archers? auxilia?

[spqr_arcani]

Quite looking forward to 1.9 release.
This is a question for history buffs.

Not sure if this has been asked before, but I noticed that
in 1.8 for the Romans, I could only recruit velites, ballistas
and scorpions as artillery-type units.

I read threads about why onagers are not there, but didn't
Romans have archers even after Marian Reforms? Once I
start a new game, I plan to play till at least past 66 BC.

Also, as far as post-Marian infantry, there's no Roman melee infantry
that counters mounted units, such as "Auxilia" in rtw vanilla,
or the triarii pre-Marian reforms.

I can pretty much only recruit standard units labelled "legionnaires"
and that's it. Historically, how did Roman legions counter charging
horsemen? Throw their pila and then hold on to their shields? Hire
local AOR units to be the speed bumps?

I'm getting psyched up to play RTR again.

[Candelarius]

Quite looking forward to 1.9 release.
This is a question for history buffs.

Not sure if this has been asked before, but I noticed that
in 1.8 for the Romans, I could only recruit velites, ballistas
and scorpions as artillery-type units.

I read threads about why onagers are not there, but didn't
Romans have archers even after Marian Reforms? Once I
start a new game, I plan to play till at least past 66 BC.

You can recruit archers at any point in the game, even before the Marian reforms. You just recruit them as mercs, just like the Romans did.

But no, the Romans did not have "archer auxilia" until the Imperial period, which is after the timeframe of RTR.

Also, as far as post-Marian infantry, there's no Roman melee infantry
that counters mounted units, such as "Auxilia" in rtw vanilla,
or the triarii pre-Marian reforms.

I can pretty much only recruit standard units labelled "legionnaires"
and that's it. Historically, how did Roman legions counter charging
horsemen? Throw their pila and then hold on to their shields? Hire
local AOR units to be the speed bumps?

Yup, that's exactly how they countered them.

I'm getting psyched up to play RTR again.

Me too!

[florin80]

RTRPE v1.9 will not change anything in those lines.

Regarding to your questions:
1. you can not recruit archers auxilia from the italic peninsula, but you can recruit archers form other places. Like cretan archers from the greek aor and the syrian archers from the syrian aor. There are also persian, asiatic, machimoi, sarmatian archers that can be recruited by the romans.
You have to own a city in that area of recruitment to get them. Other then this, you can send a family member to recruit them as mercs.
2. The auxilia units appeared a lot later in the organized form that you mean. In AD IIRC and our mod ends before that period. You can just use aor spearmen units if you want a spear unit. There are tones to be found depending on the area where you are of course.

[Quinn Inuit]

Ancient Crete was like a specialty shop for ancient mercs. Anatolia, OTOH, was like a mall.

[Black Francis]

You know, I can remember discussing whether or not to take them out (Auxilia) with We5ley (RTR developer)... seems like years ago now... damn, it was!

We spent a few hours looking at shield designs for Auxilia taken from Trajans column.. and then at about the same time I think we realised they shouldn't be in the game at all!