Romani regional troops - advice please

[Hannibal Smith]

Hi I have recently reinstalled EB on my Mac, felt a little nostalgic. Anyway thought I'd settle myself back in with a Romani campaign. Previously as the Romani I have used Roman troops as my main line anvil, and regional skirmishers flanking troops and cavalry. However, I've never felt I'm getting the most out of them, and my tactics are the same whether my regionals are Gallic or North African.

Has anyone got any tips to make things a bit more interesting, any good suggestions for allied armies?

[DeathtoEgo]

I think it depends who your fighting, when I'm fighting the northern tribes I tend to use more celtic units like the Liguarians, and Gallic troops usually with slingers and skirmisher cavalry to compliment my Romani line, fighting the Carthaginians I like to use the Greek troops in southern Italy, Samnites, and tend to favor javelins, and light cav(to counter Numidians). Sardinians are fun to use also, I usually try to have a steady supply of them flowing to any front. I'm not sure if the Balearic troops are normally recruitable for the Romani, if not that is easily remedied with the know how. Also the Agrianians and the Asturian axemen share the same model so only the Asturians, recruitable in northern Iberia are available for the Romans but after Spain is conquered, I usually switch them because the Agrianians are excellent troops and come in very handy against the Hellenic factions. I don't know if people consider this cheating but I think if it were possible they would both be available. I usually limit myself to no more than two archer/slingers units, and no more than three cavalry units(unless fighting steppe factions), and try to avoid battle where you out number the enemy unless you have all levies and the enemy has elites. I don't know about Macs but if you can use the RecruitmentViewer that comes with the install, it comes in very handy and is well worth learning to use it.

[Ryoga84]

I always used a bulk of roman troops (a legion, to say, around 9-11 units) and the rest of regional. The tactic varies on enemy-basis. For greek and greek-like troops I use mainly the romans as a front and barbarians on the wings. For phalanxes, I use regional spearmen or hoplites as center, with roman covering the wings. With western barbarians mainly barbiarian skirmishers and light troops backed by the romans. For nomads, archers and spearmen covering the legions (advancing on the settlements, don't try to attack them on the open). In the end, for eastern people, greek troops covering the roman flanks and nomad cavarly on the far wings.

[Vlixes]

I always used a bulk of roman troops (a legion, to say, around 9-11 units) and the rest of regional. The tactic varies on enemy-basis. For greek and greek-like troops I use mainly the romans as a front and barbarians on the wings. For phalanxes, I use regional spearmen or hoplites as center, with roman covering the wings. With western barbarians mainly barbiarian skirmishers and light troops backed by the romans. For nomads, archers and spearmen covering the legions (advancing on the settlements, don't try to attack them on the open). In the end, for eastern people, greek troops covering the roman flanks and nomad cavarly on the far wings.

Those are nice ideas. You can also try to win battles using only the regional troops. The reason to do this is not sheer amusement, but to conserve your Romani troops far from home.

[DeathtoEgo]

Those are nice ideas. You can also try to win battles using only the regional troops. The reason to do this is not sheer amusement, but to conserve your Romani troops far from home.

Agreed, sometimes your compelled to use only regional troops and it can sometimes be fun to use armies of regional, I like to think of them as allied armies. It can also help to break up the monotony of fielding the regular Roman armies.

[athanaric]

I used to have carefully selected auxilia, sorted by region. Anyway, the mst useful recruitable auxilliaries (excluding mercs) around the Med are, in random order, Cretan archers, Celtic slingers, Numidian archers, Caetrati, Machimoi, Illyrian cavalry, Peltastai, Hoplitai, Numidian cavalry, Maure infantry, and both Ligurian units. Karian warband too, if you can recruit them (I don't remember).