that´s what you´ll be facing in the early game anyway)

Numidian Mercenary Cavalry, you start with 1 or 2 i think in Carthage and can hire always in most African provinces all around, they are excellent at killing enemy light infantry and make good all around cav.

The top dog here is balearic slinger, protect them and they will win everysingle battle for you, even against romans and greeks.

With the elephant supllied on the sicily you can rush them on turn 10 or so....

 

[Backwards Logic]

Personally, I like roughly 1 General, 9 units of infantry, 5 long range archers, and 5 heavy cavalry. In battle, I'll have the infantry up front, the archers right behind with the cavalry behind and on the flanks. While the archers knock out other infantry units (I use normal arrows (for more casualties), except when facing elephants or chariots, then I use flaming arrows), the infantry engage when they get too close while the cavalry knock out any siege weapons. Once any siege weapons are gone and the enemies ranged threat is neutralized, the cavalry charge the engaged infantry and wipe them out. This army works against most army formations, and because it has no siege weapons in it, it keeps a movement advantage on the campaign map.

 

[Derek_Zoolander]

That reminds me of some of my earlier games. I'd have about 6 Hastati, 5 Cretan Archers, and two generals against a huge army of Thracians. I'd have the Hastati Fire at will, while my archers would take out their defenseless falxmen and militia spearmen. As they got close, any left that is, the Hastatis throwing spears would run off the rest. The General chased down the routing army, and I win.

 

[Slobadog]

It all depends on which faction i am using.


If i am Carthage in a campaign game then ideally i would have the following



Early army:


2 Numidian Mercenary

3 or 4 Round Shield cavalry

Family member cavalry sometimes


1 or 2 elephants


1 skirmisher


1 slinger


The rest is Iberian infantry


(If i have access to mercenary substitutions i will often use them. In particular i often substitute many of the Iberian infantry for Mercenary Hoplites)




Mid game:


2 Numidian Mercenary


3, 4 or possibly even 5 long shield cavalry

Family member cavalry sometimes

1 or 2 war elelphants



1 skirmisher


1 slinger


The rest is Libyan spearmen mixed with any mercenary units capable of the Phalanx.



Late game:


2 Numdian mercenary


3, 4 or 5 Mixed group of Long Shields and Sacred Band Cavalry

Family member cavalry sometimes

1 or 2 Armored elephants


1 skirmisher


1 slinger




2 Sacred Band infantry

The rest is Poeni infantry



(Mecenary substitutions of skirmishers and slingers are always accepted. So are any mercenary archer unit. I will also accept any mercenary unit that has a special ability that my regular army lacks. In fact i'll go with just about any mercenary if i'm in a quick need for troops)



My cities often get nothing more than one missle unit and 1 iberian infantry. I defend my cities in the field not behind the walls.


I often don't bring seige weapons along because i intend to win in the field then starve the city.

 

[Stuck in Pi]

My city defences in RTW is normally 3 footmen and a couple archers, depending on positioning.

 

[germanicus12]

Julli Faction:

Early:

1 General Unit
16 Infantry
3 Cavalry

Mid:
1 General
10 Heavy Infantry
5 Praetorian Guards from Rome.
4 Roman Cavalry

Late:
1 General
5 Heavy Infantry
10 Praetorian Guards from Italian cities.
4 Roman Cavalry

*Mercianaries are rarely used, only when Sarmatian Cavalry arrive, then I use them. But other than that never.*

Also Archers sucks, they never do the job, besides my infantry comes equipped with Pilums so they are the same as archers in a sense.

 

[Stuck in Pi]

Dude, you need to use archers to reduce casualties. I've killed enemy armies with only 2-3 casualties per infantry group. Archers are needed.

 

[germanicus12]

I win with minimum casaulties mainly becuase my infantry throws their pilums and my cavalry harrass the enemy enough so that they do not charge my infantry until they run out of pilums.

Once the pilums run out the enemy would be disorganized and tired from shifting to face my cavalry then shifting back to my infantry and so on, then my infantry simply charges in and breaks them easily.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I'm currently playing the Roma Surrectum mod. As the name implies, it focuses on powering up Rome. That's who I'm playing as.

I control all of the Italian peninsula. Wiped out Epirus and Syracuse, but more and more people keep declaring war on me. At this point I'm hiring every mercenary I can, and filling up the build queue with 2 or 3 triarii and the rest with principes.

I can also train governor-generals and proconsuls (i.e. family members with infantry bodyguards). I usually train one of them for each army too.

My borders would have crumbled if it wasn't for the zero turn recruitment time. The governor-generals and proconsuls take one turn to train though.
This basically means that I can train a full queue of units in one turn or one governor-general and the rest filled with various units in one turn, etc, etc.

Basically everything takes one turn to train. Only one governor-general/proconsul or ship per turn though (in one city).