Dear Ramon,
Just to come back on a number of questions:
- regarding bowmen "eastern vs western", thank you for the "interesting idea" ;-). On the issue of the recruitment, it's really hell to play when Sagitarii disappear from the roster when the Barracks are improved.
- regarding milites / pseudocomitatenses / comitatenses, please allow me to elaborate a bit on your answer. My understanding of the historical situation is the following: there were 4 "level" of units, translated as milites / pseudocomitatenses / comitatenses / Palatine units. The two lower levels (milites / pseudocomitatenses) were attached to regional armies that mostly did not move from the region of origin (they were transformed more and more into "citizen in arms" rather than professional soldiers), whilst the comitatenses / Palatine units formed the backbone of the field, central armies, that were used throughout the Empire. My view is thus that the units that (as per this historical scheme) should be "region-specific" are the milites / pseudocomitatenses, whilst those that should be common to the whole Empire are the comitatenses / Palatine units. With the current recruitment system in fact, what can be recruited / used and even more importantly retrained / refilled throughout the Empire are the milites (same everywhere) and the Palatine units (when they are available in a city as per the last level of Barracks, which is far from being the case everywhere). Should not it be better to keep auxilies / milites same everywhere (anyway, their military value is debattable when fighting against real enemy armies), develop different regional pseudocomitatenses units and just one type of comitatenses and Palatine units for all the Empire? This would, IMHO, reflect most appropriately the historical reality. The current situation is that types of pseudo-comitatenses / comitatenses are different between different cities, but without seemingly any logic: if I refer to my ERE campaign, inside my cities, and speaking only about comitatenses units (those that can be recruited strating only at Comitenses Barracks level, ie Legio Lanciarii, Legio Plumbatarii and ), here is the current split:
(ERE Europe)
- Athens: Legio Vexillatio
- Constantinople: Legio Lanciarii
- Corynth: Legio Vexillatio
- Dirrahius: Legio Comitatenses
- Hadrianapolis: Legio Lanciarii & Legio Comitatenses (?)
- Kydonia: Legio Vexillatio
- Larisa: Legio Lanciarii & Legio Comitatenses (?)
- Marcianopolis: Legio Lanciarii & Legio Comitatenses (?)
- Nicopolis: Legio Comitatenses
- Singidum: Legio Comitatenses
- Tessalonica: Legio Lanciarii & Lagio Comitatenses (?)
- Upiana: Legio Comitatenses
(Asia minor)
- Amida: Legio Palatina
- Ancyra: Legio Comitatenses
- Caeserea Mazaca: Legio Comitatenses
- Constantia: Legio Comitatenses
- Ephesus: Legio Comitatenses
- Nicomedia: Legio Comitatenses
- Pergemum: Legio Comitatenses
- Pityus: Legio Palatina
- Rhodes: Legio Vexillatio
- Sinope: Legio Comitatenses
- Tarsus: Legio Comitatenses
(Middle East)
- Alexandria: Legio Vexillatio
- Antiochia: Legio Palatina
- Baranis: Legio Vexillatio
- Callinicum: Legio Palatina
- Cyrene: Legio Vexillatio
- Damascus: Legio Palatina
- Edessa: Legio Palatina
- Hierosolyma: Legio Palatina
- Memphis: Legio Vexillatio
- Neapolis: Legio Palatina
- Palmyra: none (?)
- Philadelphae: none (?)
- Sidon: Legio Palatina
- Thebes: Legio Vexillatio
Maybe a solution in between would be to allow generic "Legio Comitatenses" for all Comitenses Barracks, with in addition a specific (different image) equivalent stats "Legio Palatina, Vexillatio, Plumbatarii (none in the current ERE regions) and Lanciarii"?
This would allow both the different images (if chosen by the player) and the basic comitatenses units everywhere?
For the Palatine units, I wonder whether it would not make sense to create a specific building that would allow (one only for the major city of each region) the construction maybe of both Basilicas and Palatina Barracks, building that would represent the regional center of power and only then allowing Scholae Palatinae, Auxilia Palatinae and Legio Palatinae?
Very long again, sorry! Just eager to participate in improving your already great mod.
Yours again very sincerely,
Jean